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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy!"''
|'''Howard Stark''', ''[[Iron Man]]'' (the guy selling the sticks.)}}
In series in which two or more characters (or factions) frequently come to blows, you can often find characters who spend their time [[Training
And sometimes, you get characters who just use a
This trope is commonly found in Mecha shows, and is related to [[Super Prototype]], but subversions aren't unheard of (see [[Magic Feather]]). If two factions try to beat each other's Big Stick with an even ''Bigger'' Stick, you get a [[Lensman Arms Race]]. A commander who believes that [[We Have Reserves]] may try to get a Bigger Stick by sending in even more [[Zerg Rush|ludicrous numbers]] of disposable [[Mooks]]. Overwhelming numbers may actually ''be'' the Bigger
Naturally, if [[The Rival]] captures [[
Although this trope is not inherently [[Freud Was Right|Freudian]], a large majority of its examples are. The
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Gundam]]'' series.
** At the start of the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', the protagonist (Amuro) is nowhere near the level of Zeon's aces, but survives several encounters because he's piloting the Gundam. (He gets better later in the series.)
** Similarly, Setsuna F. Seiei of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' fame has survived his battles with Graham, Sergei and Ali because he has Gundam Exia: had he been piloting a lesser Mobile Suit he would've had his ass handed to him all three times. Hell, ''all'' of Celestial Being, {{spoiler|Thrones included}}, is like that so far. And in the one occasion when it seemed to get subverted, {{spoiler|it turned out the Gundam in question had a [[One-Winged Angel]] form.}}
::This later proves to not exactly be true late into the second series when Setsuna pulls the reverse. He pilots a trashed Exia that is held together by spare parts, spit and sheer dumb luck. The unit is missing an arm, has a makeshift replacement camera eye, joint protection parts missing and a literally a broken weapon. That combined with the fact that his Gundam is literally five years out of date means that he was actually very skilled to have made it that far fighting that Ahead and GNX-III because if he had been any less skilled, he would have been shot down like before.
** The events of ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' are touched off by the Earth Alliance's attempt at building a
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': This appears to be Seto Kaiba's strategy for much of the series. Even after getting the his Egyptian God Card, it doesn't seem to work. He actually does display tactics, and a great deal of strategy - though it primarily centers around bringing out his Bigger Sticks quickly, protecting his Bigger Sticks, reviving his Bigger Sticks, using his Bigger Sticks to power up Still Bigger Sticks, and [[Oh Crap|gaping]] [[The Worf Effect|when the opponent brings out a Bigger Stick Than The Bigger Stick He Has
* ''[[Full Metal Panic]]''▼
:Many, many [[Monster of the Week|one-shot antagonists]] use this tactic, as well as the game's creator, Pegasus, and his totally invincible one-of-a-kind Toon Deck. [[The Hero]] [[Death by Irony|inevitably brings them down]] [[Cherry Tapping|with their weakest Monster.]]
▲* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]''
** Averted. Despite their mecha being superior in every way to those possessed by the major world powers, Mithril is shown to be a force that depends heavily on small-scale and well-planned surgical interventions and hit-and-run attacks, because ultimately they cannot hope to fight protracted battles and come out the victors. Also, those piloting the near-[[Super Robot]] lambda driver-equipped arm slaves are given that privilege ''because'' they're already highly skilled pilots.
** The trope is subverted in the ''Second Raid'' season when Belfangen Clouseaux neatly bowls over Sousuke, lambda driver or no, in a training match using an inferior mecha. While Clouseaux is a skilled mecha pilot, the primary explanation given for how handily he beat Sousuke was that Sousuke, on the verge of a [[Heroic BSOD]], was stuck piloting a mech he ''hated''.
** Also, the first episode of ''Second Raid'' is an object lesson in the fact that, no matter how superior your weapons are, you can still run out of ammunition.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'':
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** Poor, poor [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Viral.]] He's [[Weak but Skilled]] in a ''[[Super Robot]]'' show, which dooms him to [[Villain Decay]] when the protagonists (unwittingly) discover Spiral Power.
