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alt title(s): Big Fancy Sword
And if that's not enough, Squall gets a gun-sword.
"Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough... that thing is too big to be called a sword... it was more like a large hunk of iron." — Berserk, when Guts unsheathes the Dragon Slayer for the first time in the manga
Big Fuckin' Sword. A common trope to both video games and anime, a BFS is an unrealistically large sword most often owned by The Hero, The Chosen One, or whatever type the lead happens to be. The BFS is often nearly as long as its owner is tall, and may or may not have other special abilities besides being humongous. If a BFS does possess other strange qualities, one of them almost assuredly prevents it from being used by other people, whether that be weight, a magical barrier, a direct link to its owner, or other means.
Usually, no other character in a game or series is the possessor of a sword that is anywhere close to as huge as the BFS. Sometimes, even when unusual swords and weapons are an everyday occurrence, characters are still surprised by the size of the lead's BFS, as it is a physical manifestation of its owner's potential power.
The Rival or a villain will sometimes own a BFS, representing a significant hurdle and challenge for the protagonist to overcome. It is rarer for a secondary character, such as The Lancer or The Big Guy, to own a BFS, but if the lead character does not possess one, one of the others in the Five Man Band likely will.
One dubiously historical example of a BFS is the zanbato, an anti-cavalry sword big enough to kill a rider and his horse in one shot (bringing new meaning to a certain phrase that ends, "... and the horse you rode in on!"). Such may have been made more as a test of swordsmithing than for actual combat. The zanbato itself is based on a shorter Chinese sword, the zhanmadao, roughly the length of a Scottish claymore, also designed to cut through rider and horse at the same time. Likewise, the Germans employed a type of sword called the Zweihänder (literally, "two-hander"), which could be up to seven feet in length, and were said to allow the wielder to decapitate multiple foes with a single blow, though this only become possible once steel was availible to make large but light weapons, and even then, might have been an exageration on the part of boastful warriors.
This trope includes any type of improbably large ("anime-sized") melee weapon. After the aforementioned big-ass sword, gigantic lances tend to be the most common. However, humongous hammers and titanic axes also appear from time to time, most commonly in the hands of The Big Guy (or, just for the absurdity of it all, a little girl).
The name is a play off of BFG.
Compare Dual Wielding. See also Not Compensating For Anything. May involve Hammerspace physics for storage.
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Examples
Anime and Manga
- Ichigo from Bleach is a recent and well-known BFS wielder; however, the sheer size of his zanpakuto is a sign that he has great spirit power, but lacks control of it; it can be easily broken by stronger shinigami with better spirit control. He eventually gets over this problem and upgrades his sword into its Shikai form, which, while rather large, is not as huge as his original sword. Zanpakuto have another upgraded form, Bankai; for most shinigami, this changes their sword into an extremely large and powerful weapon, but in a further subversion, Ichigo's Bankai is the size of a normal sword and simply increases his speed.
- His bankai is a daito, which is still longer than most swords, although actually used.
- Well, as a series stuffed with magical swords, Bleach has some unusual BFSes. Ichimaru has a sword which, while normally wide, can grow to over 100 feet long (used to snipe enemies), and Komamura has a BFS with a BFS (the second S is for samurai).
- Not to mention Ikkaku's bankai which turns his three section staff into two BFS with a giant ax blade connecting them.
- Kazuki from Busou Renkin has an alternate weapon type — a BFL (Big Fraggin' Lance).
- Guts and his Dragon Slayer from Berserk are a classic example, although it's justified in that he has to go through vigorous training in order to wield it. Also, the giant swords he wields are relatively realistic in terms of being metallurgically problematic, with the Dragon Slayer stated to be forged from solid iron rather than carbon steel, and the art goes to great lengths to portray the weapon realistically with a lot of momentum and almost no real cutting edge. Many other characters of note have large versions of non-sword weapons as well, such as an atlatl-style spear thrower that generates cannon-like force or, in a semi-subversion, an Indian-style flexible sword that is of normal length but far more blades than normal. Ironically, despite a painstaking attempt at verisimilitude for the weapon's effects, Berserk's creator, Kentaro Miura, has admitted in interviews that he only hit upon the idea of the huge sword as a gimmick to attract readers.
