Bladed implements are the epitome of this; a single blade being thrown is bad enough, but the mere threat of a Flechette Storm or Storm of Blades immediately elevates the threat level from Dangerous to Lethal, and will be treated as such by audience and In-Universe observers alike. As such, it's not uncommon for those of a less-than-reputable nature to use the threat alone to unnerve their opponents.
A particular way of doing this is by fanning multiple knives in their hands - even if the soon-to-be-thrower doesn't utter a single word as they do it, it is immediately apparent what they intend to do. Expect the person on the soon-to-be-receiving end (and possibly the audience) to react accordingly.
Note that despite the name it doesn't necessarily need to be knives - A fanned set of cards in the hand of a Death Dealer is just as capable of invoking this trope, and in general, anything that can be thrown en-masse can be fanned for intimidation.
Sub-Trope to Intimidation Demonstration and Sister Trope to Weapon Twirling, another way of using your weapon to show off.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Blade of the Immortal: Rin's attempt early on at a Signature Move, "Flight of the Golden Wasps", has her show off and then fling a fan of knives at a target. In practice the move is showy and ineffective: the knives don't do much damage and she's lucky if even half of them hit in the first place.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: In the final battle between Jotaro and DIO, DIO doesn't want to underestimate Jotaro by getting in close since their Stands are relatively evenly matched, and Jotaro has proven himself capable of throwing punches for brief periods inside DIO's Time Stop. Instead, DIO stops time and informs Jotaro that he simply intends to overwhelm him with a Flechette Storm from a safe distance while he fans out knives he stole from a nearby restaurant during their fight.
- Yona of the Dawn: Jaeha likes to fan out his kunai before unleashing a Flechette Storm at his enemies, even when he's in the air where likely no one can actually see him do it.
Comic Books
- X-Men features the Death Dealer by the name of 'Gambit' - while his exact alignment varies Depending on the Author, he's nonetheless quick on the draw with his cards, and often fans them out before throwing them if he intends to throw more than one.
Film – Animation
- Kung Fu Panda 2: Lord Shen frequently fans out his throwing knives before either throwing them or slashing with them like claws. Since Shen is a peacock, and his knives resemble feathers, this adds to the effect of a bird spreading its wing feathers.
- The LEGO Ninjago Movie: During Master Wu and Lord Garmadon's battle, Garmadon uses the Seven Deadly Butterflies of Shaolin against Wu, fanning them out in his hand before throwing them.
- Toy Story 2: In Buzz's final fight with Zurg, he starts throwing a series of discs at him. He fans two of the discs and prepares to throw both of them at once, but Zurg catches him in a Neck Lift.
Film – Live-Action
- In Buddha's Palm, Yu Hua the Dark Action Girl can fling multiple knives with deadly accuracy, and often poses with a dozen knives held in a fan in one hand.
- In Mystery Men, hero "The Blue Raja" does this before fighting. It's less intimidating than it sounds as it's with forks.
- Mr. Grin, the knife-throwing Dragon to Big Bad Herod Sayle in Stormbreaker, fans a set of throwing knives while attempting to intimidate Alex Rider.
- V for Vendetta: During the final confrontation, V holds up a pair of daggers in his hand and deliberately fans them in the shape of a V before he flings them at the regime's soldiers, instantly killing two. He then pulls out another pair and proceeds to slaughter the opposition before they can even react.
Video Games
- In Dead by Daylight, upon restocking on knives from a locker, the Trickster briefly fans them before putting them away.
- Dynasty Warriors: From the 7th instalment onwards, throwing knives are an available weapon, and officers who wield knives carry them fanned. Special mention goes to Xun Yu in 9, who unfans them at the beginning of his Musou Attack in order to fan them again during the start-up animation.
- Skullgirls: As an homage to DIO, Valentine can perform a super move where she throws a barrage of scalpels at her opponent, fanning them out like DIO does with his knives.
- The 2011 TGS trailer for Street Fighter X Tekken shows Bob flashing a Slasher Smile while fanning out six plates in his hands before throwing them.
- The first Time Crisis has the Disc-One Final Boss, Sherudo Garo,
◊ greeting Richard Miller by holding his knives in a fan-shaped pattern, during a cutscene, before flinging them rapidly at Richard.
Sherudo: Since you've travelled so far... (knives pop out from inside sleeves into hand) be my guest and let me entertain you! - Valorant: Played with by Jett. When she activates her Ultimate ability, Blade Storm, she brings out five throwing knives. However, instead of holding them in her hands, she uses her wind power to hold them in midair around her hands in a fan pattern.
Web Animation
- DEATH BATTLE!: The above-mentioned DIO uses this in his Death Battle against Alucard, before nailing the Bird of Hermes with a thrown volley of knives. Sadly for DIO, Alucard's Healing Factor enables him to No-Sell the knives and introduce DIO to the jaws of Baskerville.
- Epithet Erased: Trixie Roughouse does this with a number of boxcutters kept up her sleeves in the trailer for Prison of Plastic.
Western Animation
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Christmas Episode Holiday Time sees Zurg steal Santa's Time Stopper - which Santa normally uses to deliver toys to the entire galaxy in a single night. When Buzz asks what Santa did before that, Santa gives him his Hyperspeed Accelerator - a Jet Pack that gives its wearer both Super-Speed and Super-Reflexes to such a degree that it allows them to move in Zurg's frozen time - during their ensuing fight, Zurg picks out a bunch of rocket-themed fireworks, fanning them in his hands with an enormous grin. Buzz is thankfully able to dodge out of the way of the ensuing barrage.
- Trollhunters: During his fight against Nomura at his house, Nomura flings Jim to the kitchen. He reaches for his kitchen knives, but they're absent from the holding set. Jim then sees Nomura with the knives at hand, fanning all of them as she walks into the kitchen before throwing them at Jim.
Nomura: Looking for these?
