Evil Weapon - Television Tropes & Idioms

I have this feeling that my luck is none too good
This sword here at my side don't act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! It howls like hell!
— Blue Öyster Cult, "Black Blade"

This is a big veiny sword with a creepy, blinky red eye in it. The kind of thing that, when you look at it, you say "Okay, yeah, I'm pretty sure that sword is evil, and probably cursed to boot." It looks totally badass though, and hits like a mofo. And I think we can all agree that that's a reasonable trade-off.

— Kingdom Of Loathing, description of the Spirit Precipice.

Some weapons are persons, complete with names and minds. And some persons are evil. This is about them.

Obviously, weapons are made to hurt and kill. These weapons enjoy it too. And some will try to talk the wielder into it, with strange voices of all kinds. Some are heard with the ears, some sound in the mind.

These weapons might kill everything in their way, rather than just what they need to. Some refuse to go back into the scabbard without killing. Some just don't activate the awesome magic without the wielder killing a kitten. Some kill not the body but the soul. Some kill their wielders as well, whether directly or indirectly, instantly if they're hungry enough or over time by draining Life Energy. Some don't. Because, you see, they wield the wielder, instead of the other way around. And they are prone to being hard to get rid of.

How did they come to be like that? Some were deliberately enchanted, or rather cursed. Some are imbued with the evil of their maker, some indeed, are the Soul Jar of an evil human. With some it's the material they were made of, and some were corrupted by deeds done with them, even worse than the usual cruelty of the battlefield. If It Was A Gift — do not trust the giver thereafter.

The "personality" of the evil weapon often varies according to the traits associated with it. A dagger is insidious, an axe encourages the wielder's carnal side, staffs are subtle and sophisticated in their corruption, a knife makes one ruthless... Swords are the most common evil weapon. Most other weapons have a peaceful purpose: bows for hunting, flails for threshing grain, axes for chopping wood... The sword is the only medieval weapon that cannot serve any purpose except war. Because they are so common they also vary much more in how they are evil.

Subtropes of Empathic Weapon and Artifact Of Doom. Compare and contrast Unholy Holy Sword.

Examples:

Anime

The swords made by the man who made Rurouni Kenshin's sword were all like this, save for his last two.
- In this case the swords weren't evil in and of themselves, they were just more likely to attract bloodthirsty users due to the way they were made.
Inu Yasha had Kaijinbou, who forged Toukijin from the fangs of a monster reduced to a head by Inuyasha, leaving it filled with the creature's malice. It's that Yin Yang thing.
- Then there's Sounga, which was so nasty that not only does it take over its user (like Tokijin, but with more Body Horror), it eventually sprouted its own body and tried to cause The End Of The World As We Know It.
Slayers has a few examples. The anime has a cursed knife, which Lina attempts to pawn off to an unfortunate shopkeeper. The novels have Doolgofa, the Cursed Sword of Bezeld, which is actually a disguised mazoku who will fuse with any poor fool who picks it up.
Love Hina had an evil katana that possessed Naru. Played mostly for comedy.
Anubis in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure is a sword with its own Stand, which possesses whoever picks it up. Even a piece of it has this effect.
Soul Eater has demon weapons, the evil counterpart to the Shinigami's Death Scythes. Both are good and evil in their own right. The main difference being the later powered themself up by eating corrupted souls and the former were more indescriminate.
- The Nakatsukasas' fey blade seem to be one of these; corrupted, possesses the wielder and destroys their soul...but can be turned to good use with the right influences. Apparently many, many previous members of the family had missed out on the last part before Tsubaki decided to have a meister in Black Star (probably significant she was the first of the family to have a meister, given this is a series that favours Loners being Evil.
The Anathema Scythe from Tetragrammaton Labyrinth. At one point it was described as enjoying the pain it inflicted on it's wielder; it was so evil it was able to convince an Angel, a being that by definition does not know death, that it had been murdered. The source of its power, and root of its evil is the nail from the Crucifixion that was used in its construction.
In Mai-HiME, Mikoto's sword Miroku is an aspect of a very malevolent demonic entity, and it rarely ever leaves her sight because Mikoto's family had trained her to use it ever since she was little, and it and the pendant she wears possess mind-controlling powers.

