History Main / BayonetYa

CoolGuns are great ... until you run out of ammo, or the enemy gets too close to make firing practical. Thankfully, you won't be lugging around dead weight when you attach a sharp blade on it, allowing the empty gun to improvise as a spear. Even better when you can detach it and use it as is.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed''

This is very much TruthInTelevision.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' takes place during the American Revolutionary War, where rifles with bayonets are plenty and to spare. What better way to assasinate British soldiers than to stab them with a musket and fire right through?

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' continues the trope, as Arno can carry one of several rifles, which occupy both his gun and melee weapon slots. ''Dead Kings'' also gives him access to Guillotine Guns, which are ''grenade launchers'' with ''axes'' on the ends of the barrels.

CoolGuns are great ... until you run out of ammo, or the enemy gets too close to make firing practical. Thankfully, you won't be lugging around dead weight when you attach a sharp blade on it, allowing the empty gun to improvise as a BladeOnAStick. Even better when you can detach it and use it as is.

A SubTrope of GunAccessories. See also SwissArmyWeapon, EmergencyWeapon, and BladeOnAStick. Do not [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant confuse]] with ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''.

** The first bayonets were of the "plug" type: little more than knives with hilt that thins at the bottom, so as to plug it into the barrel. This had the advantage of requiring no modification to the muskets they were used in, and the fact that they couldn't be fired with the bayonet attached was less of a problem than you might think: matchlock and flintlock muskets of that era were so slow to load that in a situation where the bayonet was needed, you probably didn't have ''time'' to fire more than one shot. Eventually, these gave way to ring bayonets, which mount ''around'' the barrel, thus allowing for the gun to be fired while the bayonet is attached. However, the ring bayonet, like the plug bayonet, depended on a tight fit around the barrel to stay in place, meaning it was sometimes lost when stuck in something. This paved the way for the socket bayonet, which uses an "L"-shaped socket and a lug on the barrel to attach it. This is still the standard way of attaching a bayonet.[[note]]Unlike the plug bayonet, the inventor of of the socket type is known to history: Sébastien, Marquis de Vauban introduced them in 1688.[[/note]] Some of these have knife-like blades, while others are simple spikes for thrusting attacks only. The next improvement was the sword bayonet, which effectively turned the rifle into a [[BladeOnAStick halberd]] as it enabled not only thrusting, but slashing as well. It also could be used like a short sword when not attached to the rifle. A sword bayonet could do terrible wounds, and a soldier hit with a sword bayonet, such as the German ''Schlachtmesser'' was not likely to survive. The trench warfare of World War I showed that these were too unwieldy for modern combat in close quarters, so they were superseded by the knife bayonet, which has the advantage of being usable not only as a combat knife when detached from the rifle, but also as a [[SwissArmyWeapon utility tool]]. A few rifles have also been designed with permanently attached folding bayonets. Today, almost every bayonet still in service is a knife bayonet (apart from integral bayonets, which are blades or cruciform spikes hinged onto the host rifles). Modern bayonets also often have a scabbard with tool functions, the most common being a post that when stuck through a hole in the bayonet's blade combines them into a wire cutter.

* In Sri Lanka a corrupt government official arranges for a gang of low rent thugs to seek out and kill Literature/AbleTeam. They're tipped off when they see several of these thugs lining up at a marketplace grinding stone in a futile attempt to get the government issue AKM bayonets they're carrying sharpened. The team escapes serious injury during the ensuing attack because the AKM bayonet is designed for stabbing or cutting wire, not slashing--which is what they thugs try to use them for. Turns out the corrupt official thought the bayonets ''looked'' dangerous but DidNotThinkThisThrough.

As a look through a history book will tell you, this is very much TruthInTelevision.

* An early version of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' includes the rifle's bayonet as the melee weapon. This was later dropped in favor of fists/chainsaw.
** ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is adding the bayonet for real... on the Super Shotgun. Except it's actually a two-pronged hookshot, so instead of shooting-charging-stabbing you're stabbing-charging-shooting no matter where your demon is.
* In ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'' bayonets are a technology that can be researched. First plug bayonets, which can be fixed but prevent firing the weapon, then ring and socket bayonets. Each increase the melee ability of line infantry substantially.

* ''VideoGame/WildArms2'': the bayonet is Ashley's WeaponOfChoice.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' took the Brute Shot from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and made it the signature weapon of one of its scariest villains, The Meta.

* Also features in a climactic moment in ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}'', in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome tactical thinking by Col. Chamberlain.