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Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Difference between revisions

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Would Not Shoot a Civilian (view source)

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', this is one of the main things that sets the main group of Celestial Being apart from the Trinities: while Celestial Being targets military, criminal, or mercenary groups trying to promote conflict, they do not attack civilians if they can help it. One early episode shows Lockon deliberately missing some civilian workers at a mine he was trying to destroy, in order to scare them off instead of killing them. The Trinities, however, have no qualms about attacking civilian targets if they're connected in some way to conflict. They also show no real problem with one of their own slaughtering a wedding because she was bored.
 
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The skahs in ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|With Strings Attached]]'' may be contemptuous of the tirin, but they wouldn't dream of fighting them—in large part because they'd be such boring opponents.
 
== [[Film]] ==
* The [[Predator]], very much in the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] subtrope mentioned in the description. This is perhaps best highlighted in ''[[Aliens vs. Predator]]'', where a Predator (initially) refuses to kill an assailant because he has a bad heart. Also, across all of the films Predators rarely kill anyone who is unarmed, (but anyone who is armed is fair game) and in ''Predator 2'', one does not kill an armed female police officer when it sees that she is pregnant.
* In ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'', the crooks are outraged that Mr. Blonde would start shooting bystanders for no reason. When asking if Mr. White had shot anyone, Mr. Pink is quick to distinguish between "cops" and "real people."
* Tony Montana in ''[[Scarface (Film)|Scarface]]'' refuses to carry out a hit that would also kill the target's wife and kids {{spoiler|which results in his downfall when his fellow mobsters don't share the same moral views}}.
* This is what lands Ben Richards in prison at the start of ''[[The Running Man (Filmfilm)|The Running Man]]'', although [[Officer and Aa Gentleman|it's done on principle]], since he refused when ''ordered'' to fire upon hungry, protesting civilians.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]] [[Blood Angels (Literature)|Blood Angels]]'' novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Rafen is horrified to see Blood Angels shooting down civilians. When he appeals to Arkio on these grounds, Arkio is clearly shaken by the charge.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]]'' novel ''False Gods'', when Horus is felled by his injuries, the Space Marines bringing him slaughter the civilians who are pressing in -- blocking the way. (In [[Ben Counter]]'s ''Galaxy In Flames'', Loken deduced that Varkasus, who wanted the killers court-martialed, was [[Unfriendly Fire|murdered]] for that.)
* In [[GKG. K. Chesterton]]'s ''Paradoxes of Mr. Pond'', a Prussian officer is not quite telling a subordinate to murder another soldier by shooting him [[In the Back]], and explains he chose him for two reasons: one was his shooting ability, and the other was the time he had shot an old woman for not giving him information. The officer explains that he exerted influence to avoid the soldier's being charged.
* In Nick Kyme's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''Salamander'', the [[Backstory]] between the Salamander and the Marines Malevolent revolves about a time where the Marines Malevolent fired on civilian camps.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Brothers of the Snake (Literature)|Brothers of the Snake]]'', when they locate civilians, they bring them to safety, and Priad promises to protect them. {{spoiler|When they reveal themselves as [[Religion of Evil|cultists]], he slaughters them with the rest.}}
** {{spoiler|Of course they don't really count as civilians then.}}
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene (Literature)|The Phoenix Exultant]]'', Atkins is glad that Daphne and Phaethon survived so that he can report no civilian casualities -- at least, he says it's his motive.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' story "[[Beyond the Black River (Literature)|Beyond the Black River]]", after all the slaughter he sees the Picts inflict, it is the sight of two mutilated civilians -- one a woman -- that enrages Balthus.
* In ''[[A Night in Thethe Lonesome October]]'' it's not even limited to humans. The canine narrator accepts that before the end some Players (and maybe even [[Familiar|familiars]]) will kill each other, though deems it less than necessary, but really doesn't like involvement of others, warned normal animals away from the site of ritual and twice actually referred to them as "civilians".
* In [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Thursday Next|One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing]]'', the massacre of the clown army is noted as an atrocity because [[The Medic|medical personnel]] and other civilians were massacred.
* Parodied in [[Discworld]], natch. Detritus offers to shoot a bull in a crowded street (long story) with his siege engine-turned-crossbow (with ''six foot long'' bolts. Vimes says no.
{{quote| '''Vimes''': You might hit an innocent. Even in [[Wretched Hive|Ankh-Morpork]].}}
