Pacifism Breaking Point

"I have been foolish not to see what history has proven over and over again; that Autobots and Decepticons will never mend their ways. If there can be no diplomatic solution to this perpetual conflict, then I must not allow more darkness to fall, upon this [Earth] or any planet. Megatron must be destroyed!"

— Optimus Prime, Transformers: Prime

In an ideal world, conflict such as war would be resolved in a peaceful and/or diplomatic manner. The conflicting parties choose to meet halfway and have a sit-down to discuss a possible resolution to their fighting. If successful, everyone walks away potentially gaining something out of the talks, the fighting ends, all without the need for further fighting or bloodshed. Sounds like the perfect happy ending for everyone, right?

Unfortunately, not everything is all sunshine and rainbows. There will be times when the fighting becomes irreconcilable. What if neither party wants to meet halfway or stop the fighting? Even if they don't wish to change their ways, that doesn't stop this Ideal Hero from trying to appeal to their better nature and sue for a peaceful resolution. They most likely will be a Pacifist or a variation of one, most commonly a Martial Pacifist, and will do whatever they can to use their words first and bring the fighting towards a peaceful and diplomatic resolution, and try as hard as possible not to resort to any sort of violence. But later down the line, they will be forced to eventually recognize and/or accept that peace is no longer an option.

When a character reaches this point, there are plenty of paths they can choose to go on. They could abandon all hope of pacifying both parties and leave them to their own devices. They could retain their pacifist nature and double down on trying to resolve the conflict peacefully. But the most common path such characters take is that they are forced to become the Reluctant Hero, either shed or set aside their pacifism, and resort to more pragmatic or extreme measures to stop the fighting, which more often than not will lead to violence. Depending on the situation, they may also be forced to pick between the lesser of two evils and choose a side in the same conflict they want to end. Whatever the case is, it becomes clear to this character that any fleeting hope that peace could be achieved is now off the table and far beyond the realm of possibility.

When a character reaches this realization, it may almost certainly be a Wham Line or Wham Episode.

Subtrope of Took a Level in Cynic. Compare The Gloves Come Off if a character who was previously holding back in a fight stops doing so, or Redemption Rejection if an offer of peace/redemption is actually offered but rejected. Also compare Beware the Nice Ones when the Nice Guy is pushed well past their limits. If a character is presented with an extreme scenario that can only be solved with violence whether unavoidable or not, see Violence Really Is the Answer or Violence is the Only Option. If a character hesitates to take an irrevocable course of action until an action or event pushes them to take it, see Pull The Trigger Provocation. Contrast I Will Fight No More Forever, where a lifetime of fighting or a defining violent event finally makes the character refuse to be a combatant any longer. See also Gaining the Will to Kill.

