Friday DE

[bjornwilde]

How does your pup view killing? Is it something they can do? Is it easy for them or a last resort? How do they feel about it afterwards? Do they just go on with their life or are they haunted? Have they actually killed before?

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X is indifferent to killing. She is aware that's not the best, but feels that enjoying it is worse. If she ever enjoys it she will quit. But currently it's useful not to be hurt by it, so she can do the hard stuff that would harm her fellow X-men/superheroes. She's killed so many people it's ridiculous. Thanks, canon.

Ysalwen gets angry when she thinks killing is necessary. She'll do it, and she won't hesitate anymore, but there was definitely a learning curve especially when it came to killing people, and it still haunts her dreams and nightmares. It's why she can easily see herself becoming a monster, perhaps even without a demon being involved. She just can't retire, either, because the world of Thedas is such a fucking mess.

Diana views killing as an occasional necessity but only in the most adverse circumstances and when all other options have been fully exhausted. She doesn't enjoy it, in fact she hates it, but with people like Maxwell Lord or a few others -- what other option have they left anyone? She prefers to extend the open hand of peace rather than a closed fist or a blade, honestly.

Sombra only kills people that get in her way when she's in a hurry! Um.

Thrawn is a warrior, and to defend what is his, or to do his job, he'll kill anyone and everyone. Even people on his own side who disobey his orders and get in the way. *sigh*

Flemeth gets hungry sometimes, or is occasionally surrounded by stupid people, especially men. Shit happens.

[annalalaith]

Daniel doesn't like it, he does, however, understand that sometimes it can't be avoided. I don't think he's haunted by it so much anymore, but it would depend on the situation.

The Count- he likes it. And he sees it as necessary anyway because well you know.

Guide- As a young man he doesn't really see humans as people so when it comes to human life, he's not bothered eating people. He does value the lives of other Wraith, but there is an expectation that many of them will die. He's not even sure if he will live long himself. Though killing other Wraith is taboo but okay if it is between warring factions, that during this war isn't so much thing. As an older man he's learned to appreciate humans as people, and will kill other Wraith without hesitation when in battle. He still values the lives of his men, and his daughter and her son, but I doubt he's haunted by any killing he's ever done.

Vala sees killing a lot like Daniel, and is a little more apt to do it.

Wil- Does not like it at all, and yes would be haunted by it.

Death- .... well, he is Death.

Tass- I have to think about this one. I don't think he is really okay with killing outside of hunting for food- as in hunting animals.

Am I missing anyone?

[just_cant_lose]

Jim has done it, will do it, and never gives a single fuck. He prefers to make other people pull the trigger/wield the knife but he committed his first murder himself, so he will do it if he has to. There is not a moment's remorse. He doesn't actively enjoy it in itself, or seek it out on purpose - it's just that if a plan needs people dead to work, then those people will die. Distracting and entertaining himself is all that matters, and he'll sacrifice whoever he has to to do it.

[sdelmonte]

Swamp Thing...this is a complicated subject. My own take on the character is that he kills when he needs to, to protect the Earth, but he tries very hard to avoid it. Not every writer feels that way, including the one DC seems to trust with him now, Tom King. (I have my issues with him overall, which puts me in the minority.) I think it's hard to say there is a consistent approach to this in canon.

Poirot, OTOH, has a fairly standard police attitude towards it. You kill to save lives. You use the death penalty when someone is guilty. You do what you can to avoid sending innocents to the noose. And if you have to, if it's the only way to save people, you take the law into your own hands, knowing that there is a price for that. The TV show tinkered with this over the years, but stuck with Christie's vision of how justice is to be done and how law is upheld.

[have_no_mercy]

Tess is good with killing, so long as it has a good reason for it. Of course, what she thinks is a good reason and what other people think is not always the same thing. She has killed before, many times.

Rose is horrified at the very idea. Thorn thinks killing is extreme - she'd rather they suffer - but she has killed one person.

Kylo, well, I'd say he's where Tess is.

Victor kills people for a living. No remorse, no regrets. He plans to kill many more.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine has killed many times before. She has killed vampires, which are not legally people in her world but Rae knows better than to believe that any more. She knows those are people she kills, and she hates it. Killing is never easy for her, but she understands that sometimes circumstance doesn't give you a choice in the matter, that one must kill or be killed. She knows the horror of killing and how it hurts her to know what she is capable of, but she is much more willing to face that knowledge than she is willing to experience the horror of finding out what she would have let happen if she didn't kill vampires. Ultimately, she endures having to kill in order to save other people from being killed, to keep the world from sliding into darkness, because the safety of the world is more important than one person's well-being.


