Asskicking Leads To Leadership / Video Games

• One way of winning Armello is to kill the king and take his crown. The king is slowly dying of a rotting disease, but even when the disease has drained him down to literally a single health point from Critical Existence Failure, attacking him is a dangerous gambit. According to its card art, the sword he wields alone is larger than his guardsmen.
• Codified into rule in the Book Of Mages games. When the old Great Mage dies, an "election" is held, and whatever mage can defeat all challengers is elected Great Mage. In The Dark Times, this system breaks down; the Black Robes hold an election among themselves and refuse to allow non-Black Robes to participate, while the White Robes expressly reject the system, and their senior members elect a White Mage based on his reputation. A faction of neutral mages, who hold to the letter of the law, attempt to uphold the rules against whoever wins the war and play the trope straight.
• During the 65 Million B.C. section in Chrono Trigger, Ayla (chief of the Ioka tribe) explains that whoever's strongest is the chief. She makes sure Kino, the second-strongest person in the tribe, is out of danger whenever she's about to do something heroic, just to make sure the line of succession is undamaged. (Well, that and she loves him.)
• Implied in Crash Team Racing with the Purple Gem Cup where you race the boss characters as their normal selves rather than their infinite-item-usage one-on-one boss races. Since it's the last set of races you'll do before the True Final Boss, the implication is you've kicked enough ass on the racing circuit that you're one of the bosses now rather than one of the regular racers.
• In Crusader Kings gavelkind^note lands are split among all possible heirs succession often ends up working like this in the ensuing Succession Crisis. It helps that many of the cultures that favor that method are in the real life section.
• Devil May Cry: The Always Chaotic Evil Demon World lives by this rule. The games and their supplementary material such as the Devil's Material Collection artbook and the Before the Nightmare prequel novel revealed bits of backstory to describe this as a recurring plot.
  • There was an unnamed Demon King, but Mundus (who gained power from consuming a Qliphoth fruit) killed him in order to take over as the new Demon King. After he's sealed away by Dante, his Evil Twin Vergil temporarily takes his place (also using a Qliphoth).
  • Although a great war occurred between him and Mundus, Argosax ruled over the rest of the Demon World and subdued all the demons under his domain.
  • Berial once conquered and ruled a domain called "Fire Hell", while Echidna ruled the great forest in the Demon World before she took over the Mitis Forest in Fortuna.
  • In DmC: Devil May Cry, "Kyle Ryder" a.k.a. Mundus controls virtually the entirety of the world's economy. He's also invincible under most circumstances, supremely strong compared to all other beings barring Nephilim, and has a large degree of control over the chaos in Limbo.
• Disgaea:
  • This is pretty much how the Netherworld works, power is the only things that demons respect. Whoever defeats the current Overlord/Dean/President becomes the new one or they can appoint someone of their choice.
  • There's the Dark Assembly, where bills that are voted down can pass anyway by having your units beat the snot out of the Senators who voted no; a sufficiently-leveled postgame army can effectively run the Assembly and pass whatever bills they want without issue from any Senators who still try to vote Nay.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Origins, if Sten is in your party when you enter a specific village, he becomes annoyed with your behavior and challenges you to a fight. Beating him increases his respect for your leadership. This only happens if his approval is below a certain level. If he already has a high approval of you, he simply expresses his concerns, but does not fight you.
  • And in Awakening, The Warden is so respected for stopping the Blight and killing the Archdemon that they are promoted to Warden-Commander of all of Ferelden and get lands and their very own keep.
  • This is how the Darkspawn Hierarchy works. The strongest darkspawn (the Alphas and Omegas) are the ones who lead the horde. In fact, the Darkspawns determinate who's the strongest by fighting at birth: the Alphas are the ones who managed to kill the entire brood and the Omegas are the ones strong enough to be capable to kill Alphas.
  • That's also how the Tevinter Imperium raised to prominence and how it fell: the most powerful mages became its ruling class, slaughtered everyone in Thedas who was strong/proud enough to stand up against them and enslaved the rest, remaining the sole masters of the continent for centuries. While the Blight weakened it, the coup de grâce came from Andraste, which, depending on the version, was either God's wife or a mage so freakingly powerful that it made the Tevinter Magisters look weak by comparison. Whatever the cause, an army of fanatical zealots and rebel slaves formed around her, and the Chantry founded in her name became the new dominant force in Thedas.
