Team Mercy vs. Team Murder

Aang: This goes against everything I learned from the monks. I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like.
Sokka: Sure you can. You're the Avatar. If it's in the name of keeping balance, I'm pretty sure the universe will forgive you.

— Avatar: The Last Airbender

Literature as we know it would probably not even exist if not for moral conflicts. Two characters can have the same overarching goal in mind but could take drastically different routes to achieve it. Take for example, the conflict of interest between superheroes Alice and Bob. Alice is a goody-two-shoes hero whose moral compass always points north, there is not a single antagonistic bone in her body. Bob is an edgy Anti-Hero whose tragic past has made it so he has emotional issues and is willing to do bad things to achieve his goals. Alice and Bob have the same goal, taking down a Supervillain. Alice believes that they can achieve their goal without having to end their life. Bob very much does not.

This trope ultimately amounts to Thou Shalt Not Kill vs Pay Evil unto Evil. One party is unwilling to kill anybody to get what needs to be done, while the other doesn't see any problem with it. Team Mercy's argument will usually amount to: "If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!" while Team Murder will usually rebuttal by saying "If we let them live, they're not gonna stop murdering." Stories about this scenario will generally revolve around Team Mercy getting tested on their morals repeatedly and either proving they're right in the end or defecting to Team Murder. By contrast, if Team Murder is in the hot seat, the narrative will usually show that solving the problem with murder doesn't actually fix the greater problem and make Team Murder mellow out in their approach, but interestingly won't make them full pacifists. Sometimes their morals will be questioned, but only if their approach goes too far for either the narrative's or their Morality Pet's liking.

Team Mercy will often overlap with The Idealist, Sheathe Your Sword, The Golden Rule, The Idealist Was Right.

Team Murder will often overlap with Violence is the Only Option, Pragmatic Hero, Unscrupulous Hero, The Extremist Was Right.

See also Idealist vs. Pragmatist.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Assassination Classroom: After the revelation of what Korosensei truly is, the students of Class 3-E divide into two parties. The party led by Nagisa believes that they should find a solution to prevent Koro from self-destructing so he can live. Karma's team believes that they should continue trying to kill Koro, citing how they've always known him as a target to be killed, and that they've come so far in their goals and shouldn't give up halfway. In order to avoid escalating the situation, Koro-sensei decides to settle this with a paintball game.
• Date A Live: The Anti-Spirit Team (AST) is tasked with killing Spirits when they cause spacequakes by arriving on Earth. The crew of the Ratatoskr recruit the commander's brother to date them so they can seal their powers and live normal lives. The real villainous faction is DEM Industries, led by Sir Isaac Westcott, who intends to summon and harvest Spirits for world domination.
• The Devil is a Part-Timer! : Crestia Belle, aka Suzuno, is following the orders of the church and wants to eliminate Sadao Maou, known to her as Satan Jacob from Ente Isla, as she believes he must be eliminated to secure peace and security for Ente Isla. Chiho argues that Maou is a good person who helps people, someone who takes responsibility for his subordinates, as he did when he repaired the damage caused by a battle with Lucifer. Emilia, aka Emi Yusa, understands both points of view, having hated Maou for the murder of her father and village, and having seen firsthand the horrors that Satan's armies unleashed on Ente Isla. But she has also seen him hard at work as a regular human working a menial job at MgRonalds and helping people with genuine and intentional goodwill, such as when he used magic to corral a group of escaped crocodiles at a zoo exhibit. She vows to find a way to secure peace without having to sacrifice anyone.
• Sailor Moon: The third season centers around the conflict between the main Sailor Guardians and the newly arrived team of Outer Sailors. The villainous Death Busters are searching for talismans that will allow them to summon the Holy Grail, and these talismans can only be found in the souls of pure-hearted individuals, killing them in the process. The Outer Sailors are committed to acquiring the Grail before the villains at any cost, so they purposefully allow potential talisman holders to be attacked to see if they contain the Grail's catalysts, risking the victims' lives. Usagi's team believes the villains can be defeated without any lives lost, and fight to protect those targeted by the monsters and the Outer Sailors. Later on, the two sides clash over what to do about Hotaru, who is deduced to be the destructive Sailor Saturn that can use the Grail to end the world. The Outer Sailors would rather kill Hotaru than allow her the chance to awaken, while Usagi and Chibiusa befriend Hotaru and believe she means no harm and is strong enough to resist her grim destiny.

