Give Me a Sword/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character asks for something he needs to fight, and other characters give him one.

  • Straight: Jack asks for a sword to fight with, and his Fire-Forged Friends give him one.
  • Exaggerated: He is deluged with more blades than he can possibly use.
  • Downplayed: Jack asks for a sword, but the only weapon his friends have to give is a dagger. Better than nothing, though.
  • Justified: He is their best fighter and their champion, and they want him to win.
  • Inverted:
    • Jack tosses his sword to someone else because it would interfere with the fight in the close quarters.
    • The Big Bad demands that a Mook throw him his Magic Wand; the Mook doesn't even budge.
  • Subverted:
    • The sword he's given breaks, because the character giving it knew it was weak.
    • He doesn't catch the tossed sword and it ends up stabbing/cutting/otherwise injuring him.
  • Double Subverted: The villain tries to exploit this, causing the Reasonable Authority Figure to declare him the loser for his ignoble behavior.
  • Parodied:
    • Jack is buried in absolutely useless things.
    • Alternately, someone hands Jack a sword, then the person who gave Jack a sword asks someone else to give them a sword.
    • Jack's friend nearly injures him with the thrown sword: "I said throw it to me, not at me!"
    • Or else, Jack's friend doesn't quite know how he's supposed to hand over his weapon: "Hilt first, you idiot!"
  • Deconstructed: Jack gets it because he is a bad man to cross.
  • Reconstructed: Still, he is really their best fighter and champion.
  • Zig Zagged: Characters are prevented from moving about the battlefield, and have only a handful of weapons, so they are continually throwing them to the ones who are fighting.
  • Averted: The two characters fighting have no allies around, so there is no one to request a sword from when they are disarmed.
  • Enforced: It's the Last Stand; everyone must fight or die.
  • Lampshaded: "No, I don't have a sword on me. Thanks for asking why I don't in the middle of a fight."
  • Invoked: Jack intentionally lets himself be disarmed so that he can be tossed a much better sword.
  • Defied:
    • "No matter that your friends will throw you their weapons, and my Mooks will watch me die -- I will still win."
    • Jack is prevented from asking for a sword because he is killed instantly after being disarmed.
  • Discussed: "It would have sucked to have Jack sit on his hands during the big fight."
  • Conversed: "Jack is a Cool Old Guy and all, but he is 84 years old. Shouldn't they have him making healing poultices or something instead of fighting?"

I feel so useless just standing here! They have to have some weapons at the Give Me a Sword page!

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