"When a good time turns around You must whip it You will never live it down Unless you whip it No one gets their way Until they whip it I say whip it Whip it good" — Devo, "Whip It"*
Although the song is not actually about this trope, the music video is.
A bullwhip's signature cracking noise is a miniature sonic boom. It's about as close to the Stuff Blowing Up type of coolness as you can get without infringing upon Fantasy Gun Control. A whip is also, basically, more or less a long piece of leather rope. In video games, action adventure and fantasy tales, some characters will show how extra badass they are by using a bullwhip or other flexible weapon as their primary armament, as well as employing it for a Building Swing.
If this person is a woman (and they usually are) she is likely to also have a Stripperiffic costume resembling a dominatrix outfit, and will probably be The Vamp.
This, of course, ignores the fact that whips are generally impractical weapons in close combat or in combat situations of more than one on one. In light of this, most whips will be weaponized by adding blades, making them out of chain link, being electrified or just magic in order to be a more convincing weapon, while maintaining the cool sexiness. Also, they're often employed to instantly tie up an enemy, despite being designed to avoid tangling. Less enthusiastic authors settle upon emphasizing disarming, tripping and choking attacks, which is "coincidentally" compatible with the Thou Shalt Not Kill approach.
See also: Weapon of Choice and Variable Length Chain. Want to badass it up a bit? Try using a Whip Sword.
Sister tropes: A Taste of the Lash, Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off, Chain Pain.
Eclair from Kiddy Grade. Though she's a cyborg with superhuman strength and is good with guns, one of her trademark attacks is to use her apparently magical lipstick to write her name on the wall and lash her enemies into submission.
The Harpie Ladies from Yu-Gi-Oh! use thorned whips as extra weapons.
Jim Crocodile Cook of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX wielded a whip, one would think for keeping his pet crocodile in line.
The psychotic digital pet owner also used a whip.
Aki Izayoi of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, when her psychic powers are combined with Black Rose Dragon and Splendid Rose.
A minor Angel in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer illegally wielded electric whips. This was the only thing in the series that was illegal, besides disrupting an opponent's control over his or her Angel (as shown in the Fujisaki arc). Rewriting the Layer matrix, Beam Spam, suddenly growing wings, Super Strength due to programming glitch: these things were fine.
It should be note that the battle the whips were used in was an informal battle. Icchan, the game's creator, still didn't like it.
Mew Zakuro's Zakuross in Tokyo Mew Mew is a laser whip with a cross for a handle.
In A's and StrikerS, Signum's sword Laevatein can transform into the "Schlangenform" (snake form), which is essentially an impossibly long bladed whip.
Louise of Zero no Tsukaima always keeps a riding crop on hand for... controlling... Saito ("Stupid dog!!!"), usually when his Male Gaze gets the better of him. She can't entangle him with it, but it works well for discipline. When that doesn't work, explosive magic is always next.
Same goes for her older sister, Eleonore. Which happens to make Louse cower in fear.
In Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus has the "Venus Love-Me Chain" - a magical chain of hearts that's essentially a whip. Sailor Moon R's villainess Calaveras, Venus' sort-of Evil Counterpart in the Black Moon clan, also used a whip as her weapon.
In the Manga and Live action, Venus is shown to wear the chain as a belt when not in use, in the anime she summons it and it is much more magical. It also gets upgraded a few times in the manga.
Don't forget Sailor Lead Crow, who already looked like a dominatrix to begin with. Later, her boss, Sailor Galaxia, is shown to wield an energy whip in an attack named "Galactica Super String"
Ishtar, another evil verison of Venus, albit from the Video Game Sailor Moon: Another Story, also uses a whip, though it's just because all the Opposito Senshi reuse the Ayakashi Sisters' attacks in battle
VesVes and Tiger's Eye also carry whips.
The Vamp secretary Kalifa in One Piece weilds a spiked whip in her double life as a secret agent.
Dino from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! wields one of these as a mafia boss, but manages to subvert the trope by only being good at doing so when his subordinates are in the direct vicinity. Without them, he manages to hit everyone else but his contender with it.
Now his student, Hibari Kyouya, appears to have taken after him. By wielding two bladed chain whips attached to his tonfas.
Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho wields a "Rose Whip," a thorn-covered vine whip metamorphosed from a rose.
Tira Misu (yes, it is a very, very Punny Name) from Sorcerer Hunters wields a whip to great effect in battle, but its most common use is whipping Carrot's monster form into submission. Her older sister Chocolate wields razor wire, but the effect is much the same.
Given a Shout Out in Slayers, where Lina Inverse (also voiced by Megumi Hayashibara) uses the spell Balus Rod to summon a whip and attacks a monster while shouting "Call me queen!"
Haruki Emishi in Get Backers is known as the "Fresh Blood Joker" for his skill with the flexible-yet-strong-as-steel Loulan Dancing Whip, and how he laughed at his enemies' spraying blood.
BC from Vandread handles a mean whip during a fight with the leader of a space station and when defending against aliens.
In Kaleido Star there's a handsome circus artist named Dio, whose trusty show artifact is his whip. He's often shown throwing roses at the audience and then using the whip to slice them, showering the viewers in petals.
In X, Yuuto Kigai's main weapon is a whip with a sai dagger attached to its end.
The Heat Rod is a whip-like weapon that appears on several Humongous Mecha from the Mobile Suit Gundam multiverse, most famously the MS-07 Gouf (but not its successor, the MS-09... which is strange when you consider its name was Dom). In the Universal Century it's a metal tentacle that can be electrified. In Gundam Wing it's a super-heated Whip Sword. In Gundam Seed Destiny it resembles the UC version but can also be super-heated. In G Gundam, Cute Bruiser Allenby's Nobel Gundam is equipped with energy whips that look an awful lot like decorative ribbons.
