Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Give Me a Sword

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/orc_human_stick_5.png
A Pandaren always encourages sharing, even between mortal enemies.

"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
— King Richard III, Richard III, Act V, scene iv

An unarmed character faces a fight. Another character must give him a sword or other weapon, or something such as a horse needed to enable him to fight.

Wrecked Weapon may lead to this or having a sword jam in the wound so the character can't pull it free.

It's often a tribute to the fighting skill of the unarmed man or Fire Forged Friendship of the one who gives it — especially if he does not use the Stock Phrase but the other characters do so anyway, or someone else says "Give him your sword." Location may also be significant — throwing a sword to a man who is toe-to-toe with the monster is only prudent (and avoids Throwing Your Sword Always Works). Of course, failure to do that gets the inverse effect, which may shade into The Dog Bites Back, if a Mook refuses to give the Big Bad something without which he is powerless and helpless.

Unlike It Was a Gift, this is temporary, especially for the Cool Sword and other weapons not easily replaced. Expect the character to return the weapon after the fight, with thanks. If he is then told to keep the weapon, it transformed into It Was a Gift as well; it is a particularly strong tribute, particularly with the Cool Sword or other unusual weapons.

Will certainly occur if needed for Combat by Champion. May occur for Duel to the Death, though the other character may defuse that one. If a bystander questions why the combatant doesn't just attack immediately while the foe is unarmed, the response will usually be because it's proper form.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Berserk: Guts's sword is broken while fighting General Vascogne. Then his nemesis/mutual Worthy Opponent Zodd appears and throws his own giant sword into the middle of the duel, which Guts then picks up and uses to win the fight.
  • Played for laughs in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Bobobo's allies want to hand him some weapons to aid him in the fight with the Arc Villain. The battle is taking place in mid-air, so they use a cannon to launch spears, swords, and other sharp weapons up to him. Not surprisingly, Bobobo catches none of them and is instead pierced by most of them. The next weapon they launch is a two-story house. That hits him too.
  • Campione!: In Godou's battle with Athena, Erica passes Godou a spear that he uses to get the win.
  • Inverted in Corsair, when Shirokko challenges Canale to a duel, something which Canale has refused many times before. This time his lover Ayace throws his own sword at him and tells him he has to fight.
  • In The Familiar of Zero, Saito's first combat experience is a duel with a student mage (and noble) named Guiche who forges him a sword on the spot. After beating Saito to a pulp.
  • Mazinger Z: In Mazinger-Z vs Great General of Darkness -the movie retold the last chapter of Mazinger Z in a severely improved way, closing off the original series and kicking off the sequel, Great Mazinger-, Kouji has been defeated by the Mykene War Beasts, his Humongous Mecha is utterly trashed, it barely functions, and its weapons are useless. Then Tetsuya shows up piloting Great Mazinger, and as he begins to deliver a sound beating, he throws one of his swords at Mazinger-Z saying "You can use this" (and conveniently and intentionally impaling a Warbeast). Kouji catches the sword, and even though his Humongous Mecha is barely capable to move, he still manages to destroy one of the Mykene War Beasts, and he impales the Mykene commander leading the squad. The sword was returned to Great Mazinger afterwards, along with a heartfelt "Thank you".
  • In Medabots, during Metabee's battle against Robo-Emperor, Rokusho asks Ikki to lend him a weapon, so that he may help Metabee. Ikki does so without hesitation since Metabee is currently getting trashed.
  • This happens at least once in Naruto. In the Land of Waves arc, Zabuza asks for a kunai from Naruto, which he catches in his teeth and uses to behead the villain.
  • In the One Piece Arlong park arc, Zoro is two swords short of his usual three, and therefore unable to fight effectively. The gaping hole in his chest doesn't help either, but the POINT is, that when faced with Hachi's six sword style, he says screw it, and asks for his old friends Johnny and Yosaku's swords. They throw them without hesitation, then freak out when Zoro doesn't seem to be looking at the SPINNING SWORDS OF DOOM heading toward him. But that's only because he's being extra badass and catches the sword without looking, and swings immediately into an attack that dodges all six swords and slashes the octo-man's chest.
  • Rebuild World: A few times when Akira is giving the Ninja Maid Sibling Team Shiori and Kanae a ride on his Cool Bike, Akira loans them some of his spare rifles (he keeps up to six), due to the them each being equipped as a Close-Range Combatant. When asking them to cover him by shooting down missiles, Kanae mentions that since she Doesn't Like Guns she can't shoot well, but Akira had already thought of that and gave her expensive Homing Projectile rounds.
  • Sword Art Online: Kirito has finally cornered Sugou Nobuyuki/Oberon, the man who captured and tried to rape Kirito's love interest Asuna. After Sugou has been stripped of his Killer Game Master powers and is no longer a Virtual-Reality Warper, Kirito says although Sugou doesn't deserve it, he is willing to face him in a fair duel, and passes Sugou Excalibur, the mightiest sword in the game. Even with Excalibur, Sugou doesn't stand a chance since he had been coasting on his Game Master powers and doesn't know how to fight.
  • In the anime adaptation of Tales of the Abyss, Luke throws Asch his sword after having defeated him in a duel and retrieved the Sword of Lorelei from him so Asch can pull a You Shall Not Pass! against the Big Bad's mooks while Luke escapes. The same scene in the original video game did not include that detail, which in the end it doesn't matter — both the original and adaptation sees Asch die in the process.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Yu-Gi-Oh!: When Yami Yugi is losing badly against an Orichalcos Soldier in a life-or-death duel, Chris dodges lightning bolts to deliver the card The Eye of Timaeus so he can turn it around. She is struck but manages to hand him the card before dying.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
      • When Judai Yuki is losing badly against Zure Knight of Dark World in a life-or-death duel, Freed The Brave Wanderer sacrifices his life force to put his card on top of Judai's deck so he can turn it around.
      • Mike sabotages Edo Phoenix before his duel with Jun Manjoume by stealing his best card, Dragoon D-End. In the middle of the duel, Judai gets Mike arrested and recovers the card, then gives it to Edo. The judges allow this.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds:
      • When Jack Atlas prepares to face his imposter in a rematch. Yusei passes him the card Trust Guardian, which he graciously adds to his deck.
      • When Yusei prepares to face Z-one, all of his friends give him their best Synchro monsters to add to his deck.

