History CombatPragmatist / WebAnimation

* ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'': [[spoiler: Victim. Since they were created to be [[MeaningfulName nothing but a victim]], their power level and abilities reflect that. When victim interrogates The Chosen One as a means of extracting information from him about the animator, their first attempt at attack/intimidation [[NoSell barely fazes The Chosen One]]. Then Agent, from behind the scenes, weakens The Chosen One's abilities and gives victim an incredibly unfair advantage.]]

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

** During the Tournament, Octavia uses Amity Arena's desert biome by firing blasts at the ground to kick up sand that blinds Sun and Scarlet. Neptune isn't affected because he always wears goggles.
** During the Tournament, Emerald avoids fighting Yatsuhashi and Coco directly; she melts into the long grass and disappears. Only when Coco is in the forest biome does she re-engage, using guerrilla-style hit-and-run strikes to disorient Coco. When she's finally ready to confront her, she does from behind. During the battle for Haven Academy, she constantly uses her [[MasterOfIllusion Semblance]] to trick her opponents eyes, allowing her to ambush attack. [[spoiler:When Ruby tries to use the power of her silver eyes on Cinder, Emerald cuts her attack short by knocking her out cold from behind.]]
** Qrow uses his WindsOfDestinyChange Semblance to cause problems for his opponent, such as spotting a cracked roof-beam and ensuring it breaks under the weight of his opponent. When Tyrian disarms Qrow, Qrow simply shrugs and starts [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the shit]] out of Tyrian with his bare fists; this shocks the maniac long enough for Qrow to retrieve his weapon.

** Tyrian is extremely fast, acrobatic and talkative. He will hide his scorpion tail to catch new opponents by surprise with a "fifth limb", he'll mix up his behaviour so his opponents are never sure if he's going to talk or strike; if an opponent tries pre-fight banter, Tyrian will attack them mid-sentence. [[spoiler:When trapped in a three-way battle between himself, Qrow and Clover, he exploits his opponents' emotions to help Qrow against Clover, setting up a grudge match that leads to Clover disarming Qrow, who in turn breaks his Aura; Tyrian then stabs Clover from behind with Qrow's dropped weapon.]]
** Ruby does not like fighting people but once she does, she will use any dirty trick in the book to win. She slices off Tyrian's tail while he's distracted, opens Neo's umbrella mid-air to fling her off an airship, immediately flashes her silver eyes when fighting Cinder, taunts [[spoiler:Harriet]] to separate her from the group and later goads her into running into a wall, and [[spoiler:tricks Neo into charging her, then flies around the side to bodyslam her off a bridge]].

** Tyrian is extremely fast, acrobatic and talkative. He will hide his scorpion tail to catch new opponents by surprise with a "fifth limb", he'll mix up his behaviour so his opponents are never sure if he's going to talk or strike; if an opponent tries pre-fight banter, Tyrian will attack them mid-sentence. [[spoiler:When trapped in a three-way battle between himself, Qrow and Clover, he exploits his opponents emotions to help Qrow against Clover, setting up a grudge match that leads to Clover disarming Qrow, who in turn breaks his Aura; Tyrian then stabs Clover from behind with Qrow's dropped weapon.]]