Hei in Darker than Black 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. Though he usually hurled knife tied to the wire, which is more sensible in regards of both ballistics and conductance.
Aswad member Lumen from Mai-Otome carries a pair of whips that combine into a Double Weapon in their unused form. Rosalie also uses one as her Element.
Ray in the manga Gorgeous Carat. He even uses it on his future love interest.
Ippei Mine has a whip in Voltes V and swings it around in the OP.
I'm shocked. Everyone have conveniently forgot about the one-and-only 4th Angel, Shamshel◊???
In Digimon Adventure 02, the Digital Kaiser/Emperor was armed with a riding crop, which he frequently used on his partner (Wormmon) and other mind-controlled minions. It wasn't particularly effective in fighting Takeru/T.K.
In Digimon Tamers, Rio uses an energy whip from his Digivice to reign-in his berserk Cyberdramon. No one else's Digivice has this ability, and it doesn't appear to be triggered by any of his cards.
Anime-only Knight Templar Angela of Kuroshitsuji has a rather...interesting torture scene with Sebastian that makes you wonder if the cameraman ought to leave the room. Of course, in the second to last episode, that is played with even more, when Angela's male form asks Sebastian to become one with him afterward. Sebastian replies with wondering if he is just a toy to Angela.
In episode 7, Angela is the one who gets whipped.
In Gash Bell, Sherry Belmont wields a staff that can change into a whip, enabling her to actually fight alongside Brago if necessary. Hmm...Belmont, whip...
In Pokémon Special, Clair is given a whip for Poké Ball launching. She also uses it as a weapon for fighting other people.
In Hunter × Hunter, at Heaven's Arena Killua fights Riehlvelt, a dude in a wheelchair who is armed with two snake-headed electrified whips. They don't work on Killua.
An episode of Ah! My Goddess had Aoshima sic two thugs armed with whips on Urd. Urd catches the ends, quips "This is how you use a whip!", and punishes them by Dual Wielding their own weapons on the three of them.
Urd also swings a chain around like a whip while on her way to confront Hild in an episode of the second season. Also, Peorth uses her vines as a whip against Keiichi when she tries to help him get over his Can Not Spit It Out problem.
Lucy, from Fairy Tail, attacks by means of stellar spirits, but she has a whip. Strangely, she tends to be clad in black when the whip makes an appearence, and being this Fairy Tail, it has Dominatrix airs.
Mahou Sensei Negima! has an odd variation of this with Makie, who's capable doing the whole Indiana Jones swinging bit, picking up and throwing objects (and people)...with a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon.
There was also that infamous incident when Haruna traumatizes her friends by drawing a doujin of herself whipping them for not letting her in on The Masquerade sooner. Naturally, she's dressed like a dominatrix.
Shirin from Harukanaru Toki no Naka de can turn her trademark weaponized roses into thorn-covered vines, occasionally using them as whips.
Coburn, a protagonist from the manhwaPriest, uses an ordinary whip.
Kirby's foe Meta Knight used a whip once, possibly as a reference to Zorro.
In Ookami-san, Momoko Kibitsu uses a whip against a school full of dangerous delinquents.
The warden of the Cassandra prison in Fist of the North Star basically used dual whips as main weapons. When things got tougher (i.e. seeing that they didn't work on Kenshiro), he pulled out many more of them, concealed in the horns of his helmet. Still, whoever has the least bit of familiarity with the series can see where it all went (especially since he was one of the last enemies before Raoh's proper introduction in the story).
General Cloud Nine in D. Gray-Man and Lulu Bell. The anime adds this conversation.
Cloud Nine: "Maybe I should whip you [to make you work]."
Maetel of Galaxy Express 999 uses a whip from time to time, usually to disarm someone.
The Big O. In episode 25 "The War of Paradigm City", Agent 12 of the Union uses a whip several times.
Comic Books
Catwoman is the quintessential comic book example. It's worth noting that the movies and cartoons always show her with a bullwhip, when in the comics, she uses a cat o' nine tails (a whip with multiple ends tied to metal balls). (Wasn't always the case. The whip has changed styles a few times in the comics, I don't know if there was ever a reason given.
It is sometimes explained that she chose the weapon due to its difficulty of use, if someone managed to disarm her in a fight they'd be unlikely to be able to use it against her effectively.
Catwoman once took the time to explain the fact that a whip's crack is the sound barrier being broken, after she uses it for a Groin Attack on Prometheus.
Catwoman: Did that feel like the speed of sound, Mama's Boy?
Whiplash (a.k.a. Blacklash), a minor Marvel Comics villain, has an electric whip. He typically uses this to fight Iron Man, which if nothing else takes serious cojones.
He's since died, but been succeeded by a couple who took both identities as Blacklash and Whiplash. They also took the whip theme and the severely S&M gear themed Blacklash costume and ran with it, being bondage fetishists before becoming villains.
His daughter also took up his mantle once.
Now they introduced a Whiplash similar to the movie version.
In The DCU, there was a minor Golden Age hero called The Whip (essentially a Captain Ersatz of Zorro). His granddaughter briefly resurrected the name, dressed in the obligatory Stripperiffic costume. She was killed on her first day.
By a God.
It wasn't her first day. She'd been a superhero for a while, that was just her first team up, and she was inexperienced in fighting threats like that.
Lady Lumiya, who debuted in a Marvel Star Wars comic, used a lightwhip, which was actually a lot cooler than it sounds.
