History WhatMeasureIsANonHuman / LiveActionTV

* ''Franchise/KamenRider'' in general has this to some degree. It normally varies on home morally right the hero is and how peaceful the monster is. The main Rider normally won't kill a non-human who isn't hurting anyone, but sometimes the SecondRider might not be as merciful and consider all of the species to be AlwaysChaoticEvil. Though to be fair, some of the non-human races are truly AlwaysChaoticEvil, such as the war-like [[Series/KamenRiderKuuga Grongi]], but most are depicted as having good and evil members.

*** [[spoiler: Emotions play big role in this. Eiji and Hina spent most of the story around Ankh and came to like him, so it's obvious they would be upset over the thought of him dying. Being a Greed doesn't have anything to do with it. The team also didn't hesitate to end Dr. Maki in order to save the world, though as usual it was after he'd taken a monster form.]]
** {{Deconstructed}} with the Inves in ''Series/KamenRiderGaim''. At first, the heroes have absolutely no problem with using lethal force against the creatures, believing them to be mindless beasts. Then comes the WhamEpisode where [[spoiler: Hase/Kamen Rider Kurokage is transformed into an Inves, while Micchy learns that many of the creatures are actually mutated humans, and that the first Inves Kamen Rider Gaim ever killed was actually his best friend Yuya]]. After [[spoiler: Hase]] is brutally executed by Kamen Rider Sigurd, Kouta tearfully asks why the boy had to die, at which point Sigurd simply smiles and says that killing monsters is what Riders do.
** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' plays with this in a very complicated fashion that lingers heavily on the point of view and AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Roidmudes]] are shown to be sentient and as capable of emotion as humans. The problem is that they are, by programming and other causes, very rarely anything else than AlwaysChaoticEvil. [[TheHero Shinnosuke]] usually doesn't have any issue with fighting them because they cause suffering and chaos, but doesn't have problem with accepting the ones who do not. On the other hand, the second rider, [[RedOniBlueOni Gou]] holds the adamant resolution that all Roimundes are evil and throws a nasty fit when proved otherwise. From the point of Roimundes, they are as worthy as humans and what the riders do is a slaughter. They view ''humans'' as lesser, though. As such, you'll have a Roidmude general filled with righteous fury over the Rider as a murderer, but shrug off "yeah, and what about all the humans you lot have killed?" with "they were just humans."
** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' provides a ziggzagged example. Resident MonsterOfTheWeek species, Bugsters are videogame characters that spawn in real world by infecting people in form of virus. As such, they are bound by their programming and thus only capable of emotion or independent thought as much as it allows. Usually, there is no way to save the patient without destroying the Bugster spawned. Most Bugsters are violent because they were programmed as villains of their respective games. [[TheHeart Emu]] has some succes trying to reason with the benign ones. Other Doctor riders don't have such moral compunctions if presented oppurtunity.
*** The matter is brought up by de facto leader of Bugsters, [[EnigmaticMinion Pallad]]. He calls humans out on being hypocritical by creating video games only to have [[DesignatedVillain designated villains]] they could beat up to feel better about themselves. From his point of view Bugsters matter as much as humans do. If it doesn't matter if they were defeated according to game rules, because that's how it's supposed to be. They can respawn indefinitely. He objects only to their DesignatedVillain position.

** In Season 6, there is Buffy's killing of the guy who was cursed by Anya to be tortured in a hell dimension. He had a very legitimate grievance with Anya, and he's unconscious and helpless, and he's killed like it's nothing. Also the bank-robber demon, who hasn't really done anything worthy of summary execution, yet is executed after first being knocked unconscious. Killing humans under any circumstances is apparantly an atrocity, but demons can be killed for crimes that would only warrant jail-time for a human and it's nothing.

* This was brutally answered in an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' called "The Lonely". A man who has been exiled to an asteroid for life is left with a female robot by a sympathetic captain. The man eventually [[CargoShip falls in love with the robot]]. During his next visit, the captain tells him he's been pardoned and can come home, but there is no room for the robot. While the man tries to think of a way to take her with him, the captain shoots it in the face, revealing its wires and circuitry. He truly thought that the robot was sentient and harbored true love. It is left open ended if it was truly sapient or if it was just well programmed. Regardless, either he left once the illusion was broken, or he trudges off, denied what he truly wanted.

** Tom Servo's had a ''lot'' of clones of himself. During ''Film/DangerDiabolk'', he casually obliterates all of his spare Servos without a second thought and in ''Film/{{Reptilicus}}'', Crow casually clones Tom and just as casually sends them off to be destroyed (except for one because somehow the real Servo got mixed up in the call to slaughter and the spare didn't.)

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has the Sidhe, a race of fairy-like creatures that Merlin has no qualms killing off in surprisingly brutal ways (he essentially blows them up with magic). Of course, he's also killed humans with very little remorse, but the Sidhe are notable in that many of them aren't even being particularly ''threatening'' at the time of death. Grunhilda in particular, a pixie who was just following orders from a Sidhe Elder, never harms anyone during the course of the episode in which she appears. Her only "crime" is being part of a plot to ensure that Princess Elena marries Prince Arthur (a plan that doesn't involve killing anyone), and she comes across as genuinely fond of her ward.

* Played with throughout ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' -- originally, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons were humans]] who had [[DealWithTheDevil intentionally given up their souls]], but as time wore on, more variations occured: a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-manticore]] child, families of demons who were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil apparently born that way]], and of course Cole Turner. The sisters end up killing them all at some point anyway.

