This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Dasduken is a lazy but concerned citizen. Should he delete all the entries that should go into Improvised Weapons, or not delete all those entries and instead move those entries himself/wait for someone else do so (neither of which is really likely to occur)?
Seth: I'm gonna contest the superhero example. They get a little creative yeah but their superpowers make them slightly less improbable. And Captain America (God rest his soul :p) isn't the first person to think of using a shield as a weapon.
Ununnilium: Eh, I say keep it; it fits. Even if you have a reason, it's still a weird weapon.
Harpie Siren: Y'know what's weird? According to one of Goofy's official profiles, he fights with a shield because he "dislikes weapons"... He dislikes weapons, so he beats people up with a shield!
Morgan Wick: Sounds like something for Technical Pacifist.
Harpie Siren: I added the caption back, because, visually, I like the capiton box. It anchors the picture, without it, it feels like the picture's floating out in space.
Seth: I think it looks a little bad though when the caption makes contact with the bar that separates the examples and the entry. Later: Maybe we should try puting it on top instead? — Nope that looks worse.
Boobah: How does Ayla fit? She doesn't use any weapon at all, and she doesn't (disturbing image) buy new ones from shops or find them on monsters.
Metaphysician: With regard to chaos and his choice in weapons, I think the underlying idea is that his real weapon is his own inherent powers. The thinner and flimsier the gloves he wears, the less containment of them.
octochan: Do the Paper Users from the Read or Die series count? The paper is just ordinary paper, so it's not technically a weapon until they use it.
Not a video game example, but many Jackie Chan fights have him resourcefully use anything at his disposal.
Big T: It's too bad this trope's been around for so long. Why? Because the name technically means something different. An Improbable Weapon User, according the rules of English, would be a Weapon User who is improbable, not a User Of Improbable Weapons. Of course, with the proper use of hyphens (Improbable-Weapon User), this could be fixed, but there are no hyphens in trope titles.
Gizensha: By those rules, wouldn't that mean that a baked bean eater is a bean eater who's baked, rather than an eater of baked beans? Compound nouns formed by adjective-noun or adverb-noun with no hyphen are fairly common.
Big T: According to my English teacher, you would have to write baked-bean eater. Maybe she's crazy. But the way I said it is exactly the way I interpreted before I clicked. Guess it's one for I Thought It Meant.
camacammal: 'Used car salesman.'
Dasduken: Your English teacher is an English teacher, who thinks that everyone in the world should speak or write the way people do in English class. Not only will they never do so, they shouldn't have to in the first place.
{{Azaram]] Not worth actually adding to the page, but funny anyway... in a Robotech role playing game, my mech had been shot to hell on the left torso, leaving the arm attached by a single point of internal structure, and having trashed my weapons. So I tore the mech's left arm off with the right arm, and beat another mech to death with it...
Specialist290: Nixing duplicate entry:
- Several of the characters in Tales of Symphonia use unusual items as weapons. Genis uses a kendama (something like a Japanese paddleball), and Sheena uses cards.
Gitman:This page was a mess, so I went ahead and organized it into categories.
uncertainty principle: As for shovels being used in trench warfare, this is the explanation I've heard (at least for italian soldiers in WWI): the standard issue bayonet could easily be detatched from the rifle, e.g. if stuck into someone's chest. The trench shovel, instead, was more reliable and could be used to hit the enemy repeatedly, thus proving more effective in an assault. English is not my first language, so I'm not going to add this, but feel free to do so.
(random passer-by): you are correct. Even in the present day, many militaries train infantrymen to use the entrenching tool as a battle-axe in melee combat. US Army Infantry are trained in this, as are US Marines. The entrenching tool is often sharpened. We have read that the Russian military also teaches this sort of thing, at least to their paras and naval infantry.
MinionOfCthulhu: A number of these (the Buffy examples, among others) seem more like Improvised Weapons rather than a character who fights with a quirky weapon.
Wilsonator: The Rorschach entry for one. He's hardly the 'trope master' unless he carries around pans of boiling fat, fire extinguishers and toilets in his coat for the express purpose of hurting people.
Comonad: This page is full of duplicate entries, at least the Video Games section. I'm not bored enough to clean the thing up right now, but if anyone else is, that would be useful.
AKK: No mention of Penguin? Admittedly, his is more hiding of weapons in umbrella form, but would it count?
((Old Man of the Mountain)): The Video games section is eating the whole page. Should the catagories be given open/close buttons? I'm very new here, so I don't really know the protocals.
h_v: Did some serious pruning of Improvised Weapon examples. I tried to err on the side of caution, but feel free to add/remove any examples that should/shouldn't be there.
This description seems to only cover slapstick use of improbable weapons. Is there another trope for the characters in martial arts movies who frequently use whatever mundane objects are around them as weapons? Or should this one be expanded?
Harpie Siren: /cough/ Improvised Weapon /cough/
Harpie Siren: Why did we change the picture? Sora and his GIANT MAGICAL KEY is a wee bit more improable than "windmill blades"
Boobah: Am I confused, or is this trope for people that have a Weapon Of Choice that, when asked what the weapon is for, the answer ends with "...and I guess you could use it to hurt somebody," assuming it even comes up at all?
If so, how the heck does a gunblade fit? It's just a variation of impossibly cool sword, just like a lightsaber. Nobody looks at one and assumes it's for trimming hedges or chopping down trees (and the tool used for the latter for most of history generally doesn't qualify, either.) They see a sword with a funny looking hilt.
And then there's all the Real Life sword-gun combo stuff that accumulates under gunblades because of I Thought It Meant that really ought to be chucked into the Awesome, but Impractical pile. Those are Ashley and Cervantes things.
