Looking examples of Healers or pacifists as the protagonist in animations/games/etc

[Reprimand]

So over the years I've noticed a severe lack of healer/pacifist/support protagonists and yet all of the examples I can think of are hailed as either cult classics or are mega successes. for the record I'm not talking about a character who is the jack of all trades and can do a little bit of everything more like the white mage who shuns fighting and revolves around patching people up

Examples include undertale pacifist route, Ninten from Mother (literal white mage party leader with psi), Myranda Celeste from The Book of Deacon I can't think of a single animation or tv show that uses a healer/pacifist/support lead I guess aang from the last airbender counts but he still beat the tar out of a lot of people before opting for no violence.

I understand that healing isn't considered an action packed role and so many people making these stories tend to shy away from making a healer the main character but why? Healing and choosing not to fight is probably one of the most heroic things a person can do!

Does anyone else know of any other Books, animations, tv shows, video games where the main lead is a healer and/or refuses to fight constantly despite getting beat up

To be clear only the main protagonist counts for this I'm well aware of the healer sidekick trope being very popular Im looking for healing non-violent pacifist protaginists.

Bonus points for both. Extra bonus points for a male lead.

[Gastronomie]

Um…I suppose…

Blackjack by Tezuka Osamu…?

[BWR]

Ummm....any healer spec in SWTOR....

Cade Skywalker in Star Wars . Legacy. He was a n edgy and 'cool' guy who was unique in that he used Dark Side healing. that series and just about everything in it was the dregs of the old SW EU. There was a lot of stupid stuff but for sheer craptasticness of concept and execution, there is little that can compare, and I'm even counting the fandalorian **** of Travis, the YV and the Rakata.

Those are pretty violent, however.

More seriously, the protagonist of Tanith Lee's "The Brithgrave" is notable for her healing power, which is unique and highly valued. Mostly or entirely pacifist except incidentally, IIRC.

A quick Google search also gives plenty of results (http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/83844.Supernatural_Healers_in_Fiction).

[Yora]

Seirei no Moribito comes to mind. The main protagonist is a warrior who has made a vow to not kill and harm. Her boyfriend is a healer and is a pretty major character in his own right.

Mushishi should also fit. It's about a man who travels the land helping people with their troubles with nature spirits and reducing the damage the spirits did to their bodies.

Also Princess Mononoke, which is so obvious I didn't think of it immediately.

[Thrudd]

Trigun? It doesn't seem like it at first, but Vash "the Stampede" is a pacifist.

[endoperez]

Steven Universe? Especially in the later seasons. Steven only fights monsters. If he can communicate or emphatise with something, he strives for pacifism.

He has healing powers, his powers come from emotion, his weapon is a shield.

There are many shows where violence does not happen or is not the focus. I guess what you're looking for is a pacifist in a situation where the pacifism is a struggle, & not just the status quo?
Do you count "fights well but does not kill" (e.g. Batman, Superman, Vash from Trigun, Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin) as pacifism?

Edit: Just remembered several instances of this! On the "reincarnated to another world" genre common in Japanese & Chinese light novels & web novels (which then get adapted to manga), there are several stories where the protagonist tries to "fix" the violent world by stopping war, fixing economy, stopping institutional slavery, introducing modern healthcare, etc. Often the characters start with overpowered spells or items or skills, sometimes related to healing. Support skills are a focus on many series.

I'm not sure if I get all the names right, but there's at least: Other World Pharmacy (introducing medicine), Only Sense Online (protagonist is noon gamer who uses seemingly all the support skills), Common Sense of the Duke's Daughter (socio-economic revolution for the good of medieval world's people), In Another World, I’m Called the Black Healer (... pretty much that), and more.

In fact, support skills are such a common theme in these that there's many traditional stories where the support skill is just a way to move the plot forward. Legendary Moonlight Sculptor's protagonist is a greedy, violent, unscrupulous munchkin who also learns to abuse crafting skills. And while trying to find the name of another series, I found out that there's several series where the healing is an excuse to fan service or perhaps even porn.

[Binks]

Trigun? It doesn't seem like it at first, but Vash "the Stampede" is a pacifist.
Was actually going to suggest this myself. He's kind of a technical pacifist but he tries. That, and Trigun is quite good on its own regardless of genre restrictions.

Maybe M.A.S.H., or House, or something else in the medical drama genre? To be honest I've never been a big fan of the genre but it might be a good place to look.

