Ed not willing to kill can be seen as very naive but at the same time, you gotta admire his conviction for not wanting to kill. What really cemented that admiration and even respect for me was that Ed wasn't all talk when it came to his beliefs. When he was heavily injured to the point he could've died, he acknowledged that his beliefs was what got him into that mess in the first place, so what does he do? He owned up to the consequences of it. He was willing to pay the price for his beliefs. Nothing but respect for that.