You're fighting your opponent in armed combat, and you lay a finishing move across his neck with your AbsurdlySharpBlade. The announcer declares your victory: "Knockout!"

-- Wait, what?

A character in a fighting game is not "dead"; he's just... [[NonLethalKO unconscious]]... even though you've been hitting him with a sword for 30 seconds... and broken both his arms... and ''impaled'' him on your blade before kicking him off at least twice. For that matter, why are ''you'' still alive, after being whacked in the head with his axe a few times? It seems all that stuff saying you should NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight was complete baloney. (Well, except for the not dying part.)

Compare StrongFleshWeakSteel, AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe and MadeOfIron. Contrast NerfArm.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Played with a bit in an episode of ''TheSlayers''. Zelgadis tries to knock someone out by hitting him with the blunt side of his sword, then remembers too late that his sword is double-edged...
* ''RurouniKenshin'' Kenshin has a reverse blade sword made specifically so he can stun or knock out opponents with it to keep his vow that he'll never kill again. How he doesn't cause severe ''crushing'' wounds is [[MST3KMantra better left unasked]].
** He nearly does at one point, but the hilt proved to be weaker than the man he was fighting at that point and gave way, dampening much of the impact.
* [[MahouSenseiNegima The Mahora Festival arc]] ended with a giant fight between the student body and an army of killer robots firing guns and [[WaveMotionGun Wave Motion Beams]]. At first, their weapons only served as [[ClothingDamage stripper rays]], but eventually they were upgraded to hurl whoever they hit forward in time to after the battle, effectively taking them out of the fight without killing them.
** The stripper beams made another appearance [[spoiler: when an army of monsters invaded the Academy near the end of the manga, but weren't allowed to kill anyone.]]
* When Allen's [[EmpathicWeapon Innocence]] in DGrayMan is upgraded to a BFS, it works this way against Noah, hurting only the Noah part of the victim but leaving the human part intact.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Justified by MarvelComics' Black Knight. He sometimes uses a photonic sword which cuts through inanimate objects like a solid blade would, but acts like a high-powered taser when used on humans.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' had several iterations of this across its several editions.
** The 1st edition Monster Manual had a rule specifically for dragons that allowed players to try subduing them rather than killing them.
** 2nd edition featured an optional rule that allowed standard weapons to do nonlethal damage (normally the province of unarmed combat and a few particular weapons) in exchange for an attack penalty, since you're purposely using your weapon wrong in order to ''not'' seriously harm your enemy.
** 3rd edition has the same rule.
** 4th edition finally simplified it all by allowing a player to declare whether a monster is killed or unconscious when reducing its hit points to zero, even if this was done with an explosion or ''disintegrate'' spell. [[MST3KMantra Just let the players make up a reason for why it works]].
* Alchemical ''{{Exalted}}'' can install a Charm that allows them to keep all members of their unit alive in a war, despite damage done to a unit. An upgrade- the ''Riot-Dispersion Attack'' submodule- allows them to extend this benefit to the enemy unit they're attacking.
** Lunars on the other hand, has ''Subduing the Honored Foe'' Charm that ensures that they only cause bashing damage-- even if they wield First Age chainsaw katana while being a 12-feet tall man-beast monstrosity.
* Mayfair Games' ''DC Heroes'' RPG featured two styles of gaming, one "gritty and realistic", and the other more in keeping with SilverAge mentality where nobody dies. This is spoofed in one of the modules where the characters are left at ground zero of a nuclear explosion, but it's all okay because of the game mode!
* ''HeroClix'' characters are [=KOd=] at the end of their dials. It doesn't matter what you're using on them, from powers named "Blades/Claws/Fangs" or "Big Uzi" or even "Death Comes Swiftly", whatever it is that hits you, it just knocks you out.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheapass_Games Cheapass Games]] features ''Spree'', a game where looters with guns raid a mall for the best presents this Christmas. Being shot only makes you "fall down." You get up shortly thereafter. There are no health meters or character wounds.
* ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' stipulates that any Taken Out result has the player who won the exchange getting to decide how this plays out, meaning any kind of attack can be non-lethal, though given the abstract nature of the game's mechanics, a fireball taking out someone non-lethally can be something like the target dodging but running into something and getting knocked out, or they're forced into surrender.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* Games in the ''SoulCalibur'' series. ''Soul Calibur 3'' is an especially bad offender, considering that Sigfried uses an [[{{BFS}} incredibly large sword]], and is frequently seen to drive the pointy end directly into an opponent's skull, yet sometimes after a match, he remarks, "[[OnlyAFleshWound I avoided your vitals. You'll live.]]"
** Not only that, but any throw would be fatal. Any throw. And yet, it takes roughly six or seven to "K.O." your opponent (and sometimes more than that). To clarify, Siegried/Nightmare (either or both, depending on the game) throws his opponent by ''ramming his 6 foot long, 2 foot wide {{BFS}} straight through the opponent's body, lifting them into the air, and slamming them to the floor''. Ouch. Of course, this is only the most over the top ones. The more subtle ones involve simply snapping the opponents neck.
*** The cake goes to Ivy Valentine in ''II'' - her throw from behind involves wrapping her bladed whip around her opponent's neck, kicking them to their knees, and stomping on their back, causing their spine to very audiably snap. [[RefugeInAudacity Then they get back up and fight.]]
*** Taki has one by the same virtue. One of her throws has her grab her opponent by the neck and shove her sword straight through their neck clear to the other side.
*** Or Raphael, who stabs his opponent roughly 10 times in the chest.
*** Actually [[AvertedTrope averted]] by GuestFighter [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] whose most oft used throw is just a painful arm twist. It proves to be one of the most [[RingOut lethal]] anyway.
** In other words, Sigfried is saying [[TakeThatAudience there's nothing vital in our heads]].
** A particularly bad example has to be the [[LaserBlade lightsabers]] in ''IV''. They're shown clashing with a swords, despite being shown in the films to cut through almost anything.
*** FanWank usually states that the metals in our galaxy that are used to make steel weapons can repel the effects of a ''Franchise/StarWars'' lightsaber (this does have some canon grounding in the Expanded Universe)...but that said, there's no justification for why the blade making contact with ''bare skin'' wouldn't cleave the victim in twain. One of Starkiller's throws has him flip his opponent to the ground with him on top and then he slashes right through their neck but they're up right as rain less than a second later...
* ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden''
* ''StarWars'' games are often examples, as lightsabers do only a small amount of damage with each strike, despite being used to cut through metal several times.
** ''Jedi Knight: [[DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces II]]'' nicely avoided this problem though, making the lightsaber nearly a DiscOneNuke. Hit anything with the saber (Well, anything smaller than a truck), and it goes down.
** Later ''Dark Forces'' games - ''Jedi Outcast'' and ''Jedi Academy'' - went back to the usual patheticness, but a simple and popular *.cfg option restored the instant deadliness of a lightsaber. Even grazing an unshielded character, whether you were attacking or not, would sever limbs, heads, or torsos on contact. Best of all, this applied to the ''player'' too, so while {{Mooks}} became much easier, battles against multiple Dark Jedi became much more challenging.
** ''Jedi Academy'' multiplayer servers use house rules when dealing with lightsaber damage. Occasionally, one will find a server where damage behaves just like one would expect a condensed plasma stream to behave. For extra simulation, there is a dismemberment-on-death flag that can be toggled in the *.cfg file.
** The lightsabers in VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxies did bashing damage in their first incarnation. It has then been changed to energy damage.
** ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' treads the line a bit. Lightsabers are still the deadliest melee weapons by far, and can be used to break open doors and containers effortlessly, but many weapons and armors of this era are made with "cortosis weaves" (something that's [[OddlyCommonRarity supposed to be much rarer]] than [=KoToR=] implies) that enables them to resist a saber being sliced right through them. They are still far less deadly than they really should be though.