Comic Books

• The Avengers: The Avengers split into this in the climax of Operation: Galactic Storm upon the revelation that the Supreme Intelligence engineered the events that led to the Nega-Bomb going off and wiping out 90% of the Kree Empire — his own empire — to jumpstart the Kree's evolution with Captain America, Crystal, Starfox, Clint Barton, Living Lightning, Captain Marvel II (Monica Rambeau), the Scarlet Witch forming the Team Mercy side. Iron Man forms the Team Murder side with Black Knight, Sersi, Hercules, Vision, Wonder Man and Thor (Eric Masterson) joining him to go off and (try to) execute the Intelligence for his part in killing most of his own species and empire.
• Batman: Jason Todd, a.k.a. the Red Hood, is a former Robin who was violently murdered by The Joker and resurrected through the Lazarus Pit. Experiencing murder from the most direct perspective possible eroded his willingness to be merciful to those who'd attempt to end the lives of the innocent. Batman and Red Hood constantly cross each other's paths, and Batman's extremely strict No-Kill Rule has them at constant odds when it comes to disposing of Gotham's crime. Especially when it comes to the Joker, who Red Hood wants dead as a doornail for what he did to him.
  Red Hood: Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me... but why? Why, on God's earth...IS HE STILL ALIVE?!
• Generation X: Played with. One story reveals that the grandfather of one of their wealthy classmates was responsible for ordering the murder of Jubilee's parents. Jubilee goes off to take the guy on, and the rest of Gen X fears she's firmly in the "Team Kill" category, being Wolverine's prodigy. But after all is done, the bad guy arrested, and the team explains their concerns to her, that Jubilee tells them that it's because of Wolverine that she won't kill anyone.
• House of M: In issue #1, the X-Men (the Astonishing X-Men team) convene with the New Avengers in order to debate what to do with their teammate the Scarlet Witch, at the time suffering a breakdown post-Avengers Disassembled. Emma Frost, the pragmatic and reformed villainess, openly declares they are to put her down due to the threat Wanda supposedly poses to mutantkind. Wolverine seems to agree with her, but the issue is placed under vote, with the Avengers and Dr. Strange vehemently opposing the idea. Professor X, who asked for their meeting, cannot give a straight answer, since he tried to help her (keyword: tried).
• Justice League of America: This is discussed in Justice League (2011), at the start of the crossover Trinity War. It should be noted that, traditionally, Superman is the ultimate boy scout/paragon superhero, Batman the more cynical one, and Wonder Woman the empathetic one. In this issue, Superman and Wonder Woman are discussing what to do with Despero (who they fought in the immediately previous arc):
  Wonder Woman: There's a reason I don't have a list of villains as long as Bruce's, Barry's or even yours. When I deal with them, I deal with them.
  Superman: I trust you're not talking about killing them, Diana.
  Wonder Woman: Only if it comes to that.
• The Punisher: Frank Castle is essentially Team Murder to the entire Marvel superhero community and even heroes that would agree with him are usually either forced by the plot to not allow Frank to go on a killing spree or are on the wrong end of said killing spree. Either way, a scuffle is sure to follow.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): In issues #5-6, Sonic, Shadow, and the Chaotix find themselves at odds over the amnesiac Dr. Eggman, who was convinced he was a kindly handyman named "Mr. Tinker". While Vector and Espio want to arrest Mr. Tinker for Dr. Eggman's crimes, Sonic and Charmy consider letting him go upon seeing his apparent change of heart. Meanwhile, Shadow wants Eggman dead, and attacks Sonic when he jumps in to protect Mr. Tinker. Eventually, the group decides to let Mr. Tinker go. This comes to bite Sonic later when Dr. Eggman regains his memories and unleashes the Metal Virus. Vector, Espio, and Shadow all call Sonic out for his misplaced mercy.
• The Walking Dead: When Ben reveals himself as a psychopath and stabs his brother Billy to death, the group locks him away in a van and debate on how to handle the situation. Half of them want to find a way to help him, while the other half (Abraham being the most vocal) want to kill him, reasoning that he's too far gone. Carl, realizing the adults are deadlocked on the issue, sneaks into the van and solves the problem himself.

