"We have a saying in Belka. 'If you're an ambassador of peace, don't carry a spear'."
— Vita, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (Actually, it's not a saying, it's the punchline to a joke)
Weapons are designed to hurt. Their names, however, may not reflect this.
The goal of the 'defending' faction in most wars is to defeat the enemy and achieve peace and, as a result, a weapon may be named for its supposed purpose of achieving peace. 'Peacemaker' seems to be a popular choice.
Usually played straight, although a satirical work might play this trope for laughs (in which case the chances are high that someone will crack a "peace through superior firepower" joke). Compare I Call It "Vera".
Usually a Weapon for Intimidation, though with a possibly more family-friendly name.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Pacifista units in One Piece. Basically, huge nigh-invulnerable Artificial Humans with Frickin' Laser Beams. Ouch.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, this appears to be ZAFT's rationale behind the names of the Freedom, Justice, and Providence Gundams. The former two get used by the heroes, the latter is used by the Omnicidal Maniac.
- The Peacemakers in Scrapped Princess are humanoid weapons that routinely wipe out swathes of the population to keep the country in a Medieval Stasis.
Films — Live-Action
- In Danger!! Death Ray, the titular invention is said to have been created for "peaceful purposes" by its inventor. Naturally, Mike and the Bots pointedly ask why the heck you would call it that, if it was so friggin' peaceful.
- Things to Come. Wings Over The World drop the Gas of Peace on those who fail to recognise the benefits of their One World Order.
Literature
- Detritus of Discworld has a one-man siege crossbow he calls 'the Piecemaker'. The spelling is intentional, since the arrows shatter into a cloud of burning splinters on firing. Presumably, moments after, so does the target...
- ... and the door in front of the target. And maybe the wall behind the target too...
- The novel The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders is about a future United States where the Department of Defense was renamed the Department of Peace.
- Similarly, Nineteen Eighty-Four's Ministry of Peace.
- In Known Space, the "Wunderland Treatymaker" was a huge Death Star-like disintegrator weapon that razed a Mars-like planet's surface to the point where they had to rename the planet Canyon.note The Kzinti soon surrendered after it was deployed, so it lived up to its name.
- In Atlas Shrugged, there is a weapon of mass destruction that uses sound waves to disintegrate anything. While it is still an unfinished secret project, it goes by the more sinister name of "Project X," but the finished product, which is known to the public, it is called "The Thompson Harmonizer," apparently a reference to its alleged goal of keeping society "harmonious" by intimidating those who disagree with the government.
- Although, the title may also be implying how the device operates by referencing the weaponization of harmonic frequencies.
Tabletop Games
- Exalted has several:
- The Realm Defense Grid is the main protective measure Creation has against the forces of the Wyld. In the First Age, it was known as the Sword of Creation, capable of redirecting elemental Essence from the entire world to nuke entire legions five times over — but the Scarlet Empress, who now is the only one with access, didn't want her subject nations to feel so threatened by her world-sized cataclysmic superweapon. Well, you know, it's a defensive measure; it just happens to have a bit of kill-everything-in-this-subcontinent applications.
- Octavian, one of the Demon Lords and Archdevils of the setting, has a giant club called Equitable Resolution. Given Octavian's brutal, tyrannical personality, the name is clearly ironic.
- Munchkin has the Cheese Grater of Peace.
Video Games
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker thoroughly deconstructs this trope.
- In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, FOXALIVE.
- The biggest, baddest gun in Jak II: Renegade is named 'Peacemaker'. It can be taken literally; while the other three guns require quite some skill to be effective, you just point it in the general direction of an enemy and pull the trigger. One of the strategy guides lampshades this, noting that "Piece Maker" would be a more appropriate name.
- Lampshaded in Ratchet: Deadlocked with the Arbiter, so named because Ace Hardlight used it to settle a legal dispute. When upgraded, it becomes the Silencer.
