Situational Sword: Difference between revisions

A sword, or any other type of weapon, that unleashes some form of "hidden" (or not so hidden) power when certain conditions are met, such as the wielder nearing death, blood getting splashed on it, etc. This weapon tends to be most prominently used in a [[Desperation Attack]].

 

 

 

* One story of the ''[[Crying Freeman]]'' anime [[OVA]]s involved several parties falling under the curse of the Muramasa blades (explained below), which made the user go berserk until the sword left their grip.

* The Medicine Seller's sword in ''[[Mononoke]]'' can only be drawn when he learns more about the titular monsters. But once he gets the Shape, Truth, and Reason, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|asskicking]] [[BFS|ensues]].

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', the titular [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-demon]] was given a sword by his father that becomes much more powerful if he's trying to protect a human from a demon.

** An even better example would be his brother's sword, a [[Healing Shiv]] that's useless against living beings but happens to be [[Revive Kills Zombie|the only weapon that can cut spirits or other enemies that are]] [[Made of Air]].

* Kaito from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' wields the... well, '''weapon''' [[Sentient Weapon|Crazy Slot]] which randomly takes the form of one of nine weapons when [[Hammerspace|materialized]]. These include a rifle, a [[Sinister Scythe]] and a club. He cannot dematerialize or switch it until used.

* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', Yamamoto has two weapons like this: A baseball bat that turns into a sword when swung at a certain (fast) speed, and a bamboo sword that turns into a real one when he uses his special techniques.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' presents us with the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, each of which posses a sword with a special ability. Starting off, [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|Kisame Hoshigaki]] has a [[Department of Redundancy Department|shark themed]] sword that can eat other people's [[Life Energy|chakra]], among other things. The most interesting, though is that after all these years, we finally find out that the sword of Zabuza Momochi, the first Swordsman ever met in the series and original [[Big Bad]] before his spectacular [[Heel Face Turn]], actually does something other than [[Awesome Yet Impractical|look menacing and heavy]]. It can repair itself by sucking the iron out of someone's blood.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The titular heroine in ''[[Empowered]]'' has a suit that makes her a not-entirely formidable crime-fighter, but once, when she was saving her best friend's life, it grew a pair of glowing wings and unleashed awesome power. She still doesn't know exactly what stimulus caused it (though it's a safe bet it was emotional).

 

 

* In ''[[District 9]]'' Prawn guns and tech are created organically and do not work when used by humans. The prawns are either too passive, too wild, or too undesirable to be used in human armies. Thus, MNU has spent the considerable part of three decades trying to develop test subjects with combined working prawn/human DNA so that they can develop a [[Super Soldier]] program.

 

* Felix's sword in ''[[Gotrek and Felix]]'' is enchanted to kill dragons and will grant its wielder extra strength and other bonuses, but only when fighting a dragon (or to get him through a fight so he can go fight a dragon later).

* In P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'' series, the hereditary sword of the house of Knorth, ''Kin-slayer'', can cut through opponents as if they were butter—but only when wielded by someone wearing the Knorth signet ring on their finger. Furthermore, it cannot be sheathed until it has killed someone, and the energy of the sword numbs the hand of the bearer. Meanwhile, the ''Ivory Knife'', an ancient heirloom artifact reputed to come from the Kencyrs' God, kills from the merest scratch. It is called "the very tooth of Death."

** The dagger Merry attacks the Witch-King with was also specifically made to fight beings of his nature, and so does crippling damage despite the Witch-King being a Ringwraith. In other situations, it's merely a decent hobbit-sized sword.

** Shieldbreaker makes the wielder nigh-unbeatable in battle, but only if he's fighting an armed opponent.

** Townsaver has similar powers, but only functions when defending an inhabited place

* The titular weapon in [[Lawrence Watt-Evans]]'s [[Ethshar]] novel ''The Misenchanted Sword'' will do your fighting for you, but only against adult male humans, and once it kills, you have to sheath it and draw it again to re-activate its power. Also, [[Blessed with Suck|you can't resheath it, or even let go of it, until it's killed someone]].

** Also, no one else can use it, and you will die if and only if you have killed a hundred men with it (at which point it turns on you and finds a new owner - they will then remain alive until their 99th kill, and so on until some poor soul is slain on first drawing the blade). At first the character is unnerved by not knowing how close he was and that he could die at any time. Later, the character realizes it was [[Age Without Youth]] and desperately tries to find a way to kill the last men. {{spoiler|Nothing that a youth spell wouldn't handle, though.}}

* In ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'', Bastian receives the magical sword Sikanda. The sword is amazing, and quite possibly [[Empathic Weapon|alive]], evidenced by the way it guides Bastian's hand and makes peerless, flawless cuts once it leaps out of the sheath, but there are a number of limitations. First of all, only those who have eaten, drunk, and bathed in the flames of the Many-Colored Death, and ridden on his back, may touch the sword without danger (Bastian has to disappoint a few good men who wish to be knighted by the blade because of it). Secondly, Bastian may only draw the sword and use it when it leaps willingly from the sheath. At the height of his growing madness later in the story, Bastian attempts to use Sikanda to fight {{spoiler|Atreyu}}. The sword refuses to budge from the sheath, but Bastian continues to tug at it, and finally tears it out of its sheath by brute force. In that instant, a terrible sound echoes through the tower, and Sikanda's light is lost forever.

