History Main / TakeUpMySword

* In DanAbnett's ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''The Brothers of the Snake'', several marines in Damocles die on different occasions. On the first, Priad is told that he must take up leadership and receives the claw which the leader of the squad always carries; on the second, the survivors seek new ones to take their place.

* Subverted in ''Tales of MonkeyIsland''. 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.]]

* In ''{{Highlander}}'', Ramirez finds and trains Connor Mcleod so that somebody would have a chance of defeating the Kurgan. When the Kurgan takes the aged immortal's head, Connor takes Ramirez's sword and uses it as his own from that point on, later using it to behead the Kurgan and fulfil his mentor's wish.

* In ''HeartcatchPrecure'', the dreams that Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki get show Cure Moonlight telling Chypre and Coffret to give her Heart Perfume to someone else to take over her duties before Cure Dark vanquishes her. Tsubomi's the one who gets her Heart Perfume, but Moonlight isn't dead. Just unable to transform.

* ''CaveStory'': [[spoiler:King's death scene.]]

* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', Domingo Montoya, before his death, gave his son his masterpiece of a sword. The son later spent the rest of his life training to avenge his father's death. [[YouKilledMyFather The rest, as they say, is Florinese history...]]

* In ''{{Animorphs}}'', an injured Elfangor gives the [[DesignatedHero kids]] the power to morph only minutes before [[CompleteMonster Visser 3]] ''eats'' him.

* A variation in ''TheLastStory'': [[spoiler:the sword that Quark wears on his belt is symbolic of his childhood oath with Elza for them to become knights and protect people. Later, Quark pulls a FaceHeelTurn and tries to kill the party. After his defeat, he passes on this sword to Elza, acknowledging that he lost faith in their dream and that Elza never did]].

Related to HerHeartWillGoOn, DeterminedWidow, TakingUpTheMantle, and WarriorWidow (still in YKTTW). In its darker forms, leads to FeudingFamilies, or may be a genesis to, or simply another stage in, the CycleOfRevenge.

If the hero remains alive but no longer is an active hero, for any reason, this is PassingTheTorch. Also see DecoyProtagonist.

* This is a mechanism built-in to the GreenLantern rings and it seems most Lanterns gain their ring immediately in the wake of their predecessor's death. Sometimes the Lanterns recruit and sometimes a dying Lantern gets to play the TakeUpMySword trope straight as Abin Sur did with Hal Jordan.

* Two of these in ''DeathNote''. [[HangingSeparately They don't get along.]]

* In ''{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba hands the Grimmerie off to Glinda before "melting."

-->'''John [=McCrae=]''', "In Flanders Field"

* In ''ThePrincessBride'', Domingo Montoya, before his death, gave his son his masterpiece of a sword. The son later spent the rest of his life training to avenge his father's death. [[YouKilledMyFather The rest, as they say, is Florinese history...]]

* Perhaps ''{{ER}}'' may count as well, even if it's not a superhero series: when Mark (protagonist of the first eight seasons) has his last day at the hospital, his last words before leaving are "you set the tone, Carter." After he dies, Dr. Carter "inherits" Mark's stetoscope.

Well, now what? Do we have a DownerEnding, and {{the bad guy wins}}? No, no, we need a replacement Hero. Someone who will take up TheHero's sword (and other weapons/[[MagicAndPowers superpowers]]) and go on to defeat the villain. This can be literal, invoking ItWasAGift, or metaphorical. When it's not only literal but the {{MacGuffin}}, see the subtrope [[{{ptitleb1tr71kq}} I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin]].

* Gary from ''EarlyEdition'' gives a little girl a Swiss Army knife with her initials, the same one Lucius Snow gave to him.

* The big {{Reveal}} of the heavily [[MindScrew Mind Screwed]] ''MetalGearSolid'' 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''.]] [[{{Understatement}} Things got really out of hand!]]