Weapons Tropes: Part 2

Here is part 2 of my discussion of Weapons Tropes.

When I started putting this post together I realized that there were too many to list in just one, so I arbitrarily divided it up into two for convenience. The Combat Tropes will be handled the same way.

As I've worked on these lists, I realize that I have not yet used many in stories. Others sound like Noodle Incidents, events that occur in stories not yet published or in the background of the characters outside the stories, but given little if any explanation. Still others are associated with character development that may or may not be presented in a story. Only a few so far can be given examples from stories I have actually published.

So why mention those that cannot be directly exemplified?

There are three reasons. The first is that, since Tropes Are Tools, perhaps other writers can benefit from seeing them listed and described. The second is purely mercenary: people can't read my stories if they don't know they exist, and this is one way to introduce them to each other.

The third reason is that readers can become fascinated with characters they like, and so want to learn more about them. One reason why Team Girl and Sir Differel even exist is because I wanted to know more about Otra and Winter and Sir Integra, but had to write my own stories to do it. However, most details of a character's background and life never make it into the stories, because they are aren't necessary, and because huge infodumps can disrupt the plot (though there are exceptions). As such, posts like these satisfy readers' curiosity and (hopefully) attract the interest of others, without having to try to figure out how to get all this information into a story in a plausible manner.

Cool Sword -- the most common melee weapon depicted in stories

***** The third of Medb's five favorite weapons. A typical Celtic sword had a straight double-edged 3-foot blade with a blunt or rounded tip, used for slashing. Medb modifies hers by using a leaf-shaped blade with a sharp point, so she can also thrust and chop.

Eile uses a sword in the Dreamlands; see "The Temple of Ubasti".

Differel is trained in fencing, kendo, and longsword, rapier, and broadsword dueling. And then there's Caliburn, the mystical greatsword of the Pendragons.

Royal Rapier -- the classic dueling sword of the swashbuckler

***** After Caliburn, Differel's favorite sword is the rapier. In fact, during the 4 year period before she took over the Caerleon Order, when she partnered with Vlad and went monster hunting, she carried a rapier with her.

Drop the Hammer -- hammers used as weapons

***** Fomorians love gigantic war hammers as much as humongous maces.

Epic Flail -- using flails (normally an agricultural implement) as weapons

***** Fomorians love over-sized flails as much as gigantic war hammers and humongous maces.

Knife Fight -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a duel involving knives

***** The fourth of Medb's five favorite weapons is a straight, heavy-bladed, double-edged, foot-long dirk with a sharp point. It almost doubles as a short sword.

Eile uses a knife as a secondary weapon in the Dreamlands, while Sunny uses a dagger and Differel a poignard (see "Dribble & Maggot in the Land of Dreams").

In the Waking World, Differel is trained in the use of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting dagger, and Aelfraed is a master.

Kukris Are Cool -- one of the most recognizable knives used in stories because of its shape and history

***** Marseilles Sheraton, nemesis of Team Girl, prefers a sawed-off Ithaca 37 riot shotgun, but she loves using a kukri because of the amount of damage it can do.

Machete Mayhem -- using machetes as weapons

***** This is probably the best anti-Zombie weapon, hands down. It has numerous advantages -- it doesn't require any special skill or training to use properly, it is tough and durable, it works even when dull, it requires no special skill or equipment to sharpen, it doesn't require any special maintenance, it is readily available, and it can be home-made -- with few disadvantages -- such as being a cleaver rather than a slice-and-dicer. Medb, Team Girl, and Lady Margaret use machetes as needed. Differel doesn't because she can summon Caliburn anytime she wants.

Simple Staff -- using a pole as a weapon

***** In the Dreamlands, before she learned archery, Sunny's primary offensive weapon was the quarterstaff. She still uses it when her bow is impractical to use.

Sinister Scythe -- using a scythe (normally an agricultural implement) as a weapon

***** Ceithlenn, one of Medb's Fomorian enemies, uses a scythe whenever she has assumed her terrifying-but-beautiful form.

Suffer the Slings -- think David and Goliath

***** The fifth of Medb's five favorite weapons. She uses specially-crafted lead bullets that come in a variety of shapes. With her prodigious strength, she can hurl a bullet farther, more strongly, and with greater accuracy than an archer shooting an arrow.