Fan Works

• The Darkness Between Stars: As a fanfic which serves as an expanded version of the final arc of Steven Universe, it dabbles in this due to its theme of "Idealism vs Justice". Steven wants to talk things out with the Diamonds and bubble them as a last resort. On the other hand, certain characters such as Bismuth and Connie believe that the Diamonds are irredeemable and that shattering them would liberate gemkind. Despite Steven's attempts to reason with them while impersonating Pink Diamond, the Diamonds prove unwilling to change their mind. White Diamond in particular is a Hate Sink and is the only Diamond who ends up shattered. When her death ends up causing the Diamond palaces to crumble due to White holding Homeworld together, Steven still insists on saving both Yellow and Blue Diamonds and ends up managing to bubble them. By story's end, Blue and Yellow Diamonds stay bubbled while Steven spends his days tirelessly uncorrupting the Corrupted Gems on Earth.
• A Thing of Vikings: When Hiccup and his companions are ambushed in enemy territory and several are seriously injured, Hiccup refuses to kill the surviving Anglo mercenaries over Fritjof's objections even though logically he knows that they'll betray the group's location as soon as they're free. In this situation it's more of a case of I Gave My Word, since Hiccup has been shown killing enemies before,^note though he did have a My God, What Have I Done? moment afterwards but honor is everything to the Norse.
• With This Ring: When the Renegade and Artemis are flung into the distant future and end up taking over the Sheeda civilisation, they compare notes on how they each governed the factions that they were leading. Artemis went for painstaking diplomacy, which involved dealing with lots of setbacks due to backstabbing and disobedience, while the Renegade simply went full conquest-mode, capturing city after city and crushing all obstacles. Ultimately, neither can be sure which approach was better.
  Renegade: I just killed anyone who disobeyed me. Saved a lot of time...
  Artemis: I wanna say that's bad... But I know how many people died every time one of the Highborn on my side decided to act up.
  Renegade: That's politics at the national level. People die whatever you do. I like the way I do things but I can't tell you I'm objectively right. Your way might have been better.
  Artemis: Or it might not have worked.
  Renegade: And you won't ever know for sure because you can't do both.

Film — Animated

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Miguel reveals to Miles that certain important events are consistent among all Spider-Men, and deviating from these "Canon Events" will cause the universe to completely unravel. Among these events is a police captain close to Spider-Man dying while saving a child from rubble during battle with an arch-nemesis. Miles understands instantly that the version of this event in his world would have his father die. Miles is adamant about finding a solution where his dad can live, but Miguel is firm in his convictions and tries to prevent Miles from going home.
• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: Wallace & Gromit run a pest control service that humanely captures rabbits and relocates them to keep the town's gardens safe for the big vegetable competition. Lord Victor Quartermaine, on the other hand, would rather blast the little blighters to kingdom come. When a were-rabbit attacks the town, Lady Tottington, who is in charge of the competition, hires Wallace to deal with the threat without killing it; whereas Quartermaine is determined to shoot the beast dead, even after finding out that Wallace himself is the were-rabbit. Shooting him would also eliminate Wallace as a romantic rival for Tottington's hand.

