History Main / PacifismBackfire

* LetsPlay/PartyCrashers: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxujITAsWKY Mario Party 3 broke us all...]]", Vernias tries to not anger anyone by either doing a gameshow or choosing random whenever he visits the Boo, as to make sure he doesn't have a target on his back... [[EpicFail only to end up infuriating everyone in the process]]:

* In the LetsPlay/PartyCrashers[='=] game on ''VideoGame/MarioParty3''[='=]s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxujITAsWKY Deep Bloober Sea]], Vernias tries to not anger anyone by either doing a gameshow or choosing random whenever he visits the Boo, as to make sure he doesn't have a target on his back... [[EpicFail only to end up infuriating everyone in the process]]:

A downplayed variant of this is when someone who is willing to fight but [[ThouShaltNotKill unwilling to kill]] refuses to kill someone no matter how dangerous they are. That someone ends up causing more trouble later.

** If the Doctor had just killed the [[BigBad Daleks]] before they made off the planet Skaro when he had the chance he could have avoided [[TheGreatOffScreenWar the Time War]] and [[spoiler:seemingly]] becoming TheLastOfHisKind.
** Had the Fifth Doctor aided the humans in defending themselves from the Silurians and Sea Devils in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep "Warriors of the Deep"]], he could have prevented all three sides being slaughtered. It's made clear he knew this was the only solution from the start, but put off making the decision in the hope he'd find another way, and didn't.
** The Tenth Doctor acknowledged this is a problem with him being a TechnicalPacifist in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]. His attempts not to hurt anyone may not directly have ''him'' going against his morals, but he "got clever" and has indirectly caused his friends and companions to fight pretty nasty battles for him or manipulated villains into killing themselves.

* The main characters of the first season of ''Series/JessicaJones2015'' spend the entire first season trying to hunt down and capture Kilgrave -- a mind-controlling rapist -- in large part because he forced his most recent victim to murder her parents, and they want to bring him in and prove that she was mind-controlled. At one point they actually capture him, and keep him alive and imprisoned despite the urging of an ally that they [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just kill him]]. This ally feels strongly enough about it that he winds up going AxeCrazy, and they have to take care of him before they can return their attention to Kilgrave, who, naturally, escapes and goes on a minor rampage. In the process, the girl they were trying to protect [[ShootTheShaggyDog kills herself]] before they can make any progress in proving that she's not guilty. Which means by the time Jessica finally [[spoiler:snaps his neck at the end of the season]], the only thing they did by sparing Kilgrave was to allow him to destroy even more lives. Plus, since Jessica had to [[spoiler:kill him in public to save the crowd of people he was forcing to kill each other]], she gets arrested herself. [[spoiler: Thankfully she's soon released when everything gets explained.]]

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', this formed Mike's StartOfDarkness. Back when he was a cop, there was one particular guy who he visited over and over on domestic violence calls. Eventually, he became so convinced that the guy was eventually going to murder his girlfriend that he kidnapped him to a deserted place to kill him. However, he backed out at the last minute, merely threatening the guy instead. Only a short time later, the guy did indeed beat his wife to death. He regretted his action ever since.

* In ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'', Vash the Stampede will ''not'' kill his enemies... nor hurt them in any major way... and the show takes great pains to show that it's a noble calling, but possibly misguided considering the CrapsackWorld circumstances (Vash's body is a mass of scars, the sixty billion double dollar bounty (until it's removed) means that anybody with a gun and a desperate need of money (which is practically the whole planet) is out to get him, he's constantly arguing with his companions (or at least Wolfwood) about the usefulness/futility of his ThouShaltNotKill code, the QuirkyMinibossSquad and the BigBad are out to make Vash suffer by any means possible, which usually involves [[OmnicidalManiac killing everything that moves]] and [[AndYourLittleDogToo going the extra mile]] with [[TargetedToHurtTheHero anybody that Vash so much as gave the time of the day to]], increasing in cruelty/kill count up to ApocalypseHow levels as the series goes on...)
** Perhaps the worst case of this has to be in the anime version. Vash managed to blow up a city [[NoEndorHolocaust without killing the people living in it]]. Then he's later told that [[SubvertedTrope pretty much everybody from that city died of starvation and dehydration]], as happens when you blow up a town and leave its people to fend for themselves on a barren, hostile desert planet without any supplies.

** In the original series episode "The Savage Curtain", Surak insists on going alone to negociate with the "Evil" team, despite Kirk trying to warn him that they are threacherous. Surak quickly gets himself killed.

* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': Highfather of New Genesis has become so averted to violence that he is generally unwilling to do anything about Darkseid or evil in the universe in general unless New Genesis itself is directly threatened. This has backfired on him repeatedly. He does little to protect the universe from Darkseid terrorizing it and has been blind to threats besides Darkseid. This has allowed Darkseid to amass enough power or put plans in place that allow him to destroy New Genesis with ease whenever he wants.

* ''Fanfic/ANorthernDragoness'': Baelor's particular interpretation of the Faith of the Seven has led him to refuse to appoint a Master Of Laws (despite the fact that the Father's domain includes justice), refuse to wage war for any reason, no matter how justified (despite the Warrior emphasizing strength in battle and protecting the innocent), and to apologize to Dorne and bribe them to make peace after they broke hospitality and killed his brother and several of his bannermen. This has undermined the already fragile Tagareyn authority and is threatening to plunge the realm back into civil war.

* ''Fanfic/AFrozenFlower'': Oprah consistently laments about how she should kill Orchid, as she's a lost cause, but she can't bring herself to do it because she's too kindhearted to kill anyone and she has UndyingLoyalty for Odd Squad. Unfortunately for her, Orchid is very defiant and causes problems for not just her, but everyone around her as well, made even more so by the fact that Oprah is in denial of her working on using her powers appropriately and refuses to train her anymore. Never mind the fact that Orchid is a PersonOfMassDestruction whose fate in life is to destroy the world if she is not killed first.