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':
** Agent Washington is a freelancer with no AI, no armor enhancements, and no combat specialisation. He makes up for this by being a very solid all-rounder and fighting smart. He always tries to even the odds through strength in numbers, stealing weapons off his enemies, or just grabbing a bigger gun (sometimes metaphorical, sometimes not). He was able to stop The Meta (an absurdly powerful hivemind of AI in a super strong, over-enhanced BloodKnight) not through force, but with deception and knowledge that he himself wasn't supposed to hold about his surroundings.
** Agent Tex is the strongest combatant in the series, but still prefers a pragmatic fight. She often uses her cloaking device and plasma grenades to end a fight before she starts it, and will set up a battle field with explosives and extra weapons ahead of time. [[spoiler: She'd probably win more if she wasn't subconsciously programmed to be a FailureHero.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
** During the Tournament, Octavia uses Amity Arena's desert biome by firing blasts at the ground to kick up sand that blinds Sun and Scarlet. Neptune isn't affected because he always wears goggles.
** During the Tournament, Emerald avoids fighting Yatsuhashi and Coco directly; she melts into the long grass and disappears. Only when Coco is in the forest biome does she re-engage, using guerrilla-style hit-and-run strikes to disorient Coco. When she's finally ready to confront her, she does from behind. During the battle for Haven Academy, she constantly uses her [[MasterOfIllusion Semblance]] to trick her opponents eyes, allowing her to ambush attack. [[spoiler:When Ruby tries to use the power of her silver eyes on Cinder, Emerald cuts her attack short by knocking her out cold from behind.]]
** Qrow uses his WindsOfDestinyChange Semblance to cause problems for his opponent, such as spotting a cracked roof-beam and ensuring it breaks under the weight of his opponent. When Tyrian disarms Qrow, Qrow simply shrugs and starts [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the shit]] out of Tyrian with his bare fists; this shocks the maniac long enough for Qrow to retrieve his weapon.
** Roman has no problem using everything he can to win a fight. Against Sun and Blake, he starts shooting hanging shipping crates to try and drop them on his opponents. When Ruby turns to tell Penny to stay back, he immediately blasts her. During their battle on top of an airship, Roman takes advantage every time Ruby falls, at one point delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown with his cane while she curls into a ball to protect herself.
** Watts is aware that his mind is his best weapon and stacks the deck in his favor. In Volume 7, Ironwood tricks him into visiting Amity Arena and locks them down; Watts hacks the system and manipulates the environment to his advantage, repeatedly using the biome system to thwart his physically more capable opponent. [[spoiler:When it looks like he's finally cornered, Ironwood drops his guard because Watts was counting bullets throughout the fight and knows Watts is out of bullets. Watts did that deliberately because the point was never the gun: he was hiding a HardLight shield trap, which he uses to pin Ironwood by the arm. Ironwood has to sacrifice his arm to escape.]]
** Tyrian is extremely fast, acrobatic and talkative. He will hide his scorpion tail to catch new opponents by surprise with a "fifth limb", he'll mix up his behaviour so his opponents are never sure if he's going to talk or strike; if an opponent tries pre-fight banter, Tyrian will attack them mid-sentence. [[spoiler:When trapped in a three-way battle between himself, Qrow and Clover, he exploits his opponents emotions to help Qrow against Clover, setting up a grudge match that leads to Clover disarming Qrow, who in turn breaks his Aura; Tyrian then stabs Clover from behind with Qrow's dropped weapon.]]

* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': The Darkness counterparts always use dirty tricks when they fight, such as ambushing the characters from the shadows.

** Agent Washington is a freelancer with no AI and no special combat abilities (sans amazing capability with firearms) or armor enhancements. He makes up for this by fighting smart. He always tries to even the odds through strength in numbers, stealing weapons off his enemies, or just grabbing a bigger gun (sometimes metaphorical, sometimes not). He was able to stop The Meta (an absurdly powerful hivemind of AI in a super strong, over-enhanced BloodKnight) not through force, but with deception and knowledge he himself wasn't supposed to hold about his surroundings.

** Watts is aware that his mind is his best weapon and stacks the deck in his favor. In Volume 7, Ironwood tricks him into visiting Amity Arena and locks them down; Watts hacks the system and manipulates the environment to his advantage. He repeatedly uses the biome system to hold off and nearly kill the general who is clearly better in a straightforward fight. [[spoiler:When it looks like he's finally cornered, Ironwood drops his guard because Watts was counting bullets throughout the fight and knows Watts is out of bullets. Watts did that deliberately because the point was never the gun: he was hiding a HardLight shield trap, which he uses to pin Ironwood by the arm. Ironwood has to sacrifice his arm to escape.]]

** During the Tournament, Emerald avoids fighting Yatsuhashi and Coco directly; she melts into the long grass and disappears. Only when Coco is in the forest biome doe she re-engage, using guerrilla-style hit-and-run strikes to disorient Coco. When she's finally ready to confront her, she does from behind. During the battle for Haven Academy, she constantly uses her [[MasterOfIllusion Semblance]] to trick her opponents eyes, allowing her to ambush attack. [[spoiler:When Ruby tries to use the power of her silver eyes on Cinder, Emerald cuts her attack short by knocking her out cold from behind.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' provides a few examples:

** Yang Xiao Long. In her introduction, she steps into a BadGuyBar and gets into an altercation with the owner, a big mafia boss. When he threatens to sic his goons on her, she sweet-talks him and offers a make-up kiss. When the [[SchmuckBait schmuck]] acquiesces to her offer and leans in to plant a kiss onto the lovely blonde, [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom she plants an altogether different kind of kiss onto him]]. She also qualifies [[FridgeBrilliance if you bear in mind that]] when Ruby, Weiss and Blake aren't using their weapons they store them in rocket-powered lockers at Beacon, ready to call in whenever they need them. Yang? Her [[PowerFist Ember]] [[ArmCannon Celica]] folds up into a pair of unassuming bracelets, so she can take them anywhere and lay the smack-down any time she needs to.
** Her sister, Ruby Rose also qualifies. When fighting weaker opponents her fighting style is pretty straightforward, but when things are ''serious'' she's one third TheStrategist, one third this and one third CrazyAwesome. On this trope's side she's not afraid to use [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells freezing bullets]], taking someone else's weapon when her own is unavailable, blinding opponents with tricks like pulling hat over his eyes or making them lose balance by opening enemy's umbrella during windy fight on top of airship. She'll even headbutt someone if she's been disarmed and once used a magical artifact to pull a TimeStop to buy herself the time she needed to kill a particularly powerful Grimm.
** Qrow uses his WindsOfDestinyChange Semblance to cause problems for his opponent, and when Tyrian disarms him, Qrow settles for simply ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the shit out of the maniac with his bare fists]]'', which stuns and shocks Tyrian long enough for Qrow to retrieve his weapon.
** On bad guys side there is Roman Torchwick with [[CaneFu cane]] that works as a [[MixAndMatchWeapon gun]] and GrapplingHookPistol. He doesn't hesitate to deliver the shooting equivalent of sucker punch when enemy is distracted or shot down heavy container on top of enemy's head.
** Vernal is shown to be this during the Volume 5 climactic battle. [[spoiler:She makes an effort to keep on top of Weiss and interrupt her summoning Semblance, while also interrupting her fancy LadyOfWar pirouettes and hitting her with powerful strikes. Weiss is on the defensive throughout and is eventually defeated in one of the most one-sided fights in the series so far.]]

** Her sister, Ruby Rose also qualifies. When fighting weaker opponents her fighting style is pretty straightforward, but when things are ''serious'' she's one third TheStrategist, one third this and one third CrazyAwesome. On this trope's side she's not afraid to use [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells freezing bullets]], taking someone else's weapon when her own is unavailable, blinding opponents with tricks like pulling hat over his eyes or making them lose balance by opening enemy's umbrella during windy fight on top of airship.
*** This trait of hers actually became [[MemeticMutation memetic]] during volume seven. For reference, the above was written about the first three volumes; she has since maimed an opponent when his back was turned, headbutted somebody else when her weapon was unavailable, jumped into the cannon of a GiantMecha in order to disable it with a sniper shot, used a magical artifact to pull a TimeStop so she could concentrate on her innate magical ability, modified her scythe so it can twist a full 180 degrees and give her a backswing, and impaled a Megoliath (a massive mammoth Grimm) on its own tusk. Ironically enough, she's a friendly, caring, and cheerful outside of combat.
** In "Punished", we learn these two probably got this trait from [[CoolUncle Uncle Qrow]]. For one thing, he freely abuses his Semblance ([[spoiler:TheJinx]]) to cause problems for his opponent, and when [[spoiler:Tyrian disarms him of his sword, Qrow settles for simply ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the shit out of the maniac with his bare fists]]'', which stuns and shocks Tyrian long enough for Qrow to retrieve his weapon.]]
** On bad guys side there is Roman Torchwick with [[CaneFu cane]] that works as a [[MixAndMatchWeapon gun]] and GrapplingHookPistol. He doesn't hesitate to deliver shoting equivalent of sucker punch when enemy is distracted or shot down heavy container on top of enemy's head.
** Vernal turns out to be this, as in her fight against [[spoiler:Weiss, she makes an effort to keep on top of her and interrupt her summon Semblance, while also interrupting her fancy LadyOfWar pirouettes and hitting her with powerful strikes. Weiss is on the defensive throughout and is eventually defeated handily in one of the most one-sided fights in the series so far. Unfortunately, for Cinder, [[KickTheDog being knocked out of the fight with a depleted aura isn't enough]].]]

* Calamity in ''WebAnimation/NoEvil''. When [[spoiler:Charles]] starts [[EvilGloating monologuing]] as a prelude to calling on the Black Ick, Calamity punches him in the stomach before he finishes talking.