Destroy the Villain's Weapon

Aladdin gets away with breaking staff protocols.

"Oh no! It's melting! My precious power ring! Gone forever!"

— Shreeka, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

A villain can use any weapon against the side of good, whether it be a gun, a supernatural/magical item, an electronic or whatever item you can use as a weapon. The hero stands no chance against this weapon and it becomes apparent that there is only one thing to do in a situation like this, they must destroy the weapon.

Destroying the weapon can cause a whole lot of things to happen, like if the villain's power stems from the weapon if it is magical/supernatural, so destroying it will cause the villain to lose that power and also can cause whatever magical/supernatural influence the weapon has caused to be un-done. As for any normal weapons like guns and tanks, they can be destroyed through realistic means like being melted, blown up, etc. They can also be destroyed through mundane means as well like a hammer.

The villain's reaction can be anything from breaking down into a sobbing mess if he/she loved that weapon to a Villainous Breakdown as a Berserk Button had been pressed to mild annoyance and finding a Plan B to indifferent shrugging and switching to fisticuffs or another weapon to having an Oh, Crap! moment. A rare reaction is gratitude if the weapon was mind-controlling him or her.

Bottom line: these are instances where the villain has a weapon that gets destroyed and it can cause the good side to gain an advantage against them.

Compare to Wrecked Weapon, which only applies to heroes whose weapons get wrecked. For the case of handguns, see Disarm, Disassemble, Destroy.

As this is frequently an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In the Moldiver episode "Overzone", Mirai Ozora uses her titular suit to charge into Professor Amagi/Machinegal's satellite laser weapon while in space, destroying it in the process.
• My-Otome has two examples:
  • Tomoe's Valkyrie spear is broken in Episode 22 when Miyu rushes in to stop her from killing Arika.
  • In episode 25, she chases after Arika to avenge her previous loss, only to wind up on the losing side again as Arika, with her Robe's true powers awakened, unintentionally destroys Tomoe's armor when she crafts a barrier to protect herself.
• One Piece: Subverted during Luffy's battle with Don Krieg. Krieg attacks with his Mighty Battle Spear, a weapon that explodes on impact. Luffy makes several attacks aimed specifically at the tip of the spear, eventually destroying it. Once the spear's point is destroyed, Luffy taunts Krieg by telling him his power's been cut in half now that his Mighty Battle Spear is just a bomb on a stick. The subversion is that a bomb on a stick is still a pretty good weapon, which Krieg continues to use until Luffy's attacks near the end of the fight knock it out of his hands.