• In Dragon Age II we have Hawke, a former-refugee from Ferelden who became the Champion of Kirkwall after years of ass-kicking culminating in stopping a major threat to the city. In most versions, this involves fighting the Arishok in single combat. This is even more apt when the Mage Hawke has even Knight-Commander Meredith of the Templar Order, who hunts illegal mages having to tip-toe around Hawke with kid-gloves. Even a non-Mage Hawke is implied to have enough authority that the Templars purposefully choose to ignore Anders and Merrill, two of Hawke's well-known Mage friends because of this. And if Meredith hadn't been able to seize power in the wake of the Viscount's assassination, Hawke would likely have been declared Viscount of Kirkwall, not merely Champion.
  • Fenris claims that Tevinter is still operating this way. He claims that this means all of the magisters practice Blood Magic even though they officially condemn it like everyone else since Blood Magic is too powerful an advantage to ignore. The magisters have no qualms about enslaving other mages who can't resist Blood Magic. Dorian says pretty much the same thing in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
• In Dragon's Dogma II, Vermund considers the Arisen — The Chosen One to defeat the Dragon, so chosen by the dragon — as its one and true Sovran, specifically because you have to be a badass to even stand a chance of felling the Dragon. This is why Queen Regent Disa has a vested interest in removing you from the picture and installing a fake Arisen in your place: so she and her family could continue to rule over Vermund uncontested.
• The Elder Scrolls series provides a number of examples.
  • Throughout the series, this is the case for the Orcs (or Orsimer). They are a Proud Warrior Race with numerous Blood Knight and Death Seeker qualities, with Malacath, the Daedric Prince of the Spurned and Ostracized as their chief deity. Malacath encourages this behavior in the Orcs, ensuring that the best warriors within a tribe are acting as chieftains. As shown by his quest in Skyrim, Malacath isn't above taking a more hands on approach when a weak Orc chieftain goes unchallenged by his tribe.
  • In Morrowind, there are a few guilds and factions which operate on this, but in particular is Great House Telvanni. It's a faction of mostly Evil Sorcerers who strongly believe in Might Makes Right and allow Klingon Promotion as a perfectly legal means of increasing your status within the house. As part of the main quest, in order to be named Telvanni Hortator, you're allowed to simply kill every councilor except for the one needed to actually name your Hortator, and wisely, that councilor will give you his vote with no strings attached. (If you're a member of the House, you can even kill him and declare yourself Hortator as the highest ranking Telvanni left alive.)
  • In Skyrim, this is how dragon hierarchy works. If there's a question of pecking order, a fight ensues. A dragon either wins, submits, or dies. Alduin the World Eater, supposedly the "first born" and mightiest of all dragons, runs away like a Dirty Coward after the Dragonborn beats him the first time, claiming he's going to gorge himself on souls of the recently dead in Sovngarde. This flight is what causes a number of dragons to question Alduin's lordship, and one of them to actually defect to your side. After you slay Alduin in Sovngarde, you get treated to a scene of all the dragons bowing to your supremacy.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VI: Cyan Garamonde is a variation in that his outstanding fighting skills have made him highly respected by his fellow soldiers, although he doesn't seem to wield any actual political power.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is made Commander of SeeD specifically due to his front-line combat experience and ability (helped along by a dose of You Can't Fight Fate). This marks Balamb Garden's change from vaguely military-themed Elaborate University High under Headmaster Cid into an active fighting force.
  • This is the reason for Mons in Final Fantasy XIII-2, summed up nicely.
    "There is one law in Valhalla. The weak shall serve the strong."
  • In Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood, this is how the Xaela tribes of the Azim Steppe determine who’s in charge of their society. Every few years they hold a contest called the Naadam, in which the khans and best warriors from each tribe compete in a no-holds-barred free-for-all to be the first to claim a sacred spot of land called the ovoo. Whichever tribe claims it becomes the dominant tribe, and their khan is recognized as the khagan until the next Naadam. Lord Hien, the exiled prince of Doma, plans to win the Naadam so that he can unite the tribes under his banner and use them to free his country from Imperial occupation. With the player’s help, he succeeds, though you’re the one recognized as the khagan.