** When he first appears, Andros, a HumanAlien, cryptically says "Not everything human has to come from Earth." The meaning of this statement has been much debated in fandom, but seems to indicate that ''PowerRangers'' considers "looking human" and "being human" to be close enough.

* Omnipresent in the "Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}":

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Oddly, the show lampshades it and tosses it aside in the 7th season finale. The sentient, apparently emotional robot Brainiac, at Clark's mercy, tells him he could never kill a man. Clark quickly replies [[JustAMachine "You're a machine,"]] then electrifies him.
** Another episode does have Clark upset after he unintentionally kills a decidedly non-human alien (and, in fact, a criminal by Kryptonian standards) in a forced arena fight. Apparently, sentient organic life merits consideration whether human or alien but sentient AI systems do not.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** Creator/RussellTDavies has a rule for his tenure in prohibiting humans from shooting other humans with "real" weapons. This rule does not, obviously, extend to Cybernised humans, the Futurekind (savage humans) or the formerly-human Toclafane. In fact, the rule gets broken in Russell T Davies' own [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw "Tooth and Claw"]], in which Queen Victoria shoots a human traitor with a revolver.

** The show is later much more consistent about this. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth "The Hungry Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]], a major conflict arises from the Doctor trying to prevent a woman who believes her child murdered from killing a captured reptilian agent, for the sake of proving that humans can in fact be civilized.
** One example where the trope is played straight is in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]]. Faced with a choice between rescuing his human companion and a few others and dozens of enslaved tentacle-faced aliens, the Doctor picks the companion. Despite having a time machine.
*** Partly justified as various stories in both the official show and spin-off media have confirmed that black holes make it tricky to steer the TARDIS properly.
** He repents for this in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]], by opting to free the aformentioned tentacle-faced aliens from slavery permanently.

** The two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E5TheRebelFlesh "The Rebel Flesh"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E6TheAlmostPeople "The Almost People"]] explores this with the [[{{Doppelganger}} doppelgängers]] ("gangers" for short). Every character except the Doctor and Rory consider the gangers to ''not'' be human. The Doctor and his ganger manage to prove them wrong, and throughout the episodes the death toll for gangers and originals is pretty even, with two of the eventual survivors being gangers.
** Even in the above examples, the Doctor's attitude is iffy at best. The Doctor defends the rights of a Silurian prisoner but when she gets killed anyway, he protects [[KarmaHoudini her human murderer]] (who's an attempted ''mass'' murderer) yet does nothing to prevent the death of the dead Silurian's vengeful sister, even though apart from one being green they seem to be NotSoDifferent. He claims gangers are people, then kills one just to prove she is a ganger. (WordOfGod attempts to justify it by saying that ganger is non-sentient but it's still a massive BrokenAesop.)
** Possibly the original series's most awkward example is the Ice Warriors. They appear in four stories. In one of them, they're treated as surprising allies. The other three (one of which was made afterwards) treat them as AlwaysChaoticEvil: In two, the Doctor kills several of them without a second thought, and in the other he stands by while someone else does it.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E9EmpressOfMars "Empress of Mars"]] explains the discrepency by having them [[spoiler: leave the remenants of their runied empire on Mars and begin a new, diplomatic, coexistence with other species.]]
** Averted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"]]. The Doctor is angry when he finds out the human Solomon murdered the Silurians, and when missiles are sent at Solomon's ship he leaves him to die. This proved slightly controversial despite Solomon being an obvious bad guy.

