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alt title(s): Technical Pacifism Zoe: "Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?"
Book: "Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."
If you live in an action-adventure show-universe (or perhaps a videogame), violence is one of those things that you just can't escape. This can be a real problem if you want your leading man to be a new-agey tree-hugging intellectual, because, really, how many gun-toting hippies do you know?
So you end up with the Technical Pacifist. He's got a higher moral fiber than your average adventure hero because he's morally minded enough to hate violence.
Sorta. What the Technical Pacifist really hates are guns. There are lots of reasons that some people hate guns, but in the real world, these are linked to hating the thing that people with guns do, which is turning living people into non-living people. But the Technical Pacifist's reasons are different. He just specifically dislikes guns. He has no problem whatsoever with other, less efficient means of turning living people into non-living people.
Sometimes there's a specific reason that his distaste is limited to the gun, such as a particular incident from his past or a sense that guns are "unsportsmanlike". But most of the time, there's just a Writer On Board who wants to show that the character is moral enough to hate guns without actually dealing with the fact that this is the kind of show where a lot of hurt has to be unloaded on people.
This can also be an excuse for the hero to MacGyver up some Bamboo Technology rather than just shooting the bad guy.
Some technical pacifists go a little further, willing to beat people up but unwilling to kill. They're still not all that peaceful, though, and there's an annoying tendency towards Flanderization into the "no guns" type over time.
There is a villainous variant of the Technical Pacifist, often seen with the Corrupt Corporate Executive and the Worthy Opponent. In the former case, this is a Big Bad who has no qualms about killing people, but doesn't like to get his hands dirty (or at least to be seen getting his hands dirty). So he has someone else do it instead. This invariably leads to the hero being locked in an Easily Escapable Deathtrap so that the villain won't get bloodstains on his suit. This tends to drop away when he's backed into a corner. In the latter case, the Worthy Opponent just refuses to use a gun because it's "not fair".
Can result in Fridge Logic.
See also Where Did They Get Lasers and Improbable Weapon User. See also Martial Pacifist, for the martial arts expert who follows The Path of Peace.
Examples
Anime
- Roger Smith from The Big O says he has a strict "no guns" policy, yet doesn't seem to mind that his car, his mansion and his butler are all armed to the teeth and fully capable of unloading volleys of fire onto enemies, nor does he seem to mind using any one of the mass-destructive weapon systems on his Humongous Mecha.
- It seems to be more of an image thing than anything else- Roger sees wielding a handheld firearm as at odds with his gentlemanly image. Note that on the one occasion he fires a gun, he shoots the steam pipes near his attackers, using the distraction to close the distance and defeat them with non-lethal martial arts. He comments afterwards that he "doesn't kill humans"- When he's piloting Big O, he's usually fighting an unpiloted robot or obviously non-sentient giant monsters.
- Grenadier has the sidekick abhor firearms, since he feels that it cheapens the taking of a life. Instead, one should honorably dice them to itty-bitty chunks using sharp pieces of metal.
- The main character, though, is willing to miss lethal spots to injure her opponents, or take off their armor (this meaning can be literal). Other times, she's willing to use her...um...smile to good use.
- Vash the Stampede from Trigun is a partial example of this trope. Although he carries a gun, he almost never uses it as a lethal or even injurious weapon, preferring to defeat his opponents with various "nonviolent" trick shots.
- It would be good to note that he once used a dart gun to show a group of baddies that they ought not to mess with him. The lead baddie then remarks "He just killed us a moment ago, this time he might actually do it!"
- Vash is something of a reversal of this trope. He loves guns and hates violence.
- Yagami Souichirou of Death Note, who is so eager to bring Kira to justice that his stress gives him the series' only NON-Death-Note-related heart attack, refuses to carry a gun when he's not on active police duty. (This would be illegal in Japan, where gun control laws are very strict.)
- Light Yagami (Kira) also doesn't use or carry a gun, but then again who needs a noisy hunk of metal that could jam or miss when you can kill people by simply writing down their names in the Death Note.
- Although the time we see him refuse to carry a gun is during his Criminal Amnesiac phase, just after his dad's been shot ... because of his refusal to carry a gun. And we thought the boy was meant to be smart.
- Everyone can agree that Light Yagami is indeed a genius. His rationality, however, leaves something to be desired.
- Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin is a Meiji era former assassin that has forsworn the taking of human life and wears/uses a sakaba (katana forged with a blunted outer edge) more because of this vow than laws against private uses of swords. Of course he will maim and cripple when sufficiently provoked.
- A weird subversion of this is seen in Corrector Yui, where the corrector program Peace has the power of materializing any kind of weapons, but doesn't use them, ever, because he says he's a pacifist and won't fight or use weapons. Instead, he gives it to other correctors to use against their enemies.