    Comic Books 
  • In the Supergirl story The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), an Amazon gives Batman a battle-axe when an army of Doomsday clones invade Themyscira.
  • Transformers (2019): A variation occurs when Dai Atlas rewakens from immersance (a process by which a Cybertronian can slowly and peacefully merge back into Cybertron after they feel that they've lived long enough) after some children attempt to summon him. He tells his old friend Speeder that he no longer wishes to fight when the latter offers him his old sword and says that the sword belongs to Speeder now, but later when the Insecticon swarm threatens a group of organic refugees, he's roused to action and tells Speeder "bring me my sword."
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Artemis tosses her sword to Wonder Woman when Medusa attacks the White House while the Themysciran delegates are discussing the US Navy's actions off their coast with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President. Temi was the only Amazon armed to any degree since it's part of her uniform as polemarch.

    Fan Works 
  • Advice and Trust: During the battle against Bardiel Asuka lost one arm of her Humongous Mecha and her Progressive Knife so that Shinji handed over his own knife to her.
    He wordlessly deployed his own Progressive Knife and tossed it to her without looking. She caught it one-handed without removing her eyes from the Angel. "Ready, Second Child?"
  • An Impractical Guide to Godhood: After being captured by Blackbeard, General Failure Centurion Bryce Lawrence defiantly says "give me a gladius-", presumably daring his captor to fight him. However, he doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Blackbeard gives him a gladius by ramming one of the swords through Bryce's chest.
  • Fates Collide:
    • Archer loans Cinder Fall his swords Caladbolg and Kanshou when she starts to run low on Dust.
    • When Yang Xiao Long is grappling with Oda Nobunaga, Mordred tosses her sword Clarent to Yang, who uses it to knock Nobunaga out with the flat of the blade.
    • When Yang's Ember Celica are destroyed, Kairi Sisigou gives her his shotgun.
  • God Slaying Blade Works: Shirou Emiya throws Sir Lancelot the sword Arondight, which gives the knight a power boost needed to slay the dragon Jord.
  • Lost to Dust:
    • Medusa loans Ruby Rose her scythe Harpe.
    • When Adam Taurus gets disarmed, Weiss Schnee manages to toss his sword Wilt back to him.
    • When Sienna Khan's arrows cannot penetrate Mori Nagayoshi's armor, Sigurd loans her some of his daggers, which can penetrate.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Ace gets a spear thrown into his leg while fighting a tribal native. He shouts for his sidekick to throw him a spear, which he does... stabbing him in the other leg.
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: During the final battle, Stephen Shin throws Aquaman's Trident to him after he hurled it. At the end, after getting disarmed, Orm throws the Trident to Aquaman.
  • Avengers: Infinity War: As Thanos's forces land outside of Wakanda for their invasion and capture of the Mind Stone, T'Challa gives out the command to prepare for war, finishing with "Get [Captain America] a shield."
  • During the final battle in The Bold Caballero, Don Diego finds himself facing down the evil Commandante and a band of his guards armed only with a whip and a burning stick. Things are looking black until Isabella tosses him a sabre from the general melee going on in the courtyard. Properly armed, Diego makes short work of the Commandante, whose men then fold like a cheap suit.
  • The Chronicles of Riddick (2004): In the duel between Riddick and Lord Marshal Zhylaw, when Zhylaw's spear breaks, he wordlessly holds out his hand and one of his guards loans him a spear.
  • In the original Clash of the Titans, one of Perseus' friends tosses him his sword so he can fight off a giant scorpion.
  • In the climactic duel of For a Few Dollars More, Indio has shot the long-barreled revolver out of Colonel Mortimer's hand and wants an unfair duel: Indio clearing leather versus Mortimer bending over to get his weapon off the ground. Manco intervenes, providing Mortimer with a fast-draw revolver, belt, and holster for a much fairer fight.
  • The Four Musketeers, during the duel in the flaming side-building of the convent from which the heroes are attempting to rescue Constance. Porthos just yells "Sword! Sword!", but Aramis does comply.
  • The Ghost and the Darkness
    • One problem with this trope is shown when Patterson accepts a rifle from someone else that he hasn't tested himself; it misfires right when he has one of the man-eating lions in his sights.
    • A justified version in the climax. Patterson (who is unarmed) and Samuel (who has a double-barreled rifle) climb separate trees to escape the pursuing lion, which then starts climbing after Patterson. Samuel can't shoot it because the lion is shielded by the tree trunk, so he throws the rifle to Patterson. The rifle bounces off a branch and falls to the ground, so Patterson leaps down after it, grabbing the rifle Just in Time to shoot the lion.
  • Gladiator: Maximus disarms Commodus in the arena, and Commodus immediately starts demanding one of the surrounding Praetorian Guards to give him a sword. If he hadn't recently and publicly dishonored his own royal guards, they might have given him one. In contrast, Juba had previously thrown Maximus a sword when he didn't ask for one.
  • The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Occurs twice at the beginning of the fight with the statue of the Hindu goddess Kali. First Sinbad throws Prince Koura a sword so Sinbad can duel him, then Koura throws the sword to Kali. After Kali snatches it out of the air, she "grows" another sword in each of her other five hands.
  • The Green Knight: When Gawain accepts the Green Knight's challenge, King Arthur gives Excalibur to Gawain.
  • Hook: When Rufio turns a food-fight serious by hurling a whole coconut at Peter, the Lost Boys quickly pass a sword up — whereupon Peter falls back on old forgotten instincts and whirls around to cut the coconut in half.
  • In In Bruges, Ken, in a tower, arms his friend Ray, at street level, with a pistol by throwing himself out the window. Of course, after impact, the pistol is a pile of rubbish. Ken's near-last words: "I think I'm gonna die now."
