History Main / TakeUpMySword

--->"You are the proof that I existed."

** In the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' prequel ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', Zack Fair puts Buster Sword into Cloud's hand and and tells him to live "for the both of us".

'''Examples:'''

** [[spoiler:With Mjolnir restored, Thor entrusts the axe he was using in its stead, Jarnbjorn, to Johanna Mason]].

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': [[spoiler: Aqua takes up Eraqus' keyblade when returning to Land of Departure aster his death, and start wield it after losing her own to save Terra-Xehanort. The bequething ceremonies Aqua and Terra give to Kairi and Riku also qualify by the end have effectively passed on their roles in the story to them.]]

* In Disney's Mighty Ducks the movie, the one with alien duck superheroes. The leader of the new commando squad, named canard, is shown to be the bravest and the coolest of the whole squad, even having a cool mask. However during their mission, canard needs to pull off a heroic sacrifice to save his team, but before doing so, he gives his mask to his lancer wildwing.

" Take it, your team captain now."

* ''Film/{{Sharpe}}'': From "Sharpe's Rifles":
-->'''Captain Murray:''' "I want you to have my sword. Maybe if the men see you carry it--"\\
'''Sharpe''': "They'll think I'm a proper officer."\\
'''Captain Murray:''' "No, they'll think I liked you."

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lifthatsword.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The fun will never end...]]

* Played with in ''Fanfic/InfiniteCrisis'';

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', Optimus Prime gives the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus but Hot Rod ends up with it by the end. [[MemeticMutation Magnus just couldn't deal with that now.]]

* Defied in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', since Smokescreen made the wisest decision of his young life and used the Forge to revive Optimus, thus eliminating the need for Smokescreen receiving the Matrix of Leadership.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': This is a mechanism built-in to the rings and it seems most Lanterns gain their ring immediately in the wake of their predecessor's death (GenreSavvy villains, e.g. in ''Comicbook/{{Justice}}'', abused this rule by incapacitating the current GL without killing him, so that his successor isn't "activated"). Sometimes the Lanterns recruit and sometimes a dying Lantern gets to play the TakeUpMySword trope straight as Abin Sur did with Hal Jordan.

* Anime/{{Kirby|Right Back At Ya}} anime: where one fight against a particularly powerful demon beast leaves Meta Knight in a coma that can only be cured if the demon dies. Naturally, Kirby grabs his sword and heads off to fight it.

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'': The entire 2nd half [[spoiler:takes place after Sigurd and most of the players army from part 1 die.]]
* VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening has [[spoiler: the kids who took up their parents's missions ''come from the future'' to fight with them in an attempt to make said Bad Future better.]]

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'': The big {{Reveal}} of the heavily [[MindScrew Mind Screwed]] series turns out to be that [[spoiler: the entire situation with ''Outer Haven'', ''Metal Gear'', ''Les Enfants Terrible'', ''the Patriots'', and ''FOXDIE'' is just the result of a small group of people fighting about how to best continue the work of ''The Boss''.]]

* In the ''Film/StarTrek'' movie,

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': After Qui-Gon is mortally wounded against Darth Maul in ''The Phantom Menace'', Obi-Wan is hinted to have continued to use his deceased Master's lightsaber for some time afterwards, having been shown using it to bisect Maul at the waist (his own had already been disposed of by Maul) just before Qui-Gon expires.

* From "Sharpe's Rifles" -
-->'''Captain Murray:''' "I want you to have my sword. Maybe if the men see you carry it--"
-->'''{{Sharpe}}''': "They'll think I'm a proper officer."
-->'''Captain Murray:''' "No, they'll think I liked you."

* As mentioned in the Film section, Sharpe receives his dying captains old cavalry troopers sword (bear in mind both are infantrymen and it is 35 inches long) in Sharpe's Rifles.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'': has a subversion. At the end of chapter 4, [[spoiler: Guybrush died and it looked like Elaine would be the hero of the final episode (she even gets a CrowningMomentOfAwesome in chapter 4's end cinematic, as if confirming this idea). A month later, chapter 5 came out and the focus was still on Guybrush.]]

* ''Literature/TheBible'': The Book of Joshua opens with God telling Joshua that his mentor, Moses, has died, and he must take over as leader of the Israelites.
* PlayedWith in a literal way in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. [[spoiler: When Harry goes off to let Voldemort kill him, he tells Neville Longbottom to make sure that Voldy's pet snake and SoulJar Nagini is killed. When everyone beholds Harry's (not quite) dead body, Neville pulls out the Sword of Gryffindor and decapitates Nagini, paving the way for Harry to come back and finish Voldy off.]]

** A villainous example is [[spoiler:Madara passing his identity and plan on to Obito]].

* At the end of ''Fanfic/GameTheoryFanFic'', [[spoiler:Yuuno gives his Device to Momoko, setting things up for the sequel.]]

** Both the Magna Defender and Kendrix had {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s, and their spirits came back to officially bestow their swords and powers on successors (Mike and Karone, respectively). Karone later comes BackFromTheDead, but the Defender doesn't.

* ''ComicBook/Astro City'' has this a few times.

** ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': The death of ultimate Spiderman led to new character Miles Morales becoming the new Friendly Neighborhood Webslinger. The first arc of the new Ultimate Spider-Man series gave a PerspectiveFlip in which it's revealed that Miles had his power long before Peter ever died. He was adamant not to become a Super hero but after learning of Peter's death however, Miles was overcome with guilt due to his own inaction, and decided to carrying on his legacy.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

** The ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' era has brought this about as well, with the pre-''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' Superman, post-Flashpoint Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, Comicbook/LexLuthor, Comicbook/LoisLane and [[spoiler:Comicbook/LanaLang]] taking up the New 52 Superman's mantle after he died. Nex 52 Superman specifically asked his cousin to take up his cape in ''Comicbook/SupermanSuperLeague'', and [[spoiler:Lois doesn't get through one issue before Lana's forced to take up ''her'' sword]] in ''Comicbook/{{Superwoman}}''.

* ''TheTwelve'' shows that The Human Flame was given his fire-powers by the previous holder who was on deaths door after being injured in a shootout. However, he feels enormously guilty over it because he held off calling an ambulance in the hopes of the man passing the powers to him rather than risk them being lost with his death. After becoming the Human Flame, he makes up a fake back story about getting the powers by being experimented on by a MadScientist. At the end of the story, the Flame is badly injured in the final battle against [[spoiler: Dynaman]] and passes the power to The Phantom Reporter.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''"