Yrael is absolutely fine with killing, and has done so with little fuss in the past. Sometimes with enjoyment. Generally, he has to have a reason for killing, but - fair warning - sometimes that reason is "whim."


Rumors have absolutely gotten people killed before - whether through jealous rages, misdirected revenge, faulty intelligence, loose lips sinking ships, or any other way - but Dame Rumor tends not to kill directly. It isn't something she generally aims to cause, but neither does she avoid it. The outcomes of her actions aren't really what interests her.

[iprotectyou]

Baze has killed many, many Imperials, and he doesn't seem too fazed by that. He felt killing was absolutely necessary, and anyone who would sign their life away to serve the Empire deserved to die.

[arkadia]

Eden is more or less indifferent to killing, since he doesn't really have the capacity to feel one way or another about it. At most, it can be said that he's not too keen on senseless killing, in the same way that he's not keen on someone taking two bites of a sandwich and throwing it away.

Yamato and Gabumon, meanwhile, avoid killing where they can, but rarely hesitate or linger on it in those situations where they can't. So, Digimon who are under reversible mind control of some kind, such as via a black gear or a dark ring, will usually find themselves on the receiving end of efforts to non-lethally free them (and in cases where they can't be freed, Yamato takes the tack that it's better to be dead than be enslaved and made to hurt people). Digimon who are Infected (and thus un-freeable) or who are hostile of their own volition usually just get killed, and he's not losing any sleep over that.

It helps that Yamato and Gabumon almost exclusively fight Digimon, who are usually reborn after they die, with the only exceptions being Apocalymon and his servants, and Digimon killed in the real world -- but given the number of hostile Digimon in the real world that they've killed, not being reborn isn't a dealbreaker for either of them.

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka will kill if it is tactically necessary. She doesn't think she has killed yet, as she shares the Jedi prejudice against recognizing that life can be inorganic; i.e. she's killed Separatist droids by the dozens if not hundreds by now. Later in canon she definitely kills organics, but again it was a tactical thing or a kill or be killed situation. Those four mandalorians while she was captured and that trandoshan who was hunting her for sport come to mind; although, i think the trandoshan was more an accidental death. She didn't seem to be worried or effected by the deaths. They just happened in the line of duty. I think it boils down to killing is in her tool box but it's not the tool she reaches for first.

Sabine has to have killed. I simply cannot believe she hasn't, considering her use of explosives. I don't care how careful you are, explosives have a mind of their own. I think as long as the death is an Imperial one, or an obvious enemy, she's okay with it. An innocent or civilian death would bother her, but I think she'd get over it and be more careful in the future.

Selina will kill someone to save herself or someone she cares about, and not be bothered by it.

Sam has and is capable still of killing in the line of duty. You can't tell me that HYRDA assassin he threw off the overpass in Winter Soldier didn't end up dead or seriously harmed. He was trained to take care of targets quickly and quietly. He prefers to avoid killing though, but will not hesitate if the need is there. That need being 1)protecting civilians, 2)protecting his team, and I can't think of a third.

Danny isn't against killing, I think, but he doesn't set out to do it. I think his preference for hand to hand, rather than using a weapon, is what keeps him from killing more than him setting out to not kill. But if the person is "bad" he doesn't see a problem with killing them. Edited to clarify: Danny is not opposed to a fight to the death, but it should be clear that is the risk. He will fight until the opponent is incapacitated otherwise.

Hank only recently, in my head canon, discovered he is capable of killing if pushed, and he does not like this information at all. If he actually kills someone, I think he would be haunted by it until his death.

Tybalt is living in, and rules over, a Court that typically solves problems by violence. He has killed. In fact to become King, he had to kill the King of the Court he had been Prince of. Rarely do Kings of cait sidhe step down as the cait sidhe demand strength in their leaders. There are times Tybalt wishes he could solve Toby's problems by killing, but the Divided Courts view death much differently. In fact, the prohibition against killing is nearly the only law that is universally upheld. Also cait sidhe hunt for food, as cats do.

I can't see that Scrapper has any problems killing. I also can't see her going straight for the killing blow.