Comic Books

In The Warlord, Machiste found an ancient cursed axe containing a demonic entity which took possession of his mind. The demon's will prevented Machiste from letting go of the axe. Seeing that the axe's influence was making Machiste more and more tyrannical as well as violent, Travis was forced to remove his friend's right hand, thus severing the axe's spell.
The Ebony Blade, sword of The Avengers member the Black Knight, was afflicted with a blood curse due to all the blood the original Black Knight had spilled. Dane Whitman eventually purged the Blade of its curse at Doctor Strange's behest by plunging it into the Brazier of Truth while Strange bathed them both in magic fire. The curse returned, however, when the Sub-Mariner used it to kill his wife Marrina. The curse seems to affect different people in different ways. It turned Dane into a statue, it amplified Proctor's gann'josin-based powers, and it granted Sean Dolan great physical powers as Bloodwraith.
Carvin' Marvin from Knights Of The Dinner Table.
Somewhat subverted in an early Transformers comic. Megatron is damaged and becomes stuck in gun mode with no free will. A petty criminal picks up the super-powerful gun and uses it to become a highly successful criminal, but the experience ends up pretty much ruining his life anyway. To cap it all off, after screwing up the crook's life beyond repair, the gun wakes up, turns into a giant robot, insults him, and leaves.

Literature

Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer (from the Elric stories and others) actually steals people's souls in order to give its wielder strength - including those of many of Elric's friends as well as his enemies. And Elric's. Turns out the sword is actually a demon.
The Gonne in in Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms, which wasn't just a powerful weapon, but a weapon that could possess the mind of those who hold it, tempting it with the power it has and what the holder could do with it.
- Coin's staff from Sourcery might count, though its mind is the mind of his evil father who's using it as a Soul Jar.
The three titular swords of Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow And Thorn are Empathic Weapons with a twist: they can control their wielders against their will. However, the most fitting example of this trope is Sorrow, forged and wielded by the Storm King prior to his death. Merely touching it can freeze you or destroy your soul.
In Graham Mc Neill's Warhammer 40000 Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim, Fulgrim's Chaos-tainted sword. It lures him into treachery and murder and when he fights his own brother, Ferrus Manus, convinced him that he must kill him to save his life. Then it plays on his guilt and lets him realize the full extent of it, and uses that to persuade him to let it possess him.
Morganti weapons in Dragaera destroy/devour the souls of their victims, and Vlad could sense the hunger in one he was attacked with, and felt one he used to threaten a villain trying to turn in his hand and kill. This semi-sentience is downplayed later on, as Vlad isn't up close and personal with them that often. The Great Weapons are Morganti as well, but are more versatile and don't have to destroy souls (once even being used to store Aliera's, allowing her to play possum by actually being fatally wounded.)
The Infernal Devices were three super-kick-ass blades from Simon R Green's Blue Moon Rising. Subverted a bit, in that these ultra-powerful, ultra-Eeeevil weapons nevertheless fail to get the job done.
The Speaking Gun from the Nightside novels, made out of meat, and capable of unmaking anything by speaking its name in reverse. Created to kill angels, but hateful and eager to kill anything.
Subverted with the sentient sword Nightblood from Warbreaker. Though very powerful and incredibly dangerous to anyone in the vicinty, it was actually created for the purpose of destroying evil. Problem was, the Awakener who created it didn't realize that a sword has no conception of human morality, so Nightblood continually goads its wielder into trying to kill everyone in sight, just to be on the safe side.
The "thirsty sword" in The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen is quite possibly Axe Crazy as well as evil. It can talk, but all it ever says is "More drink," by which it apparently means blood. Prolonged use turns a rebel leader into a Complete Monster.
The sword Excalibur in Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming. After the eponymous prince takes it off a Black Knight, he finds that the sword is utterly paranoid and Ax Crazy, and tries to convince him to kill everyone he meets. After he leaves it in the forest, it tries to get revenge on him by siccing a group of demons on him.

Mythology

Kullervo from The Kalevala had a rather nasty sword that talked to him before his suicide. It also inspired Michael Moorcock and Tolkien.
The swords made by the Real Life swordsmith Muramasa are sometimes portrayed like this.
Norse Mythology features swords that can not be sheathed again without killing someone.
- The Ba'al Verzi daggers in the Ravenloft setting have borrowed that idea, or at least are rumored to.