- This extends to the video game of the series, as it's nigh-impossible to swing the Dragon Slayer in tight corridors without it bouncing off the wall to little effect.
- Tetsusaiga, the fang Inu Yasha carries, is a BFS that shrinks down so he can carry it normally. Another BFS wielder in this series is Bankotsu, leader of the Shichinintai. In a possible subversion, Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's brother and chief rival, has carried several swords of relatively normal size. One broke (it was really evil), and the other one was later absorbed into Inu Yasha's sword because apparently it was their father's plan for Sesshomaru to power it up, since it was actually an unwanted part of Tessaiga (he was not pleased to hear that). Sess eventually gets his very own sword, which is still relatively normal-sized.
- Sango uses a Big Effin' Boomerang called Hiraikotsu, with the same effect as a BFS.
- Jakotsu of the Shichinentai uses a Long Effin' Sword that's actually about twelve blades attached together. Notably, it's the only weapon in the series that isn't magical or gets a magical power-up.
- Mikoto from Mai-HiME fits the main trope when she becomes a Dark Magical Girl later in the series.
- This troper thinks it's averted in this case since as huge as her sword is and as skinny as she is she usually drags the sword along the ground and has to build up momentum before she can actually swing it.
- Arika from Mai-Otome is the proud wielder of both a BFL
 ◊ and a BFS◊.
- Zabuza, the first major villain that Team 7 faces in Naruto, has a rather nasty BFS. A later villain named Kisame has another BFS which, yes, only he can use.
- Not to mention both belonged to a group called "the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist", so presumably there's 5 more like them...
- Expanding on Zabuza, Kishimoto said Zabuza's early character designs had his sword about the size of a skycraper, or at least a small building.
- There was a third mist swordsman in the show, Raiga, if I remember correctly. He didn't have a huge sword, instead he had dual pronged short swords that could call lightning with, then channel it into an attack. Considering that was in filler, however, it probably isn't canon.
- Also, Gamabunta's tanto was used by Tsunade as an insanely giant sword. Though, it is somewhat logical for a frog of Gamabunta's size to have such a knife.
- Temari of the Sand wields a giant war fan in Naruto; when folded, it is "only" as tall as she is (making it about five feet tall).
- Hidan also has a BFS, though in this case the S stands for "scythe" rather than "sword."
- Sagara Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin starts out with a BFS (a zanbato, in fact) and a rotten attitude. Soon after Kenshin destroys the sword, Sano becomes The Lancer.
- This may even count as a bit of a subversion, as during the fight kenshin points out how impractical a BFS really is, and proceeds to easily outmaneuver the sword, which is bound by the laws of physics (especially momentum) to be a clumsy weapon.
- Not to mention that, being longer than its owner, the sword can only be swung in sideways or overhead strikes, making its movements easy to predict.
- That doesn't stop Sano from breaking it out one more time in the Jinchuu arc and showing it can be used for other things... like playing baseball with cannon shells.
- The Empathic Weapon belonging to Fuu of Magic Knight Rayearth. It's bigger than she is (most pictures of her with it cuts off) and literally weighs a ton in anyone else's hands — only her wind magic allows her to carry it.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Asuna's Paper Fan Of Doom can upgrade into a BFS. How this works depends on whether it's in the manga or the Alternate Continuity anime series Negima?! In any case, the fan is mainly for comedy (or sparring), while the sword is the business version.
- Meanwhile, Jack Rakan, a comrade of Negi's father, is known as "Rakan of the Thousand Swords"... Apparently, it seems, including one the size of a skyscraper [1].
- Asuna's classmate Kaede is a semi-closeted Ninja whose signature weapon is a four-pointed Big Fuuma Shuriken
lit. Wind Demon Shuriken * which is considerably wider from tip to tip than she is tall.
- Don't forget about Setsuna. That nodachi of hers is taller than she is (necessary for the demon-slaying work of her sword school).
- But in weapon-to-wielder ratio, nothing beats the sword that Evangeline's puppet Chachazero uses, mostly in Negima?!. Not an unrealistically large sword, but not one that would be easy to wield one-handed. Chachazero does it just fine, though... and she's less than a foot tall, making the sword seem absolutely gigantic.