Izana goes for the killing blow if fighting gauna, but can't imagine harming another human. I think they would be deeply disturbed if they killed a fellow human, regardless of the circumstances. This likely would include other sentient species.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee could never kill anyone himself. The thought of it makes him physically ill. He wouldn't even injure anyone unless he was cornered or forced to fight back. But since coming to Milliways, he's gotten blood on his hands by asking Eric Northman to...help him with a problem. It was a Nazi. And the more he's been subjected to their violence, the more he doesn't care if they should meet bloody ends. He just can't pull the trigger himself.

Pam enjoyed the thrill of hunting humans, but in the modern age it's gotten harder to do that and get away with it. And now that humans and vampires have been made to coexist, well. She kinda misses it. However, she'll still kill people if it's necessary, or even casually suggest it, namely as punishment. No regrets.

Cassidy has absolutely killed people, but usually because they tried to kill him first. The intent to kill comes easy, a little too easy, so it has to be necessary or a last resort. In comics canon he's way more lackadaisical about this and used to actively goad violent street gang members into attacking him so he could get his dinner on. TV Cassidy may have done that in the past? I can picture him doing it, though it was made clear that he'd only ever been arrested for attempted murder, which he regretted.

Floki...is a Viking. That should be explanation enough. Dude gets excited about ritual beheadings.

[for_everyone]

Hera views killing entirely through the frame of war. And she’s really been living through war her entire life. War inevitably, at the very least, means killing your enemies and you allies, as well as the possibility of unintended casualties. If you’re going to wage war, you have to accept that. And Hera is willing to wage war. While she genuinely does try to avoid death when it’s possible, she also truly believes that the Empire must be ended, and that violent insurgency is the only way to bring about that end. (I do have a quasi-based-on-canon headcanon that Hera did attempt to be a peaceful activist for a short time after leaving Ryloth, but that it ended disastrously and convinced her that a peaceful, working-with-the-system approach would only get her killed.)

So she will carry out tactical actions that will likely kill Imperial officers (though, as of yet, we’ve never seen this be the end goal of her actions). But at the same time, she’s also willing to assign and carry out missions that are likely to result in her death or the deaths of those fighting with her. Obviously she only risks her allies’ lives when she truly believes in the necessity of the mission. But there’s no safety in a war, and waging one means being willing to not only kill your enemies, but sacrifice your friends. Every decision you make gets people killed, and sometimes there are no ‘right’ decisions.

That all said, Hera would be reluctant to kill at all outside the scope of war, or even just when her opponent is entirely defenseless. Having never lived in a peacetime civil society, she doesn’t really know what it would look like, or even if she would trust herself to be part of it.


Kanan... to be honest I find Jedi precepts about violence in general pretty confusing. But I think I can safely say that killing is... frowned upon. When Caleb lived in the Temple, he was excited to fight in the Clone Wars, and even after fighting in battles and seeing casualties on both sides, he felt a strong camaraderie with the Clone Troopers and a sense of belonging in the war.

Following Order 66 and into adulthood, Kanan’s feelings about killing and violence were more conflicted. Before meeting Hera he didn’t exactly shy away from violence, but also never killed anyone over a drunken brawl, and would only have killed in immediate-death-self-defense. But he also turned a blind eye to the violence perpetrated by the Empire. After joining Hera, he carried out her missions, which sometimes meant killing Imperials, though like her, it wasn’t his goal. But he was reluctant to join the greater Rebellion. Unlike Hera, who once she believed it was necessary always saw her actions as prelude to or part of a war, Kanan could tell himself that this was just about sticking it to the Empire, rather than fighting in another war. While he does move past this reluctance, I think it’s significant that unlike Hera, he’s never taken on a formal military title. His Master told him she thought the Jedi were wrong to do so during the Clone Wars. And while he is willing to engage in violence to fight the Empire, he seems reluctant to put himself in the command structure that directs that violence, the way Hera does.

[forceimbalance]

Jedi, killing, and military hierarchy are a complicated subject full of "and this is how they utterly failed and got manipulated by a Sith"

[bjornwilde]

And this is why I head canon that SWR Ahsoka has no rank, even refusing one if it was offered.

Actually given the end of season one, I need to reconsider this. I was thinking she avoided command but she clearly gives orders to Hera.

[ceitfianna]

That's a fascinating thought and I've seen things where rank is complicated in the Rebellion. As in it means more to some people than others and her choosing not to focus on it and using the Fulcrum role instead.