*** Somewhat justified in that the Old Republic is, well... older than most of the other Star Wars properties, timeline-wise. The time between it and the Skywalker era represents a long, steady decline of the empire with lots of lost technology. Cortosis going from common to rare follows the same trend of medical science going from miracle gels that can cure the most debilitating injuries to women dying easily in childbirth and having to use prosthetics to deal with burns, things that real-life medical science today would consider hopelessly low-tech and crude. This is actually a continuation of an even longer trend, Rakata technology from thousands of years before the Old Republic directly used the force without human interference and could store sentient minds, eat stars to make fleets in a matter of days, and reduce entire star clusters to ionized dust.
*** Similarly for ''StarWarsBattlefront'', where lightsabers are the strongest weapon in the game, yet it took at least 2 hits to kill the average mook.
** ''VideoGame/SuperStarWars'': Tusken Raiders can sometimes survive a full-contact swing with the lightsaber. Also, Stormtroopers can survive one laser blast from your gun, while in the movies, [[OneHitKill they usually died]] when that happened.
* Unlike the above, ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' has the lightsaber as the ONLY available weapon. Some players have referred to it as the "lightbat" because of its inability to cut through anything. Indeed, hitting a stormtrooper only creates a small glow on the point of impact and causes them to fall over. Some enemies don't even die on the first hit.
** This complaint has been addressed in the sequel (at least as far as enemies go). Stormtrooper heads and limbs ''will'' be lost this time for sure. As for slicing up the rest of the level...probably not.
* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheSamurai 2'' is both an example and a subversion, in that, on Extreme mode, any hit from any weapon could kill you.
* Aversion: ''BushidoBlade'' has no life bars, and matches can be decided with a single well-aimed strike.
** Hell, if you wound your opponent properly, he'll beg you to kill him to end his misery.
** ''Rune'' goes half way here (especially in multiplayer matches), as while its [[HitPoints Health Points]] work just like most other games, a lucky swing at an opponent's head that gets through means decapitation and is always an instant kill.
* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'': Technically, you can hit an enemy 5 or 6 times in a round with Stryker's hand grenades. His pistol attack (only in Ultimate [=MK3=]) is curiously a ranged one and consists of firing 3 bullets from point-blank range. It does a bit more damage than a grenade, but still, the other character should be dead on the spot.
** Cyrax and Sektor use bombs and rockets respectively. They inflict about the same damage as Stryker's hand grenades.
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'': All characters have weapons that do significantly less damage than one would think. This trope applies to Sonya for example, who is a regular human, yet a full-on swing with a sword can't kill her on the spot. You can also throw [[ImprovisedWeapon stones and skulls]] at your opponent, and these items also could hurt a bit more.
** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', though, some characters had an "Impale" feature for their weapons, which allowed you to, well... impale the enemy with your weapon, causing them to leak blood and reduce their health gradually at the expense of losing the ability to use your weapons for the rest of the round.
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'': Once and for all, it is proven that swords are indeed sharp, because all character models [[ShowsDamage show damage]]. By the end of a close fight, both fighters will have missing skin and exposed innards to go along with the bones that were shown being physically broken. It doesn't affect your fighting ability, though. (And then you stand up for round 2, and your health is refilled but the damage is still visible.)
*** The worst part is the X-Ray moves. Over the course of the match, Sub-Zero can freeze and shatter his opponent's liver several times. Some Kombatants break their opponents skulls, legs, spines, whatever, and the opponent just gets up and keeps fighting.
* In the ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' series, only the last strike of the round can be fatal.
* Particularly bad in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' games, as many characters have attacks that could level a building, yet leave no lasting damage anyway. One ''really'' nasty example is Orochi (a god), who can apparently ''[[YourSoulIsMine steal and destroy his opponent's soul]]'', yet if said opponent is not KO'd by this attack then they can still get up and fight, despite the fact that they should be a [[SoullessShell hollow shell]]. [[WhipItGood Whip]] has a gun and, in some games, it doesn't even deal damage. She has another one as an HSDM and at least deals a good amount of damage. Other characters even have missiles, [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]], a [[ThisIsADrill gigantic drill]], an [[EpicFlail iron ball]]... Hell even the [[PlayingWithFire flames]] should be enough to deal third-degree burns but don't.
