Weapon Of Choice - Television Tropes & Idioms

Pick your poison.

This is similar to Personality Powers, but with weapons. Basically, in various works of fiction, characters tend to possess weapons that are either a direct reflection of their personality or the traits commonly deemed to their character type.

This is frequently used to depict a character as having a similar personality type to another famous character who used the same weapon. This is also basically why you don't see ogres with rapiers or ninjas with clubs. The martial arts allow this trope to survive as Pastimes Prove Personality.

This trope is named after the Fatboy Slim song, mostly because it had a cool video featuring Christopher Walken. However, before the song, Star Wars action figures would list a character's "Weapon of choice" on their bios.

Sword: The heroic lead usually winds up wielding the iconic broadsword in the west. The katana often takes its place in the east. If both katanas and broadswords are present, the katana will invariably be in the hands of the Badass, because Katanas Are Just Better. Rapiers and smallswords typically go to swashbucklers and foppish characters, while the big two-handed blades, if they're not in the hands of the hero, usually go to The Big Guy. Of course, swordsmen (regardless of sword type) are often Not Compensating For Anything. If they're trying way too hard to be cool, they'll use two swords, or a single really big one.
Axes: Proud Warrior Race Guys tend to get axes. This probably is due to the fact that Tolkien's dwarves, one of the most prominent examples of the proud warrior race, favored axes. A favorite of the Ax Crazy. Also a favourite of the big guy who doesn't have a club (see below), in which case it will be a simple enormous, double-edged job. The Berserker (who could be seen as the intersection between the preceding tropes) often favors an axe.
Clubs/Hammers: Big and brash characters, like a giant ogre or The Big Guy, just need the bluntest weapon they can muster: A giant club, mallet, or mace. Dwarves tend to like hammers, too; probably because they like forging so much. Size for size, hammers are heavier, slower, and harder hitting than axes. Smaller, more manageable versions are sometimes favored by paladins and priests or monks who frown upon shedding blood, but have less compunction about causing concussions and breaking bones; this tradition dates back to the fighting priests of the Crusades, who used maces for the same reason, and Dungeons And Dragons popularised the image in the modern day.
Staves: Wizards and other wise characters that rely on talents other than brute force to deal with conflict still sensibly bring at least a staff for protection. This covers the Staff Chick and the Black Magician Girl, both of whom typically use them. Again, a favorite of monks and also martial artists who aren't monks. There is some overlap with the "improvised/strange weapon" category, as it includes innocent-looking canes and "sports equipment" such as bowling pins and hula hoops.
- Staves that shoot stuff, for when you need the ability to beat things over the head and shoot people in a single package..
Fists: Any person who carries no weapon when everybody around him is carrying one is either cocky enough to believe that he doesn't need a weapon, or highly-skilled enough to know that he doesn't need a weapon. The two are generally completely opposite in characterization, with the cocky version generally being a braggart and a bit of an ass, and the other being contemplative and spiritual to the point of being a Martial Pacifist or a Warrior Therapist. Or they're just a Technical Pacifist. Be warned, however, that the latter level of expertise may also contain the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy, who really is as good as he brags about. However, some others...
- Gauntlets and Such ...compromise with practicality. Though some have little choice in the matter.
- Greaves These are fighters from a martial tradition (almost exclusively Asian) who are nonetheless using "greaves," the metal shin guards worn by European knights. Such fighters use their feet as their primary attack options: what would be the point of wearing metal boots if you intended to punch someone? Technically, gauntlets and greaves are armor, not weapons... But since when has that stopped anyone?
Flails and other chain weapons: Halfway between a whip and a bludgeon, a big spiked ball on a chain can make for an intimidating weapon. As such, they tend to be wielded by equally intimidating brutes and other scary characters. Many more varieties of chain weapons exist in the east; nunchaku, kusari-gama, multi-sectional staves and the like. These are wielded by showy martial artists demonstrating their prowess, evil martial artists hoping to confuse the nice guy with a scary foreign weapon, or by Highly Visible Ninja who should know better.
Strange weapons: If a character is just improvising and ordinarily goes unarmed, he's probably the Unlucky Everydude who just got caught in a fight (like most of the characters Jackie Chan plays). If someone regularly goes around with a weapon like this, they're not totally connected to reality — either The Ditz or the Cloudcuckoolander. This category may include such sports equipment that does not fall under Staves, above, such as baseballs, hockey pucks, and the like.
Bows: Characters with composed personalities are archers. This again has roots in Tolkien, where the elves typically were depicted as being able to stay composed even in extreme duress. The Sniper Rifle is the modern day equivalent although Bows can still be seen.
- This does not apply to gimmick archer superheroes who tend to be impulsive as a reflection of their ability to pull dozens of different superpowers out of their backpack at a moment's notice.
Guns: In a setting where guns are rare, they will be mostly the province of The Smart Guy. In settings where they are more common, they take the place of swords, with the largest going to the hero and the most distinctive going to the Badass. In any case, the protagonists are invariably impossibly good shots, while the Mooks suck.
- Pistols: The trusty pistol is a favorite of Gunslingers of all stripes. If the setting is one in which everyone uses firearms, The Hero and the Big Bad are the most likely to use these. A Badass Longcoat, of course, will walk around with the katana of pistols, the revolver (especially the Magnum ones).
