History IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim / AnimeAndManga

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Suzaku comes within an inch of [[NearRapeExperience using drugs to interrogate Kallen]]. He only stops because he believes his final words to her, "You will follow my orders," is what Lelouch does with Geass.

* ''Manga/Claymore'': Downplayed, Raki tells Clare that if she kills Priscilla and potentially awakens then she's no different than the Yoma while trying to prevent her from killing the latter.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Goku decides not to finish off Freeza after defeating him in battle, which is an extremely hard decision for him to make. He even gives him some of his energy. However, when Freeza uses the donated energy to attack Goku one last time, Goku changes his mind and goes for the killing blow after all. Only later do we find out that Freeza survived it. None do this is because of any moral high-ground but more because of a combination that he no longer found Freeza worth fighting, and also pragmatism to escape the exploding planet Namek.

** Goku decides not to finish off Freeza after defeating him in battle, which is an extremely hard decision for him to make. He even gives him some of his energy. However, when Freeza uses the donated energy to attack Goku one last time, Goku changes his mind and goes for the killing blow after all. Only later do we find out that Freeza survived it.

** Deconstructed in ''Adventure 02''. Evil Digimon are released into the human world and Yolei and Cody are horrified when their Digimon are forced to kill them. It's quickly pointed out that the evil Digimon had no problems about killing innocent people and they would have killed Yolei and Cody had their Digimon not saved them. They tried to send them back to the Digital World but no other options were available.

* In ''[[Manga/BakiTheGrappler New Grappler Baki]]'', Katsumi Orochi gets beaten the hell out of him by an escaped mass murderer named Dorian. When Retsu Kaio returns the returns a beating to him, Katsumi enters the scene and soaks Dorian with gasoline and is about to torch him, when he suddenly stops and says that if set him on fire, he would cease to be a true Karateka, so he walks away. Then he goes: "Actually, that wouldn't bother me at all." Cue the BBQ/delicious subversion.

* In the ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' novels, this is pretty much what Tessa tells Sousuke during the Behemoth arc, when he decides that shooting Takuma would be an effective action to take. "It would be the most logical and secure route, but we can't go about it that way," she said as though trying to convince herself. "If we were to kill him, we would be no better than them. Our organization would lose all meaning." Sousuke is slightly skeptical about this (seeing how Kalinin, his adoptive father whom he was always taking orders from, undoubtedly would have done what he was about to do), but nevertheless follows orders, seeing how he [[TheStoic doesn't really care either way]]. Of course, later on, the fact that she let Takuma live [[HonorBeforeReason led to a]] ''[[HonorBeforeReason huge]]'' [[HonorBeforeReason amount of destruction]]...
* In ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'', Mikiya doesn't want Shiki to kill [[spoiler:Lio]], despite him being a crazy cannibalistic superman, because he feels that Shiki isn't and shouldn't become a murderer. [[spoiler:At first she defers to his wishes. Then Lio stabs Mikiya in the eye, seemingly killing him. An enraged Shiki then kills him anyway. Mikiya, after he wakes up, is somewhat annoyed, but seeing that Shiki's murderous side remains under control, says that he'll get over it.]]

* ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'': Pointedly ''[[AvertedTrope not]]'' the case here. When a character tries to use this line on the titular Slayer, his response is basically "Good, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters I want to be the monster that]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil goblins]] are to me and every other undefended village that they prey on".

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''LightNovel/TheTestamentOfSisterNewDevil''. Basara uses this reasoning to stop Mio from finishing off Zolgia, who murdered her foster parents and took Maria's mother hostage as leverage to get the powers Mio inherited from her father the Demon Lord Wilbert. [[spoiler:Actually, Basara had promised Lars in exchange for his help rescuing Mio that ''he'' would get to kill Zolgia, since Mio's foster parents had also run the orphanage where Lars grew up.]]
* Vash, the MartialPacifist hero of ''Manga/TriGun'', goes through the tortures of the damned rather than kill anyone specifically to avoid this trope. Accordingly, the entire last half of ''Manga/TriGun'' has the BigBad sending [[QuirkyMinibossSquad his suicidal followers]] to try and forcefully {{invoke|dTrope}} it. [[spoiler:Despite the last of them finally succeeding in his mission, it is, in the end, {{averted|Trope}}.]]

** In the ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist anime version]]'', Ed spends every fight with Scar telling him that the slaughter of alchemists and Amestrian troops isn't the answer, and that he must be brought to justice for those crimes as well as [[spoiler: [[MercyKill killing Tucker's daughter]]]]. Each time, Scar shows Ed more and more horrible deeds he's avenging, which Ed always brushes aside. Eventually, upon confronting Scar in Lior when Scar's about to [[spoiler:secretly evacuate the city of civilians, lure in the Amestrian army, and kill all of them to make the Philosopher's Stone]], Scar pounds into Ed that [[spoiler:Lior was purposely sabotaged by Amestris, Amstrian troops have been brutalizing the city, alchemists are killing civilians in the streets right now, and the girl Ed thought he saved in his previous visit (standing right in front of him, unable to speak due to mental trauma) was raped and used as a tool to create even more violence,]] and that ''[[BreakThemByTalking all of it was partly Ed's fault]]''. Ed still refuses to condone what Scar is doing, but when Scar orders him to get out of Dodge [[spoiler:with the refugees]], [[HeroicBSOD Ed shuts up and meekly complies]].

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': Eikichi has to be physically prevented from beating an enemy to death at least twice:
** In Eikichi's battle with [[TheDreaded Okubo]], Saejima has to stop ''him'' from killing Okubo, because he doesn't want his friend to become a killer. Okubo seizes the opportunity to stab Eikichi in the arm, [[BackstabBackfire but is knocked out cold with a massive uppercut]].
** After Nakagaki [[spoiler:shoots Natsu]], Eikichi beats him to a bloody pulp and only stops when Ryuji grabs him from behind.

* In the second season finale of ''Manga/RozenMaiden'', Jun utters the line when Shinku was about to kill Barasuishou. [[spoiler:[[PacifismBackfire Bad move]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero She uses the chance]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone to defeat Shinku]]]].

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': In the climax of the first season episode "The False Kidnapping and Murder Case," Conan uses this trope to convince Akiko to let Mr. Takei live even though he financially ruined her family and drove her father to kill himself, her mother, and her little brother. As Conan points out, Mr. Takei may be a greedy bastard, but he's still the only family his daughter Naoko (the subject of the episode's titular case) has, and if Akiko kills him, she'll be doing the same thing to Naoko that he did to her. Realizing this, Akiko is moved to tears and thanks Conan for stopping her.

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', the first major villain invokes this in an attempt to save his hide. As it turns out, the hero had no intention of killing him, with the implication that death was too ''good'' for him, and instead [[FateWorseThanDeath permanently merges him]] [[AndIMustScream into a rock]].

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': In Eikichi's battle with [[TheDreaded Okubo]], Saejima has to stop ''him'' from killing Okubo, because he doesn't want his friend to become a killer. Okubo seizes the opportunity to stab Eikichi in the arm, [[BackstabBackfire but is knocked out cold with a massive uppercut]].

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Ryuk tells Light that if he kills all the bad people in the world, then he himself will be the only bad person left. Light promptly deflects the suggestion and proclaims his desire to be the God of a new, perfect world.