Bubble Gun

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Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Mega Man 2, Bubble Bobble, Gradius III, Cave Story

You know that "Heart" tends to be a sucky power, right? Well, that's pretty hefty compared to bubbles!

Bubble Gun is the power to create and manipulate bubbles. It sounds rather useless, but bubbles can actually be formidable, depending on the bubbles' composition and the user’s application of them. Depending on the bubble, it can have different effects on the target. Some characters even use some form of equipment, other can make them on their own.

In video games, bubble-based weapons tend to be a Joke Item - slow, inaccurate and laughably non-lethal. But sometimes they manage to be a useful Nerf Arm.

Enemies hit by a bubble weapon sometimes find themselves Floating in A Bubble.

This power can be a subset of controlling water, but other liquids can be used to make bubbles.

Sometimes this trope will be Bubble Subverted.

Examples of Bubble Gun include:

Anime and Manga

• Caeser Zeppeli from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has an attack where he infuses soap bubbles with Hamon and launches them at his enemy.
  • Soft & Wet is Josuke Higashikata's Stand that can create a starred bubble that can steal an attribute from a target. Later on, due to being a fusion of another Stand, it can create bubbles that explode on physical contact.
• Bubbles in Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z uses a huge bubble wand as her main weapon. When Him got his hands on the girls' weapons in one episode, he proceeded to use them much more efficiently...
• "The Bubble" is one of Sakura's cards in Cardcaptor Sakura. She usually uses it to create soap bubbles for cleaning, but it can also be used offensively. It turned out to have been created only so Clow could, uhh... give Kero's big form a bath.
• Sailor Moon: Since Sailor Mercury's Shabon Spray was nothing more than a blast of mildly annoying bubbles, she preferred to be Mission Control until she got a power upgrade.
  • ... a blast of mildly annoying bubbles filled with fog!
• Naruto Shippuden, in a recent^[when?] filler arc, has a dude what attacks with bubbles. They seem to work a'ite for him.
• The Hunting Grounds in Kimba the White Lion has stationary turrets that shoot out small bubbles that trap their target inside a giant bubble. Why bubbles instead of bullets? So the animals in the Hunting Grounds won't be killed by the turrets when they're supposed to be killed by paying hunters.
• Bubble, from My Hero Academia, is Kaoruko Awata's Quirk, where she can make a bubble filled with an aroma she has previously smelled.
• One Piece,
  • Kalifa has the power of Bubble-Bubble Fruit, a Paramecia type that allows the user to emit and control soap bubbles from their body. These bubbles can smooth a person that they become slippery or shield from attacks.
  • Lilith (one of Vegapunk's "satellites" from the Egghead Arc) uses a weapon that can seal a foe inside a bubble to restrain them; these bubbles are laced with seastone, meaning the resulting restraints are as durable as diamond and can nullify the powers of a Devil Fruit user. Exactly how stone can be incorporated into liquid is not explained (much like many of Vegapunk's Applied Phlebotinum creations) but seeing as seastone is a mineral that exudes the same energies as seawater, it isn't much of a stretch.
• Eliade, from D.Gray Man, was Level 2 Akuma, who can produce bubbles that can absorb the moisture of anything it touches or trapped within it.
• Ukataka, from Naruto, uses Soap Bubble Ninjutsu by using a bubble blowing relic, but he can create them without it. His bubbles can explode on contact or detonate on command.
• Seti, from Sakigake!! Otokojuku, can blow bubbles made from sulfuric acid. These bubbles burst on contact to shower a target in acid or trap his opponent in a giant bubble.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX; not only is this the Weapon of Choice for Elemental Hero Bubbleman, but Judai can Equip him with Bubble Blaster, a bubble-bazooka.

Comic Books

• The Marvel Comics villain Madcap uses a gun that shoots bubbles. People think this is how he is able to induce madness in people, but in reality, it is only a toy he bought at a five-and-dime. He uses it to attract attention to himself in general and the gun in particular, so he can use his innate power of making you as loony as him.
• The indie comic book The Jam had a peculiar weapon made from a trumpet by a Mad Scientist—when you blew into it, it created a big bubble around the target. Scarier than it sounds, as the bubble was harder than steel and airtight.
• A recent^[when?] issue of Gold Digger had Gina using a force field bubble gun as a new non-lethal weapon. It traps its target inside a floating bubble.

Film

• Marvin's weapon in the climax of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
• Yellow Submarine - the Blue Meanies' opening volley in their attack of Pepperland lands a huge dark impenetrable bubble over the band playing on the bandstand.

Literature

• One of Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon novels had the Granbretanian bad guys using a bubble cannon. The bubbles were so corrosive they would dissolve anything they landed on. Fortunately for the good guys, the machine blew up after only a short time, killing one of the villains in the process.

Tabletop Games

• In Yu-Gi-Oh, there is an equip card exclusive to Bubbleman called Bubble Blaster.
• Warhammer 40,000'‍'‍s Orks have the Bubble Chukka Speedster among their many crazy cobbled-together super weapons, although it has so far only appeared in the Epic 40,000 spin-off game. The weapon on the speedster fires giant self-contained force-field bubbles at enemy troops, trapping them inside for a time and causing any shots fired from within the bubble to bounce round inside it and probably hit the firer on the rebound.