* Justified in ''WayOfTheSamurai 3'': you can use the blunt end of your sword to knock out opponents as opposed to killing them.
* Another frequent offender is Zero from the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series. It's especially noticeable in his own games, where most enemies have a special animation for being cut in half by his [[LaserBlade Z-Saber]]. Okay -- so why didn't that happen until [[CriticalExistenceFailure the final hit]]? Because the kill shot is always the final hit.
* ''MeltyBlood'' is a particularly strange case. The victory screens, the character portraits, the backgrounds, etc. can all show as much blood as they want to, but absolutely no blood comes out from anyone. Makes sense, they're all being punched and kicked... except by the characters that have claws and one in particular who uses a fruit knife to devastating effect. The rerelease of ''Melty Blood: Act Cadenza'' even removes what little blood ''was'' present (one character throwing a knife into someone and ripping it out, and a young vampire ripping into someone ''barehanded'').
** Also add to the fact that, much like Soul Calibur, certain attacks should be fatal. Shiki not killing anyone by simply knife-fighting is justified and plausible...but his [[LimitBreak Arc Drives]] use his [[EvilEye Mystic Eyes]] of [[OneHitKill Death Perception]], one of which slices the opponent into seventeen pieces. Though granted, he never seems to use the [[DeaderThanDead truly, unquestionably fatal attack]].
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series, characters frequently suffer broken arms, legs, necks, etc., dislocated shoulders, hyper-extended joints, crushed gonads, and occasional impalement, only to get back up off the floor and jump back into battle, unless the round is over.
** Particularly bad in the case of Lee, many of whose moves are ''flat-out murder''. One, for instance, is a snap-kick to the opponent's nose; in the game, it merely stuns the opponent for a moment and does less damage than a standard kick. In real life, that move, called ''fouetté à figure'' ("whip-kick to the face") is banned from sport savate, for its tendency to snap people's necks.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Darkstalkers 3]]'', certain attacks by each character ''can'' kill, by slicing the opponent in half... but only if they're the last blow in the last round. If it's not, the killing effect is seen regardless but the damage done to the characters' bodies is [[GoodThingYouCanHeal instantly fixed in a cartoony manner]], like for example the upper body of the character being cleaved clean off, only for it to perform a quick somersault and land back on the waist with no lasting damage. Likewise, these attacks don't always line up with what ''should'' be fatal - Bulleta/B.B. Hood's throat-slit grab is, understandably, fatal, but her various guns, missiles, and mines ''aren't''.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastBlade'' games follow the same mold as ''Samurai Shodown'', in that attacks can only be lethal on the last hit of the round, and some of the characters are surprised when slashing their foe to itty-bitties manages to kill them dead. Hibiki is downright horrified when she kills someone... [[EvilFeelsGood unless she does it too many times.]]
* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' has a K.O. count instead of kill count. In Musou Mode, a general will live or die depending on if his character is needed, meaning that most generals will only die on the last level. Justified in that, because not every general uses a weapon capable of killing, from staves to the power of wind, it's easier just to tack "K.O." on the counter and the bladed weapon just wounded them badly or they suffered blood loss.
** The Japanese version of ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'' also had the same KO counter, despite the fact that dozens of {{Mook}}s are turned into red paste or getting cut up into ribbons every time you use a [[LimitBreak Signature Move]] on them or hit them with a heavy attack, and even when you don't, they leave a large pool of blood under them as they collapse. Changed in the US/PAL version where the counter now reads "Kills", although the trophy/achievement icons are unchanged and still read "KO".
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Level 80 CHARIZARD used Blast Burn! [[NonLethalKO Enemy CATERPIE fainted...]]
** "[[ActionBomb Electrode, Explosion]]!" No, Electrode doesn't actually explode, so much as cause an explosion around itself but this wasn't revealed until VideoGame/PokemonSnap.