Film — Live-Action

• Deadpool 2: The time-traveling supersoldier Cable comes from a Bad Future where a powerful villain murdered his family, who in the present is a troubled kid named Russell. Deadpool, having recently lost his pregnant wife, doesn't want to see a child murdered, and fights to protect Russell. Eventually Deadpool and Cable come to an agreement where Cable will give Deadpool a fraction of time to try to talk Russell down, and once time's up Cable will kill the boy. Deadpool succeeds at the cost of his own life, but Cable is moved by his effort and uses the last of the fuel for his time machine to change events so that Deadpool lives.
• Looper: Old Joe time travels to the past to kill children who have the possibility of growing up to become a powerful future crime lord known as The Rainmaker. His past self protects the child Cid from Old Joe's hunt but quits when he witnesses Cid's powerful telekinesis and realizes why the Rainmaker is so dangerous. Ultimately he realizes that Old Joe's effort to murder Cid will fail but kill the boy's mother Sara in the process, creating a Stable Time Loop that will give Cid the motive to become the Rainmaker. Thus Joe shoots himself to eliminate his future self from existence, preventing the loop.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Shuri's visit to Talokan leads to a conversation with Namor about allying with Wakanda. Namor believes humanity will inevitably try to conquer and pillage Talokan, and as such demands to team up with Wakanda to go to war with the entire Earth. Shuri does not want to spill what she believes to be pointless blood, but when it seems like she murdered a guard to escape, Namor lays waste to Wakanda and kills her mother to make a point. Shuri comes within inches of taking Namor's life in return but stops herself at the last second and ends the war between Wakanda and Talokan.
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home:
    • Upon discovering that the villains brought to the MCU were pulled at the moment of their death, Peter wants to make sure they aren't being sent straight to their death when the spell is undone. Dr. Strange on the other hand is completely ambivalent about this, rationalizing that "It's their fate," and "In the grand scheme of the multiverse, their sacrifice means infinitely more than their lives." This conflict causes a fight to break out between Peter and Strange when the villains are about to be sent home.
    • After Green Goblin ruins the rehabilitation plan and kills Aunt May, Peter starts to question the value of life when it comes to villains, admitting that he wants nothing more than to kill Green Goblin. He gets his chance during the climax, where he is absolutely clobbering Goblin and is about to crush him with his own glider. Ultimately, he is stopped by Maguire's Peter, and in a moment of silent understanding, convinces him not to kill Goblin.

Literature

• Battle Royale: A group of students are put on an island and told that they have a limited time to wipe each other out until only one of them is left standing. To ensure that they're all on board, they are told that if no one dies within a twenty-four-hour period, the explosive collars on their necks will all go boom at once. Some of them are very much on the "kill everyone else" side, while others are on the "don't kill anyone" side. Some people form alliances on either side of the conflict, with one young man being bright enough to figure out how to eliminate the transmitter that controls the collars, but his plan doesn't work. To make matters worse, one of the contestants in the game who has decided to be on the "kill everyone" side is a young man with brain damage that keeps him from having any emotional response whatsoever, while another is the survivor of the previous games, meaning he's shown that he has killed everyone else before.
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Sirius and Remus initially want to kill Peter for the betrayal of Lily and James, but Harry stops them, believing James would not have wanted his best friends to become killers. Downplayed since Harry suggests giving Peter to the Dementors instead as a Fate Worse than Death, in order to exonerate Sirius. While Peter gets away before facing the Dementors, his life being indebted to Harry ends up paying off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Peter spares Harry, at the cost of his own life.
• In Journey to the West, this is one of the main conflicts Tang Sanzang has with his disciple Sun Wukong. As a Buddhist monk, Sanzang would rather get through his pilgrimage without heads flying off and with as much diplomacy as possible, but Wukong and his companions are of the belief that their teacher's pacifism is silly and impractical. The story sometimes echoes this, since Wukong's might and violent acts do, in the end, save the day and get the constantly-in-duress Sanzang out of the hands of hungry demons (a fact that Wukong even mocks him over years into their journey); but the story is just as much about Wukong learning to temper himself and not resort to killing all the time.
• The Reckoners Trilogy: The titular Reckoners, a group of Cape Busters, start to split along these lines in the second book. The group has spent years operating the assumption that people with powers are inevitably and irreversibly corrupted, but the protagonist comes to believe that they can be rehabilitated.
• The Sunne in Splendour: While Richard of Gloucester is more than willing to sentence men to death if it is necessary and within the law, he is uncomfortable with his brother ordering unnecessary deaths. When Edward IV reveals he plans to have the former king, the mentally infirm Henry VI, murdered, Richard is at first appalled. He argues against it, but also grudgingly realizes his brother has a point and without Henry around to be the focus of rebellion, lives will be saved. However, Richard is bewildered and disgusted by his brother's determination to execute their other brother, George. George had plotted against Edward before and been forgiven. Richard, who personally has reason to hate George, begs Edward IV to spare him, if only for their mother's sake. Edward won't be swayed, and when Richard later learns that George knew of Edward's first marriage and bigamy, he is sickened at Edward's actions.