- And nobody's mentioned Kaname Tousen of Bleach yet? For a man who claims that his blind eyes see only "the path with the least bloodshed" and always talks about justice, it seems a bit odd to run off as a follower of the Big Bad. Plus he cuts off a subordinate's arm in the name of this "justice". Crazy much?
- Thors becomes one of these after his desertion from the Jomsviking.
- Katou. He's the personification of this trope taken to its logical conclusion.
- The Wing Gundam Team becomes TechnicalPacifists in The Movie, primarily because the enemy soldiers have been lied to by their leader and think they're fighting for a noble cause when, in fact, it's all about said leader's mad desire for revenge. As soon as the deception is revealed, every single pilot surrenders willingly.
Comic Books
- Johnny The Homicidal Maniac says that people "should only use guns on themselves." This may be a send-up of Batman, however, as Johnny's supposed history is an obvious poke at Bruce Wayne's childhood and should not be trusted in any way.
- King Mob in Grant Morrison's The Invisibles begins the series killing indiscriminately, then turns into a kung-fu master/Technical Pacifist after realizing that the death toll is negatively affecting his karma.
- How is this trope not named after Batman?
- It's amazing how strict some Batman adaptations are about this, even when you'd think they'd ditch it. In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman hospitalizes countless mooks, snaps the Joker's spine (paralyzing but not killing him), and even has machine guns on his car. When he uses the guns, he internal monologues to the reader, "Rubber Bullets. Honest."
- The reasons vary from writer to writer. Originally, the idea that Batman hates guns was linked to his parent's murder when he was a child. There are practical and legal reasons, too—self-awareness that he's a vigilante and the knowledge that in being so he has no business killing, while guns make it much too easy to kill and much too hard to be nonlethal. On a historical note, in his original Detective Comic appearances, he frequently used firearms and lethal force against villains. The creators only removed his use of firearms when they worried that it would make him resemble the Shadow too closely. Today, most depictions have Batman bending enough to arm his vehicles, for disabling vehicles and removing obstacles of course.
- In a particularly amusing inversion, in an early Detective Comics appearance Bats comments that he hates guns because they are "impersonal" - immediately before machine-gunning a car full of baddies from his biplane.
- Yeah. In fact, in the Golden Age, he didn't even have the "dislikes guns" angle, and had a handgun that he wasn't afraid to use.
- Of course, Batman Beyond famously opened the series by showing Bruce Wayne's last night as a hero, where his having to resort to just *holding* a gun to protect himself caused him to retire in shame. Of course, he's a pretty brutal character in the DCAU otherwise, considering what he put many of his adversaries through despite just barely hanging onto the "no kill" rule.
- While Batman's aversion to guns has generally grown over time, there are some situations in the older comics where Batman refuses to use a gun. In Detective 453 (the same series in which Batman fires a machine gun into a car full of bad guys), Batman is told to shoot a single bullet into the ground to prove he isn't really Batman, or be shot to death by a room full of criminals. He doesn't do it. This is probably due more to the inconsistency of older comics and a lazy writer, but it's probably the most extreme example of this rule.
- Then there's ROM, SPACEKNIGHT, who banishes rather than kills the Dire Wraiths early on... Because he thinks they suffer more that way. ROM is stone cold.
- Traditionally, and very unrealistically for a military commander with hundreds of millennia of experience, Optimus Prime has been a Technical Pacifist or close to it. (More accurately, it is unrealistic that a technical pacifist would survive military command that long, though he might certainly want to be a technical pacifist after so much death and combat.) This is likely because the original series were aimed at children. More recent comics produced by IDW make Prime willing not only to kill enemy soldiers, but when absolutely necessary accept Collateral Damage, though it eats at him.
- Let's not even get into guys like Mirage, Perceptor, Botanica, Bluestreak, and Backstreet, and Movie Ratchet, who, for people who "don't like to fight" are pretty well-armed. (This is quite often lampshade). Hell, most of the Autobots listed have have guns mounted on their robot modes.
Film
- Sneakers arguably had one of the best uses of this, as the villain (played beautifully by Ben Kingsley) looks at the hero with the line, "I cannot kill my friend." Just as the characters (and the audience) sigh in relief, he turns to his shotgun-carrying minion, and in the exact same tone of voice repeats his last three words.
- Averted in Rush Hour 2. One of the fight scenes focuses on everyone in the room trying to get their hand on a gun. A behind-the-scenes DVD featurette shows that the script originally called for Chan's character to have the gun fall in his hand, and then throw it away in disgust. Chan rightly pointed out that, given the fight going on in the room, throwing it away was "stupid".
