Armed Females, Unarmed Males

When female characters have to rely on weapons while their male counterparts do not.

The male character may be a Bare-Fisted Monk who prefers fighting unarmed by choice. In much more common cases, he may have powers that make weapons pointless for him such as Super-Strength, Ki Manipulation, Supernatural Martial Arts, magic, etc. This is likely based on the idea that men are on average physically stronger than women, although the male character doesn't need to be super strong for this trope to apply.

The female character, on the other hand, will likely be a Badass Normal to justify her needing a weapon while the male character doesn't. If she does have superpowers, they may be weaker or less useful in combat than the male. In other cases, she may simply use weapons to show how she is more extensively trained in fighting. If she is disarmed or her weapon is destroyed, she will often be at an opponent's mercy and require aid.

A variation of this trope may have a male character whose weapons are part of their bodies, i.e an an arm that transforms into a gun or retractable blades in the forearms.

Sister Trope to Guys Smash, Girls Shoot. For the guys, unarmed combat is a more specific version of the close-range melee focus of GSGS. For the girls, however, armed can include knives, swords, and other non ranged weapons, making it more adjacent. If the guy is a Glass Cannon who relies on long-ranged powers to fight while the woman is the tough close-range fighter, this could be done to deliberately invert expected gender roles.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• EDENS ZERO: The main leads Shiki Granbell and Rebecca Bluegarden qualify. Shiki fights using his control over gravity while Rebecca uses her Happy Blasters in battle, although she develops the ability to control time later on.
• Fairy Tail: The core team of Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Erza functions under this in early chapters. Natsu is a Bare-Fisted Monk who attacks with fire, and Gray has ice powers; meanwhile, Lucy uses magical keys to summon spirits and keeps a whip on hand, and Erza is a Magic Knight whose power revolves around summoning weapons and suits of armor from Hammerspace. This gets dropped with the team's inclusion of Wendy, a Combat Medic who uses wind in the same style as Natsu's fire.
• Jujutsu Kaisen: All four of the main heroes have some training in weapon use. However, Nobara, the sole female character among them, is the only one who specifically needs weapons to use her Cursed Techniques.
• My-HiME: ALL of the HiME have weapons at their disposal, in the form of their magically summoned Element (different in the case of each girl) and a CHILD (a mechanical/organic hybrid monster that obeys her commands). Those who have male love interests also have to contend with the fact that those men are largely unarmed, and a HiME's defeat equals the death of her loved one...and the rules also allow the murder of a HiME's most beloved person to strip a HiME of her powers. Several males in the series die without being able to do a thing about it.
• Naruto: Team Guy consists of Guy, Neji, Lee and Tenten. Tenten is the sole female and the team's weapons expert while the guys fight without weapons.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: The male and female leads qualify. The eponymous Negi is a mage who initially relies on weapons but discards them after receiving training in martial arts. Asuna is a Lightning Bruiser who fights with swords and Anti-Magic.
• One Piece: Before Nico Robin joined the crew, Nami and Vivi were the only female Straw Hats. Both Nami and Vivi used weapons while their male crewmates, with the exception of Zoro and Usopp, fought unarmed. After Vivi left the crew to remain in her home country, Nico joined the Straw Hats as the sole female Devil Fruit user.
• One-Punch Man: The male members of the Monster Association either fight unarmed or use weapons that are part of their bodies. On the other hand, all but one of the Association's female members use weapons:
  • Do-S fights with a whip which she uses to enslave people to her will.
  • Maiko Plasma has a Thunder Drum attached to her back which can fire electricity when she strikes it with a drumstick.
  • Eyesight wields a Serpent Staff. However, unlike Plasma and Do-S, she is capable of fighting without her weapon and doesn't need it to channel her special abilities.
  • The sisters Reptera and Raptora use knives and a machete, respectively. They can also produce poison.
  • Lord Psykos, the true controller of Gyoro Gyoro, is a powerful esper and doesn't need weapons in battle unlike the other female members.