Live-Action TV

• This forms the core of the conflict in Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. The titular hero Sentai can use their powers to deal with the Hitotsu-Ki without killing their hosts, while their rivals the Well-Intentioned Extremist team Nōto deem it necessary to defeat the hosts as well. The show goes on the premise that Both Sides Have a Point, with some people being too overwhelmed by their desires that they become repeat hosts for a Hitotsu-Ki, while others are simply ordinary people in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the end, both sides end up befriending and allying each other, with the final conflict of the show becoming about the trio's increasing humanity putting them at odds with their higher-ups instead.
• Bones: In "The Boy With The Answer", Max Keenan attempts to kill Heather Taffet when it looks like she will be exonerated for the Gravedigger murders, afraid she will go after Brennan again once freed. Booth punches him out so that Taffet gets a fair trial and Brennan tells him she doesn't want her dad killing for her. Downplayed since Brennan confesses to partly wishing he'd done it.
• Kamen Rider Zi-O: Tsukuyomi believes that she can influence The Hero Sougo from becoming Oma Zi-O by influencing him and steering him away from his path peacefully, while Geiz believes killing him before he becomes the Evil Overlord is the way to prevent the Bad Future they both came from.
• Kamen Rider Geats: This forms the conflict in the show's final arc between The Hero Ace and Fallen Hero Keiwa. Ace wants to use his newly-acquired divine powers to help create a world where everyone can achieve their happiness without it coming at the suffering of others, while Keiwa is intent on avenging his sister Sara's death on those responsible for it, to the point where Ace stops Keiwa from killing the man responsible for turning his sister into a Jyamato. In the end Ace wins the battle of ideologies after Keiwa ends up making things worse while learning Vengeance Feels Empty, while Ace proves that he can change the world for the better, setting in motion a chain of events that leads to Sara's revival and Keiwa's return to the light.
• Common in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Daredevil: "New York's Finest" (S2E3) episode saw Matt and Frank Castle contrast their opposed philosophies, the former supporting mercy and rehabilitation while the latter supporting more terminal solutions. It ends with Castle killing Grotto, which he describes as an unreformable criminal.
  • Season 3 of Jessica Jones saw Jess and her sister Trish opposed on how to deal with criminals, the former supporting delivering them to police and agonizing when she has to kill them while the latter is more into Vigilante Executions.
• Happens a great deal over the fifteen seasons of Supernatural:
  • In Season 2, Sam falls in love with a woman who turns out to be a werewolf when the brothers know that there's no cure, so they need to kill everyone infected. But Sam talks Dean into researching a cure so they can save her, except the cure fails and Sam has to put her down anyway.
  • In Season 4, Sam discovers he can use his powers to exorcise demons without killing the host. Dean is skeptical given that his powers are demonic in origins and prefers just killing the host and the demon with his knife. This causes season-long strife between the brothers.
  • In Season 5, the Winchesters find a little boy who is the anti-Christ and has incredible and dangerous power. They are horrified that Castiel wants to kill the boy, but Castiel argues that a mild bout of anger from the boy could destroy the entire world so it is necessary.
  • Later, the Winchesters and Castiel agree they can't allow Lucifer's son to come into the world, so they will kill the child's kind-hearted mother before he is born. Except "the child" wins Castiel over and he escapes with the mother, planning on adopting and raising the child. But when Castiel is killed following the child's birth, Dean wants to kill the child while Sam wants to at least find and talk to the boy.
• A common dilemma on The Walking Dead (2010).
  • In season 2, the group captures a teenager from a group of violent scavengers and have to decide whether to kill him to prevent him from telling others. Shane was Team Murder while Dale was Team Mercy. Interestingly, AMC ran polls on the internet during the episode where they argued it, and over the course of the episode Dale flipped the polls and won over the audience itself.