- This is a trait shared by Bruce Lee. Despite never actually using a gun, in most of his latter movies he specifically asks about if he can use one, only for the possiblity to be handwaved away. (Enter the Dragon, Uncut Game of Death, for example)
- The Charlies Angels movies featured this trope in contrast to the original series, due to producer/star Drew Barrymore's aversion to glamorizing gun use (as opposed to kung-fu violence). The change is commented on in the second film by villainous former angel Madison who says "In my day, we used guns." before shooting the heroines, hitting their surprisingly small bulletproof vests.
- In the original Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi derides Han Solo's weapon of choice (a blaster - i.e., a gun), and proclaims the Jedi lightsaber a weapon for 'a more civilized age'. In Revenge of the Sith, after a lengthy but inconclusive lightsaber duel with the villainous General Grievous, Kenobi is disarmed and knocked down... at which point he picks up a discarded blaster and shoots Grievous. Repeatedly, in his exposed heart (Grievous's robot chest cavity was open). After making sure Grievous is dead, he shakes his head, tosses away the gun, and walks away.
- Naturally, while saying "So uncivilized."
- Somewhat inverted in Republic Commando, where Boss (the player character) finds a lightsaber on a stranded Republic ship and remarks, "An elegant weapon for a more civilized time, eh? Well guess what? Times have changed."
- Even more confusing considering that Star Wars blasters have a stun setting, whereas lightsabers (the weapon that cuts through anything) can only be used to main or kill. But then, the real reason is, the Jedi are called "knights", and in the real world history, knights were proud of their skill with martial weapons. Swords and sabers and other bladed weapons were seen as a gentleman's weapon fit for aristocrats, while guns were considered "too easy" and thus without honour. In fact, there were times when swords were reserved for the nobility and a commoner wasn't allowed to carry one (which didn't stop mercenaries from doing so, although mercenaries were allowed a great deal of exceptions in weapons and clothing codes). Of course, all that changed when the era of armored knights came to an end in the 17th century and the nobility discovered the dueling pistol.
- In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a Mook barks at Captain Nemo to "draw his pistol", to which the Captain scornfully replies that he "walks a different path", quickly dispatching him with a saber. This troper found it highly ironic, since in the original comic book, not only did Captain Nemo use high tech automatic weapons, but had a private army of gun-toting sailors too.
- Field of Dreams played this one for laughs: Costner's character is threatening James Earl Jones with a fake gun, prompting Jones to pull out a crowbar and start walking toward Costner with a maniacal but serious look. Costner falls down, muttering about 'rules', then finally gets his act together just in time and shouts "You're a PACIFIST!"... to which he gets a very disappointed look and puts down the crowbar.
- In an unusually subtle example, Jason Bourne appears to become a Technical Pacifist after the first film. Having declared his intention to give up killing people, he spends the next two films beating the living hell out of every enemy to cross his path but, despite killing three of them, never once fires a gun. He's even seen taking guns off opponents and then throwing them away a couple of times.
- Partial example: In the movie Tall Tale, Pecos Bill will not kill a man on a Sunday. He shoots off their trigger finger instead.
- Subverted in Blade Trinity. At one point, Blade and his sidekicks get into a fight with a group of security guards armed with nightsticks. The heroes kick and punch the security guards into submission, then Blade whips out a pistol and kills the last one just to show that he can.
- And of course there's the Terminator in T2. Ordered not to kill by a young John Connor, he shoots people in the kneecaps instead. "He'll live."
Literature
- Don Quixote has this particular aversion, making this Older Than Steam.
- Makes sense in his case - guns killed off chivalry, since knights' armor doesn't make a good defense against bullets (for one thing, plate and mail breach inward...). Of course he doesn't like them.
- The spy Quiller, from a series of novels, does not carry a firearm, reasoning that if he is caught, anything he has on him can be explained except a gun. He also believes that guns give their carriers a dangerously false sense of security, and that disarmed, he lulls his enemies into feeling he isn't a threat. He dislikes killing but will do so if necessary and has used guns, although very rarely.
- The Assassins' Guild in the Discworld novels, while not pacifistic in even a technical sense, have suppressed the invention of guns, and aren't happy about improvements in crossbow technology, on the grounds that making it too easy to kill people devalues their profession. Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, loathes "spring-gonnes" (concealable pistol crossbows) to the point where anyone caught with one within city limits will end up swinging gently in the breeze.
- No, not in a children's playground, though kids might be fascinated by them.
- In Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas trilogy, the titular character hates guns due to a trauma he suffered as a child and refuses to even be near them. He gets over it at the first book's climax and kills the book's villains with one, though.
- This is somewhat lampshaded in the latest installment, when Odd finds himself yet again in danger and without a gun. He reflects that it's really time he got over that phobia.
