History Main / AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe

* In ''Anime/HighschoolDxD'', Kiba's Sword Birth only seems to be effective against mooks, that is when he actually uses it.

* Curaré from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. Her scimitar, which is [[AbsurdlySharpBlade unreasonably sharp]], and she sure knew how to use it, cutting everything from park benches, steel poles, and reinforced steel doors down! However, not a single person felt the steel of her blade.
** She does have a scene where she fights a few dozen cops [[TraintopBattle on top of a train]], a few got thrown off while she was running through them and conspicuously cutting their guns apart. She managed to knock out the ones left, or the producers [[BloodlessCarnage were being discrete]] about her work.

* In "Anime/HighschoolDxD", Kiba's Sword Birth only seems to be effective against mooks, that is when he actually uses it.

* ''RolePlay/WeAreOurAvatars'': [[https://www.dropbox.com/s/ei1zmd4ccih7ue1/Deathless.jpg Deathless]]. Said [[CoolSword sword]] is made entirely out of unnatural darkness, and can be [[AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe lethal or nonlethal]], due to how it cuts.[[note]]If it's nonlethal, then all damage done to someone with the sword is done to the person's shadow, and making the person feel a severe cold where the cut was made. The worse the cut is, the colder it feels, making normally fatal cuts incapacitatingly cold. Making it lethal requires a trigger word, which makes all the previously nonlethal cuts happen all at once.[[/note]]

* Egregious use in ''{{Power Rangers}}'' where in one case a bunch of "monstrous" villains were killed but the few human-looking ones were turned good, by the same same attack blast.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', Beatrix's Climhazzard and Stock Break attacks freely switch between doing normal damage and doing exactly enough damage to set HPToOne depending purely on the story.

This trope is all about weapons or attacks that seem to jump between lethal and non-lethal as the plot demands. No explanation as to why said weapon's killing power seems to come and go. It simply does.

Compare with InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality and InverseLawOfSharpnessAndAccuracy. Contrast with NerfArm. See also: BloodlessCarnage, CouldHaveBeenMessy.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', it's stated that the best swordsmen can do this: Strike a sheet of paper or a tree branch harmlessly, yet cut rocks or even steel the next second. Zoro reaches this level during [[spoiler:his battle against Mr 1]] in the Alabasta arc.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* [[XenaWarriorPrincess Xena's]] chakram is the TropeCodifier. It killed enemies or knocked them out, according to RuleOfDrama. (Though it was always lethal if she used it as a melee weapon.) It's usually used as a non-lethal PrecisionGuidedBoomerang, but on occasion, we've seen it cut through rope, wood and human body parts. Callisto managed to throw it hard enough to ''go through Xena's sheathed sword and into her back.'' Many fans simply figure that there's a button, somewhere on the chakram, that turns it sharp.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' usually does this with its abstract combat system, varying the method with each edition. In 4th edition, the final attack is supposed to declare whether it was meant to be lethal or nonlethal.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', Beatrix's Climhazzard and Stock Break attacks freely switch between doing normal damage and doing exactly enough damage to set HPToOne depending purely on the story.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

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* [[XenaWarriorPrincess Xena's]] chakram is the TropeCodifier. It's usually used as a non-lethal PrecisionGuidedBoomerang, but on occasion, we've seen it cut through rope, wood and human body parts. Callisto managed to throw it hard enough to ''go through Xena's sheathed sword and into her back.'' Many fans simply figure that there's a button, somewhere on the chakram, that turns it sharp.

* VideoGame/{{Prototype}}: Why you cannot deal a fatal blow to Specialist Cross when you first encounter him, no matter what you do on his last sliver of health.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': Wasp's stings are usually portrayed as annoying at best. But during the five-part pilot, she manages to whip off a blast that cut a railroad car in half (a railroad car that was being thrown through the air right at her). It didn't even seem to be a matter of concentration or energy use, because she went right back to her normal BeamSpam right afterward.

* ''MedakaBox'': Nienami, one of [[spoiler: Medaka's suitors]], is capable of cutting a battleship in half with her sword abilities. Yet in her fight against Zenkichi, she only succeeds in cutting him up slightly.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' usually does this with its abstract combat system, varying the method with each edition. In 4th edition, the final attack is supposed to declare whether it was meant to be lethal or nonlethal.