Tabletop Games

Dungeons And Dragons: there are every variety of magic swords that can be thought of, including swords that cause greater injuries if used against those of certain Character Alignment.
- Bonus points to the magic axe "Lifedrinker", which drains Life Energy from anything it hits, and half as much from the wielder at the same time, and to intelligent magic items in general, which come with an Ego score that scales with their power. If their Ego is substantially stronger than your Will save, they take over your body. Using a magic item with a similar alignment and goals can be an interesting choice, but often comes back to bite you. Using an intelligent evil sword? Not so good...
Several cursed katanas in Legend Of The Five Rings RPG, including the blades such as Ambition (which does Exactly What It Says On The Tin and also is more deadly against those of higher position than the user.)
Several in Warhammer and Warhammer 40000. For starters, every single daemon weapon ever. Notable one's include Kingslayer, the sword of Archaeon, the Lord of End Times (Warhammer Fantasy), Gorechild, the chain-axe belonging to Kharn the Betrayer (40k), and Drach'nyen, the sword of Abaddon the Despoiler (40k). The Primarch Fulgrim in 40k got corrupted by a powerful daemon weapon. The weapon slowly caused him to turn to Chaos, and in the end, when he refused to obey it, it posessed his body, turning him into a daemon.
- There's a Khornate mace that drives its wielder to ever-higher states of bloodlust until the wielder finally collapses from exhaustion. And then it turns on its bearer, because Khorne cares not from where the blood flows...
Soulsteel weapons and armor in Exalted fit the bill—while they can technically be used for any purpose, including opposing evil, the soulsteel that composes them is exactly what it sounds like, and their bonuses work by draining the life and vigor out of their victims (in the case of weapons) and attackers (in the case of armor). Meanwhile, hell-forged weapons and armor may have still-living demons bound to them as part of their creation...

Live Action TV

One episode of the Magiranger Super Sentai series featured the evil samurai Shichijuro, a Monster Of The Week with a sword that could cut anything (including non-physical concepts like the bonds between the team.) Eventually, he's taken down, but the sword remains. When Magi Green picks it up, the armor of the monster appears around him and he attacks the others, revealing that the real Shichijuro was the sword, posessing its wielder. (Which, in hindsight, means the "monster" who just got Humongous Mecha-ed to death was probably a perfectly innocent whatever-he-was before touching the sword...)
VR Troopers had the Millennium Saber. Fortunately, it only activates once every thousand years, hence the name. The rest of the time, it's old and rusty.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has the Sword of Darkness. The name says it all. And it looked so awesome, too. Of course, the weapon on Power Rangers you most want to stay away from is the Dino Thunder White Ranger suit, which drove its user mad.