- The Heavy Blade class in the .hack// series all wield these as a rule. For some reason, another rule for this class is skimpy armour for females, but that's another story entirely.
- (Most of) The male Heavy Blades also use skimpy armor, but you don't get many of those on your team.
- After breaking four ordinary swords in a fight, Karura from Utawarerumono upgrades to a BFS that only she is able to lift; however, because she demanded it be unbendable, unbreakable, and never need sharpening, the edge is not as sharp as a regular sword, so people she hits with it tend to... splatter. She tests it out by splitting a giant boulder.
- The Ten Commandments sword, used by Haru Glory in Rave Master, is nearly as large as its wielder. Luckily, this only applies to its base form, Eisonmeteor; its other 9 forms are much more reasonably sized, with the exception of Gravity Core, which is even larger.
- All BFS wielders in the series (and probably all BFS wielders in history) bow before the might of Uta the Eternal, who wields a sword 100 feet long and over 10 feet wide, even though he's only human sized (at least initially. It's seriously insane.
- Aya and Maya from Tenjou Tenge share a long, long katana that could not be wielded by either of them, y'know, in the real world.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has Fate Testarossa and her intelligent device, Bardiche. Not only does its Zamber Form start out larger than she is, but it can grow to such immense length that Fate could cleave through Humongous Mecha at a distance.
- D's Masamune from the two Vampire Hunter D movies definitely fits this trope — if it wasn't for the curve of the blade, it would drag the ground whenever he wields it. As it is, it's a miracle he can unsheath it, let alone wield it with the superhuman speed he does. Well, he is a dhampir, I guess...
- Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has one of these. The series even subtly lampshades it when he first fights Viral: by the time you think he's finished drawing the sword from its scabbard, he still has that much further to go.
- Claymore: Look at the title!
- After using the Goldion Hammer (not a BFS, so much as a Big Friggen Hammer) during the original series run, GaoGaiGar gets to use the Goldion Crusher — a hammer of light made out of battleships — during the OVA.
- And yet, when the main villain of the OVA Pulls out a regal-looking mech-sized blade, GaoGaiGar counters with a green crystal version of Gai's "Will Knife", just scaled up to Gao Gai Gar size.
- In Shakugan No Shana, Sorath has one he calls Blutsauger. Both Tanaka and Satou later make several attempts to lift it, but neither of them succeeds to get it off of the ground completely. In Season 2, Yuji takes a level in badass and wields it with ease, at one point throwing it one-handed as a finishing move.
- The Kaiser Blades from the Mazinger Z OVA series Mazinkaiser. The movie sequel has two smaller blades that are deployed from the shoulders, but the original/Final Kaiser Blade was pulled out of Kaiser's chest, was three times the length of Kaiser, and able to cut through damn near anything.
- Silent Mobius features the magical shape-shifting sword Grospoliner, a sentient weapon of ridiculous size in its sword form. However, Katsumi rarely (or never) uses the blade of the sword to cut enemies, instead mainly using the weapon as a magic-focusing tool.
- The Galahad Knightmare Frame from Code Geass, personal ride of Knight of One Bismarck Waldstein, possesses a sword so huge that the sheath needs its own propulsion system. Bismarck himself also wields a human-scaled replica, which is still pretty over-sized.
- Of course Gundam also has its very own example, the Shining Finger Sword in G Gundam. (It's wielded by a Humongous Mecha but it's fragging big anyway.) Gundam Wing's Gundam Epyon has a similarly large beam sword (powered by a cable hooked up to a nuclear reactor), which on one occasion was used to slice a large space station in half.
- Gundam SEED introduced anti-ship swords, which are basically sword-shaped cheese slicers with energy blades, using the extra weight for impact. Beyond this, the spinoff manga Gundam SEED Astray has two more examples: Blue Frame's Tactical Arms, and Red Frame's Gerbera Straight II, a hundred-and-fifty-meter katana that requires special equipment just to use it.
- The title mecha of Gundam 00 normally wields a pair of average-sized swords, but can get into BFS range when the built-in beam sabers are activated. And then when combined with the 0 Raiser support fighter to form the 00 Raiser, in Trans-Am mode it can form two gaint beam swords that rival even the Shining Finger Sword in size.