  • Kong: Skull Island: Hank Marlow throws his sword to James Conrad so he can fight off some creatures and rescue Slivko.
  • Early on in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: As a single surviving Mook flees from an attempt to assassinate Alan Quatermain at his club, he calls out for Bruce the bartender to toss him a rifle he keeps behind the bar to shoot the man with.
    Quatermain: Bruce, Mathilda!
  • In Lethal Weapon, during Riggs' fight with Mr. Joshua, Mr. Joshua grabs a metal pole and begins swinging at Riggs. Murtaugh then tosses Riggs a nightstick so that he has a fighting chance again.
  • Played for Laughs in Licence to Kill. As Bond, heading into an unexpected and unknown situation, explains to Pam Bouvier:
    James Bond: Let's make this a proper family reunion. Give me a gun.
  • Mister Arrow (Sam the Eagle) rushes to provide Captain Smollett (Kermit the Frog) with a sword in Muppet Treasure Island.
  • In Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, Octavius throws Jedediah his sword, with the traditional (though more literal than usual) "You have my sword". Then calls out "Sword!" and is tossed one of his underlings' swords.
  • No Time to Die: James Bond knocks out a mook and passes his gun to Paloma, who proceeds go Guns Akimbo and take out the others.
  • Happens repeatedly in one battle in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Elizabeth, Pintel, and Regetti have, between them, two swords and the eponymous chest and they're being chased by Davy Jones's men. In the running melee, they keep tossing each other the swords and taking turns running with the chest.
  • Planet Terror: "Give him the gun. Give him all the guns."
  • In The Quick and the Dead, Cort has to call desperately for a bullet after his first shot fails to kill Spotted Horse. (He was only allowed one bullet per duel so he wouldn't be tempted to try to shoot his way out.) The only one willing to help is a blind kid who has to find the right caliber by feel from a boxful of ammo before tossing it to him.
  • Screamers. Private Jefferson discovers a Black Market stash which includes (to his joy) a plutonium mini-missile. Colonel Hendrickson is not impressed and orders Jefferson to leave it behind. However later when they're being swarmed by hundreds of Killer Robots, he shouts for Jefferson to give him the nuke because he knows full well that Jefferson would have flinched it anyway.
  • Inverted in both Shanghai Noon and Back to the Future Part III. In both movies, the protagonist has been challenged to a duel and doesn't want to fight, trying to fall back on being unarmed before an ally or bystander slides or tosses him a gun while trying to be helpful.
  • Star Wars:
    • In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan's lightsaber has been taken away and Anakin's has been destroyed. When a number of Jedi arrive at the Geonosian arena to stop their execution, two Jedi throw them a pair of spare lightsabers. Anakin's borrowed saber is eventually destroyed (again) but we can assume Obi-Wan gives his back.
    • In Return of the Jedi, Luke, Han, and Chewbacca are sentenced to a long and painful death by being forced to jump into a Sarlacc's pit. Luke signals to R2, who is on a gliding barge several hundred yards away, to get his lightsaber ready. Luke then steps off the plank, grabs it, uses it to launch himself in the air while R2 shoots his lightsaber to him, catches the lightsaber, does a front flip, and begins to kick ass.
    • In The Last Jedi, Rey throws her lightsaber to Kylo Ren, who promptly performs a Boom, Headshot! on the Praetorian Guard grappling with him. Yes, with a lightsaber.
    • In The Rise of Skywalker, in the final battle, Rey passes her lightsaber to Ben Solo through their Force Link while they were in different areas.
  • In Suicide Squad (2016), Harley Quinn throws Deadshot her pistol so he can shoot and detonate some explosives.
  • Swashbuckler: During their final duel, Lord Durant loses his sword and Lynch stops the fight and orders one his crew to give Durant a sword so they can continue. Nick refuses, Mr. Moonbeam hands over his cutlass. A few minutes later, Lynch has his sword knocked from his hand. Durant does not pause the fight, but Jane tosses Lynch her sword just in time for him to parry Durant's attempt at a killing blow.
  • In The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Ahmad says "Give me a sword!" in Basra so that he can fight Grand Vizier Jaffar who has usurped him, but not only does nobody give him a sword, he's blinded by a magic spell and his friend Abu the Thief is turned into a dog.
  • Done with shields in the duel scene in The 13th Warrior. Each combatant is given three shields to use. When a shield is broken, fighting stops so that the combatant can retrieve his next one. It's a foregone conclusion that once you're out of shields, you're doomed, but it turns out that the older, smaller Viking didn't even need a shield to win at any time.
  • In ¡Three Amigos!, Ned Nederlander is forced to demonstrate his movie-star gunfighting for real by dueling a German pilot. One of the banditos gives him a (very heavy) gun to do it with - and despite the added weight, Ned wins.
  • The Vikings: Ragnar is thrown into a pit of wolves. If he doesn't die with a sword in his hand, he won't go to Valhalla. Eric defies the villain by throwing him one and has his hand cut off as punishment.
  • Two examples from John Wayne films:
    • In Rio Bravo, there is an exciting moment when the bad guys have John T. Chance (Wayne) where they want him in front of a saloon, but then suddenly Feathers (Angie Dickinson) throws a plant pot through the window and simultaneously Colorado (Ricky Nelson) throws a rifle to him.
    • In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Tom Doniphon (Wayne) silently signals to Pompey (Woody Strode) to throw him the rifle as they watch the showdown between Liberty Valance and Ransom Stoddard.
  • In Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, a Setting Update that uses the original dialogue, Capulet's "Fetch me my longsword!" moment involves a Longsword-brand shotgun.
  • Subverted in Wyatt Earp. A prisoner, faced with a lynch mob, screams at his jailer to give him a gun so he could defend himself. The jailer, Wyatt Earp, tells him that if he doesn't shut up he will give him over. Then he walks out and talks the mob down.