- The Aiel of Wheel Of Time have a similar attitude toward swords (what with Fantasy Gun Control being what it is). At the slightest provocation, they'll kill you with axes, bows, their bare hands, and spears in particular (not to mention the knives that are almost as big as swords), but actual swords themselves are a big no-no.
- That was actually explained: it's the last relic of actual technical pacifism, as their ancestors were perfectly okay with carrying around axes, knives, spears and the like, which all had hunting and/or other utility purpose. Swords have only really had the purpose of killing other people, so they were reviled. The Aiel have just mostly forgotten that.
- Moreover, those same ancestors also branched off into the Traveling People, a culture of gypsy-like wanderers who also believe in true pacifism-they do no violence whatsoever, even in the last defense of their own lives.
- The Animorphs' allies, The Chee, are programmed to be 100% pacifistic, but Erek King is pretty technical about it. He managed to override the violence prohibition, but was so sickened by the massive amount carnage he caused (more deaths in one hour than the Animorphs themselves caused in months) that he immediately changed it back and had the item that made it possible thrown away. However, this doesn't stop him from attempting to manipulate the Animorphs into killing the aliens that destroyed his creators... Then there's the final battle, but it's unclear whether or not he was offended because Jake killed and threatened to kill indiscriminately, or because Jake blackmailed him. But it's probably both.
- Doc Savage was big on not killing his opponents, since this would be a waste of human life. Whether his habit of subjecting captured criminals to personality-altering brain surgery is a better thing is debatable.
- In the Forgotten Realms, priests of Gond, the god of invention, have developed gunpowder. R.A. Salvatore's main characters, Drizzt Do'Urden and Cadderly Bonaduce, most stringently do not like guns and explosives, and neither is a pacifist in any sense of the word.
- Drizzt's objection is one of discipline: it took fifteen years for him to become one of the best swordsmen in the world, and another decade of wilderness survival after that to become a combat monster, and it has taken still more decades to become the kind of guy who can best the chosen of a god in single combat. Even in the timeframe of an elf, sixty years is not a short period of time to achieve great skill. Meanwhile, any two-copper criminal could pick up a flintlock and with a few days' training and a little luck put a bullet in the head of a great warrior. And while it would take quite a lot of gunpowder to equal a wizard's fireball, that wizard probably spent a decade in training before being able to cast even a weak fireball, whereas a moderately rich man could buy a keg of gunpowder in an afternoon and have none of the discipline or self-control that wizard learned in his decade of training.
- Cadderly's objection is similar, but more of the "genie in the bottle" variety, as befits an inventor. He actually invented a gun-like weapon—a drow-styled pistol crossbow loaded with explosive darts. He realized afterwards, though, that while it takes a very clever man (such as himself) to invent such a weapon, and such a clever man might well have intellectualized the dangers and responsibilities of such a weapon, such a weapon could be duplicated by someone who wouldn't have to be clever at all, merely skilled, and who might not have given any consideration to its dangers, allowing it to be made available to anyone, regardless of morality or self-control.
- Averted in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, where not all Jedi have an aversion to blasters (guns). Further, as has been noted by many a secondary character, lightsabers have no stun setting. The idea behind this is that drawing a weapon for actual battle to a Jedi should never be done as a threat, but a tragedy, because it means all other options have been completely exhausted and someone is going to die (or at least be maimed). The weapon's properties (deflecting blaster shots, for example) allow for this to not always be the case, but it is still a guiding principle of the Jedi Order.
Live Action TV
- MacGyver hated guns and would never use one however dire the circumstances, with the exception of The Pilot (this was eventually revealed to be because he had indirectly caused one of his boyhood friends to be accidentally shot), but had no problem with fisticuffs. Or, for that matter, explosives, rocket launchers, lasers, or anything else he could get his hands on (although his attacks were never intentionally lethal; indeed, one of the tropes of the show was Mac using a dangerous weapon to do something nonlethal, most often using explosives to signal somebody).
- Interestingly, although Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson's other character) had his son accidentally shoot himself with a gun in the Stargate movie, he does not have an aversion to guns and in fact feels unsafe without them. Incidentally, the real RDA is a gun-control advocate.
- Not the same person. Quoth the Anderson, "two L's. That guy has no sense of humor."
- That's just an in-joke. The Stargate movie is still canon for the TV series, just in a significantly retconned form. The backstory of O'Neil's son accidentally shooting himself is present in both versions of the story. Indeed, it is a major plot point in the 6th episode of the series.
- Probably a borderline example if anything, but no Wraith weaponry in Stargate Atlantis is lethal, except for ship-to-ship armaments. Of course, this is so that they can devour their victims later...