[Silfir]

Seirei no Moribito is half right - Balsa is very definitely a warrior. She's sworn not to kill humans anymore, but she'll incapacitate them, no problem. I guess she does count as a pacifist insofar as she doesn't start fights; she just finishes them.

One anime that definitely works is Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. The female protagonist is a herbalist. Though like another healer protagonist - naval surgeon Stephen Maturin - she shares the protagonist role with someone else.

Aside from Undertale, you can play a pacifist route in Iji. But in the end you still have to fight the final boss.

[endoperez]

Ooh, Iji is another nice one.

I was disappointed Recettear had so much fighting in it. I wanted a pure JRPG shopkeeper sim. It can be played without adventuring, I think.

[Kitten Champion]

There's a manga series called Superior (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_(manga)) premised around a high fantasy epic hero who chooses to be a pacifist, recognizing and preserving all life including those who are monsters -- with the singular exception of the Demon Lord who he's sworn to kill. His actions elicit the deep fascination of the Demon Lord herself, who winds up disguising herself and travelling with his party.

It's quite a lot like Trigun, in that the hero has the sheer power to simply cut down almost everything that could possibly stand against him with his blade and magic but chooses to do the monumentally more difficult feat of changing their minds while preventing anyone from being killed with his abilities. Unlike Trigun, his nemesis is with him secretly and disconcerted with the direction her life has taken and what her reasons are.

[Olinser]

R.A. Salvatore wrote a series with a Cleric as protagonist - Cadderly Bonaduce (and incidentally is one of the few series to also feature a Monk as a main character).

Whole series is called the Cleric Quintet, first book was named Canticle.

[Rodin]

Sonea from The Black Magician trilogy is a healer. While she's not a pacifist, she also does her best to not use her powers offensively and only does so for self-defense/protecting others. Good series of books, although the ones which follow the original trilogy wander quite far afield from the premise of the early ones.

On the anime front, Pacifica from Scrapped Princess is pretty darn, well, pacifistic. She has no combat ability whatsoever and wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life. She relies on her brother and sister to protect her but hates that they have to do so.

[Chromascope3D]

Well, there is one famous book series in which the main character fits your specific criteria to a tee. In fact, it was so popular, that you could almost say that it served as a direct inspiration for all pacifist hero characters in western literature. I'm sure I can't go into anymore detail here, even if I'm just commenting on its literary merit alone, but hey, it's a valid example. :smallwink:

There's also Xuanzang, the monk from Journey to the West, whom is a pacifist and often relies on his allies to break him out of tight binds. I don't think he did any healing, but various demons captured him at different points because they thought that eating his flesh would grant immortality, so, there's that. :smalltongue:

[Fri]

An author thought exactly what you think, and made a series of novel. Basically the author likes sci-fi, but he dislike how most sci-fi is about military or conflict. But he thought, what can bring a story tension without laser shootout So he made Sector Hospital.

Sector Hospital is a sci-fi novel series about a hospital space-station that serve all kind of alien species in the galaxy. Think of it as House, if Dr House have to think whether the tentacled crustacean alien that speak in telepathy and have silicon-based dna in front of him is allergic to penicilin. It's really good, though quite dated. It's from 70s/80s, so some of the medical science or thought might be outdated.

[Fiery Diamond]

There's a manga series called Superior (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_(manga)) premised around a high fantasy epic hero who chooses to be a pacifist, recognizing and preserving all life including those who are monsters -- with the singular exception of the Demon Lord who he's sworn to kill. His actions elicit the deep fascination of the Demon Lord herself, who winds up disguising herself and travelling with his party.

It's quite a lot like Trigun, in that the hero has the sheer power to simply cut down almost everything that could possibly stand against him with his blade and magic but chooses to do the monumentally more difficult feat of changing their minds while preventing anyone from being killed with his abilities. Unlike Trigun, his nemesis is with him secretly and disconcerted with the direction her life has taken and what her reasons are.

How many chapters does the first part (Superior, as opposed to Superior Cross) have? And how many pages per chapter? I'm trying to find it and I'm unsure of whether I'm seeing only part of it.

[Yora]

Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4 can be played without killing anyone. Except for the bosses who still die in cutscenes anyway after they have been taken out with nonlethal means, but those could all be regarded as accidents.
The first game requires a few kills but is still very pacifistic.

