History Main / CombatAestheticist

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Oberyn Martell believes in putting on a good show in front of a crowd, including lots of weapon-twirling and acrobatics. Somewhat justified as a way to distract his opponent, as well as make it hard to tell what's flashiness and what's an actual attack.
* The Operative in ''[[Series/{{Firefly}} Serenity]]'', especially compared to Mal. Also Atherton Wing. Though he's less formidable than the Operative, he did kill a dozen men in duels and has a great love of swords.
* Michael Westen in ''Series/BurnNotice'' fights with a concern for elegance. He is also a CombatPragmatist.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** The Minbari are this. They have elaborate rituals around combat as around everything else, and their warships are the most pretty.
** Londo Mollari is an ''intrigue'' aestheticist. For instance he goes out of his way to [[spoiler:assassinate Emperor Cartagia with a jeweled hyperdermic needle]]. He appears not to be alone about this: Apparently Centauri have as loving a care for their poisons as humans have for swords.
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** Admiral Pellaeon: he has long been tired of the act of war itself, but loves tactics for their own sake. Matching wits with an equally skilled opponent and so on.
** Grand Admiral Thrawn, too, was a big fan of strategy and elegance. In fact, his last words, after being successfully assassinated, were: "But... it was so artistically done." He even appreciated being on the ''receiving'' end of war.

* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Before the advent of "positional" chess in the late 19th century, an ideal game finished with a spectacular sacrifice, and gambits were never declined. Anything less was considered uncivilized, or at best gauche. The beauty of the game was important, and Grandmasters were considered to be somehow divinely blessed with the ability to pull off such feats of derring-do over the board. Then, Wilhelm Steinitz -- already skilled in the flashy, "romantic" style -- [[AwesomenessByAnalysis started poring over games of old Grandmasters]], and realized that there were certain identifiable, repeatable aspects of these games -- that the flashes of brilliance were made possible in the first place by very mundane positioning of the pawns and pieces. He compiled his research into a new system, and soon dominated the chess world, become the first world champion of the modern era in the process, and forever changing the game into [[BoringButPractical what it is today]], ultimately averting this trope in the process.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the martial arts Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style and Crystal Chameleon Style share both philosophical subtext and graceful, eye-catching aesthetics. If a player does the former style incorrectly, their [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence physical body may actually dissipate]] into pure, unrestrained Essence.

** [[MadArtist Jhin]] is a variant. While he has very showy animations that blur the line between graceful and [[UncannyValley over-exaggerated,]] he focuses primarily on [[SerialKiller the act of murder itself]], finding a perfectly-crafted death a work of art. Incidentally, rather than thinking of himself as a traditional artist or painter like you would expect, he compares himself to a stage director and thinks of his murders as a performance.

* [[HornyDevils Nifilhema]] in ''VideoGame/{{Lusternia}}''. It's a package deal of CombatAestheticist, TortureTechnician, CombatSadomasochist and MadArtist: she spends most of her time devising tortures as unnecessarily intricate and harrowing as possible, for the sheer artistry of it. Her followers are much the same way, killing their enemies with as much style and finesse as possible.

*** Thrawn never told Pellaeon ''why'' he chose him out of all the surviving captains of the Empire to be his flag captain and protege, though Pellaeon often wondered. It's possible that their shared belief in this trope was a factor.
* Martin van Creveld wrote an entire book on the subject called ''The Culture of War''.
* The Sword Monks of ''Literature/TheScavengerTrilogy'' devote their lives to combat asthetics. They raise fighting to a form of sculpture -- an artwork carved in time, position and flesh.
* Variant in ''Literature/{{The Art Of War|Sun Tzu}}'', as it details more about multiple kinds of battle strategies and large-scale wars rather than mano-a-mano combat.

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' Hysteria embodies this. Jeez she is even nicknamed 'Hysteria the elegant'. She is immensely proud of her fighting style which is considered the most beautiful of all warriors. Even after awakening she holds firmy to her vision of beauty and views the combat pragmatic strategy of the protagonists as hideous. As Miria said it, her hubris is actually the cause of her defeat.

** Rose cares so much about elegence in fighting that he objects when he's helped out of rubble because it ruined his attempt to artistically escape it.

Compare ArtAttacker when they literally are aestheticists who use their talents for combat, as well as MartialArtsAndCrafts who devises refined combat moves out of mundane activities.

* Tristan of ''Film/KingArthur''. In the opening battle, his kill count is not as high as the other knights, but his sword swings are graceful and flowing, and by the end, he's the only knight who isn't out of breath and covered in blood.

* Treize Khushrenada of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''. He goes so far as to betray his benefactors (even when their forces on the verge of winning) simply because they want to use computer-controlled Mobile Suits in place of human pilots, which Treize believes ruins the beauty of warfare and turns it into a "game" played by anyone rich enough to afford their own army, with the innocents caught in the middle suffering.

* [[MadArtist Jhin]] from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is a variant. While he has very showy animations that blur the line between graceful and [[UncannyValley over-exaggerated,]] he focuses primarily on [[SerialKiller the act of murder itself]], finding a perfectly-crafted death a work of art. Incidentally, rather than thinking of himself as a traditional artist or painter like you would expect, he compares himself to a stage director and thinks of his murders as a performance.