** Possible [[Lampshade Hanging]]:
{{quote|
'''Simon''': [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|You mean we're gonna need to use an even bigger]] [[This Is a Drill|drill]]? }}
* ''[[Code Geass]]'': [[The Empire|Britannia]] initially has this advantage over any resistance groups in spades, via their [[Humongous Mecha|Knightmares]], particularly [[Super Prototype|the Lancelot]]. That is, until [[La Résistance|the Black Knights]] acquire their own [[Super Prototype]], the Guren, and later, the inventor of said machine into their ranks, [[Bollywood Nerd|Rakshata Chawla]]. From then on, the show becomes one giant [[Lensman Arms Race]].
* Rando of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has about a hundred different powerful spiritual techniques, but he's not very strong without them, doesn't use them very well, and doesn't even completely understand how they work. He's ultimately defeated when [[Hoist by His Own Petard|one of his own spells backfires]] as a result of him not understanding its weakness.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': Homura doesn't care of the jarring power difference between her and The Walpurgis Night, she will just bring more devastating [[More Dakka|(conventional!)]] arsenal against it/them, [[Groundhog Day Loop|each time]]. {{spoiler|Doesn't work.}}
* [[Windaria]] Shadowland's militar has tanks and machine guns while Lunaria's has hover craft and crossbows. When the war starts, the former marches [[Curb Stomp Battle|more or less unopposed]] to the latter's capital.
== Comics ==▼
* In a ''[[Garfield]]'' strip, John and Garfield try to one-up each other with sticks. It starts with Garfield giving John orders while holding a small stick. John pulls out a club to make it clear who the boss is, then Garfield leaves and comes back with a TREE, but is unable to hold it up.▼
== Fan Fic ==▼
* New!Chaos in ''[[The Open Door]]'' owes a lot of their [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomping]] to the [[Warhammer 40000|canon!40k]] technology they inherited. If there is one thing those who criticize them as being [[God Mode Sue|God Mode Sues]] tend to miss, it is that they win easily also because they are deliberately avoiding the universes with ''even [[Bigger Stick|Bigger Sticks]]'', such as ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''.▼
* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang (Fanfic)|An Entry with a Bang!]]'', while the ''[[BattleTech]]'' chaps have the [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] and the tougher armour, Clancy-Earth's effective BVR (Beyond Visual Range) capability is one of the key reasons why the latter has prevailed so far.▼
▲* New!Chaos in ''[[The Open Door]]'' owes a lot of their [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomping]] to the [[Warhammer
▲* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang
== Film ==
* ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' series
** ''Iron Man'': Tony Stark literally makes reference to
{{quote|
'''{{spoiler|Iron Monger}}:''' {{spoiler|icing problem}}?
'''{{spoiler|*Iron Monger suit shuts down*}}'''
'''Iron Man:''' Might wanna look into it! BONK! }}
*** Plus as Christine Everhart points out, it's an interesting philosophy for the man
** ''Iron Man 2'': [[War Machine (Comic Book)|War Machine]] is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI than in the Mark IV. They're actually pretty well matched, but as Tony points out, War Machine ''has'' a big gun, he's not ''the'' big gun. Tony's got a lot of cool [[Spin Attack|tricks]] [[Frickin' Laser Beams|up]] [[Energy Weapon|his]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sleeve]], but because War Machine was created by Tony Stark yet upgraded by Justin Hammer, the suit's [[Energy Weapon|more]] [[Gatling Good|of]] [[Bottomless Magazines|a]] [[More Dakka|mixed]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|bag]].
* ''[[RoboCop]]'' series
** In ''[[RoboCop]]'', Detroit is being torn apart by rampant crime, and the police are starting to feel like they're more like an army on the losing side of a war with casualties mounting. Cue the titular [[RoboCop]], who is nigh-immune to small-arms fire and single-handedly trashes the largest drug factory in the city. In response, the criminals get anti-tank weapons.
