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]].
 
{{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 That combined with the fact that his Gundam is literally five years out of date means that he was actually very skilled to have made it that far fighting that Ahead and GNX-III because if he had been any less skilled, he would have been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.
 
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 That combined with the fact that his Gundam is literally five years out of date means that he was actually very skilled to have made it that far fighting that Ahead and GNX-III because if he had been any less skilled, he would have been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 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.]]
 
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.
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== 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 40,000|canon!40k]] technology they inherited. If there is one thing those who criticize them as being [[God Mode Sue]]s tend to miss, it is that they win easily also because they are deliberately avoiding the universes with ''even Bigger Sticks'', such as ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''.
* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang|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.
 
 
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'''{{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 whosewho's 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]].
* ''[[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.}}
 
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 stalemate—all because they were arguing over [[Serious Business|which side of a slice of bread should be buttered]].
* 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 ==
* Happened in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' during the Ancients' war against the Wraith. The Ancients' bigger stick was their superior technology, which was eventually trumped by the Wraith's bigger stick: superior numbers. It got to the point where the Ancients started throwing all their resources into developing even bigger technological sticks (like murderous nanites, a power source that destroyed five-sixths of a solar system when it overloaded, and a device whose unfortunate side-effect was that it caused stargates to blow up), most of which would come back to bite their descendants in the ass ten thousand years later.
** Well, the Ancients are pretty much the poster boys for [[Neglectful Precursors]].
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
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* The ultimate weapon of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'s'' Imperial Guard? Gigantic tanks. If that doesn't work, they get ''[[Military Mashup Machine|even bigger]]'' tanks. If those don't cut it, they roll out the ''really'' [[Base on Wheels|big tanks]]; we're talking ''tanks so big they can serve as APCs for '''other tanks'''.'' And we haven't even got ''started'' on their [[Humongous Mecha]].
** 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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* Buying and upgrading new ships is a major part of survival in ''[[Infinite Space]]''. In the storyline, it explains some [[Curb Stomp Battle]]s.
* New Mobile Suits and weapons are at least as important as character levels in ''[[MS Saga: A New Dawn]]''.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
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{{quote|Kang "Soon they'll build a bigger board with a nail in it, and then one that surpasses even that one! Until they create a [[Parodied Trope|board with a nail in it that can destroy the entire Earth!]]
Both: "[[Evil Laughter|Hahahahahahah!]] }}
 
 
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'', the demons lost because they were suprisedsurprised by the fact our 'sticks' weren't ''literally'' sticks. They came expecting swords and sheildsshields and met long-range artillaryartillery bombardment. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Guess who won]].
 
 
== 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." [http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=34718\ See here.]
* 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.