- The Goa'uld's Zat'n'ktl are also primarily for stunning (and torture). And they kill on the second shot. Stunners are all over the place in Stargate, and most Sci Fi. Plot-handy without necessarily being a statement.
- Benton Fraser of Due South rarely used a gun. But this was because he didn't have a license for a gun in the US. After they crossed the border into Canada he turned out to be a very good shot.
- Harrison Blackwood was the ultimate tree-hugging new-agey pacifist hero in the first season of War of the Worlds, and went on several long diatribes about the evil of guns. But he had no problem dispatching his enemies via all manner of brutal devices, such as flamethrowers, energy weapons, explosives, cracked steam pipes, high-voltage electricity, or, indeed, anything else he could get his hands on. This was one of the many character traits that was dropped in the second season Re Tool.
- The Doctor (Doctor Who) usually eschewed guns (the exceptions being notable such as in "The Seeds of Doom", where the characters act as if the script was actually a misplaced episode of The Avengers), both for moral reasons and because he inevitably faced threats Immune To Bullets, but would not shy away from killing the Monster Of The Week in other ways. For that matter, he often had no misgivings about having The Cavalry use guns (see Five Rounds Rapid).The Tenth Doctor in particular has an aversion to killing; in one episode Rose points out that their enemy have guns: the Doctor responds "And I haven't, which makes me the better person. They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." Given the severe nature of his behavior when he does take off the kid gloves, this editor speculates that the Doctor, having only a handful of regenerations left, may be afraid that he's turning into the Valeyard.
- In the episode Dalek, however, the Ninth Doctor had precious few compunctions about riffling through an alien arsenal and pulling out the biggest BFG he could find; this is partially justified by the fact that he intends to use it to kill the titular Dalek, the apparent last survivor of his rapacious race of exterminators, but it still represents a surprising break of character, especially considering how confident he seems with the weapon (even though he never actually pulls the trigger).
- And, indeed, Rose, the Dalek itself, and, it seems likely, the writers, consider the Doctor to be at this point dangerously close to crossing a line he ought not cross.
- Daleks bring out the worst in the Doctor. In Resurrection of the Daleks, the Doctor holds fully intends to act as Davros' executioner, and is only prevented from it by a deus ex which allows Davros to escape. (Though Davros and the Doctor had no idea it was coming) Though the Doctor has reservations, he fully intends to kill, with a gun.
- He comes very close again in "The Doctor's Daughter", but gloriously turns his almost-murder around to make "The Man Who Never Would" the basis for a brand new society.
- For all this though (and maybe this is the cause of it), he's quite quick to jump to genocide (including mass civilian casualties) as a solution.
- In Old School Who, he does this in Remembrance of the Daleks and in New School, during the Runaway Bride Christmas special, with the Racnoss. Amusingly, the Master helps him with that one.
- Well ... not always. At least, the only example I can remember of him actually doing it was the Time War, when he dropped a bridge on his entire race, hoping to catch the Daleks too. He seems willing to do this in the New Series 1 finale, this time wiping out anything living around Earth to take out a Dalek invasion, but chickens out.
Dalek Emperor: Then prove yourself, Doctor! What are you? Coward or killer?
The Doctor: Coward. Any day.
- For that matter, Steed in The Avengers left it up to Emma Peel to carry the guns, preferring a swordcane; this didn't stop him making use of pretty much every other piece of weaponry available short of a gun, including firing cartridges without the aid of a gun in one episode.
- Gabrielle from Xena Warrior Princess had no problems with beating people up, but throughout most of the series had a taboo about personally killing people, despite travelling with Xena, who was a walking Cuisinart.
- Max, of Dark Angel, hated guns because of an incident when she was being raised as a super-soldier. She never used any "cheats" (devices that aren't technically guns), but she did beat the crap out of the bad guys and sometimes killed them through fisticuffs.
- Pretty much every character on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel (except for Wesley in the later seasons) was a Technical Pacifist, but their aversion to guns was mostly that firearms were completely useless against most of their Monster Of The Week baddies. The character of Gunn in Angel was shocked and appalled in one episode to find his old vampire-hunting friends had switched from improvised hand weapons to firearms, despite the move making them much more powerful against non-vampire demons. This was actually made fun of near the end of season four, where a firearm Wesley was using actually did work by finding a chink in its exoskeleton, to which the baddie said, "That ain't right..." before keeling over. Whedon was a little more explicit in a convention panel, viewable on the season 6 DVD, about why this is: he draws attention to the fact that both times Buffy sees gun used against demons in season 6, she snarks, "These things? Never helpful.".
