Thou shalt not kill."
Ending a life is a permanent thing.note There's no way to say "I'm sorry", or to make up for it later. And for some people, killing is a line they will not cross, no matter how much the death might serve the greater good (or, in some cases, the greater evil). "He needed killing" is not in these people's vocabulary.
This is common in works with Black-and-White Morality, but even appears in works with Grey-and-Gray Morality. In the latter, it's sometimes the only way to tell the "good" guys from the "bad" guys. It may also inform Appropriate Levels of Violence.
Opinions differ on how this applies to sentient life other than humans, or indeed whether it is always more heroic to spare lives. In general, it's still up to villains to kill other villains when pulling off a Villainous Rescue. It's perfectly fine to "kill" immortals though as it is to kill the undead. The Mercy Kill sometimes winds up as an exception. Karmic Death, Self-Disposing Villain, and Hoist by His Own Petard provide alternate ways to kill off villains without forcing the heroes to get their hands dirty.
Thou Shalt Not Kill is closely related to Joker Immunity. Whilst many writers believe a never-kill creed makes the hero more likable and righteous, on another level it might simply be a plot device to prevent the hero from killing off popular recurring villains: the rationale is that if a hero, say, Superman were to kill a bad guy in one story, why wouldn't he simply resolve all of his problems by, for example, incinerating Lex Luthor with his heat vision on sight? Related is Pacifism Backfire, where their reluctance to fight (or to kill as in this trope) may cause Joker Immunity. This trope is more common in serial fiction, such as TV shows and comic books, rather than one-shots like movies. In action movies it is common and acceptable for the hero to kill the villain because there is usually no planned sequel for the villain to appear in. It's also somewhat common for both stand alone and serial storytelling to feature a character who begins adhering to this trope, but over the course of various dramatic devices, such as a Trauma Conga Line, is finally forced to — or chooses to — cross the line.
With superhero characters, attitudes toward no-kill policies range from utterly ignoring it (such as the Main Characters of Watchmen), to treating it as a preferred outcome (such as Superman), to strict adherence to it in all cases (such as Batman). Whatever the moral case is, this trope is often used to show off the hero's incredible precision, whether it be with a fist or a gun. This can include things like separating the mook from their weapon with a precisely aimed bullet, or possibly knocking an opponent out. Whatever the case, their non-lethal attacks are due to their incredible skill. Note that this often a case of Reality Is Unrealistic as many of these attacks are very capable of causing serious injury or death.
If this trope is used poorly, it can risk leading to audiences seeing heroes holding onto this code as too naive or stubborn due to not accepting that there are villains too dangerous to be left alive and possibly lead to the story's Villain Killers looking more heroic than heroes who swear by non-lethal force.
"Thou shalt not kill" is derived from the sixth (or fifth, in both the Catholic and Lutheran cases) of The Bible's Ten Commandments
, and the religious implications of taking life in apparent violation of this commandment (which is often translated as "Thou shalt not murder," which results in debates over semantics)note are sometimes also invoked in storytelling.
Sub-Trope to No-Harm Requirement where characters for one reason or another are restricted in how much harm they can deal to or allow another being to take, if any. Also very frequently a form of Heroic Vow, though villains can take this stance too as a form of Even Evil Has Standards. The Atoner may decide to adhere to this, explaining moments when the Killer Incapacitates Instead.
See also Ape Shall Never Kill Ape, Kick Them While They Are Down, Actual Pacifist, Reckless Pacifist, Technical Pacifist, Martial Pacifist, Non-Lethal Warfare, Would Not Shoot a Good Guy, Can't Default to Murder, Won Over by Earnestness, and Restrained Revenge. Often goes hand in hand with Doesn't Like Guns, because of the lethal connotations that firearms carry. For a similar trope in video games, see Pacifist Run.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Film — Animated
- Film — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Western Animation
- Real Life
Other examples:
- Popeye: In the storyline which introduces Bluto, Popeye has to use his most powerful punch, and is extremely worried about Bluto's survival. This happened in 1932, before either Marvel or DC was even founded.
