Empathic Weapon

aka: Sentient Weapon

"How can you use a weapon of ultimate mass destruction when it can stand in judgement on you?"

— The General, Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor"

The Empathic Weapon has a mind of its own, and reacts to the feelings of the people around it. It only allows one person to wield it. The weapon acknowledges the hero's desires and good qualities, and is willing to help him out. The hero also tends to treat (and even talk to) it as if it were a person of some kind. The hero doesn't simply wield it. He will ask it for help.

Quite often, it is designed to be impossible to lose, no matter how much you wish it gone. If the villain ever gets hold of it, it simply won't work because it doesn't want to. It will occasionally stop working if the hero is in doubt, the weapon drooping in shame is optional. If it breaks, it tends to be a big deal.

A lot of Humongous Mecha fall into this category, as it seems Japanese writers love to personify machines. Compare Mons, which typically also depend on the bond with the main characters.

Beware of the Evil Weapon, it’s Evil Counterpart and Counterpart Artifact. Compare Psychoactive Powers. It may also serve as an Amplifier Artifact. Empathic Weapons tend to usually be some form of Situational Sword or Evolving Weapon. It may also be a Living Weapon. If the weapon "helps out" by taking physical control of its bearer it becomes a case of Weapon Wields You. If the weapon decides for some reason the bearer is not worthy, they’re Rejected by the Empathic Weapon.

If the weapon communicates actively with the characters, it is instead a Talking Weapon. May be a literal Smart Gun.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Angel Sanctuary: Kira can summon Shiranui, a sword that choose him as its wielder itself. Furthermore, Kira himself is Lucifer, the soul powering Setsuna's sword Nanatsusaya.
• Arachnid features the Kumoito, a pistol that fires a blade hooked to a length of thread. It is meant to spread traps around the user but not only it is difficult to control, it will outright turn on its wielder if their concentration wavers. Alice Fuji is able to tame the weapon thanks to her brain condition, which greatly enhances her senses and enables her to move the blade as if time is slowed down.
• Arata: The Legend: The Hayagami are living gods in the form of weapons.
• Bakusou Kyoudai! Let's & Go!!: Mini 4WDs evolve into this as the series goes on. These battery-powered minicars without a steering unit can actively move around the track and change paces according to their owners' will. Go claims that Cyclone Magnum — his second upgrade — has the souls of his preceding cars within it.
• The Big O plays with this trope a lot.
  • Roger Smith's Humongous Mecha locks up on him in combat more than once as a direct result of his emotional state.
  • When Alan Gabriel tries to use another mech for nefarious purposes, it outright murders him in particularly nightmare-inducing scene, even if the sicko did deserve it.
• Black Cat. Creed's Imagine Blade is this in its Level 2 and Level 3 stage. Creed explains that it has a mental connection with him, to the point that breaking the Imagine Blade would break his mind.
• Black Clover: Every grimoire is unique, with its design, shape, size, and thickness dependent on the personality of its user. As a mage becomes stronger and undergoes personal development, the grimoire's blank pages are filled with spells. Because the grimoire chooses its mage, a mage's grimoire is unusable for anyone else, and can't be destroyed.
• Bleach: Shinigami all have an Empathic Weapon that is born from their own souls and imprinted onto an Asauchi, a blank slate with limitless potential. As the Shinigami bonds with the Asauchi, it takes on the form of the Shinigami's soul power in the form of a Zanpakuto. Only the most talented Shinigami can realise this process to such a degree that the Zanpakuto fully awakens into a Talking Weapon.
  • A Zanpakuto's spirit can both aid or hinder its master depending on its mood. It can even refuse to grant a Shinigami its full power if it feels that they are not ready or worthy of using it.
    • Ryumon Hozukimaru takes a while to reach its full destructive power because it is "lazy", so Ikkaku either has to spend a while fighting an opponent as Hozukimaru "wakes up" or go out of his way to rouse it on the spot.
    • Yumichika deliberately calls his Zanpakuto "Fuji Kujaku", a name it hates, which causes it to not use its true form. When Yumichika finally deigns to call it "Ruri'iro Kujaku", his fights tend to end quickly.
    • Katen Kyokotsu is a moody Zanpakuto, and whenever Kyoraku tries to rely on her power in battle he is forced to play whatever "game" she feels like playing at the time.
    • The spirit of Kenpachi's Zanpakuto refused to even let him know she existed because he was unconsciously suppressing his full power. Once his mental blocks are released, she is more than happy to introduce herself for the first time.
