Lightning Lash

Crackle that whip!

So, you want to use a whip, but a normal whip just isn't good enough. So what can you do about it? Easy, just add electricity. For some reason, whether it be the way a whip resembles an electrical wire, the length and thinness matching a lightning bolt well, the crack of a whip sounding like thunder, or just simple Rule of Cool, whips tend to be associated with electricity.

Most often seen in Science Fiction, though also possible in Fantasy, these whips tend to have three major variants:

1. The whip is an electrified technological device, acting as a conductor.
2. The whip (except for the handle, sometimes) is made out of Pure Electricity.
3. An Improvised Weapon variant, where a character grabs hold of live electrical wires and uses them as lashing weapons.

If they are not magical or integrated into Powered Armor or a Mecha, they'll usually have the battery in the handle, which will be the only thing safe to touch. Likely to overlap with Variable-Length Chain espically if the whip is pure elecricity.

Obviously a Sub-Trope of Shock and Awe and Enhanced Archaic Weapon. Likely an Elemental Weapon in a setting with elemental powers. Can also overlap with Chain Pain and Whip of Dominance. Although not the same as Chain Lightning, it may have this effect as well.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Angelic Layer: A minor Angel illegally wields electric whips.
• Darker than Black: Hei uses a steel wire as his primary weapon. Not only is he able to choke people to death with it, he can also conduct his electrical discharges through it.
• Hoshin Engi: Shinkohyo wields the strongest paope known as Raikoben ("Thunder Lord's Whip"), a whip resembling an ice-cream cone with three ribbons on top that can release massive lightning capable of untold destruction. Most notably, the Raikoben is among the few paope which aren't taken from the original source (Fengshen Yanyi) but an original creation which also makes this version of Shinkohyo/Shen Gongbao an Adaptational Badass.
• Hunter × Hunter: Riehlvelt's "True Snake Revealed — Thunder Serpent" technique involves him turning on the electricity to his whips if his opponents manage to grab either or both of them. He ordinarily does not begin a fight with them activated — rather, he lures opponents with fast reflexes into catching them so they'd be more vulnerable to electrocution.
• Magi: Labyrinth of Magic:
  • Myers specializes in lightning magic and can channel electricity through her whip, an ability which has earned her the nickname "Thunder Whip".
  • By using the power of the Lightning Djinn Baal, Ja'far can channel electricity through his rope darts.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Galla of the Six Knights of Black fights with an energy infused whip. By spinning it into a circle it can release a blast of energy.

Comic Books

• 2000 AD: "Electric whips" are a recurring background weapon in the setting, appearing primarily in Judge Dredd and Flesh.
• Astro City: El Hombre had a special, high-tech titanium-steel whip that can snap bullets out of midair and shock villains into submission.
• The DCU:
  • Batman: Digital Justice: Catwoman's update for the story's cyberpunk setting includes electrifying her traditional whip.
  • New Gods: Lashina of the Female Furies has electrically charged steel whips that can extend, retract, and wrap around targets.
  • Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom: One of the Darkseid's gladiators uses a whip which is made of pure electrical energy.
  • Wonder Woman: Cassie Sandsmark's lasso can channel Zeus's lightning.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Constrictor, a recurring minor villain, can extend cables made of either adamantium or vibranium (depending on the story) from the arms of his suit that are electrified and deliver powerful shocks upon hitting their targets. In one particular instance, after hitting Luke Cage with shocks that would have knocked out a normal person but only irritate Cage, Constrictor deals Cage a shock that he claims nearly felled the Incredible Hulk (referencing an earlier fight between the two).
  • Several unrelated characters going by the name Whiplash have used these:
    • Iron Man: Marco Scarlotti is an enforcer for the Maggia who uses deadly whips, one of which is electrified.
    • Thunderbolts: The team has a husband-wife team called Whiplash (the wife) and Blacklash (the husband) who wield electric whips in all two issues they appear in.
  • X-Factor (2006): In issue #218, Black Cat uses grappling hooks to deliver an electric charge to Rococo. Rococo isn't affected much by it, but it turns out that this was a distraction to put a tracking device on her.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): After becoming a Cyborg, Lien-Da gains the ability to generate and control electricity. This includes shaping it into a whip.
• Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: Kho Phon Farrus wields an Ascendant artifact called the Whip of Sorrows which can capture and redirect energy.

