The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

This also applies to vertical surfaces, with the blade almost always at a perfect 90 degree angle to the wall or cliff. Also when a dagger ([[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|or sword]]) is thrown into a person it will stick out at a perfect 90 degree angle.

Throwing knives with enlarged pommels take this one step further, as the center of mass - and thus the center of a good spin - is extremely close to one end, making it a near-certainty that a spinning blade will strike edge- or point-first. Whether or not it'll actually plunge the point in is, of course, another matter, and it won't be a [[Double Entendre|neat, perpendicular insertion]] - unless by chance it happens to run out of momentum in that position after cutting through the surface. If the knife is thrown as a dart instead of spining in mid-flight, [[Captain Obvious|it likely will land pointy end in]]. Note also that knife-throwing still takes a bunch of practice to do correctly.

 

 

* It happened sometimes in ''[[Mazinger Z]]'', but it was more frequent in ''[[Great Mazinger]]'', since Great Mazinger was the first [[Humongous Mecha]] sword-wielder. ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'', [[Sinister Scythe]] also followed this trope every so often.

** Done in the most epic way, in ''Mazinkaiser'', where the titular character [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomps]] the Evil Guy, Ankoku no Dai Shogun, and his sword, which flew off his hands almost a minute ago, lands on the pointy end in the very middle of said evil guy's face. Bonus point that said Big Bad Evil Guy had two heads, one over the shoulders and another in the torso. Mazinkaiser ripped his first head with Dual Rocket Punches, before said end.

* Used in [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]], mostly so that [[Determinator|Sayaka]] can pull it back out of the ground like a boss.

 

* Happens in ''[[Enchanted]]'' at the end. Giselle apparently has enough strength to make a thrown sword pierce a metal decoration, with enough strength to support a grown man's weight...

* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''. During his duel with Inigo Montoya, the Man in Black throws his sword. It spins end over end and impales itself in the ground point first.

* [[Inverted]] by the second ''[[Crocodile Dundee]]'' film. Mick Dundee wants to knock out a guard with his knife. Because the pointy end always lands first when he throws it holding the blade, he flips it around and throws it by the handle, causing the ''handle'' to hit the guard in the head and render him unconscious instead of drawing blood.

* In ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', one thrown knife can be seen to [[You Fail Physics Forever|stop spinning in mid-air]] so that it hits a [[Mook]] at a right angle.

* In ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'', this is the end result of a [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|sword throw working]]. After Ardeth Bey throws his sword at an Anubis Warrior, it lands pointy-end-down in the sand so that he can pick it up while riding past.

* Averted in ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]] 3'', which has a failed knife throwing end with the intended victim hit with the handle.

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' Will throws the swords that he made himself with enough strength that Captain Jack Sparrow can't get it out of the wall. And again at the end of the movie where Sparrow can use it to stand on.

 

== Literature ==

* Averted in Steven Brust's ''[[Taltos]]'' books. The protagonist spends weeks practicing and states that he has a 2 in 3 chance of getting a thrown dagger in point first if his target will stand perfectly still, exactly 15 feet away. He then asserts that the real point of throwing a knife is for the target to flinch, giving him a few seconds to do something useful.

* Played straight and then subverted in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. At one point, Arya and Sandor Clegane get into a fight, where one of their opponents throws a knife, which, while misses the intended target, lands in the wall perfectly pointy end first. Arya tries the same on said opponent, failing.

 

* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', Teyla throws a knife into the ground and manages to get it to stick. She was arguably doing it on purpose, but she manages to do this to a ''metal floor''.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': The original Megazord's sword is summoned from the skies, and is either caught in the Megazord's hand or lands point-first in the ground. They actually take advantage of this once, to cut the Megazord free of Octoplant's [[Combat Tentacles|vines]]. Additionally, Goldar's sword lands point-first after Tommy kicks it out of his hand in "Green No More".

* In the TV show ''Top Shot'', which revolves around various tests of marksmanship with various weapons, a knife-throwing challenge came up. The entire challenge showed just how unrealistic the trope is, with most thrown knives simply bouncing off the wooden targets.

* Anything thrown by Buffy of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' invariably ends up pointy-end first in the heart of her target, but Oz tried it with a stake once and it just bounced off harmlessly.

 

== [[Toys]] ==

* Used in a non-canon ''[[Bionicle]]'' promo animation featuring Kopaka Nuva. As he somersaults, he lets go of his sword, hand still attached, which then sinks into the mountain snow with its tip. Re-attaching his arm to it with a loud click, it causes the whole mountainside to collapse, taking the three Bohrok standing on it with it.

 

== Video Games ==

* Inverted in ''[[Icewind Dale]]'': the heroes can find a throwing axe that was badly botched by the craftsman and then enchanted. Though the spell turned it into a [[Precision-Guided Boomerang]], it remained badly unbalanced. As the result, it deals bludgeoning damage, as it always hits the target hilt-first.

* ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' has this happening '''''so''''' very much... Granted, the swords are alive.

* Whenever Travis Touchdown suplexes someone in ''[[No More Heroes]]'', he throws his sword in the air. It then lands point-first in their chests.

* In ''[[Modern Warfare|Modern Warfare 2]]'', the throwing knife is like this, no matter what it hits. It's also an instant kill.

* Whenever a weapon flies out of someone's hand in ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' games, it ends up this way. Exceptions are rare and generally weapons where they're physically incapable of sticking out of the ground upright. Sometimes.

* The "Knife" sub-weapon in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' games is one of the "thrown as a dart" types, though the "axe" weapon never deals less dzamage from hitting on the handle or top.

 

== Web Animation ==

 

== Web Comics ==

* Happens with the [[Hammerspace|sleevespace]] blades that Six uses in ''[[Generator Rex]]''.

* Happens frequently to Ulrich's Katana in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', whether he throws it or drops it.

 

== Real Life ==

 

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