Especially considering she used it to hand Luke Skywalker his ass on a plate in their big showdown. Lumiya and her light-whip made a return in the Legacy of the Force series, and she even wrenched off Luke's mechno-hand in a duel.
Luke stomps her in their next fight by dual wielding lightsabers to first destroy her whip then her.
The squid-faced Sith Lord Darth Maleval used a shock-whip in Star Wars: Legacy, making him one of the most badass of Sith in his single, one-shot appearance.
The Sith woman Githany, of the Old Republic era, also utilised a lightwhip quite effectively. There have been a few others, too.
The DCU also had Mr America (a.k.a. the Americommando) who was a master of the bullwhip.
One arc of Sandman Mystery Theatre featured a villain/vigilante called "The Scorpion" who coated the tail of his whip with a scorpion venom which was almost instantly fatal.
In the G.I. Joe: Movie Prequel comic, The Baroness displays a previously unsuspected facility with a bullwhip.
Rum, Sodomy and the Lash from Empowered. That's only one guy, by the way. Oh, it used to be a team of three dudes, but long story short the one who was previously just "the Lash" had to take over the whole name after a while. One wonders how the other two fought.
The Tarantula, a foe of the Marvel ComicsWestern hero the Phantom Rider, wielded a cat-o-nine-tails as his principal weapon.
In the American Sonic the Hedgehog comics, Lien-da was seen with a whip during the 'Return To Angel Island' arc. Though she mostly used it for flirting, the entire outfit she'd been given with for that arc was designed to resemble a dominatrix.
El Hombre in Astro City, who is essentially Batman with the Zorro influence magnified dramatically. His sidekick Bravo wielded the relatively similar bola.
For a single page, Miho uses a long chain-hook in the Sin City tale, Family Values. It hooks into a mobster's eye-sockets and yanks him down the hall.
One of the vampires in the movie Underworld attempted two razor-whips against a very big werewolf. It didn't work.
The prequal establishes that whips were fairly effective against lycans' more bestial ancestors, which lacked the conscious determination to ignore pain.
One of the villains of the movie Drive used a whip to nasty effect on the hero's black sidekick Malik Brody during one of the final showdowns, even calling him "boy" as an old-style slave-driver would. When the sidekick turns the tables on him, he tells him off as he delivers a savage beating of his own with the butt of a gun:
Malik Brody: You pulled a whip on me? Are you out of your fucking mind? Let me tell you something — DON'T YOU EVER PULL A WHIP ON A BLACK MAN AGAIN!
In High Plains Drifter Marshal Duncan was whipped to death in the street. Yes, you can be whipped to death. The Stranger then gets revenge on those who did it and he whips one to death in the flame-lit street and hangs another with a whip.
Unforgiven, another Clint Eastwood western, also features a whip-related death; that of Ned, William Munny's black friend, at the hands of the antagonist Little Bill, which sets up Munny's final revenge.
In the film adaptation of Johnny Mnemonic, the yakuza assassin has a whip housed in his thumb that uses his fake thumbnail as a ballast. It glows like some sorta laser-whip, though in the short story it's just monofilament.
Of course, having an incredibly sharp, incredibly thin weapon glow so that you know where it actually is at a given moment isn't the worst idea in the world...
I always figured that it was done so the audience knew where it was and what was happening, sort of a whip version of Every Bullet is a Tracer.
A memorable scene from Glory features Denzel Washington's character being lashed with a whip for disobedience.
In Brotherhood of the Wolf, the Big Bad wields a sword made from a spine that can break apart into a scourge-like whip. It is almost certainly stolen from Soul Calibur.
From Iron Man 2 we have Ivan Vanko, who wields a pair of Arc-reactor powered whips that have pretty much the same functionality as a lightsaber. Because he's a composite character of the aformentioned Whiplash and the armored Crimson Dynamo, we have a climactic battle with a suit of armor with even bigger whips.
In Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem, one of the new weapons the Predator has is a whip which can slice a xenomorph in half.
In the film version of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part One, Bellatrix Lestrange wields a whip against a group of Snatchers.
Both the Colonel and one of his henchmen in The Warrior's Way display expert skill with a bullwhip. The Colonel wraps the lash around Ron's before dragging him through the town behind his horse. The henchman uses it to yank Lynne's feet out from under her during the fight in the Colonel's room.
In the intro for Toy Story 3, Woody is shown to be quite adept with a whip.
In the SyFy movie Beyond Sherwood Forest, one of Sir Guy's henchmen has whips tied to his arms, Whiplash style, which doesn't help him when a dragon catches one in her mouth.
Literature
In a non-sexualized example, the Balrog from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings wields a huge whip alongside a sword. All the Balrogs in the The Silmarillion have one. Or so it seems.
The titular heroine of Forever Amber uses a horsewhip to attack her husband, who has tried to poison her. A blow from her servant finishes him off.
Drow high priestesses from R.A. Salvatore's Homeland and Sojourn use whips. Six-thonged, living, snake-headed whips that deliver poison when they bite. Compliment them on their Stripperiffic bondage outfits at your peril.
The Yuuzhan Vongs' melee weapon of choice, the amphistaff, has a whip form (in addition to spear, staff, sword, and probably some other ones...). Said form is typically used to disarm, or to get the weapon's head (literally, as it's a living snake-like creature) behind an enemy. Slightly better for use as a weapon than a normal whip, since it's venomous.
The amphistaff can be completely stiff for use as a staff or club or completely floppy for use as a whip. Most Vong carry it wrapped around their arm in the floppy state and stiffen it to the stafflike state when ready for combat. Does This Remind You of Anything??