- The spinoff Gundam 00V supplemental material includes the 00 Gundam Seven Sword variant, with one of the seven swords being a physical blade (the GN Buster Sword II) that's taller than the mecha itself and weighs about 10 tons.
- Episode 17 of the second season of Gundam 00 contained one of the largest examples of this trope in Fiction. 00 Raiser in Trans-Am mode was able to create a truly MASSIVE Beam Sabre capable of reaching up to orbit to slice in half the Momento Mori while the 00 Raiser is at the edge of the Atmosphere. According to the background material the Momento Mori is on an orbital ring 10,000 Kilometers above the Earth's surface.
- Gundam SEED Astray goes for broke with the Astray Blue Frame's Tactical Arms flight pack can form it's wings into a giant sword (with a Gatling gun built in for good measure), while our hero, Lowe Guele, arms his Red Frame with a Mobile Suit-sized Katana, and eventually forges a 150-meter-long version of it that he first has to build a Power Loader for his Red Frame (that's right, a Humongous Mecha riding a Humongous Mecha) so he can use it. One of the first things he does with it is cut a wrecked space colony in half. In another battle, he throws the swords and impales a battleship with it. Note that Lowe is normally a Technical Pacifist, but the captain of said ship really pissed him off. He later upgrades Red Frame with oversized arms with built-in batteries to wield the giant katana without the Power Loader (as the Loader was destroyed in battle), though this doesn't last long either since it's a running theme that Red Frame upgrades are always temporary.
- From the main Gundam SEED series itself, there are ship-killing swords the length of the Humongous Mecha that use them. Portrayed fairly realistically — as far as "realistic" can be said when Humongous Mecha are around — as being unwieldy, slow and rather easily dodgeable. Given that they were designed for use against large spaceships, this shouldn't be much of a problem... except that there's only three occasions (twice in the main series and once an Astray OVA) where the anti-ship swords are used against actual ships.
- Gundam F91 spinoff manga Crossbone Gundam has the Crossbone Gundam X-3, whose signature "Muramasa Blaster" is a fairly large sword to begin with but gets much bigger when the fourteen beam sabers built into it are activated. (It also has a beam rifle built in.)
- Ideon from Space Runaway Ideon. One of its weapon, the Ideon Sword, a beam of pure light emitted from each of Ideon's hands. While the beam's destructive power is immense (even cleaving an entire planet in half at one point), its most peculiar quality is its length. While adjustable, the maximum length of the sword is depicted as being quite possibly infinite.
- Balgus from Vision of Escaflowne gets one in the second episode, when facing off against the Zaibach cloaked Melefs. Considering these things managed to incapacitate with ease several other melefs (for reference, melef=15 foot tall mecha), the fact that Balgus proved harder to kill when on foot and armed only with his 8-foot long sword even more awesome.
- The Di-Swords from Chaos;Head are giant swords wielded by the six main girls of the show. In addition to being very large, they also glow, feed off emotions, and are invisible to everyone except Takumi.
- Eat-Man has a few of these, though The Boer Sword deserves a special mention. Despite the fact that it's only ever used in one hand the thing's easily twice the size of anyone who uses it, dangles a mass of apparently self-motivating cables, and commands the allegiance of an army of monsters.
- At one point, couple of mooks in Hokuto No Ken team up swing a giant sword. Of course, being Hokuto No Ken mooks, the mookiest mooks in mookdom, they die bloodily a panel later.
- Allen Walker and the Earl of the Millenium from D Gray Man have matching (yin-yang) swords that resemble cricket bats.
- Kuroki, one of the operatives in Blazer Drive wields a sword that looks suspicously like Allan's.
- Satan in 666 Satan/O-Parts Hunter eventually carries a Big Effin' Boomerang/Ninja Star whose size and amount of damage it can inflict is proportional to the fear and hate a person has. Thus to a fearful mook the thing fills the entire sky while to a pure-hearted angel it's a useless ring of metal (unfortunately the angel works for the bad guys).
- The Medicine Seller from Mononoke has a sword that gets pretty huge under the right circumstances.
