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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''I threaten you with an umbrella with a poison tip.'' |''The House Detective'' by '''Fionn Regan'''}}
A good fighter can take anything and be able to [[Improbable Weapon User|use it as a weapon]]. [[
▲[[File:parasol_of_pain_1311.jpg|link=Batman|right|[[Added Alliterative Appeal|Penguin presents a plethora of parasol punishment.]]]]
▲A good fighter can take anything and be able to [[Improbable Weapon User|use it as a weapon]]. [[BFS|Swords]], [[BFG|guns]], [[Precision Guided Boomerang|boomerangs]], [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaws]], and even...an umbrella?
Yes, despite their standard use as protectors from rain, snow and sunlight, a parasol can be a deadly weapon in the hands of any fictional character, if used the right way. In this case, they're mainly used for clubbing people to death, but some varieties of umbrellas can shoot things - from bullets to gas to [[Ki Attacks|laser beams]]. Don't be fooled if you see an old lady wielding an umbrella. [[Never Mess
It's a pretty versatile "weapon", too. Opening the parasol often lets it serve as a shield against attacks, even though most [[Real Life]] umbrellas aren't that durable, though some works imply or outright say the parasol is made of metal. It can even, in a pinch, [[Parasol Parachute|serve as a parachute]]. Running [[Razor Floss]] along the rim of the canopy turns the parasol into a razor-edged shield.
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Compare [[Parasol of Prettiness]], [[Kicking Ass in All Her Finery]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Guido from ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' is surely the king of this trope. His Samurai Sunspot Umbrella can do pretty much anything.
* The [[Proud Warrior Race|Yato]] from ''[[Gintama]]'' use their metal umbrellas as protection from the sun, batons, shields and… guns. While there is no normal bullet that can pierce them, a yato's punch is very well capable of that.
* Kenshin used an umbrella as a weapon in one episode of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''. He even claimed to have a special style for it. [[Truth in Television|Pretty unsurprisingly]]. Traditional Japanese umbrellas are made of wood, with rather thick bamboo ribs and stretchers, so when folded they make for excellent clubs.
* Tot from ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'', just like Setsuka, has an umbrella with a hidden blade.
* Christopher Shouldered from ''[[Baccano
* Ryouga of ''[[Ranma
** In addition to the typical combat uses, Ryoga will also open the umbrella and throw it with a spin, turning it into a razor sharp boomerang style attack. Interestingly, it's not laser guided. To be fair, the main reason he uses it is to protect himself from his [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|water-induced curse]].
* Roberta's umbrella in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' is a shotgun with [[Bottomless Magazines]]. It's also apparently made of kevlar since it seems to be able to shield her against bullets.
** If you look closely, she uses it as a cover while she gets behind her trunk... which does shield her from bullets.
*** If you're looking closely, you might notice that the 'brella gun seems to be a [
* Some bodyguard (not Sousuke) used one in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]''.
* Kagura from ''[[
** Episode 42 has her father use his umbrella to shield people from a massive laser cannon thing. It works.
* A minor character in ''[[Naruto]]'' named Shigure uses this as a weapon, which shoots seemingly endless amounts of deadly needles. Unfortunately, that tactic only gets said character killed by Gaara, who quite easily blocked them with his sand. Judging by others we see, the umbrella is the preferred weapon of the Hidden Rain Village.
* Played dead serious in ''[[Perfect Blue]]''. *''shudder''*
* Oyuki from ''[[
* Feitang, one of the extremely murderous thieves of the Spider from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', fights using an umbrella. If angered enough, he pulls a sword out of the handle. If further provoked, he spontaneously combusts and all his colleagues take cover. But mostly he just kicks ass with the umbrella.
* Mei from ''[[Ga
*
* ''[[Kirameki Project]]'': [[Humongous Mecha]] Junerin sometimes carries - and uses - either a [[Handbag of Hurt]] or a Parasol of Pain as a melee weapon.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[
** In his first appearance, he toted around three varieties: one that shot bullets, one that shot "paralyzing gas", and one that shot [[Hollywood Acid]]. Since then, he's used umbrellas that functioned as helicopters, jetpacks, stun guns, missile launchers...
