Blade of Fearsome Size/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Honkin' huge swords, because Bigger Is Better.

  • Straight: The legendary hero Bob wields a greatsword as long as he is tall.
  • Exaggerated: Bob's sword is twice as long as he is tall, and nearly as wide. Everyone around him wonders how he can even lift the damn thing.
  • Justified:
    • Bob is using some form of phlebotinum that grants him the superhuman strength to lift and wield the thing, such as a Belt of Giant's Strength, aided by the Required Secondary Powers from his Gravity Boots of Not Falling Over and his Vestibular Implant of Magical Stability.
    • The sword is made of Hard Light.
  • Inverted:
    • Bob's sword is a lightweight rapier that's built for finesse fighting.
    • Bob is a Knife Nut.
  • Subverted:
    • Bob attempts to brandish his big-ass sword only to find that it's too heavy for him to even lift off the ground.
    • We see a huge sword, but it turns out is wielder is huge too.
  • Double Subverted: Then Bob realizes he forgot to put on his belt of giant's strength, and twirls the giant sword over his head in one hand.
  • Parodied:
  • Deconstructed:
    • A character insists on using a huge sword, and fights badly due to his lack of agility.
    • Due to the length of the sword, the character's attacks are easy to telegraph since he can only swing horizontally or swing the blade vertically down.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Zig Zagged: Bob appears to be using a small sword, but it can magically change into an extremely large one. He then seems to be having trouble in battle because his sword is too large for him to use well, until his mentor instructs him how to release his full potential. His opponent, feeling emasculated, pulls an even bigger sword... but without the help of his one-time mentor, he's unable to use it properly, and Bob defeats him.
  • Averted: All the characters' swords are reasonably sized.
  • Enforced: "We need to show how impressively strong Bob is. Let's give him a huge sword!"
  • Lampshaded: "How do you even fight with that thing?"
  • Invoked: "The Enemy's getting stronger! Quick, get the Spine-Breaker!!"
  • Defied: The hero is shown a selection of weapons and asked to identify the Infinity+1 Sword to prove he is worthy of it. The huge thing a head taller than himself is the first one he rejects, scoffing that only a child would think Bigger Is Better.
  • Discussed: "Just wait. Bob's super secret ultimate weapon is going to be a sword bigger than him."
  • Conversed: "I always wonder how Bob is able to even move that thing. I mean, it's as big as he is."
  • Played For Laughs: Everyone uses swords longer then they are. Climactic battles are basically tests of strength in which the winner is the first to swing his sword in a simple vertical slash.