Fan Works

• Ashes of the Past: Sparky the Raichu can use his psychic powers to shape his electricity into electro-whips.
• Autobot Academy: Beta Levo's talent lets him create an energy whip that comes out of his left arm.
• Destiny Intertwined: Electric dragons with sufficient control over their element can produce long, whip-like tendrils of electricity from the corners of their mouths. These are often used to administer corporal punishment within electric clans.
• Earth-27:
  • Whisper A'Daire's signature weapon is a red energy whip.
  • Fury uses an Apokolyptian energy whip.
• Galactic Voyage: Transformers: Tailwhip's... whip can be electrified.
• Hegemony: Catra uses an energy whip in the first chapter in an allusion to the show. This goes further when she later needs a weapon, as she gets an electrified whip specifically requested to even her out with Adora.
• Heroes Never Die It's Hero Time: Thundershock's quirk allows her to attack with a whip that electrocutes her targets.
• Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Easter can create a whip made of lightning.
• JoJo New Universe: Antoinette Dupont's Stand has powerful electric (eel) whips for weapons.
• Shadows Over Hell: Charlie uses a whip infused with pink lightning as her primary weapon.
• Super Smash Bros. Crusade: Gooey uses Rick's Spark ability, which is otherwise the Beam Whip from Kirby's Beam Ability, for his forward-Smash.

Films — Animation

• Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion: Yin fights with a whip that channels electricity and can fire condensed balls of lightning.
• Ne Zha: Shen Gongbao's sword can transform into a segmented, electrified whip that electrocutes those it ensnares.

Films — Live Action

• Black Mask: In the final battle between Commander Hung and Black Mask, the Commander detaches a thick electrical cord sparkling with static electricity and tries whipping it at Black Mask as an Improvised Weapon.
• Deadpool 2: Yukio wields an electrified whip.
• Iron Man 2: The villain Ivan Vanko, one of the incarnations of Whiplash, uses both an exoskeleton and a suit of Powered Armor that have whips with enough electricity flowing through them to cut through cars like butter. His Father, Anton Vanko, is not the Anton Vanko who became Whiplash in the books but is instead based on the Ivan Vanko who was the first Crimson Dynamo before his Heel–Face Turn and Heroic Sacrifice in the comics, except for the Crimson Dynamo, Heel-Face Turn, and Heroic Sacrifice bits.
• Kingsman: The Golden Circle: The Southern Gentleman Agent Whiskey's melee weapon of choice is a lasso that can be energized to shear through anything it touches, like a lightsaber.
• The Last Jedi: Finn realizes how loathsome the people of Canto Bight truly are when he sees them using electro-whips to abuse the Fathiers. The stable owner even threatens the children slaves to do the same to them.
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie:
  • Adam's frog zord has an Overly-Long Tongue that can channel electric currents.
  • Averted with Kimberly's "Pteradactlyl Thunder Whip". Despite what its name implies, it doesn't channel electricity at all.
• Pacific Rim: Uprising: The Jaeger Guardian Bravo is armed with the Elec-16 Arc Whip, an almost indestructible whip capable of delivering extremely powerful electric shocks.
• Secret Headquarters: One of Jack's gadgets is an energy whip that can levitate magnetic objects and taser people.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Among the titular rings' many uses is forming an electrified chain, though it seems to rely more on the blunt impact of the rings themselves than actual electricity.
• The Super Inframan: Dragon Mom's preferred weapon, while in human form, is her electrified whip.
• Time of the Apes: Gebar has an electrical whip which he uses to discipline his subordinates for the slightest transgression.
• Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The Autobot Jolt fights with a pair of electric whips, which he uses to generate an electromagnetic field to bond Jetfire's remains with Optimus Prime.
• Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact: Baltan's left hand can summon an electrical whip that he uses to restrain Ultraman.

Literature

• Flyover City: Lilywatt has whips that she charges with electricity.
• Fractured Stars: Prisoners on Frost Moon 3 are punished with an e-whip, a lightning-like cord of energy that leaves deep burn marks.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: Jiang Cheng wields Zidian, a whip made of purple lightning. One strike from it can force spirits out of the bodies they're possessing. It originally belonged to his mother, Yu Ziyuan.
• Horus Heresy: Corvus Corax uses an electrified whip as his middle-range weapon. In Raven's Flight, he muses that he's chosen it because the irony of a weapon of oppression being used by a warrior of liberty is just too delicious to let pass.
• Star Wars Legends: Lumiya favors a lightwhip, a whip designed from a lightsaber and similar in use. However, since the whip part is made of energy, they're harder to handle than lightsabers and more dangerous.