* The High Frequency Blade in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' is ''lethal'', inasmuch as Raiden can kill any human enemy with it (the reason that it takes several strokes to kill is that the enemies from that point in the game wear extremely heavy armor.) However, he can reverse his grip so that he smacks foes around with the dull edge instead of slicing them to kibble, knocking them out in order to allow the player to complete a "No Enemies Killed" play-through. You still kill them if you stab, though.
** Raiden uses the same technique again in ''Metal Gear Online''.
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' can't seem to decide on how lethal the attacks are. Defeating a given character, so they explode entirely, may result in that character dying, that character ejecting, that character running away. There are missions in which you 'capture' an enemy unit by bringing it down below 10%... and in the same mission you capture another unit by blowing it up completely. Additionally, there are some characters with weapons designed to cleave battleships in single strikes, but you still won't necessarily kill targets with it. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in one chapter of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration 2'', where, [[BadAssAbnormal Kyousuke]] uses his [[SpamAttack "Trump Card"]] against [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Wodan]]'s [[SuperRobot Thrudgelmir]] (and hit him ''straight in the cockpit'', no less!) leaving the other protagonists to wonder [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat how Wodan could have survived that]]. To be fair, Wodan is a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot cyborg zombie samurai]].
** Played straight in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsL'', where "killing" a boss unit won't show the animation of it getting destroyed. They simply escape afterward most of the time, exploding only if it's actually destroyed during the storyline.
* ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'': Can you survive a shoutgun blast from point-blank range? In Real Life, even with kevlar, the answer is [[MillionToOneChance no]]. In the game, you might.
* ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'': An automag bullet in the brain? No problem, it hurts a bit, but it only takes away 25 H Ps. Shock Rifle blast to the face? More dangerous, you lose 50HPs. The ultimate weapon, the Redeemer should be a nuke, but it also tends to [[SlapOnTheWristNuke underperform]]. There are however weapons that can insta-kill.
* Avoided partially in ''Bio Freaks''. Your characters could take explosive rounds, rockets, and chainsaws to the face surprisingly well, but most characters had moves that could strip your enemy of one or both arms, or the head, the first two greatly limiting their fighting abilities, and the latter instantly killing them. Similarly getting tossed into some of the hazards, such as industrial grinders would either kill you outright or strip you of your arms.
* ''VideoGame/TimeKillers'' allowed you to perform instant amputations and [[OffWithHisHead decapitation]] moves that could end a fight in one blow. However, only decapitation was fatal.
** This got even more extreme in the SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/BloodStorm'', where you could cut your opponent in ''half'', but again, only decapitation was fatal. The game would actually credit you if you somehow managed to win a fight without any limbs at all.
* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' you can "defeat" opponents with a katana, broadsword, battle axe, gigantic mace, or Netherworld-energy punches...but they are just arrested. And that's just counting the melee weapons, not the assault rifle, lightning bolts, or Atomic Blast.
** Technically, "Defeated" is intended to be a vague, blanket term that allows the player to decide what happens to everyone. Considering the genre...
** Also note that they have the uber medical system. The basic assumption is that someone is slapping them with some sort of teleport system recall chip that sends them directly to the zigg's hospital wing.
* While some of the franchises in ''MagicalBattleArena'' have the benefit of possible in-universe [[JustifiedTrope justifications]], such as how the ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' characters may be using [[StunGuns Magical Damage]] or how the lethality of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'''s Sakura Cards may be based on Sakura's intent, others do not. Somehow, getting sliced by a [[{{Slayers}} Ragna Blade]] or being [[ThisIsADrill drilled repeatedly]] wouldn't end with death.
* ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime'' on the SNES has Leonardo as a character you can choose, but his Katanas - which should slice the advancing foot soldiers in half at each swing - are not performing as well as their RealLife counterparts.
* An example of Non-Killing Bullets: In ''[[{{Terminator}} Terminator 2]]'' for the Sega Genesis, enemies are described at the end of a level has having been "immobilized" due to "non-fatal wounds." Despite being shot. In the chest. With a shotgun. At point blank range.