[BWR]

Murray Leinster's Medship stories.
A wandering doctor who goes around MacGuyvering problems on different planets as well as curing people. Don't think there was any violence at all.

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea stories. Sparrowhawk isn't exactly a healer but he is about making things better. Healing, in a way, and there is little to no violence that he commits.

[DoctorFaust]

These two TvTropes pages might be of some use.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActualPacifist
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMedic

And if you don't feel like losing several hours of your life to that website, I know there are a number of main Gundam pilots that refuse to kill, and one of the two MCs of the first arc of Sengoku Youko, who also plays a fairly significant role in the second arc, refuses to directly harm other people.

[Fri]

If you think of it, the witches novel in discworld. Most of their problems can't be solved with violence anyway.

[BWR]

These two TvTropes pages might be of some use.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActualPacifist
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMedic

And if you don't feel like losing several hours of your life to that website, I know there are a number of main Gundam pilots that refuse to kill, and one of the two MCs of the first arc of Sengoku Youko, who also plays a fairly significant role in the second arc, refuses to directly harm other people.

I would argue there is a distinct difference between 'refuses to kill' and 'pacifist'.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Might the Yellow Ajah (http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Yellow_Ajah) from Wheel of Time count? Healing is their raison d'être and they're sworn not to use The One Power for violence except in very specific circumstances.

[Rodin]

Might the Yellow Ajah (http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Yellow_Ajah) from Wheel of Time count? Healing is their raison d'être and they're sworn not to use The One Power for violence except in very specific circumstances.

OP specifically stated main protagonist, which in the case of Wheel of Time would be Rand, or he who tends to vaporize armies.

If we expand to supporting major portagonists that brings in Nynaeve, who may be Yellow Ajah but also likes to toss balefire around. So that's a no, too - she spends a lot more time in the books using magic offensively than she does using it for healing.

[Ninja_Prawn]

OP specifically stated main protagonist, which in the case of Wheel of Time would be Rand, or he who tends to vaporize armies.

If we expand to supporting major portagonists that brings in Nynaeve, who may be Yellow Ajah but also likes to toss balefire around. So that's a no, too - she spends a lot more time in the books using magic offensively than she does using it for healing.

Yeah, maybe. I mean, I totally consider Nynaeve (and all the Two Rivers crew) as main protagonists, but I will concede that she isn't a pacifist. On the other hand, if Aang from ATLA counts... and all of Nynaeve's greatest achievements were related to Healing. *shrug*

[Darth Ultron]

Bonus points for both. Extra bonus points for a male lead.

Macgyver might be the best TV example.

Chuck Bartowski is another good TV example, but he did eventually grow up and out of this.

The Doctor, even more so the wimpy modern versions, as the more classic Doctor was very much Chaotic Good with a pinch of evil.

Dr. House counts as a male lead healer, right?

But in general healer/pacifists are not popular...and you don't really need to ask why...

[Slayn82]

Edit: Just remembered several instances of this! On the "reincarnated to another world" genre common in Japanese & Chinese light novels & web novels (which then get adapted to manga), there are several stories where the protagonist tries to "fix" the violent world by stopping war, fixing economy, stopping institutional slavery, introducing modern healthcare, etc. Often the characters start with overpowered spells or items or skills, sometimes related to healing. Support skills are a focus on many series.

...

In fact, support skills are such a common theme in these that there's many traditional stories where the support skill is just a way to move the plot forward. Legendary Moonlight Sculptor's protagonist is a greedy, violent, unscrupulous munchkin who also learns to abuse crafting skills. And while trying to find the name of another series, I found out that there's several series where the healing is an excuse to fan service or perhaps even porn.

I read recently Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari - The Rise of the Shield Hero. The protagonist, Naofumi, receives a legendary relic, the Shield, that unfortunately makes him unable to use any kind of weapons or deal any damage (except with special, extremely costly techniques).

And he is despised by almost everyone, since he is unable to fight by himself, and the Country's religion considers the other 3 relics and their heroes Saints, and the Shield Hero the Devil because previous Shield Bearers sided and protected non humans. Also, the heroes have trouble getting power when they are near each other, so they need to arrange companions to help their training.

He ends up getting an slave to help him. And focusing on Medicine and Commerce. Basically, while the other heroes go around doing whatever looked cooler, he was the guy Grinding and doing sidequests, and learning about the NPCs.

