In the early books he was both but with a real conscience. For instance in “Dr. No” Bond tells Felix Leiter that you know me too well for that”. In response to a question about if Bond had killed someone.
Of course if need be he definitely would kill.
Also in “From Russia With Love”, Bond asks the Gypsies to stop the girl on girl fight.
The most immoral Bond to me was in “The Man With the Golden Gun” which had just about zero to do with the book’s storyline. Bond simply murders the gunsmith who made Scaramanga’s gun. I think Cubby Broccoli was pushing an anit-gun message in that movie.
‘The most immoral Bond to me was in The Man With the Golden Gun which had just about zero to do with the books storyline. Bond simply murders the gunsmith who made Scaramangas gun. I think Cubby Broccoli was pushing an anit-gun message in that movie.’
Bond doesn’t kill the gunsmith(Senhor Lazar, as they would say in Portuguese since this scene is set in Macau). He just threatens him to find out Scaramanga’s whereabouts. In the very next scene, Lazar is alive and passing the gold bullets to Maud Adams’ Andrea, Scaramanga’s mistress.