    Literature 
  • Cultist of Cerebon: Rizok's sword has been shattered by his opponent, but Zareth has sparred with him often enough to know he can create a temporary blade out of other material — so Zareth creates a piece of reinforced bone and throws that to him.
  • In The King Must Die, when Theseus is fighting a duel, his spear breaks, and his men throw their spears about him so he can pick one from the ground. His foe did not get such treatment when his weapon broke.
  • In Piers Anthony's Centaur Aisle, the king demands a sword to fight his Evil Uncle; this is shot down because on one hand, the sword is magical giving him an unfair advantage, and on the other hand, if the magic is not used, the king is wounded and so his uncle has an unfair advantage.
  • James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels novels:
    • Deus Sanguinius: When Mephiston lets Rafen act as the Blood Angels' champion, he orders a sergeant to give Rafen his sword. Later, he orders that Rafen be given a jump pack so he can pursue his foe.
    • Red Fury: when Rafen has his back to the Tomb of Sanguinius and has pierced one heart of the Blood Fiend trying to desecrate it, Mephiston throws him his Cool Sword so that Rafen can get its other heart.
  • In the Dora Wilk Series, it happens twice:
    • In Soul Thief, when Joshua senses that Dora and Miron are in danger, he borrows his grandpa's (Archangel Michael's) Infinity +1 Sword. He presumably returns it later.
    • In Winner Takes It All the angel of death lends Dora his sword when she's about to face Trial by Combat. It's just a normal sword, though.
  • Happens with Cohen the Barbarian and Twoflower the tourist at the end of Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times. Twoflower has no chance of winning against the Big Bad of the story either way of course, but Cohen gives him a sword anyway as a sign that he takes his wish to fight him seriously.
  • In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000 Gaunt's Ghosts novel Blood Pact, Wes Maggs asks this, repeatedly. Unfortunately, while delirious he had attacked the prisoner they were protecting and Gaunt's not sure he can trust him. He ends up taking a gun from a downed foe, and Gaunt does not object.
  • In Dune, when Paul challenges Feyd Harkonnen, the emperor offers his own sword to the latter, who readily accepts.
  • In Andre Norton's The Prince Commands, Michael loses his horse in battle and asks for another; an officer immediately orders for a horse for His Highness.
  • The Lies of Locke Lamora: After Locke convinces the Spider to let him go so he can fight the Grey King, the Spider's lieutenant hands him a sword and says, "Get it wet. With my compliments."
  • An interesting variant occurs in the Nibelungenlied. Hagen von Tronje, a heroic/villainous knight trapped in a building with his fellow nobles and warriors, faces the hero Rüdiger von Bechlarn, whom he has previously sworn friendship to (they are forced to fight by a code of honor and oaths). Hagen requests a shield, as his is broken, and Rüdiger offers his.
    • This enables Rüdiger to fulfill his duties as Etzel's vassal (his liege has ordered him to attack Hagen and co.) without completely breaking his oath of friendship to the Nibelungs — he is giving one of them material aid. And so it is significant that Hagen asks Rüdiger for a shield rather than just picking up one of the dozens lying on the ground.
  • In Mort, Death's servant Albert goes back to the Unseen University and starts acting like a Bad Boss. When Death comes to take him back he hisses to the cowardly Rincewind for his staff, but Rincewind doesn't give it. The other wizards praise him afterwards until Rincewind admits he couldn't find the staff. The Librarian makes it clear he took it, with an 'ook'.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire Jaime recalls how Ser Arthur Dayne hacked the Smiling Knight's sword to pieces with his own Thunderbolt Iron blade. Ever chivalrous, Dayne paused and allowed the bandit to retrieve another sword, then killed him.
  • In Night Club from Jiří Kulhánek, one of the characters kick a sword in the middle of the fight towards an unarmed companion. His comment goes along the line of, "It's a wonder I don't have it sticked in belly."
  • Near the end of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, when Gen parts ways with the magus' party, being pursued on its way back to Sounis by Attolian soldiers, the magus is hurt by Gen's distrust and shouts at him. Gen (the only one not armed and who hid from the last fight up a tree) sighs and tells him, "Leave me a sword, and I'll do my best to slow them down." He regrets it right away, and the magus doesn't take him seriously since everyone knows he's a Street Urchin. Sophos leaves him his, though, since it's no use to him really. Gen lies in wait on top of a large rock and comes very close to wrecking a whole cavalry unit on his own and getting away with it. We learn later that Gen takes the sword by the blunt part the top of the blade because he swore an oath never to hold a sword by the hilt again unless his life was in danger.
  • In Orson Scott Card's Shadow Giants. At the climax of the novel, Achilles orders Suriyawong to shoot Bean, but Suriyawong merely slides his knife over to Achilles, echoing an earlier scene in the novel when they first met.
  • This is how Annabeth from Percy Jackson and the Olympians got her knife. When Luke and Thalia came across her while going to Camp Halfblood, they let her join in and Luke gave Annabeth a knife to fight off monsters along the way.
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Voldemort takes Lucius Malfoy's wand to fight Harry Potter because Voldemort's own wand is useless against him. When Lucius's wand also proves ineffective and breaks, Voldemort frantically demands Selwyn (another Death Eater) to relinquish his wand, but Harry manages to get to safety before this is required.
  • In Conan the Magnificent by Robert Jordan, Conan winds up facing the firedrake first. Eldran throws his sword to Conan. Bonus points that Eldran's sword is a magic blade specifically forged to take down the beast. Eldran was on a quest to do exactly that.
  • In The Stormlight Archive, Kaladin and Shallan are trapped in a crevice by a chasmfiend. When Kaladin volunteers to attack and distract it, Shallan summons her Shardblade and offers it to him.
  • At the end of The Aeneid, Turnus takes his charioteer's sword, rather than his father's, by mistake; this means that when he strikes Aeneas' sturdy armour, his sword shatters and, disarmed, he runs around beseeching the Rutulians to provide him with another sword.
  • In Force of Nature, Joe tosses a bullet to Nate after Nate's gun runs dry during a gunfight.
  • Book 7 of Ranger's Apprentice has Oberjarl Erak confront Toshak, the man who betrayed him to the Arridi. Toshak has his battleaxe, and Erak just a small sword. Horace hands him a larger sword, and they fight. Toshak is stronger, but Erak's sword has a longer reach. Erak wins the day with a variant of the Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
  • In The Shadow of the Wind, Big Bad Fumero lost his gun during a fight with the main characters and couldn't find it when he got the upper hand. So he ordered his subordinate to give him his gun. But he refused.
  • In Book II of The Faerie Queene, Arthur breaks his spear killing Cymochles, leaving him unarmed against Pyrrochles until an old man tosses him Cymochles' sword. Since Cymochles and Pyrrochles stole this sword from a knight they thought was dead, it's karmic that Arthur uses this to win the fight.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Altered Carbon. In "Payment Deferred", Colonel Carrera and his team of Wedge mercenaries turn up at a crime scene, and the lead detective insists they hand over their weapons before entering. After talking to the detective Carrera decides You Know Too Much, so he knocks down and disarms the detective while his mercenaries attack the others with their bare hands. While this is going on, the pistol is thrown from one mercenary to another as they use it to Real-Death everyone there, whereupon it's planted back in the lead detective's hand for a fake Murder-Suicide.
  • Angel. Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Angel is confronted by a more powerful vampire, so Cordelia throws Angel a wooden stake. The other vampire catches it. Oops!
  • In the Babylon 5 episode "Infection", Sinclair orders a Security troop to toss him a rifle when he arrives on the scene of a confrontation with the Monster of the Week.
  • In Firefly, Malcolm Reynolds accidentally challenges a nobleman to a duel and has to be provided with a sword… and a crash course in using it.
    Mal: Use of a sw— what?
  • Highlander: The Series: In "The Messenger" Richie has been listening to an immortal impersonating Methos, who's telling other immortals to live in peace and put their swords down. He's left his sword behind and gone to talk to the guy, only to find he's been killed already by the bad guy of the week, Culbraith. Duncan ends up throwing Richie his sword so he can fight Culbraith.
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger lend each other weapons all the time, but episode 4 takes this up to a whole other level. When Ahim finally comes to understand Joe's desire to take out the Monster of the Week by himself, she shows it by lending him her cutlass so he can use the two sword style he's been practicing. When this turns out to be insufficient, the other three rangers throw him their swords as well.
    • A decade later, Ahim would do the same thing to Flint as Twokaiser in a Crossover special mostly because Flint who usually has no transformation but borrowed her brother's Twokaiser suit but ONLY the suit did not have Twokaiser's weapon or anything else and was unable to injure the monster much unarmed.
  • Loki (2021): In "Journey Into Mystery", Kid Loki gives Loki his Flaming Sword, Laevateinn, to improve his odds when he and Sylvie prepare to face Alioth and He Who Remains.
  • In an episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Jason and Tommy are tasked with recovering some ancient weapons which are being guarded by Titanus the carrier zord. Jason lends Tommy his sword in order to draw Titanus' fire while Jason makes a break for the weapons. In return, Tommy lends Jason his armour.
  • Nikita throws a gun to Owen in "Dark Matter" when he runs out of bullets.
  • Stargate Atlantis: On a crossover episode with parent series Stargate SG-1, Ronan Dex tosses his beloved energy pistol to Teal'c. Even Shepherd never gets to borrow it.
  • Supernatural. In Season 7, Dean refuses to believe that the ghost of Bobby Singer is following them around, providing help when needed. Until Dean drops his sword during a fight with a shojo, only for the sword to slide back to him of its own accord.

