Converted into a Weapon

An Empathic Weapon wielded by one lacking in empathy.

One of the ways to get an Empathic or Living Weapon in fiction is to physically transform a person into one. The degree to which the newly created weapon retains their sentience will vary, with some cases going into And I Must Scream territory. This may also result in an Evil Weapon is the person converted was malicious in their previous state of living and is now trying to possess or manipulate their wielder.

The process of converting an individual into a weapon can range from their body being physically transformed into a weapon to having their soul or mind transferred into one. An involuntary example of this trope is typically played for horror, while voluntary examples are akin to having Equippable Ally who is always in weapon form, unless something happens to change them back.

Often involves a Forced Transformation. Compare Reforged into a Minion and Become Your Weapon. Not to be confused with Crafted from Animals. Some cases can overlap with Powered by a Forsaken Child.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Boy and the Beast: After winning the tournament to become leader of the Beast Kingdom, Kumatetsu reincarnates as a sword which Ren uses to defeat and redeem Ichirohiko.
• Dragon Ball Z: It's not a weapon, strictly speaking, but Cell still weaponizes the souls of the people he absorbed by using them as a means to increase his Ki. Particularily evident during one powerup-Kiai where the aura takes the shapes of souls screaming in agony.
• Flint the Time Detective: While undergoing the de-fossilization process, Dr. Goodman accidentally turns Rocky Hammerhead into a hunk of sentient stone. Rocky is then fashioned into a makeshift hammer that his son Flint uses in battle.
• One Piece: The manga has two examples that invert this trope, courtesy of a process invented by Dr. Vegapunk that allows non-living objects to 'eat' Zoan-type Devil Fruits. The first examples is a gun owned by Mr. 4 of Baroque Works taking on canine characteristics after eating a Dog-Dog Fruit. The second is at Enies Lobby, where Spandam's sword Funkfreed eats an Elephant-Elephant Fruit, allowing it to shift between a sword, a full-grown elephant, and back at will.

Comic Books

• Lady Death: In The Gauntlet, Lady Death battles the villainess Morgana, who traps Lady Death's ghostly ally Virgil Solomon in a sword.
• Thor (2014): Mjolnir is revealed to contain the God Tempest, an elder god whose physical form is that of a cosmic thunderstorm. It was imprisoned within the hammer by Odin after he defeated it when it approached Asgard.

Fan Works

• Dead or Alive 4: The Devil Factor:
  • In chapters 9 and 10, Dante battles the dragon demon Apophis. After Dante defeats him, Apophis becomes a set of gauntlets and greaves for Dante to use in later battles.
  • In chapter 32, Doku is killed by Ryu and Hayate. Being a demon, this is not the end for Doku, as he is able to reform into a Flaming Sword of blue fire for Vergil to use in his fight against Dante in the next chapter.
• Duet In SSS-Major: In chapter 5, Kyrie fights and defeats Credo, who transforms into a lance Devil Arm. Unlike most examples, Kyrie is unable to wield this weapon since it is too heavy for her and she resolves to find a way to change him back.

Films — Animation

• Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox: Following his failed attempt to assassinate Aquaman, Captain Atom has since been captured by the Atlanteans and turned into a living nuclear reactor as part of their Doomsday Device they intend to use to end their war with the Amazons. As Aquaman dies by Wonder Woman's hand, he activates the device and causes Captain Atom to detonate, destroying the world.

Films — Live-Action

• Mystery Men: The Bowler wields a Bowling Ball inhabited by the ghost of her dead father. More often than not, she ends up arguing with it.
  Blue Raja: Am I to understand that you have inserted your father's skull into that... ball for bowling?
  The Bowler: No, no, of course not. The guy at the pro shop did it.

Literature

• Otherverse: Goblins can transform into weapons upon being bound, with the form generally being innate, though it is possible for a goblin to control what form the weapon takes to some degree. They can even still turn into weapons after being killed.
• Reincarnated as a Sword: Has it right in the title: the originally human main character is reincarnated in another world in the form of an intelligent magical sword.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: The Shadows Mind Rape living people and then place them inside of their ships to operate as a Wetware CPU, with the implication being that the person's consciousness somewhat merges with that of the Shadow vessels. This process also permanently alters or destroys the personality of anyone used for this purpose.
• Doctor Who: A variation in "The Armageddon Factor". After searching the cosmos for the six segments of the cuboid Key to Time, the Doctor and Romana discover a shocking revelation: the sixth and final segment is a living, sapient humanoid named "Princess Astra" who transforms into the segment in front of an audience. What makes this instance a variation is that she is only a part of a whole, and the Key to Time is also not an inherent weapon, but can be used like one. The Black Guardian is intent on using it to bring ruin to Space and Time.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: Jafar transformed his mentor Amara into the Serpent Staff he uses to augment his powers.

