History Main / BiggerStick

* In WorldWarII, the American had less powerful tanks than the German, but their Bigger Sticks were numeric advantage, a more consistent supply of fuel and ammunition, and air superiority.

Although this trope is not inherently [[FreudWasRight Freudian]], a large majority of its examples are. The BiggerStick is probably going to end up being a {{BFS}} or {{BFG}}.

** Invoked by Yosemite Sam in a political campaign against Bugs Bunny. When Bugs says he talks soft and carries a big stick, Sam retorts that he talks loud, carries a bigger stick, and uses it.

Naturally, if TheRival captures {{the Hero}}es' Stick and tries to use it against them, the trope will be subverted. WeakButSkilled is the exact opposite. The UnskilledButStrong often seek this.

->''First Law of Gundamian Robotics: When in doubt, you need a bigger robot.''
-->-- '''Unknown'''

** YourMileageMayVary in terms of whether the unlockable weapon is truly better, or just a different way of playing your favorite class. For CompetitiveBalance, most weapons have significant enough disadvantages that they're not GameBreakers. (Of course, the InternetBackdraft over certain weapons says otherwise.)

** Example in the second season of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. After being soundly defeated by the new villain group with shiny NitroBoost equipped weapons and with their own weapons suffering heavy damage, Nanoha and Fate's weapons are repaired and upgraded with the same nitro boost systems. They fight the villains a second time with the upgraded weapons, but this time to a standstill and forces them to retreat.

** Similarly, in the first Naruto movie, the four main villains have "Chakra Armour", which makes their Jutsu stronger and making them immune to the effects of Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. These are beaten however. Sauske kicks his opponent into her partner and their armour detonates, killing them, Kakashi piledrives his opponent into oblivion, and the main villain is taken out by Naruto, who blasts him with his Rainbow Rasengan, destroying his armour and sending flying about 50 feet into a mirror.
** In more recent chapter's Sasuke has become increasingly reliant on the abilities granted to him by the Sharingan and from [[spoiler:abilities he temporarily had from absorbing Orochimaru]]. [[TheWesley To the ire of many fans]] it [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands often ends up working]], though [[spoiler:he loses the latter]] and sometimes, like when he fights [[spoiler:the eight-tails host]] it totally ''doesn't'' work.

* In {{Robocop}}, Detroit is being torn apart by rampant crime, and the police are starting to feel like they're more like an army on the losing side of a war with casualties mounting. Cue the titular Robocop, who nigh-immune to bullets fire and single-handedly trashes the largest drug factory in the city. In response, the criminals get anti-tank weapons.

** Well, the Ancients are pretty much the poster boys for NeglectfulPrecursor.

* TeamFortress2 has been locked in what can only be described as an escalating Arms Race between its 9 classes. However, the Engineer, the most recent recipient of an update, has a ''smaller'' stick: the combat mini-sentry that deploys faster and having a higher rate of fire than a level 1 sentry at the cost of having less firepower and un-repairable.

This trope is commonly found in Mecha shows, and is related to SuperPrototype, but subversions aren't unheard of (see MagicFeather). If two factions try to beat each other's Big Stick with an even ''Bigger'' Stick, you get a LensmanArmsRace. A commander who believes that WeHaveReservesmay try to get a Bigger Stick by sending in even more [[ZergRush ludicrous numbers]] of disposable {{mooks}}.

This trope is commonly found in Mecha shows, and is related to SuperPrototype, but subversions aren't unheard of (see MagicFeather). If two factions try to beat each other's Big Stick with an even ''Bigger'' Stick, you get a LensmanArmsRace. A WeHaveReserves commander may try to get a Bigger Stick by sending in even more [[ZergRush ludicrous numbers]] of disposable {{mooks}}.

Naturally, if TheRival captures {{the Hero}}es' Stick and tries to use it against them, the trope will be subverted. WeakButSkilled is the exact opposite.

*** Hell, ''all'' of Celestial Being, [[spoiler:Thrones included]], is like that so far. And in the one occasion when it seemed to get subverted, [[spoiler:[[DarthWiki/WallBanger it turned out the Gundam in question had a]] OneWingedAngel form.]]

--> ''First Law of Gundamian Robotics: When in doubt, you need a bigger robot.''
---> '''Unknown'''

--> ''Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy!''
---> '''[[IronMan Howard Stark]], the guy selling the sticks'''

This trope is commonly found in Mecha shows, and is related to SuperPrototype, but subversions aren't unheard of (see MagicFeather). If two factions try to beat each other's Big Stick with an even ''Bigger'' Stick, you get a LensmanArmsRace. A WeHaveReserves commander may try to get a Bigger Stick by sending in even more [[ZergRush ludicrous numbers]] of disposable {{Mooks}}.