Video Games

The Soul Edge from the Soul Blade and Soul Calibur series. The Soul Calibur was an attempt by the creator of the Soul Edge to create the exact opposite of the 'Sword of Destruction', that is, a Sword of Order. However, it apparently just winds up in the other extreme, in that the Soul Calibur wants nothing more than to freeze the entire world in crystaline perfection... where there will be no war, no death, no destruction... because nobody will be able to move.
- Which is interesting, because Soul Edge was a regular sword corrupted by countless kills on the battlefield, while Soul Calibur was forged from a piece of Soul Edge... Who would think that was a good idea?
Frostmourne of Warcraft III is one of these. It even corrupts the wielder (not that the wielder was not asking for it), and is claimed to 'hunger' for what this troper thinks is flesh.
- It "hungers" for souls, actually. It can drain the victim's soul to strengthen the wielder or to be later reanimated.
  - In fact, all deathknight runeblades are sentient to a degree, and share a bond with their owner.
  - Although this got shot to hell in World Of Warcraft, when it turns out that a runeblade is made by taking any old stick and putting the runes on it yourself, with no indication of sentience.
  - If you consider that those 'Death Knights' were created as cannon fodder, it is very well possible that they got these runed nonsentient swords because it would be too much of a hassle and waste of resources to provide cannon fodder with weaponry for the big guys.
- Another example from Warcraft is Atiehs, greatstaff of Mediev, the last Guardian. When Mediev got possessed by Sargeras, the creator of the Burning Legion, he sealed a powerful demon inside his staff, turning it into an evil weapon with terrifying magic powers. The staff was later shattered to prevent it from falling into evil hands, but in the lv.60 version of Naxxramas raid, players could acquire it's pieces to remake it and then banish the demon, making it wieldable.
- Yet another example is the corrupted Ashbringer, also from the lv.60 version of Naxramas. Ashbringer was/is the exact opposite of this trope, being a sword made specifically to destroy any unholy beings, but after it's wielder got murdered by his son, it became corrupted. Players who wield the corrupted Ashbringer will occasionally hear the sword whisper to them in a creepy voice. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion the sword got cleansed and is now wielded by Highlord Tirion Fordring, the leader of the Argent Crusade.
Lilarcor from Baldurs Gate 2 is more insane than evil, but it sure does enjoy killing...
- There's also Blackrazor, a life-draining sword that's not intelligent for any practical purposes (it's just another weapon in game terms) but is very firmly described as evil. And the original game has Varscona (better known as "that longsword +2 you can get early in the game"), whose combat bonuses are explained as possibly deriving from its vaguely undead original owner merging with it after remaining entombed for centuries and developing "a rage that bordered on insanity".
Bishamon in the Darkstalkers fighting game series is a samurai possessed by a demonic armour (Hannya) and sword (Kien, which roughly translates to "demonic flame"). Even after he manages to rid himself of these artifacts' influence, they somehow form a body out of nothing at all, allowing them to continue their killing sprees. All they ever talk about are slashing, blood and suffering. And they still go by the name Bishamon, possibly to spite their erstwhile host.
Mike, Yoriko's ~~kitty~~ staff in Arcana Heart which is a sealed Demon King in reality and is more likely to use Yoriko as a bludgeoning device than the other way around. Though really, he's more of a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold Weapon than an outright Evil Weapon.
Would Exor from Super Mario RPG count as this? It's definitely an Empathetic Weapon, but it's actually an evil giant sword controlled by Smithy that actually thinks for itself and darn well wants to kill and destroy anything in it's path (and seeing as it's a sentinent, moving sword, can) Possibly some of the other Smithy Gang members in that game as well.
- All of Smithy's minions are sentient weapons. He's even got his "World of Weapons" speech at the end.
Kleever from Donkey Kong Country 2. It's apparently a posessed, evil sword that starts out being weilded by an arm made of fire, then just attacks on it's own accord. And looks like this◊
While not actually evil, The Star Dragon Sword from Suikoden is an enormous asshole, and at one point tries to kill the party for being left in a cave. It was left in the cave because it was constantly complaining how much it hated it's wielder.
Several games in the Mana series feature floating possessed swords as enemies.
Evil Weapons in Final Fantasy XI are floating living weapons that possess the bodies of earth spirits to fight for them.
Breath Of Fire IV has a variant that qualifies as Nightmare Fuel in and of itself, being the Hex Cannon/Carronade. Per official documentation in the artbook, the Carronade not only poisons the land with curse energy but also simultaneously empowers and possesses its users.
- What makes the Carronade especially horrific is two different things—the first being the scale of the thing in that it is a literal Nuclear Weapons Expy and essentially the magical equivalent of multi-megaton nuclear ICB Ms and the second being how the Evil Nuclear Weapons Expy is fueled: Specifically, persons with a connection with the target are tortured to the point insanity and hopelessness, and then are used in human sacrifices as the "warheads". If that wasn't creepy enough, the Evil Empire of the game specifically seeks out potential "warheads" based explicitly on the closeness of the connection between "warhead" and "target"—the Evil Weapon also specifically works under the theory Love Hurts, with the "best" ammo being a person in love with the target.