Tabletop Games

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Some cards allow you to treat your opponent's monsters as an equip card for your own monster to use. Some examples are Destiny Hero - Plasma, Red-Eyes Fang with Chain, Relinquished and the Allure Queen archetype.

Toys

• Transformers:
  • In several continuities, there is a state known as "mode-lock" where a Transformers is "locked" into a particular "mode" (e.g. their robot mode or their alternate mode). Such a fate has befallen Decepticon leader Megatron (whose original and most famous alternate mode was a Walther-P38 pistol) in both the Marvel and IDW comic continuities.
    • Marvel: This happened when Megatron was knocked off a cliff tall enough to cause potentially fatal damage and so transformed into his smaller pistol mode in an attempt to survive the fall by landing on the snow below. The fall still did enough internal damage to put him in a comatose state, in which he reflexively followed the orders of a small-time hood who happened upon him. When Megatron recovers thanks to another fall, he's enraged at the thought that he was following the orders of a flesh creature but spares the hood's life when instead of begging for his life, said hood instead challenges Megatron to get on with it and impresses him.
    • IDW: Optimus Prime and Megatron are exchanging stories about all the times they'd fought and tried to kill each other over the course of their Forever War. Megatron recalls the time Optimus tried to bury him under tons of rubble, and in an attempt to avoid being crushed Megatron went into his pistol mode. However, his transformation cog was damaged and he remained trapped in his alternate mode for almost two years.
  • Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: One level involves the Decepticons attacking an Autobot base containing the remains of Trypticon, the massive Decepticon who served as the Final Boss of the previous game. To their surprise, Trypticon is still alive, though apparently in a comatose state. Megatron orders him rebuilt into a starship (a variation on his original Kill Sat alternate mode). When Soundwave observes that the damage Trypticon has sustained would make such a change likely permanent Megatron brushes aside the observation and orders it done anyway because as far he was concerned, Trypticon had already failed him and is now only useful as a weapon Megatron can aim and fire. And if he was still conscious, that makes the punishment even better.

