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Author: OnagaIsComingToTown

Feb 1st 2012 at 9:34:53 PM

Small problem, you are limiting pragmatism to certain trains of thought, and shutting out countless others.  Almost to the point that you think all heros, even pragmatic ones, should have some level of StupidGood in them.

Example, if DisproportionateRetribution is shown InUniverse to be an effective method of intimidating others into not repeating the crimes of villains, then a truly pragmatic hero would see the benefits and use it, no?

It doesn't have to be seen from the perspective of how it benefits society either.  It can be seen from the perspective of pragmatic justice (please no semantics as to the definitions of justice and revenge, I've gotten tired of that stupid debate).  Surely murdering an innocent NiceGuy deserves a far worse punishment than killing a CompleteMonster, no?  You would not argue that a person who takes this approach can't still be heroic if they do so only to make the evil suffer what would be arguably justifiable?  Granted, from their perspective it wouldn't be so much disproportionate, but that isn't the point.

It's also not like a pragmatic hero can't have a darker side to them, either, which is yet another reason not to shoehorn such a concept into type 3 anti-hero.