- The Red Panda and Flying Squirrel of Red Panda Adventures go out of their way to avoid using lethal force. Though the Red Panda owns a katana, for example, he won't take it into battle so as to not even have the option. They fight with fists, gadgets, and hypnosis. They aren't as firmly wedded to it as other superheroes with a "no killing" code, however. They can and will employ lethal force if the situation calls for it. Fighting non-living foes such as Professor Zombie's undead minions naturally falls into this, but the pair have also been willing to kill if the entire city, or even world is at stake, such as killing the Nazi Ubermensch, Tevas, to keep him away from the Normandy invasion. The one thing that will make either the Red Panda and Flying Squirrel outright abandon this edict is if a villain seems to have killed one or the other. A developing Villain Team-Up decides against killing the Squirrel to get to the Red Panda precisely because they know it will.
- The Lone Ranger, in some ways a precursor to Vash, used silver bullets as a symbol of his pledge never to take human life.
- In George Carlin's routine on The Ten Commandments, he ends with this one, claiming that religion has never really had a problem with murder, since more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason. He concludes that it really comes down to who's doing the killing and who's getting killed. He decides it should be renamed "Thou shalt try really hard not to kill anyone, unless they pray to a different invisible man from the one you pray to."
- "Code vs. Killing" is one of the most commonly seen Psychological Limitations in Champions, usually bought as "total commitment" (i.e. the character can't bring him- or herself to kill at all and won't stand idly by while others do it either). Normal people are already assumed to be "reluctant to kill" by default (being Ax-Crazy would be its own different Limitation); the code, if taken, is intended to go beyond well beyond that to proper comic book levels. Of course, being a Limitation that you get points for, it's also supposed to cause your character trouble from time to time.
- Some Superhero RPGs would invoke rules against killing. Two notable examples were Marvel Super Heroes and DC Heroes, which would eliminate all Karma/Hero Points (a combination of experience points, and self-boosting reserves for various tasks) and keep you from accumulating more for the rest of the adventure (usually one night of gaming). In DC heroes, this punishment came from using lethal force at all.
- Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space has this as part of its rules. While killing in self-defense, though unfortunate, is acceptable, killing without reason is cause for a player to lose all of their character's Story Points. If it's particularly cruel or needless (shooting an unarmed, restrained noncombatant), everyone else at the table loses half their Story Points as punishment for not having stopped them!
- Dungeons & Dragons has the Book of Exalted Deeds, which contains the feat "Vow of Peace". It grants benefits as long as you don't inflict lethal damage, allow an ally to finish off a defeated opponent, or cause similar harm to a creature. The book mentions some adherents of the vow drinking water through a strainer to avoid harming an insect by swallowing it (though it also requests that the DM not use the vow as an excuse to be a jackass to their players). It doesn't really make you a pacifist, technical or actual, though; you can still fight all you want, as long as you never inflict lethal damage, and the vow specifically does not cover constructs or undead creatures.
- GURPS has the Pacifist disadvantage, which comes in several flavors, one of which is Cannot Kill. Characters with the "Cannot Kill" disadvantage can start fights and use any tactics they like, but they cannot kill, or be responsible for a death, or leave a wounded enemy to die. They also cannot stand by while their teammates administer the Coup de Grâce. If they do, they angst about it for days and are effectively rendered useless to the team.
- Old World of Darkness:
- Lifesaver is a 3 point flaw that makes you unwilling to take life. Pacifist is a 5 point flaw and is taken literally — the character can do no physical harm to others.
- A chapter in Sins of the Blood advises a vampire seeking Golconda to refuse to kill humans for any reason. This is less strict with vampires, however: The section mentions that wights (whose Karma Meter has zeroed and who have become no more than animals) are best given a Mercy Kill, and it also includes a letter (implied to be from the viewpoint character's mentor) advising him that he shouldn't feel guilty about killing a bunch of Sabbat to protect the mortals they were attacking, because the shovelheads chose their path.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse: There seems to be some flipflop here in the backstory.
- Explicitly averted, unexpected for a relatively lighthearted superhero setting. None of the heroes seem to have any compunction about killing, and Spite's Agent of Gloom promo bio explicitly says Wraith kills him by firing a razor-bladed weapon through his head. The flavor text for Wraith's Razor Ordnance — probably the same weapon — even has her quoting Ra's Al Ghul's answer to the no-killing rule: "Compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share." That said, the fact that other heroes are uncomfortable calling in Fanatic for help against "mundane" criminals like bankrobbers implies that they favor a sort of "proportionate response" to crimefighting.