    Myths & Religion 
  • In some versions of the Arthurian Legend, the reason Arthur pulls the sword out of the Stone is that Kay had forgotten his and had sent him to fetch one. (The Disney version has young Arthur, who just became Kai's squire, forgetting to bring it along.)
    • In the battle scenes of Thomas Mallory's Mort d'Arthur, it is common for one knight to see another unhorsed, and go strike down another knight so as to bring his horse to the unhorsed one.
  • Classical Mythology:
    • Queen Astydameia of Iolcus tried to seduce Peleus, but he refused, so she pulled a False Rape Accusation on him. Her husband, King Acastus, believed her and tried to kill Peleus by taking him on a hunting trip, then stealing his sword and abandoning him when they got attacked by marauding Centaurs. Fortunately, Chiron or Hermes, depending on the version, passed him a sword, allowing him to survive.
    • There is Hephaestus forging a whole new arsenal for Achilles in The Iliad.
  • And Unferth arming Beowulf with his sword Hrunting before he descends into the lake. It doesn't do any good though.
  • Subverted in Norse Mythology. The god Frey possessed a sword capable of fighting on its own and cutting through anything. He gave it to his friend Skirnir however, and when the Apocalypse known as Ragnarok came, Frey lacked a weapon. The fire demon Surtur quickly cut him down.
  • The Bible:

    Pro Wrestling 

    Theater 
  • Several Shakespeare plays qualify.
    • Thrown from his steed mid-battle but still itching for a fight, Richard III cries out, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Bizarrely, this line is said twice in that scene.
    • Romeo and Juliet:
      Capulet: What noise is this? Fetch me my long sword, ho!
      And another, from the same:
      Tybalt: This, by his voice, should be a Montague,
      Fetch me my rapier, boy. ...
    • Henry IV, Part 1: at the battle of Shrewsbury, Prince Hal asks Falstaff to give him his sword, Falstaff refuses and instead throws him a bottle of wine. Hal doesn't take it well.
  • In Die Walküre, Siegmund is alone in the house of his enemy (who has promised to kill him in the morning) and prays for the sword his father promised him in time of need. Soon after he learns that the sword has been waiting for him there for years (his father, really the god Wotan, had left it there and then manipulated him into the situation where he'd need it, ask for it, and find it).
    • Similarly, in Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila, Ruslan finds himself alone on an ancient battlefield and prays to the god Perun for the sword he needs to defeat the villain Chernomor. (And the noise of his prayer draws the attention of a giant severed head...which, once he defeats it, has the needed sword under it.)
  • In the Giuseppe Verdi opera Attila, the Hun is surprised to find that a group of women in a newly captured city have been detained as prisoners of war instead of slaves, and impressed to learn they had tried to resist. As a sign of respect for their courage, Atilla offers a boon to their leader, Odabella, who asks for a sword. He gives her his own while simultaneously making an offer of marriage. The main point of tension in the opera concerns whether she will go through with it, but ultimately, she uses the sword on him.