Fan Works

• In the penultimate chapter of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic House of the Crystal Sun, the villain's MacGuffin, which is the titular object, ends up accidentally being destroyed by his henchman when said henchman becomes a giant.
• Super RWBY Sisters: At the end of "Partners In Time", Master Hand crushes Adam's sword after curb-stomping the villain.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin: Aladdin notices Jafar using his Serpent Staff to brainwash the Sultan, so he takes it and destroys it (as pictured above). Not that it matters though, because once Jafar uses the Genie to wish to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, he magically gains a newer, more powerful staff.
• Played with in BoBoiBoy: The Movie. Bora Ra delivers his most devastating attacks with a large black-hole-powered hammer, with which he absorbs BoBoiBoy into, seemingly sealing his fate. However, BoBoiBoy breaks out by splitting into 5, destroying the hammer in the process.
• Subverted somewhat hilariously in Kung Fu Panda 2, when Po and the Furious Five manage to destroy what they think is Lord Shen's cannon... which is actually a miniature replica for the real deal, which they end up destroying anyway, only for Shen to reveal he has countless more already mass-produced. However, it then gets played straight when Po uses his newly-gained inner peace powers to decimate all of Shen's cannons, ending their threat there and then for good.
• The Loud House Movie: Lincoln and Lily manage to get the dragon gem away from Morag and have Lela the Dragon burn it so it can never be used again.
• The Mitchells vs. the Machines: The Big Bad PAL is essentially a living weapon (she's an A.I. on a smartphone) and she has the ability to control all electronics worldwide. Once Katie throws hers into a conveniently placed glass of water, all that goes away.
• Downplayed in Monsters, Inc.. Sulley doesn't destroy the Scream Extractor so much as break it off from a part holding it upwards and throw it at the villains.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: The Rainbooms and Sunset Shimmer manage to make a rainbow beam big enough to defeat the sirens and destroy their pendants that enable their powers. Not only have they lost their magic, but also their ability to sing afterward.
  • Becomes a recurring feature in later installments, as the majority of villains of the series are empowered by magical artifacts; destroying the Memory Stone, Vignette's enchanted smartphone and the Time Twirler resolves the predicaments of each of the entries they're featured in. Played with in Magical Movie Night, where destroying the mirror will depower the villain, but Starlight has to avoid doing so for as long as she can as Sunset and her friends are trapped inside it, with unknown consequences for what would happen if they weren't extracted first.
• Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog has a voodoo charm which, when it contains a blood sample from another person, will cause the wearer of the charm to take on the appearance of that person. However, it also acts as a Soul Jar and as shown in the end, if it is destroyed, his "Friends on the Other Side" will drag him into their dimension since the destruction of his charm means he is unable to give them the souls of everyone in New Orleans like he promised.
• The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water: During the climax, Burgerbeard's magic book is burned on his stove, rendering it useless.
• Rothbart from The Swan Princess had the necessities needed for the Forbidden Arts, but they were destroyed in the movie's opening by the royal guards when he was about to use them to overthrow King William.
• Tarzan: During his final battle against Clayton, Tarzan manages to get his hands on Clayton's gun. Clayton goads Tarzan to shoot him, sneering at him to be a man, but Tarzan destroys the gun instead.
  Tarzan: Not a man like YOU!
  • That flies Clayton into a rage and he resorts to trying to kill Tarzan with his machete instead.
• In the Concert Climax of Trolls World Tour, Poppy smashes Queen Barb's guitar holding the Strings in order to save every non-Rock Troll from being brainwashed by them.

Films — Live-Action

• Near the end of The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Karen Sympathy destroys the hypnosis device that Fearless Leader is using to mind control all of America.
• Like the original animated movie, Aladdin destroys Jafar's Serpent Staff, though again once Jafar wishes to become a powerful sorcerer, he gains a newer, more powerful one, rendering the destruction moot.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Peter distracts the Big Bad Ronan in order for the rest of his team to use a space gun to destroy his Warhammer, which was empowered by the Power Stone.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • In Justice League, Superman freezes Steppenwolf's axe with his breath, and then Wonder Woman shatters it with her sword.
  • In Zack Snyder's Justice League, Superman only needs a small puff instead of a sustained breath to freeze Steppenwolf's axe (unlike the above theatrical cut), and he shatters the weapon himself with a small punch afterwards.
  • At the end of Aquaman, Arthur Curry/Aquaman defeats his half-brother King Orm when shattering his trident with the trident that he inherited from King Atlan.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Edmund recognizes that the White Witch's wand is the source of her petrifying powers, so when he attacks her, he goes straight for it and shatters it with his sword.
• In the 2015 Indian film Puli, the villainess, Queen Yavanarani, turns out to be Brainwashed and Crazy under the control of an evil scepter, courtesy of her usurping, power-hungry general Thalapathy. In the final battle, the hero Marudheeran manages to release the queen by destroying the scepter.
• Star Wars:
  • During the climax of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan Kenobi slices Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber in half, leaving him to continue fighting with the half that's still functioning. Downplayed Trope, as Maul is no less dangerous with just a single blade.
  • Similarly, in Revenge of the Sith, Mace Windu sends Darth Sidious scrambling when he manages to knock the Sith Lord's lightsaber out the window (in some adaptations, he cuts it in half as well). Unfortunately, Sidious also has some built-in weaponry.
  • The Rebels/Resistance destroying either of the Death Stars or Starkiller Base counts as well. They count as weapons (albeit absurdly huge) that the bad guys have in their possession, and "not being blown to smithereens" is a pretty big advantage for the good guys.
• Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince: Taminella, the evil witch who cursed both Sir Robin (the titular frog prince) and Princess Melora (whom she cursed to speak in Spoonerisms so she couldn't tell her father Taminella's true identity), gets her powers from the crystal ball at the end of her staff. Robin, who is the only one who understands Melora, finally figures out that her warning to "bake the hall in the candle of her brain" means "break the ball in the handle of her cane." He breaks the ball, the spells are broken, and Taminella turns into a crow that flies away.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: After Judge Doom is dissolved in his own dip, the giant dip machine he made to destroy Toontown crashes through the wall of the warehouse, where it starts making its way to Toontown... only to be hit by a train.