* Although they were ''all'' technically aliens, ''PowerRangers'' could kill "monstrous" villains but not "[[HumanAliens human]]" ones. In a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} case, a bunch of "monstrous" villains are killed but the few human-looking ones are turned good, with both of these outcomes resulting from the same attack.
** This turns out to have been a case of ExecutiveMeddling--the producers refused to kill the humanoid villains, even though the writers had scripted all villainous characters, "monstrous" and human alike, would be destroyed.
** When he first appears, Andros, a HumanAlien, cryptically says "Not everything human has to come from Earth." The meaning of this statement has been much debated in fandom, but seems to indicate that ''PowerRangers'' considers "looking human" and "being human" to be close enough.
** In an earlier episode, Ecliptor (one of the monsters vaporized in this attack) explains that he (and presumably other monstrous-looking villains) are evil because they were built to be. Of course, he was the most noble NobleDemon ever and truly loved his surrogate daughter Astronema.
** As Linkara pointed out, In Space also has an appearance of a monster who wants to be good. This implies that any of the previous monsters may have been good but cajoled into serving evil. (A lot of them are also created via alchemy or magic, especially the ones employed by Rita and Zedd, raising the question of just how much free will they actually have.)
** More later seasons occasionally feature villains who are human--not HumanAliens or human-disguised monsters, but humans--being vaporized by the Rangers after taking on [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suit]] advanced forms.
** Three very telling examples: Camille of ''Jungle Fury'' survives and turns good despite not being human (She has a human form, but traits like her prehensile tongue suggest that this is not her ''true'' form). On the other hand, Zeltrax of ''Dino Thunder'', who does not have a face, is [[strike:killed]] destroyed, despite the fact that we are told not only that he is a human wearing cybernetic prostheses after a lab accident, we are even told his ''human name'' (It's Terrence Smith, aka Smitty). However, he got a ThatManIsDead[=/=]RedemptionRejection moment, giving his destruction some justification. Likewise, Frax (formerly Louis Fericks) of ''Time Force'' is turned evil and ultimately dies, despite the fact that he also was once human before being forced into a robotic body. On the other hand his personality is erased by Ransik first, so arguably Ransik killed him and the Rangers destroyed a machine.
** ''Time Force'' also features another case. The various monsters were never destroyed, but instead frozen and shrunk (into what looked like action figures). The idea of killing them is consistently treated as abhorrent, and on the one occasion where one of the rangers was about to execute a mutant who had killed someone close to her, the other rangers were horrified, considering it to be a violation of their duty as rangers. Apparently despite being "mutants", they have certain rights. Conversely the purely robotic {{Mooks}} were consistently destroyed outright.
** Before that, the series compromised this policy when Trakeena was finally defeated in ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue''. Sure, she ''looked'' like any other MonsterOfTheWeek when she was killed, but she had previously been the same type of [[HumanAliens Human Alien]] that folks like Divatox had been.
** Master Org spends most of the series looking like a human in eeevil makeup, but has a monster form when he's taken out (however, when taking the final blow there's a moment of his human form being seen just before he's ''gooified'' once and for all! Cole even visits his grave at the end of the series.) Moltor and Flurious were near-human[[note]]How human, we can't know for sure. Their current monstrous forms were explicity caused by the series' main MacGuffin when they first touched it long ago, but we never got a ''good'' look at their pre-monster forms' features, as they were wearing modified, reused ''Ninja Storm'' student outfits. As such, we can't know they looked 100% human, but any alienness higher than ''Franchise/StarTrek'' RubberForeheadAlien level would surely have shown. The backstory takes place too long ago for Earth humans to exist, but Moltor doesn't protest when Mack says "You were human once" and accuses him of throwing away his humanity for power. That's all {{Canon}} gives us.[[/note]] In the last two episodes, Moltor dies for real, and Flurious, though he does fight as a OneWingedAngel, is finally destroyed in his human-with-makeup-faced standard form by Mack, who was ''determined to finish him off even though he'd already been totally defeated.'' Mind you, Mack had... issues... at this point.

* Tokusatsu series ''Series/ChouSeiShinGransazer'' has an ugly version of this. Many episodes feature a MinorCharacterOfTheWeek, who may be a human or a benevolent alien. At the end of each such episode or arc, such a characer will almost always be saved if human, but an alien will invariably die. Often ostensibly by a HeroicSacrifice, but it comes off as RedemptionEqualsDeath to atone for the "crime" of being an alien.
* ''Series/ChouSeiKantaiSazerX,'' an indirect sequel to Gransazer, heavily averts this trope by having some of the major characters being aliens played by PeopleInRubberSuits. These major characters all survive. On the flipside, most of the human looking villains unceremoniously die, one of them being a victim to having [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived her usefulness]] to the BigBad.
* ''Series/TomicaHeroRescueForce'' also averts this trope by [[spoiler: having the only human villain die in a display of RedemptionEqualsDeath]], while the android QuirkyMinibossSquad manages to survive the whole series.