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • Freedom Fighters:
    • The fourth incarnation of the team served as an auxiliary of the Justice Society of America. Phantom Lady (Delilah Tyler) was the The Team Normal and relied on weapons and gadgets, while her male teammates all had superpowers.
    • The post-Infinite Crisis version of the Freedom Fighters had three female members — Phantom Lady, Red Bee and Miss America. Of those three only Miss America had powers. Phantom Lady wore Super Wrist Gadgets, and Red Bee wore Powered Armor and used two robotic bees for battle.
  • Justice League: The main Flying Bricks are Superman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. The former two have a vast array of powers and don't use weapons. Wonder Woman, while still similarly powerful, has a relatively limited powerset and makes use of weapons in battle, namely her atom-shaving sword and magic lasso. Diana is also a hero based on Greek mythology which often had heroes who used enchanted weapons and items, even when they did have natural powers of their own.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Cloak and Dagger: Dagger, the female of the pairing, is able to create "daggers" of light that can achieve a variety of effects, from outright killing truly wicked people due to the shock to their system, to purging drugs and addiction from those merely led astray. Cloak, the male of the team, is a Living Shadow whose body is a portal to another realm, one that will freeze the soul of anyone unfortunate enough to enter without the protection of Dagger's light.
  • Heroes for Hire: The 2006 lineup is a Gender-Equal Ensemble of four men and four women.
    • The women are Misty Knight, a cyborg who uses guns; Colleen Wing, a Master Swordswoman; the Black Cat, who uses a Grappling-Hook Pistol and claw-tipped gloves; and Tarantula, who uses bladed gloves and boots.
    • On the men's side, we have Shang Chi whose martial arts skills allow him to defeat superhuman enemies; Humbug, who can control insects; the superstrong Atlantean Orka; and Paladin, who is the only one of the guys who uses weapons.
  • Shang-Chi: Shang Chi usually fights unarmed and is capable of even besting superhuman foes without the use of weapons. His love interest Leiko Wu is more within the ballpark of what a normal human is capable of and uses guns in addition to hand-to-hand combat.
  • X-Men: The Rasputin siblings Piotr, Illyana, and Mikhail qualify. Piotr has a metallic form that grants him super strength and Mikhail can manipulate matter and energy. While Illyana has her own mutant and magical abilities, she also wields a sword created from her own life energy.
• Lady Death (Coffin Comics): Lady Death's two children are Gunnar and Chaotica. Gunnar is male and possesses the power of Teleportation and Hellfire while Chaotica is a female Magic Knight who uses a weapon resembling a kusarigama.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
  • Like in the games (see below in the video games section), Amy fights with a hammer, while Sonic, Shadow, and Silver have powers that don't require them to use weapons.
  • Among Team Dark, Shadow has his chaos powers and doesn't use weapons, Omega is a robot and all his weapons are a part of his body, and Rouge uses grenades as well as kicks.
  • Issue #8 has Sonic teaming up with Silver the Hedgehog and Whisper the Wolf. Sonic and Silver are both male and possess Super-Speed and Telekinesis, respectively. Whisper is female and uses a Wisp-powered rifle.

Films — Animation

• Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge: Kitana and Sonya both use weapons and are the only female kombatants in the movie. With the exception of Scorpion and Kano, all of the men fight unarmed.

Films — Live-Action

• Big Trouble in Little China: Wang Chi and Eddie try to get the drop on Lo Pan's female guards but lose their guns in the process, forcing them to fight barehanded against the guards' bo staffs and tonfa.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: When Scott sees Hope as the Wasp for the first time, he's surprised to see her suit comes with gauntlets that fire energy blasts. Hank could've added them to Scott's suit, but chose not to.
  • Eternals: Gilgamesh and Thena are close friends who often fight together. Gilgamesh has super strength and mostly punches his enemies, while Thena conjures energy weapons such as swords and spears.
• Star Trek Into Darkness: In the film's climax, Spock and Uhura engage Khan in battle. Uhura is armed with a phaser while Spock takes Khan in melee combat due to being the only one who can physically contend with the Transhuman villain.
• Underworld (2003): Selene and Michael are the primary Battle Couple of the films. Selene uses guns in addition to martial arts while Michael is an Unskilled, but Strong vampire-werewolf hybrid who fights unarmed.
• The Wolverine: Logan mostly fights using his Super-Strength and claws, using a sword only a few times. While Yukio is a Mutant in this continuity, she mainly relies on a sword since her ability to see other people's deaths doesn't have any use in battle.