Benvenuti from Eric Flint's Joe's World series favors a whip in combat. It's not very deadly, but combined with the right words, can be terribly demoralizing.
In Redwall, Cluny the Scourge uses his own tail as a whip, mostly to instill fear and deal out punishment, but can be equipped with a poisoned barb to become a very lethal weapon.
Mariel's weapon of choice is a salt-water soaked rope with a knot at the end.
A scene in Farmer Boy, one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, has a schoolteacher use a bullwhip to succesfully defend himself against six boys who made a habit of attacking the teacher.
While it's pretty easy to sympathize with the teacher (the "boys" are at least in their late teens, and students had killed the last teacher who'd worked in that area), the fact that that whip is clearly being used as a weapon in that scene makes it pretty disturbing later on when nine-year-old Almanzo expects to be whipped with it for getting stove polish on the nice parlor wallpaper. We already knew from earlier that Almanzo's father whips his sons with actual whips, but that thing is described as being fifteen feet long with a lead-weighted handle that can kill an ox.
In Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire books, and especially in The Currents of Space, soldiers employed "neuronic whips", which caused extreme pain to whatever part of the skin they touched.
The noun is used metaphorically. These are actually guns which shoot AgonyBeams
In J.T. Edson's Calamity Jane novels, Calamity's preferred weapon is a bullwhip.
William Gibson occasionally writes whips into his stories:
In Johnny Mnemonic, the yakuza assassin's thumb detaches to provide the ballast for a monofilament whip housed in his hand. He uses it to battle the razorgirl Molly Millions.
In Neuromancer, Case is desperate for a weapon and winds up with a whip called a "Cobra." The whip looks like a cylinder with a pyramid on top until the pyramid is pulled and the whip coils out, using the pyramid as ballast. Case never uses it and quickly ditches it after he finds a gun.
The example in Neuromancer is actually a collapsing baton. The tip of the telescoping section is usually weighted with a spherical or pyramidal end.
InThe Seventh Tower, Milla eventually gets to use a light whip. A homing light whip.
Isabelle in Mortal Instruments uses a whip when she fights demons, one which can somehow cut through flesh and bone. It's partially magical, however, which explains its unusual cutting capacity.
A traditional weapon of the garuda from Perdido Street Station. Yagharek wields a bullwhip to good effect in the closing chapters, despite it not being as well-designed for combat as the ones used in his homeland.
Live Action TV
Star Trek's Ferengi were originally armed with electric whips. This was one of the only cool things about them, and since the writers quickly realized these guys would not work as intimidating villains, the whips were dropped.
Red Dwarf references a "holo-whip" on a few occasions, a weapon that apparently hurts both humans and holograms and can be utilized by either.
One is actually shown in the episode "Angels and Demons", wielded by Evil Bondage Rimmer.
One Saturday Night Live skit was about a fictional show called The Whipmaster, about a cowboy in the Old West who fought with a whip rather than a gun with enough extraordinary skill as to disarm gunslingers, snatch cigars out of peoples mouths, and retrieve objects and saloon girls... feats the regular actor's stand-in was hilariously unable to replicate.
In Deadwood, Calamity Jane briefly displays her prowess with the bullwhip.
In Babylon 5, G'Kar is nearly killed by the Centauri when the Emperor orders him whipped. The laser-whip used to punish him delivers a harsher shock with every lash. The Emperor sits and rapidly counts out the lashes to be administered while Lando watches.
An epsiode of How I Met Your Mother had a sub-plot in which Ted was given a whip and a fedora upon becoming a professor. Marshal, the friend who gave it to him, demands they go outside and play with it. One Gilligan Cut later and Marshal is shown holding a bruised jaw, telling Ted, "The whip is not a toy". He is later seen playing with it, however.
Lady Heather on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has one because she's a dominatrix, or was one, and she uses it on the guy who killed her daughter.
Music
Devo's "Whip It" is the Trope Namer, but they claim it was meant to encourage Jimmy Carter, then the "whip" for the Democratic Party.
Jimmy Buffet's song "Desperation Samba (Hollywood in Tijuana)" has whipcrack sound effects. . . provided by Harrison Ford.
Newspaper Comics
Mrs Pruneface from the Dick Tracy strip, although there was nothing fanservice-y about this grotesque character.
The Clanners in BattleTech use laser guided whips in their single combat duels, and as discipline in basic training.
Mina Devlin runs Black River Rails in Deadlands. Given her sadistic streak, it was only a matter of time before she wound up with a rail enforcer like Violet Esperanza. Given her sadistic streak (and her penchant for using her drop-dead looks as a weapon), it was only a matter of time before she started using a weapon designed to cause pain without causing the sweet release of unconsciousness. Given the nature of the Weird West, it was only a matter of time before Violet's whip became a Relic, capable of doing more damage than most rifles...but only when Violet wants it to.
The standard whip is a fairly underpowered weapon. In earlier editions, it deliveres a mere 1d2 damage (1 for Large target) and does not belong to any other weapon group. In 3.5, the weapon is Exotic, requiring characters to devote a feat to use it properly, and still does hardly any damage. It is treated as a ranged weapon with a 15' range, meaning that it uses Dexterity rather than Strength and does not threaten. Although they bumped the damage up to 1d3, it is completely incapable of damaging any opponent wearing armour at all. Its main use is for applying trip and disarm attacks at a longer range and by Spellswords to deliver ranged touch attack spells from a greater distance.
In 3.5 Bards, rather oddly, start with proficiency in whip. Given that they only cost a handful of gold and the ability to trip or disarm at range can be quite useful in the right situation, there's no reason why you WOULDN'T pick one up, just in case.