    • Zangetsu suppressed Ichigo's true power in order to protect him, as he was aware that Ichigo would end up fighting stronger opponents otherwise and potentially get himself killed. He stopped doing this over time as he found himself supporting Ichigo instead, and eventually grants him access to his full power in the final arc after stating how proud he is of Ichigo.
    • Though Renji can use Bankai, Zabimaru only gave him half of its name as Renji was too weak at the time to use its full power. After he takes several levels in badass by the time of the final arc, Ichibei deems that Renji is finally ready to learn the true name of his Bankai.
    • Yoruichi never uses her Zanpakuto because she prefers to fight with her bare hands. Her Zanpakuto's spirit is not happy about this, and Yoruichi notes she has to appease it every single day to stay on its good graces.
  • If the sword breaks in battle, it can heal itself afterwards if given enough time. However, if the sword breaks while in Bankai, the weapon can never be restored to its original form, as Bankai is the true essence of a Shinigami's Zanpakuto. The only exception is believed to be Komamura's, as he shares such a powerful link with his Bankai that damage done to one reflects on the other, and conversely his Bankai is restored as Komamura's injuries are healed.
  • At one point, the villainous Pepe Waccabrada points out that since Zanpakutou are sentient, they are vulnerable to his Love ability. He makes Byakuya's sword Senbonzakura fall in love with him, to the point it jumps out of Byakuya's hand and attacks its owner.
• Brain Powerd: The Brains are organic and intelligent, and their pilots tend to do more guiding, training and ordering than piloting in the traditional sense. At least for newborn Brains; most of them are outfitted with a cockpit at the first opportunity. Still, it's possible for a Brain to get angry or rattled in battle and do something stupid, at which point the pilot's job is supposedly to scold it.
• BBK/BRNK: The half-titular weapons react to their wielders' will and commands, with many Bubuki being capable of moving on their own through flight or physical movement. This carries over to their Buranki forms as well — where you now have a team of five trying to work in synchrony...
• CLAMP: Empathic weapons have a cameo in the super-crossover series Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-; in the world of Hanshin, every person has a guardian spirit or kudan. Stronger-willed and more aggressive people use their kudan to fight each other. Unsurprisingly, both the protagonist Syaoran and tough guy Kurogane get kudan that take the form of weapons, although they don't get to take the weapons with them when they leave.
• Cursed Sword Master starts the story with Soujiro's beloved katana speaking to him telepathically the moment he wakes up in another world after being resurrected from his death on Earth, foiling a robbery led by his own estranged father.
• D.Gray-Man: Exorcists can activate their Innocence with thought alone, though most utilize verbal commands to invoke their abilities. Equipment-types are slow to respond while Parasite-types and Crystal-types react much faster. Sentient Innocence are rare, with only Allen's Crowned Clown, Klaud Nine's Lau Jimin and Cardinal/Apocryphos being known to have sentience.
• DieBuster: The Buster Machines are an extreme version of this, as not only do they "talk" to their pilots, but they actually outlast them; to a Buster Machine, the pilot is little more than a battery, and the oldest Buster Machine, Dix-Neuf, has had dozens of pilots in its lifetime.
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Dai's orhicalcum sword can gauge the enemy ability: if he's too weak it stays locked in the scabbard to avoid excessive damage. It's also shown reacting to Dai's determination and protecting him with an energy shield.
• El-Hazard: The Magnificent World:
  • Sometimes the Empathic Weapon is a living, organic creature that just happens to be usable as weaponry or armor. Such as Princess Fatora's cat.
  • Also Ifurita, a living weapon so powerful she helped destroy the previous civilization.
• Eureka Seven:
  • The Nirvash type ZERO mech; Eureka frequently communicates with it and says that it has feelings, although Renton seems unable to perceive or understand these things. Further it reacts to Renton's emotions and his desire to protect Eureka. At the end of the series, it's revealed that Nirvash is actually a sentient being, and experiencing Renton and Eureka's love for one another helps it reach enlightenment and prevent The End of the World as We Know It.
  • An argument could similarly be made for typeTHE END. By the end it is willing to sacrifice itself to protect Dominic and Anemone.
  • The Nirvash requires its pilot(s) to have confidence in themselves and in it; in the New Wave PS2 game, military pilot-turned rebel Sumner Sturgeon could not get it to start until he said that he believed he could.
• The Familiar of Zero: Derflinger is in a sword that is at first thought to be worthless due to the low price it was purchased for, but it's in fact a Talking Weapon that is stronger than any sword wielded by Saito. His personality's what you would expect an under-valued sword to be, but he in general considers Saito an equal partner in combat.