Video Games

• The Danganronpa series revolves around this concept. A class of high school students is held captive by Monokuma, a monochromatic teddy bear, and told the only way to escape is to get away with killing one of your classmates. Every chapter of every game involves discovering the corpse of a student, investigating clues, and holding a trial to find the culprit. If the class wins, the culprit is executed. If the culprit wins, the class is executed. The survivors are those that cling to hope and refuse to play the killing game, while the murderers give into their self-preservation instincts. It should be noted that the killers are also victims. Monokuma always provides incentives for the killing game like videos that suggest bad things are happening in the outside world, locking everyone in a building and refusing to feed them until someone dies, or even giving students illnesses that would kill them unless a murder happened.
• Deltarune: This is a large part of the conflict between Susie and Ralsei in Chapter 1. While Ralsei believes everyone can be spared and given mercy, Susie prefers attacking everyone, to the point of refusing to listen to Kris' orders for the majority of the chapter. It's only after her falling out and reconciliation with Lancer that she starts trying to be more merciful to her opponents, at which point the player can get her to spare enemies of her own accord.
• Detroit: Become Human: Among Markus' companions, North advocates for a violent revolution and gains approval from confrontational decisions (that often result in people dying), whereas Josh wants Markus to take a pacifistic approach and loses approval if Markus chooses to take North's side and fight with force.
• In the Honest Hearts DLC of Fallout: New Vegas, the Sorrows and Dead Horses tribes are under threat from the violent White Legs. You can side with two missionaries: Daniel, who wants to peacefully evacuate the tribes, and the Burned Man himself, Joshua Graham, who wants to slaughter every single member of the White Legs tribe. If you take Joshua's side, the Sorrows and Dead Horses remain in Zion but become more violent as a result, although you can convince Joshua to spare the White Legs' leader and become more merciful. If you evacuate the Sorrows, the White Legs ruin Zion.
• Persona:
  • Persona 4: In the climax, the Investigation Team confronts Taro Namatame after Nanako dies, believing him to be guilty of her death as well as the kidnappings that led to the team acquiring their Personas. With Teddie out of the way due to his own issues, the team is split on what to do with Namatame. Yosuke, Kanji, and Naoto are all in favor of throwing him into the TV and therefore leaving him to die, while Chie, Yukiko, and Rise are all in favor of sparing him. It's up to the Player Character to break the tie — and do so very carefully — in order to unlock the good endings of the game.
  • Persona 5: During the events of the first palace, a serious debate goes on between the Phantom Thieves over whether or not they should kill Kamoshida for his heinous actions. They won't go through with this, but the Player Character can pick dialogue options explicitly in favor of murdering him, and everyone agrees that it'd be entirely justified. Ann even comes very close to giving him a mental shutdown but stops herself at the last second, if only because she recognizes death would be too easy of an out for a man like Suguru Kamoshida.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: After the last fight with Metal Face/Mumkhar, Dunban wishes to kill him for every single crime he's ever committed, from treason, to mass murder, to regicide, but Shulk tries to stop Dunban on the basis that Mumkhar is ultimately a Homs like them who was taken by the Mechon to fight in their war with them. Dunban ultimately relents and decides to spare him, only for him to take their forgiveness and throw it to the curb, trying to murder them again. His murder attempt only ends up getting himself killed in the process, solving the issue without Dunban or Shulk's input.

Web Animation

• RWBY: A major conflict across Volumes 7 and 8 is the conflicting ideals of the heroes versus those of General Ironwood and the Ace-Ops. Both sides want to defeat the evil Salem in order to save as many innocent lives as possible. However, Ironwood believes that the only way is to sacrifice the city of Mantle to save the city of Atlas and keep her from obtaining two of the four divine Relics she needs to achieve her end-game. However, the heroes refuse to sacrifice anyone, regardless of the greater risk this brings to everyone. This divides the former allies as the heroes view Ironwood as being too willing to sacrifice others in pursuit of his goals while Ironwood believes that the heroes are naïve and will get everyone killed. This eventually comes to a head when Ironwood threatens to bomb Mantle unless the heroes give him the Winter Maiden, who is the one person who can save Atlas, driving the heroes to develop a risky plan to steal Atlas' Relic and use its power to magically evacuate the entire kingdom to safety. As a result of this conflict, everyone ends up paying a high price in the end.