In some versions, a scourge (cat-o'-nine-tails) is essentially the same except its damage isn't quite so pathetic.
The spiked chain, introduced in 3.0, is a far more effective weapon. Though Exotic and dealing a little less damage than most Large melee weapons, it has nearly every special ability a weapon can have and, almost uniquely, threatens all squares out to 10'. A character willing to devote almost all his feats to the task could be very effective with it.
The Balor demon (called a Balrog in earlier editions before the Tolkien estate sued) uses a whip as a weapon.
There are many whip variants introduced in a variety of supplements, including the Drow Lash of Torment (which has broken glass attached to it and hits the user on a miss if the user isn't a Drow) and a perfectly nonmagical Bladed Whip
Though much shorter and less flexible, the flindbar (favored weapon of a species called flinds) works a lot like this trope. It's a nunchaku variant used to disarm opponents.
As well as Chaos Lords of Slaanesh, whose daemon weapons are whips.
There's also a Slaaneshi psychic power called the Lash of Submission, which creates an immaterial whip that places the target under the controll of the user.
Bloodthirster of Khorne often carry whips, but they mainly use them to drive lesser daemons into frenzy or to hit enemies trying to stay out of their melee range (in close combat they rather use enormous daemon-axes.
Satyxis Raiders of Cryx and Bloodrunner master tormentors of the Khorne in the Iron Kingdoms setting use bladed whips.
The villainous version of Cinderella in the D20 game Grimm is more than a little Axe Crazy and has an aversion to being touched due to her years of abuse (she married Humpty Dumpty because he didn't want to... ummm... you know). Now she uses a thorned scourge to torture her sisters and pretty much anyone else who bugs her.
In Shadowrun, the most effective melee weapon is the monofilament whip, which delivers a terrific amount of damage at long range and is quite concealable. It's effectively a strand of molecular-width wire with a weight on the end to allow it to be used as a whip. Like much of Shadowrun's world, it's ripped from the works of William Gibson.
Right up until you roll a fumble and whip off your own face. Many characters, both in the in-game flavor text and the novels, remark that using a monowhip in combat is very scary, but also insane.
A normal whip in GURPS does little damage and penetrates armor poorly but is basically impossible to parry. Monofilament whips do moderate damage, go through armor like it's barely there and are liable to slice your head off.
Video Games
Castlevania. No whip in videogame history is as well known and respected as a weapon as the Vampire Killer.
Brought to the pinnacle of video game perfection in Super Castlevania IV. Simon can whip in any of the eight directions and can control his whip when brandishing it about as realistically as you could in real life.
Parodied in Robot Chicken, where two werewolves mock Simon Belmont for using a whip. He then starts whipping them. While not fatal, it is damn painful, so they take him to Dracula. Dracula similarly mocks him, and receives the same punishment. The werewolves, looking on, wonder "what kind of a sadist uses a whip?" See it here.
For the sake of extra info: Note that the Vampire Killer is generally at its weakest as a normal whip, though the 3D games are exceptions. In the 2D titles, the whip has two power-up stages, both of them chain-based whips with different lengths, and a mace on the end, which makes the whip a far more effective weapon. It also helps that it was created through alchemy to be deadly against the forces of darkness - it's called the Vampire Killer for a reason. As well, the Belmonts can also set the thing on fire and Bloodlines includes the ability to turn it into a lightning whip. Bloody awesome.
Also, it contains the soul of the matriarch of the Belmont clan, Sara Trantoul, who was killed by vampires. Chances are a spoon would have miraculous vampire-killing properties if Sara was in it.
In Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, there's one stage where you can choose to play as Princess Leia in the infamous Go-Go Enslavement outfit. (keeping with the movie, it's the level where you fight Jabba the Hutt). Her weapon is a broken chain which she uses as a whip. Through the use of a debug code, you can also play EVERY SIDE SCROLLING STAGE in the game this way.
Franziska Von Karma in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney constantly carries a whip, which she uses on nearly everyone she meets. Her favorite victims are Phoenix and Gumshoe — she seems to consider it almost affectionate, by the end, never mind that that thing hurts — but no one is spared, with the exception of Pearl Fey (which probably would have killed any possible sympathy for her) and Godot (whom even she isn't willing to cross). Also notable in that she completely averts a Stripperiffic outfit, even to the point of constantly wearing gloves (at least while on the job).
In case four of Ace Attorney Investigations, she carries a riding crop instead. You really have to wonder about her home life.
The "Linda" enemies in Double Dragon came at you with whips, as well.
Final Fantasy IV's Rydia is an aversion; in her adult form, she wields a whip, but she's not otherwise sultry or vamp-ish.
Her use of the whip is probably related to her ability to summon and command magical beasts. It's a crappy weapon, and generally the worst offensive option for her in any fight. Then again, given that she's the party's Black Magician Girl on top of being a Summoner means that "Fight" is usually the last command you should be selecting in the first place, unless you're the kind of player that doesn't use Ethers. Whips have the capability of paralyzing enemies, but still...
And then, in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, the Blue Dragon enemy has a chance of dropping the Dragon Whisker, a whip with an attack of 110, the chance to cause paralysis, and deals extra damage against dragon-type enemies. This allows Rydia to effectively deal with a good chunk of enemies in the final dungeon, as she deals as much if not more pain than Cecil or Kain.
Izayoi from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years equips whips or bows, despite her art depicting her with a dagger. She can still equip ninja swords, but she generally ends up with either of the latter 2 since none of the other ninjas can equip either of those. There's also a set of Queen equipment that includes a whip (which can turn enemies it hits into pigs, aptly enough), it being the only whip that a Staff Chick and a rebellious kung fu princess can use and former of which is involved in a whip-based Combination Attack with the above-mentioned ninja, an female assistant to a handsome but somewhat weak king and a Stripperific summoner, aptly called Call Me Queen.