- One of the combatants in the tournament arc of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order wields a "sword" that's big enough to need its own propulsion system and features its own energy weapon, making this a Big Fuckin' Gunsword. The combatant himself also counts — his legs have been replaced with blades and he attacks by launching himself like a shruiken. It's justified when he mentions his preferred opponents are warships.
- Father Remington from Chrono Crusade carries a crucifix-laser-broadsword that is taller than him. he gets over maneuverability issues by simply letting the sword tip slice through the ground during a sword swing.
- Some of the Humongous Mecha/Samurai in Samurai 7 use swords so large that they are actually independently pilotable vehicles. In the last few episodes the titular heroes use one as transportation. And Kikuchiyo actually wields one during his Heroic Sacrifice scene.
- Shidou "Sid" Misako from Hayate X Blade has a sword that is notably bigger than most of the other girls'.
- For a show with a shitload of characters, many of them swordsmen, One Piece is surprisingly lacking in the BFS department. There's "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk, who has a long black sword with a huge handle that he wears strapped across his back like a cross.
- The Shining Trapezohedron of Demonbane looks unweildy but it has the ability to cut through dimensions and seal away powerful gods.
Card Games
- Steve Jackson's card game Munchkins (illustrated by John Kovalic) features characters wielding weapons (including swords) of improbably size.
- Especially noteworthy is the Three-Handed Sword, which is Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
- Also the Big Honking Sword of Character Whupping. No, you can't take it for yourself, nice try.
- Also, the Sledgehammer of Smackdown, with a head significantly larger than the person holding it.
Comics
- In Marvel's Thor, the concept is taken to its logical extreme with the Odinsword◊, which is many times the size of anybody, human or Asgardian. Thor has successfully thrown it, but he could never wield it... not least because drawing it from its sheath causes the end of the universe.
- Shinryuken in Gold Digger whose Colossal Blade, Size-mitar, is one big reference to Sanger Zonvolt, listed above.
- Korvus' Phoenix Blade from X-Men.
- The Hackmaster +12 from Knights Of The Dinner Table.
Films
- The Kurgan in the original Highlander film has one of these. It's implied as so large that you have to assemble it (without nuts or bolts) before using it.
- "Implied?" You see how long it is. And while it is big, it's about the size of a regular claymore, and the reason he assembles it is because its full size is just a bit more conspicuous than the more easily concealed katana McLeod uses.
- "Easily Concealed? A sword that's approximately one meter in length and somehow manages to stay entirely unseen beneath Macleod's jacket which only goes to his hips?
- William Wallace (also see Real Life examples below) wields one of these in Braveheart, and does the usual things of chopping horses' legs off and then the heads of their riders with it.
- The titular sword in The Sword and the Sorcerer wasn't just big lengthwise, but sported THREE ginormous parallel blades, and these two side blades could be shot as MISSILES, so it was both a BFS and a BFG combined!
Literature
- Literary example, and a western one at that: Belgarion, the main character of David Eddings' The Belgariad, inherits a BFS halfway through the story. A basic gigantic greatsword forged from meteoric iron, it's got a Mac Guffin (the Orb of Aldur) attached to the hilt, effectively turning it into an Empathic Weapon that will kill (almost) anyone else that touches it (putting it into the "only he can use it" category). Among other things, the Orb reduces the weight of the sword to enable Belgarion to easily wield it; in an amusing scene early in the sequel series, The Malloreon, Belgarion removes the Orb from the hilt with the sword still strapped across his back — and promptly gets crushed under the immense weight of the weapon. He barely manages to struggle out from underneath it, and throughout the rest of the series, he takes the sword off before removing the Orb.
- Fredric in The Castle of Otranto comes into possession of a sword so large a hundred men grow close to fainting under its immense weight.
- One of the oldest examples in Fantasy literature (popular in the 1970s and 1980s, although Stealer of Souls was published in 1961): bad-ass Anti Hero Elric of Melniboné and his evil sentient soulsucking black rune-sword Stormbringer. Alhough Stormbringer was not as ridiculously big as many anime swords, it was still on the large side, and could only be touched safely by Elric... or occasionally by his side-kick. Elric himself, being of a sickly constitution, could only lift the sword when he was filled by the blade's stolen soul energies; powered-up he could swing it with ease for hours, slaughtering whole armies, but without the stolen strength, he would collapse and be unable to even lift the heavy blade, let alone fight with it.