    Video Games 
  • World of Warcraft:
  • Happens whenever a character with no weapons is recruited mid-chapter in Fire Emblem. It's normally stated to be "spare weaponry"; examples include the generic soldiers giving Lucius a tome of magic/vulnerary, and in the fan-made hack Tactics Universe, in Chapter 7; Siegfried gives out weapons/vulneraries to the prisoners he rescues... even if your weapons are likely to be breaking. With no "spare weapons" being given out. Um.
  • Kirby:
    • Played straight in the series when you fight Meta Knight; he will throw you a sword and will not attack until you draw it from the ground. Subverted in Revenge of Meta Knight though, as he will attack after a set period of time. He waits a decent amount of time, considering that the battle takes place on a falling airship. If he waited forever, it'd be suicide. Also subverted in Kirby Star Allies in the same way, but without the threat of impending doom from a falling ship. This is explainable through the influence of the dark heart that's gotten to him, though, as it also gets subverted if you make him mad by knocking down the platform he's standing on when you arrive, and even kicks away the sword at that point!
    • Also happens in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror: after killing Dark Meta Knight, a portal appears and sucks in all four Kirbys. The moment this happens, Meta Knight chucks his sword into the portal, giving you a rather potent weapon to use against the final boss.
    • You can also tell that the Meta Knight you fight in the Radish Ruins is not the real one because he doesn't throw you a sword.
    • In Kirby Super Star Ultra, at the end of Revenge of the King, King Dedede throws Kirby a hammer.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganon knocks the Master Sword out of Link's hand during the final battle, and Zelda uses magic to hold Ganon back so that Link can retrieve it. Can be a potential subversion if you did the trader's quest and obtained the Biggoron Sword. Ganon knocks the Master Sword out of Link's hand, but there's nothing stopping him from whipping that out right after. You can also use the Megaton Hammer during this part. However, while the Hammer/Biggoron's Sword will do damage to the boss, only the Master Sword can kill him, leading to a great many to whack on Ganon for a ridiculously long time with the Biggoron's sword, wondering why the hell he wouldn't die, only to fall over dead directly after looking at the Master Sword.
  • Happens in Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire for Fighter class heroes. Though the Hero can destroy the Earth Elemental via other means (if you can use magic or buy flaming powder), if he aims for Paladin, he can ask Rakeesh for his flaming Cool Sword for the fight (since he can't fight it himself, being injured; and since a mundane sword won't hurt the thing), and then have A Taste of Power of what it is to wield a Paladin sword. Rendered even more awesome in the game ending, if the Hero actually accumulates enough honorable deeds for Rakeesh to stand witness for the Hero, and bestow him the title of Paladin along with the Cool Sword, combining it with It Was a Gift.
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare features this trope in the last mission. As your entire team lay injured on a wrecked bridge, the Big Bad executing team members as he walks among them, Capt. Price slides his pistol over to you, enabling you to exact vengeance upon your hapless opponent.
    • This is given a Continuity Nod in Modern Warfare 2, when Capt. Soap MacTavish returns said pistol to Capt. Price five years later.
      Capt. MacTavish: This belongs to you, sir.
    • And again in Modern Warfare 3 when Price lays the same pistol on Soap's chest after he dies.
  • In either Alpha or Original Generation continuities of Super Robot Wars, Sanger Zonvolt flat-out requests the Humongous Mecha-sized Type-3 Colossal Blade be given to him when his Mid-Season Upgrade Super Robot Dygenguard's primary weapons malfunctions.
  • Partially, at the final boss of Kingdom Hearts II. Riku, disabled, passes his keyblade to Sora so that he can deliver a Dual Wielding finishing barrage. And in 358/2 Days, Xion tosses Riku a Keyblade, too. Particularly impressive, as she's technically dead at the time.
  • In Blaze Union, Garlot and Leon reconcile after an intense stint of volatile rivalry when post-battle, Leon demands a horse so that he can rescue his little sister Elena from the clutches of his unsavory former partner Pandra. It marks the beginning of Leon finally being able to acknowledge Garlot and accept that there's Always Someone Better, and Leon joins the party shortly after this incident.
  • Devil May Cry:
    • In Devil May Cry 4 it's "let me keep this sword;" becoming It Was a Gift at the end. But then there is a family resemblance... Too bad Vergil eventually returns to take back what's his, arm and all.
    • In Devil May Cry 5, after Dante's sword Rebellion gets shattered by Urizen, Trish tosses him the Devil Sword Sparda to continue the fight. Not that it does him much good, though; Urizen still flattens him regardless. That said, it does come in handy alongside what's left of Rebellion later on when Dante needs to get a Next Tier Power-Up...
    Urizen: The Devil Sword Sparda no longer serves a purpose.
  • In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, there is a quest where you visit the shrines of Vivec's virtues. One requires you to reenact a moment when Vivec displayed his courtesy by giving a silver longsword to a Daedra Lord. The other actor in this is a dremora who views the entire thing as demeaning and tedious. He has a chest full of the swords next to him, showing that he has to do this often. He doesn't mind if you take one from the chest and give it to him instead of one brought from the outside.
  • The final mission of the original Homeworld has a particularly epic example: when your fleet is being overwhelmed by the fleet of The Empire, the Rebellion not only pulls a Big Damn Heroes with a sizeable battlegroup but give you control of half their force.
  • Warframe:
  • In Resident Evil for GameCube, Jill snatches away Barry's gun as she suspects him to be a spy. Then Lisa Trevor comes along, and Barry demands his gun back. Doing so allows him to stall Lisa's approach until you solve a puzzle to defeat her. Otherwise, Barry will be automatically killed.
  • In Leather Goddesses of Phobos, the hero fights sword to sword with a villain, disarms him, and has the option to give him his sword back. If he does, the genre-savvy villain realizes he's up against a Hero and commits suicide.
  • In Deus Ex, Gunther Hermann asks for a weapon after being rescued in the first mission. Whether or not you give him one affects his attitude towards you in the earlier missions. Interestingly, you can even give him just a knife and it will be enough for him to get the job done. Later in the game, Gilbert Renton also asks for a gun to take out the gangster Jojo Fine by himself, and again, the decision to give him one or not has some (minor) effect on the plot.
  • Near the end of the first act of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Geralt convinces the elven criminal Iorveth to lead him to the man who framed him for King Foltest's murder under the pretense of a prisoner exchange. When the conversation goes south, Geralt's allies from Foltest's special forces jump in to take Iorveth and the Kingslayer by force. Iorveth asks Geralt to undo his binds and give him his sword back. Geralt's main ally for the remainder of the game is largely affected by whether or not players choose to give it back to him or sucker-punch him and leave him to be captured.
  • Yakuza Kiwami 2: Helping out certain people in Kamurocho will unlock location-specific Heat attacks in which your new friends will turn up to toss you a variety of weapons, from a baseball bat to a giant paper fan to a bowl of hot ramen.
  • In Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, the very first scenario of El Cid's campaign has him fighting against King Sancho's champion, then a knight on horseback challenges him. King Sancho doesn't think it's fair that El Cid fights on foot, so he offers a horse named Babieca, turning El Cid into a mounted unit.