[for_everyone]

I didn't really take that as part of a military command structure, especially since doing Kanan's plan at all seemed to be their own thing, so they weren't really always taking orders. I guess my suggestion of 'organizer whose judgment Hera defers to' doesn't sound... super... different, but I do think there's a difference between an assigned rank with military authority, and let's say, a militant organizer. I don't think Hera had an obligation to follow Ahsoka's orders the way she would a superior officer (she doesn't even tell the others this came from Fulcrum, she just takes it on herself), but I do think she felt she owed her that deference and could understand the argument Ahsoka was making.

[inlovewithwords]

Eriond doesn't really do killing himself. Much. I guess there was that time he sorta did kill Zandramas, ish? It is definitely a Last Resort and not something he generally does himself. And when it happens, it's as much because there's no helping the person as anything else. He sorrows and continues.

Lois has not killed and views it as a last resort--but she's also the daughter of a General in the US Army, and takes after him more than she knows. She would be capable of it, and feel awful about it, but if it were a kill-or-be-killed or protecting a loved one situation, etc, yeah. She'd manage.

Evelyn has not yet killed. She'll kill a lot, once she gets started. She never enjoys it and it is always born out of a need for survival, be it hers, her friends', or the world's. And honestly her favorite fights are ones against non-sentients so she can kill without feeling so bad about it. But I think she views every kill as a failure in her struggle to be A Good Person and she's had some indoctrination on the subject because mages, so there's a lot of feelings.

Tavi has killed. He's killed a lot. He is very, very good at it. And he hates it. He has even been known to try diplomacy with the frickin' apocalypse to try to avoid having to kill a thinking being; the first time he kills a human (or indeed any sapient being who hadn't already been turned into a meat puppet, which doesn't quite count, the Taken Canim were already dead) he throws up. That said, he definitely comes from a long history of Roman emperors and a personal training of assassin and soldier. In particular, Tavi is not afraid to apply the death penalty where necessary, although these days it's going to be reserved for gross violations of human rights, i.e., slave collars and similar levels of terrible. Also Tavi's pretty much done with direct killing. Ordering some deaths or combat engagements, yeah, there'll be a lot of that, and it will always keep him up at night wondering. But his willingness to hesitate in taking life if there's any other way is one of his strengths as First Lord: he's willing to get creative and compassionate where his predecessors weren't. He's literally changing international diplomacy and laws of nature to try to make a world where people stop killing each other quite so much--and on a personal level, he's spared at least one person from death for treason (admittedly for personal reasons) and openly regretted a total asshole getting shanked (the guy needed killing though) because it's a waste of life. So... yeah. Tavi has the capacity to be a complete monster, knows it, and decides not to be a lot.

R2 helped blow up a space station and flies around in a fighter. He's killed--other droids, at the very least, and probably other sapients too. Give him a reason and he'll kill without regretting it; he won't kill if he will regret it, I think.

. . . And you know what, for once Tavi is not my most complicated answer here. I'm going to leave these five and get back to the complete mess that is Anakin Skywalker shortly.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian is good at killing, because like Hera, he grew up in the midst of war and has never stopped fighting. He feels those kills but I think he feels some more than others; the times when he's being a sniper, when he has to kill an informant because they're a threat. Its easier when its stormtroopers but not that much. Its all for the sake of the Rebellion and the sake of the galaxy but in his mind, all he does is so no one else has to. He'll take it on himself, all the horrors, which is really bad for his mental health.

Charles has never killed and would never want to.

Quentin hasn't killed because there's a major prohibition against it in the world of the Fae. He's seen people die, more than he expected and been in life or death fights.

Sameth has a complicated relationship with death, because he can feel when a living being dies. He doesn't like killing but he will take down the Dead, its just other people in his family are better at it.

William hasn't killed a person directly, he's been involved in gun fights and seen death close up. He'll kill animals and if he has to for his family, he would.

Will S. has killed and will go to confession for it but its for Nottingham. It weighs on him but he's also from a time when there were many ways to die, so its not as much.

Ivan, I'm not sure, he's trained to kill but I'd have to check the books to see if he has. He'll take anyone down if they're messing with his family.

Demeter has though from her, killing is nice.

Moist avoids violence, its a huge part of his character. He finds it disturbing.

Tumnus has never killed and plans never to.

[bjornwilde]

I have to say, I love how Cassian is a scapegoat by choice. It's incredibly horrible that he's doing this to himself, but it is fascinating to read.

[childofrebellion]

Yes, its one of those things that I really realized about him when I read the novelization. My reasoning for it is that his father had a strong sense of justice, so he has this powerful internal moral compass and understands that he's one of the best people to do this horrible job.