Live-Action TV

• Andro Melos: Gina's Bat Whip emits an electromagnetic wave to empower her hits.
• Babylon 5: "The Summoning" has a particularly nasty variation, as the whip's charge increases after every hit, becoming fatal after forty lashes. Emperor Cartagia uses it on G'Kar to try and get a scream out of him. He ends up swallowing his pride and screaming at the thirty-ninth lash.
• Doctor Who: In "The Christmas Invasion", the Sycorax are armed with energy-charged whips capable of vaporising humans with one lash, to tie into their slaver gimmick.
• Engine Sentai Go-onger: Kegalesia can imbue her whip with electricity to make the attacks really hurt.
• Kamen Rider Gotchard: By using the Chemies Junglejan and Raidenji, Gotchard can access the "Lightningjungle" form. This form's abilities including shaping lightning into whips.
• Lab Rats: In her second appearance, Giselle uses an electric whip as her primary weapon. It's sharp and powerful enough to smash cameras and cut through steel.
• Star Trek's Ferengi were originally armed with electric whips in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was one of the only cool things about them, and since the writers quickly realized that these guys would not work as intimidating villains, the whips were dropped.
• Supergirl (2015): Livewire uses her Shock and Awe powers to create whips made of electricity in most of her appearances. In "We Can Be Heroes", the super-soldiers copying her powers do the same as well.
• Ultraman Taro: The major Arc Villain, Alien Temperor, can generate electrified whips using it's pincers, which he uses to great effect lashing out at the Ultra Brothers. This ability is one of Temperor's trademark abilities, which is carried over in his subsequent appearances in movies and video games.
• The Untamed: Like in the novel, Jiang Cheng inherits his mother's weapon Zidian, a whip made of purple lightning.

Tabletop Games

• BattleTech: The Neural Whip is a hand-to-hand weapon that's based off the more common stun stick. Despite being designed as a non-lethal weapon, it's extremely brutal, using electric shocks to cause debilitating pain in the victim and repeated use can cause permanent brain damage. Its use was banned by the Star League, the Federated Suns, the Lyran Commonwealth, and the Capellan Confederation. It's used as a dueling weapon among the Clans and as torture device by pirates and bandit kingdoms.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In 5th Edition, the "Lightning Lure" spell strikes a nearby enemy with an electrical lash, dealing lightning damage and pulling them towards the spellcaster.
  • The archdevil Moloch's weapon of choice is an electrified scourge.
• Magic: The Gathering: Livewire Lash is a whip that lets the creature using it to repeatedly damage an opponent.
• Pathfinder:
  • A kineticist who specializes in the air element can charge a whip (or any other weapon) with electricity, or manifest a whip made of pure electricity, with the right talent selection.
  • A Nephlei cloud nymph can fashion a whip out of the air around her, which deals electric damage and dissolves if ever taken from her.
  • Starfinder: One variety of robot dragons is equipped with a charged metal whip that can extend out of its mouth.
• Star Wars: Legion:
  • Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldiers can be equipped with an electro-whip that gives them a hard hitting melee weapon that immobilizes their targets.
  • One of the IG-100 MagnaGuards' Heavy Weapon choices is the electrowhip, a melee weapon that can attack up to range one, and can add Immobilize tokens on the target.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Agonisers, popular close combat weapons among the Dark Eldar, are energised whips that latch onto the target's nervous system to directly stimulate their pain sensors, instantly incapacitating or killing the unfortunate victim.
  • Belisarius Cawl's arc-scourge is an electrified metal lash that can strike several foes at once.
  • Chaos energy whips are triple-tailed, metallic, electrified whips fitted to Chaos Titans. They are intended to overload the void shields of enemy titans and burn out their delicate circuitry.
  • Inquisitor: The Electro' Nine Tails is an electrified, multi-tailed whip intended to represent the harsh discipline common in Imperial Navy. In-game, it does similar damage to a short sword but has a longer reach, is more difficult to parry and has a chance to stun its target.
  • Necromunda: 3rd Edition introduces shock whips, long, coiling weapons that are popular amongst the more experienced members of House Escher. When fully energised, a shock whip resembles a handheld bolt of lightning that can incapacitate enemy fighters with the slightest touch.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has the card Bolt Penguin, who is described as having electric whips as its arms, and uses them as its weapon. Another card, Electro-Whip, is an Equip in the form of an electrically-charged whip.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Hewkii uses Electrified Chains as his secondary Toa Tools, capable of delivering a powerful electrical shock and can even be used to charge his Aqua Warblade with the same element. He was able to subdue and defeat an enlarged Gadunka with it.