    Web Comics 

    Western Animation 
  • In the Darkwing Duck episode "Quack of Ages", Darkwing has gone back in time and appears as a knight. In the midst of combat, he calls out, "Men, a sword!" — and is promptly buried under a mound of blades, from under which comes a feeble, "Men, a tourniquet."
  • In Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series episode "Hercules and the Long Nightmare" Hercules confronts Phantasos, who turns into a three-headed Hydra. Pulling out a sword, it immediately turns into a bouquet of flowers. As the Hydra grabs Hercules by his cape, Hercules tells Phil to find him a sword.
  • In Justice League Unlimited, Batman subverts this trope with Lex Luthor of all people.
    [Batman winds up back to back with Luthor while they are fighting Darkseid's Para-Demons, Luthor with dual pistols and Batman with batarangs]
    Luthor: Problem?
    Batman: I'm out.
    Luthor: Here, take my extra. [hands gun over shoulder]
    Batman: Not my style.
    Luthor: Suit yourself — I'm planning to live through this.
  • Bugs Bunny faces a humongous knight in "Knightmare Hare"; he insults Bugs' friends (Count of Basie, Duke of Ellington, Satchmo of Armstrong), and issues an ultimatum:
    Bugs: Listen to Sir Up of Figs... don't go insulting my friends or I shall get thee a can opener and open thee like freshly packed can of tom-ah-toes!
    Knight: What?! Thou tilt with me?
    Bugs: Tilt I will and I won't wilt! Just give me a sword, that's all, that's all! [the knight obliges — he gives Bugs a giant sword that he can't even lift off the ground]
  • In ReBoot, Andraia throws her trident to Matrix when Megabyte doesn't fight fair.
  • Star Wars Rebels: In "Legacy of Mandalore", Ezra tosses Sabine his lightsaber when they see Gar Saxon sneaking up on Sabine's mother with the Darksaber. Sabine proceeds to defeat Saxon in the ensuing duel. If you're wondering why Ezra didn't just deal with Saxon himself, Mandalorians and Jedi have traditionally been enemies for a long time. And, also, given that Sabine's been estranged from her family for a long time, it's more meaningful if Sabine does it. Finally, the ensuing duel proves to her family that she's worthy of the Darksaber.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983):
    • In "Teela's Quest", Mer-Man has Teela Chained to a Rock and attempts to sacrifice her to a sea monster. He-Man is too far away and occupied fighting mooks, so he throws his sword to both break her chains and give her a weapon to defend herself with.
    • In "Evil-Lyn's Plot", Skeletor manages to disarm He-Man and his sword goes flying across the room. Evil-Lyn picks up the sword and throws it to Skeletor.
  • She-Ra: Princess of Power: In "Micah of Bright Moon", Queen Angella prepares to face Hunga the Harpy in a duel. She-Ra loans Angella her sword.
  • In the Muppet Babies episode "The Pig Who Would Be Queen," the kids act out a story where, to become Queen, Piggy has to defeat the Slithering Serpent by waving the Singing Sword at it three times. Sir Kermit insists he and Squire Fozzie will do it for her in return for helping them earlier, but when the moment comes, all four of her companions are terrified. Piggy finally gets sick of her fellow characters' antics, says "Gimme that stupid sword!", and does it herself.
  • Space Ghost:
    • Several episodes feature Space Ghost being captured and deprived of his Power Bands, forcing Jan, Jace, and Blip to recover them and throw them to him.
    • In "The Web", Black Widow captures Space Ghost and forces him to fight a giant ant/spider-like creature in a gladiator arena without his Power Bands. She throws him a spear, but it breaks against the creature.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

"Sheathe your swords!"

During the film's climactic duel, Emperor Commodus is disarmed by Maximus and he orders his legatus Quintus to give him his sword. Not only does he refuse, but the rest of the guards follow Quintus' order to sheathe their swords rather than give their sword to the Emperor.

Example of:
Bodyguard Betrayal

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

"Sheathe your swords!"

During the film's climactic duel, Emperor Commodus is disarmed by Maximus and he orders his legatus Quintus to give him his sword. Not only does he refuse, but the rest of the guards follow Quintus' order to sheathe their swords rather than give their sword to the Emperor.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (11 votes)

Example of:

Main / BodyguardBetrayal

Media sources:

Report