- One the Oldest Ones In The Book: Former adversary and later vassal of King Arthur, Osla Big Knife, carried Bronllavyn Short Broad, a sword whose dimensions are never completely specified. However, it is stated that it was large enough to be used as a bridge and that Osla himself died when the sword fell out of its sheath, allowing the sheath to fill up with so much water that he was dragged under and drowned. Osla appears twice in the Welsh Mabinogion, with the earliest text he appears in dating back to 1160 or thereabouts. Even without pinning down the date, this easily qualifies as one of the oldest ones in the book, and, interestingly, constitutes one its few non-Asian and non-Asian-influenced appearances.
- Robert Baratheon in A Song Of Ice And Fire, a big eating, boisterously bruising big guy deconstruction owns a massive warhammer that his friend Ned claims many men would have hard time even lifting. Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides", inverts this trope. Being a huge man, dwarfs his standard greatsword and wields it in one hand, like a longsword.
- Beowulf wielded a giant sword when he fought Grendel's mom. Justified in that it was in fact made by giants.
- Oversized weapons were common in epics of all ancient cultures. Two of the main heroes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, were said to wield polearms that were over 40 lbs in weight and over 10 feet in length, respectively.
- Of course, that really isn't that big for a polearm. Pikes were commonly 18 feet long, and they were used by normal soldiers.
- Dragaera's Aliera e'Kieron wields her ancestor Kieron's greatsword for several books. It's literally taller than she is. But then, she's an elf by any other name, and her mother is a goddess, so at least there's a reason she can lift it.
- In Journey To The West, Sun Wukong takes an impressively large BFS from an enemy and ends up demanding a better weapon from a dragon. He inspects and rejects a series of larger and larger weapons until he notices Ruyi Jingu Bang, an 8-tons pillar originally used as a measuring stick to test the water's depth during the worst flood of Chinese history. Of course, it changes size at will, so it's only as ridiculously large as the Monkey King wants it to be. Due to its weight, the novel describes it as gibbing some of the people it hits.
- Discworld seems surprisingly lacking in these, but the Klatchian enforcer 71-Hours Ahmed in Jingo has a very large scimitar.
- Quoth Vimes: "He's practically a concealed owner!"
- Dragonlance: The character Kaz wields a BF Axe in Kaz, The Minotaur. It's said in the text that it was forged by a Dwarf for a human knight and that it took two hands to wield the massive weapon (I remember it being implied that it was never wielded very well) but Kaz wields it easily with one hand performing manoeuvres which should have removed his arm from his shoulder with ease. Granted, the axe was mildly enchanted (its mirror finish would only show the reflection of people with honor) but it didn't alter the weight in any way. It's not quite as huge as many of the blades mentioned here but it's always stuck with me.
- In Keys to the Kingdom, Sir Thursday wielded a massive, dual-handed longsword with one hand. Justified in that he's a nearly immortal, demi-god-like being. This is later subverted when the blade transforms into a slender rapier for Arthur. Don't think that made it any less badass: the blade's signature power was that it killed any living creature with even the slightest touch.
- In Nick Perumov's Guardian of Swords cycle, Dark Magical Girl Sylvial gets to wield a Flammberg (see below) which, however, has a magic that (in Sylvia's (and other "rightful" hands) gives it a properties of a Laser Blade, including near-zero wielding weight (but not for the ones hit).
- In Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, torturer Severian is given a huge and ancient executioner's sword by his guild-master when he is exiled, named Terminus Est. The quillons are terminated by male and female heads, designating one edge for executing men and the other for women; the sword is blunt-tipped and only a cutting weapon, and sharp enough for Severian to shave with it. A channel down the blade is hollow, and contains mercury; it runs toward the hilt when the sword is held up, and flows toward the tip when swung, increasing the force of the blow.
- Eragon, in the first edition, had a six-foot-long sword. It was retconned to three in its later edition.
- The Star Wars Expanded Universe features lightsabers designed to be inordinately long. They disappeared more or less immediately when it was considered swinging one inside a ship would cause explosive decompression.