Video Games

• Azure Striker Gunvolt: Creepy Electro-Whip Guy (yes, that is actually what he's called until the OVA and third game in the series give him the name "Romeo") uses an electrified whip to torture Gunvolt during the prologue mission. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't realize that his prisoner wields electric powers until after Gunvolt recharges his energy from his "interrogation".
• Battle Arena Toshinden: Sofia's Thunder Ring special attack fires a lightning projectile from her whip.
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: With certain skills, Nisha can unleash a lightning bolt by cracking her bullwhip.
• Castlevania:
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance: Equipping the Vampire Killer whip with the Yellow Stone grants it lightning powers.
  • Castlevania: Bloodlines: John's Lightning Whip sub-weapon uses eight hearts, but can be lost if he takes a hit.
  • Castlevania: Lament of Innocence: The Whip of Alchemy can be upgraded to the Whip of Lightning after defeating the Thunder Elemental boss.
  • Castlevania: Curse of Darkness: The Vampire Killer can be enhanced with a number of elemental abilities, including thanks to magical stones.
  • Castlevania Grimoire Of Souls: This game features a number of lightning whip weapons such as the Bladed Whip, Shock Whip and Raijin.
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Raise has an Improvised Weapon variant where she rips out live electrical cables and uses them to attack Dracula.
• Dead Cells has three whip weapons, one of which, the Electric Whip, auto-targets a nearby enemy, deals splash damage, and deals shock damage over time.
• Demolish Fist: Vanity, the third boss, uses an electric-powered metal whip as part of her dominatrix getup.
• Dicey Dungeons: The Electric Whip in the Halloween Special deals damage to the enemy but inflicts Shock on the user, disabling random equipment on their next turn.
• Dota 2: Razor wields a lightning whip as his weapon of choice. As a warden of the Underscape, he hurt those to make them move quicker to the other side.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: Pride demons form whips of lightning as one of their preferred tactics.
• Dragon's Dogma: The spell Brontide summons a magical whip of pure electricity.
• F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch: Rayton's Whip weapon is composed of electricity and typically used for stunning enemies and dealing dozens of rapid-fire attacks.
• Gears of War: Deadeyes are only Deebee that has a unique execution, which involves them tying an electric whip around downed players' torsos and shocking them to death.
• God of War III: The Nemesis Whip is a whip-like weapon consisting of two sets of three blades connected by a series of chains. It also charges Kratos' melee attacks with electricity, allowing him to electrocute his foes and activate certain machines.
• Granblue Fantasy: Ferry's recruitment weapon is the Ethereal Lasher◊, a magical whip where everything but the handle is pure magical energy, which takes the form of greenish-blue lightning. However, the description says that it can theoretically take on "countless forms".
• Guild Wars 2: One ability available to elementalists is to attack their enemies with a whip made of electricity.
• Gundam Evolution: The Marasai's Sea Snake weapon is a whip-like weapon that can stun enemies via electricity.
• Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine: In the final level, Indy can electrify his signature whip and actually has to do so to defeat the final boss.
• Into the Breach: The Lightning mech's primary weapon is the Electric Whip, whose primary selling point is its Chain Lightning ability.
• Kingdom Rush: The Brutes wield a pair of enormous plasma whips, which they use in their AoE "Cool Energy Whips" attack.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby can copy the Waddle Doo's Beam ability, which allows him to wield a series of linked electric orbs like a whip.
  • Kirby Star Allies has a mechanic where elements and weapons can be combined, and the "electrified whip" variant can be made when the Zap element is applied to the Whip ability.
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Seonhee in her Assassin class has a special skill called "Voltaic Whip," where she uses a power cable to as a whip to electrify enemies and can also paralyze them.
• Mass Effect 3: One of the enemies resulting from Cerberus' Super-Soldier Phoenix Project are Dragoons, heavily armored soldiers armed with a sub-machine-gun, and two energy whips, which are used for sweeping melee attacks as well as casting biotics. In the multiplayer, they were Promoted to Playable, with Defector from Decadence Dragoons having a Vanguard's Foe-Tossing Charge, as well as some of the most powerful biotics period, able to attack enemies through walls.
• Mega Man X: Command Mission has Ferham, who uses an energy whip as her weapon of choice. Strangely, despite the whip making electrical effects in cutscenes when cracked, she's actually a Water element boss.
• Onslaught grants you a laser-whip as melee weapon against hordes of alien insects. It's surprisingly effective, slicing apart monsters with a single whip and can even take down clusters of enemies in a single swing, allowing you to save ammunition, though it does need to be recharged periodically.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: The Shocktether Photon Art has the user grapple a single target and pump electricity through them. Repeatedly pressing the button increases the number of hits and thus the potential damage.
• Primal: Jen's Wraith form wields an electricity-based purple whip.
• Ragnarok Online features Electric Wire, whip-class weapon that's literally just a still electrically-charged wire, and the more bizarre Electric Eel, which is a, well, electric eel used as a whip-class weapon.
• Raiden: The lightning whip is one of the best power-ups available for players, accessible by collecting two purple power cells, which turns the titular plane's machine-guns into an electrified whip that slaps around the screen, taking every enemy that gets into it's way. By collecting three or more purple cells, and the electrified whip becomes as thick as the player himself and electrocutes enemies en masse, and deals serious damage to bosses. It looks as awesome as it sounds◊.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: You can acquire the shock ravager, a weapon of the pure electricity variant, which upgrades to the more powerful lightning ravager.
• Rockman Xover: Oro S wields an electrified whip with a tip shaped like a lightning bolt.
• Sin and Punishment: Star Successor: Orion Tsang forms an electrical chain whip when fought.
• Sonic Forces: The Ivory Wispon allows the Avatar to attack enemies with a lightning whip.
• Steel Assault: Taro's default weapon is his trusty electrified whip, which can cover quite some distance ahead of him and take down large groups of enemies in a single blow. It's even more effective than the firearms used by the mooks and can destroy tanks and machines easily.
• StreetPass Mii Plaza: Rescuing someone wearing a light green shirt in Mii Force allows you to use their Ensnaring Plasma, a long malleable line of electricity that damages enemies by latching onto them.
• Streets of Rage: The dominatrix enemies use whips, which are electrical starting with Streets of Rage 2.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game: The Roadkill Rodneys are robots that attack by shooting out a metal cable that wraps around a turtle before electrocuting them (complete with X-Ray Sparks).
• Warframe: The Lecta and Secura Lecta are half whip, half taser weapons.
• X2 has an energy whip as one of the later obtainable power-ups, which covers large portions of the screen in a wide sweeping arc, electrocuting everything it comes across. It appears to be lifted directly from Raiden.
• XCOM 2: The Skirmisher's Whiplash ability allows them to strike an opponent with an electrified lash.

