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Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Bad guys aren't usually pacifists, technical or otherwise. Even if their goals don't necessarily require force (such as embezzlement or fraud), then there's still a good chance they either resort to violence or indicate that violence is a desirable option for them ("You cross me, you're finished.") in the course of the story. Being any sort of pacifist is a sign the villain is an Anti-Villain, Harmless Villain, or at least Affably Evil.

Please list only aversions and subversions. Compare and Contrast The Unfought, where the villain may or may not be pacifist, but the main character never fights him.


Aversions and Subversions:[]

Anime and Manga[]

  • Aiber from Death Note is a conman who absolutely abhors violence of any kind.
  • Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena avoids violence to the last moment, preferring to talk his victims down. He only grabs a sword personally when the heroine leaves him absolutely no choice, and even then he leaves the coup de grace to his sister.

Comic Books[]

  • Ozymandias of Watchmen is said to be a pacifist and a vegetarian, although his final plan for world peace isn't exactly non-violent. However, this being Watchmen, he's really more of an Anti-Villain, and whether what he does is considered "evil" is open to interpretation.
    • Rorschach does point out that Hitler was also a vegetarian, averting Hitler Ate Sugar while reinforcing this trope.
    • Not totally pacifistic, as he was also a former super hero.
    • He also fought the Comedian, but was beaten.

Literature[]

  • Overlapping with A Million Is a Statistic, the Komarran terrorists of the Vorkosigan Saga novel Komarr are pleasant, non-violent intellectuals who are very distressed when they inadvertently cause the death of a colleague and the other deaths they cause in the novel are similarly accidental. They are also oblivious to the fact that their plan to cut off all interplanetary travel to Barrayar would kill millions of people via starvation and technological collapse.
  • The Sword of Truth infamously has evil pacifists, although they are closer to a different trope.
  • Moist von Lipwig prided himself on never even carrying a weapon. However, he is more of a Loveable Rogue than truly evil, and his Evil Counterpart in the first book did have a lot of people killed, even if he didn't do it himself. Nevertheless, his Golem parole officer claimed that he had killed 3 and a bit people overall because his crimes indirectly hastened many people's deaths.
    • His refusal to carry weapons is not strictly because he's a pacifist, though. He dislikes carrying a weapon because doing so sends the message "if I have to, I WILL fight you", while he would prefer to never raise the stakes that high in the first place. (Basically, carrying a weapon means you are prepared to use it, which, in turn, invites others to use weapons against you. Probably bigger and sharper ones, too.)
  • In Animorphs, David is a Technical Pacifist. He refuses to kill any humans, but is fine with killing people that have shapeshifted into animals. It is later suggested that he might have broken this code to murder Jake's cousin, but since he had already been badly injured in an accident, David might have simply stopped him from getting treatment and left him to die of his own injuries, which by his twisted morality still wouldn't be murder.
  • Subverted in the Left Behind novels, at least initially; Nicolae Capathia starts his political career as an outspoken pacifist pushing for global disarmament.

Movies[]

  • In Spider-Man 3, Sandman tries to talk Spider-Man out of battling him.
  • Grima Wormtongue in The Two Towers is notably in favour of peace ... or at least of Rohan refraining from military action.

Video Games[]