** In ''[[RoboCop]] 2,'' when the new drug kingpin takes out [[RoboCop]] by outsmarting him, OCP uses it to push the need for the much larger and deadlier [[RoboCop]] 2; there is actually a certain amount of conspiracy on their parts to take advantage of this trope, although they don't directly plan all of it. When [[RoboCop]] 2 goes rogue, [[RoboCop]] is smart enough to bring one of those anti-tank rifles to the fight, although this is a subversion since it turns out the rifle isn't actually ''enough'' of a bigger stick than his sidearm to hurt [[RoboCop]] 2.
== Literature ==
* A series of [[Piers Anthony]]'s had a rather pathetic hero who only won because he had magic gloves (and later magic shoes) that pretty much did all the work for him.
* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, by David Weber: Subverted in that Manticore indeed holds the biggest stick in the Galaxy, but first, not everybody thinks so, second, they constantly spend positively ''enormous'' amounts of money and effort just to keep the edge, and third, they ''train'' to use that stick, and do it ''hard''. And still, it's just barely enough, because while their sticks are bigger, their enemy has a ''lot'' more of them.
:Honor, ''personally'', typically goes into any given battle wielding the smaller stick, because otherwise how could she show how badass a commander she is? {{spoiler|As of Storm from the Shadows Manticore may turn out not to have the biggest stick anymore.}}
* [[Dr. Seuss]]'s ''The Butter Battle Book'' featured two separated races, the Yooks and the Zooks, building bigger and bigger weapons to go against each other, each time with the Zooks ahead in the arms race. In the end both sides develop a weapon capable of obliterating the other side, resulting in both wielders of the weapons staring down each other in a life-or-death
* The High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center "Dreamland" from [[Dale Brown]]'s books exists to create and test bleeding-edge technology, so it is unsurprising that they come up with a lot of potent high-tech stuff. The Americans are not the only ones with new toys, though.
== Live-Action TV ==
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** Well, the Ancients are pretty much the poster boys for [[Neglectful Precursors]].
▲== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* In a ''[[Garfield]]'' strip, John and Garfield try to one-up each other with sticks. It starts with Garfield giving John orders while holding a small stick. John pulls out a club to make it clear who the boss is, then Garfield leaves and comes back with a TREE, but is unable to hold it up.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Most players in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' tend to be concerned more with getting better weapons than everyone else had rather than actually ''surviving''. This gets a lot of them [[Too Dumb to Live|killed]].
* The ultimate weapon of ''[[Warhammer
** Of course, if that still fails, they just call [[Apocalypse How|Exterminatus]] and wipe out all life on the planet.
== Video Games ==
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* In ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]] 64'', the Star Wolf team shows up near the end with improved fighters that are technically superior to the Arwings.
** Incidentally, in ''Command'', Star Wolf team do indeed have better ships, outclassing every other playable ships in the game.
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate 2]]'', when Minsc notices his current weapon cannot harm his enemy, he exclaims "No effect!? I need a bigger sword..." He makes a similar remark after the first encounter with one of the game's [[Bonus Boss
* In the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series and other flight-action titles, getting a better plane which is better-armed, faster and more agile is an [[Invoked Trope|invocation of this trope]]. As to be expected, every now and then a [[Weak but Skilled]] enemy ace, like Alberto "Espada One" Lopez from ''ACZ'', will proceed to show that having the better plane is not all that matters.
* [[Airforce Delta]] Strike plays this straight with its progressively better planes.
** Jamie subverts it by pulling off repeated [[Airstrike Impossible]] missions in ''prop fighters'' through 2/3 of the game.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has been locked in what can only be described as an escalating Arms Race between its 9 classes. However, the Engineer, the most recent recipient of an update, has a ''smaller'' stick: the combat mini-sentry that deploys faster and having a higher rate of fire than a level 1 sentry at the cost of having less firepower and un-repairable.
** Special note for the Engineer:
{{quote|
* In the ''[[Naval Ops]]'' series, the player's Bigger Stick comes in two flavours: Bigger guns for your ship, or a bigger ship.