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance mentions that the shapeshifting Laguz pick their kings based solely on physical strength. Justified as the Laguz kingdoms were founded by rebel slaves: quite logically, they chose as leaders the ones who could beat up the people who held the whips, and the tradition stuck. The sequel, Radiant Dawn, delves into this and illustrates why it's a really bad idea to make strength the sole basis of authority; Skrimir's insistence on solving everything by single combat causes serious problems for himself, his subjects, and his allies, and his character arc is about learning to take the best course of action even when it's less glorious. At the end of Part 3, he laments that while he's very good at fighting with claws, diplomacy is a weapon he has yet to learn. Indeed, the laguz monarchs are overall much more rational and temperate than much of the population, since they think about the consequences of their actions.
• In The Godfather game, you progress up the ranks of the Corleone family by completing missions for them and gain Respect levels mostly by killing a lot. A real lot.
• In Granblue Fantasy, this is how Luminiera decides who should become its next host. Albion stages a one-on-one elimination-type tournament with its soldiers as the contestants, with the winner claiming power from Luminiera and wins the right to be its current host.
• Halo:
  • The Elite hierarchy is simple enough: the more enemies you kill, the higher your rank.
  • The Brutes take this even further; just challenge the current Chieftain of a tribe to single combat, kill him, and you get to be the new one.
  • Although he's only a non-com in rank, nobody, not even the brass, really ever says "no" to the Master Chief. Thankfully for them, he's also the type to follow orders.
    Lasky: At ease, Chief. Feels kinda odd for you to call me "sir."^note Especially since Master Chief saved his life as a teenager.
  • Even the gameplay mechanics have an amusing example, as every entry after Halo: Combat Evolved lets the player switch whatever weapon they have with whatever weapon almost any allied NPC has, as well as allows you to snatch vehicles from your allies (once you can get them to stop driving straight into plasma mortars, anyways).
• Horizon Forbidden West: Tenakth Marshals are ritualistically chosen through a Trial by Combat called the Kulrut, facing off against deadly machines so that individual bravery and stoicism will be revealed in the arena. As a result, Marshals are respected as enforcers of the Chief's will throughout the clan lands. Marshal Fashav spared his own life this way, begging for the Kulrut instead of death and surprising even Chief Hekarro with his fighting skill.
  • Chief Hekarro is a more straightforward example of this. After receiving a "Vision" from the "Ten" telling him to put aside personal squabbles and unite the Tenakth tribe against the machines, he proceeded to do just that.
• Jak 3: Wastelander has a Proud Warrior City run by Damas, who is the one who pulled all the misfits together and got them to build the damn city in the first place. The whole "leader = Jerkass or Big Bad" thing is averted though because King Damas is, deep down, a good guy.
• In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, two of the Factions work like this. The House of Valor arena celebrates martial strength and conflict and is always passed down to whoever can defeat the current Champion of the House. The Scholia Arcana also works on this principle since the Archsage is always chosen based on his/her mastery of battle magic. This is because the Scholia Arcana's true purpose — a secret that is passed down from Archsage to Archsage — is to watch over the Dark Empyrean's prison. The Archsage must fight the Dark Empyrean if she ever breaks free.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, when Jusis (noble) and Machias (commoner) pitch a fit over being paired together for a field study group for the second month in a row, their instructor Sara notes that she's not a traditional military type, so she's not going to make an order. Instead, if they don't like it, they can fight her. Oh, and Rean (main playable character) can join in as well. What follows is pretty predictable for anyone who's played a few games like this.
• In Liberal Crime Squad, authority is represented by how many people you can have to work under you. That value depends on Juice. And one of the ways you can gain juice is by fighting conservatives.
• Like a Dragon: Ishin!: The Shinsengumi explicitly operates on this principle. In Ryoma's first encounter with him, Shinpachi states outright that the only thing that matters in the Shinsengumi is fighting ability. True to form, Ryoma finds himself Captain of 3rd Division on his first day on the back of his sword skills alone.
• Mass Effect:
  • The most badass krogan around is the leader. Wrex is well on his way to becoming the lord of the krogan, and he killed a thresher maw on foot. Shepard briefly wonders why in such a warriorlike race someone would choose to become an ambassador. The answer? He (the ambassador) is the strongest warrior in the clan and therefore gives the best impression of his clan's strength. The Krogan to play with this in that they acknowledge that there are those who lack personal strength but have the strength of character to inspire others to fight for them, thus allowing such individuals to bring in comrades for their rites of passage.
  • After going through the Krogan Rite-Of-Passage together and being the first to kill a Thresher Maw on foot since Wrex, it says a lot when Grunt declares that he considers Shepard to be their Battlemaster.