- One of Mr. Chapel's codes in Vengeance Unlimited was, "No Guns". Nor did he kill his marks. However, he did use stuff that went boom (and called in favors from people who knew how to use stuff that went boom) to scare the bejeezus out of his marks.
- Shepherd Book from Firefly won't kill people, due to it being against the teachings of the Bible, but those teachings are a "mite fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps." He's also shown beating the crap out of people a few times.
- Odo from Star Trek Deep Space Nine refuses to use phasers and other weapons, since as a police officer he does not like to kill, but he is more then willing to fight hand to hand. His shapeshifting abilities and experience in combat allow him to be more dangerous unarmed than a rabid, bat'leth-swinging, disruptor-toting Klingon. He also has a certain amount of pride about this; upon being told Klingons attacking the station would likely come after him in hopes of making themselves worthy of song, he muses that if any one Klingon warrior did kill him in combat, it would be an act worthy of an entire Klingon opera.
- Sheriff Andy Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show almost never used a gun, preferring to outwit criminals. Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife was more willing to use his sidearm, but carried it unloaded so that he wouldn't accidentally shoot himself when attempting to draw it.
- In a late episode of the show, it's revealed that Andy doesn't use a gun because the last time he did, the criminal ended up without the use of one knee. Andy gets a letter from the criminal saying he's coming by for a visit. Though most of the town urges Andy to take up his gun again, Andy can't bring himself to do so. The end of the episode reveals that Andy did the criminal a huge favor, the loss of his knee made the crook start his life over. The criminal because a model citizen and wanted to give Andy a gift, a hunting rifle. Guns are both good and bad.
- The "no gun" policy on Andy's part was most likely meant to convey the almost total lack of violent crime more than anything else, in keeping with the Idylic Small Town setting.
- The Lone Ranger used guns, but only to disarm his opponents in the least painful way possible. Presumably, he was one of the inspirations for Vash the Stampede.
Video Games
- Dizzy from Guilty Gear is a pacifist who hates violence of any form. The only problem is that the spirits living in her wings are very protective of her and have no such moral concepts. Most of her quotes in battle are desperate pleas for said spirits to either stop or at least hold back. It's even worse when she takes a nasty shock (such as a 10,000-foot fall), as one of the spirits possesses her...
- Similarly, Zappa from Guilty Gear XX is a softy who has no desire to fight anybody. It's just his luck that he's possessed by a host of excessively belligerent spirits with a penchant for insulting the wrong people.
- In the Kingdom Hearts games, in contrast to his being the captain of the knights, Goofy hates weapons according to the manual. Instead, he uses his shield to beat people up, with surprising effectiveness for a character who's supposed to be clumsy...
- Because beating people to death at length with a large, blunt instrument is morally superior to killing them quicker with a real weapon. Uh, yeah... Uh, yeah...
- The eponymous lead of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath has a problem with firearms that is explained during the game. He's fine with other potentially gory methods of killing though. Of course the fact some of this methods include throwing living things as ammo at people is not a problem at all...
- Vergil from Devil May Cry 3 stretches Technical Pacifism to ridiculous extents. He has no qualms with Razor Wind-esque moves or summoning psychically-controlled magic swords that are far more potent than any of Dante's guns and can be seamlessly woven into his relentless melee attacks... Yet he claims that firearms are "dishonorable". The blooming cheek!
- To be fair, Vergil dislikes firearms not because they're dishonorable but because he thinks it's distasteful to the image of a true warrior, which he makes a perfect example of.
- In Pirates Of The Caribbean Online, players are disallowed from shooting living opponents with guns. This restriction is explained as being part of the Pirate's Code, but isn't actually supported by anything outside of the game world. Players are also allowed to kill living opponents by any number of other means not involving guns, including blowing them up with grenades.
- In the Space Stage of 'Spore'', using extreme amounts of violence (using the Planet Buster, sucking cities into the void of space) is against the Galactic Code, and sets you back 100 points with surrounding empires except the Grox. Also, using the Gadget Bomb on another city sets you back 10 points with all surrounding cities.
- Regal, a playable character in Tales Of Symphonia, once killed with his bare hands and as a result refuses to ever use his hands as weapons ever again. He wears shackles for the entire game as a symbol of his crime; nevertheless, he studies extensively in a fighting style made up exclusively of kicks instead. Several characters call him on this logical inconsistency, but he remains firm to his vow. It should be noted that Regal rarely if ever fights with the intent to kill.
- Well, his objection is really specifically because of who he killed (his lover, Presea's sister...under completely justifiable circumstances, no less). It might be for the best, though: there's strong indication that if he ever did fight with his hands, he'd be an absolute monster (strength/skill-wise).