[GloatingSwine]

Nekki Basara?

Okay he "heals" people through the power of rock and roll, but that counts right? He's a straight up pacifist in all conditions.

He is of course a colossal ********.

[Silfir]

I finally remembered a straight-up example: The manga Jin. The protagonist is a modern day Japanese brain surgeon who inadvertently time travels to 19th century Japan and gets stuck there, and from then on uses his medical knowledge to save lives - potentially altering the course of history, as he's fully aware, but he can't help himself. (Also, guy's gotta eat.)

Though come to think of it, every other medical drama ever written - ER, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, House and so forth - will inevitably qualify; OP was talking about works that actually focus on fighting.

[Kitten Champion]

How many chapters does the first part (Superior, as opposed to Superior Cross) have? And how many pages per chapter? I'm trying to find it and I'm unsure of whether I'm seeing only part of it.

27 chapters I believe. I've got 9 volumes with three chapters each.

[tensai_oni]

I would argue there is a distinct difference between 'refuses to kill' and 'pacifist'.

That's true. I think the point of this thread isn't to find characters who fight defensively or try not to kill their opponents. It's to find characters who refuse to fight at all.

Stories about modern doctors seem much more popular on this front than stories about fantasy-style healers. You have manga - Black Jack (mentioned before) or Monster. You have books like Sector General (also mentioned) for science fiction flavor. And of course there is a lot of medical dramas.

Also there's always this:
http://i.imgur.com/PsfyNZg.jpg

[Tengu_temp]

I'd say there are three levels of pacifistic characters:
1. Those who will fight normally, but refuse to kill their enemies. Characters like Balsa or Snake/Adam Jensen going the nonlethal route are here. I don't think they really count as pacificts, they're just not killers.
2. Those who will enter a fight, but spend most of it avoiding or defending against the enemy, usually at most disarming them, and tend to try to either escape, persuade the enemy to stop, or make them defeat themselves pretty much. Characters like Aang or Vash are here. Those count as action pacifists for me, and I'd give them as examples if they weren't mentioned already, but I don't know if this is what the OP wants or not.
3. True pacifists who refuse to engage in any kind of physical conflict at all. Those definitely count, and tend to be rather rare in stories that rely on action, for obvious reasons. But a few were mentioned here already, so they exist.



I was disappointed Recettear had so much fighting in it. I wanted a pure JRPG shopkeeper sim. It can be played without adventuring, I think.

You definitely can. If you do that, you're missing out on the colorful adventurers and the story (including the true ending of the game, only available in endless mode after you've already beaten the "normal" ending), but there's nothing that forces you to adventure in the game, and in fact adventuring is much less profitable than just keeping the store open in those hours, except maybe during the first week.

[Agrippa]

First off, hi Tengu_temp, haven't seen you in months. What took you so long? With that said I'm having a hard time thinking of a single primary healer protagonist. The closest I can come to is Terra/Tina Branford of FF VI, and even then she's also a (secondary) warrior and can cast elemental, protection and poison/sickness spells. Healing is just a fraction of what she can do. Terra's more of a warrior/general mage who can cast healing spells pretty well. That and the cast FF VI is more of an ensemble than any other Final Fantasy game.

[Prime32]

So over the years I've noticed a severe lack of healer/pacifist/support protagonists and yet all of the examples I can think of are hailed as either cult classics or are mega successes. for the record I'm not talking about a character who is the jack of all trades and can do a little bit of everything more like the white mage who shuns fighting and revolves around patching people up

Some examples off the top of my head which haven't been mentioned so far:


Dr. Kenzo Tenma (Monster): A doctor very committed to the Hippocratic Oath, who struggles with whether it's right to save the lives of truly evil people.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation): Not averse to fighting in self-defence, but always tries to resolve things through diplomacy first. I mean, not counting the movies.
Kei "Shiroe" Shirogane (Log Horizon): Mage who sucks at fighting, due to specialising almost entirely in planning and Battlefield Control. Does assist in killing monsters and members of his own race (since killing them just causes them to respawn somewhere else), but doesn't attack normal humans, and tries to set up a legal system which will punish members of his race who do.
Ken (Nobunaga no Chef): Unwitting time-traveller who serves a warlord but refuses to harm others himself, and solves all his problems through cooking.
Father Saryon (Darksword Trilogy): Priest in a high-magic world who can boost the magic of others, but little else. While much of the story is told from his perspective, another character is the focus of the plot.
Joey (Metroid: Samus and Joey): Again, it's his story but he's not the hero in it. Joey has forcefield gear which increases the strength of his punches, and can generate a barrier to protect allies. Given that he travels around with SAMUS ARAN, DESTROYER OF WORLDS, the punches are mostly redundant and aren't used much. The barrier is extremely useful though.