No Real Life Examples, Please! Given the nature of the trope, this can get controversial real quick.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Dragon Ball: Gohan is faced with Cell, a biological menace that will destroy the Earth if he cannot kill him, but he's a pacifist and doesn't want to fight in the first place. Cell would've killed everyone if not for a speech by the decapitated head of Android 16. This speech and the immediate murder of 16 at the hands of Cell drive out the rage in Gohan, causing to him erupt into Super Saiyan 2 and beat the absolute shit out of Cell.
  16: Gohan, let it go. It is not a sin to fight for the right cause. There are those who words alone will not reach. Cell is such a being. You are gentle. You do not like to hurt. I know because I too have learned these feelings. But it is because you cherish life that you must protect it. Please drop your restraints. Protect the life I loved. You have the strength, my scanners sensed it. Just... let it go.
• Martian Successor Nadesico: With the realization that the "Jovian Lizards" were not only human beings, but also fans of Gekigengar III, Yurika, Akito, and the others thought that they could extend an olive branch to the Jovians. This was further aided by the fact that Tsukomo Shiratori, an emissary of the Jovians, was friendly, cordial, and "jovial". They arranged a meeting with the Jovian High Command, where the Jovians revealed a series of "Non-negotiable" and unreasonable terms, demanding concessions from Earth while making none of their own. Shiratori protests, saying that he has come to realize that Earthlings are not evil, and love Gekigengar as well, and that the message of the show is that there is only one true righteous path. The Jovian commander agrees, but not in the way Shiratori expects, and the Jovian commander has him shot as a traitor. The members of the Earth delegation escape back to the Nadesico, where Yurika gives an order to fire the PT Cannon. Ruri, asks if she's sure, knowing that at this point, firing the cannon would be an irrevocable act of war and an admission that peace wouldn't be possible. Ultimately subverted in the finale, as just as both sides are mounting for war, the Nadesico swipes an ancient relic that made the boson jumping and chulip gates possible, and send it as far away as they can, or, as Ruri puts it, "Earth and Jupiter won't be able to do much but glare at each other for awhile".
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Played With. Kira Yamato is a Martial Pacifist through and through, preferring to use his words to talk down his enemies as opposed to killing them, just wanting peace in the world. But being a Gundam anime where people are more willing to kill than he ever will, this rarely works in his favor, if at all. By the time he receives the Freedom Gundam and re-evaluates himself, he Takes a Third Option where he chooses to fight in order to prevent more tragedies in his life and maintain his pacifist nature at the same time, by opting to disable the enemy Mobile Suits without harming the pilot instead of outright killing. This is later Played Straight when Rau Le Creuset kills Flay Allster just to make him suffer, enraging Kira enough to temporarily abandon his pacifist nature in their final duel and straight up kill him, ensuring that someone like him cannot threaten mankind again.
• The titular character of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water starts the series as a staunch pacifist to the point of chewing Nemo for killing a Neo Atlantis soldier who was shooting at her. However, her meeting Gargoyle and Emperor Neo and her hearing their anti-human speeches made her say she wanted to kill Neo.
  Nadia: That's a very sad fate, since all I really wanna do is destroy you.
• Trigun: Vash the Stampede is known for both his tremendous gun skills and for being a Badass Pacifist who never tries to kill the people who are out for his head. However, the setting is highly cynical, and his pacifism doesn't always work out in his favor, due to all of the collateral damage caused by others' pursuit of him and attracting more attention and potential enemies. He still insists on sticking by his pacifist ways, but despite it all, Legato Bluesummers, one of the major villains in the story, forces a scenario where Vash has to shoot and kill Legato in order to save his close friends Meryl and Milly, with Legato using his string powers to invoke Suicide by Cop, which leads to Vash suffering a big Heroic BSoD as Legato intended. However, he eventually recovers and even manages to successfully defeat the Big Bad, Millions Knives, without killing him.

Comic Books

• Kingdom Come: Wonder Woman shows a degree of alarm when Superman, of all people, who had been advocating for trying to reason with and teach the younger metahumans, closes his eyes and says, "We are at war."
• Old Man Logan: Logan completes an epic journey across America to get the money he needs to save his family from the Hulk Gang, all without popping his claws (which he hasn't done since being tricked into killing his fellow X-Men), or using lethal force (except against Red Skull, who barely counts as a human being). When he returns home, he finds the Hulks have murdered his family just because they got bored. As a friend counsels him not to seek revenge, he responds that his name isn't Logan anymore:
  *SNIKT*
  Logan: It's Wolverine.

Film — Live-Action

• Paul Kelsey of Death Wish was a conscientious objector during The Korean War. After his wife Joanna was murdered and his daughter Carol brutally gang raped, Paul turns into a nighttime urban vigilante shooting criminals in the streets of New York and other cities.
• Rambo IV: Downplayed. Michael the missionary leader is a committed pacifist highly disgusted by Rambo's extremely violent dispossessing of a bunch of thugs Rambo was hired to protect them from, yet at the end, he is pushed to bash an enemy's head in with a rock to save the life of another man. Rambo nods approvingly.
• The Shaolin Temple: Jue Yuen, a young orphan raised in the titular temple and trained since birth to follow rules of pacifism, no matter what happens, eventually gives in to violence when trying to stop soldiers from the Imperial Army from raping a young girl. At this point, he retrieves a sword from one of the army mooks and begins taking names.
  Jue Yuan: Let the heavens decide your fate!