Web Video

• Parodied in Man Carrying Thing's video "basically the last episode of every Disney plus show":
  Supervillain: You believe killing is bad, I don't!
  Superhero: You're saying something really interesting here.
• Pop Cross Studios: Christian Pearson uses many scenarios like this in his original web series, Multiverse Tales:
  • First up, in Surviving The Goopy Games, the heroes have been taken captive by an Overseer called Elloise Ludum, who forces them to participate in Gladiator Games where they have to kill slime monsters in order to be sent home. One of the competitors, Rouge, is a shy Slime Girl who staunchly refuses to kill another living thing, despite her new allies' best efforts to convince her otherwise. Luckily, by the climax, Rouge manages to get home without having to compromise her pacifism, when Tayrun uses an acidic slime creature called Marrowne to melt off the Power Nullifier that was preventing him from just creating a portal to get his friends out of there in the first place.
  • In Redemption of the Were-Jaguar, after the Sharp Gang all travel to a dimension that turns them all into mythical monsters, and they lose their minds, they end up being hunted by both their friend Vasilia (the titular were-jaguar) and the Van Helsing family. Luckily, once Annaliese Van Helsing finds out that Vasilia has full control of her monstrous form, Van Helsing Hate Crimes does not happen, and the Van Helsings are perfectly happy to go with Vasilia's plan of sparing the monster-fied heroes instead of killing them — though Annaliese's Beleaguered Assistant Ganghadaaran is more cynical about it than her.
  • In Kate Kills Claus, the Sharp Gang's newest recruit, Unkillable Kate, is invited to go on a mission to defeat a murderous supervillain version of Santa Claus, but due to growing up for 20 years in a Hellhole Prison for supervillains, her survival programming means she automatically decides that killing Claus would be a more permanent way to end the danger he poses than just throwing him into an Extranormal Prison like team leader Alexis wants them to do. Whilst Kate correctly points out that they've no guarantee that Claus won't be able to escape whatever prison they put him in, Alexis adamantly insists that they're not going to kill any people while she's leading the mission. This makes Kate decide to defy her orders and kill Claus anyway. But the brutal way Kate does this disgusts her entire team — especially Ana, her Morality Pet — and they all end up temporarily abandoning her, except for Sterling. After a heart-to-heart with Sterling, whilst Kate insists to the end of the story that she still feels justified in killing Claus, she at least respects the team's chain of command to only kill something when given Alexis' permission — "something", in this case, being a killer snowman. Ultimately, in this case, Both Sides Have a Point, but neither is portrayed as being clearly superior.
  • Cosmara Noroi is another Sharp Gang member who doesn't like killing people, in her case, mainly because she suffers from a Curse that slowly turns her into a Demon of Human Origin every time she kills something. Because of this, she prefers to only kill demons or monsters — and by the time of Mara's Final Kill, when she goes on a mission with Kate to defend a single mother and her children from an onslaught of five demons, she's extremely reluctant to even do that, given that by this point, she's one kill away from completing her curse, and is genuinely concerned that she might end up becoming evil afterwards (which is the reason she brought Kate with her). Ultimately, though, with Kate's encouragement, Mara stops holding back and kills all the remaining demons with her friend's help, and she doesn't end up becoming evil after all. And afterwards, Mara shows her Character Development when Kate has a confrontation with Fear Herself, the Overseer responsible for ruining both Kate and Mara's lives:
    Kate: I'm gonna kill her, Mara! I know our friends aren't cool with me killing people, but I don't care! I'm gonna kill her, and I'm gonna kill Dresden, even if I have to do it myself, and even if all of you try to hunt me down and stop—
    Mara: I'll help you, Kate.
  • In The Soul of the Enemy, Sterling secretly visits Sharp Gang enemy Dresden Oakland (the Overseer warden in charge of the prison Kate grew up in — and the man who put her in there in the first place) in order to have a private talk with him to find out what his Evil Plan is. He finds out — as he reveals to Kate later — that Dresden is actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to make the multiverse a better place by killing (possibly) all of the other Overseers in it, whom he sees as Jerkass Gods who treat humans like pawns for their sadistic entertainment — in spite of his guilt and regret for treating Kate like a pawn himself. Sterling, despite coming into conflict with Overseers in the past, knows that they're Not Always Evil, and tries to convince Dresden to spend some time interacting with Tayrun (the most benevolent Overseer in the Gang) so that he can realize that as well. Dresden definitely takes his words into consideration, judging by the fact that he lets Sterling leave his prison unhindered. Learning this makes Kate, now conflicted over her own vow to kill Dresden, confess her secret to Sterling, whereupon he tells her that while he won't argue with her decision, he does want her to keep her mind open to the possibility that Dresden might be better off kept alive instead so that he can potentially make the Multiverse a better place without mass murder.