- Nethack has an optional conduct "pacifist", generally considered one of the most difficult to win with. A Nethack pacifist must avoid killing a single monster... directly. However, this does not preclude them from leading their army of powerful pets to a monster and letting violence ensue. In fact, it doesn't preclude their wailing on monsters all they like, provided they don't personally land the killing blow; although this is extremely risky to try without a thorough knowledge of how much damage various attacks do, and a way of tracking monster HP.
- The less deaths one directly causes in the Metal Gear series, especially in later games, the more points one is rewarded. You can even tranq bosses in later games, with a different cutscene after; though the end results are the same.
- In the FPS/RPG Deus Ex, there are several nonlethal weapons and in the early stages of the game the player is encouraged by various characters to knock foes unconscious whenever possible, rather than kill them. It is actually possible to complete the entire game without killing a single person, and many players endeavour to accomplish such a so-called 'no kills' game. Also in the early stages of the game, how much lethal force the player uses against opponents earns them brownie points with their more gung-ho allies, and disapproval from the rest, or vice versa.
- Freeware game Iji has the storyline change somewhat depending on how many enemies you kill, however, only direct kills count, so, while you can avoid everything for the pacifistic route you can also make heavy use of technical pacifism and use indirect means to kill your foes without upping the counter; such as intentionally being hit by an enemy explosive so the explosion kills everything in promixity to you (or the enemy who shot it).
- Mirror's Edge on the Xbox 360 has two achievements that play this trope straight: 'Pacifist' (complete a single mission without firing a shot) and 'Test of Faith' (complete the game without firing a shot that hits a guard). Now, the thing to note is firing a shot — for the purposes of these achievements, it is perfectly acceptable to smash the enemies in the face with your knee or their own guns, kick them in the face to send them careening off of buildings, and otherwise brutalize them... as long as you don't shoot them. (of course, the ONE shot you actually HAVE to shoot in ONE sequence in Chapter 8 probably does kill someone, but it doesn't count if the bullet does NOT hit anyone directly. ( it hits an engine if you aimed correctly.) Same thing for using the handgun in chapter 4 - if it doesn't hurt anyone, you can still get the achievement)
Web Comics
- Dr. McNinja
 is a good example... Partly because he's a doctor, partly because he's a Batman fanboy. It's not that he dislikes guns, though, he genuinely tries to avoid killing... But when he IS forced to kill, the body count tends to rack up pretty quick, though that only really happened once and he felt pretty shaken up about it afterwards. He has no problem beating the crap out of people, though. He also has no problem with having a Gunslinger as his sidekick. Also, when zombies attacked, he had no problems whatsoever with duel-wielding shotguns.
- Though he did kill that one security guard rather unnecessarily.
- As well as at least 30 pirates when rescuing his family.
- And all those ninjas led by Rayner. And.....you know, maybe the Doctor isn't the best example of this.
Western Animation
- The titular Gargoyles were very opposed to guns, and killing in general beyond that. Broadway in particular had an experience in which he accidentally shot and nearly killed Elisa, one of the main characters and a close friend, but for the others their hatred of guns was specifically linked to their dislike of killing. In the Episode Awakening, Goliath actually mentions that a killing that occurs in the heat of battle is all right, it's deliberate (i.e. premeditated) attacking with intent to kill that they hate.
- Batman is a Technical Pacifist, though whether he is willing to kill his enemies in other ways depends on the writers of that particular incarnation. Certainly, Batman, Batman The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond all showcased a Batman who never wanted to see anyone get killed, which is the reason for all his non-lethal gadgetry. When, in Justice League Unlimited, he's possessed by a spectral hero and forced to use an at-hand gun to stop an enemy who would have killed him otherwise, he is badly shaken (though that was probably aggravated by him being possessed).
- In the prologue at the very beginning of Batman Beyond, when he's older and in far less good physical shape, he is almost beaten to death by a thug with a giant wrench. In order to save himself and the hostage, he sees a gun and picks it up to scare off the thug. Seeing what he had to resort to, he retires from being Batman.
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Hawk and Dove", one of the title characters is a superhero named Dove who is an ardent pacifist as befitting his name. He is ready to mix it up as necessary, but largely with soft martial arts like akido that allow him to take down the toughest foes without much injury and with a focus on subduing and disarming. In addition, when facing a unstoppable machine that feeds on aggression for its strength, he is the only one who keeps a cool enough head to realize that a passive stance against it could shut it down.
- Brock Sampson from The Venture Brothers is in no way a pacifist. He's used everything from a knife to a lawnmower to a '68 Dodge Charger as a murder weapon. Yet he adamantly refuses to use a gun for reasons not yet disclosed, but it's probably more of a macho thing.