Final Fantasy V has whips as a type of weapon (used by Beastmasters). In the advance port one of them even comes with a Shout Out to the titular song.
Vanille's weapon in Final Fantasy XIII is a binding rod, combining this trope with Magic Wand. The resulting weapon functions somewhat like a fishing rod.
Whips are an invaluable weapon type in Dragon Quest games, having the ability to hit groups of enemies. Usually the strongest whips in the game are capable of hitting all enemies.
In Dragon Quest VIII, one of the weapon types Jessica can wield is a whip, which allows her to attack multiple enemies at once. It's arguably her best weapon choice, especially once she learns the deadly Twin Dragon Lash.
In the game Runescape, one of the most powerful melee weapons is a whip called "The Abyssal Whip."
It's basically a barbed, spiked, linked chain wielded in the style of a whip that has a whip sound effect when it strikes.
Although slowly getting bested by the likes of the God Swords, and other high-leveled weapons, the Abyssal Whip is still an amazing weapon. Did I mention it now comes in several colours?
Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur has a segmented blade that she uses like a whip, with full dominatrix implications in some of her attacks and victory animations, AND a wonderfully Stripperiffic outfit. Basically, a direct manifestation of this trope.
Though related, her weapon is another trope alltogether
Spike Rosered/Axel the Red from Mega Man X 5 uses a whip as his primary weapon.
Bart from Xenogears uses a whip as his primary weapon, and so does his Gear; the Gear's whips are called Heat Rods as a Shout Out to Gundam.
In Devil May Cry 2, The Despair Embodied (the final boss) can switch between a male and female form. True to this trope, it's the female form that can use a flaming whip.
Zero's Chain Rod in Mega Man Zero 2 is a powered whip, capable of grabbing walls and ceilings, yanking enemies' shields off, and even draining their energy.
Rospark from Mega Man ZX Advent has a pair of whip-like vines used both as weapons and as means of locomotion. Thanks to the wonders of A-Trans, the protagonist gets them as well...after recycling him, of course.
This whip-based game probably never saw the light of day, but it sounded cool. (The designer went on to work for Moby Games.)
In Suikoden, a few characters use whips. Many of them are animal trainers, but one of the deadliest examples is Lucia, a Proud Warrior Race Woman. In the second game, she uses it as a tool of bloody vengeance, doing hundreds of points of damage per turn. In the third game, she returns as the main character's mother. Both times, she's definitely notThe Vamp, despite her weapon choice.
While not an actual weapon in game, Vaida from the seventh Fire Emblem game is shown with a whip in her official artwork.
However, enchanted whips are used to promote pegasus knights and wyvern riders.
Lemeza Kosugi uses a whip as his starting weapon in La-Mulana. This is due to the character's basis on Indiana Jones, and the gameplay's basis in Castlevania. (There are two hidden, tricky ways to upgrade the whip to a mace-like weapon, and there is a way to further power it up that involves finding a Castlevania ROM.)
In Phantasy Star Universe, specifically in the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion, whips are a class of weapon available to a minority of classes, those being the primary magic-user and the remaining two, hybrid magic-users. Popular for their ability to inflict Standard Status Effects with every hit. Since classes are independent of gender or race, anyone can Whip It Good in this game.
While whips aren't available as weapons in World of Warcraft, the Succubus demon (one of the Warlock class minions) uses one.
In Heroes of Might and Magic, dark elf matriarchs dress in dominatrix gear and wield whips. (These dark elves are clearly based on the female dominated drow from Dungeons and Dragons.) (Yeah, they probably have nothing to do with similarly half naked dark elf witches from warhammer. And the dark riders also are nothing similar to dark one riders.
Skyward Sword brings back a version of the whip, which is even cooler thanks to Motionplus.
In the second Neverwinter Nights expansion, the Valsharess wields a whip. (She's a caster, though, so she hardly ever uses it.) As queen of the Drow, this isn't a terrible surprise, of course...
Given the content, it should come as no surprise to the reader that A Dance with Rogues contains a large number of whip-wielding opponents and whips among treasure caches. Especially in the pervert cult temple and in the Drow house
Ōkami has a version of this. Amaterasu can equip rosary as her primary weapon that she uses in a whip-like fashion.
One of Morrigan's more memorable winposes in the Marvel vs. Capcom series has Lilith descending from the sky bound at the wrists while Morrigan changes to a dominatrix outfit, whip at the ready. This was supposedly taken out of the American version, but I (and a number of concerned parents) still saw it.
Kratos from God of War has magic blades attached by chains to his arms that he uses like whips - in one scene in the second game you even use them to drive some giant stone horses. It's actually different version of the blades with each game (the first is the Blades of Chaos, the second is the Blades of Athena and the third game gives you the Blades of Exile).
God Of War III gives you the Claw of Hades, which basically whip around Kratos and differ from the Blades of Exile.
Not to mention the Nemesis Whip. Shorter range than the Blades of Exile, but electrified.
In Etrian Odyssey, the Dark Hunter class has the option to use whips. The females in particular like to dress in scant leather outfits, and they all sport skills such as Climax and Ecstacy. They even specialize in tying up enemies and their Dominate skill lets them completely bind and gag an enemy without fail. In Heroes of Lagaard they are a favorite for their ability to instantly kill most enemies, including some bosses, once said enemies are at 55% HP or lower.
In Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the Dark Prince uses a chain whip to both whip his enemies and strangle them.