  • Spectres. "Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." Basically, if you're Badass enough, you get to be Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
  • All the crazy stunts that Shepard's original crew members pulled off under him/her finally begin to pay off authority-wise in Mass Effect 3 (except for Wrex, who gets his authority in the second game): Ashley/Kaidan is promoted to Lieutenant-Commander/Major, respectively, and appointed the second human Spectre (after Shepard), Garrus gets pretty high up within the Turian Hierarchy (high enough that he's saluted by generals), Tali is an Admiral (and that's as high as you can go on the Flotilla), and Liara is the new Shadow Broker (though that was more of a case of You Kill It, You Bought It). Partially justified with Garrus. His rank was normally basically decorative. However, the turians are a committed meritocracy that promote individuals based purely on displayed competence instead of seniority. As he's the one who knows most about Reapers, he becomes very high-rank when they invade.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda has Nakmor Morda, a krogan so bad-tempered even other krogan think she's a hardass, and who got in charge of Clan Nakmor via the time-honoured tradition of beating the crap out of the last person in charge. The end of the New Tuchanka quest has her challenged by a would-be rival who manages to forget that part, and he gets his ass kicked.
• Metroid: There's a damn good reason Ridley is the leader of the Space Pirates.
• In the Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask Of The Betrayer expansion pack, the player can become the Jarl, or leader, of a tribe of Frost Giants by competing in a trial of strength, namely that whoever's the last man standing and holding the crown, they become the head. The player can even take this to extreme lengths by throwing all the Frost Giants out of the tribe and exiling them.
• Nippon Ichiverse: Overlords. The title of Overlord of a Netherworld will automatically pass from the defeated to the victor if its possessor is defeated; thus, only the strongest demons (or those who can fool their fellows into thinking they're far stronger than they really are) remain Overlords. Anyone can become a demon Overlord if he or she kicks enough ass. This (canonically!) happens to Prier from La Pucelle: Tactics after she defeats too many demons in the Netherworld. The demons pledge their loyalty to her and declare her to be a Demon Overlord, much to her dismay.
• In Overwatch, the Junkers of the post-apocalyptic Outback decide who gets to rule through an annual no-holds-barred gladiator tournament. The current Junker Queen — an ax-wielding, magnet-warping "wastelander" named Odessa "Dez" Stone — was crowned after she defeated the previous King who spent the previous 13 years being carried by his personal Mini-Mecha. He grew soft, and Dez proved her mettle by tearing his armor to pieces and booting him out of Junkertown.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker starts off with a contest: whoever can clear a particularly tough bandit gang out of a chronically lawless territory wins an appointment as Baron(ess) of the region. But that's only the beginning; if you want to hold on to your new land and title you have to personally defend it against all aggressors, from the mundane to the godlike. Partway through the game, one particular display of strength impresses your sponsor enough to earn independence, upgrading your barony to a full-blown kingdom.
• The closest thing to a government body seen in the mainstream Pokémon games is the Pokémon League, whose leader is the Champion, recognized as the region's strongest Trainer. The Battle Chateau in Pokémon X and Y has ranks based on skill in pokémon battles. Barons/Baronesses and Viscounts/Viscountesses have pokémon around level 15-20 while the Dukes/Duchesses have teams at around 50. The player becomes the Grand Duke/Duchess by beating every other trainer in the Chateau.
• The Reason of Yosuga in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. In the Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole, this is a common argument against the path of Chaos: That it will lead to the strong being given a license to destroy the weak.
• The Thraddash of Star Control 2 are willing to reshape their society along your very whims once you've killed about a third of their military. Their history is a series of numerically ordered Cultures, each one defeating the previous one in total war. They've nuked themselves back to the stone age five times, and each culture considers itself the strongest due to this tradition. Kick enough ass and you're in charge of everything.
• Cosmetically happens in StarCraft II. Every terran unit starts as a Private, then increases in rank depending on how many kills they scored. Zerg and Protoss do the same, but with different titles. Heroes always have a set rank, though.
  • The Tal'darim faction of Protoss have this as standard policy. A Tal'darim can challenge their direct superior to ritual combat called "Rak'shir". There's an interesting twist to it: the supporters of either combatant can indirectly aid them by lending psionic energy to them. So the winner will not only be the stronger combatant, but one who has more capable allies. This is meant to ensure that Amon's followers are capable, as well as reinforcing a cultural mindset centered around brutality and servitude.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic The Sith Emperor is in every way deserving in his position, being a being with such connection the dark side his power is near godly. So much so he single-handedly captured Revan, a godly force user in his own right.