- Shotguns: For pure stopping power, there's no better. The Bad Ass Anti Hero, The Dragon, and the Zombie Apocaylpse survivor will invariably carry around a 12-gauge (particularly of the sawed-off variety).
- Rifles: Death from a distance. A favorite of the Cold Sniper and other people looking to reach out and score a head shot.
- Automatics: If it's not a war movie, then any sort of automatic weapon will be carried by the Mooks, due to their ubiquitiness and lack of style. The exceptions are Uzis and other sub-machine guns, which may be given to the Bad Ass (especially if they're dual-wielded), and the...
- Chaingun: A huge minigun is the favorite weapon of The Big Guy, as well as some particularly intimidating Dragons.
- Explosives and other Big Weapons: Any sort of oversized gun, including rocket and grenade launchers, may find similar use in the hands of The Big Guy.
- Flamethrowers: Are a favourite of lunatics.
Scythes: Especially for villains and goths despite being very impractical to actually fight with. Associated with death. It should be noted that a scythes can be made into an effective weapon by reattaching the blade so it extends upright from the pole. Alternatively the Chinese had a workable version even before that. These more effective designs are rarely seen in fiction. Oddly enough, rarely if ever used by farmers, who prefer...
Pitchforks: The official weapon of the unruly mob, this is normally used by a farmer or small-town folk defending his home. Shotguns and hunting rifles can also fill this niche in a modern setting.
Polearms: Usually, a polearm - such as a poleaxe, spear, halberd, or any other weapon that's a long stick with something sharp and metal on one end - is the province of hapless Mooks: city guardsman, honor guard, Spear Carrier and so on. Anyone who needs something long to cross over a portal to prevent someone from entering will use a polearm. When not in the hands of mooks, they are the weapon of choice for calm collected individuals. Occasionally an RPG will have a powerful weapon that happens to be a halberd (probably the best polearm design ever conceived, as it can stab, slash, thump, and trip) or spear (as it has all sorts of cool connotations of being "ancient"), but you're damned if you're gonna find any ancestral bec-de-corbins in any medieval-flavored fantasy novel anywhere.
- See here for a lovely little summary of medieval polearms, straight from the weapon tables in the first edition of AD&D. That, and the obligatory Monty Python joke.
  - Here as well.
- One particular Japanese polearm, the naginata, is often found in the hands of a Far Eastern Lady of War. This has historical precedent, as women of the nobility and samurai caste in medieval Japan were typically trained to use the naginata for defense of themselves and their households.
Trident: The weapon of sea gods like Poseidon, Proteus and Nereus and merpeople is now the weapon of anyone associated with the sea or water. Not entirely contrived, as the trident was originally a fishing spear, hence its pairing with a fishing net in the hands of a retiarius (a type of Roman Gladiator).
Whips: Whips tend to be found in the hands of cowboys, swashbuckling characters, certain vampire slayers, archaeologists, female villains with a thing for tight leather and a dominatrix streak, brutal slave drivers and torturers.
Curved Weapons: Hooks, sickles and other such things tend to belong to psychos for hire and similar characters. The same is true for weapons that are notably serrated.
Knives: Ninjas and assassins go for the lightest and smallest tools. Even most Ax Crazy characters prefer using knives — though their knives will usually be broader and longer, such as chef knives or machetes. A knife wielder is usually swift, fierce and pragmatic, going for a quick kill instead of a lenghty battle. If a character specializes in throwing knives, he's probably either very flashy (a la the circus knife thrower) or extremely subtle, with weapons hidden all over his body.
Chainsaws: Chainsaws are a very intimidating weapon usually only wielded by those who are truly Ax Crazy. But certain heroes have also made use of them, particularly those who fight zombies, demons and other nasties.
Magic Wands — Not so much a weapon for "beating them over the head" but rather "blow them up with a bigger fireball." More of a favorite with wizards, witches and such than staves, but they often combine them for the best of both worlds. Not necessarily always a wand, this covers any object used for spellcasting.
Baseball Bats/Lead Pipes — The preferred weapons of street fighters and urban brawlers from bad neighborhoods, especially in the US. (Cricket bats may also be used, but this is more likely to be played for laughs or be ineffectual, unless of course the setting is the UK or Australia). Is often something of a throwback to the image of a big angry guy with a club coming towards you. Also tends to be the weapon of choice when someone is caught in a surprise emergency and has to grab the closest thing to them they can use as a weapon. Thus it can suggest either brutal, simple, unsophisticated violence or the desperation of someone clutching one in a time of crises.
Fundamentally Absurd Weapons — Often a game will have a weapon that makes the aforementioned scythes look simple and logical. These objects almost always appeal to the Rule of Cool, and are ridiculously overpowered. Napalm Chainsaw-Nunchuck-Missile-shooting Double Gunswords, anyone?
Shields: Surprisingly rare for major fictional characters. Usually meant to be used alongside another one-handed weapon (such as the good ol' sword and board), but many characters will use only a shield, usually as a Technical Pacifist or matching their personality as either defensive and fragile, or protective of others. Or simply as an Improbable Weapon. Shields are almost always near-indestructible, magical or made of Unobtainium.

Of course, any true Troper's Weapon of Choice would have to be a Big Freakin' Gatling Shotgun that can be Dual Wielded with a Detachable Chain-Bladed Laser Katana. Anything else just pales in comparison, save for the Giga Drill Breaker. For non-weapon examples, see Tell Me How You Fight.

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