Literature

• In The City Who Fought, Dr. Chaundra takes his profession seriously. Tasked with creating a Synthetic Plague based on the flu to hopefully keep Space Pirates from the Space Station where he lives, he says that he's sworn an oath to never harm another human and feels guilty about even this. The Space Pirates are a Human Subspecies barely affected by the flu and invade the station, quickly proving themselves to be horrifically cruel to station residents. Dr. Chaundra promptly decides that they don't count as human and makes a much more lethal disease which he and the other stationers spread like a Karmic STD.
• Halo: Broken Circle: When the separatist Ussan colony is discovered by the Covenant empire, the Prophet of Inner Conviction Mken 'Scre'ah'ben attempts to negotiate with rebel leader Ussa 'Xellus and the Ussans to surrender peacefully before the Covenant could wipe them all out, but the latter values their independence. Ussa demands the Covenant leave them in peace and offers valuable relics as payment for their freedom, but the Covenant cannot bear to show anyone subverting their rule. Thus the two realize over the course of their debate that either side has no choice but to go to war. In the end, the Ussans opt to fake blowing up their colony while surviving in hiding. Mken notices hints of their escape, but as he sympathizes with their cause, he decides to keep it secret.
• Honor Harrington: After the People's Republic of Haven finally overthrows its totalitarian leadership and restores itself as the Republic of Haven, the new government is left having to deal with a number of issues left over from the previous one, not the least of which is the war with the Star Kingdom of Manticore, which is on pause but has not officially ended. For months, newly inaugurated President Eloise Pritchard, along with her secretary of state Arnold Giancola, try to hammer out an actual peace treaty. Unbeknownst to Pritchard, Giancola has been secretly altering the messages just before they are sent to Manticore in an effort to undermine her administration. As such, Manticore consistently rejects what she believes to be reasonable terms, causing her to become more and more frustrated. One final message is composed, and again, Giancola alters it to be unpalatable to the Manticorans, who again reject it. He realizes he miscalculated when Pritchard, believing there is no further point in talking if Manticore is not going to take the peace process seriously, orders the immediate resumption of military action.
• The Wheel of Time: The Tuatha'an are Actual Pacifists who won't do violence even to defend themselves. However, one of their number, Aram, abandons this philosophy after he sees Trollocs kill his mother. He becomes an excellent swordsman, but his choice and the loss of his community cause serious Sanity Slippage.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5:
  • The episode "The Coming of Shadows" tragically plays with this. As the Centauri emperor comes for a State Visit to the station, G'Kar is up in arms about it, until the emperor gets the message to him that he was coming to apologize for all the atrocities the Centauri committed against the Narns. This makes G'Kar believe for the first time in his life that peace between their peoples may actually be possible to the point he actually has Ambassador Mollari join him for a drink, unaware that Londo has just sent a force to attack and occupy a Narn colony. When G'Kar hears of it, he flies into a rage, storming toward Londo's quarters, stopped only when Captain Sheridan and a force of security stand in his way. Later, he arrives in the council chambers and solemnly announces the Narn Regime has declared war on the Centauri Republic.
    G'Kar: The time for peace has passed. We are now at war. We are now at war.
  • Summed up in Ivanova's closing narration in the Season 2 finale:
    Ivanova: It was the end of the Earth year 2259, and the war was upon us. As anticipated, a few days after the Earth-Centauri treaty was announced, the Centauri widened their war to include many of the Non-Aligned Worlds. And there was another war brewing closer to home, a personal one whose cost would be higher than any of us could imagine. We came to this place because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259, we knew that it had failed. But in so doing, it became something greater. As the war expanded, it became our last best hope... for victory. Because sometimes, peace is another word for surrender. And because secrets have a way of getting out.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "The End of Time", it's revealed that the reason why the Doctor ended the Time War by committing genocide against both the Daleks and the Time Lords was because the Time Lords, desperate to win at all costs, were plotting to destroy all of existence itself so that they could Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Consequently, he realized that there was no way that the Time War could end peacefully, and that unless both sides were completely eradicated, the winner would render all other worlds to ash.
  • In "The Night of the Doctor", the Eighth Doctor is killed when trying to save a pilot caught in the crossfire of the Time War. Said pilot, upon learning that the Doctor is a Time Lord, intentionally crashes her ship on the surface of Karn so that both of them die, viewing the rest of the Time Lords as no different than the Daleks. When the Sisterhood of Karn revive the Doctor, he realizes that the Time War has progressed to a point where neither side's victory would restore peace to the universe, and thus decides to regenerate into a warrior when given the option. The resulting War Doctor incarnation then sheds the mantle of "the Doctor" and decides to take the Time War into his own hands.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The United Federation of Planets has spent centuries avoiding war, including at significant diplomatic cost during events told during Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, in "Call to Arms", Captain Sisko observes the Dominion continuing their military buildup in Cardassia and learns they've been building alliances and non-aggression pacts with various nations in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and concludes that they are intent on conquering the Federation and its allies no matter what. As a result, the Federation switches strategies, and Sisko is ordered to lay Space Mines over the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole to cut the supply line - knowing full well that this means starting the war themselves.
  Odo: If we try to stop those convoys, it may very well start a war.
  Sisko: Maybe so. But one thing is certain. We're losing the peace, which means a war could be our only hope.
• The NBC miniseries World War III has Soviet hardliners stage an incursion into Alaska, aiming to sever the oil pipeline. American President McKenna and Soviet Premiere Gorny are at loggerheads trying to defuse the situation, but neither wants to begin total nuclear warfare. However, at the brink of launch, President McKenna gets on the hotline to Moscow, where General Rudinski informs him the Premiere Gorny is "indisposed." The President is no fool: he knows Rudinski and his hardliners have ousted Premiere Gorny, with no intention of standing down. The President sits agonized with head in hands, asking for God's mercy, before declaring, "Def Con One."