[BiblioRook]

R.A. Salvatore wrote a series with a Cleric as protagonist - Cadderly Bonaduce (and incidentally is one of the few series to also feature a Monk as a main character).

Whole series is called the Cleric Quintet, first book was named Canticle.

I was hoping someone mentioned this as it's a huge example, both as a healer and as a pacifist and definitely is one worth pointing out again, although while he is very much a cleric (hence the name of the series) he is very much more a scholar then a healer as be belongs to an order that worships a god of knowledge and fine art (and even later becomes said god's champion). I mean, early on he was forced to undergo some degree of weapon training as part of his upbringing with a weapon of his choice, he opted to train with an obscure stringed hunting tool (http://yoyo.wikia.com/wiki/History_of_the_Yo-yo) (he's pretty savvy with a blowgun laced with sleep poison too though). Granted, like some of these other examples and given the nature of the series circumstances eventually sort of force his hand, but still he definite doesn't give up his pacifistic viewpoint without, well, a fight, and even then it takes about three books to get to that point in a five book series.

[Brother Oni]

Rurouni Kenshin is a good example of the 'fights but tries not to kill anybody' pacifist, with Meiji-era Kenshin wielding a reversed edge sword (a singled edged blade, but with the sharp edge facing its owner) as a constant reminder of his vow not to kill.

Bakumatsu-era Kenshin however...

[Sermil]

The main character of Ethan of Athos is Dr. Ethan Urquhart, an obstetrician on a "monastery" planet with only men...

[Flickerdart]

Bonus points for male protagonists, you say?

The stand Shining Diamond used by Josuke in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has a healing power, which the character uses extensively. It's far from the only thing he does (Shining Diamond is also very good at punching) but he does quite a bit of healing.

Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood doesn't do that much fighting, but his hallmark is healing himself rather than anyone else (he recovers from even dying).

Dr. Gregory House from House, MD is literally a doctor. As are most of the characters on the show. There is occasional violence, but it's very brief and the premise is always "how does House cure this week's patient?" The same could be said for other medical dramas.

[endoperez]

Yep, definitely a good example. I think there might have been a few instances of violence in their stories (Magrat in armour springs to mind) but in general they beat their opponents with intelligence, empathy and willpower. And they're also healers.

Indeed. I was thinking of Granny Weatherwax in Maskerade , helping the wounded thugs. With a needle and string. And basically anything else she does. Good, pure, pacifist, healer, perfrct and unmarked skin etc. except she breaks all the tropes on how that character should act.

Oh man, and the talks about edges and borders between Life and Death. Healer indeed. Very nice suggestion.

[BiblioRook]

Most major characters in Discworld actually could fit the pacifist role (other then people like Vimes). I mean just think of Carrot and to give an example I'm in the middle of rereading Jingo where he not only talked a hostile desert tribe into not attacking a force sent to subdue them but he also turned around and also talked said attacking force into surrendering at the same time. The man (er, dwarf) practically exerts an aura of peace.

[Dusso]

The author of Witcher book series (Andrzej Sapkowski) wrote also The Hussite Trilogy, where the main character is a young healer Reinmar of Bielawa (also a bit of sorcerer) and his attitude in general is very pacifistic.
The books are much better read than the Witcher series, but the beauty comes from many interesting historical details and the variety of language used and not from sheer violence and dark humor as in Witcher.

[Cozzer]

In Suikoden 2 the main character, while being a pretty good fighter, is mainly characterized gameplay-wise by having a super Rune that gives him super healing magic. He does end up being the commander of an army, so he's definitely not a pacifist, though. :P The one who gets the badass super Rune with attack spells ends up being the rival.

An interesting take on the "pacifist warrior" main character is Vinland Saga, after the first major arc ends. The current arc has the character being pushed in a position where not fighting might be the worst moral choice, but it isn't over yet so nobody knows how he'll react to that situation.

