Combat Pragmatist/Oral Tradition

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 * A commercial for Geico tested the question of whether the pen is mightier than the sword. A skilled ninja shows off his sword skills, and his opponent uses a pen to sign for a package containing a taser, which he immediately uses on the ninja.

Music
""Yes, by every means possible, we go for the win.""
 * Vocaloid's Hikyou Sentai Urotander.


 * In Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue", the title character seeks revenge on his estranged father for his awful name. Sue's had to fight his whole life through to defend himself from mockery, and has become a tough combat pragmatist as a result. When Sue finds his dad, they get into an epic brawl, and Sue describes his father as kicking like a mule and biting like a crocodile. Both Sue and his dad are examples.

Religion

 * The Bible: Two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi ended up slaughtering all the men of an entire city because their prince had raped their sister. How did they achieve this? By telling the men they would let the prince marry their sister if all the men of the city agreed to be circumcised. That took all the fighting men out of commission, and their conquest of the city was incredibly easy. Their father Jacob, however, hated this and told them this only made more trouble than practicality for them for them in the long run, because now all the Canaanite tribes viewed them as enemies and would turn against them.

Tabletop Games

 * Lukas the Trickster in Warhammer 40000 is the dirtiest fighter in the Space Wolves Chapter, making him the dirtiest fighter in an army of dirty fighters, and thus easily the dirtiest fighter in the whole damn Imperium. He went so far as to have one of his hearts replaced with a bomb, just to make sure he takes the other guy out with him.
 * And said bomb is a stasis grenade that traps those caught in the blast in a stasis field, where they can only hear Lukas' laughter for the rest of eternity.
 * The Magnificent Bastard.
 * He DOES play up the Space Wolves as berzerkers just so nobody realized what bloody brilliant tacticians they really are...
 * Gabriel Seth, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers Chapter. In close combat, he isn't adverse to headbutting an opponent, kneeing them in the groin or biting their throats. This is represented by him getting a free attack every time an opponent in close combat rolls a one. This ability alone makes him able to go through fifty man conscript units with ease.
 * And, surprisingly, the Grey Knights have a beautiful Combat Pragmatist in the form of their amazingly heroic and powerful Brotherhood Champions, who can, when fatally wounded, pour all their power into one final attack that can kill anything. Such attacks are even more potent for their unexpected arrival. Not to mention that their captains have absolutely no problem calling down Nemesis Dreadknights when faced with Daemon Princes or Orbital Bombardments on their own location to spite enemies.
 * Virtually anything the Orks do. Ork logic is basically, "If I win, I win, so it don't matter how I won see?"
 * Notable among the Orks is the Blood Axes clan, while other Orks are content with a brute-force strategy will employ concepts like special forces, camoflage, and retreating if things go bad. Other tribes consider this Unorky, but the Blood Axes stick with what works.
 * Too many Dungeons and Dragons classes to name. The rogue's "Sneak Attack" ability is probably the most prominent example; dealing extra damage by specifically striking vulnerable parts of the body. The Sandstorm expansion in 3.5 includes mechanics for blinding opponents with sand. Stormwrack includes mechanics for holding opponents underwater until they drown.
 * The Drunken Master, a drunken-boxing prestige class for the (martial artist) monk, gains proficiency with improvised weapons. Depending on how good you are at getting crap past the DM, a Drunken Master can use Flurry of Blows with anything he damn well feels like. "Want to see what else I can do with furniture?"
 * Paranoia: The main book includes a "Tips for Traitors" section with such advice as "Don't shoot at your buddy the first excuse you get. This gives him a chance to shoot back. Dumb. Wait till he's busy with something else (better yet, give him something else to keep him busy), then shoot at him."
 * The Dawn caste Solars of Exalted. They're natural warriors, skilled in all forms of combat. Every. Last. One. Also, Solar Hero Style is a combination of this, Improbable Weapon User, and Good Old Fisticuffs.
 * All Dawns have the innate skill to be this, but it doesn't stop several from having more strict personal warrior codes.

Theater

 * Evgeny Shvarts has a play called The Dragon. When the titular dragon is challenged to combat by the protagonist, he wants to just incinerate him first, but is reminded that there is a document he signed preventing that (the dragon claims he wrote it when he was "a naïve, sentimental, inexperienced youth", but the threat to reveal he is afraid to fight fair is enough for the battle to happen on more even terms).