Naturally, if TheRival captures the {{Heroes}}' Stick and tries to use it against them, the trope will be subverted. WeakButSkilled is the exact opposite.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

*** Hell, ''all'' of Celestial Being, [[spoiler:Thrones included]], is like that so far. And in the one occasion when it seemed to get subverted, [[spoiler: [[WallBanger it turned out the Gundam in question had a]] OneWingedAngel form.]]

* Tony Stark in [[Film/IronMan the film version of]] ''IronMan'' literally makes reference to {{Bigger Stick}}s, although it is [[spoiler: Obadiah Stane]] who gets the larger and supposedly more advanced suit.
** Too bad he [[DidNotDoTheResearch did not do the research]]:
--->'''Iron Man''': "How'd you solve [[spoiler: the icing problem]]?"\\
'''[[spoiler: Iron Monger]]''': [[spoiler: icing problem]]?\\
'''[[spoiler: * Iron Monger suit shuts down* ]]'''\\
'''Iron Man''': "Might wanna look into it!" BONK!
** In the sequel, War Machine is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI than in the Mark IV. They're actually pretty well matched, but as Tony points out, War Machine ''has'' a big gun, he's not ''the'' big gun. Tony's got a lot of cool [[SpinAttack tricks]] [[FrickinLaserBeams up]] [[EnergyWeapon his]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome sleeve]], but because War Machine was created by Tony Stark yet upgraded by Justin Hammer, the suit's [[EnergyWeapon more]] [[GatlingGood of]] [[BottomlessMagazines a]] [[MoreDakka mixed]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny bag.]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* TeamFortress2 has been locked in what can only be described as an escalating Arms Race between its 9 classes. So much so, that the last two major updates have pitted two classes against each other deliberately. So far, the only class not to pick up a Bigger Stick is the Engineer. [[http://www.teamfortress.com/119/comingsoon.html But then, you wonder what he's up to in his spare time...]]

--> ''How do I stop some mean mother-hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? Answer: use a gun. If that don't work: use more gun.''

* This appears to be Seto Kaiba's strategy for much of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}''. Even after getting the OverNineThousand Egyptian God Card, it doesn't seem to work.
** The only two opponents he has lost against, Yugi and Pegasus, are cheaters. For the latter, Kaiba lost only on the first time because his deck and drawn cards were being read like an open book thus he could do no substantial damage and on the second duel (movie only), he hands Pegasus his ass with interest. In Yugi's case, it is simply that Yugi is a cheater who can draw whatever card he likes and deus ex machinas his opponent. Everyone else plays this trope straight when Kaiba just rolls over them with his Blue Eyes series.
** This was Pegasus's even more so. He relies almost entirely on his mind-reading abilities and cards that he creates to only use himself. Without these it's show that he's a terrible duelist.

** In the sequel, War Machine is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI than in the Mark IV. They're actually pretty well matched, but as Tony points out, War Machine ''has'' a big gun, he's not ''the'' big gun. Tony's got a lot of cool [[SpinAttack tricks]] [[FrickinLaserBeams up]] [[EnergyWeapon his]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome sleeve]], but because War Machine was created by Tony Stark yet upgraded by Justin Hammer, the suit's [[EnergyWeapon more] [[GatlingGood of]] [[BottomlessMagazines a]] [[MoreDakka mixed]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny bag.]]

** In the sequel, War Machine is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI than in the Mark IV. They're actually pretty well matched, but as Tony points out, War Machine ''has'' a big gun, he's not ''the'' big gun. Tony's got a lot of cool [[SpinAttack tricks]] [[FrickinLaserBeams up]] [[EnergyWeapon his]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome sleeve]], but because War Machine was upgraded by Justin Hammer, the suit's more of a [[MoreDakka mixed]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny bag.]]

** In the sequel, War Machine is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI. They're actually pretty well matched, but as Tony points out, War Machine ''has'' a big gun, he's not ''the'' big gun. Tony's got a lot of cool [[DeathBlossom tricks up his sleeve]], but because War Machine was upgraded by Justin Hammer, the suit's more of a [[MoreDakka mixed]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny bag.]]

** In the sequel, War Machine is supposed to be this to Iron Man, but it turns out that Tony has more tricks in the Mark VI.
** Really the two are pretty even sized sticks. The difference is War Machine uses more conventional weapons, while Iron Man has Stark's super science.
*** While War Machine has [[JokeWeapon Justin Hammer's super science.]]

** Example in the second season of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. After being soundly defeated by the new villain group with shiny NitroBoost equiped weapons and with their own weapons suffering heavy damage, Nanoha and Fate's weapons are repaired and upgraded with the same nitro boost systems. They fight the villains a second time with the upgraded weapons, but this time to a standstill and forces them to retreat.

*** Somewhat averted. The upgrades kill users that aren't badass enough.

*** Ah, and there were instances of T-34s literally ''running over'' lesser German panzers.