- Basic Trope: Large, imposing characters associated with more crude but straightforward weapons like axes or clubs.
- Straight:
- Clay, The Big Guy, who stands at around 6 and a half feet in height, uses a large and unwieldy two-handed weapon, either an axe, a club, or even a two handed sword.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan, The Big Guy of The Squad, wields a shotgun, Squad Automatic Weapon, Rocket Launcher or hand-held M134 Minigun as his primary, and a Hand Cannon as his secondary.
- Exaggerated:
- Clay, the biggest character in the work, wields a spiked maul that's even bigger than he is.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan uses a 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger rotary cannon as his primary weapon.
- Downplayed:
- Clay is well around 6 and a half feet in height, and even if there are others who tower over him, he's very wide and muscular and wields a claymore he can easily managed with one hand.
- Thuggish Character, Thuggish Weapon: Lean and Mean Clay is the tall, intimidating, mafia enforcer who uses a pair of brass knuckles as his go-to weapon.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan uses a standard issue assault rifle with an overclock feature and a 50 round drum magazine.
- Justified:
- Clay was never formally trained in more refined weaponry like swords, and so chooses a much cruder mace for ease of use.
- Clay is hardly the wealthiest individual (working as a lumberjack) and can't afford to spend too much on weapon maintenance, and so uses an axe since it's not as expensive to maintain as a sword.
- Clay was a peasant who's forced to fight for one reason or another, and the club was the best he could find.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan is the machine gunner or anti-armor specialist of The Squad.
- Inverted:
- Bob, Clay's Rival, is a lithe Master Swordsman.
- Bob is a small, friendly goofball who wields an axe.
- Clay is a big, muscular man who wields a Sinister Shiv.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan uses throwing knives, a machine pistol, and is essentially a stealth operator.
- Subverted:
- Despite his large frame and straightforward weapon, Clay is actually a Genius Bruiser.
- Clay may usually been seen with a two handed and unwieldy sword, but he's actually a Multi-Melee Master with training in other weapons.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan is often seen with a rocket launcher, but when he engages the enemy, it's with his standard assault rifle.
- Double Subverted:
- Clay's more of a Genius Ditz; While he's skilled with the weapon he uses, that's all he's ever good at.
- Clay wears multiple weapons on his belt to make people think he's a Multi-Melee Master, but sticks to his two handed sword (that he often swings like a club) because he doesn't actually have any training in those weapons.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan switches to his rocket launcher when they bring in armored vehicles and continues to use it even after he's destroyed the armored vehicles.
- Averted: The In-Universe era of the work is of elegance; Nothing too crude here.
- Enforced:
- The creator wants to keep the Willing Suspension of Disbelief, but also wants a relatable peasant protagonist who isn't immoral enough to be a thief, so they couldn't just give the peasant a sword without any feasible or moral reason on how they obtained it. They instead look to the surroundings and pick out the most combat effective weapon available, be it an axe, a club, a hammer, or basically any woodworking tool, while giving the protagonist the personality of a direct, straightforward, and generally pragmatic fighter while still being an overall agreeable person.
- The creator wants a weapon for The Big Guy, but thinks that proper military equipment wouldn't suit a barbarian. They turn to this trope, instead.
- Zigzagged:
- Clay uses a claymore, which has the elegance of a sword while still having the power and directness of an axe.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan uses an anti-materiel sniper rifle, which has the sleekness of being long-range while still having the devastating power capable of tearing through armor.
- Lampshaded: "Figures a guy that big would use something so direct."
- Invoked: In the kingdom's military, all men over a certain height (that being 6'3" or 1.9 m) and with a certain weight (about 190 lbs or 84.36 kg) get mandatory mace / axe / polearm / claymore training.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz recognises that Clay is Unskilled, but Strong because of his weapon, and so sends Strong and Skilled fighters after him.
- Defied: "Oh? So just 'cus I'm big an' muscular means I'm some complete neanderthal? I've studied swordsmanship fer YEARS, thank yew very much!"
- Deconstructed:
- While Clay may be incredibly strong and wields a powerful weapon, he ends up being easy pickings for Weak, but Skilled and Strong and Skilled fighters with more refined and flexible weaponry.
- Clay may not be losing a melee fight anytime soon, but his opponent is a Long Range Combatant and can easily defeat him before he can get close to them.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan runs out of ammunition sooner than the other members of his squad simply because he can't carry as many rockets or shotgun shells as the others can carry bullets or his weapons of choice consume ammo at a higher rate than the other members of his squad.
- Reconstructed:
- Clay recognises this weakness, and so goes through rigorous to become so strong that skill becomes much less of a factor in defeating him.
- Alternatively, Clay wisens up and develops a martial art based around patience and timing as well as dodging and avoiding attacks, since hurling around such a heavy and direct weapon while stationary is so tough, while moving around and using the momentum and the weight gained will deal more damage without the cost of getting hit.
- Clay simply throws his weapon directly at them.
- PFC C. T. Finnigan is instead told that he'll be using the anti-materiel sniper rifle, because not only do they have powerful anti-materiel rounds in bulk, but also because the sniper rifle fires so damn slow, which means that PFC C.T. Finnigan won't have to worry about burning through ammo.
- Clay recognises this weakness, and so goes through rigorous to become so strong that skill becomes much less of a factor in defeating him.
Smash your way to the main page with a spiked maul.