Literature

• In The Emperor's Gift, the main character is nicknamed Bladebreaker by the Space Wolves after he breaks with his psychic power the gigantic daemon blade of Angron, Chaos Primarch of the World Eaters.
• The Guns of Navarone. During World War II, the Nazis have built a fortress housing powerful artillery on the island of Navarone. The weapons are blown up by explosives planted by a team of Allied saboteurs.
• During the battle with the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, most of the Narnians try attacking the White Witch directly and are turned to stone for their trouble. Edmund has the idea of attacking her wand instead, which incapacitates her.
• Young Jedi Knights: During their final duel in Jedi Under Siege, Luke defeats Brakiss by slashing off the top two inches or so of his lightsaber, leaving him weaponless. Brakiss quickly replaces it with a mass-produced one on his return to the Shadow Academy though.

Live-Action TV

• In Power Rangers, the Red Ranger frees the Green Ranger from Rita's mind control by destroying the Sword of Darkness with his Blade Blaster. Fridge Logic kicks in when viewers remember that Tommy's mind control wasn't connected to the Sword of Darkness, but it worked anyway.
  • This is very common in monster battles. This can produce a range of reactions, Slippery Shark was pissed when the Megazord cut his boomerang in half, while Samurai Fan Man was entirely indifferent to his samurai lance being broken and he just pulls out the fan and almost wins. Many monsters however switch to more magic or melee based attacks.
  • Played with in the Robogoat battle. He was winning but the Rangers were getting a few punches in with the Thunder Megazord. After a brief combat with their sword against his Rod of Destruction, they chop it in half and instead of being weakened, he switches to an energy blast barrage that knocks over the Thunder Megazord and damages the controls although he eventually has an Oh, Crap! moment after it gets up and charges up the thunder sabre.
  • In the rematch with Rito after getting Ninjazords, initially they're winning but he turns the tide by breaking out a flamethrower, none of the individual zords have an answer for it, so they form the Ninja Megazord. After he misses when firing at it, they use the finisher to break his flamethrower, which is responded to with an angry "Hey!", they then form the Ninja Mega Falconzord to finish the job (Rito retreats after being hit with the finisher).
• Smallville: In "Spell", Clark Kent faces a trio of evil witches who depend on a spellbook. He is defeated the first time due to his weakness to magic. In the rematch, he immediately blasts the spellbook with his heat vision and reduces it to ash, defeating them.
• Ultra Series:
  • Ultraman X: During the crossover episode where the Ultramen team consisting of Victory, Ginga, and X battles the Specter siblings, Mold Specter becomes even stronger when his brother and sister, Juda and Gina, transform themselves respectively into his sword and ax which he Dual Wields. But Ginga and Victory manage to turn the tide by aiming their energy beams at Mold's weapons, destroying his sword and ax and leaving Mold exposed to Ultraman X's counterattack.
  • Ultraman Geed: In order to stop Belial once and for all, Geed makes sure to obliterate his Giga Battle Nizer in their final battle, depowering Belial out of his Atrocious form in the process and depriving him of one of his game-changing weapons, though Geed still has to normally confront Belial before defeating him for good.
• VR Troopers: Double subverted with Gunslinger, blasting his gun and knocking away his sword didn't faze him as he had another weapon, but he had a Villainous Breakdown when a midair flying kick shorted out his shield.
  • Downplayed in Shaider (one of the source material shows for VR Troopers) when there was a turtle monster battling Shaider, at the end of the battle, Shaider destroyed his trident by cutting off the side tips and turning it into a spear, likely to humiliate the monster by asserting dominance more than disarm it, showing it that its weapon was useless against his, then eventually after the monster dropped the spear that remained of his trident, Shaider grabbed it and the turtle monster was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice with his own weapon before being finished off before he could pull it out.