** The graphic novel ''Penguin Triumphant'' shows that Penguin's usage of these dates back to childhood, when he used the sharpened tip of an umbrella to cut a bully's face. Thirty years later, said bully still bears the scar on his cheek.
* [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/pinkertonpercival.htm Percival Pinkerton], a member of the original Howling Commandos, is fond of carrying an umbrella to the field.
* Turner D. Century had a flamethrowing umbrella.
* And White Rabbit one that shot carrots. Deadly carrots.
* Subverted in the [[Don Rosa]] story "[[The Three Caballeros]] Ride Again", in which it turns out that José Carioca's umbrella is no match for an actual machete.
== [[Film]] ==
* Some [[Jackie Chan]] fight scenes incorporate umbrellas, most notably a fight in his breakout film ''Police Story''. He also had a memorable umbrella fight in ''[[Shanghai Knights]]'', complete with an [[Homage]] to ''[[Singin' in
* Both young Wong Fei Hong and his father Wong Kai-Ying use an umbrella to dish out some beatdown to some scruffy street thieves in ''Iron Monkey''. Mildly subverted in that their use of an umbrella was an expression of contempt for [[Not Worth Killing|martially insignificant opponents]]. When confronted with genuine opposition, they stopped playing around with the umbrella and fought seriously.
* Interestingly, the association of the umbrella and Wong Fei Hong is seen in other movies with him, including the notable ''[[Once Upon a Time
* In the movie ''[[Indiana Jones and
* In the [[James Bond (
* In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in ''[[WALL-E]]'', a robotic umbrella opens up and blocks the stasis lasers fired by the security robots.
* In ''[[Scream (
* In ''The Umbrella Coup'', Pierre Richard plays a wannabe actor, who is confused for a [[Career Killer]] by [[The Mafia]] and receives an umbrella with a poisoned tip to assassinate a target with. As you may have guessed already, [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* John Steed in ''[[The Avengers (1998
* Lord Southmere has one in ''[[
* The opening scene in ''Tokyo Raiders'' portrays an immigrant PI dealing with some unwanted tails with a combination of whacks, hook grabbing and some sort of martial arts.
* Miss Heliotrope uses one in ''[[The Little White Horse|The Secret of Moonacre]]''. Subverted slightly in that it's only shown to be a minor distraction (albeit one that helps greatly, as {{spoiler|the movie's already over by this point and all that's needed is for the villain to see sense}})
* A loan shark is impaled with an umbrella in ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night]] Part 2''. Directly afterward, it pops open, and it starts to rain.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Hagrid from ''[[Harry Potter (
* Amelia Peabody Emerson, from the [[Amelia Peabody|series of books by Elizabeth Peters]], has made an art out of using her parasol in battle, to the point that some superstitious 19th-century Egyptians believe it to be a magical weapon. By the time she's in her 50s, Amelia actually has custom parasols made with extra-strong shafts so they aren't destroyed by the damage she deals with them, and at least one is built along the lines of a sword cane -- this latter is a special present from her husband, which delights her even though she doesn't actually know how to fence. Not that that stops her. Very little stops Amelia.
* ''[[Discworld]]'''s Agony Aunts can do terrifying things with a parrot-head-handled umbrella.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', elderly hobbit Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is jailed after [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|wielding her umbrella against a bunch of thugs twice her size]].
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* In [[The Parasol Protectorate]] series, one of these is Alexia {{spoiler|Maccon nee }} Tarabotti's weapon of choice. It has all sorts of surprises built into it.
== [[Live
* John Steed from ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]''. His had a sword inside, but he didn't always feel the need to draw it.
* In an episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Cory keeps having nightmares where he kills all the people he loves. He describes how in one of them, he shoved an umbrella down his best friend's throat and then opened it. "Shawn... I [[Mary Poppins
* [[Doctor Who
* The preview trailer for the Korean drama series ''Runaway: Plan B'' (''도망자 / Do Mang Ja'') shows a female character using a purple parasol to fend off attackers in a busy street.