• Fate/stay night: The Kaleidosticks, appearing in the Fate/hollow ataraxia and Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA spin-offs. They offer their wielders tremendous power and knowledge, but also have the unfortunate tendency to intentionally manipulate those same wielders into humiliating situations for their own amusement. Ruby is much worse about it than Sapphire, but both of them force the Magical Girl costume...
• Full Metal Panic!: Sōsuke's Humongous Mecha comes equipped with Al, an Artificial Intelligence that ends up developing considerably more of a sense of humor than Sōsuke himself has. More importantly, the mech's Lambda Driver superweapon runs off of Sōsuke's own emotions and aggressive impulses. Not the best thing to give to The Stoic, really.
  Sōsuke: Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. What a piece of junk...
  Al: Agreed. Total garbage.
  Sōsuke: Oh, so now you're getting cute on me. Huh, funny guy?
  Al: Affirmative.
• GaoGaiGar has the G-Stones, which are powered by the heroes Courage, when their courage begins to wane anything powered by a G-Stone will begin to falter. This is rarely an issue since everyone from the Crazy Commander to Token Foreigner and the robots have Lava running in their veins.
• Ga-Rei: The Michael Revolution. If the user doubts themselves or their cause, the sword won't allow itself to be drawn from its sheath, yet if the user believes hard enough in the Power of Love, it can cross dimensions.
• GEAR Fighter Dendoh: The Data Weapon upgrades are sentient data entities who won't even let people acquire them in the first place unless that person feels very strongly the emotion associated with the particular weapon (hope for Unicorn Drill, confidence for Viper Whip, etc.) If a person who "saves" a Data Weapon ever loses that driving emotion, the Weapon will leave.
• Gundam:
  • More Gundams do this sort of thing than you'd think. Though it's either Retconned or handwaved away, oftentimes many Gundams somehow respond to their pilot's emotional state. Examples include the Zeta Gundam powering up to destroy the Big Bad, or the Nu Gundam's psychoframe technology suddenly creating a large psychic wave and sacrificing itself (and presumably the pilot) to prevent Earth from being hit with a Colony Drop. The titular mech of Gundam 00 activates itself based on what appears to be Setsuna's Power of Love persuasive argument to do so. The Unicorn Gundam shuts down on its own when Banagher is crying, but once he decides to fight, it activates on its own, and on occasions it has activated its NT-D when Banagher wants it to.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The Gundams all tend to have an empathic component, which is required to use their full strength.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Most of the characters talk to their mecha, though it could be for other reasons. You also have the case of when Quatre activates the Sandrock's self-destruct with the intent of sacrificing himself with it. Sandrock then opens its chest with the implication being that it wants him to survive, before walking towards the enemy on its own so Quatre can get away. Then there is Duo's Deathscythe when it is heavily damaged in space; Duo attempts to hit the self-destruct button, but as he is not wearing a spacesuit to get out, it just plain refuses to work.
  • Where other Gundam shows leave it ambiguous, the Universal Century series make it clear that the entire point behind Psycommu Systems like the Biosensor or Psychoframe is to turn mobile suits into this for Newtype pilots. Since its introduction in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam the technology has been refined and enhanced, starting with Kamille and Judau being able to give their machines a power-boost, to Amuro being able to directly control his Nu Gundam with thoughts alone (to the point where stray thoughts can make him lose control of his Funnels), and finally Banagher, who's able to take this to its logical conclusion by being able to control the Unicorn and its Funnel-Shields even when he's not inside the machine.
  • The Gundam Aerial from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is this on a whole new level compared to its counterparts - a tie-in novel reveals that the Mobile Suit seemingly carries an onboard AI that is both sentient and fully conscious, with the novel and the theme song of the show being from its perspective.
• Hero Tales has the conqueror's sword, Kenkaranpu. It can be drawn only by one acknowledged by the sword itself. First the only one who could do this was The Hero Taitō Shirei. Later, when Taitō found out he was related to the emperor, but decided not to run for the throne (and thus turned down the fate of the conqueror), the Big Bad Keirō became able to draw the Kenkaranpu.
• Inuyasha:
  • Tessaiga and Tenseiga both have consciousness and a will of their own, most evident in Sesshoumaru's interactions with both swords. He loathes Tenseiga for being a Healing Shiv that can't cut anything and covets Inuyasha's Tessaiga instead, but Tenseiga freely protects him anyway and often prompts him to use its healing power. Tessaiga is less assertive but prompts Inuyasha the same way when necessary. On one occasion, both swords even work together to nudge their two stubborn masters into cooperation, a phenomenon which Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru end up calling "Resonance." Sesshoumaru unhappily interprets it as a sign that Tenseiga is Tessaiga's slave. It actually means that Tenseiga is Tessaiga's guide, which is the role their father intended for Sesshoumaru to play for Inuyasha.
