Bigger Stick: Difference between revisions

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Although this trope is not inherently [[Freud Was Right|Freudian]], a large majority of its examples are. The [[Bigger Stick]] is probably going to end up being a [[BFS]] or [[BFG]]. Mostly unrelated to [[Carry a Big Stick]].

== 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 ''[[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 That combined with the fact that his Gundam is literally five years out of date means that he was actually very skilled to have made it that far fighting that Ahead and GNX-III because if he had been any less skilled, he would have been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.

** Similarly, Setsuna F. Seiei of ''[[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 That combined with the fact that his Gundam is literally five years out of date means that he was actually very skilled to have made it that far fighting that Ahead and GNX-III because if he had been any less skilled, he would have been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 [[Bigger Stick]] with which to fight the more physically-abled Coordinators of ZAFT, and ZAFT's theft of all but one of those [[Bigger Stick|Bigger Sticks]]. Then the protagonist and [[The Rival]] get even ''bigger'' sticks halfway through the series, which only the [[Big Bad]] in the Biggest Stick yet succeeds in being an actual threat to... The only exception is [[Ace Pilot]] Mu La Flaga, who manages to hold his own against Coordinators in cutting-edge [[Humongous Mecha]] while he is piloting a much less powerful mobile armor and, in some cases, only a fighter jet. Nevertheless, in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]],'' even Mu gets a [[Bigger Stick]]. And then there's cases where you want your [[Bigger Stick]] to literally be much bigger. Cue [[Oh Crap|Destroy Gundam.]]

* ''[[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.]] 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.]]

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** In the second season, after being soundly defeated by the new villain group with shiny [[Nitro Boost]] equipped weapons and with their own weapons suffering heavy damage, Nanoha and Fate's weapons are repaired and upgraded with the same nitro boost systems. They fight the villains a second time with the upgraded weapons, but this time to a standstill and forces them to retreat.

** And in Season 3, they get even bigger sticks, culminating with a [[Dungeon Bypass]] through an entire warship with a single shot.

** And in Force (the sequel), They continue to get more bigger stick, after they found out the antagnoists' weapons are [[Anti Magic|immune to magic]].

** And in Force (the sequel), They continue to get more bigger stick, after they found out the antagnoists' weapons are [[Anti-Magic|immune to magic]].

* This was used in a ''[[Naruto]]'' filler arc, when the villains are seemingly normal people, who are able to outfight their otherwise superior opponents (The Sand Siblings) with their magical weapons, culminating with their resurrected clan leader beating the utter crap out of Naruto and Gaara who can't even use their Jutsus due to his Chakra-absorbing armor. It didn't help when Gaara threw a massive spear made of sand at him.

** Similarly, in the first Naruto movie, the four main villains have "Chakra Armour", which makes their Jutsu stronger and making them immune to the effects of Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. These are beaten however. Sasuke kicks his opponent into her partner and their armour detonates, killing them, Kakashi piledrives his opponent into oblivion, and the main villain is taken out by Naruto, who blasts him with his Rainbow Rasengan, destroying his armour (which Sasuke had previously cracked with an overcharged Chidori; guess where Naruto aimed the Rasengan) and sending him flying about fifty feet into a mirror.

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== Fan Fic ==

* New!Chaos in ''[[The Open Door (Fanfic)|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 ''[[Battle Tech]]'' 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.

* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang (Fanfic)|An Entry with a Bang!]]'', while the ''[[Battle Tech]]'' 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.

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'''Iron Man:''' Might wanna look into it! BONK! }}

*** Plus as Christine Everhart points out, it's an interesting philosophy for the man whose selling the sticks.

** ''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]].

** ''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]].

* ''[[Robo Cop]]'' series

** In ''[[Robo Cop]]'', 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 [[Robo Cop]], 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.