And another one like the Fire Emblem example: the Trainer's Whip in Golden Sun: The Lost Age is not a weapon, but a class-changing equip item. The class set that it produces is based around summoning, unsurprisingly.
Being based off of Indiana Jones, the Archaeologist class in NetHack has a whip as their default weapon.
As the game is based on D&D 1st edition, the weapon is fairly underpowered.
In Rumble Roses, one of the weapons is a riding crop. In addition to doing damage, it can humiliate an opponent. While any character can pick it up outside the ring and use it, one of the characters(Mistress Spencer, who is the heel version of Miss Spencer, former goody two shoes school teacher current dominatrix to the point where she's sitting on a SLAVE CLOWN in her entrance) actually STARTS the game holding it. While she's the only one that starts with a weapon, she's not any better at using it than the other characters...and a weapon is almost useless at the beginning stages where the enemy is healthy enough to fight back.
Wizardry 6, 7, and 8 all feature both bullwhips and cats o nine tails as weapons. The former is a weak extended-range weapon suitable for spellcasters, the latter is a genuinely powerful weapon in its own right - not the equal of the unique, named weapons, but as good as you can get up until that point. Notably, you acquire the first bullwhip in Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge by looting it from the Queen's secret compartment, along with the Studded Leather Bra +2 (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like, and the narrator sputters as he describes it). While the whip is a good replacement for a mage's staff at that early point, the bra, when used on a thief, is the best armour they can get for most of the game.
Cham in Valis III wields a whip to compliment Yoko's sword and Valna's magical staff.
The Supernatural power set in Champions Online has a few powers that utilize a chain as a whip, including grabbing and yanking the victim towards you.
Several enemy mooks use it as well, including the punderfully named Chainganger.
In Mitsumete Knight R, the whip is Linda's Weapon of Choice. It doesn't help that one of the multiple outfits and armor she can wear is a dominatrix-looking one, and that this specific outfit gives her boosts.
In the Streets of Rage series, the dominatrix enemies use whips to fight. Those whips are electrical ones starting from Streets of Rage 2.
Whips and scourges occasionally turn up in Dwarf Fortress, and function quite realistically; they take the fewest hits to make an opponent pass out from pain, short of critting with a slashing weapon and severing a limb, but their base damage is atrocious and they're useless against armour. Considered something of a Joke Weapon as a result.
Occasionally verging on Lethal Joke Weapon or Death of a Thousand Cuts. Dump an unarmored goblin into a room full of whip- and scourge-based weapon traps, and just see how very long it takes them to die, and how much blood they lose before then.
In the current version, however, whips function as laser-guided killing machines, effectively ignoring any armor the target is wearing and doing way too much damage, due to some errors in the way stats represent its physical characteristics (part of a weapon's damage is now based on weight, but it uses the weapon's entire weight instead of very small part making contact, making it more like getting shot with a bullet).
Jack Skellington uses a goo-like whip as his main weapon in the game Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge. At its base level it does everything you would expect a whip to do. Leveling makes it, in attack chains, form a scythe and flail at the end. It also makes a cyclone when he holds it out and spins himself around.
One of the selectable weapons in Secret of Mana is a whip. Bit weak, but it's required to move around certain areas by swinging across gaps.
Several of the larger demon enemies in Diablo 2 use whips, in particular the Overlords from the Lord of Destruction expansion. Perhaps in the 3rd installment the player will be able to equip one?
Tempest in Lunar: The Silver Star used whips. This was removed in the remakes in favor of bows.
In Bayonetta, the demon Kulshedra is captured and resurrected as the game's whip weapon, and it even has the ability to grab enemies by holding down the attack button. When playing as Jeanne, this is replaced with Vritri, a green whip to Kulshedra's purple.
In City of Villains, the Demon Summoning powerset uses a hellfire whip for a few attacks.
The demon summoner Desdemona exemplifies this trope, from the blazing whip to the absurdly low-cut leather outfit.
Whip-esque weapons can be bought and equipped in Lufia 2, but only by female characters. Tia's combat sprite is holding a whip.
Kirby gets the softest version of a whip in Kirby's Epic Yarn; where, like everything else, it is made out of yarn.
Also, in the "normal" games, he gets to copy the Waddle Doo's Beam ability, which attacks with an **electric whip.
Alex Mercer has the Whipfist, a mutation that turns his arm into a black, flexible and extremely extendable whip-like appendage. If yout think that's not cool enough, the most basic attack can slice a human in half. And then there's the secondary attack which singles out a target and can destroy an attack helicopter from up to 30 meters away, even while falling. And after an upgrade, can even be used as an impromptu grappling hook to catch someone from afar. And it has cool consume animations to boot.
The Soldier from Team Fortress 2 can unlock a riding crop as a melee weapon. In addition to killing enemies, albeit with less damage than the standard melee weapon, he can whip his own teammates to give them and himself a temporary speed boost.
Dark Souls feature a whip as a weapon. In its description, it is already said that it is not meant for combat; not only it has slow attack motions, wielding a whip deprives the player of the ability to backstab and parry, for obvious reasons. It can however, be upgraded to fire or lightning weapon, significantly increasing its combat ability. There is another weapon called the Notched Whip, but is more of a Whip Sword rather than a true whip.
Oddly enough, Forte always carries around a riding crop, despite never using it and is more of The Gunslinger. Of course, being the eldest of the Angel Brigade, she does get to train the younger ones (especially Chitose), but she never, ever uses it. Lampshaded when Noah points out that Forte cannot be the one person she's looking for by the bad way she swings her riding crop.