* The black sword Dyrnwyn from the ''[[Chronicles of Prydain]]'' series can only be drawn by one of "noble worth". [[Heroic Wannabe|Taran]] at first assumes this means one born of a noble bloodline, but Gwydion later states that it is referring to character, not blood. In the hands of a worthy person it is an [[Infinity+1 Sword]] capable of slaying just about any evil being. Those who are unworthy tend to get themselves killed trying to draw the sword. Taran has to go through four or five books' worth of [[Character Development]] before he can wield it.

* ''[[Percy Jackson]]'s'' sword ''Anaklusmos'' (Riptide) is made from celestial bronze, and is only effective against monsters or those with divine blood such as other demigods. It is completely harmless if used against regular humans.

 

 

* Tyrfing from Norse mythology was under a similar [[Curse]] for a long while. If drawn, it must take a life before it can be put away.

** This included one occasion where its wielder, an [[Action Girl]], had to kill a guy who just took it out of the sheath to look at it. There was no punishment for this, probably because she'd explained the curse beforehand and thus everyone present wrote the guy off as [[Too Dumb to Live]].

 

 

** You don't have to go quite that far, however. ''Un''intelligent weapons with situational bonuses and/or powers are likewise a long-standing and rather more common D&D staple. ''Sword + 1, + 3 vs. spellcasters'', anybody?

 

* Link's sword in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' shoots [[Sword Beam|energy beams]] when he's at full health in the 2D games, otherwise it's limited to melee.

** The Master Sword is also known as the Sword of Evil's Bane, and can reflect evil magics. It's also stated to be unweildable by anybody but the true hero, and untouchable by evil, but those never play much of a part in the actual games. It also serves as a lock at least twice. In Ocarina of Time it hides the Triforce from evil, and in Wind Waker {{spoiler|It binds itself to Ganondorf, turning him to stone for all eternity}}

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'' the special named weapons will randomly unleash a special attack instead of a normal critical hit. This changes the dialogue from;

{{quote|[Name of character] lets out a howl. Critical hit.

[Name of weapon] lets out a howl. [Name of special effect/attack] }}

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' has one kind of sword that glows when enemies are nearby, though unfortunately it counts normal-sized rats and spiders as enemies even though they can't hurt you. Also, weapons 'Of Disruption' have a chance of instantly vaporizing undead upon contact. The oringinal also had a nifty 'Greatsword +1/+3 vs. shapeshifters' (which you fough a ''lot'' of).

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' also has plenty of these. In fact, using runes the player can opt to make their weapon like this ie. +10 damage to darkspawn.

* The ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' series has the Lamb's Sword. In the first game, allowing the Lamb's Sword to reach critical [[Breakable Weapons|WHP]] transforms it into the much stronger Wolf Sword until it is repaired. In the second game, the sword becomes the Wolf Sword from 9PM until 6AM, again with a boost in attack power.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'': Robo's ultimate weapon, the Crisis Arm, has its power depend on Robo's last digit of HP. If the last digit is 0, it does no damage. If the last digit is 9, then it can consistently outdamage everyone except a level 99 Ayla. Thankfully, Robo hits [[Cap|999]] HP relatively early, so keeping the Crisis Arm powerful is merely a matter of keeping Robo as close to full HP as possible.

** The DS remake gives Lucca the Spellslinger, a similar weapon based off the last digit of her MP.

* In the ''Sonny'' series of flash games, many of the techs for the Shadow Psychological build are situational to the point of being frustratingly inconvienient at times, causing many to prefer the Electric Psycho build. In the Cold Hydro build, there is one attack called Shatter that can only be used on opponents who have 3 Ice elemental debuffs (if one debuff expires before Shatter can be cast, then it won't work).

 

* Almost every named character that fights in ''[[Goblins]]'' has a weapon that works like this: Big Ears' axe {{spoiler|can't hurt paladins}}, Complains' magic shield that does a random (usually offensive) countermove every time it is struck, Dies-Horribly has a psychic artificial arm, Chief's spear does a [[Macross Missile Massacre]] if he throws it, etc.

* Tavor's swords in ''[[Looking for Group]]'' reveal a map to Kethenecia when coated in blood.

{{quote|'''Zoe''' ([[Face Palm]]): I want the blood of the innocent to rain down in every room of our house.

''Later--''

'''Gwynn (cleaning):''' Did you have to say ''every'' room??

'''Zoe:''' I couldn't remember which room it was in! }}

 

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', Tucker's energy sword can function as a key at times, but is otherwise still a powerful weapon.

{{quote|'''Church''': So, it is a sword. It just happens to function like a key in very specific situations.

'''Caboose''': Or... it's a key all the time... and when you stick it in people, it unlocks their death. }}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Lion-O of ''[[Thundercats]]'' fame possessed the Sword of Omens, a nifty sword that in addition to its "Sight Beyond Sight" ability and its power to call upon the other Thundercats, could literally get him out of any situation. For example, on one occasion it essentially transformed into a vaulting pole and propelled him up the side of a castle.

 

* Smart guns are prototype firearms that use a unique locking system to prevent anyone who doesn't have the matching magnetic key from firing them.

** There are a number of systems: RFID tags, grip patterns, fingerprints.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]