He has all these rationalizations about it from he has no family, so if he doesn't come back, a great risk as he tends to putting himself in the dangerous spots, its okay if he dies. To he's a good shot, so he can use that to be helpful instead of making someone else learn this horrible work.

Milliways makes that complicated but he tries to kind of compartmentalize people in Milliways and he also accepts that at some point, most of them will reject him or leave. Which is what should happen. And that if he dies, that's okay. There's a gifset I saw that uses one of those lines that sums all of this up really well.

"In a fairer world, he would be the one lying in filth with a burning hole instead of a heart." He thinks that after shooting the stormtroopers in the first scene we meet him in. Wow, this got into an essay.

[forceimbalance]

Anakin Skywalker has a complex relationship with killing. He's killed, at this point, dozens of organic sapients at least and probably hundreds to thousands if you count the battle droids. The simple part is that he is very, very good at it, and is probably quicker to view killing as a solution than anyone who isn't Palpatine would like him to. Does he enjoy it, though? Well... that depends.

You have to start with the fact that Anakin loves doing what he's good at, and he's mainly good at three things: mechanics (ships and droids both), flying (particularly single-person fighters), and lightsaber combat. The latter two in particular have a lot of application to killing things. So he loves getting to practice his craft! It just so happens most instances of practicing his craft involve death. He's also very good at strategy and tactics, so really, military exercise is his specialty. He's not ashamed of this and takes pride in his skills, and likes feeling useful.

Does he enjoy more than just the exercise of skill, though? Still complicated and depends. He likes feeling like he's done Good, or exercised Justice, etc. During the Clone Wars, as he is in-Bar, he wouldn't go killing non-combatants unless he's already been triggered into a psychotic break somehow, and he'd be horrified with himself after. On the other hand, space combat leaves him at enough of a remove that I don't think he even feels any of those casualties, he very much enjoys the idea of or actually getting to take down Separatist leaders, pretty much whether or not they're armed (see: episode where Satine and Obi-wan are paralyzed as to whether or not to kill a guy, who asks them outright who will strike first and brand themselves a cold-blooded killer--in those words--and Anakin literally stabs him from behind with his lightsaber; he proceeds to shrug and practically smile off their horror with "What? He was going to blow up the ship!" He's right, of course... but he was that untouched by literally stabbing someone in the back).

I think if he can justify the ends to himself, he really doesn't mind, although sometimes he manages to be a little more closely adhering to Jedi precepts about life. He certainly talks a better game than he walks, as far as valuing life goes, although he is usually able to frame everything as attempting to protect civilians and thus justify it to himself. Also, he really doesn't think of the battle droids as people, so depending how sapient you think they are, his kill count might be somewhere in the truly horrifying range and he's just oblivious to it. Whether or not you count that, it's certainly true that he is getting progressively more inured to killing and its effects on him throughout the Clone Wars.

He'll go to killing pretty quickly, if only because Anakin has a very simple approach to problems, which is to move them out of his way. Cutting them away with a lightsaber works pretty damn well for that, for the most part. It honestly isn't usually his first solution, unless it's battle droids or high-ranking Separatists or Sith, but it's a quick solution for the most part. Usually what restrains him is Obi-wan and Padme's opinion of him, and now trying to set an example for Ahsoka.

And, well, unfortunately, we have to talk about the fact that Anakin isn't always a model of stability and sanity. He can have complete psychotic breaks, and when that happens... well. He likes fear and pain more than he likes death, I think, but if he's angry and has a reason to think he's Owed life taken for something taken from him, he's going to be fairly gleefully efficient about murderizing. That said: when Anakin comes out of his psychotic breaks, he always feels horrified and sickened by what he did during them. That self-hatred is feeding a cycle of continuing to push him back into said psychotic breaks, of course. But unlike the killings he can justify to himself, which he mostly is pretty sanguine about, those weigh on him in the back of his mind, consciously or not.

On which note, okay, let's talk about Vader.

Vader is much faster to kill random subordinates than Kylo Ren will be. He also destroys scenery less than Kylo Ren, so it looks like Ben actually has healthier ways of throwing temper tantrums than Anakin, I guess. Strangely, he doesn't go for killing quite as quickly as you might think, if only because Vader does think a little more about "can I use this person for something" than might be expected. Also, again, he likes fear and pain, and if he can keep a minion that way, hey, it works. But Vader has a problem where he has to care very much about efficiency, reinforced daily by that horrifying suit he's trapped in. He has to be efficient with his movement and his speech, always; he's efficient with everything else. And oftentimes killing isn't actually the most efficient.

