The Pen Is Mightier: Difference between revisions

A subtrope of [[Improvised Weapon]]. May be used by an [[Improbable Weapon User]] or a [[Combat Pragmatist]].

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Hot Gimmick]]'' Ryoki saves Hatsumi from {{spoiler|being raped by Azusa's gang}} by throwing one of them to the ground, sitting on top of them and threatening to drive a pen through his cheek (since the guys are models, this would ruin his career as well as being ''fucking agonizing''). When {{spoiler|Azusa}} thinks he's bluffing, Ryoki scratches the guy's face to show he's serious. {{spoiler|He doesn't end up having to do it though.}}

* Killer Bee of ''[[Naruto]]'' is capable of using [[Shock and Awe|electricity]] and [[Vibroweapon|vibrations]] to turn any pointed object into a deadly weapon, including the pencil he uses to write down lyrics which he managed to throw ''[http://read.mangashare.com/Naruto/chapter-470/page012.html through a tree trunk]''.

* Pretty much any solid object within [[Informed Ability|two meters]] of [[Elfen Lied|Lucy]] becomes a deadly implement. This is first demonstrated with pens during the [[Full-Frontal Assault|infamous]] [[Gorn|escape]] [[Establishing Character Moment|scene]].

* During her stint as a schoolteacher, Yoko from [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] manages to throw a piece of chalk so hard, ''it imbeds itself in the opposite wall''. Nobody gets hurt, but [[Badass Teacher|damn if it doesn't make the kids focus on their work]].

** Tenma also uses a ballpoint pen to save himself from a group of Neo-Nazis.

* In the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' manga, [[Zen Survivor|Shogo Kawada]] managed to finally {{spoiler|kill the [[Complete Monster]] director Yomeni Kamon with a pencil by stabbing at his throat}}.

* In episode 20 of ''[[Lovely Complex]]'' [[Yandere|Mimi]] nearly stabs Risa through the hand with a mechanical pencil.

* In an early episode of ''[[Nabari no Ou]]'', Raimei throws a handful of pencils at Miharu to test him. He, of course, didn't even notice.

* In ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', Amu's "Amulet Spade" character transformation fights with a paintbrush.

* In [[One Piece]], Mad Monk Urouge wields something that looks like a stone column. [[Word of God]] says that it's a pencil and he is looking for a sharpener.

== [[Film]] ==

** In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'', [[The Joker]]'s "magic trick" involves making a pencil disappear...[[Eye Scream|into the eye of one of the Gotham Mob's thugs]]. ''Eraser end first.''

* During the opening flashback detailing Danny Greene's life in [[Kill The Irishman]], Danny's shown being [[Squick|''stabbed in the hand'']] by bullies, and keep in mind that he and said bullies are [[Teens Are Monsters|High School age at best.]]

* In ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'' Martin uses a fountain pen a high school friend gave him to finish off an assassin.

* In the first of the [[The Bourne Series|Jason Bourne]] films, Bourne surprises a knife-wielding assassin with a pen to the hand, causing him to drop the knife.

* [[Joe Pesci]] kills a man this way in ''[[Casino]]''. Rather disgusting to watch.

* The titular character in ''[[Psycho Cop Returns]]'' kills one of his victims with a pencil into the eye.

* The protagonist of ''The Lost Empire'' (also known as ''The Monkey King'') acquires a magical pen that can expand into a sword. The trope title is in fact referenced, though in practice the sword-form is mightier.

'''Q''': Thanks to me, they were right! }}

* In ''[[Terminator 2]]'', Sarah Connor taunts her shrink about having previously stabbed him in the knee with a pen.

* In ''Holla If You Hear Me'', a man is stabbed in the head with a pencil, while one of the killers gets a pen in the neck.

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Discworld]]'': Ankh-Morpork Patrician Olaf Quimby II had his reign ended when he was killed by a disgruntled poet during an experiment to test the truth of the saying "The pen is mightier than the sword". In his memory, it was amended to read: "The pen is mightier than the sword only if the sword is very small and the pen is very sharp."