  • Along the same lines, Sango's boomerang Hiraikotsu is inhabited by the souls of several demons whose bones were used to make the boomerang, giving it its own degree of sentience. At one point the demons actually become rather cross with her and refuse to help her because she sacrificed Hiraikotsu in order to save Miroku.
  • Sesshoumaru's other sword, Toukijin, has its own evil will and takes control of the body of the smith who forged it by sheer force of malice. The terrible amount of malice and evil power contained within it allows it to animate its creator's corpse even after Miroku kills him and not even Ultimate Blacksmith Toutousai can get close to the sword later on to negate its power. However, Sesshoumaru is so much more powerful (and strong-willed) that he completely represses Toukijin's will when he takes possession of it, and the sword's will is therefore never again an issue.
  • In the third movie Swords of an Honorable Ruler, it's revealed that Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father had a third sword, Sō’unga, called by Toutousai "the sword of hell," which is so evil it turns Inuyasha full demon, then finds, resurrects, and control's the man who killed Inuyasha's father, and tries to open the portal to hell just out of spite.
• In the Kirby anime series, Meta Knight's sword Galaxia is an ancient, legendary weapon forged thousands of years ago and is said to have its own soul. If it doesn't like the intent of the person trying to wield it, it electrocutes them. It's also able to communicate with those who try to wield it, apparently telepathically.
• The legendary Maou's sword "Morgif" in Kyo Kara Maoh! is supposed to be a powerful weapon in tune with its wielder, but because Yuuri's demon king side is usually sealed, all it does for him is groan a bit.
• In Lord Marksman and Vanadis, the Dragonic Tools are semi-sentient weapons that choose their wielders. Tigre's black bow goes a step farther, and sends thoughts into his head.
• In Lyrical Nanoha, there are "Devices" that serve as Magitek / Magic from Technology Magic Wands. Armed Devices have limited intelligence and personalities, and no gender. They will provide feedback, advise a course of action, or give a short peptalk (or even a subtle verbal challenge) if their user appears lost. Intelligent Devices, with smarter AIs, do these things more often, have more complex personalities, even genders, occasionally hold whole conversations with their masters, and are willing to undergo dangerous upgrades as a matter of pride to protect said masters. Unison Devices are the epitome, being complete, self-mobile persons in themselves. Though less often seen in-series, the Storage-type Devices are more common in their world, and have no real personalities at all.
• Magic Knight Rayearth has the swords of the Magic Knights. As their spirits and convictions mature, so do their weapons (and their armor as well, for that matter).
• Naruto:
  • The Akatsuki member Kisame Hoshigaki wields Samehada, a living, shark-skinned sword which eats chakra and visibly digests it. Also, if anyone other than Kisame tries to grab the handle, it skewers their hands with spikes. Its full form steps right into terror as it starts making noises, grows at least double its previous size and a mouth grows near the tip of the sword and starts drooling. In Chapter 472 it rebels against Kisame. Apparently it likes the Hachibi's chakra so much that it doesn't want him and his chakra to disappear. Later this turns out to be a ploy, but it still did something it wasn't supposed to. And it goes back to the Hachibi's host again at the first opportunity, leaving Kisame to fight (and lose to) Might Guy without its assistance. It turns out that when your sword decides it likes your enemy better than it likes you, you're in trouble. Imagine that.
  • It's not exactly a weapon, but Sasuke's version of Susanoo seems to work this way in that it changes shapes based on the intensity of his emotions.
• The Evangelions in Neon Genesis Evangelion were a rather disturbing deconstruction of this trope, combining it with Organic Technology. The reason Shinji is selected as the pilot for Eva 01? It's because Eva 01 contains his mother's soul, who wants to protect Shinji. The same is true for Asuka, Eva 02, and Asuka's mother.
• One Piece:
  • Zoro often treats the named swords he acquires like they're these, particularly the one he started with that was previously owned by his childhood friend. He also proves his luck is stronger than his named blade's curse.
  • The Going Merry (the Straw Hats' former ship) is also shown to have a soul and supports them in Skypiea and Enies Lobby
  • Lassoo the dachshund and Funkfreed the elephant... as they are actually a gun and sword, respectively. Through an unknown method, these weapons somehow "consumed" Devil Fruits and became sentient. Like all other Zoan Devil Fruit users, they are freely able to transform between their original form, animal form, and hybrid form.
