Combat Pragmatist / Webcomics

---

• Axe Cop is not above poisoning his enemies or murdering them in their sleep.
• Karcharoth and Fenrir of Cry 'Havoc' do whatever they think they need to in order to survive and win.
• Dark Pegasus from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures not only disintegrates an enemy in mid-speech, but then finishes his speech by mocking his enemies for allowing him to do that.
• El Goonish Shive:
  • Mr. Raven.
    Wizard: Feigned frailty, no "En guarde"... Have you no honor?
    Raven: The lives of my students are more important.
  • The aberration known only as "Scarf" turns out to be the one antagonist who comes the closest to actually killing a major named character - by pulling a gun on them from behind while they're fighting a completely different aberration.
• Errant Story:
  • Jon Amraphel is the only main character without any magical ability. How does he cope with fighting Magic Knight elven military, monks with Bullet Time Super-Speed, and tiny fairy demigods? By a) being very good with guns, and b) cheating like hell. Being a semi-retired assassin, he does his best to avoid anything like a face-to-face fight.
  • Meji proves she has a pragmatist streak after she ascends to godhood. When Ian fought the elves with his newly-acquired divine power, he blew up their city, fought the entire elven army at once, and then fought the fake human god. When the elves threaten Meji, she says that if she decides to fight them, she'll just stop their hearts.
• Anyone but Wildfire is this in Exterminatus Now. Special mention goes to "Dirty Harry" Eastwood who, well, fights dirty, Lothar and his "cunning plans" and Morth who additionally mixes this with Pragmatic Villainy.
• Freaking Romance: Verose can fight, and she can quickly analyze an opponent's strengths and weaknesses before engaging. She is also more than capable of using the environment and whatever objects are handy to win.
• The Combagals of Furry Fight Chronicles are not afraid to fight dirty if the situation demands it. Attacks to the groin, to the breasts, and other tactics are encouraged.
• Pinton the Pig in Future Pig is definitely this. See him teach it to a student here.
• Girl Genius:
  • The end of Agatha and Othar's little talk she pushes him over the side of an airship. Othar apparently has the catchphrase "Foul!" for whenever this sort of thing happens.
  • Agatha vs. her cousin:
    Zola Anya Talinka Venia Zeblinkya Malfeazium: Bringing a knife to a gun fight doesn't seem very smart, now does it?
    Agatha Heterodyne: Well, I suppose it isn't that much worse than bringing a gun to a clank fight.
  • Bangladesh DuPree. The best example is her fight with Zulenna.
  • The Jägers are all over this trope. In fact one of them expressed this twice during just one fight:
    General Zog: Killink hyu enemies alvays counts.
    General Zog: Hmf. Iz still cheating. But in der GOOT way!
  • The un-lobotomized Dmitri Vapnoople is a proponent of this kind of thinking. The "first lesson" he imparts on Agatha when taking her up as an unwilling apprentice is to take any of your opponents distractions — say, for example, a screaming Villainous Breakdown — to eliminate them right then and there. And proceeds to demonstrate by tossing an enemy having one such breakdown into a dimensional rift like he were getting rid of last night's trash.
• Manseok Gang from The God of High School is a sadistic ex-con who practices Northern Taekwondo, a variant developed during the Korean War that emphasizes dirty tactics like eye gouges and strikes below the belt.
• Grrl Power:
  • Math is confronted by a Wolverine knock-off villain with impenetrable skin and unstoppable claws. Just when Math's looking forward to an interesting fight, Sidney uses her whipcoil orb to stick the foe's own claws into his chest.
    Sidney: [to a glowering Math] What? Clearly, one of those statements was false.
  • Maxima is the most powerful super in the world by a large margin, to the point that she is capable of literally nuking things and surviving worse. She is also a soldier and was taught to be a ruthlessly efficient fighter. When fighting Vehemence, she has Peggy shoot him in the eye with an anti-materiel rifle, uses the distraction to knock him to the ground, stomps on his crotch (though he dodges that one) hard enough to leave a ten-foot crater, punches him a hundred feet into a construction site, uses a concrete pillar to grind his face in, and then vaporizes his arm.
    Vehemence: God damnit lady!
  • During said fight, Sydney realizes that Vehemence gained strength (and energy) through aggression, which is why he started the fight. She also knows he is otherwise an ordinary person; therefore, she has Dabbler distract him by rope-jumping, then has as many of her teammates as possible hold his head underwater in a puddle so that he would have to expend energy to keep from drowning. Thus the offer of "surrender, or die".
• Homestuck:
  • Jack Noir is a big fan of teleporting behind people and stabbing them in the back. Though he is omnipotent, so perhaps he doesn't count.
  • Winning his immortality by killing the Black Queen with the bunny does, however.
  • Vriska Serket and her ancestor, Marquise Mindfang have no qualms with using their psychic powers to use others to kill or maim their opponents.