** Of course, this comes from a joke in the movie: John Connor tells the Terminator not to kill anybody, and so the Terminator shoots a man in the knee. ("He'll live.") Doesn't explain how a chest shot could be non-fatal, though.
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' characters don't die, they merely go unconscious. This makes one wonder why the King of Shadows, despite being an ancient evil capable of destroying entire civilizations, seems utterly incapable of killing your gang of misfits.
** Averted in the second expansion ''Storm of Zehir'', which follows the pen-and-paper rules more closely in this regard. Party members that lose all their HP fall unconscious and will bleed out if not treated.
* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' everyone's beating the crap out of each other with giant swords and explode-y magic, the same ones that can reduce monsters into a pile of ashes in the original games, yet nobody seems worse for wear because of it. Final battles are fatal, however. It isn't explain how your final battles with them should be any different than the dozen or so times you've beaten them before. During their death scenes, none of them seem particularly injured at all, they just fade away like [[KingdomHearts Nobodies]].
** Of course, in the original games, the characters were extremely resilient to begin with, beginning with [[GunsAreUseless shrugging off bullets]] and ending with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII being relatively unfazed by the destruction of half the solar system]].
** Of particular note is the specific mechanics of the game. There are two attacks, brave attacks and HP attacks. Brave attacks drain your foes brave, and HP attacks expend all of your brave to do that much damage to your opponent. Brave attacks do absolutely nothing, but make your next HP attack do more damage (And make your opponent do less). Which means characters can get hit infinitely by bravery attacks (Which involve guns, fire, lightning, and all manner of sharpened melee weapons) and never die.
* Though ''CrisisCore'' doesn't specify whether enemies [[EverythingFades die or not]], Zack goes out of his way to use the dull end of his sword [[GameplayAndStorySegregation (except in the battle animation)]] to prevent "wear and rust" because his sword is an heirloom. Therefore he's probably just knocking them all out.
* Paladins in ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' can learn the skill "Subdue", which makes them hit their target with the flat side of their sword, dealing one point of damage. [[NotCompletelyUseless You're supposed to use this on charmed and confused allies, to break their trance]].
* ''VideoGame/{{BlazBlue Calamity Trigger}}'', ironically, subverts the hell out of this - each and every fight that the players play can not only result in a character's death, but can be argued to be canonically possible as well. The reason? [[spoiler: The entire game is stuck in an insanely long GroundhogDayLoop. Any killed characters simply return once the loop resets.]] This being said, the particular brilliance of this isn't present in the sequel, ''Continuum Shift.''
** This varies. In story mode quite a few characters survive the battles against other characters (indeed, some of the alternative plot lines can only be accessed by losing certain battles). In fact, some characters are canonically "defeated" by having the player character hold their own in the battle (even though they still have to be beaten the same way). For example Rachel ''never'' suffers any harm from being defeated and either leaves or kicks the character out of her garden when she's met in story mode, Arakune always flees or is spared at the end of a battle (or Litchi appears and talks down whoever defeated him) while the best any character can hope for while fighting Nu-13 is to survive long enough to note that their attacks haven't been doing anything before being killed [[spoiler: Or suffer a FateWorseThanDeath in Ragna's case]]. The most amusing example is probably Bang (who every other character treats as an annoyance), who fails to beat ''anyone'' (sometimes justified, for example; by Ragna basically muttering about how [[ILetYouWin he let Bang defeat him]] so he wouldn't have to kill him).
* A version occurs in the ''DungeonKeeper'' series. Enemy creatures are 'knocked out' by such things as steel claws, [[ImprobableWeaponUser spiked balls hung from the horns]], [[ImprovisedWeapon hurled dwarves and imps]], [[{{BFS}} huge swords]] and generally lethal weaponry. This is so they can be dragged to your prisons, and used or abused [[strike: appropriately]]. However, if left untouched by your or enemy imps (which drag them back to their own base to recuperate) the creatures will actually die. So it's easy to assume that they are wounded too badly to keep fighting, but might survive given medical attention. In the first game, you can toggle whether enemies are stunned rather than killed on or off.