Music

• In the Kenny Rogers song Coward of the County, Tommy has been instilled with pacifism due to his father's teachings since childhood. But when Becky, Tommy's love, was raped by the Gatlin boys and they mock him when he goes to confront them at the bar, his pacifism leaves him as he locks the door so that there is no escape, and then beats the excrement out of them.
  "I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you've done
  I walk away from trouble when I can
  Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek
  And Papa, I should hope you understand
  Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man
  Everyone considered him the coward of the county"

Video Games

• Dragalia Lost: Mascula is a Rogue Drone who starts to understand how his kind are programmed for fighting and desires to try to avoid violence by any means necessary. After Mascula gives Laxi, a fellow droid, his heart, Laxi, Luca, and Euden give him a talk in that, when you're facing monsters and people who continue to bring suffering and refuse to change, fighting is the way to bring peace. ^note  Mascula's core component is his heart, so when he gave it to Laxi, it just put his body out of commission. He's still alive, but he now resides within Laxi's body. Mascula agrees to help them fight, although he is still reluctant about it. After a while, though, he gets accustomed to fighting, and by the time Mascula gets a new body, he is able to fight by himself, all for the name of peace.
• For most of God of War Ragnarök, Kratos, of all people, has spent most of the game being a Martial Pacifist, fighting to defend himself whilst simultaneously trying to prevent going to war against Asgard and triggering Ragnarok, due to fear that he'd end up destroying the nine realms like he destroyed Greece in his past vendetta against Zeus. Even when forced into a confrontation with Heimdall, he doesn't want to kill him like he was foretold to, but eventually has to do it anyway because Heimdall kept attacking him and threatening to kill his son. Towards the climax of the game, however, Odin makes a dangerously personal attack against the former Ghost of Sparta and his new allies by stabbing Brok to death right in front of him and declaring that because of what Kratos did to Heimdall, they will have a war now. At this point, Kratos finally realizes that because of Odin's actions, they will have to kill him to end his tyrannical rule and take revenge. And Kratos is not happy about it, seeing as how he has tried so hard to walk away from a lifetime of unsatisfactory revenge.
• Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest is mostly pacifistic (though Sein does help with fending off enemies) and doesn't fight Gumo or Kuro, even before Ori learns the latter had lost her children and is trying to protect her remaining egg, which is why she is hunting Ori down. Come Ori and the Will of the Wisps, where the titular hero ends up having to abandon their pacifism and fight Shriek after the latter turns down Ori's kindness when she is knocked down by Seir.
• Throughout Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Optimus Prime tries to appeal to Megatron to stop the Civil War that ravaged their dying home planet of Cybertron and seek a peaceful resolution between them, even though Megatron not only brushes him off twice, but blame Optimus for being the cause of the whole thing (Despite the latter being the actual cause). By the end of the game, Optimus delivers this Pre-Asskicking One-Liner towards Megatron before their fight, making it clear that peace between them is no longer possible:
  Optimus: After eons of conflict, I finally see the truth of your words, Megatron.
  Megatron: And what might that be, Optimus? *Draws his sword to deliver the final blow*
  Optimus: *Stops Megatron's sword mid-swing* This universe, no matter how vast, will never be big enough for you and I to co-exist!
• World of Warcraft: Anduin Wrynn has always been one to search for peaceful solutions, both as the prince of Stormwind, which sometimes placed him at odds with his more militant father, and then as king himself. When the Horde under Sylvanas Windrunner attacks Night Elf territory in Kalimdor, and especially when she has their capital of Teldrassil burned, slaughtering countless inhabitants within it, he realizes peace is no longer possible and mobilizes the Alliance for war.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Played With in regards to Noah. For most of his life, he has done nothing but fight, since it is believed that everyone is required to live by doing nothing but fight for their entire lives of 10 years (It's a Long Story). Even then, Noah absolutely hates it and desires to find a way to live in peace. It's only after he becomes an Ouroboros that he finds out that there really is a way for people to live in peace. However, said way involves defeating and killing Moebius. Noah does not want to fight them, but early on in the game, he realizes just how horrible the Moebius are, as the Forever War that Keves and Agnus are locked in is nothing but a game to them, and the souls of the deceased are used to power them up. It's at this moment that Noah realizes that Moebius must be stopped in order to free the people from their clutches, as he and his friends kill Moebius K and free the people of Colony 4.

