Does Not Illustrate: Good Weapon Evil Weapon

This trope is about types of weapons and their associated alignment, e.g. that axes are generally used by evil characters, and hammers by good ones. On this list, swords are good; so the fact that the image shows two swords basically means it shows two good weapons, rather than a good and an evil one. Furthermore, the caption says that it should be obvious which of the two weapons is the evil one, but it really isn't. One is red and the other is blue... so? In some works fire is good, in others fire is evil. If you don't know the work it's from, you can't tell anything from the image, making it Just Two Swords And A Caption. Pretty, but not illustrative.

Suggested replacement◊.

edited 30th Mar '14 10:05:21 AM by Spark9

The suggestion looks so much better than the current. I find the background distracting though.

Is that Golden Axe: The Duel?

I could also add that the two current swords are essentially Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil, rather than Good and Evil.

The suggestion is better.

Tira vs Cassandra◊

Pyrrha vs Astaroth◊

Mitsurugi vs Inferno◊

SC Cover (Can Be Cropped)

Pyrrha vs. Astaroth is my favorite so far

I like 6.1 or 6.3 if only because of the background.

I like 6.2. In 6.1 and 6.3 I can't really tell what the right-hand character is wielding.

6.2; everything else is either too busy or the weapons aren't clear enough.

6.2

Yeah, I just came across this...◊

Not sure if serious...

If we could get a picture of Siegfried vs. Nightmare both wielding thier Soul Caliber and Soul Edge weapons, it would work well enough. Or even Astaroth with the Soul Edge in axe form.

Well, if it is in fact the sword(good) vs the axe(evil), then good. But if both are swords, then it wouldn't work.

Swords can be good or evil. In fact, I like the idea of keeping it the same basic type of weapon to illustrate differences in terms of aesthetics, which seems to be more of the point of the trope.

That said, just Soul Edge and Soul Calibur aren't a good image because they're not being used for anything, one may look good and one may look evil, but without cues to their wielders, it's not enough.

... honestly, the biggest issue is the trope doesn't really know what it's trying to say, along with having a shockingly short examples section considering its description lists damn near every weapon known to man.

edited 31st Mar '14 12:16:50 PM by Larkmarn

So... Shop?

Maybe.

It's just one of those difficult Tropes in Aggregate, I think. There are so many non-examples (and so many weapons are so common for both sides that there will be countless exceptions) that other than cleanup (moving all the examples from the description to the, well, examples section) I'm not even sure what TRS would do.

But the trope isn't about "swords can be good or evil, it's all in the aesthetics". The trope is about "rapier good, axe evil unless dwarf" and so forth. So let's go with the picture already suggested.

Just a start...

I'd prefer a picture from a work (such as 6.2) to just pasting some sprites together.

Well if you can find a cleaner frame of Edgemaster vs. Astaroth, please do so. As most are too busy and such, and I don't have Soul Edge/Soul Calibur.

In universe, it is justified.

edited 31st Mar '14 2:55:37 PM by Paktra

Those aren't sprites, those are actually official illustrations of character from the same series that most of the screencaps have come from.

The problem with the screencaps is that they really don't focus on the weapons very much.

Agree. I find most of the screencaps too busy, and the fighting angles of the characters frequently make the weapons less visible.

19 works well enough for me.

It's clear enough.