- The Future trilogy brings us fellow rocket-launcher the Negotiator and its upgrade the Judicator.
GrummelNet Vendor: The Negotiator wins every argument by blowing your opponent to smithereens! - There is also a formerly high-level polearm weapon in World of Warcraft called the Peacemaker.
- Unreal Tournament has The Redeemer, which is a Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke. In-Universe, the Flak Cannon weapon classifies, with the Mark III in Unreal Tournament 2004 taking the nickname Negotiator and the Mark IV in Unreal Tournament III being named the Peacekeeper.
- In Supreme Commander, one of the Cybran weapons is named Liberator. It's a strategic missile launcher.
- Many of the Aeon weapons have nice, peaceable seeming names, like the Mercy guided missile and the (actually purely defensive) Asylum shield vehicle.
- Gamma from Mega Man 3 was built to be a "peacekeeping robot." How a four-story tall robot is supposed to "keep peace" is not explained.
- Some of the Advent ships in Sins of a Solar Empire have peaceful, religious names. For example, the Illuminator Vessel "illuminates" others by hitting them with bright long-range energy beams. Then there's their powerful capital ships with names like Radiance, Rapture, Revelation, and Halcyon (a mythical bird said to calm waves).
- Both PlanetSide games have the Liberator; in the first game, it's a high altitude bomber capable of dropping cluster bombs or tank busters. In the second, it's a gunship with a quad Gatling gun turret on the belly that can be swapped out for different cannons. The Terran Republic MAX exo-suit can use the Mercy arm-mounted mini gun, and completing the TR's Assault Rifle Directive grants access to the T1A Unity assault rifle, "a key weapon attributed to helping bring Earth together under the Terran Republic's harmonious rule."
- Final Fantasy VII: One of Vincent Valentine's guns is named Peacemaker.
- Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising: The Pretentious Latin Motto of the game (and of the Antaeus and its crew) is Pugio in Averso Belli; "A Dagger Against War". The Antaeus is the last Creation Engine-carrying warship on Earth, and in the story it's being used to put down a band of Evil Reactionaries who want to resurrect the military-industrial complex.
Webcomics
- Simultaneously used and averted with the "Serial Peacemaker," the protagonists' heavily-armed warship in Schlock Mercenary.
Kevyn: The more I think about it, the creepier it gets.
- Part of the plot of Darths & Droids involved the plans for a 'Peace Moon'. AKA The Death Star.
Real Life
- Nukes are often referred to as 'the deterrent', the idea being that their existence alone is enough to make enemy countries think twice before attacking. Of course, if two huge countries have nukes...
- The Colt Single Action Army revolver is often referred to as the 'Peacemaker', because of its use in duels and as a self-defense weapon.
- Peacemaker was also the name given to the Convair B-36 strategic bomber.
- The LGM-118A Peacekeeper, also known as the MX missile (for Missile-eXperimental), was a land-based ICBM deployed by the United States starting in 1986. It was originally planned to be called "Peacemaker", but at the last minute was officially designated the LGM-118A Peacekeeper.
- Various countries have renamed their Department or Ministry of War to Department/Ministry of Defence. This shift—which generally occurred after World War II—was partly a result of a change in attitude (it being no longer acceptable to wage aggressive war), and partly a result of the fact that the previously-existing "War Departments" and "War Ministries" had been strictly in charge of the country's Army, with the other military branches having their own bureaucracies. The new "Defence" bureaucracies integrated all branches under one roof; as nobody wanted to give the impression that the Army was taking over the other branches, a new name was needed, and when you combine the shift in attitudes with the fact that "Ministry/Department of the Military" or "Ministry/Department of the Armed Forces" sounds a bit off or awkward in most languages, you can see why they went with "Defence."
- Subverted with the 9x19mm Parabellum round. Si vis pacem, para bellum' means "If you wish for peace, prepare for war.", but the round's name just uses the "for war" part.