Video Games

• Axiom Verge 2: The Apocalypse Arms are Kiengir natives who were converted into the guiding intelligences of sentient nanotech weapons. At first, the oldest and wisest of Kiengir were used for this process, but in time they began to use children because of their faster learning capabilities.
• Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2: Rodin creates weapons out of the souls of demons from Inferno.
• Bionic Commando (2009): Bionic limbs such as Nathan Spencer's require a certain catalyst to function, and a person's loved ones are the best to use. The climax reveals that Spencer's missing wife Emily was murdered and had her brain uploaded into his bionic arm.
• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence reveals that the Vampire Killer, the signature whip weapon of the franchise, was created when Leon Belmont's wife bound her soul to the Whip of Alchemy.
• Cyberpunk 2077: The Phantom Liberty storyline has Song So Mi. While she may not look like a weapon, the fact remains that her body was extensively modified to force her to access Beyond the Blackwall and snare the rogue A.I.s existing there for the purposes of the NUSA. Both Reed and Myers refer to her as a living weapon of mass destruction. Indeed, both of them are so terrified of a weapon like her escaping their grips that they are willing to engage in an act of war and cause an international incident if it means getting their hands on her.
  • A related example is the Erebus SMG and the Canto cyberdeck. Both of them are built out of a rogue AI salvaged out of the AI-possessed Cerberus robot. The occasional quips of the AI when using either weapon indicate that it doesn't mind being used as a weapon. In fact, it was its fellow A.I.s that offered V the means to craft the weapons to begin with. However, it does hold humanity in utmost contempt and is clearly not enjoying being operated by a human.
• Devil May Cry: Devil Arms are demonic weapons of variable sentience created from a demon's soul or power. As stated in the Before The Nightmare novel, a demon becomes a Devil Arm in one of two ways: they are beaten into submission or if they form a strong enough bond with their wielder. However, the former process has only ever been seen in Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 5, while other Devil Arms in the series are acquired when they have already been transformed into weapons.
• Elden Ring:
  • The player first meets Latenna the Albinauric as an NPC involved in the early stages of the Haligtree Sidequest Sidestory. If the player shows her a certain key item, she will ask to be taken to the Consecrated Snowfield — and since she is paraplegic, like all first-generation Albinaurics, the only way for her to come along is as a Spirit Ash. Spirit Ashes are non-consumable items that allow the player to summon particular spirits for boss fights, so they are essentially automated weapons. While all Spirit Ashes are said to be the remains of creatures they represent, Latenna is unique in that she willingly takes her own life to become one, and also in that she has unique quest dialogue even after doing so.
  • After defeating the first stage of the Final Boss, Radagon turns into a sword wielded by the Elden Beast.
• The Elder Scrolls: Daedric equipment is made by altering a Daedra into the form of the equipment, which can be a weapon. They retain their sentience in this state.
• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • The "Sorrow of Werlyt" questline revolves around the Garlean Empire's Weapons Project, in which conscripts (and kidnapped civilians) are forced to pilot and merge with giant war machines. The process destroys the physical body and overwrites the pilot's personality with combat data.
  • Upon summoning King Thordan and his Knights Twelve into himself, Archbishop transforms the corpse of the first Azure Dragoon, Haldrath, into the dragon-slaying sword Ascalon to serve Thordan's primary weapon.
• League of Legends: In the past, the Ascended were warriors given near-divinity through a complex ritual, and sent into battle against the forces of the Void. The Ascended were victorious, but fighting the Void left most of them with a severe case of PTSD from coming to terms with just what the hell they had been fighting, and when the Emperor who had been leading them was killed in a coup attempt, the void-PTSD-striken Ascended began feuding amongst themselves. The end result was a series of wars between the Ascended, with mortals caught in the middle until the mortals prayed to Targon's Aspects for aid. The Aspect of Twilight was the one to answer those prayers, giving mortals the knowledge to seal the corrupted Ascended - now renamed the "Darkin" - inside their weaponry and render said weaponry indestructible. Fortunately, this means the Darkin are now Sealed Evils in lots of different cans. Unfortunately, they are now immortal as long as their weapons are intact (and these weapons, if you will recall, were made indestructible). Worse, should any mortal attempt to wield any of these weapons, the Darkin can quickly assume control of the wielder for their own means, using their old powers through them, and only by slaying the body of the now-host can they be resealed. And to top it all off, being sealed inside weapon-shaped cans where not even starvation or suffocation can kill them despite being omnipresent sensations has not done wonders for their sanity, and any Darkin who finds themselves a wielder is bad news for the world as a whole: If they aren't omnicidal at this point, expect them to want to Take Over the World so they can Never Be Hurt Again.
• Legacy of Kain: The Soul Reaver may be the most complicated example in all of fiction. While the sword can function on its own, it doesn't become a sentient weapon until after Raziel's soul is imprisoned within it. The Soul Reaver is eventually destroyed when Kain strikes Raziel's past self with it, with Raziel's future soul then becoming Raziel's own Wraithblade. And when Raziel merges with the Soul Reaver, it's his future self that makes up the Wraithblade that ends up purifying Kain of his curse of insanity.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: In chapter one, the Player Character recovers an Empathic Weapon named Finnean who can transform into any weapon type the wielder is proficient with. Finnean is convinced he is human and has his own questline to discover his history: he was a Pathfinder during the Second Crusade who was captured by a cult that extracted his soul and placed it within the weapon.
• Shadows of the Damned: Garcia's ally and weapon is Johnson, a demon who was cursed into the form of a skull-shaped gun that can transform into staff, a motorcycle and various firearms.
• Tactics Ogre: The Snapshot/Snapdragon spell permanently transforms the caster into a sword, with its stats based on the caster's.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: According to the artbook, some people from Alrest and Bionis manifested as objects in Aionios. One such item is Lucky Seven, which the art book claims is Fiora.

Web Videos

• Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara's Magic Gun is revealed to contain the soul of a little girl whose parents sacrificed her to their god.

Western Animation

• The Dragon Prince: Years after her death, Queen Sarai's final breath is used as a vital component in a powerful dark spell capable of felling the archdragon who had ended her life, Avizandum. Combined together with her spear, her grieving husband Harrow plunges it into Avizandum's chest turning the dragon king to stone, her voice crying out as he does so, distraught at being used as a weapon in the cycle of revenge.
• Wakfu: The Shushus are locked inside weapons and other usable items. They are still sentient and mostly have one animated eye that can communicate with the outside world. If the wielder is too weak-minded, the Shushu will take over their body. Sadlygrove has a Shushu sword with whom he has a special kind of relationship.

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