- In Sienkiewicz's Trilogy Longinus's hereditary sword made a Running Gag: most people he acquaints starts with asking him why he carries an "executioner's sword" and then are shocked when he shows he can fence with it. Their family legend — backed up by coat of arms — says one of his forebears beheaded 3 enemies with one swing and Longinus woved to repeat this feat. Also, see below (claymore).
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
- One of the big feature of Exalted are BFS called Daiklaves. Weapons can be made from one of the five magical metals of the setting (Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Jade and Soulsteel) and then attuned to by the right sort of person. In general the weapon is called an artifact. When the weapon is a sword, it's called a Daiklave.
- Then there are Grand Daiklaves, which are BFS versions of regular Daiklaves. Yes, BFS versions of a BFS.
- And the Chainklave, which fuses BFS with Chainsaw Good For Massive Awesome.
- Don't get me started on the Warstrider versions.
- Some Priests and the Sisters Repentia (sic) in the Witch Hunters Codex in Warhammer 40000 carry Eviscerators, which are chainsaw-bladed BFSes. They are said to be able to cut through tank plating.
- Justified in the case of the Eldar Avatar, because the thing holding the Big Freakin' Sword is a Big Freakin' God Incarnate Who's Really Really Pissed Off.
- The Wraithlord powered pay an Eldar Soul can get a Wraithsword that also has a Eldar soul in it. When you really need to slice a tank in two
- There are a lot of weapons in Warhammer fantasy that fit into this trope as well. The Empire, for example, have an infantry unit called Greatswords.
- Some fans believe that Japanese adoration of big swords stems from Japanese fantasy fans seeing western D&D miniatures. The miniatures had out-of-scale swords, which weren't a specific statement so much as a way to make the swords easier to see on the models as well as easier to paint. Reportedly, this was interpreted to mean that such a weapon was standard in western-style fantasies.
- On the other hand, edition after edition of Dungeons & Dragons featured the Hammer of Thunderbolts, a warhammer so large that you needed two separate magic items to even have the strength to wield it. Once you did have said items and knew the hammer was the said Hammer of Thunderbolts, much asskicking against giants followed.
- The hammer was based on the myths of Thor's hammer, Mjollnir, which was so heavy (even though its handle was too short) that he needed both magic gloves and magic belt to increase his strength enough to wield it. (The Giants were the enemies of the Aesir in Norse mythology.)
- Later editions added the fullblade, a BFS which was larger and more powerful than the regular greatsword, but required an exotic/superior weapon feat to use. Similar big fragging weapons were also included in other categories, such as the Mordenkrad/Greathammer, a gigantic hammer favored by a race called goliaths.
- Goliaths, half-giants and users of the Monkey Grip feat can wield weapons made for creatures a size category larger than they are. This might lead to a character wielding a nine-foot bastard sword, one handed. There are also magic items that let you do the same thing. Thank Heaven they don't stack...
- A Dungeons & Dragons variant, Iron Heroes, allows you to select "Mighty Build" as one of your two Traits for a starting character. This allows you to wield weapons that are one size category larger than you, meaning that your character can wield his or her very own BFS (or whatever other weapon he or she specializes in).
- Spycraft 2.0 has a sword weighing 30 lb that ostensibly represents a zweihander, which in reality weighed less than a quarter of that — an actual sword this heavy would resemble Cloud's Buster Sword more than any real weapon and be completely impractical in any setting pretending to be at all realistic.
Video Games
Web Comics
- Kenta ("Ken") Daisuke, from the webcomic No Need For Bushido, carries a zanbato which is as wide as he is, and approximately four times his length.
- Jillian Zamussels, from Erfworld, carries a BFS. Her listed strengths on the cast page include "Unrealistically Oversized Weaponry" and "Hack-slash-carve-stabbity-chopchop".
- Sir Eglamore of Gunnerkrigg Court has two swords, each nearly as tall as him: A normal metal blade, for normal threats like dragons and wolves; and a glowing blade of unknown composition, for fighting Shadow Men.