On the other hand, where it is... sometimes he likes it. Sometimes it's just a momentary satisfaction of a Job Done. Sometimes, meh, whatever, those Rebels were in his way and that's what the lightsaber is for. Basically he doesn't need to bother justifying death or not anymore, so he's either indifferent or gleeful, depending whether he had a grudge at work.

. . .

Dead Anakin will try very hard not to kill people. He's trying to, er, ghost up to Luke's expectations.

[death_gone_mad]

Well, Amascut is a death goddess, and one whose animal aspect (and maybe former life) is an apex predator. Death is one of the only things that are still right with the world for her. The only reason she isn't all death and destruction all the time is because it might be inconvenient if certain people were killed and certain things were destroyed. Plus, it is more enjoyable to watch civilizations destroy eachother than it is to watch tiny settlements war than it is to watch people murder eachother than it is to murder people herself. It requires a certain amount of care and nurturing and goading to get a really destructive war going. Still, if she has to kill a useless person, she will without a bit of guilt.

Fairy Fixit has complicated feelings about killing, and it is partly because Zanaris is such a weird place to grow up and develop your morals. So many things are unexpectedly sapient. That being said, I don't think she'll ever admit to killing. Teleporter accidents happen. Sometimes fungal colonies borrow more life force than is sustainable. Life still goes on, in one form or another.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Well, um.

Bastion's killed probably hundreds of people; it's what they were designed and built to do. Predominantly soldiers, if only because they were manufactured late enough in the Omnic Crisis that most of the civilians in the area had either been evacuated or killed by their predecessors. While for the most part it was kill or be killed, they can't justify all their kills as self-defense. Indiscriminately gunning down humans while their fellow Bastion units died all around them scarred them terribly.

They have to fight their instincts to avoid being a killing machine, in the present. Running away from a fight doesn't come naturally to them; Bastion units aren't designed to place self-preservation over eliminating enemies, because being able to reuse them was not a major concern during or before the war. When activated, which often happens unintentionally if they're frightened badly enough, their combat protocols highlight enemy positions and weaknesses and reorganize their thought processes to focus on fighting. It's essentially a murderous dissociative state.

They're capable of firing their built-in weapons without using their combat protocols if they stay calm (or at least calm-ish), but the only thing that could really convince them to do so right now is if their friends were in mortal danger. This has actually come up before, but mostly in the case of larger carnivores trying to eat Ganymede, not their human friends being menaced by other humans. In theory, they can accept killing people -- humans or other omnics -- as a last resort to save the lives of others; in practice, they're not yet emotionally prepared to volunteer for that personally. (That comes later in their canon; if they'd become completely pacifistic after the war, they'd just be a NPC orbiting Torbjörn, not a playable character.)

[genarti]

Enjolras: Short answer: it's a last resort, and it haunts him; also, he's very very good at it.

Long answer: Killing people who are shooting at you, in battle, he's more or less okay with it. That's very much more or less -- he still sees it as a weight on his conscience and a stain on his soul, because he sees all human life as sacred and every human as his sibling -- but it's battle rather than murder, and it's something the people shooting against you were to some extent signing up for.

Killing people in any other context, including executions of immediate and well-earned necessity, is worse. It's murder; it taints you; it should haunt you, and it does haunt him. He's done it, all the same, onscreen, and he's very efficient and decisive about it. Then he has a whole speech about condemning himself, and about how they're fighting for a future in which the tactics they have to use in that fight will be obsolete and people won't have to be capable of using them. (Like Cassian, Enjolras has a certain tendency to scapegoat himself by being the one to do something he considers morally repugnant but necessary. Also like the Star Wars characters, he and everyone in his society has lived in... okay, not war per se, but constant unrest that occasionally breaks out into war or civil war or governmental turnover or all three at once, for the last several decades.)

Cosette, on the other hand, has lived all her life in the same society, but is very sheltered, and also is of a gender (and class) that means she's not expected to even potentially participate in battle. Relatedly, she has also not chosen to be actively engaged in violent revolutionary activity. So! She has not killed, no. It would be very hard for her; I don't know if she's capable. (I think probably, but it would take a hell of a lot to drive her to that much desperation.) She certainly doesn't want to ever find out, and I don't want her to have to.

Thor, on the other hand, uh. He. He's done it, yep!