[Reprimand]

There's a manga series called Superior (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_(manga)) premised around a high fantasy epic hero who chooses to be a pacifist, recognizing and preserving all life including those who are monsters -- with the singular exception of the Demon Lord who he's sworn to kill. His actions elicit the deep fascination of the Demon Lord herself, who winds up disguising herself and travelling with his party.

Is there an anime adaptation? I kept getting some other show when I searched it but you never know.


Discworld

What is the basic premise of Discworld?


Rurouni Kenshin

This is actually what I was trying to avoid I know very well of the peaceful warrior take on the pacifist I'm looking for straight up will not take a life will not fight Period they are the party white mage not red mage not paladin etc.

Like Switzerland.

Aang was probably a bad example though.

I just find it to be such a rare trope with protagonists

I also mean the main character not one of the cast of characters like the person the story is centered around is the healer or won't fight and does what they can't to support allies if things look super grim.

[Kitten Champion]

Is there an anime adaptation? I kept getting some other show when I searched it but you never know.

Nope, just a manga series.

[The_Snark]

As has been alluded to, Stephen Maturin of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (historical fiction set in and around the war of 1812) is a naval physician. That said, he is not a pacifist at all (he's a proficient duelist and sometimes secret agent), so if you're using healer as a shorthand for "character who is likely to be a strict noncombatant" then he's not what you're looking for.

Along similar lines, the narrator and main character of Glen Cook's Black Company books is the surgeon and record-keeper for a group of fantasy mercenaries. Even less of a pacifist than Maturin, though.


What is the basic premise of Discworld?

Discworld is a parody fantasy setting; it's hard to pin it down further than that because the author has several different sets of main characters who all deal with different things. Stories featuring Rincewind as protagonist are usually silly adventures heavy on parody and references (particularly to older pulp fantasy); stories about the City Watch tend to lampoon noir, police procedurals and political drama; stories about Lancre and its witches deal with fairy tales and folklore; stories focusing on Death and company are kind of weird mythic fantasy; then there are various stand-alones which fall all over the place. They're definitely comedies but there's often a fair bit of social commentary/philosophy.

[ben-zayb]

Jackie Chan. The dude has his cartoon show, right?

[LibraryOgre]

R.A. Salvatore wrote a series with a Cleric as protagonist - Cadderly Bonaduce (and incidentally is one of the few series to also feature a Monk as a main character).

Whole series is called the Cleric Quintet, first book was named Canticle.

Was coming to suggest just this, actually. While Cadderly becomes more comfortable with violence as the series goes on, it's initially somewhat traumatic for him to be thrust into the role of a violent adventurer... accidentally killing someone in the first book (with a weapon he designed as a toy) forms a good part of his character arc for the second.

I'd also toss out the Cadfael Mysteries, by Ellis Peters. While Cadfael isn't strictly a pacifist (he's a former soldier who retired to a monastery), he is a healer who tries to avoid violence (partially because, as an older man, he's no longer quite as good at it). I kinda see a bit of Cadfael in Cadderly.

[endoperez]

About Discworld, maybe one way to look at it would be to describe a book about these themes.

Wyrd Sisters is about Shakespeare's plays, princes whisked away in the middle of the night, and the three protagonist witches who meddle in dangerous things beyond their understanding: politics. Expect references to Hamlet, Macbeth, actors & acting, the relationship of stories and reality, and small-town politics where the mayor is a king. There's a whole lot of meddling, but not much fighting.
It's part of a continuum of books with similar themes and mostly the same characters: Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum, and more.

Small Gods talks about the differences between personal faith and organised religion, through the lense of a lowly acolyte of the Great God Om. Brutha tends to melons, he's kind, he believes in his God, and then he hears the voice of his God. It looks like the Great Om is now a turtle with barely any divine power left. An adventure follows, with wars and faith and philosophers running on streets shouting "Eureka!" Expect references to pseudo-Mediterrania on the time of the Greek city states, philosophical ponderings about faith, abiut gods and church and the faithful, about people who talk in a god's name, and about justifications for wars and violence.

Small Gods is a standalone book set in the shared world. I believe it'd be a good fit to this theme, and if you like it, you can give the other Discworld books a go.

[Fri]

It's not hard to describe discworld.