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** The Atlantis Expedition has allowed itself to perform war-crime experiments on some captured Wraith, because "if they were there when the Third Geneva Convention was signed, they would have eaten the attendees instead". This comes back to bite them, in the form of [[ThenLetMeBeEvil Michael]].
** Some episodes show that the Wraith, or most of them, are not evil per se, but the laws of nature dictate that they feed on humans to survive. Those same laws dictate that humans do not calmly accept this, but instead kill Wraith to survive, ala dolphins killing sharks. It's all a matter of who wins, not good and evil, at least until the treatment to make Wraith not need to feed on humans is invented. The Wraiths' specific requirement of human LifeEnergy instead of nonsapient animals brings this far into the FantasticAesop territory. The species is just written to provoke this conflict.
** There's a great conversation about this in "Be All My Sins Remember'd" when [=McKay=] and Zelenka create a human-form Replicator strictly for the purpose of using her to destroy the rest of the Replicators. Carter argues against destroying a self-aware being, but [=McKay=] argues strongly that she doesn't count as a life form. He later shows some discomfort, though, when FRAN displays excitement about being sent to her "death." Even the non-human doesn't think her life matters! As far as she's concerned, she's fulling the purpose of her existence.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Occasionally brought into question in regards to how casually the Goa'uld are thought of - sometimes when dealing with the Tok'ra and once with a trial between Skaara and the Goa'uld Klorel for who was allowed his body. Mostly, though, the trope is inverted with the Goa'uld, who think 'What Measure is a Human?'
** This issue is also addressed with the Unas in a number of episodes. Their body language unfortunately comes across to humans as somewhat aggressive, so they can seem quite menacing, but Daniel learns how to communicate with them a bit and finds that most Unas are really just peaceful people who are, at worst, rather suspicious of outsiders to their tribes. He gets rather peeved when other people treat them like animals.
** This is even inverted at one point: an Unas named Chakka captures Daniel on a hunt as part of a rite of passage in his tribe, but by the end is arguing with his people that Daniel is an intelligent being, not an animal, and thus should not be ritually killed.
** In the season-three episode "Urgo", the team encounters a program which was downloaded into their brains, and unintentionally results in an AI named Urgo. Who constantly pesters them. They go to Urgo's creator to have him removed, but Urgo is afraid that he will be destroyed. Sam and Daniel decide that destroying him would be akin to murder, because he is intelligent, aware of his existence, and afraid of death, and these together define him as sentient. They convince the rest of SG-1 and Urgo's creator to agree with them, so Urgo's creator downloads the AI into his own brain instead of destroying him.
** The first season had it happen twice with HumanAliens: once with Teal'c in "The Enemy Within", and once with the Tollans in "Enigma". In both cases it contrasted the SGC, which believed that offworld-born humans and human offshoots should be afforded the same rights as Earthlings, and the NID, which didn't. "Enigma" features this gem:
---> '''Jack O'Neill:''' These people do have rights, you know.\\
'''Col. Maybourne:''' Do they? Under what nation's jurisdiction?\\
'''Daniel Jackson:''' How about ''basic human rights???''
* The 2000s ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' is practically built on toying with every permutation of this trope. At the beginning, humans automatically treat Cylons as machines and Cylons automatically treat humans as cattle. As the series goes on, dissenters emerge in both races. Made more confused by the fact that Cylons, despite being artificially born and having cybernetic neural properties, practically are biologically human, and several 'human' characters are [[{{TomatoInTheMirror}} Cylon sleeper agents.]]
* Subverted in ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' when Rex the puppet gets sucked into an incredibly powerful sucking machine, and suffers a serious injury. Everyone is as sad about this as if it were a real person. Played straight with Jade.
--> ''Jade'': "Am I the only one who finds this bizarre?"
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':
** It subverts the "duplicates are worthless" concept, with a villain who has a machine that can create instant, perfect duplicates - such that the question of "which is the original" is, for all intents and purposes, meaningless. When Chiana is duplicated and one of them is killed, she tries very, very hard to convince herself that she's okay because it was just a clone and she's definitely the original... but she chokes up when she gives this speech. Both Johns are treated as equal, [[spoiler:and when one of them dies, Aeryn can't even look the other in the face for a while]]. Also, the ExpendableAlternateUniverse treatment of identical opposites is thoroughly deconstructed (see that page). As for the show's and the characters' treatment of humans versus non-humans, well, the characters are various degrees of amoral and the creators love painful deaths, so it's hard to say.
** This trope is explored with a twist (What measure is a non-animal?) in the episode "Bone to Be Wild":
--->'''Zhaan''': I cannot condone what his people did, but for all this unparalleled flora to flourish, it may not be entirely unreasonable to-\\
'''John''': To murder sentient beings in order to save a few stinking plants?\\
'''Zhaan''': How animal-centric of you, John.\\
'''John''': Sorry, Zhaan. I forgot. You're a-\\
'''Zhaan''': I am a "stinking plant".
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** The Winchesters and their allies seem to care less and less about killing or torturing demons as the show goes on, despite demons possessing human bodies with the original occupant still in there. This is why the human version of [[WhatTheHellHero Meg calling Sam out on it]] was such an awesome moment. [[TheHeart Sam]] starts out using [[PsychoSerum demon blood]]-fueled powers partly because it lets him exorcise demons quickly and without endangering the host. When Ruby tries to persuade Sam to work with her, Sam orders her to vacate her current host. To placate him, she goes to a hospital and possesses the empty body of a Jane Doe who just flatlined, which Sam reluctantly accepts.
** In fact, ''no'' supernatural creatures are allowed to live, with the exception of the nest of vampires (led by [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Amber Benson (Tara)]], ironically) who live off animal blood. [[spoiler: She gets a MercyKill later, when the dark sides of the monsters are brought out by their Mother.]] Even the sympathetic (or just pathetic) creatures, like shapeshifters (who were born preternaturally mutated and cast out from society and kill because of their FreudianExcuse) and werewolves (people who are bitten, black out when they turn, and have no idea that they spend the night murdering innocent people) must die. The only werewolf episode is "Heart", and it explores this trope.
** Two of the three shapeshifter episodes, "Skin" and [[spoiler: "Monster Movie"]], give us pieces of insight into the shapeshifters' painful existence; the first shapeshifter was an intentionally cruel rapist/murderer, but the second was incredibly lonely and a victim of society's narrow-mindedness and his own killer instincts:
--->'''GirlOfTheWeek:''' Did you ever think you might be lonely because you kill people?
--->'''Shapeshifter:''' Or maybe I kill people ''because'' I'm lonely.
** Which is a godawful excuse, but that guy was twisted. Dean actually felt sorry for him, which is a change. A similar example would be a man who was turning into a creature known as a rougarou, which feast on humans. He was born that way and the brothers tell him what is happening to see if he can fight it off and hold in his vicious nature. Then a fellow hunter's actions force him to turn into a monster and they are left with no choice.
** In season six, we find out that all these supernatural creatures [[spoiler:are created by the children of one Mother and tend toward AlwaysChaoticEvil, especially when she's around.]] In season seven, we see that it's still possible for at least one monster to choose not to give in to TheDarkSide most of the time. Every time a monster or witch doesn't act evil, though, it never seems to last--resulting in the [[HunterOfMonsters Hunters']] [[VigilanteMan position]] making more sense.
** On the other hand, [[GrimReaper Reapers]] must be kept alive. Considering they [[{{Psychopomp}} fulfill a function]]--harvesting those whose time has come--rather than actively killing, the distinction is understandable.
** An odd example is Castiel, an angel. When he's losing his power and collapses, the Winchesters show genuine concern for him, despite disliking the other angels (although the others are trying to bring about the apocalypse).
** In season seven, Sam still prefers not to kill and Dean still would rather kill than be sorry later (although considering everything that came between, it might be "again" rather than "still"), but Sam's [[spoiler: not exactly stable enough to stay that way consistently]], and Dean's still [[DeathSeeker tormented]] enough that he can slip out of this [[IDidWhatIHadToDo practicality]].
** This trope is further discussed in season eight on several occasions. There's Benny, the vampire, who [[spoiler:helped Dean escape from Purgatory,]] thus creating a conflict between the brothers regarding what to do with him, [[spoiler:Dean obviously wanting to protect him.]] Later, in "Man's Best Friend With Benefits", Sam and Dean come across an old friend [[spoiler:who has turned to witchcraft,]] and they must decide whether or not to give him a "free pass", as Sam calls it.
* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' explores the question in an episode which reveals that most of the mythological monsters Hercules killed during the first season were, at one point, just as sentient and emotionally complex as anyone else. Though it's played for comedy at first, as Hercules learns all this from their bumbling GentleGiant father, it comes to a dramatic head when he finds out that Hercules has killed them all: the ensuing fight's only resolved when a regretful Hercules (now realizing that he'd unfairly dismissed them as mindless monsters) convinces him that there really wasn't any other option, since BigBad Hera had brainwashed them into becoming her evil minions.