== [[Music]] ==
* In the Lemon Demon song "Samuel and Rosella", the titular character, annoyed by a young person in Hot Topic, "didn't like the way he dressed, so they closed their umbrella and they rammed it through his chest."
* In the play "The Turn of the Worm", two teenage thieves break into an apartment where two old ladies live. Pina, the feistier of the old ladies, stabs the male thief in the foot with an umbrella (it was revealed earlier in the show that she sharpens the point specifically for this purpose).▼
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* The use of the ''Western'' umbrella became an integral part of the Hung Gar family of Martial Arts, when Doctor Wong Fei Hung saw their prevalance as China became increasingly westernized in the latter part of the 19th century. It also became the [[Weapon of Choice]] that came to define Wong Fei Hung in cinema, notably those in which he is portrayed by Jet Li.▼
* Real people may also be apt to break things with umbrellas if they're pushed too far, like that one time when Britney Spears shaved her head and went crazy on that one guy's car.▼
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov#Umbrella_Murder The Umbrella Murder]: On September 10, 1978 the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov died of ricin poisoning. It was later determined that he had been killed by a poison capsule that was injected into his leg by the tip of an umbrella.▼
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu Bartitsu] is an entire style of martial arts that revolves around using walking sticks and, yes, umbrellas. Pierre Vigny, a particularly renowned practitioner of one such technique, had (by his own account) once fought off several Apaches (Parisian street gangsters, not Native Americans) with a light umbrella. Incidentally, this now somewhat forgotten martial art may be responsible for a fair amount of the examples used here.▼
* In another example of bizarre [[Truth in Television]], people have actually made [http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/unbreakable-fig.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp combat umbrellas], which have been used by the Phillipine Secret Service. Combat umbrellas that can ''split watermelons''.▼
* As with nearly everything else, the [[Myth Busters]] have covered this one.▼
* [[Britney Spears]] allegedly beat the paparazzi with an umbrella.▼
** Prinz Ernst August von Hannover ''did'' attack a newspaper reporter with an umbrella. A computer game was even made based on this incident and what led to it.▼
* And now, [[http://www.littlegun.be/curios<!-- 20et20antiquites/a%20parapluie%20poivriere%20gb.htm a gun/sword/umbrella]]. -->▼
* During the [[A Bridge Too Far|Battle of Arnhem]] British paratrooper Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter armed himself with a pistol in one hand and his signature combat umbrella in the other. Devised as a way to mark himself as an Englishman due to his chronic inability to remember passwords, the umbrella came in handy for more military purposes when on one occasion he used it to disable a German armoured car by thrusting the rolled up umbrella through an observation slit in the vehicle and incapacitating the driver.▼
** "Classic" umbrellas (cane-like, non-telescopic) are perfectly able to turn into vicious stabbing weapons due to the 5-inch metal spike on top, which is naturally sharp and can be further sharpened if needed. A military man trained in bayonet combat also knows how to hold it with both hands to avoid bending the shaft.▼
** In a rather funny way, if folding or normal knives ''of significant size'' (which is below 5 inch anyway) are forbidden to carry in public places, umbrellas are thought harmless by most people including law enforcement.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, see entry in Literature section above, is a hero character in ''[[The Lord of the Rings
* In ''[[Munchkin]] Cthulhu'', one of the classes is Monster Whacker, and one of the illustrations for it is a woman beating up a small monster with her umbrella.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[
== [[Theatre]] ==
▲* In the play "The Turn of the Worm", two teenage thieves break into an apartment where two old ladies live. Pina, the feistier of the old ladies, stabs the male thief in the foot with an umbrella (it was revealed earlier in the show that she sharpens the point specifically for this purpose).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Princess Peach has one as an item in ''[[
** She even gets this as one of her special attacks in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'' and ''Brawl''. There is also a different parasol item that can be used by other characters to [[Parasol Parachute|slow down their falling speed]] or hit enemies.