Video Games

• This is the main "weapon" in Milon's Secret Castle. For more annoyances, they shoot at an angle and don't have that long a range!

"Why not a sword or magic lightning bolts or fireballs or a gun or undefined pixelized pieces of shit? FUCKING ANYTHING BUT BUBBLES!!!"

• In its Japan-only sequel Doremi Fantasy, Milon's bubble weapon shot in a straight line from the player and traps any enemy in a bubble upon contact, which fly up and off the screen when the player touches them. This is especially useful during certain boss battles where the boss stays on the upper side of the screen and throws projectiles at you, which you can trap in the bubbles and bounce back at him.

• This is one of the reasons why Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly was so badly received. The main goal of the game is to catch dragonflies with bubble breath. Awkward, short-ranged bubble breath. And you know what else? The dragonflies are running away from you!
  • And running (flying?) pretty darn fast, I may add.
• Bubble Bobble! The two buddies Bub and Bob battle baddies by blowing billions of bubbles!
• In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the first ranged attack you can get is one where you (in Deku Scrub form) shoot bubbles out of your mouth/nose/whatever.
• In Lego Star Wars 2 in the Game Boy Advance version, you could buy a version of the blaster that shot bubbles instead of lasers. Of course, you could also buy ones that threw eggs and chickens.
• One Power-Up Letdown in Earthworm Jim is a gun that only "shoots" bubbles. Emphasis on the quotes, as the bubbles don't even go forward. Because the Genesis version didn't allow weapon switching, picking up the bubble gun in the final stage will completely screw you sideways.
  • When playing with a three-button controller, at least.
• Mega Man 2 has the Bubble Lead, which seems like one of the more useless weapons you get, until you realize you need it to beat the last boss. Mega Man X 2 had the Bubble Splash, which fires a stream of little bubbles that arc upwards, and its Charged Attack is the series' standard "orbiting shield", which allows X to jump even higher underwater than he can normally.
  • Bob and George hypothesizes that the Bubble Lead actually does its damage because it induces lead poisoning.
    • The "Lead" in Bubble Lead has nothing to do with the heavy metal, but with the "lead" that rhymes with "feed"; a phonetic translation from Japanese to English reads "BABURU RIIDO". If it were truly were named after the metal, the phonetic translation would have been "BABURU REEDO".
  • Mega Man Battle Network features this weapon and it is largely laughable...up until the point you get hit. The attack is normally unimpressive, slow, easily dissipated and low in damage. However, when it does hit, it traps the target, allowing a follow up attack on the hapless target. To top it off, it doubles the damage of electric attacks so you can intentionally set up a bubble starfish so that you can follow up with an Elecpulse.
    • It also features a series of water-elemental gun chips that use bubbles (Bubbler, BubCross, etc) which despite their frothy appearance are no less effective than their more conventional counterparts.
  • Bubble Lead is also useful to get those pesky sproingy things (who are immune to most other types of weapons) out of the way.
    • And, since it hugs the floor, it can be used to scope out the invisible pitfalls in Wily's Castle.
  • 7 features the Danger Wrap, an attack that encases enemies in bubbles that have bombs in them, which then explode, damaging the victim. Holding down will skip the bubble part entirely, just dropping bomb.
• The Bubbler in Cave Story is pretty much useless at level 1, and okay at level 2, but can come in handy if you know what you're doing with it in level 3: the bubble "cloud" is quite useful and a full barrage does considerable damage. Its overall qualities are also balanced out by having regenerating ammo.
• Weapons in Kingdom of Loathing can be crafted from Bubblewrap ore, among other things. The bubblewrap crossbow subverts this:

"It shoots individual bubbles, which will make your enemies' fingers sore. Eventually. It also shoots regular bolts, in case you want to use it as a regular crossbow. It's probably more effective that way."