* A question often posed in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', especially relating to Cameron. The characters have varying degrees of belief in the value of Terminators as a whole and Cameron in particular; Derek Reese views her as a dangerous, inhuman threat, Sarah views her as a useful machine but who lacks emotions or a soul, and John views her as a close confidant, protector, and friend who he'll go to any lengths to protect, just as she would for him.
* This was brutally answered in an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' called "The Lonely". A man who has been exiled to an asteroid for life is left with a female robot by a sympathetic captain. The man eventually [[CargoShip falls in love with the robot]]. During his next visit, the captain tells him he's been pardoned and can come home, but there is no room for the robot. While the man tries to think of a way to take her with him, the captain shoots it in the face, revealing its wires and circuitry. He truly thought that the robot was sentient and harbored true love. It is left open ended if it was truly sapient or if it was just well programmed. Regardless, either he left once the illusion was broken, or he trudges off, denied what he truly wanted.
* Played with in ''Series/MrBean''. He had at least two [[CompanionCube companion cubes]]: his teddy bear and his car. Teddy can get decapitated and ripped apart every episode. The audience always laughs but also "Awwww"'s at close ups of the cute little toy bear, indicating that they sympathize with the toy but still feel it can be beaten up a little. His car provided a stranger example. In one episode, Bean's car was demolished. The audience apparently has a case of MoodWhiplash by laughing, showing sorrow, and then laughing again.
* [[MonsterOfTheWeek The more human-like mutants of the week]] on ''Series/TheXFiles'' tend to get the harsher treatment, being portrayed as instinctive killing machines (or animalistic predators), to be stopped by any means necessary. However, earlier in the series, this had yet to be established. Eugene Tooms (the liver-eating, hibernating, contortionist mutant from Season 1) was supposedly rehabilitated and released back into society. Similarly, Flukeman from early Season 2 was committed to a psychiatric institution for observation, despite being a radioactively created fusion of Primate and flatworm DNA. In the second case, Mulder argued that the creature did not deserve the same legal treatment that a human serial killer would, because he did not see it as human. Later episodes focused more on ordinary humans with strange gifts or victims of unusual circumstance (many of whom killed by accident) rather than the traditional "mutants." Later in the series, a brain-eating humanoid creature [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMOnster tried living like a human]], but ultimately failed (proving Mulder's point). At least he got a sympathetic POV. Interestingly, in the episode featuring a severely inbred family as a MonsterOfTheWeek, this doesn't get brought up, implying that the monstrous Peacock Clan is more "human" than (presumably) human-derived mutants like Tooms.
* The show ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' typically puts one of the main characters in mortal peril as part of the Disaster of the Week; when Andy, the android deputy sherrif, is the one in danger, the situation is given exactly no less weight or gravitas. The show doesn't make light of things just because the character is a robot, and all the other characters are just as worried and working just as hard to fix things as if one of the humans were in danger.
* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has the Sidhe, a race of fairy-like creatures that Merlin has no qualms killing off in surprisingly brutal ways (he essentially blows them up with magic). Of course, he's also killed humans with very little remorse, but the Sidhe are notable in that many of them aren't even being particularly ''threatening'' at the time of death. Grunhilda in particular, a pixie who was just following orders from a Sidhe Elder, never harms anyone during the course of the episode in which she appears. Her only "crime" is being part of a plot to ensure that Princess Elena marries Prince Arthur (a plan that doesn't involve killing anyone), and she comes across as genuinely fond of her ward.
* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'':
** Generally averted. Nick is fine with letting supernatural creatures live their lives, as long as they are not breaking the law and has treated them as he would to human beings in comparative situations. This comes to a shock to many Wesen as this approach was unheard of among Grimms. Many still remain wary of Nick while the ones that get to know Nick are surprised that Nick seems to ignore the traditional feuds, even appreciating the protection that comes with having a Grimm as an ally. With the reputation of Grimms, most creatures that recognize Nick instantly assume he is there to kill them on the spot.
** Deconstructed at the beginning of Season 3. As Nick mopes in guilt after killing a man while in zombiefied state, Renard sarcastically asks him if he is feeling guilty because he killed someone or because he killed someone who is not wessen, adding, "God knows, you killed plenty of them."
* The ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' has several examples. Quite a few of the {{kaiju}} are {{Non Malicious Monster}}s or {{Tragic Monster}}s that force the defense teams face ethical questions, while a number of the alien invaders are occasionally not [[AliensAreBastards bastards]] at all.