It's a tongue-in-cheek (originally it's straightforward parody, but later it's more a straight but tongue-in-cheek series, it's important distinction) fantasy universe that lampoon a lot of standard expectation on high fantasy universe. There's dozens of book in the series, but there's basically 4 main line, each books are stand alone (not sequels!) but featuring same characters, about different parts of discworld.

1. The Witches line is about... witches, which is basically magical problem solvers EXCEPT they try to use magic as little as possible. They're the pacifistic one for this thread, and pacifistic/good does not mean nice.
2. The Wizards line is the most straightforward parody of high fantasy adventure story, it's about the cowardly wizard Rincewind who accidentally got a powerful sentient spell inside his head.
3. The Guards line is fantasy police procedural/noir, about the adventures of city guards in a fantasy city.
4. The Death line is a strange "mythical" fantasy part about the adventure of the personification of death, and usually deal with other mythical adversaries, like the personification of order in the universe.
5. There's a strange line about "Progress" which is about Discworld's move from high fantasy universe to a more steampunk-ish, mainly starring Moist von Lipwig, a conman with heart of gold, though I'm putting The Truth here (a novel about the establishment of newspaper in Discworld, which is my single favourite discworld novel)
6. Assorted one-off novels set in the setting.

You can read each line independently (I mean, you don't need to know anything about the wizards line to read the witches line, for example), but usually it's recommended that you read each line chronologically (so read the first witch novel before the second, etc)

[Flickerdart]

If I had to sum up Discworld in one premise, it would be: stories and belief have power, but that's not an excuse to not do the right thing.

[Tengu_temp]

First off, hi Tengu_temp, haven't seen you in months. What took you so long?

Simply put, I moved on. I don't really post on GitP anymore these days, except once in a blue moon. How long it took me to respond to you should be a testament to that.

[Agrippa]

Simply put, I moved on. I don't really post on GitP anymore these days, except once in a blue moon. How long it took me to respond to you should be a testament to that.

I understand completely now. For me it's the simple fact that I'm a slow poster and it takes me a while to figure what and how to say something.

To be more on topic I'm actually watching a movie with a healer of sorts, a physician to be exact. Not only that but he, the protagonist is male, has committed no act more violent then trying to physically restrain someone to administer a sedative. So I guess Fredrick Frankenstein from Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein would be a perfect 3-point match.

[Themrys]

Not a healer, but Maia, the hero of "The Goblin Emperor" is a very kind person, and he never solves problems with violence ... partly because he doesn't know how to fight in the first place, but he also doesn't like killing people and doesn't use his power as emperor to take revenge on those who wronged him before he became emperor. He is a pacifist in that he, at one point in the story, suggests tearing down a stronghold that has been built on the ancient burial grounds of a nomadic people, in order to achieve peace. (He doesn't really have a choice about his bodyguards using violence to protect him, though)

[endoperez]

Not a healer, but Maia, the hero of "The Goblin Emperor" is a very kind person, and he never solves problems with violence ... partly because he doesn't know how to fight in the first place, but he also doesn't like killing people and doesn't use his power as emperor to take revenge on those who wronged him before he became emperor. He is a pacifist in that he, at one point in the story, suggests tearing down a stronghold that has been built on the ancient burial grounds of a nomadic people, in order to achieve peace. (He doesn't really have a choice about his bodyguards using violence to protect him, though)

That was a nice book. It kind of turned the "unlucky everydude orphan is really talented and becomes a hero and a king" thing around by skipping the "hero" part, and showing that kings don't need to be able to use swords (or whatever).

[erikun]

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is a 3DS game where the main character primarily uses healing and buffing abilities. He can attack, but his attack has a very narrow range so you will frequently be using him to buff and heal while everyone else whacks the enemy. Given that it's an anime-style game about a male lead and the rest of the cast is a bunch of female characters, you could probably assume where they are going with this.

Now that I think about it, the anime series Tenchi Muyo probably fills somewhat of a similar niche - the main (male) lead is mostly the pacifist and tries to get everyone to get along. It's likely that a lot of anime following the same example - Lord of Magna certainly does - is probably going to have a similar theme to them.

Outside that, Minwu from Final Fantasy 2 comes off as a fairly sage-like healer character, although one certainly not afraid of dropping large spells on enemies. He's also more of a side character, only appearing for a little bit, although it's not as if the main characters say all that much themselves. Nearly every video game RPG is likely to have some sort of healing-focused character, although you'd probably need to look a bit harder to see what their personality is like.

