pacifism in games that allow it is kinda broken from a morality standpoint. at that point youre not sparing lives because of any principles or belief but because Thats The Best Ending. not to say it doesnt feel godlike when it works out though, especially if you really go through the wringer to earn that happy ending. just that to the Optimal Gamer if you tell them theres a nonlethal option, theyre always going to lock themselves out of half of the game (and thats at best) for the sake of seeing what there is to see.
has me thinking again about how great Blue Planet: War in Heaven's protagonist is, on immediately confronting their cultures pacifism as a decision made out of privilege and relative isolation as well as a superiority, without necessarily going against its virtues. when push came to shove into full-fledged war against an imperialist threat, the protagonist immediately sunk into cognitive dissonance and spends the whole game flopping back and forth on whether they should feel right over the mass casualties they casually pile up but never actually being able to stand on one belief over the other. its the funniest thing to watch, and it constantly ends in the punchline of "they throw up on themselves and gets another savior complex"