** One MonsterOfTheWeek in the original ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' was Jamila, [[WasOnceAMan an astronaut who became a monster]] after he was abandoned on an alien world to die. His episode is known as one of the saddest in the franchise as Science Patrol doesn't want to kill him but are requested by their superiors to treat him as just another giant monster.
*** The episode that introduces the [[PhantomZone Monster Graveyard]] deals heavily with the ethics of killing giant monsters. In one memorable moment, Hayata transforms into Ultraman in private and holds a moment of silence for all the monsters he's killed after apologizing out loud for what he says is the necessary evil of ending their lives to protect others.
** ''Series/UltraSeven'' episode "Dark Zone" deconstructs the trope by having humanity kill off an entire space city of aliens [[SadisticChoice to save themselves]] when the space city is on a collision course with Earth -- something that Ultra Garrison was deeply reluctant to do. Matters were made much worse by the aliens believing their superior technology meant they had the right to blow up the primitive Earthlings, and a survivor attempts to carry out the plan in revenge.
*** Another episode "Envoy of the Nonmalts" sees Ultra Garrison battle the eponymous marine race, who claim to be the original inhabitants of Earth driven into near extinction by belligerent humans. Thinking of the Nonmalts' claim as a lie to justify yet another alien invasion, Commander Kiriyama has their city destroyed by nuclear missiles, killing all the Nonmalts. While the rest of UG celebrates, Dan and Anne continue to wonder if the Nonmalts really were telling the truth...
** In ''Series/UltramanGaia'', XIG deals with the Earth-dwelling monsters in the same manner as they do with the evil space monsters sent by the Radical Destruction Bringer, but later on, come to the realization that the Earth kaiju deserve to live alongside them in peace and oppose the aliens as much as the humans do. [[spoiler:This culminates in the finale when several of the Earth kaiju appear to actively help Ultraman Gaia, Agul, and XIG battle Zogu and her army.]]
** ''Series/UltramanCosmos'' made the point of emphasizing that the giant monsters were every bit as part of the world as humans were. Cosmos would usually spare the MonsterOfTheWeek and help them find a new and more peaceful home away from the humans that had agitated them into rampaging. Unfortunately, many of the monsters also became victims of [[BigBad Chaos Header]].
** In the ''Series/UltramanMax'' episode "A Friend from Afar", an alien named Keef comes to Earth after his homeworld is destroyed, but is horrified to find out that [[FantasticRacism humans despise aliens]] due to the numerous {{Alien Invasion}}s. He then publicly presents himself to DASH and lets them examine him as a test subject in order to pave the way for positive relationships between humans and aliens. In one particular scene, a DASH scientist casually calls Keef "the alien" and [[TokenWhite Sean]] angrily says "His name's Keef".
** ''Series/UltramanX'' follows a similar idea to ''Cosmos'', with Xio's long-term project being to find a way for giant monsters and humans to coexist peacefully. For pragmatic reasons, they fight the rampaging kaiju, but Ultraman X's Xanadium Ray allows them to turn the monsters into a SleepModeSize to help with the project.
* Played with throughout ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' -- originally, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons were humans]] who had [[DealWithTheDevil intentionally given up their souls]], but as time wore on, more variations occured: a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-manticore]] child, families of demons who were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil apparently born that way]], and of course Cole Turner. The sisters end up killing them all at some point anyway.
** Played straight (painfully so) in a later season, with a demon [[HeelFaceTurn trying to help the sisters]] in return for a soul. [[StuffedInTheFridge Needlessly killed]] by the BigBad before she can become human again, but [[RedemptionEqualsDeath after holding up her side of the bargain]]. And they were so close to turning her again, too. Her borrowing one of Phoebe's dresses in her last minutes showed just how ready they had gotten for it, and even caused question as to whether they actually pulled it off. This only made her vanquish even more painful.
** Subverted in an episode where the sisters were hunting what they thought was a demon going after an innocent baby. Turned out the 'demon' [[MonsterIsAMommy was actually the baby's father]], who had learned magic and transformed himself [[IDidWhatIHadToDo so as to have the power to protect his son from his mother and her kind]]. (This baby would be the half-manticore child mentioned just above here.) Not only did the sisters give the fellow a chance to explain the truth (despite him being willing to kidnap and endanger them), they stopped the real demons, saved his life (after his brush with death [[ThisWasHisTrueForm restored him to his human self]]), and got his son back for him. All of this despite the Elders telling them that 'the baby was a (half) demon and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil can never be raised to be anything else]]', which they point out is untrue since as he's half-human, he has the capacity for ''good'' as well and his future is his to decide.
** Unfortunately however, this makes the baby fall ''exactly'' into the same category as the aforementioned half-demon Cole Turner. Despite his many attempts to genuinely reform his ways, was still treated as being inherently AlwaysChaoticEvil due to his demonic half by the sisters, until he decided [[ThenLetMeBeEvil to become evil]].
* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople'' have a barrier in their mind that keeps them from (knowingly) killing. In the second story of the original series, a captive boy says that he could kill Jedikiah by sending him into magma because Jedikiah is a robot so it doesn't count as killing.
* ''Series/{{Extant}}'': John objects to one of the board member's questions as to whether he has a plan of how to destroy Humanichs in the event they revolted by saying [[WesternAnimation/RobotBoy Ethan]] is his son, and questioning whether she has a plan to kill her daughter. The woman counters by saying that her daughter has a soul, to which John says there's no appreciable difference between humans' and Humanichs' brains. It soon degenerates into insults.