Webcomics
Wanda Firebaugh from Erfworld uses a cat-o-nine-tails in her "hobbies" of torture, interrogation and, well, BDSM, while wearing appropriate outfits.
Brunhilda in The KAMics likes whips, but she's a danger to everyone around her when she starts wielding one.
Act Five gives us the trollAradia Megido, who had a whip in her room, and apparently looked up to Troll!Indiana Jones. Though her powerful telekinesis obviates it's use as a weapon, she does perform the grappling, swinging acrobatics with it while investigating a ruin.
The tall, tough, and sexy Jun of Avatar The Last Airbender. However, she uses the whip for controlling an animal instead of as a weapon (she seems to actually fight with just her fists). Reality Is Unrealistic indeed.
In The Boondocks Grandpa Freeman can wield a belt with incomparable skill. Apparently beating one's grandson with a weapon enough times allows you to develop enough skill to disarm an angry pimp.
That incident apparently made her realize the benefits of carrying around a whip even while on the side of good - she uses one in a later episode to (literally!) disarm one of Mozenrath's undead servants.
After his initial appearance, Killer Moth of Teen Titans is shown with an energy whip. He later gives it to his daughter.
Leobreaker of Transformers Cybertron uses his beast-mode tail as a blade-tipped whip in robot mode. Good for dealing with missiles and lighter Decepticon fliers who stray too close.
A Beavis And Butthead Christmas special had a segment where the two reply to viewer mail - Butt-head is dressed as Santa in a sleigh, and Beavis is up front in a reindeer costume and harness, with a bit in his mouth. Butt-head doesn't spare the whip. Pretty disturbing stuff.
In Dragon Booster energy-whips became common weapons over the course of the series, along with various forms of staffs. The energy whip's main difference form a normal whip was that it had a node on the end that could attach to a target to drain their mag energy. The main whip-user in the series was Anti-VillainEnsemble Darkhorse Moordryd Payyn.
Sometimes it crossed into mild Accidental Nightmare Fuel when a person was caught between two or more energy whips at once. And the pained yells anyone made when their energy started draining.
In Filipino Martial Arts, a whip in the hands of a skilled user can be incredibly dangerous. Especially when used to blind an enemy.
There's a style of Eskrima, a Dual Wielding based martial art, that involves a whip and dagger.
It should be noted, that "crack" sound? That's the end of the whip breaking the sound barrier. So yeah, it's gonna hurt like hell if you get hit with that.
In fact, a whip can strip off several layers of skin when it hits. The cat o' nine tails often took days to recover from and left permanent scars.
Days nothing! You can die from cat o' nine tails if the whipper isn't careful, and permanent injury is also a possibility. Whipping is traditionally done on the back because it's perfectly possible to whip a person's belly open.
Some Asian (especially Chinese) Martial Arts also call a "whip" another weapon. It's a long chain with a bigger iron chunk on the end (usually also with a sharp tip or edge). It's used by spinning the chain around you and attacking by extending the reach and hitting with the chunk on the end. Because it travels really fast, the impact is quite notable and can deliver lot of damage when used against a squishy human. It's not a very elegant weapon and can be hard to use, but it does create some space around you nobody would like to enter without some serious armor. It's small, easily concealed and awesome.
A whip is dangerous in untrained hands, too. Using it to merely cause superficial pain and not maim isn't as easy as it sounds - ask anyone involved in BDSM.
This is the main reason bullwhips are actually very rare in BDSM, that and the fact that they force you to stand a good distance away from the action.
There are many preferred alternatives, but everyone wants at least one whip and to learn to use it — the cracking factor is perhaps the greatest lure for both submissives and dominants. In organized communities, the danger is emphasized but the means of learning to use them safely is provided, so more members do become accustomed to using them. People who learn on their own don't get that opportunity, tend to either cause real damage or shy away from them because of that potential.
Jordan Schlansky, one of Conan O'Brien's employees, is apparently an expert with the bullwhip.
Inuit artist Simon Tookome is proficient with a dog whip, to the point that he used to whip cigarettes in half from almost 15 meters away... while the cigarette was in someone's mouth. He has also used his whip as a weapon to hunt caribou and, on one occasion, a wolf.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Catwoman in Batman Returns, was said to be a natural with a whip... which just added to the sexy factor for the already sexy actress.
According to the "making of" doc that aired before the movie's release, she pulled off the "whip-the-heads-off-of-five-mannequins" stunt on her first try.Scary. Hot. Scary-Hot.
The 1925 swashbucklerDon Q Son of Zorro Had some of the best whip stunts ever on film and the star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. did every one of them himself.
There's some data about whips at the site of whipcracker and plaiter. Current record with 4.5' stockwhip is 272 cracks per minute. This must sound like some submachinegun.
Evidence shows that some Sauropods - mainly, the Diplodocids - had tails (tapering to the end) that could and likely were used as whips; the crack from such a whip would have a noise level of over 200 decibels - that's like a cannon going off!
Anthony De Longis. Self taught whip master, Anthony developed a practical fighting style with the whip; basically he uses the length to trip, disarm, and ensnare his opponent and then uses the handle as a blugeoning weapon. He boasts that he feels confident using the whip against an opponent armed with anything short of a firearm. He was the one responsible for training Michelle Pfeiffer for her Catwoman role in Batman Returns and Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones.
Contrary to popular belief bullwhips or any other style of whips were not used to hit the animals they were named for. The whip would just be cracked near the animal to get it to moving. Oxen, horses, bulls, etc were all to valuable to risk serious injury by cutting them with a whip just to get them to move from one place to another.
The stocks of such tools were sometimes designed so they could be used to prod the animal into moving, however.