* Played with in ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]''; the title character has a pen that ''turns into'' a sword.

* Calligraphy brushes are commonly used as weapon in [[Wuxia]] genre by fighters who specialized in hitting [[Pressure Point]], since all they have to do is hit at the right spot.

* [[Firefly|The R. Tam Sessions]]. "I'll have to write it down."

** To elaborate on this, the "R. Tam Sessions" are a series of videos from [[The Woobie|River's]] time at the [[School for Scheming|Academy]], showing her in a series of "interviews" with a "counselor" that [[Sanity Slippage|chronicles her gradual descent into madness]]. The first video (which is the second half of the last session) shows her counselor collapsing after having been stabbed in the throat with a pen. The ''last'' video is of her seeming to be remarkably lucid and clear, and her last words before the video cuts out is her asking for a pen to write something down. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Whether this is due to her madness, being ordered to do this by her "handlers," or simply River striking out at her tormentors in the only way she can manage]] is up in the air.

* In the revived ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', Felix Gaeta, asking Gaius Baltar about the path to Earth in the latter's prison cell, tries to kill Baltar with a pen, stabbing him in the neck, but missing the carotid artery. This leads to something of a [[Sugar Wiki/Crowning Moment Of Funny|Crowning Moment Of Funny]] on Baltar's part during his trial, when, after Felix perjures himself on the stand, Baltar says (or more accurately, screams), "The whole fleet knows this man tried to stab me through the neck -- and you missed! Butterfingers!"

** This is played with later, when in the fourth-act scene after Gaeta stabs Baltar, he asks someone for a pen. It's believed that after the incident with Baltar, Gaeta has been forbidden to carry pens on his person.

** Battlestar likes this trope. During [[The Mutiny]] Arc, Romo Lampkin stabs a marine with a pen. The first thing he does after that? He reclaims the sunglasses that the marine took from him and refers to the now-dead marine as his "pen-pal".

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Buffy and Willow have used pencils to take out vampires.

* Also in the spinoff ''[[Angel]]''.

* In an episode of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael escapes a room full of bad guys using only a pencil. How? {{spoiler|He holds it against the bad guys' leader's neck, and threatens to punture the guy's artery unless they let him go.}}

* In ''[[The Lost Room]]'', one of the Objects is a pen which can microwave people, which a small-time crime boss uses to enforce order.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze]]'''s eponymous Rider wields the Pen Module on his right leg. [[MST3K Mantra|Enough said]].

** To elaborate, said Rider tries to use it, but instead writes the word Baka on a window. Then we find out that whatever is written with said pen becomes solid, making them ''very'' useful as shields or just even using the ink to clog petrification lasers.

== [[New Media]] ==

* ''[[Ask a Ninja]]'' mentions a samurai who killed himself with a pen while signing up to become a samurai.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Shirley from ''[[Tales of Legendia]]'' uses feather pens as her weapons of choice, but lacks any artes that actually make direct use of them.

* In the second ''[[Manhunt]]'' game, Danny and Leo can both equip ballpoint pens, and make good use of them, using them in some of the most brutal stealth kills of all time, gouging out eyes and giving people new breathing holes.

* Imaginary-Barry in ''[[Alan Wake]]: The Signal'' DLC quotes/lampshades this after Alan takes out a wave of Taken. Granted, words in typewriter-font are utilized throughout the game, but [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

== [[Western Animation]] ==

{{quote| Stan: [[Shoe Phone|Pen gun]]. Mightier than the sword. [[Swiss Army Weapon|Sword gun]]. [[Spoof Aesop|Mightier than the pen gun]].}}

* In the ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' episode 'Performance Klok', the band's therapist calls his old band to gloat about how he's in a new one... the scene changes to several cobweb-covered skeletons, one of which has his monogrammed pen sticking out of an eyesocket.

== [[Real Life]] ==