* In [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'', Geary insists on not killing prisoners. In ''Valiant'', {{spoiler|one Alliance prisoner is hauled out to be asked if it was true, and when he confirms it, the Syndics decide not to carry out their orders.}}
* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm (Literature)|The January Dancer]]'', when a hit takes out a man's mistress as well as himself, disapproval is strong.
* In [[John Hemry]]'s ''A Just Determination'', Paul think it would be much easier if they could face a warship rather than a ship that may be one in civilian disguise, because they would be entitled to fight then.
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* According to [[All There in the Manual|the manual]], the hero of ''[[Doom]]'' was ordered by his superior to fire upon civilians, and the marine responded by ''assaulting his superior'' instead. The marine is reassigned to the UAC facilities on Phobos, and then [[Demonic Invaders|all Hell breaks loose...]]
* In ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours (Video Game)|Scarface the World Is Yours]]'', trying to kill a civilian will be refused by Tony, who [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|explains to the player that it goes against his code]]. Managing to bypass it only makes them get back up and flee the scene.
* Whether a Merc follows orders to shoot civilians (a bad idea for the penalties it gives) is the quickest way to tell if any given merc in ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' falls under the [[Psycho for Hire]] label.
* [[Enforced Trope|Enforced]] in the German and Japanese versions of ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'': the whole point of the "No Russian" mission is to shoot the civilians. However, the local [[Moral Guardians]] made that impossible by giving you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] when you do as much as graze a civilian with a stray bullet.
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** Even the Council is only willing to put up with so much from you, after all. You don't want to do anything that gets ''you'' put on the SPECTRE hit-list.
** Paragon Shepard ''never'' would hurt an innocent, something Tela Vasir mocks them for in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' as she holds a woman hostage. Shepard mentions some of the things they've done that have caused ''hundreds'' of people to die over the course of the preceeding games, questioning if Vasir's entire escape plan hinges on Shepard hesitating to shoot just ''one'' person to stop her. This bluff sufficiently freaks Vasir out, allowing your squadmate Liara to telekinetically throw a table at her, while she lets her guard down.
* Shirou blows an ambush at one point in ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'' with his insistence of asking {{spoiler|Kuzuki}} if he really knows what he's getting involved in. He's also outraged at Archer's rather pragmatic view of civilian casualties.
** Indeed, the technical "rules" of the Grail War call for the Masters and Servants to avoid civilian casualties, for the pragmatic reason of not drawing attention to themselves (this is also policy among magi in general). How strictly this is followed depends on the Master in question; Ilya and Rin, for instance, refuse to attack Shirou near witnesses, while Caster is perfectly willing to (covertly) drain civilians for power, and [[Fate /Zero|Ryuunosuke and Zero Caster]] openly flout the rule by [[Complete Monster|kidnapping and torturing people]].
* A variant of this is enforced in the ''[[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]]'' series; while Pokemon-on-Pokemon violence is acceptable and a part of everyday life and human-to-Pokemon violence is considered either [[Bullying a Dragon]] (Pokemon is wild) or abuse (Pokemon belongs to abusing trainer), commanding an attack on a trainer or other human is either in bad form or outright illegal, unless used as a criminal suppression tactic (e.g. Lance in Mahogany), and even then if other options remain nonviable. While it ''may'' be implied that villainous teams can do this on a whim, not even [[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Team Plasma]] goes that far in the game continuity. On the other hand, [[Elephant in Thethe Living Room|the Donphan goes on a rampage]] throughout ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' due to its [[Darker and Edgier]] nature, and [[Pokémon Colosseum|Cipher]] will attack or even kill humans who obstruct its operations in any continuity.
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [[Bob and George]]: [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/020210c Invoked]: Mega Man asks Break Man what happened to his philosophy of not killing unworthy opponents.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'', [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html Roy shooes off civilians from a fight scene] -- civilians who had been enjoying the [[Gladiator Games]], no less.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', during the fight for Mechanicsburg, a soldier objects to an order to shoot civilians -- though the commander does point out they have been fighting almost nothing but civilians who have taken up arms against them, and the civilians are winning.
* [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0675.html The Stormtroopers] of ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' seem to follow this.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The main reason that [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|the Gaang]] doesn't like Jet.
 
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