- According to him, "Guns are fruity"
- Jackie Chan, from Jackie Chan Adventures does not fight for the sake of fighting, and he clearly points this out, despite the fact that he is obviously a badass at doing it. He states that he will resort to fighting only when there is no other alternative. Of course since one of the points of the show is to show off Jackie's badassery of the martial arts, this typically means every episode. But still, he usually fights only when threatened and only enough to prevent the villains from actually doing anything bad.
- Given a bit of a lampshade hanging in the usually Family-Unfriendly Violent Transformers Beast Wars, when the two sides have a truce. The terms of the truce ban weapons, but a fight begins anyway using cartoony but equally violent slapstick (Example: sabotaging an enemy's flight systems, causing them to plummet to the ground Wile E. Coyote-style). Optimus and Dinobot even comment on how peaceful it is, while watching an enemy get crushed by the rear end of a rhino.
- Played for Laughs in an Animaniacs short. At the beginning of the short, Flaxseed, the Jerk Ass candy-shop owner who hates kids, is confronted by a kindly-looking nun in his store, pleasantly asking that he donate some of his candy to her Orphanage. He kicks her out onto the street. Near the end, about a half-dozen nuns come in, demanding he unhand the Warner Siblings that were running amok in his store, and get this close to beating him senseless with rulers when he calls them on it.
Flaxseed: Wait, wait! You're nuns! You're not supposed to resort to physical violence!
Nun: He's right girls, let us pray.
All of them drop to their knees, praying. A bus full of Notre Dame football players show up and immediatly surround Flaxseed with angry scowls.
Nun: Our prayers have been answered!
The players dogpile Flaxseed
- Genies in the Aladdin universe are forbidden to kill, but you'd be surprised what you can live through. They also are allowed to, for instance, turn someone into a cockroach to make it easier for their master to kill them.
Real Life
- A real-life example is the famous "Wild West" peacekeeper, Bat Masterson. He didn't use a gun very often, having been lamed by one in a moment of recklessness, but had no problem beating people with the walking stick that gave him his nickname. Nor, for that matter, did he have problems associating with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, who would kill people with guns.
- Wyatt Earp, for that matter, didn't shoot quite as many people as is often thought, preferring to Pistol Whip criminals. At one point in the old west, getting hit in the head was known as "an Earp."
- During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church declared crossbows anathema, and forbid its use by Christians on Christians because they were "unsporting" - or rather, they allowed poorly trained peasants and rabble to easily slaughter knights and noblemen, which wasn't deemed to be a Good Thing. Unsurprisingly, the holy call went largely unheeded.
- The Duke of Wellington is considered to be one of the greatest military commanders Britain has ever produced. He spent close to 15 years at war, effectively conquered half of India, defeated Napoleon and caused the deaths of thousands. Despite all this historians agree that there's no evidence he ever killed anyone, or even fired a shot in anger; so far as can be made out, he never engaged in violence on a personal level. He may have considered it distasteful.
- I'm surprised that Joan of Arc isn't here, considering that despite leading the French army into combat, she personally found killing abhorrent.
Tabletop RP Gs
- In Dungeons And Dragons, the standard rule for generic clerics has long been "no edged weapons", in a Fantasy Gun Control version of this trope. The idea was originally to reconcile the presumably "peaceful" nature of priests with the vagaries of an adventuring life, though it's worth pointing out that nobody has ever requested a "humane" bludgeoning over execution by guillotine or axe.
- This conception was actually inspired by a real world example and simply popularized by said roleplaying game.
- Although to be fair, Odo of Bayeux's use of the mace wasn't quite a "technical pacifist" position, but more of a cynical attempt to get in on the glory of the English Conquest yet still be considered a "holy servant of god."
- In 3rd edition, since increased customization allowed for followers of different gods (including gods of war) to specialize in different areas, this was dropped and it was made so that the average cleric only has proficiency in simple weapons—the kind anyone could pick up with basic trainng: clubs, staves, maces, and so on, but including edged weapons like daggers and spears, and ranged weapons like crossbows (as opposed to just slings as in previous editions). This reflects a relative lack of combat training (compared to fighters, barbarians, and so on). They can, however, use advancement opportunities to learn more advanced use of weapons, and priests of the aforementioned gods of war can even start play with significant skill in their god's favored weapon if they pick the right powers.
- This has been around since Second Edition AD&D at the least. While clerics were limited in their weapon choice to non-edged weaponry (in as much as one can call a morningstar a bludgeoning weapon), the various gods in the multiverse all had what were called "specialty priests," who had their own restrictions for armor, weapons, and magical items. A specialty priest of Lathander, for example, was restricted to a cleric's weapons and no armor heavier than plate, while priests of Eilistraee could use any weapon they liked.
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