Whip It Good -- using a whip as a weapon

***** Fomorians love nasty whips as much as over-sized flails, gigantic war hammers, and humongous maces.

Emergency Weapon -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a backup weapon in case the primary weapon is lost or broken

***** Technically, this is a video game trope, but it can work in other media as well.

Medb uses her sword as a backup to her spear or axe, and her dirk as a backup to her sword.

Any of Differel's weapons can serve as backups to each other, but if she's using the Beretta machine pistol, her regular pistol is backup to that and her dagger is backup to that.

If she doesn't use Caliburn as her primary weapon, it serves as her last resort weapon when all others fail or are lost.

Ranged Emergency Weapon -- a backup weapon used by melee fighters to attack opponents while they are some distance away

***** Medb uses her javelins and sling for this purpose.

If Differel is fighting with Caliburn, she uses her pistol for this purpose.

In the Dreamlands, many of Team Girl's friends have throwing weapons they use with their melee weapons.

Hidden Weapons -- weapons hidden somewhere on a fighter's body or in her clothing

***** Differel has a compact pistol she uses for concealed carry, in a shoulder holster, and carries a dagger in a special scabbard sewn into the back of her jacket at collar level.

Impossibly Cool Weapon -- a weapon that is either impossible, unlikely, or impractical in Real Life, but in fiction is both extant and effective, Rule of Cool be thanked

***** Medb's fighting spears; Vlad's .79 Caerleon Order LC576 anti-material pistols; Caliburn. Plus, Mabuse's rail-gun pistol that fires flechettes.

BFG (Big Freakin' Gun) -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a huge gun that more closely resembles handheld artillery

***** Averted; Vlad's .700 Maskeulin Nitro Express sporting pistols and .79 anti-material pistols are big by realistic standards, but they do not match the standard for this trope. They are more correctly Hand Cannons.

However, some of Dr. Mabuse's inventions could qualify, in power if not in sheer size.

BFS (Big Freakin' Sword) -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; an unrealistically large sword

***** Downplayed with Caliburn; it is a long sword, but the blade is not as big and heavy as is standard for this trope.

Depleted Phlebotinum Shells -- ammunition made of special materials to defeat monsters that are Immune to Bullets

***** None of the monsters that the Caerleon Order confronts require special materials, such as silver, to be killed. Any monster not Immune to Bullets can be killed with regular steel-jacketed lead rounds. However, some types of monsters that can shrug off even .50 caliber rounds can be vulnerable to more powerful ammunition. The Caerleon Order uses three types:

.700 Nitro Express -- 17.8 mm 1000 grain lead bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2000 ft/sec (muzzle energy 8900 ft·lbf; Vlad uses these in his Maskeulin sporting pistols)

.950 JDJ -- 24.1 mm 3600 grain copper-jacketed lead bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2200 ft/sec (muzzle energy 38,685 ft·lbf)

.79 Vulcan -- 20 mm 1540 grain steel-jacketed lead bullet with a muzzle velocity of 3396 ft/sec (muzzle energy 39,509 ft·lbf; Vlad uses these in his custom anti-material pistols)

Then there is the Raufoss Mk 211 .50 caliber multipurpose anti-material projectile. It is used against monsters against which even the above rounds are useless. It consists of a steel cup that contains a tungsten carbide penetrator, a high explosive mixture, and a charge of zirconium powder. It is then encased in a ballistic copper jacket, the tip of which is filled with an incendiary mix, and sealed with a lead steel plug. When the projectile strikes its target, the copper jacket melts from the heat of friction, igniting the incendiary mix, which sets off the high explosive mix, which ignites the zirconium powder. Meanwhile, the penetrator smashes through whatever armor the target possesses, creating a path for the explosive and thermal energy to get inside the target to cause even more damage. The only monsters that can shrug these off are those that are Nigh Invulnerable. See "Man Friday".

Dr. Mabuse is developing a special .50 caliber round that contains a tungsten carbide-jacketed depleted uranium titanium alloy sub-caliber kinetic energy penetrator, to better penetrate armor without the need for explosives.

Flaming Sword -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a sword whose blade is either on fire or made of fire

***** One of Differel's enemies is the warrior nun Walpurga, a member of the Daughters of Cwenthryth, a Catholic all-female military religious order. She wields Durendal, the Paladin Sword, an equal to Caliburn. When in the presence of true evil, divine flames appear along the blade.

More Dakka -- the art of solving problems by firing as many rounds at them as possible

***** In "Survival & Sacrifice", when Master-at-Arms Giles Holt is sent by Differel to secure her son, he arms himself with a heavy machine gun fed from an Ammunition Backpack.