• In Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island DS, the Crazee Dayzee's only "attack" is a stream of bubbles which do no damage, but knock Yoshi back a bit; this is also the case with an enemy called Barney Bubble that only appears in the former. Yoshi can bounce quite high if he jumps off of them, and eating one of the bubbles lets Yoshi spit out a few of his own, which can be used to defeat enemies.
• The Pokémon series has the Water-type Bubble and Bubblebeam attacks, both of which have a chance of reducing Speed. Even though the latter's around twice as powerful as the former, it's still a middling attack at best, and the former's pretty much useless after the first gym.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield introduce Clauncher and Clawitzer, who are based on the pistol shrimp (mentioned in the Real Life section below), but subvert this by shooting spheres of compressed water instead. The evolutionary line can learn Bubble and Bubblebeam, but only via breeding or cross-generation transfer.
• In Kirby Squeak Squad, Kirby can use the Bubble ability to shoot a constant stream of bubbles, or one large bubble if charged. Its only use is to turn enemies into Ability Bubbles that are stored within Kirby's stomach for later use.
• La Tale has this with the very first water spell, named Bubble Bubble.
• The World Ends With You‍'‍s frog Noise use this attack. Certain versions include poison bubbles in each cloud, which deal greater damage. While a simple slash is enough to destroy the bubbles, it's very easy to get decked by them. Not to mention that you're usually fighting more than one at a time, and those bubbles linger.
• In the arcade/TG16/Virtual Console game Ninja Spirit, maxing out the katana's power turns it into a bubble-lightsaber.
• The Androsynth spaceships in Star Control uses acid bubbles as their main weapon. Bubbles have little damage, but are slowly homing at the enemy while bouncing around chaotically, which makes them effectively bigger for the purpose of hitting a ship than for being shot at. Good at making defensive clouds, slowly whittling down pursuers or softening up a foe before using the ship's other ability.
• The SEGA Genesis Ghostbusters game also featured a Bubble Projectile, which carted unruly ghosts off to wherever they came from. Sometimes it didn't work...
• In Tales of Legendia, Norma's sole physical attack is blowing bubbles at enemies through her straw. Needless to say, it's best to keep her casting spells at all times.
• Custom Robo has one of these. It's weak, but it has slight homing.
• Resistance: Fall of Man has one of these. It kinda fires bubbles...organic bubbles. That explode.
• The Unreal Tournament mod Unreal4Ever has a Bubble Gun.
• Namco-Bandai's Tail Concerto has Waffle Ryebread pilot a small mecha that shoots bubbles... to capture little kitten bandits. In the final stage, The Police Robo absorbs energy from the stage itself and shoots Laser Beams.
• Bubble Tanks. Everything is made of bubbles in this game- your character, the Mooks, the Experience Points, and of course, your tank shoots out harmful bubbles to damage the enemy!
• Several of Patchouli's Water Sign spells in the Touhou fighting games utilize bubbles. Some are large projectiles which doubles as shields that can soak up a lot of the enemy's projectiles, while others can trap enemies in a giant bubble if they connect.
• Kimmy Howell, an optional boss in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, wields a double-sided beam katana that emits a flood of pretty bubbles when she spins it. Unlike most examples, however, they explode with surprising force and cannot be blocked. The best defense is simply to get out of Dodge.
• In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Aqua's starting Shotlock, Bubble Blaster, is her only water based attack.
• The Martian bubble gun from Zombies Ate My Neighbors simply traps most enemies in a bubble for a few seconds. However, it's one of the few weapons that will kill giant ants in one hit.
• Just Cause 2 has the bubble gun, found in a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. does absolutely no damage to enemies but on the plus side it doubles the machine gun ammo you can carry.
• Mizutsune from Monster Hunter Generations is a Leviathan-type Monster that can breathe bubbles and produce them from its fur as foam that it uses to slide around the area. The bubbles give Hunters the Bubbleblight ailment if it hits them, which can cause the Hunter to slip if hit by more bubbles after.
• Echo from Skylanders: Trap Team is a water dragon that can create explosive water bubbles. She can also create a bubble barrier around her that can absorb damage and explodes or discharges on command.
• In New Super Mario Bros. U, Bubble Baby Yoshis can shoot bubbles from their mouths, and players can use them to turn enemies into Coins, power-ups or 1-Up Mushrooms.
• The Bubble Gun in Blitter Boy is actually one of the more powerful weapons in the game.

Web Original

• Neopets has the Bubble Blower ability and the Bubble Gun.

Western Animation

• SpongeBob SquarePants - The Dirty Bubble IS a bubble - who can laugh menacingly, he talks like Paul Lynde and...well, he IS dangerous, really!
• Donald Duck in Quackshot uses a revolver that fires plungers, popcorn or bubblegum ammunition. The latter, when fired, results in a slow-moving projectile that oscillates when in flight. Marginally useful since it can travel through walls, and in the case of the Transylvania level, delete false bricks that the bubbles pass through. Also, it may be the game's first lethal weapon, capable of taking out bad guys instead of merely incapacitating them.
• Filmation's Ghostbusters was fond of this, as variations appeared throughout the series. If I may?
  • The Bubble Blaster, a seldom-seen weapon, could trap ghosts in bubbles.
  • Sleepytime Bubbles could engulf people a la Rover and put them to sleep.
• The Superhero Episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes had Heloise become Trouble Bubble Girl. Jimmy and Heloise laugh at this until Heloise shows how effective they can be.
• The Bubbler from Miraculous Ladybug is the Akumatized form of Nino. He can create different types of bubbles from his giant bubble wand, and causes chaos in Paris by trapping all adults in giant bubbles.

Real Life

• The Alpheidae, or pistol shrimp, have a bubble gun embedded into one of their claws. This gun is no joke—the bubble it produces heats the surrounding water to a temperature of nearly 4700 °C (nearly as hot as the surface of the sun) when it collapses, producing a shockwave that can kill small fish at short range. At a measured loudness of 218 decibels at 1 meter, the gun also makes pistol shrimp one of the loudest creatures in the ocean.