** It's also her signature gadget in ''[[
** The one in ''SPP'' was actually a child named Perry before he was kidnapped from his grandfather, transformed by evil magic, found by a merchant and sold to Toadsworth. In the end, he does not return to normal, and instead decides to stay with Peach. That's right. [[Grievous Harm
* Lilka from ''[[Wild
* [[Cute Shotaro Boy]] Shizumaru Hisame from ''[[Samurai Shodown]]''. He does have a concealed sword, but the umbrella is his primary weapon.
* Josephine from ''[[Suikoden V]]''.
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* Lucia from ''[[Lunar|Lunar: Dragon Song]]''.
* Rosalyn from ''[[Okage]]: Shadow King'' is an interesting variant. She only uses a parasol to disguise her curse - she casts a pink shadow when hit by direct light. She actually attacks with a sword. She does, however, use it to cast magic.
* In ''[[Dead Rising]]'', the Parasols you can pick up around the mall are actually ridiculously effective. They allow you to perform a [[Foe
* ''[[Kirby]]'' has, at different times, had umbrella-toting enemies he could absorb. While the Parasol isn't the strongest power he can gain, it does slow his falls. And it even naturally protects him from attacks from above.
* Aerith's [[Cherry Tapping|joke weapon]] in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is a parasol, though she's still the [[White Magician Girl]] so it isn't exactly badass.
** However, Zack totes one in the [[Beach Episode]] mission of ''[[Crisis Core]]'', and it apparently does the same amount of damage as his [[Big Freaking Sword|BFS]].
** Likewise, in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 358/2 Days'', Roxas's joke weapon is also an umbrella.
* There are three of these in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''. The Titanium Assault Umbrella, is listed as a one-handed weapon, as is the Goatskin Umbrella (whose real advantage as a weapon is that it ''[[Elemental Rock
** The last is a little drink umbrella, which as you might imagine, is pretty useless, except to those with advanced-enough Cocktailcrafting skills to use them in making potent drinks.
* In ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'', chemically tipped umbrellas are used for terrorist attacks.
* Yukari Yakumo of the ''[[Touhou]]'' series always carries a parasol, which she uses as a weapon in ''Immaterial and Missing Power'' and ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''.
** [[Ax Crazy|Yuuka Kazami]] also carries a nice parasol, made out of a flower that never withers. This parasol is also used to cut loose with the ''original'' [[Kamehame Hadoken|Master]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Spark]], as well as the more recent Dual Spark and other huge magical laser spells.
*** Though [[All There in the Manual|it's never shown in-game]], [[Our Vampires Are Different|Remilia Scarlet]] uses a parasol to protect herself from the sun whenever she goes out for a daytime stroll. It's noteworthy that Remilia and Yuka are final bosses and that Yukari is a [[Up to Eleven|post-]][[Bonus Boss|Extra boss]]. It seems that a parasol is a symbol of power in Gensokyo.
*** Which doubles as [[Fridge Brilliance]]: The more powerful a Touhou Youkai is, the more likely it will be among the more polite and refined. Now given that pale skin used to serve as a status symbol in eastern regions and our ladies are the leads of the [[Amazon Brigade]] ....
** Tatara Kogasa, one of the newly introduced bosses in ''Undefined Fantastic Object'', carries with her a parasol that looks like it's culled from [[Yume Nikki|Madotsuki's]]
*** It gets a bit weirder in Kogasa's case: she ''is'' the parasol.
* This, and drops of water picked up with it, was your weapon in ''Parasol Stars''.
* ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' had two types of parasols, both usable only by women. They're among the best melee weapons for the non-melee classes.
* In the Game Boy version of ''[[Kid Dracula]]'', the titular character eventually receives an umbrella that can block projectiles. [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] says it belongs to his father. Does anyone recall [[Dracula]] ever walking around with one of these?