  • Dave is not above using his friend who their foe cannot bring himself to harm as a Human Shield. AUTO-HARLEY!
  • Terezi knows that Vriska has to be stopped to preserve the timeline and the lives of all the other trolls and that she would have no chance against her in a fair fight. So she tricks Vriska into a psychological game of chicken and stabs her in the back.
• I Don't Want This Kind of Hero: In Orca's words, Hyena's a born fighter. Whereas even Dana will respect Amore's Truce Zone, Hyena fully believes in attacking Knife wherever they're spotted and is appalled that her sister walked away from a fight. She likely gets away with it because Orca was incapacitated, not killed.
• TFA Prowl in the Insecticomics teaches his class to use any available item as a weapon. When Laserbeak tries to call him on this, he kicks her aft with a sandwich.
• Manly Guys Doing Manly Things:
  • Jared was disqualified and barred from trainer battles for allowing his Gyarados to eat opponent Pokemon.
  • During the Nomura Syndrome arc, the Commander refuses to follow turn-based RPG rules, and just shoots the random monsters they encounter.
    Commander: Import'nt t' draw that fine line between fightin' dirty an' fightin' stupid.
    Jared: Well that doesn't seem very sporting...
    Jonesy: Excuse me, but remind me again why you were kicked out of the Pokemon League?
  • He does it again in the same arc during the climactic fight with Gackt, after the latter transforms into his ultimate well, penultimate form. Rather than engage in another lengthy RPG-style duel, he declares that he's gonna "Moon Tiara Magic this bullshit," and simply climbs up and cuts Gackt's throat.
    Jonesy: I don't think that's how Moon Tiara Magic works.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Haley has no problem fighting very dirty. For example, she ambushes Crystal as she is in the shower, catching her without her weapons, armor, and protective jewelry, and kills her while she is stunned on the floor. It might be argued that this is dishonorable, but aside from that being the whole point, Haley is Chaotic Good, not Chaotic Stupid. Who could forget her approach to the test of the mind? Or, for that matter, the return trip? Considering Haley's class and the above commentary on D&D rogues, this is justified.
  • Belkar also fits into this category.
    • He is quite willing to fight sneakily with a paladin and either taking potshots or using traps against her. When he knocks her unconscious, however, he actually waits until she wakes up again instead of simply killing her. He even let her believe that she had merely become dizzy for a few seconds. He did steal and drink her healing potions while he had the chance. For Belkar, this is less about being honorable and more about pissing her off. Obviously, he can't annoy her if she's out cold. Not to mention that his plan had been to let her kill him so that she lost her Paladin powers, while he could always get resurrected later.
    • When Belkar is confronted with the son of a Kobold he had killed, who is in full revenge mode, he is unable to kill him due to his Mark of Justice. He simply hires mercenaries mid-fight to slay him.
      Belkar: 50 gp bonus to whoever makes him scream the loudest!
    • Belkar is an even better example in the prequel book On the Origin of PCs:
      Guard: You knifed seventeen people in a tavern brawl.
      Belkar: Hey, its not my fault they brought fists to a knife fight.
      Guard: It wasn't a knife fight until you started stabbing people!
  • Miko herself surprisingly pulls this off while appearing to be more of the Honor Before Reason type. When facing a group of enemies, she rouses them all to wake up, allows them to pick up their weapons, and even lets them eat first, allegedly so it'll be a fair fight. In truth, this was all a ploy to get them into one group so they could all be hit with the same attack.
  • Vaarsuvius shows shades of this, particularly in their fight with Zz'dtri.
    Zz'dtri: Cheater.
    Vaarsuvius: Oh heavens! I cannot believe I violated the detailed rules and regulations we agreed upon before starting this contest! We must consult the referee for an appropriate penalty regarding my heinous transgression!
  • In the same fight, no less, rather than letting skill or stats win out, Zz'dtri had specifically tailored all his spells and abilities to counter V's. V takes advantage of the Crippling Overspecialization by mind-controlling Yukyuk, who is a ranger rather than a wizard.
  • The Black Dragon waits to attack Vaarsuuvius until after they have left their allies and have exhausted their higher-level spells.
  • Redcloak has always been pragmatic, with examples such as using Titanium Elementals instead of Earth because they are lighter yet just as strong (if distasteful, not being a "classic" element); walking his hobgoblin army into certain death because he only needs them as a distraction (prior to gaining a change of heart regarding racism); creating decoys of Xykon to make the heroes guess which one's real, but then having the real one take an entirely different method of approach with greater invisibility; etc. Redcloak plays it straight when he is proposed to a fair fight by Thanh, who is held by an elemental summoned by Redcloak.
    Redcloak: Stupid risks are just that: stupid. Crush him.
  • Xykon is also this. For example, in his fight with Fyron, he couldn't best the wizard with magic. So he pretends to surrender, then beats him to death with his own Wizzy Award
    Xykon: I've found that only two things really matter. Power, in as great a quantity as you can muster, and style... and in a pinch, style can slide.