I guess I'd say that it's easy for him, but more than that I'd say that he's operating from a significantly different cultural context? Like, there are situations where killing is wrong and awful and a sign of dishonor and moral bankruptcy, and then there are situations where it's all in good fun, everybody's trying to kill each other, WOO BATTLE AND GLORY!!! So in a way, this is hard for me to answer. But there are plenty of circumstances in which he can do it easily and walk on with no regrets except a vague feeling that it would've been better if they hadn't pushed him/them/Asgard to that (and he wouldn't always have had that vague feeling as strongly as he does now), so... yeah.

Kazul has very strong feelings about killing dragons. (Although she also feels that if a Knight or the like manages it, it's a shame but they should've guarded their flank better or whatever; barring extraordinary cheating circumstances, that's the kind of thing that's a hazard of life. But that's different than if she, a dragon, personally killed another dragon.) She also has strong feelings about anyone killing her friends, whatever species they might be. Other than that, uh, everybody who's not a dragon is potentially prey, so... she's not gonna waste time feeling too bad about it if it happens!

Doctor Dinosaur takes to killing extremely easily. In his defense, he's of a predator species; in his prosecution, uh, everything else.

[sticktothemission]

Gabriel Reyes from where I'm playing him in canon is a US Army soldier. He did a few tours before the Crisis and thus has killed people before. For the most part that was the Job, but there's at least one instance (headcanon) where he considers it more akin to bringing the wrath of God. He is a little frightened at what he did but he cannot bring himself to regret it.

Now that the Crisis has begun in full the enemy have all been omnics. He does not currently view them as people and has zero qualms about destroying them. I am uncertain he will ever see them in the same light as humans but I think he does eventually at least see them as sentient beings worthy of consideration and respect. I suspect Milliways helps a lot with this development in addition to some headcanon I have regarding the ends of the Crisis.

When the Crisis ends and he is given command of Blackwatch, the covert black ops division of Overwatch, it's back to focusing on mostly human threats. There are omnic groups that cause issues as well, like Null Sector, but for the most part it's human focused groups like the Deadlock Gang, Shimada Clan, Los Muertos, Talon, and others. Lore is fairly light on this section of the timeline beyond accusing Blackwatch of horrible things just before it is suspended and Overwatch fell. Stuff like assassination, torture, kidnapping. Gabriel...is probably capable of these things especially if he feels like he's serving a greater good. I don't think he would enjoy it but, as long as it gets shit done, he has few qualms about doing the dirty work. He probably prides himself on being very efficient at it with as little collateral as possible. This section happens over several decades, so his feelings on it probably change over time. If the accusations are true then he has a very callous view of life by the end of it.

As this is when he fully assumes the Reaper persona, that outlook on life is beneficial to him. It is heavily implied that Reaper needs...resources to continue existing. Those resources are implied to come from humans. Reaper kills frequently and, for the most part, efficiently and the one caveat to this is when he's hunting down former members of Overwatch. With them he is vindictive and cruel, seemingly enjoying making them suffer.

(I apologize if this got slightly incoherent towards the end. I wrote it in between raid bosses and under lack of sleep.)

[clayforthedevil]

Gringoire could only ever kill people by accident. And has! Dozens! Several dozens! It doesn't really worry him. Intentionally..he'd never *set out* to kill anyone, he really doesn't have any intentional malice in him. Also, he would fail. But it's not a reasoned moral position, he could talk himself into believing killing in a particular case is good or bad, no problem. He's just not emotionally or mentally really capable of acting on it.

It's entirely possible that Steven Universe would genuinely rather die than kill someone else; he does take the risk several times. Certainly at the point he's at in Milliways, he hasn't done anything worse than Poof creatures in a way that puts them into suspended animation.

Joly is capable of deciding to kill for a worthy cause, though it has to be a major Greater Good cause; no personal issue would be worth it. Which is a more pacifist than his society really expected of men; he's absolutely not the Dueling Type. That said, he's okay with knowing that he's killed in battle, and would again if he felt it was necessary; it doesn't haunt him.

The people he killed with The Best Known 19th Century Medicine is a very different case. But battle? He can handle having done that.

Bahorel doesn't...actually think of death or killing as bad, per se. But he does feel strongly that it's Important and Significant, something that should ideally be shared between mutually agreed parties who are both willing and able to kill each other. He loses no sleep over the Moral Implications of his deadlier fights; if it's between fighters, it's not just Okay but Sublime.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Teja and Ragnar kill as a matter of course, Hannibal kills as a hobby, and Harman kills vampires as part of his duty, but he doesn't count it as killing. However, he and his organisation are convinced that it's better to collaterally kill a human than let a vampire escape.