* Lieselotte of ''[[
* Trilby in ''[[The Art of Theft]]'' uses an umbrella which, amongst other special features, includes a taser modification.
* In the RPG/dating sim ''[[Thousand Arms]]'' one of the recurring boss fights is [[Camp Gay|Bandiger]], a lanky man in a white disco suit who uses an umbrella for a weapon, and his magic. He is actually far more powerful than the rest of the bad guys you fight through the game, and way more annoying.
* In the [[ZX Spectrum|Speccy]] game ''Mystery of the Nile'', one of the player characters uses an umbrella as a [[One
* Lan uses a high-tech parasol defensively in ''[[
* The Civilian in the original ''[[Team Fortress Classic
* Momo in ''[[Breath of Fire|Breath of Fire III]]'' uses an umbrella ([[
* Rachel is prone to using Nago as one in ''[[
** One of Bang Shishigami's distortion drives has him toss an umbrella... which then rains dozens of nails on the opponent.
* Luna from ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'' wields one as her [[Weapon of Choice]].
* ''[[
* In ''[[They Hunger]]'', the first weapon you pick up is a umbrella. It is still powerful, capable of breaking many much harder objects found in the game.
* Parasoul in ''[[
* There are enemies in ''[[Maximum Carnage]]'' who use umbrellas as both weapons and shields.
* In ''[[Splatoon 2]]'', the Brellas are three weapons like this; they act like shotguns that can be opened to use as shields. This makes sense, as Inkling weapons use liquid projectiles.
==
* Aerynn from ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Corner Alley 13]]'' got an [http://corneralley.comicgenesis.com/d/20070812.html umbrella] of [[Knife Nut|knives]]:
{{quote|'''Cole''': Lady Ascha [[Tactful Translation|encourages you]] to [[Verb This|attempt evading "this"]]. }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Neo from ''[[RWBY]]'' combines parasol-fu with being a [[Kick Chick]] and an illusionist to be a tiny, silent and exquisitely deadly opponent.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the "Ballpoint, Penn., or Bust!" episode of ''[[Wacky Races]]'', Penelope Pitstop hit the Gruesome Twosome's dragon with the parasol from her car.
* In a ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' episode
* One of many gadgets the heroines use on ''[[Totally Spies]]''; Alex is even using one in the opening credits.
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* The use of the ''Western'' umbrella became an integral part of the Hung Gar family of Martial Arts, when Doctor Wong Fei Hung saw their
▲* [
▲* [
▲* In another example of bizarre [[Truth in Television]], people have actually made [http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/unbreakable-fig.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp combat umbrellas], which have been used by the Phillipine Secret Service. Combat umbrellas that can ''split watermelons''.
▲* Real people may also be apt to break things with umbrellas if they're pushed too far, like that one time when [[Britney Spears]] shaved her head and went crazy on that one guy's car.
▲* [[Britney Spears]] allegedly beat the paparazzi with an umbrella.
▲** Prinz Ernst August von Hannover ''did'' attack a newspaper reporter with an umbrella. A computer game was even made based on this incident and what led to it.
▲* And now, [
▲* During the [[A Bridge Too Far|Battle of Arnhem]] British paratrooper Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter armed himself with a pistol in one hand and his signature combat umbrella in the other. Devised as a way to mark himself as an Englishman due to his chronic inability to remember passwords, the umbrella came in handy for more military purposes when on one occasion he used it to disable a German armoured car by thrusting the rolled up umbrella through an observation slit in the vehicle and incapacitating the driver.
▲** "Classic" umbrellas (cane-like, non-telescopic) are perfectly able to turn into vicious stabbing weapons due to the 5-inch metal spike on top, which is naturally sharp and can be further sharpened if needed. A military man trained in bayonet combat also knows how to hold it with both hands to avoid bending the shaft.
▲** In a rather funny way, if folding or normal knives ''of significant size'' (which is below 5 inch anyway) are forbidden to carry in public places, umbrellas are thought harmless by most people including law enforcement.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Improvised
[[Category:Let This Index Be Your Umbrella]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:
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