Serrated Blade of Pain -- a bladed weapon with a jagged cutting edge, like that of a saw

***** Medb's fighting spears have blades with at least one serrated edge.

Sharpened To a Single Atom -- a blade whose cutting edge can only be measured in molecular or atomic thickness

***** Ceithlenn's battle scythe has an adamantine blade as sharp as a broken shard of glass. Its weight along can cause it to cut through any material no matter how hard and strong.

Improvised Weapon -- using an object or tool not meant to be a weapon as a weapon

***** Team Girl uses these a lot, using Medb's training and what they learned in the Dreamlands as a basis for handling them properly.

Batter Up -- using a baseball bat as a weapon

***** A running gag in-universe is that, whenever Sunny gets really pissed with Eile, she chases her around the house with a baseball bat, threatening to bash her head in, but as Snowshoe Kitty once told Medb, it's just playacting, like wrestling kittens. However, despite having training in how to use guns, the Girls keep baseball bats handy in case of break-ins, not pistols.

Broomstick Quarterstaff -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; using a broomstick like a quarterstaff

***** In "Double Image", Sunny uses a long, thin metal pole to attack gunmen who hold her and Eile captive.

Crowbar Combatant -- using a crowbar as a weapon

***** In "Double Image", Eile uses a crowbar to attack gunmen who hold her and Sunny captive.

Frying Pan of Doom -- using a frying pan as a weapon

***** In a future story set in the Dreamlands, Team Girl is attacked by a Panthera Awesome at night while asleep. Cut off from their weapons, Sunny hits it in the face with a frying pan, distracting it long enough for them to arm themselves.

Gardening-Variety Weapons -- using any gardening tool as a weapon

***** In a future story, Sunny dispatches a Nosferatu-type Vampire by decapitating it with a garden spade.

Grievous Bottley Harm -- using a bottle, intact or broken, as a weapon

***** In a future story, Margaret uses a bottle of very rare, very expensive cognac to bash in the skulls of several Zombies, without breaking it, and decides to keep it as a good luck charm.

Handbag of Hurt -- using a handbag as a weapon

***** In a future story, Eile and Sunny first meet Differel when they save her from the Serpent People. As they escape, they are pursued by a lizard-hound. Eile bashes it in the snout with her handbag, causing it to stop and backpedal, but when she swings again, it catches it in its mouth and crunches it. Eile then berates it for destroying an $80 bag before it attacks them again.

Rolling Pin of Doom -- using a rolling pin as a weapon

***** In a future story, Madam Trumbo, Differel's executive chef, who saved her from a hag who wanted to eat her (see "Gourmand Hag"), uses a rolling pin to defend her against a Wicked Witch who wants to take over her body.

Shield Bash -- using a shield as a weapon

***** Both Medb and Eile were trained to aggressively use their shields to attack.

Sock It To Them -- using a filled sock as a weapon

***** Sunny collects loose change for conversion to bills and stores it in old socks. They came in handy when an Axe Crazy fan broke into their house.

Wooden Stake -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; using a sharpened wooden stake as a weapon

***** The Hollywood cliche of the wooden stake through a Vampire's heart actually works in my universe, not for mystical reasons, but because it causes too much traumatic damage to the heart for the parasites to repair it.

They also work against any monster who doesn't have an armored hide.

Good Old Fisticuffs -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; using one's own fists as weapons

***** Eile is a champion-level boxer, taught by her Uncle Gene, a former US Marine Corps drill sergeant who was a champion boxer. She in turn taught her daughter Connie to box.

Sunny's mother, Oda Jaeger, is also a boxer.

Mr. Holt taught Differel rough-and-dirty street fighting techniques, and she taught them to Margaret.

Cool Helmet -- helmets of all shapes and sizes

***** Whenever Eile and Sunny need to go all Action Girl on someone's ass, they usually wear armored catsuits that include space-age, high-tech helmets with all sorts of gadgets built into them.

Differel's troops use British Army helmets when going into battle.

Helmets Are Hardly Heroic -- when a helmet is not worn, even in combat

***** Medb never wears a helmet, even on those exceedingly rare occasions when she does not fight in the nude.

In the Dreamlands, Eile wears armor, but no helmet. Otherwise averted by many of their friends who also wear armor.

Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me -- using a shield for protection

***** Both Medb and Eile use shields when fighting, if they have time to prepare.

Next week I shall present part 1 of Combat Tropes.