** [[Badass Well, obviously, Zenkichi]] [[StrongFleshWeakSteel is tougher than a battleship.]]

* [[XenaWarriorPrincess Xena's]] chakram is the TropeCodifier. It's usually used as a non-lethal PrecisionGuidedBoomerang, but on occasion, we've seen it cut through rope, wood and human body parts. Callisto managed to throw it hard enough to ''go through Xena's sheathed sword and into her back.''
** She also [[ItMakesSenseInContext once kills Joxer with her chakram]] by throwing and embedding it in his sternum.

* [[RurouniKenshin Kenshin's]] ultimate attack, the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, nearly kills his teacher, the strongest fighter in the series, with its first use, only leaving him alive because the bolts securing the blade of Kenshin's reverse blade sword popped out, absorbing much of the force of the blow. The bolts of his sword never budge on any of his successive uses of the technique, and yet it never again comes close to killing an opponent, even ones who should be much less resilient, like Soujiro.
** The Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki is, in addition to being an incredibly powerful attack in its own right, also designed to be the perfect counter to the Kuzu Ryu Sen, the second most powerful move in the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu style. Perhaps part of the reason every Hiten Mitsurugi master dies when the student masters the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki is that [[FridgeBrilliance you're especially vulnerable to it while using the Kuzu Ryu Sen]].

* In ''FinalFantasyIX'', Beatrix's Climhazzard and Stock Break attacks freely switch between doing normal damage and doing exactly enough damage to set HPToOne depending purely on the story.

* ''AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': Wasp's stings are usually portrayed as annoying at best. But during the five-part pilot, she manages to whip off a blast that cut a railroad car in half (a railroad car that was being thrown through the air right at her). It didn't even seem to be a matter of concentration or energy use, because she went right back to her normal BeamSpam right afterward.

* In ''OnePiece'', it's stated that the best swordsmen can do this: Strike a sheet of paper or a tree branch harmlessly, yet cut rocks or even steel the next second. Zoro reaches this level during [[spoiler:his battle against Mr 1]] in the Alabasta arc.

* The {{Gatchaman}} weapons qualify. Sometimes depicted as lethal, sometimes not. The only two that had definite lethal variations were Jun's yo-yos, which could be turned into bombs; and Jinpei's bolos, which could be loaded with timed explosives.

TheHero is doing his usual thing: battering {{mooks}} left and right with his trusty Phlebotinum Sword and leaving them out cold. Except for that one mook whmo he clearly just gutted. With the same sword and with the same moves. How?

he Hero is doing his usual thing: battering {{mooks}} left and right with his trusty Phlebotinum Sword and leaving them out cold. Except for that one mook who he clearly just gutted. With the same sword and with the same moves. How?

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]

* The {{Gatchaman}} weapons. Sometimes depicted as lethal, sometimes not. The only two that had definite lethal variations were Jun's yo-yos which could be turned into bombs; and Jinpei's bolos, which could be loaded with timed explosives.
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', most noteably in ''[[MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS StrikerS]]''. Everyone uses 'magic bullets', which are explicitly stated to be as lethal as they need to be - that being one of the reasons why Mid-Childa outlawed oldfashioned 'slug-thrower' weapons and became a magic-driven society. Thanks to that, Nanoha is able to repeatedly pull off her signature 'befriend by superior firepower' trick without worrying about accidentally killing someone...

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* [[XenaWarriorPrincess Xena's]] chakram is the TropeCodifier. Usually used as a non-lethal PrecisionGuidedBoomerang, on occasion, we've seen it cut through rope, wood and body parts. Callisto managed to throw it hard enough to ''go through Xena's sheathed sword and into her back.''

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]
* DungeonsAndDragons, with it's abstract combat system, usually does this, varying the method with each edition. In 4th edition, the final attack is supposed to declare if it was meant to be lethal or nonlethal.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* Amaterasu's Power Slash ability in ''{{Okami}}'', which can cleanly cut threes, boulders, and various minor demons in half, but when performed on friendly [=NPCs=] it will simply knock them back.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': Wasp's stings are usually portrayed as annoying at best. But during the five-part pilot, she manages to whip off a blast that cut a railroad car in half (a railroad car that was being thrown through the air right at her.) Didn't even seem to be a matter of concentration or energy use, because she went right back back to her normal BeamSpam right after.
* ''ThundarrTheBarbarian's'' [[LaserSword Sun Sword]] could cut through inanimate objects and MechaMooks like they were tissue paper. But the moment he tried to strike down a living foe, the Sun Sword inexplicably didn't work (At least they lampshade this by having Thundarr express surprise and/or dismay at this.)