  • During his gladiator match against Thog, Roy uses discarded crossbow bolts as improvised shivs, smashes an empty potion bottle into Thog's face, throws sand in his eyes, and eventually wins by goading Thog into dropping the ceiling on himself.
    Roy: THAT'S how I use my Intelligence score in combat, dumbass!
• Rocky the rogue from Our Little Adventure stands out in their adventuring group.
• Ozzie the Vampire: Kimmy tricks Glasya-Labolas into turning around, then kicks him in the groin from behind.
  Glasya-Labolas: Dishonorable!! Uncouth!! Have you wenches no sense of a warrior's code?!?!
  Kimmy: God, no.
• In Pacificators, some of the characters tend to lean towards this (especially those with the power of fire and power of air), but Taffe Torbern deserves a special mention. No, it's not her special combo (kick in the knee then a heel palm strike, followed by a Groin Attack), but the fact that she is deaf. Observe Gincoi's shock and confusion when his attack failed.
• Schlock Mercenary:
  • Tagon. His first pugil-stick practice with Schlock involved slicing Schlock, and his pugil stick, in half with a concealed Razor Floss wire hidden in his shoes. Don't worry, Schlock can survive that sort of thing. His second, against the neophant Chisulo, involved lobbing the pugil stick into his opponent's eye from across the ring. And then, at a later wargame with sticky rounds as ordnance, he cheated by asking the ship to use some applied gravitics to mess with the enemy team's shots.
    Chisulo: I'm pretty sure that's cheating.
    Tagon: I'm sorry, did you just say, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
    Chisulo: Thank you, sir! Point... um... taken.
  • Schlock himself is pretty pragmatic, to the point arming him with a powerful gun is merciful. He'll just devour his enemies alive otherwise.
  • Kathryn too, to the point that she's one of the few people to have disabled Schlock.
  • The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries deals heavily in this trope; Maxim 31 even explicitly states "Only cheaters prosper". Therefore it's rare to find a major character who doesn't use this.
• Sluggy Freelance:
  • Bun-Bun just plain loves this trope. Some examples:
    • Setting up bombs to kill the Ghost of Christmas Past.
    • Smashing a demon's glasses then tricking it into climbing into a meat grinder.
    • Offering to settle things peacefully before attacking with an Aerosol Flamethrower.
    • Pulling out a surprise bazooka.
    • Putting his "friends" in rabbit costumes to act as decoys.
    • Using a robot's programming to make it jump into molten steel.
    • Shoving a gun up someone's nose, then, when they try to dig it out, hit them with a barstool setting the gun off and driving their arm elbow-deep into their own head, simultaneously.
    • Throwing someone out the airlock.
    • Using a spaceship's artificial gravity to knock people out.
    • Using knockout gas to capture a bunch of villagers
    • Electrocuting his opponent.
    • And hitting him with a log from behind.
    • And setting him on fire.
    • And cutting his limbs off with hedge clippers.
    • Threatening to kill the person his opponent loves, throwing a flower pot at their face to distract them, then running off to follow through on their threat.
    • Trying to slow his opponent down by giving her some "innocent bystanders to slice up."
    • Pulling a gun during a knife fight.
  • Torg:
    • Torg facing Lord Moldy Pants in a magic duel pulls out a shotgun. He also shot first.
    • Torg and the truth brick.
• In Spying with Lana, Lana will pull every trick in the book in order to win a fight.
• Everyone from Tower of God, albeit with a few exceptions. These are Rak Wraithraiser, Hatz, and Mule Love.
• Unsounded: Spellwrights have a code of rules for Wizard Duels, which Quigley cheerfully ignores in favour of sneaking spells into his opponents' clothes, deploying pre-made magic devices to get an edge, and using Augmented Reality goggles to fine-tune his spellwork.
  Duane: M-my cloak! Bad form! "A dueling gentleman shall not draw from his opponent's person, clothing, nor weap-"
  Quigley: [Yanks Duane off his feet by his cloak] Mm-hmm.
• Weak Hero:
  • Gray's bread and butter. To make up for his lack of muscle, Gray employs every nasty trick in the book in order to win his battles- attacking an opponent's sensitive areas, using everything he has on hand as a weapon, restraining them so he can pummel them while they're helpless, the list goes on.
  • Forrest isn't above underhanded tactics in order to achieve a win. He splits up Ben's gang so he can take them down one at a time, targets Alex specifically knowing that it'll anger Ben, takes Teddy as a hostage when it seems like Alex is about to escape, and then, when it seems like Alex might be able to take him in a fight, he gets his mooks to hold him in place so he can't fight back.
  • As opposed to his counterpart Wolf, who fights for the fun of it, Giju fights to win, and employs dirty tricks like faking surrender or distracting his opponent with loud sounds or feints to gain an advantage.
• King Eric in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic is known as great and just man and all that, but once the gloves are off, they are... really off.

---