Web Animation

• Dreamscape: Soya can shape lighting bolts into whips.
• RWBY: Ilia fights with a Whip Sword called Lightning Lash which can fire electricity in sword mode and deliver an electric charge to opponents when it snares them in whip mode.
• Kaiju Girls: In her kaiju girl form, Ran Kogami's "tail" part on her back can be detached to use as a whip and conducts electricity.

Webcomics

• L's Empire: Daisy gets a chain whip infused with lightning powers thanks to Pix's fusion abilities during the tail end of the PQ Saga. It eventually becomes an Ancestral Weapon, as Rosa is shown wielding in the following arc.
• Yokoka's Quest: Mao sends lightning coursing down his whip to shock Yfa and Cadmium in battle.

Web Originals

• Arkn: Legacy: For'ende's signature weapon is an electrified whip, which he calls "Voltage Cleave".

Western Animation

• Egyxos: Kha's primary weapons are a pair of chains tied to his arms, electrified thanks to magic, that he uses like whips.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021): R'Qazz's whip can run an electric charge for an extra bite.
• Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5: Zemerik's main weapon, and his car's, is an energy whip.
• Justice League: In "The Once and Future Thing: Time, Warped", the Dee Dees fight using electric whips. They use these to kill Terry McGinnis.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Mugato, Gumato", the Ferengi poachers use the traditional Ferengi energy whip returns to corral the mugatos and attack the Cerritos crew.
• Star Wars:
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Zygerrians use electro-whips to keep their slaves in line.
  • Star Wars Rebels:
    • "Crawler Commandeers": The foreman has an electro-whip. He manages to disarm and knock out Kanan with it thanks to the element of surprise.
    • "Trials of the Darksaber": Sabine obtains vambraces that have electro-whip among their gadgetry.
• Steven Universe:
  • Befitting her role as a disciplinarian to the Quartzes of the Human Zoo, Holly Blue Agate's gem weapon is an electrified whip.
  • In the Light Trilogy (Attack the Light, Save the Light, and Unleash the Light), Amethyst can electrify enemies with her whip to disable them for a few turns or until they're hit with another attack.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The "Mutant Apocalypse" three-parter features Mira, a mutant meerkat who fights with an electric whip.
• Teen Titans (2003): In "Birthmark", Dr. Light's upgraded suit is equipped with a whip made of light that snaps Robin's staff in the Batman Cold Open.
• Transformers: Prime: Wheeljack makes use of an energy whip during the third season.
• Young Justice (2010): Aqualad can do this channeling electricity through a water whip.

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