Dorian actually does kill quite ruthlessly, Alex kills somebody in the course of canon, and feels quite bad about it, Margolotta probably killed a few human victims when she still drank blood, but now is very much committed to ending it; she will, however, not hesitate to kill for her ends. Katrina Crane is a healer, but will kill if necessary, and Galen Erso is so horrified that millions of people will be killed with something he invented and built, he sets the whole of Rogue One and the original Star Wars in motion, which doesn't mean that millions of people will not be killed with his ideas after all, up to and including 'The Last Jedi'.

[they_see_me]

Little Molly will tell you that she would never, ever kill anyone, and just because she's strong doesn't mean she can't be careful. She'll totally mean it, too.

Grown-up Molly has killed in battle, albeit very rarely, and fully expects to do so again. It frightens her (not least because with her powers on she's a lot colder and less, well, human... she loses a lot of feelings - both sensations and emotions - when she's powered up), but sometimes a fight has to be ended. She has a very long fuse, but once it's blown completely she is capable of hurting people a lot more than she's happy about. That said, she cares a lot about not hurting innocent bystanders/civilians. She doesn't believe there's such a thing as an acceptable level of collateral damage.


Sam has killed plenty of sentient beings, particularly demons. He was not a nice king of Hell, when he ruled it full-time, but he was an effective one - and one who waged permanent war against the demon slave-traders. On Earth he very rarely kills, even when he has every excuse to, not least because he is extremely invested in Not Being That Kind Of Person. That said, I imagine the people who've tried to burn him over the centuries didn't get the kind of ending they were hoping for. In Milliways, he's killed a few times - mostly in battle, but at least once because they hurt Atton Rand, and that is the kind of behaviour that results in Extremely Disproportionate Retribution.

(He'd totally try to kill Poseidon if given the opportunity, for much the same reason but regarding Medusa.)


McGonagall has killed in battle (and I imagine there might be a Death Eater or three who were unlucky enough to experience her getting retribution in first). She's not proud of it, but nor is she ashamed.


Beref kills on a regular basis. She's got to eat, yo.


Raoul of Goldenlake is a soldier and acts as such. He's good at it, too - his nickname isn't Giantkiller for nothing. He's the only known non-magical human to have gone up against a giant on foot, alone, and won, but he will tell you himself that it was only a small giant. He doesn't like killing, but it's part of his job.


Victoria is just raising her eyebrows at you sardonically right now. She enjoys it, she's extremely good at it, and she has no particular guilt or shame over it, but she won't kill an innocent person. Of course, her definition of 'innocent' might be a bit, well... malleable, especially where extremely large sums of money are involved (less for the money itself, and more for the purpose of keeping score). She probably wouldn't kill a friend, though.


Coulson has killed - SHIELD don't hand out those guns for no reason - and has done so quickly, efficiently, and generally without any particular malice. It's not his first choice, but these things have to be done.


Poe has killed, and has directed killing - primarily as an X-Wing pilot (it's not like those TIE fighter pilots get much chance to eject), but he also has a blaster for a reason. He'll cheer a kill in the heat of the moment, but otherwise he honestly doesn't think too hard about it. He's a career soldier, and it's what he's been trained to do. What gives him sleepless nights is getting his own side killed through stupid or incorrect orders.


War is just laughing and laughing and laughing...

[andinfluencepeople]

Chuck cannot comprehend killing another human. Like... he understands war was sometimes necessary, because people apparently used to be the worst (he has a relatively rose-y view of humanity being All In It Together during the apocalypse), but he can't put himself in those shoes. He would probably kill a human to save a friend, and have a series of very confused reactions ranging from "surprisingly ok" to "HELLO EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE" in non-linear order. Anything obviously Not Human is fine for killing as long as it is also not clearly a person or a dog.

Clint finds killing easy, and thus thinks it's naturally his job to take on that task when needed. Over the decades it has worn him down, emotionally, particularly the continued awareness that he may have to and would kill almost anyone if ordered (and given justification in some cases). He doesn't like killing people, but as long as he causes minimal pain he doesn't feel bad about it -- everyone has to die, eventually. (Hand to hand fights mess him up more.) Weirdlf, he's not a sociopath -- he cares very deeply about people's internal lives! Just... yeah.

Legolas does not introspect over killing at all. He would NEVER kill an Elf because... duh, and only kill a human in the direst circumstances (war, defense, or for dishonorig his king), and otherwise eh.

Melinda May will kill if she must, but prefers to avoid it. It does haunt her.