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Basic Trope: A character chooses to resolve conflicts peacefully rather than through fighting, and actually sticks to those beliefs.

  • Straight: Peaceful Pete does not believe in resorting to violence, and never does, directly or indirectly.
  • Exaggerated: Peaceful Pete just stands there and takes it as Mooks throw everything they've got at him.
  • Downplayed:
    • Pete may not lay a finger on his enemies, but he will use Deadly Dodging if circumstances force him to.
    • Pete might participate in the fighting, but only against those that are an actual and immediate threat, after nonviolent approaches have failed. He also will not kill them, though he might hurt them. And he doesn't make a habit of fighting in the first place. In other words, he's a Technical Pacifist.
  • Justified:
    • Peaceful Pete believes that hurting others is a generally ineffective and immoral way of solving problems, and has accordingly developed a skill set of alternative options, such as diplomacy, preventative action, or simply running away.
    • Peaceful Pete is of a religion that forbids violence, even when one's life is at stake.
    • Peaceful Pete is a priest of the healing goddess and will forfeit her favor if he turns to inflict harm.
    • Peaceful Pete is incapable of any violence because his village was destroyed by invading soldiers when he was a small child, he lost his home and family to the fighting, and he is severely traumatized as a result.
    • Peaceful Pete is so abhorrently powerful that he can't even lift a finger in combat without risking many innocent lives... Or, Pete isn't all that powerful but is under the delusion that he is.
    • Peaceful Pete refuses to participate in any fighting because he is too fragile to capable of any battles, and if he do it, he will be easily defeated or even cost his life.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
  • Double Subverted: His incredibly detailed threats of violence were just a ruse to hopefully avoid having to resort to actual violence.
  • Parodied:
    • Peaceful Pete just smiles politely as he's getting his ass handed to him.
    • "Excuse me, kind sirs? Would you please stop beating me up? I'd really appreciate it."
    • Pete has to work with Keith Killigan, and acts as the latter's Morality Pet Pete frequently chastises Keith for wanting to shoot, kill and maim everything in sight while Keith has to tell Pete that his non-combativeness is ridiculous, which at times it is. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Zig Zagged: Pete used to be quite a Knight Templar, but felt bad about it and resolved to stop, but then sees Vic Villain Kick the Dog and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Then feels bad about it and resolves to fight no more. Then is attacked by Highly-Visible Ninja and...well, you get the idea.
  • Averted: Pete will fight you if you give him a good reason.
  • Enforced: This is a children's show. We can't have violence.
  • Lampshaded: "Peaceful Pete really lives up to his name. He brought that fly outdoors personally and released it instead of killing it!"
  • Invoked: The woman who raises the long lost son of an incredibly violent Evil Overlord teaches him to be an Actual Pacifist so he won't Turn Out Like His Father.
  • Exploited: A mugger cites scriptures while fighting Peaceful Pete to keep him from fighting back.
  • Defied: "Turn the other cheek?! Bah! That's for wimps! If someone hits me, I'll Megaton Punch him into last week!"
  • Discussed: "Man, Peaceful Pete just took a beating and didn't even fight back. He must be a hardcore pacifist."
  • Conversed: "Don't you hate when certain shows have a character who is such a devoted pacifist, they won't even lift a finger, even when the villain is beating the everloving crap out of them?"
  • Deconstructed:
    • Peaceful Pete just saw his wife get gang-raped and killed by the Mooks and wanted to save her, but his ideology wouldn't allow it because that would mean fighting them. This takes a heavy toll on him, and he may even start to question whether he did the right thing or not.
    • Alternatively: Everybody knows that Pete never use violence, even at his enemies, and so his "friends" take full advantage of him, makes fun of him for his cowardly behavior because A Real Man Is a Killer and don't have any real respect for him at all, while his enemies kill him even in their first meeting.
    • After a breakdown in law-and-order, Peaceful Pete finds himself in a violent setting where his failure to fight repeatedly means that things needed to survive are taken from him, and he realizes he had always counted on the police to act violently on his behalf.
    • Peaceful Pete registers as a pacifist and so gets to live out his life safely at home while other men are being killed or wounded, and builds a career while they are in the army; when the soldiers come home, he jeers at them as simpleminded.
    • Due to his refusal of fighting, Peaceful Pete ends up being lazy, unmotivated, and indifferent, which put him to become The Load of the team.
    • Two words: Pacifism Backfire.
  • Reconstructed:
    • Peaceful Pete does not fight but has such strength of Heroic Resolve and willpower that he doesn't have to, and clearly says It's Not You, It's My Enemies to anyone who he'd be unable to protect.
    • He learns how to "fight" by using his wits and learns how to manipulate the system. Pacifism does not mean you have to be passive.
    • Horrible things begin to happen in front of Pete, but rather than "sit there", Pete immediately jumps in front of the victim and takes the brunt of the violence. All while refusing to lift a finger against his opponent.
    • Growing disillusioned with pacifism Pete results to using violence, but seeing that doing so creates Cycles of Revenge and escalates conflicts further Pete concludes that violence, even if it helps him in the short-term, only creates even more problems for everyone in the long-run and ultimately returns to pacifism.
    • Peaceful Pete gets a What the Hell, Hero? speech by one of the soldiers' kids, saying that they were fighting to protect their homes and their families. The children even accused Pete of being a selfish, arrogant hypocrite. Finally - to rub salt in Pete's wound - the soldier's kid reveals that his father is also an Actual Pacifist; only instead of being a Dirty Coward like Pete, the kid's father served as a Combat Medic. Needless to say, Pete feels awful and as soon as another war comes he enlists (in a non-combatant role, of course).

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