* The ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' has several examples. Quite a few of the {{kaiju}} are NonMaliciousMonsters or TragicMonsters that force the defense teams face ethical questions, while a number of the alien invaders are occasionally not [[AliensAreBastards bastards]] at all.

* The Franchise/UltraSeries has several examples. While most monsters are forces of nature, many aliens have good reasons for the trouble they cause earth. Subverted overall, because the ultras are aliens.
** One ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' episode featured Jamila, a man transformed into a monster. One of the saddest episodes in the series.
** ''Series/UltraSeven'' episode "The Dark Zone" deconstructs the trope by having humanity kill off an entire space city of aliens [[SadisticChoice to save themselves]], resulting in one of the survivors trying to blow up Earth in vengeance.
** ''Series/UltramanTiga'' deconstructed this, featured good or misunderstood aliens a few times, in one case, one of these was brutally murdered by the humans.
** ''Series/UltramanCosmos'' tamed the ''monsters'', in the ultimate subversion. However, many were killed by [[BigBad Chaos]].
** ''Series/UltramanMax'' featured aliens many times, who most learn to value of human life, and then [[RedemptionEqualsDeath die]]. Some aversions.
** ''Series/UltramanMebius'' has many non-human characters who survive. [[spoiler:Zamuhsar]], however, dies.

* Although they were ''all'' technically aliens, ''PowerRangers'' could kill "monstrous" villains but not "[[HumanAliens human]]" ones. In a particularly {{egregious}} case, a bunch of "monstrous" villains are killed but the few human-looking ones are turned good, with both of these outcomes resulting from the same attack.

** ''Time Force'' also features another case. The various monsters were never destroyed, but instead frozen and shrunk (into what looked like action figures). The idea of killing them is really never brought up, even though these cases would presumably qualify as self defense. Apparently despite being "mutants", they have certain rights. Conversely the purely robotic {{Mooks}} were consistently destroyed outright.

* ''Series/{{Extant}}'': John objects to one of the board member's questions as to whether he has a plan of how to destroy Humanichs in the event they revolted by saying [[RobotBoy Ethan]] is his son, and questioning whether she has a plan to kill her daughter. The woman counters by saying that her daughter has a soul, to which John says there's no appreciable difference between humans' and Humanichs' brains. It soon degenerates into insults.

** Three very telling examples: Camille of ''Jungle Fury'' survives and turns good despite not being human (She has a human form, but traits like her prehensile tongue suggest that this is not her ''true'' form). On the other hand, Zeltrax of ''Dino Thunder'', who does not have a face, is [[strike:killed]] destroyed, despite the fact that we are told not only that he is a human wearing cybernetic prostheses after a lab accident, we are even told his ''human name'' (It's Terrence Smith, aka Smitty). Likewise, Frax (formerly Louis Fericks) of ''Time Force'' is turned evil and ultimately dies, despite the fact that he also was once human before being forced into a robotic body.

** There's a great conversation about this in "Be All My Sins Remember'd" when [=McKay=] and Zelenka create a human-form Replicator strictly for the purpose of using her to destroy the rest of the Replicators. Carter argues against destroying a self-aware being, but [=McKay=] argues strongly that she doesn't count as a life form. He later shows some discomfort, though, when FRAN displays excitement about being sent to her "death." Even the non-human doesn't think her life matters!

** When Willow goes dark and on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Warren after he shoots Buffy and Tara, killing the latter, Buffy is literally the ''only'' one of the Scoobies who wants Warren to face human justice for his crimes, while Xander and Dawn are so disgusted and pissed that they openly support Willow's intent to kill; after she succeeds, even Buffy reluctantly admits that Warren ''may'' have deserved to die. Nonetheless, the Scoobies all rally to defend Warren's ex-cohorts, who Willow is [[MisplacedRetribution now targeting]], because they had done nothing to deserve death.

** The Doctor also had a long running argument with the Brigadier about "the military mind's" tendency to solve everything with "five rounds rapid". Averted with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E2DoctorWhoAndTheSilurians "Doctor Who and the Silurians"]]; the Doctor is upset at the Brigadier destroying the Silurian base.

** In an earlier episode, Ecliptor (one of the monsters vaporized in this attack) explains that he (and presumably other monstrous-looking villains) are evil because they were built to be.