* Played straight and averted in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', with story/quest important characters merely being "knocked unconcious" rather than killed, no matter if they got mauled by a bear, gored by a minotaur, or gutted by bandits. You can ''try'' to kill them, but that'll just piss them off. Non-vital characters are all fair game though.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', during your escape from Vault 101 in the beginning, you cannot kill Amata. No matter what. Shooting her in the head five times at point blank range renders her "unconscious." James likewise is a {{Determinator}} of the grandest scale for walking across the wasteland in only a ratty vaultsuit and taking down super-mutants with a lead pipe (or, when the pipe breaks from excessive wear, ''his fists''.) He's the protagonist's father, so badassery may be genetic.
** If you're not using hardcore mode, companions in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' cannot be permanently killed - they go unconscious and wake up when the fight is over. (Some extremely powerful enemies may avert this - for instance, the enemies at the Deathclaw Promontory can tear ED-E into scrap and make him vanish, although the game still thinks he's in your party.)
* All melee weapons in the first ''{{Gothic}}'' were set to stun, requiring the player to administer a CoupDeGrace to every human enemy before it would be considered dead.
* An unusual in-universe example occurs in [[FireEmblemElibe Fire Emblem 6]] (the last one to [[NoExportForYou not be released outside Japan]]) with the eponymous [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Sword of Seals]]. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Although it doesn't affect Roy's battle capabilities when he ultimately gets to use it,]] its strength evidently depends on the resolve of its wielder. Its original owner, Hartmut, had used it to slay a great number of dragons during [[GreatOffscreenWar The Scouring]], but, upon discovering that their leader had assumed the form of a frail young girl, didn't have the heart to kill her, so, when he struck her with the blade, it ensured that the attack would only knock her out.
* Semi-justified in ''EternalDarkness'' in that, for the most part, you're using medieval (or earlier) weapons against anything from TheUndead to EldritchAbominations. It also allows you to perform a CoupDeGrace to a downed monster to regain some sanity points. The one time you're in a modern day story and get a fully-automatic assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher, it's much easier to take the nasties down.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', during the prison escape sequence, it's possible to sneak up behind many of the guards and slash them in the back of the neck with your [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]]. This [[NonLethalKO knocks them out]].
** Note that this makes sense if Crono is using the Wood Sword from the start of the game. (He'll likely have picked up at least a metallic upgrade by this point, though.)
* In ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'', a leader with the Surgery skill has a chance to convert any friendly casualty into a KO. Even if it was inflicted by a knight's full-speed couched lance charge, which usually hits for about 2-3 times the maximum hit points of any unit.
* {{Inverted}} in one (and only one) notable case in ''{{VideoGame/Touhou}}''. All Spellcards do non-lethal damage, it's strongly implied that all those lasers and knives are just illusion. But during the fight against Mokou, Reimu and friends bring out the real stuffs, because Mokou is ''[[DeathIsCheap an immortal]]''.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Parodied in ''RPGWorld'', where DeadpanSnarker Cherry reacted like a normal person would when she saw Hero (yes, the main character's name is just Hero) get shot in the face with an assault rifle. She's in disbelief until the next enemy takes his turn and ''she'' gets shot in the face too, to the tune of a few minor points of damage.
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[[folder:Web Original]]
* In Monty Oum's web video series ''DeadFantasy'', the girls are beating the crap out of each other with swords, [[{{NinjaGaiden}} Rachel]] has her War Hammer, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 Yuna]] is using guns, and the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' girls in general are using potent magic. What do they have to show for this? Not even a bruise.
** Averted with extreme prejudice from episode IV onwards.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Robin once gave Ravager a pair of literal "stun swords" so she could use her otherwise very lethal fighting techniques to the fullest without actually killing anybody.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Truth in Television: In the eighteenth century officers would use their swords to keep order in the ranks. Naturally they would seldom wish to kill their own {{Redshirts}} and so would use the flats.
* Professional juggling knives are designed to seem sharp but are really blunt. This does not mean, however, they won't hurt like hell if you get hit with one.
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