[dps]

For a pacifist male lead, the first character that came to my mind was Jess Birdwell in The Friendly Persuasion.

For healer types, there are tons of TV doctors.

[Psyren]

Rurouni Kenshin is a good example of the 'fights but tries not to kill anybody' pacifist, with Meiji-era Kenshin wielding a reversed edge sword (a singled edged blade, but with the sharp edge facing its owner) as a constant reminder of his vow not to kill.

What Kenshin actually does is beat the holy hell out of his opponents with nonlethal Iaijutsu damage. His reverse-blade sword is effectively a Merciful Katana.

YMMV on whether that is "pacifism" or not. (Note that by D&D standards it actually would be.)

[Majin]

I'd say Sakamoto from Sakamoto desu ga fits the pacifist part. He resolves some potentially violent situations by just being clever (and cool).

[Mister Tom]

Plenty of people mentioned the Discworld- the best example I can think of of this is Brutha from Small Gods.

[tantric]

perhaps Journey to the West (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West)? the protagonist is a buddhist monk. fighting demons apparently doesn't count. there a really entertaining modern movie of it, JttW Conquering the Demons. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aelriSQLqkc). that's a link to the trailer, but you can watch the whole thing online.

[FullmetalHeart2]

I've only heard of it, but the Magnus Chase series may count. The main character's godly parent's domain is Summer, fertility, and healing, so he doesn't have much of a role in combat. He either heals, talks, or pours power into his sword so it could fight for him. The last bit arguably doesn't count since it's less a tool of war than a character all it's own.

[Liquor Box]

There was programe on when I was a child called MacGyver. If I remember correctly the titular charater hated violence and absolutely refused to use guns (although if pressed he would use lesser forms of violence). He may qualify as a pacifist protagonist.

[Daer]

Log Horizon
Other those mmorpg comes real shows but far better than others and lot of it has to do that its makers clearly have knowledge of games and the main character being enchanter, a support class brings new view to fights and his calculating mind goes with other troubles they face.

[Bohandas]

The titular character of Dr.Who is a pacifist (though he is not, however, a medical doctor, as he is quick to point out)

EDIT:

I'd say there are three levels of pacifistic characters:
1. Those who will fight normally, but refuse to kill their enemies. Characters like Balsa or Snake/Adam Jensen going the nonlethal route are here. I don't think they really count as pacificts, they're just not killers.
2. Those who will enter a fight, but spend most of it avoiding or defending against the enemy, usually at most disarming them, and tend to try to either escape, persuade the enemy to stop, or make them defeat themselves pretty much. Characters like Aang or Vash are here. Those count as action pacifists for me, and I'd give them as examples if they weren't mentioned already, but I don't know if this is what the OP wants or not.
3. True pacifists who refuse to engage in any kind of physical conflict at all. Those definitely count, and tend to be rather rare in stories that rely on action, for obvious reasons. But a few were mentioned here already, so they exist.

You could add an addotional category of technical pacifists, like the protagonist of Poe's The Cask of Amontillado (who gets his rival drunk, lures him to a secluded chamber in a catabomb, and then and then bricks up the chamber's only exit, leaving his rival there to die)

[Dilvish]

A real life example of a Healer/pacifist is the movie Heartbreak Ridge, and the books about the main character.

In fiction, Dr. McCoy or Spock from the original Star Trek are examples, especially McCoy.
The western genre has examples of the pacifist ex-gunslinger or solider, and the preacher man/woman.

[KillianHawkeye]

How about Frodo from Lord of the Rings?

Professor Xavier from the X-Men?

[danzibr]

The first game requires a few kills but is still very pacifistic.
Something about this made me laugh.

[Themrys]

Gen from the Attolia series by Megan Whalen Turner is a pacifist in the first novel. (After that, it gets darker, and he gets darker, too, but he still doesn't identify as fighter; he's a thief and that's how he solves problems, not with violence)

[Bohandas]

The game Postal 2 by Running With Scissors, while normally very violent can be completed without killing anyone (at least in the basic campaign) and this is in fact necessary to get 100% completion as it's one of the achievements.

[Sermil]

Chell from Portal never kills any sentient beings, since GlaDOS is, as we all know, Still Alive at the end.

[gooddragon1]

I can't even believe that no one has mentioned Toki from Hokuto no Ken.