* Welcome to ''[[Star Ruler]]'', where when your opponent outclasses your ship with a bigger ship, you build one to planetary scale. When your opponent decides, "Well gee, that's a big ship, let's build a STAR-sized ship," there's always the option of building a ship on the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJJEMmzKzR4 galatic scale.]
* In [[Jagged Alliance]] 2, this can happen to either side a lot. For example, either you'll be stuck with used AK-47s bought on the cheap and whatever your mercenaries had on time when you hired them and the enemies will have M4s and G3A3s with dot sights, or vice versa - and that's not getting into if you or the enemies have armor vests.
** It goes farther in the unofficial 1.13 patch - if you cheated or saved up, your mercenaries can be equipped with top-of-the-line armor (or even bomb suits!) and weapons such as the G11, P90,
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the Brotherhood of Steel fights the Enclave, who have greater numbers, better technology and better resources, and besides that the Brotherhood is busy fighting super mutants and other hostiles in the area. Then they activate [[Humongous Mecha|Liberty Prime]], who for a period of two weeks utterly crushes any resistance and helps the Brotherhood track down the remnants of the Enclave one group at a time. They the Brotherhood tries to use Prime to assault an Enclave main base and find out the Enclave has been holding back the biggest stick of all--{{spoiler|an orbital missile satellite, which blasts Liberty Prime to pieces.}}
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has Mr. House' Securitron Army and their software upgrade. Depending on your choices, you can choose to help him along with activating both of these which would ensure his dominance of the Mojave or destroy the army under the orders of Caesar. Even better, help House upgrade his army, kill him and then ''take'' the Bigger Stick for yourself (or at least under the control of a [[lickspittle]] A.I.).
* Buying and upgrading new ships is a major part of survival in ''[[Infinite Space]]''. In the storyline, it explains some [[Curb Stomp Battle
* New Mobile Suits and weapons are at least as important as character levels in ''[[MS Saga: A New Dawn]]''.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]''
** Parodied in one episode of where one character pulls out a gun on another character, then that character pulls out a bigger gun. The two keep pulling out guns bigger than the other until the guns reaches ''outer space''!
** A similar exchange in another episode subverts this at the last second, with Bugs' final Bigger Gun being...a peashooter. (that is, a hollow straw full of peas)
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* In a ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' episode, Darkwing is turned into [[Evil Twin]] Negaduck, then goes out to kill him. When they meet, they start on this with melee weapons, with dialogue escalating as well. Cut to Gosalyn and Launchpad trying to find them. Back to Darkwing and Negaduck ... and one has just flown in on a fighter plane, the other counters with an aircraft carrier, and the first flies out and returns with a missile. Presumably nuclear.
* ''[[Iron Man (animation)|Iron Man]]'': In the second-seson finale, after his plan to destroy all advanced technology has fallen, Mandarin reveals his backup plan to be this - armor bigger, stronger, faster and generally better than Tony's and [[Magitech|increasing the power of his rings]].
{{quote|
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in a [[Halloween]] episode of [[The Simpsons]]. [[Jackass Genie|Lisa wishes for world peace from a Monkey's paw]] causing everybody to throw away their guns, but then [[Alien Invasion|Aliens invade]]. Ned Flanders then obtains the Monkey paw and wishes the aliens away. Moe Cizlak chases them off with a board with a nail in it.
{{quote|
Both: "[[Evil Laughter|Hahahahahahah!]] }}
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'', the demons lost because they were
== Real Life ==
* The US Navy is currently{{when}} developing a [[Magnetic Weapons|Railgun]] system for use on their ships, expected to be in service by 2020. According to the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, they were being developed because, as he says, "I never ever want to see a Sailor or Marine in a fair fight. I always want them to have the advantage." [
* Being the armed guy fighting an unarmed opponent. Even a two-bit thug wildly flailing a knife or pole has a large [[Unskilled but Strong]] advantage over the unarmed guy, never mind the ones who have enough experience to know how to use their weapons well. In contrast, it takes a lot of skill to take down an armed opponent while unarmed.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
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