  • A final, non-Multiverse Tales-related example of this is in What if SPIDER-MAN & BATMAN VILLAINS Were COMBINED?!, in which Spider-Bat (Batman and Spider-Man combined) partners up with the dimensionally-displaced Spider-Cat (Catwoman/Spider-Gwen) to try bringing down Corrupt Politician and Super Mob Boss Wilson Dent (Two-Face/Kingpin) before he makes a run for Mayor of New Gotham. Despite initially bonding with her alternate dimensional counterpart, Selina starts clashing with him once she realizes they're Not So Similar — mainly, when he stops her from cutting the throat of Dent's dragon Scarepion (Scarecrow/Scorpion). Whilst she still tries to kill Dent himself once he enters the scene, he proves tougher than she expected, and even when she tries to take him down non-lethally, he ultimately manages to vacate the premises after holding his own really well against both Spiders. Ultimately, their different ways of being vigilantes mean that whilst she respects Spider-Bat, Selina only rarely works alongside him.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: This is the conflict between Avatar Aang and the rest of the Gaang. 12-year-old Aang was reared as a peaceful Air Nomad who believes all life is sacred, even refusing to eat meat. But because Aang is the only one who can defeat Fire Lord Ozai, his friends, who have all suffered from the hundred-year war, insist that the only way to stop the Fire Lord is to kill him, so that he can't hurt anyone again. His past lives also warn him against putting his personal morals in the way of his responsibility to protect the world. Aang ends up taking the third option — his spiritual conflict attracted the Lion Turtle to him, who showed him how to Energybend. After an Endurance Duel, Aang manages to overpower Ozai and De-power him, taking away Ozai's threat without killing him. There is a slight justification for this in that Aang is quite literally the Last of His Kind and he doesn't want to pick and choose which of his culture's teachings he should follow, a fact echoed by his later life efforts to create an Air Nomad monastery.
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: After failing to prevent Aggregor from reaching The Forge of Creation, Kevin absorbs the energy of the Ultimatrix, mutating into Ultimate Kevin and beating Aggregor at the cost of his sanity. Pursuing Kevin in his rampage, Gwen still believes Kevin can be saved, while Ben Tennyson who is normally against taking a life firmly believes he needs to be killed. Only a talk with Grandpa Max can sway Ben on his convictions, and a solution is ultimately found that saves Kevin from himself.
• Regular Show: Pops is averse to violence in general, which makes it very awkward that it's woven into the prophecy of the universe that he is fated to fight his evil twin Anti-Pops to the death forever. After training for said fight, he brings up the idea of simply talking to Anti-Pops, which everyone in the park thinks is a bad idea and Pops should just prepare for the worst. Pops goes against the wishes of the park workers and meets up with Anti-Pops in secret, only to find he's just as awful as everyone says and tries to kill him. It is a piece of ancient history that Pops is fated to fight Anti-Pops and reset the universe to repeat the cycle for all eternity. However, Pops recognizes that the only way to break the cycle of violence is to not be violent. He forces Anti-Pops into a hug, and fully aware that he would instantly go back to trying to kill him if he let go, flies directly into a star and kills them both.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: This basically becomes the setup between Star and Marco's stance against monsters compared to Mina Loveberry. The two of them — Marco from the get-go, Star after a little soul searching and analyzing the situation — come to believe that it's possible for Mewmans and Monsters to coexist as long as both species actually take the time to look past their prejudice towards each other, mostly from Mewmans against monsters, and actually talk things out and see each other's POV. Mina, meanwhile, comes from a time when Mewmanity's hatred towards monsters was at an all-time high, and was indoctrinated into believing they were scum, which leads them to believe that the complete extermination of monsterkind is the only possible outcome between the two species.
• Steven Universe: Bismuth was bubbled by Rose Quartz because she was willing to shatter Homeworld gems. When she returns and catches up with the crystal gems, she discovers Steven is even more of a pacifist than his mom, which pisses her off. Ironically, the only way Steven can subdue Bismuth in her rage is to destroy her physical form and bubble her again.
• Ultimate Spider-Man: In the episode where Peter teams up with Deadpool, Peter's no-kill rule is at odds with Deadpool's job as a bounty hunter, where he is adamant about "unaliving" his targets.

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