** Three very telling examples: Camille of ''Jungle Fury'' survives and turns good despite not being human (She has a human form, but traits like her prehensile tongue suggest that this is not her ''true'' form). On the other hand, Zeltrax of ''Dino Thunder'', who does not have a face, is [[strike:killed]] destroyed, despite the fact that we are told not only that he is a human wearing cybernetic prostheses after a lab accident, we are even told his ''human name'' (It's Terrence Smith, aka Smitty). Likewise, Frax of ''Time Force'' is turned evil and ultimately dies, despite the fact that he also was once human before being forced into a robotic body.
** Also, the series compromised this policy when Trakeena was finally defeated in ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue''. Sure, she ''looked'' like any other MonsterOfTheWeek when she was killed, but she had previously been the same type of [[HumanAliens Human Alien]] that folks like Divatox had been.
** Master Org spends most of the series looking like a human in eeevil makeup, but has a monster form when he's taken out (however, there's a moment of his human form being seen just before he's ''gooified'' once and for all.) Moltor and Flurious were near-human[[note]]Their current monstrous forms were explicity caused by the series' main MacGuffin when they first touched it long ago. We never got a ''good'' look at their pre-monster forms' features, but they were wearing modified, reused ''Ninja Storm'' student outfits, which means to not have shown, the level of alienness couldn't be higher than ''Franchise/StarTrek'' class. The backstory takes place too long ago for Earth humans to exist, but Moltor doesn't protest when Mack says "You were human once" and accuses him of throwing away his humanity for power. That's all {{Canon}} gives us.[[/note]] In the last two episodes, Moltor dies for real, and Flurious, though he does fight as a OneWingedAngel, is finally destroyed in his human-with-makeup-faced standard form by Mack, who was ''determined to finish him off even though he'd already been defeated." Mind you, Mack had... issues... at this point.

** ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'' is pretty much based entirely around exploring this trope. With Orphenoch protagonists getting as much screentime as the Riders, and the second Rider's hatred of them regardless of alignment being only one of his many {{Jerkass}} qualities. It helps that the "monsters" are formerly human, and generally forced or bribed into evil.

*** [[spoiler: Emotions play big role in this. Eiji and Hina spent most of the story around Ankh and came to like him, so it's obvious they would be upset over the thought of him dying. Being a Greed doesn't have anything to do with it.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' plays with this in a very complicated fashion that lingers heavily on the point of view and AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Roimundes]] are shown to be sentient and as capable of emotion as humans. The problem is that they are, by programming and other causes, very rarely anything else than AlwaysChaoticEvil. [[TheHero Shinnosuke]] usually doesn't have any issue with fighting them because they cause suffering and chaos, but doesn't have problem with accepting the ones, who do not. On the other hand, the second rider, [[RedOniBlueOni Gou]] holds the adamant resolution that all Roimundes are evil and throws a nasty fit when proved otherwise. From the point of Roimundes, they are as worthy as humans and what the riders do is a slaughter.

** ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'' is pretty much based entirely around exploring this trope. With Orphenoch protagonists getting as much screentime as the Riders, and the second Rider's hatred of them regardless of alignment being only one of his many {{Jerkass}} qualities. It helps that the "monsters" are formerly human, and generally forced or bribed into evil.
** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' plays with this in a very complicated fashion that lingers heavily on the point of view and AlternativeCharacterInterpretation.[[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Roimundes]] are shown to be sentient and as capable of emotion as humans. The problem is that they are, by programming and other causes, very rarely anything else than AlwaysChaoticEvil. [[TheHero Shinnosuke]] usually doesn't have any issue with fighting them because they cause suffering and chaos, but doesn't have problem with accepting the ones, who do not. On the other hand, the second rider,[[RedOniBlueOni Gou]] holds the adamant resolution that all Roimundes are evil and throws a nasty fit when proved otherwise. From the point of Roimundes, they are as worthy as humans and what the riders do is a slaughter.

* However, ChouSeiKantaiSazerX, an indirect sequel to Gransazer, heavily averts this trope by having some of the major characters being aliens played by PeopleInRubberSuits. These major characters all survive. On the flipside, most of the human looking villains unceremoniously die, one of them being a victim to having [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived her usefulness]] to the BigBad.

** In season six, we find out that all these supernatural creatures [[spoiler:are created by the children of one Mother and tend toward AlwaysChaoticEvil, especially when she's around.]] In season seven, we see that it's still possible for at least one monster to choose not to give in to TheDarkSide most of the time. Every time a monster or witch doesn't act evil, though, it never seems to last--resulting in the [[TheHunter Hunters']] [[VigilanteMan position]] making more sense.

** ''UltramanCosmos'' tamed the ''monsters'', in the ultimate subversion. However, many were killed by [[BigBad Chaos]].

* ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' explores the question in an episode which reveals that most of the mythological monsters Hercules killed during the first season were, at one point, just as sentient and emotionally complex as anyone else. Though it's played for comedy at first, as Hercules learns all this from their bumbling GentleGiant father, it comes to a dramatic head when he finds out that Hercules has killed them all: the ensuing fight's only resolved when a regretful Hercules (now realizing that he'd unfairly dismissed them as mindless monsters) convinces him that there really wasn't any other option, since BigBad Hera had brainwashed them into becoming her evil minions.

** When Willow goes dark and on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Warren after he shoots Buffy and Tara, killing the former, Buffy is literally the ''only'' one of the Scoobies who wants Warren to face human justice for his crimes, while Xander and Dawn are so disgusted and pissed that they openly support Willow's intent to kill; after she succeeds, even Buffy reluctantly admits that Warren ''may'' have deserved to die. Nonetheless, the Scoobies all rally to defend Warren's ex-cohorts, who Willow is [[MisplacedRetribution now targeting]], because they had done nothing to deserve death.