Theme Parks

• In Disney Theme Parks' Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery attractions, Zurg is defeated when Buzz and the riders take out his key weapon, allowing Buzz to arrest him.
  Zurg: My secret weapon, ruined!

Video Games

• Banjo-Kazooie during the final battle you splinter Gruntilda's broom. She doesn't seem to care (even though the broom was alive), one possible line even has a Kick the Dog moment when she calls the broom "useless", even though it does greatly reduce her mobility and changes the course of the battle a bit.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: During the final part of the third fight against Ghirahim, Link has to repeatedly hit his enemy's weapon from different angles to degrade it until it breaks so the young hero can hit his weak point.
• LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin:
  • In the Fulcrum Chamber, when it's revealed Ronin brainwashed Misako to betray the ninjas, Lloyd uses his elemental beam to break the Obsidian Glaive he's been using for brainwashing purposes.
  • When the Elemental Forges are weakened from Ronin using them, the ninjas foil Ronin's plan by depleting the last of their energy and destroying the Primal Fulcrum to make the portal collapse.
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: In Toadwood Forest, right before you enter the Vim Factory, you encounter the 1337 Hammer Bros, who are mind-controlled by the Shroobs' antennas on their helmets. The antennas gave them special powers but also made them mindless slaves. When the baby bros trashed their antennas, the Hammer Bros express gratitude and as a thank you for freeing them, give them hammers and teach them how to use them, and then after you go into the Vim Factory and reunite with the adults, they even show up to teach the adult bros how to use them once the baby bros free them.
• Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction: One mission you get halfway through the game is to destroy a positively gargantuan North Korean artillery cannon that's capable of firing nuclear artillery shells at any point in South Korea. To do so, you need to capture a smaller (but still enormous) cannon that's nearby and use it to shoot the first cannon.
• Quake II: The second half of the game is about crippling the Stroggos in multiple ways, the most important one being the destruction of the Strogg Interplanetary Defense System (the Big Gun). After its destruction, Stroggos becomes more vulnerable as a planet, and (after all is said and done in II) allows the entirety of sequel Quake IV to happen.
• Sniper Elite 4: There are two possible methods to destroy General Bohm's jet bomber. The first is to shoot out both its engines. Should that fail, the other, more difficult method is shooting the Ms 300 "Razor" missile slung underneath the aircraft once it's airborne and about to climb. Either way, the plane goes down, killing the Big Bad, and Operation Avalanche goes as planned.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: In the level "The Swamp" of The Subspace Emissary, Falco destroys Bowser's Dark Cannon with his blasters after using it to turn Diddy Kong into a trophy and trying to use it on Fox.
• In World of Warcraft, when it seems the players are winning the fight against Arthas, he suddenly reveals that it was All According to Plan and that he wanted them to reach his throne so he can turn them into his servants. He then unleashes a Total Party Kill attack until Tyrion Fordring summons the Light to free himself and destroys Frostmourne, releasing all the souls that Arthas had consumed and allowing the party to come back to life and finally end him for good.