Live-Action TV

• Ace Lightning: This applies to the Lightning Knights who are Two Guys and a Girl. Random Virus's only weapons are his Power Pincers, Super-Strength and limited Technopathy, while Ace very rarely uses his lance and shield, relying mainly on his strength, speed, flight and lightning bolts. Sparx, on the other hand, relies entirely on her sword in battle.
• Castle: NYPD Detective Kate Beckett is armed with a gun, the law, and her experiences as an experienced police officer. Richard Castle, a novelist, is armed with a considerable knowledge of criminal behavior due to his research for his books, a quick wit, and a sly sense of humor. And together they catch killers. Usually played very straight, such as in one episode where Castle encounters a hired gun trying to snipe Beckett, and proceeds to beat the guy unconscious with his bare hands. Zig-zagged, as in a few episodes, notably "Boom" and "A Deadly Affair" where Castle does get his hands on a gun...and shows that he's well-versed in them, as well.
• Doctor Who: The Doctor generally avoids guns or any weapons (unless you count their Sonic Screwdriver) across incarnations, using their wits to solve conflicts. ^note They have a particularly strong stance against guns in the revival series, due to the character going through a war offscreen. In some instances, their female companions take up arms instead:
  • In "The Pyramid of Mars", Sarah Jane Smith uses a hunting rifle to detonate Gelignite and destroy the missile from a safe distance.
  • In "The Impossible Astronaut", Amy Pond takes an FBI agent's handgun in order to protect the Doctor from the astronaut she saw kill him earlier in the episode.
  • River Song was particularly adept with guns, and the Doctor oddly didn't hold it against her.
    Doctor: Oh, and this is my friend, River. Nice hair. Clever. Has her own gun. And unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kinda do, a bit.
  • In a villainous example, Missy, in contrast to the Doctor, is often seen wielding a device capable of vaporizing individuals, until she makes a sonic umbrella in "The Doctor Falls".
• Iron Fist (2017): Danny Rand uses Ki Manipulation and hand-to-hand combat in battle. His female ally Colleen Wing uses a sword, although she is no slouch when it comes to fighting unarmed herself.
• The Librarians 2014: Flynn is The Librarian, and his latest Guardian is Colonel Eve Baird. Flynn uses books and knowledge to win the day while Baird prefers a pistol and her military training. This gets zig-zagged as the series progresses with Baird using her weapons less and allowing the Librarians-In-Training do their thing with reasonable supervision.

Video Games

• Bendy and the Dark Revival: Inverted. Henry Stein must rely on weapons such as axes, pipes, and even a scythe to defend himself from the monstrous denizens of the Sketch Dimension. Meanwhile, Audrey has the ability to instantly kill any ink creature with one touch of her glowing hands, making weapons irrelevant.
• Fatal Fury: Terry's main group consists of himself, his brother Andy, their friend Joe and Andy's "fiancée" Mai. While the guys all fight unarmed, Mai uses a Combat Hand Fan in battle.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • This applied to male and female ninjas in the first three games. All three female ninjas (Kitana, Mileena, and Jade) used weapons within their movesets. With the exception of Scorpion and Smoke's human incarnation in Mortal Kombat II, the male ninjas fought unarmed.
  • Baraka and Mileena are the sole playable Tarkatan characters in the games. Baraka has blades that extend from his arms like the rest of his race, while Mileena lacks arm blades presumably due to being half-Tarkatan and fights with a pair of sai.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy Rose is the only female hedgehog in the games and the only one who regularly uses a weapon, namely her Piko Piko hammer. The male hedgehogs Sonic, Shadow and Silver don't use weapons, save for a few games.
• Street Fighter V: The two playable members of Neo Shadaloo are Ed (male) and Falke (female). Ed is a Boxing Battler while Falke fights using a staff.
• Street Fighter X Tekken: Poison and Hugo are tag team partners in this game. Hugo is a large mountain of a man who fights unarmed as a wrestler, while Poison uses a form of self-taught martial arts which incorporates use of her riding crop.

Western Animation

• The Dragon Prince: Callum is a male mage who eventually learns to cast spells bare-handed, while Rayla is a girl who fights with dual swords. Averted in season four, when Callum is given a weapon in the form of a staff.
• Justice League: The original team consists of five men and two women. Both of the women used weapons in tandem with their powers while only two out of the five men relied on weapons.
• Sonic Boom: Team Sonic consists of three guys (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) and two girls (Amy and Sticks). Amy uses her signature hammer, while Sticks uses a variety of weapons including a staff, a club and a boomerang. Among the boys, only Tails uses weapons.
• Teen Titans (2003): The Titans East consist of Bumblebee, Aqualad, Speedy, and the twins Más y Menos. Bumblebee is the only girl among them and uses a pair of electric dart guns called "stingers". Among the boys, only Speedy uses a weapon.
• Xcalibur: The main heroes are two women, Djana and Tara, a male monk named Herik, and a male dragon named Wip. Djana and Tara use swords. Herik is a Kung-Fu Wizard specializing in elemental magic while Wip fights by breathing fire.

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