  - Yes, you are reading the above correctly: the Carronade is an Evil Weapon that is a magical method to Nuke Em—and one which runs on Nightmare Fuel specifically operating on the fact Love Hurts.
  - Aforementioned Evil Empire who invented this Mother Of Evil Weapons actually fired it for the last time in an attempt to kill the very God Emperor who founded their country 600 years ago. They only succeeded in proving to aforementioned God Emperor that Humans Are Bastards and really pissing aforementioned God Emperor the hell off. Needless to say, it did not help the state of mind of aforementioned God Emperor that they used his girlfriend as the "warhead".
  - It gets worse. You remember how Nina and Cray originally scoured the world for their missing sister/beloved? Well, they find her alright... but she has become such a massive, nightmarish amalgamation of organs by the time they arrive that she cannot leave. The Complete Monster in the cabinet of the aforementioned Evil Empire conducted experiments on her to make her into said amalgamation with the express intention of subjecting her to torture the likes of which mortal flesh and sanity cannot tolerate, until she is so drowned in agony and despair that the spiritual blight that will come forth from her sacrifice will Hex her home nation of Wyndia in its entirety. They never get to fire her off because Fou-lu kills off the current emperor and prepares for his reunion with his other half so he can get on with killing humanity; even if he hadn't such fell intentions, Cray discovers the horrible truth of Elina's imprisonment and borrows the Dragonslayer from Ryu to euthanize his beloved on Elina's request. And due to the game being rushed out, we never get to see the Complete Monster beaten to death or dragged back to Wyndia to stand trial.
The Nox Nyctores's of Blazblue are immensely powerful, but amplify latent psychoses in their wielders.
- Most obvious is Jin's Yukianesa. He's still a jerk without it, but no longer Ax Crazy.
A comic in a Team Fortress Two blog update arguably has this with the Demoman's unlockable melee weapon replacement. It seems to have an obsession for heads, which is a gameplay tie-in with the weapon's functionality.
Some axes in Planescape Torment are so evil they cannot even be held by good characters. Names like "Hatred Gift" (weilder goes berserk), "Butcherer of Innocents" (steals enemy's life points) "Edge of Oblivion" give a hint. Another one "Entropic Blade" is has no evil qualities of it's own and can be wielded by anyone without ane repercussions, but in order to obtain it you have to unleash a powerful force of, expectedly, entropy and destruction on the universe which deed instantly turns you Chaotic Evil, so I think it qualifies.
In Team Fortress 2 some of the unlockable weapons for the Demoman replace his normal Mad Bomber arsenal with a haunted Claymore (which lowers his health, but grants him bonus health if it's used to kill people) and shield.
The Masamune in Chrono Cross. Originally an Empathic Weapon, it was once stolen from the kingdom of Guardia and used for evil, turning the once holy sword into a demonic, warped blade that can corrupt or take over the mind of anyone who wields it. Destroyed by the sacred sword Einlanzer in the Home World, and cleansed of all evil influence in Another World, it was restored to its shining glory and transformed into the Mastermune.
The Fire Emblem series has the Demon weapons, which are incredibly powerful, but can randomly make you take damage instead of your opponent.
The header description from Kingdom Of Loathing doesn't mention how the Spirit Precipice takes its toll. On a critical hit:
A bolt of evil energy arcs out of Spirit Precipice and hits you in the <groin>.
You lose 12-24 hit points.
- *wince* Groin Attack...now that's evil.
[1] has the Doom] weapons, which ostensibly excert a corrupting influence over their owners, although this has yet to manifest in any obvious way. It also features the Necrotic Blade of Doom, a much more straight-forward example complete with EvilLaugh, [[LargeHam massive hamishness, a position on the Omniscient Council Of Vagueness and obviously being the bossof the Big Bad.
The PS 2 remake of Shinobi has the main character wielding Akujiki, a cursed soul-eating sword that if not repeatedly fed, will begin to eat the wielder (in this case, main character Hotsuma)'s own soul.

Webcomics

Komiyan from Darken has acquired a Morph Weapon called Blackshard, also a particularly chatty one. Thus far it hasn't done anything particularly sinister, but he has been warned to be wary of it by an angel.
- Nothing sinister? It quite obviously possessed Komi when he refused one of its suggestions.
Penny Arcade had a Genre Shift story in Japan where a man was possessed by an evil katana and forced to slaughter. When he briefly broke free of its control he drove a dagger into his eye, but it didn't let him die.
Sluggy Freelance, of course, has Unholy Evil Death Bringer, AKA Chaz. A sword powered by the blood of the innocent. It doesn't get more evil than that. Except that it is wielded by Torg, The Hero, its primary purpose is killing demons, and the sword itself claims it is only a weapon, and therefore neither good nor evil.
One of the Order Of The Stick strips from its brief run in Dragon Magazine featured a glowing black talking sword that Elan wanted Vaarsvuius to identify. When the elf told him to come back later, the sword said that it was cool, no problem, and hey, want to go kill some people while we wait?