Pragmatists are those who follow practical considerations above traditional morals, values or taboos. Pragmatic protagonists are heroic catalysts of change who see things differently from others and are often opposite to Honorable heroes, though depending on character development, certain characters may be both at one point or another (e.g. Yor Forger).

A Pragmatist will be more than willing to kill, lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, deceive, offend, or just generally 'play dirty' in order to save the day. In darker moments, a Pragmatist may well be willing to abandon their own otherwise firm values to save others. These types of heroes are very Machiavellian or sometimes opportunistic in this way because for their belief in "the end justifies the means". It is common for pragmatic characters to be used to directly ignore/defy hero clichés in order to win.

It must be remembered that these are not just rampant scoundrels who just happen to save people, but are heroes who are quite willing to resort to less than honorable methods in order to save others. In general, it will not be their default behavior, just how far they are willing to go - similar to Lethal heroes.

Pragmatists are the good counterparts of Cheaters, Con Artists, Master Manipulators and Opportunists.

NOTE: Because of how ambitious they can be, it can be difficult for a pragmatist to be Pure Good. However, exceptions can be made if the pragmatist does not sacrifice their morals or resort to anti-heroic deeds while not exhibiting true corrupting factors and are able to meet all the criteria. They must also show remorse if their actions ended up caused harm to others or simply made the situation worse than it is (e.g. James P. Sullivan, Mika Misono, Vautrin and Izuku Midoriya).