• The Zuul from Sword of the Stars operate on this mentality. They are a Hive Mind, so the strongest personality directs the collective... until it shows weakness, at which point all the ones who can challenge it will do so.
• Tales of Xillia: Gaius got to be King of Rieze Maxia by kicking ass all the way to the top. He even kicked Maxwell's ass (though he had help from another Physical God).
• In Team Fortress 2, Australians choose their king via kangaroo boxing. While no real detail is provided due to Rule of Funny, presumably whoever defeats the kangaroo becomes king. Aussie businessman Saxton Hale similarly structured his company so that anyone who could beat him in a fight gains control of it, but luckily suffers from Testosterone Poisoning. Then a little girl challenges him, and his Wouldn't Hurt a Child attitude quickly leads to his unemployment.
• Winning the King of Iron Fist Tournament gives you complete control of the Mishima-Zaibatsu in Tekken.
• In Tropico when you decide how your character became El Presidente, a military coupe is an option.
• Total War: Warhammer: While in the lore this is how Greenskin races work, as an actual game mechanic, Norsican factions can confederate each other by defeating the opposing faction leader, as opposed to the more typical diplomacy.
  • Total War: Warhammer II: As of the Waaagh! Update alongside The Warden and the Paunch Downloadable Content, in Warhammer II Greenskin factions can and do confederate the same way as Norsicans.
• Beastmen packs in Tyranny operate on this principle, with the pack's internal pecking order being decided by formal challenges between members. The Player Character can take command of a Beastman pack called the Stonestalkers in some of the game's paths, by challenging and defeating their current leader and her closest followers.
  • The Scarlet Chorus has only three laws for its members to follow. The two important ones are "Take What You Want, But Keep What You Take" and "The Strong Lead, the Weak Serve", which pretty much codifies Asskicking Equals Authority as expected behavior. The Chorus has no military ranks; if you command someone else, you were strong enough to subdue them.
• Wolf (DOS) is about simulating the life of a wolf. If you want to be alpha (and thus have breeding rights), you're going to need to whip every wolf who thinks they can take you.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Ogre hierarchy is based solely on asskicking. Basically, rank and gear go towards whoever can fight for it, since Ogres lack the mental capacity to elect someone democratically.
  • Notably, in the Dire Maul dungeon players can be declared king(s) of the Dire Maul Ogres by killing the current king (who earned his title by declaring himself king and killing anyone who challenged him). Doing so without killing any of his lieutenants is a Self-Imposed Challenge that has a chance of dropping epic level gear.
  • Also, the now-abolished honor ranking system lived and breathed this trope: The Grand Marshal and High Warlord ranks were awarded to characters who week after week were the most lethal among their respective factions. In practice, this required nearly nonstop combat for several months.
  • The tribal Horde races (orcs, tauren and trolls) all seem to be this. It's been stated many times that the leaders of tribes are the most powerful warriors in the tribe (or, in the case of trolls, most powerful witch doctors).
  • In the Warlords of Draenor expansion, this happens to a Living Legend renowned for their ability to take names — your character, who gets put in charge of a garrison established in Shadowmoon Valley (for Alliance) or Frostfire Ridge (for Horde) specifically because of your personal strength and power, not to mention the people you've helped and the evil mobs you've taken down over the course of playing the game.
  • Warlords of Draenor also deconstructs the idea with the Iron Horde. Each chieftain is the strongest member of their clan with Grom, the strongest of them all, as Warchief. However, while one of the greatest warriors ever, Grom is a terrible general who loses control over almost the entirety of Draenor (holding only Tanaan Jungle) and most of his Iron Horde's leaders have been killed by the first major content patch^note Of Zaela, Garrosh, Blackhand, the Iron Wolf, Ner'zhul, Kargath, Aszuka Bladefury, Kilrogg, and himself, only the last two are still alive at that point.
  • In Legion, the player character is named leader of an entire order for their class (Shamans leading the Earthen Ring, Death Knights leading the Knights of the Ebon Blade, etc) due to embodying everything their class stands for, mostly being able to kick ass and take names.
• In Xenonauts, soldiers are promoted to higher ranks based on the number of skill upgrades they achieve through training. And since the training consists solely of killing alien invaders...

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