Web Animation

• Minilife TV: In "The X-Team Attacks", before Commander X is able to execute Renzu with his firearm, Chris slices it in half with his Starsaber while Ian takes out other members of the X-Team and frees the other fighters of the 28th Legondo World Martial Arts Tournament.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang manages to defeat the Fire Lord Ozai without killing him (and thus compromising his pacifist ideals) by instead taking away Ozai's prodigious firebending abilities. Not only is firebending Ozai's main weapon, it is also his main status claim within the Fire Nation hierarchy, whose institutions are specifically set up for the strongest firebenders to rise to the top. By turning Ozai into a muggle, Aang permanently strips him of his status and creates an opening for Ozai's son Zuko, a friend of Aang and the next-strongest firebender in the line of succession, to take over as the new Fire Lord and to steer his nation away from his ancestors' aggressive ways.
• A major plot point in Conan the Adventurer is repeated attempts to seize and destroy the Black Ring of the Stygian High Priest Wrath-Amon, which he uses to channel the power of the Snake God Set. Conan and his friends actually do manage to get the ring from him several times, but since depowering The Dragon would end the show, Wrath-Amon always manages to get it back before the end of the episode... at least until their final fight in the penultimate episode. The ring is ultimately not destroyed until after Wrath-Amon is bested and turned into a harmless, non-sentient lizard.
• In the Captain Planet and the Planeteers episode "Mind Pollution", the titular hero manages to stop Verminous Skumm from selling any more of his designer drug Bliss by forming a flame tornado that destroys both the last pieces of Bliss and the notebook containing the recipe for it. Well, one piece of Bliss managed to survive, but Skumm accidentally eats it and gets doped up himself.
  Captain Planet: So much for the product.
• An episode of Codename: Kids Next Door has Numbuh 4 do this impulsively when he has a football-shaped bomb; when he performs a touchdown, it blows the rocket stadium he, his team, and the villains were on straight to the ground.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In the segment "Orgon Grindor", Agent Honeydew destroys the magical organ grinder that the Villain of the Week has been using to hypnotize Monkey into stealing gold from Fort Knox, which causes Monkey to snap out of the trance.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: The third season begins with the Dark Hand and Daolon Wong breaking into Section 13 to steal the Talismans of Shendu (who's at this point trapped in the Netherworld as a lifeless spirit) to use them for their own purposes. When Wong is about to get them, Jackie decides it's time to stop people from misusing their powers and destroys them with a laser cannon. Unfortunately, this results in the Talismans' indestructible powers being dispersed over the world and settle in the bodies of twelve animals, forcing the heroes to compete with Daolon Wong to find them and protect them from him. When Wong resurrects Shendu in order to get his hands on the last power, the demon proceeds to absorb all the twelve powers back into himself. When Uncle casts on him the spell which once again turns him into a statue, his powers are once again contained in the newly created Talismans.
• Miraculous Ladybug: This is how Ladybug weakens the episode's akumatized villain Once per Episode, before using her yo-yo to de-evilize the butterfly akuma that flies out, which returns them to normal.
• Phineas and Ferb: A Running Gag throughout the show is that Dr. Doofenshmirtz's inventions will blow up in his face and most of these instances are either due to Perry's interference or Doof's stupidity.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): An episode had Miss Bellum battle Sedusa, and their fight is soon taken to a pool where Sedusa's hair is soaked to the point of being rendered useless. She tries to fight back without her hair, but the Girls and Bellum seize the opportunity to have her hair cut off to render her completely powerless, though Negative Continuity in later episodes (except Aspirations) shows that she has gotten her hair back.
• Samurai Jack does this to every robot Aku sends his way.
• Tangled: The Series: At the end of the episode "Freebird", Cassandra destroys a magical teapot that an unscrupulous couple has been using to turn people into birds, which causes them and their house to vanish into thin air.
• In one of the most infamous scenes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) (which provides the page quote), the villain Shreeka is tricked into catching a hot rivet, which causes her beloved Power Ring to melt and she bemoans the loss of her prized possession.
• An episode of Teen Titans (2003) has Robin break magician villain Mumbo's magic wand, causing Mumbo to turn into a normal human. Somehow, Mumbo manages to regain his abilities in his second appearance.

Real Life

• During World War II, the Allies went to great efforts to do this to Nazi Germany. At first it was just about hitting the production facilities where the Third Reichs tools of war were being built. However, as the war went on, and the Vengeance weapons began making an appearance, the Allies began targeting those sites as well. This proved difficult to accomplish, as the bombs weren't dropped with the best accuracy, and the equipment was often moved before the strike could arrive.

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