History Main / ExcaliburInTheRust

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'', [[spoiler:[[SecretCharacter Priam]]'s]] Ragnell is visibly worn, with a dulled blade and cracks all over. While not the infinite-use juggernaut that it was when [[spoiler:his ancestor]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Ike]] wielded it, it's still a highly powerful top-rank weapon.
** The fact he uses its ranged attack by throwing it at the enemies probably doesn't help.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Gilgamesh pulls out a somewhat goofy-looking drill-like sword. This sword quickly loses all jokes about it, as it is actually Ea, '''the single''' most powerful weapon in the entire Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}, and at full power it is capable of [[EarthShatteringKaboom ending the world in a single blow]].

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Zero's [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]] in ''Literature/{{Tasakeru}}'' plays with this. It ''is'' just an ordinary sword, if a bit scratched and weatherbeaten. [[spoiler:But then it gets [[WreckedWeapon broken]] and subsequently reforged by a God...]]
[[/folder]]

** Pictured above is the Master Sword, the iconic blade from the games, as pictured in the last panel of the ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' comic adaptation. The comic hews to the idea of centuries passing between games: after Link triumphs over Ganon, he returns the sword to await the next hero. This is implied to be a ''long'' time coming.

* An issue of Marvel's ''WesternAnimation/LaffALympics'' oomic book has participants from the three teams transposed to the moon to compete against a moon man (named Murray) for Earth but not before he gives them special belts that negate their lack of gravity. One event is to pull a feather from a rock, which thanks to the gravity belts Dread Baron can't do, even with help from Dynomutt and Quick Draw [=McGraw]. The final event is to pull out a sword with the tip just barely implanted in another rock which nobody can do until Boo Boo Bear arrives sans belt and easily pulls the sword out.

* An issue of Marvel's ''WesternAnimation/LaffALympics'' oomic book has participants from the three teams transposed to the moon to compete against a moon man (named Murray) for Earth but not before he gives them special belts that negate their lack of gravity. One event is to pull a feather from a rock, which thanks to the gravity belts Dread Baron can't do, even with help from Dynomutt and Quick Draw McGraw. The final event is to pull out a sword with the tip just barely implanted in another rock which nobody can do until Boo Boo Bear arrives sans belt and easily pulls the sword out.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEchoes'' the player can obtain rusted weapons from beating monsters. Rarely, some rusted weapons that can be forged into Sol, Luna or Astra can be obtained this way, and Sol, Luna and Astra are [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 weapons]].

* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', Aster's Grimoire looks rather tattered and dirty. The huge sword it manifests is also covered in rust. This belies the Grimoire's true nature as the [[AntiMagic Five-leaf Clover Grimoire]]. The rusty sword it summons is a powerful weapon that dispels and reflects magic. [[spoiler:It turns out the "rust" is actually the essence of AntiMagic. When "Licht" reclaims one of Asta's swords for his own use, the AntiMagic crumbles away revealing the sword's true form as a powerful shining blade.]]

* In ''Ghosts of the Past'', sequel to ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', Harry encounters Ván, the Sword of Hope, designed to [[spoiler: NoSell Phoenix Fire]] and defeat Surtur -- or to be more accurate, he encounters a depiction of it on the statue of its one and only wielder: Frey, the First King of Asgard. Despite this function, and the fact that it was forged from Uru and Vibranium, it does not look at all special, with the narration specifically noting that aside from a brief inscription of its name near the hilt, it could be mistaken for any random long-sword.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'', [[spoiler:[[SecretCharacter Priam]]'s]] Ragnell is visibly worn, with a dulled blade and cracks all over. While not the infinite-use juggernaut that it was when [[spoiler:his ancestor]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Ike]] wielded it, it's still a highly powerful top-rank weapon.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun: The Lost Age'', you can find rusty weapons in certain patches of shallow water in the ocean as soon as you get the ship. If you take these to Sunshine the Blacksmith, he will agree to fix them up, resulting in weapons that are reasonably good for that part of the game.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'': Kratos had kept [[spoiler:the Blades of Chaos from [[VideoGame/GodOfWar the first game]]. After not being used for centuries, they look worn out and rusty. Once he wields them again, they light up with their trademark flames and are immediately shown to be as deadly as ever (and can be upgraded to eventually lose the rust).]]

* Sort of played in ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' where a plain looking sword is transformed into Excalibur by the dragon's breath.

** Mind you, you find a good majority of the first set of rusted weapons when you get into "Triton's pieces/QuickSandBox" part of the game, and by the time you actually get around to finding more of them you mostly have weapons that overpower the crafted ones. That's not to say later in the game.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* Minor ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' example: during a defence lesson, Professor [[spoiler:(Impostor!)]] Avalon instructs Bloom and another student to pick two magic swords and spar, and Bloom's shiny sword is ''shattered'' by the chipped one chosen by the other. The other sword happened to have survi isved an ''extremely'' powerful attack, and that single chip (the ''only'' sign of disrepair) was where the attack had hit and [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye the sign it was the better sword]].

* Pale Justice in ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' is an extremely powerful sword for paladins, and looks exactly like an ordinary longsword.
** A sidequest during the [[EasingIntoTheAdventure prologue]] has you retrieving a broken heirloom sword for a villager named Jhonen (no, not '''that''' Creator/{{Jhonen|Vasquez}}). In the last chapter, if you did this quest, you can talk to him again to find out that the sword magically reforged itself sometime while you were off doing the [[BuffySpeak adventury]] thing. Not being a fighter himself, he's only too happy to hand over the rather nice [[InfinityPlusOneSword Reforged Sword of Aihonen]] to help you out against the BigBad. And it doesn't stop there, either - if you bring it with you into [[ExpansionPack Heart of Winter]], about halfway through you meet an NPC who will upgrade it even further.

* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine #14 article "Interview with a Rust Monster": A {{PC}} party unknowingly carries the Sword of Toshio. "[It] looks like an ordinary sword, bent and worn from use. But in the hands of a samurai, it takes on its true appearance as a katana of great power."

* A lot of powerful magical weapons in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire''. Ordinary items can become spontaneously enchanted in various ways -- Xoti's sickle and Edér's Saints War armor are two examples where the wielder knows for certain they were never deliberately enchanted -- which leads to a few of these. Other examples include a broom that makes a great quarterstaff, a shiv carved from a copper beer stein that grants some seriously powerful BoozeBasedBuff (at [[HellishHangover a price]]), and a chunk of wood dipped in pitch, covered in glass shards, and blessed by the Goddess of Vengeance. Downplayed by the Huana magical weapons; though made of wood, bone, obsidian, and other "stone age" materials, they are very well-made and intricately carved, making it obvious they are more than the materials they are crafted from.

Compare to WhatAPieceOfJunk. If someone who doesn't recognize its true value throws it away, or sticks it in the basement with all the other worthless junk, it's the GrailInTheGarbage. See also WreckedWeapon.