Discussion Main / CombatPragmatist

I'm seeing a lot of examples, particularly under the Video Games section, of characters kicking opponents when they're down, not stopping when the opponent's been defeated, and just plain being brutal and/or a jerk. Some examples, I found near the top:

• Ryuji Yamazaki from Fatal Fury stomps people when they are on the ground and kicks dirt in their faces.
  • That's not even going into his Drill super, which revolves around brutalizing the opponent as much as possible while they can't fight back. In one variant, he pulls out his knife and stabs them several dozen times.
• Ragna The Bloodedge can pull his downed opponent back up on their feet and sock them in the gut. Noel Vermillion can shoot the opponent a lot of times while they're down. Iron Tager, though more civilized than most BB characters, magnetizes his opponents stuck to one of his fingers and pulls them up into the air. This move also magnetizes his opponent afterwards, making it difficult to avoid his follow-up attack... BlazBlue: Chronophantasma also added Azrael who can jump on his opponent if he feels like it... But they all pale in comparison to Yuuki Terumi who skips right over combat pragmatism and settles for downright Video Game Cruelty Potential. It's not enough that he has two moves that lets him curbstomp a downed opponent, no, some of his Victory Poses has him keep stomping. Terumi also has both an easier time gaining meter than anyone else and literally more super moves than special moves; a good Terumi player will take every opportunity to charge and use them. Arakune is fairly weak until his Curse is active, at which point he can start summoning projectiles in the form of various insects from multiple directions. No amount of nerfing over the course of the series has stopped players of other characters from complaining that Arakune's bees are cheap if not outright unfair, and no amount of complaining has stopped Arakune players from watching their combo counter steadily rise.
• A big part of Altair's fighting style in Assassin's Creed is his willingness to be a brutal combatant. Included in his many nasty killing animations is punching a mook in the face to spin him around and then stabbing him in the lower back, through the hip, and out his crotch. Another involves breaking an opponent's leg by kicking out a knee, and another has him kick them in the crotch, and as they drop to their knees, stabbing them in the top of their head with his short blade.
• Kratos of God of War is pretty damned brutal, willing to stab Cyclopses in the eye, slashing their knees to open them up for attack, slam and throw enemies around and even rip enemies apart with his bare hands. The final battle of the second game has him pulling off an I Surrender, Suckers on Zeus, asking to be executed which he takes as an opportunity to give Zeus a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. By the third game he's able to use enemies as battering rams.

I thought Combat Pragmatism is the willingness to do anything in order to defeat opponents, not outright willingness to do anything. It's not simply the opposite of Let's Fight Like Gentlemen or fighting dirty. According to the main article's description, a Combat Pragmatist can have a code of conduct and are associated with creativity and quick thinking. Joseph Joestar, for instance, is a Combat Pragmatist without being brutal: He takes every effort to not drag outsiders into the fight (but is willing to take anyone willing to fight alongside him) and stops once he's beaten his opponent.

Um...why is this in all caps?

is there anything about subversions to this? because while it certainly does seem like a good idea at the time it seems like it could lead you to being guilty of war crimes, or grudges from those close to your enemy, a third side deciding they prefer your enemy or want to be neutral...

Could someone fix the caption width? (I tried it, but didn't succeed.)

Is there a specific subtrope wherein the person resorts to biting an opponent?