- The official story states that Wraith could not bring herself to kill Spite and that Parse finished him off when she couldn't. Similarly, Iron Legacy came about because Legacy's refusal to kill Baron Blade, resulted in him eventually killing off Young Legacy.
- Bunker implicitly shoots people in his solo comics as a Military Superhero with at least four guns, but spent a good chunk of his time with the Freedom Five relishing the chance to cut loose against the aliens and robots who The Comics Code will actually let him shoot.
- BIONICLE plays with this a lot, with this principle starting to be subverted as the series went on and gradually became okay with explicitly mentioning death.
- Most of the Toa — primarily the main characters of any given Story Arc — take this rule very seriously. A lot of this is rooted in pragmatism, as they act as guardians to the Matoran, they adopt the rule to preserve their trust. There is a level of What Measure Is a Non-Human? as they're willing to destroy the various robots, Animated Armor, and mind-controlled wildlife the villains throw at them, but the Toa will generally only kill a sentient opponent when given no other alternative, such as in wartime or when facing extreme threats.
Vakama: Toa aren't killers. If we were, we would have started with you.
- The minor character Zaria (the sole remaining Toa of Iron) demonstrates what happens when the oath is broken — after being forced to kill a Makuta in self-defense, he disappeared for millenia out of guilt, and rumors proliferated for years that he had a habit of murdering all his enemies.
- There are also several full-on exceptions: Toa Helryx — the very first Toa in existence — came before the Toa established this as a rule, and has opted to not comply with it, forming the Order of Mata Nui to serve in dirty work for the rest of the heroes in secret. There's also Toa Tuyet (who was murderously corrupt), and Toa Ignika nearly fell into this as well (being an Emergent Toa acting entirely on emotional instinct).
- Most of the Toa — primarily the main characters of any given Story Arc — take this rule very seriously. A lot of this is rooted in pragmatism, as they act as guardians to the Matoran, they adopt the rule to preserve their trust. There is a level of What Measure Is a Non-Human? as they're willing to destroy the various robots, Animated Armor, and mind-controlled wildlife the villains throw at them, but the Toa will generally only kill a sentient opponent when given no other alternative, such as in wartime or when facing extreme threats.
- Explored at length in Fate/stay night to contrast Shirou Emiya, a teenager who stumbles into the fifth Holy Grail War by accident, to his adoptive father Kiritsugu, who used to be a hardened killer prior to the ending of the fourth Holy Grail War:
- In the Fate route, if Shirou withdraws from the war, he uses this trope as his reasoning, proclaiming that he'll never put himself in a position where he has to kill someone else. This blows up in his face since Illyasviel hunts him down anyway, but even if you avoid the bad ending by having him join the war, he shows a clear reluctance to actively seek out conflict, something which frustrates Saber to the point that she tries to sneak off to Ryuudou Temple without his permission. Saber herself has no issues with killing, provided she doesn't hurt any innocents, so it says a lot when it's revealed that even she was put off by Kiritsugu's unscrupulous ruthlessness, something explored at greater length in Fate/Zero. Ultimately, Shirou turns out to be perfectly fine with killing Servants, but hesitates in killing enemy masters such as Shinji (who's later killed by Illya instead) or Illya herself (who proceeds to surrender after Berserker's death). When it comes to the final battle against Kotomine Kirei, however, Shirou does end up killing him without hesitation.
- In Unlimited Blade Works, Shirou will automatically join the war without the need for player input, but he still shows a reluctance towards actively seeking out conflict. In this route, because Rin doesn't immediately ally with him, she adopts her own no-kill rule against Shirou (reflected in a bad ending where he loses to her; instead of finishing him off, she simply wipes his memories). When Shirou faces off against Caster and Souichirou, he eventually gets a choice on whether to stop Souichirou from attempting a suicidal charge against Archer (Souichirou dies either way). Unlike with Fate, Shirou never actually gets to kill any enemy masters thanks to Kirei dying by Lancer's hands instead, causing Gilgamesh to ascend as the route's Big Bad.
- Heaven's Feel explores this alongside The Needs of the Many. After The Reveal that Sakura's a Grail experiment housing an existential evil that's taken many lives, Shirou is forced to choose between saving Sakura whatever the cost, or sacrificing her for the greater good. Letting Sakura die leads to the infamous "Mind of Steel" bad ending, where Shirou becomes a ruthless killer on par with how Kiritsugu used to be. Saving Sakura leads to him prioritizing her over the innocent lives her very existence puts at risk, and even then Shirou has to resort to some ruthless measures, such as personally killing the Grail-corrupted form of his Servant, Saber Alter.
- Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is an interesting case where it both espouses said philosophy and utterly tears it apart. While seeking to avoid killing is an admirable thing, the world is usually too chaotic for something like that to be applied in practice, especially if one tries to be the usual moral hero. If you keep getting yourself involved in conflict, while you might be able to diffuse some situations peacefully, most of the time people are gonna get hurt or die because of your actions. If you truly believe that killing is unthinkable, then the best option you have is to metaphorically sheath your sword and walk away. Additionally, the reasons for not killing can be just as important as the act itself. Are you adverse to killing cause you think murder is a horrible act, or are you simply trying to claim moral superiority by not staining your own hands with blood? The conflict between these two ways of thinking about the same idea forms the core plot for the main character.
- Given its nature as a satire of and homage to superhero stories, this is examined at length in Henchman Story. Punch-Clock Villain Stan starts out by having this as one of the few standards he sticks to, which works out well for him since his ineffectual boss, Lord Bedlam, isn't the kind of man to go around getting people killed either. Once Bedlam's entanglement with HenchCan leads to its CEO Madame Scorpion entering the story, however, Stan's options begin to change, since Scorpion made her name as an assassin, and is very open about her willingness, and even eagerness, to keep killing anyone in her way. Scorpion is opposed by Shining Nova and Crimson Dynamo, two superheroes who also have a code against killing, but even their commitment to the code can waver depending on Stan's choices, with Nova's backup plan should she get captured explicitly geared towards blowing up Scorpion's supercomputer chamber and taking her down along with it.
- Luna in Virtue's Last Reward never, ever picks "Betray", which can kill a person if their BP gets low enough. Justified, since she's Three Laws-Compliant.
- In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja Mongo the superninja has learned the preciousness of life. And also that fire bad.
- Demon Fist:
- The Demon Fist almost never kills humans or peaceful demons, even (especially!) Mooks.
- Neither does the Hookshot crew. This pays off for them later.
Duncan: Your crew fought off all my men without killing any of them. Criminals would not have wasted the effort not to kill their attackers. I can't in good conscience take you all in simply for defending yourselves. - Erika and the Princes in Distress : Averted. After attacking Glucose, Erika is actually surprised that he survived the hit. She later gets so furious at him that she starts strangling him with the clear intent of killing him, only stopping herself at the last second when realizing Pita wouldn't approve.
- Girl Genius: The leader of the conspiracy in the science dome in England makes the mistaken assumption that as a hero Tarvek holding a gun to him and his compatriot is just for intimidation and he won't actually kill them. Tarvek proves him wrong near instantaneously.
Tarvek: I've never really considered myself the "hero" type.
- Decoy Octopus of The Last Days of FOXHOUND passes The Sorrow's test because he has never killed anyone and thus has no one to face. The Sorrow is very surprised and Octopus just shrugs, claiming he's more suited for espionage than fighting.
- Averted in Nixvir. Since his characterisation is in part drawn from heroes whose stories were told before Christianity was formally adopted as a religion, Erik does not have this restraint. He has absolutely no problem killing somebody if that individual just so happens to be a morally-reprehensible person who just needs to be killed for the greater good. It helps that he's very good at fighting with a sword and can use one if the necessity arises, despite being a living snowman.
- Schlock Mercenary: Petey avoids killing if at all possible, and at one point refuses to let a spy go back home because she'll just get needlessly mind-ripped. After the oafans give everyone immortality, he starts going to truly absurd lengths to avoid killing, like teraporting entire fleets that are in the middle of a massive fight. As he says, he can't be sure these people will still be his enemies in hundreds or thousands of years, so killing anyone is like killing future allies.
- In Sluggy Freelance, Torg made Oasis swear one of these vows. She sorta forgets it for a while and becomes an All Crimes Are Equal vigilante. When she remembers, she cries, "I've broken my promise! There can be no wedding! Why does love bring me nothing but pain?" Ironically, Torg himself doesn't really subscribe to this philosophy, as he was perfectly willing to go in guns blazing and swords swinging during "The Stormbreaker Saga" and "Dangerous Days" arcs.
- Shortly after 9/11, The Onion reported that God held a press conference to remind everyone exactly what He meant by "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