Western Animation

• Looney Tunes: In The Ducktators, an allegory on the rise of the Axis Powers, a peace-loving dove attempts to halt the warlike behavior of a trio of foul-minded fowl through compromise. But when his efforts get him nowhere (and is literally trod on by the ducks), he decides enough is enough and leads a violent revolt against them.
  Dove: I hate war, but once begun... Well, I just didn't choose to run.
• Played With in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In the episode "Heroes On Both Sides", Separatist senator Mina Bonteri puts forward a proposal for peace negotiations with the Galactic Republic to end the Clone War - a proposal which is accepted by the Separatist Senate and publicly favored by Count Dooku. While the Republic votes to agree to peace, a Separatist bombing attack on the Republic's power grid and subsequent Republic retaliation against the Separatists resulting in Bonteri's death makes both sides renege on the negotiations, with an aghast Dooku formally announcing to the Republic that the peace talks are off as a result in the following episode. However, it was revealed that Dooku was never going to allow peace between the Republic and the Separatists to begin with, as he himself was responsible for both incidents from the get-go in order to sabotage the negotiations on both sides and keep the fighting going.
• Steven Universe: Near the end of the episode "Bismuth", Bismuth offers Steven the Breaking Point, a weapon that can shatter Gems and permanently destroy them. Steven refuses to take it, saying that it's not right to shatter a Gem. This makes Bismuth utterly furious, and she attacks him, revealing that Steven's mother Rose did the same and refused to use the weapon, and it led to a fight between them that leads to Rose defeating Bismuth and hiding her away in stasis for thousands of years. Despite Steven's attempts to talk Bismuth down, he cannot, and is ultimately forced to stab her with Rose's sword before she kills him.
• Transformers: Prime: Though he has no issue with fighting or killing his opponents, Optimus Prime has tried to convince multiple Decepticons - namely Starscream and Skyquake, and later the latter's twin, Dreadwing - to stray from Megatron's destructive path and seek a peaceful end to their ongoing war, all of which have either fell on deaf ears or were rejected outright. During the first season's three-part finale after Megatron nearly kills Raf, the youngest of the show's human companions, Optimus is forced to come to terms with the fact that neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons will ever reconcile peacefully this late into the war, and the only way to effectively bring it to an end is to kill Megatron the second he gets the chance, as seen with the page quote above.

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