- A giftwrapped BFS in this Misfile strip: http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=1034
- Roy's Weapon Of Choice as leader of The Order of the Stick (and specialist weapon, being a Fighter) is an heirloom greatsword, which while being realistic by standards of this page is still damn big.
- The intro comic to the first book parodies the "oddly effeminate male leads" of the Final Fantasy series by showing one of them with a sword larger than he is strapped to his back, rendering him unable to move as with its point stuck in the ground the bearer is suspended several feet in the air with it strapped to his back.
- Taken to extremes in Adventurers!
- Grantz from Girl Genius.
- Exiern: Dark Reflections. Ludicrously large sword, ludicrously tiny clothing.
- Bun-Bun of Sluggy Freelance fame. Little bunny, huge sword.
Web Original
- These sometimes appear in Survival Of The Fittest, where Danya sometimes puts medieval swords on the list of weapons to be assigned. Such swords include a 55-inches-long Claymore, a 6-feet-long Zweihander, and a Grosse Messer.
- Kuar in Tech Infantry is only somewhat huge, but a world with werewolves, vampires, and other supernaturally strong characters facing off against supernaturally-tough enemies who may be Immune To Bullets, big honking swords are commonplace.
Western Animation
Real Life
- During late Medieval times, a Frisian pirate and freedom fighter existed by name of "Grutte Pier". In keeping with the trope, he rose to prominence after the infamous Black Band mercenaries sacked his hometown. Reported to be a very large man, Grutte Pier wielded a similarly oversized sword: The weapon believed to be his, now kept at the Fries Museum, measures 2.25m (7 feet) in length.
- Actual effective use of such a sword would have been effectively impossible; as an intimidating showpiece it's among the best, though.
- This mind-bogglingly enormous Japanese sword is 377 cm (over 12 feet) long, and is the largest sword of its type known to exist in Japan. Other examples, though none of quite that magnitude, can be found on the linked site.
- And this particular example was made to test a forging technique, not to be actually used in a battlefield.
- The Scottish claymore is a real life example; it was designed with the weight and length to take the heads off several unfortunate Englishmen in one swing once you got some momentum behind the swing. Having said that its use died out mostly because it was responsible for too many friendly fire casualties. The claymore was still definitely a BFS, albeit in a different order of magnitude than most of the ridiculously sized blades in this trope.
- William Wallace's supposed claymore was five and a half feet long.
- "Fighting" Jack Churchill fought with one in World War II.
- Uh... that was a basket-hilted broadsword. Technically, it is called a claymore, but it's not a BFS.
- The Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh houses a claymore - admittedly ceremonial, but still - that is at least seven feet (a bit more than two metres) long in total. See for yourself.◊
- Allegedly, Richard the Lionheart's sword was a BFS. This Troper took a unit in Medieval History at university, and his first-year lecturer described (in a strong Scottish brogue) how he'd gone to see the weapon when he was a 20 year old road worker — i.e. pretty muscled up and at a physical peak. Said lecturer found he could barely lift the damn sword, let alone swing it with any accuracy.
- The German Zweihänder was up to 6 feet long, weighing up to 7 lb. (3 kg) and used in both hands, allegedly to break up pike formations.
- The Landsknechts (hired foot soldiers, often not of noble origin) also used a Flammberg, a 5 kg(!) two-handed sword, whose blades were made in wave pattern (thus making it (sort of) a real Flaming Sword ). It could penetrate virtually any armor and left very nasty, ripped and torn wounds, like a giant saw. The usage was the same as by Zweihänder, but also in "foot against horse" situation.
- Pepin the Short's sword was about 1,83 m (little over 6 feet) long. The most remarkable thing is that Pepin himself was 1,37 m (under 4 feet and half) tall.
- Not exactly a sword, but this basic trend is subverted in the sabre-tooth tiger. Many look at the sabre-tooth as being far more vicious than recent species of cats (such as lions and tigers). Truth be told, the evolution of cats canines to smaller size made them more deadly and effective than the sabre-tooth was. Sometimes smaller is better.
- In the Bible, after killing the giant Goliath, David cuts off his head with the giant's own sword. Considering that Goliath was about 9.5 ft tall, his sword must have been rather large compared to David.
- See here for a man using a real-life replica of Cloud's buster sword. It turns out to be rather ineffective.
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