• Panzer World Galient: The titular mecha often feels its pilot's distress and reacts, acting off its own accord to protect or save Jordy.
• In one episode of Pretty Sammy, Sammy's baton is shown to have a will of its own whenever it gets separated from her. When Haida ends up with it, it tries to direct her behavior towards being a paragon of justice while she just uses her powers for selfish reasons.
• Record of Ragnarok has the Volunds, weapons created from the souls of Valkyries who have had a ritual performed to bond their soul with that of a warrior's, allowing the Valkyrie to transform into a magically enhanced version of the warrior's weapon of choice. However, this bond also means that if the warrior dies, the Valkyrie will also die.
• Deconstructed in The Rising of the Shield Hero. What happens when your Legendary Weapon also reacts to your worst emotions? The result is the Curse Series, the Superpowered Evil Side of the Legendary Heroes' weapons, which only become accessible when the wielder flies past the Despair Event Horizon. While they do grant powerful moves and are terrifyingly powerful, they also eat away at the user by intensifying the associated emotion (i.e. hatred or greed) until it is the user's only motivation — and that doesn't take into account the other detriments.
• The Silver Crystal in Sailor Moon is implied to be one. It's said that it responds to and follows its wielder's heart. Later on, Sailor Moon becomes so bonded with it that she'll die if it's broken or taken from her.
• The Cloths of Athena's Saints in Saint Seiya have a will of their own. Those who wear them must first prove themselves worthy of the honor, and they must make some effort of upholding Athena's ideals (such as when a Gold Cloth outright abandoned its master in the middle of a battle.) The Andromeda Chain takes this one step further, as it can sense and attack a source of danger long before its wielder does, sometimes against said wielder's intentions.
• Sakura Wars (2000):
  • Li Kohran insists that the steam-powered kohbu armors have "hearts" and respond to the affection and attention of their users; events in the series seem to support her, but no definite determination is ever made.
  • Sakura's holy sword Arataka is also like this. It won't allow anyone unworthy to wield it.
• In Seraph of the End, the vampire hunters have special weapons that give them the power to destroy vampires. Each weapon has a demon in its interior that has made a pact with the owner of the weapon.
• Most oversouls In Shaman King qualify, since most of them are made from spirits of dead beings. However some Shamans use objects for their oversouls. The most blatant are the Xlaws, who aside from their leader and Lyserg, use cars to create their angel oversouls. They try to justify it by explaining the cars are one-of-a-kind, loving products of their builders who dedicated so much effort into them that, in a way, some of their creator's spirit ended up in the vehicles.
• Silent Möbius: Grospoliner, Gesso, and Medium are examples of this trope. Of these, only Grospoliner is heard to speak to anyone other than its wielder, and Medium is an evil sword capable of possessing its wielder.
• In Simoun, the eponymous vehicles are powered by both pilots' feelings towards each other, as proven in Episode 12 when the twin sisters' aircraft spirals out of control.
• The Living Weapons in Soul Eater. Conflict, either personal or between meister and Weapon leads to weakened combat ability, and in extreme cases the Weapon can't be wielded without causing harm to the meister.
• In Space Runaway Ideon, though the title robot itself is not sentient, the strange energy that powers it (called Ide) has a will of its own, and though it is never seen or technically communicated with, the show's cast know when it has been angered or has decided to forsake them.
• The Master Key from Tenchi Muyo! is quite fussy about who is allowed to wield it. Anyone unsuitable gets a painful electric shock. In one case, when the unsuitable wielder insists on holding on, the jolt got so powerful that it blew up his hand. He promptly grew a new one, but it did stop him from stealing it.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • The Gunmen and Lagann are powered by the pilot's fighting spirit; if the pilot is lackluster or doubting, it won't move. Thankfully, they have Kamina.
  • One robot wouldn't start up because the pilot was hungry. Thankfully, they had Boota...
• 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess: Excalibur, Ex for short, is the Princess' trusted companion who's aided her in many a perilous endeavor. While he and the Princess are in captivity, he acts as pretty much the Only Sane Man when it comes to all the Poke the Poodle "tortures" the Hellhorde frequently, and successfully, inflict on her, alongside him gradually losing faith in his former image of the Princess as an unflappable warrior.
• The Seventh Holy Scripture from Tsukihime, a humongous harpoon gun thing that fires bible scriptures (... as spears, okay?) to stop reincarnations. It's powered by the soul of a young medieval girl crossed with the horn of a unicorn. Generally, it's called Nana (7 in Japanese) until Arihiko renames it Nanako. Oddly enough for this sort of thing, it's definitely its bearer who has the upper hand here, because Nanako is terrified of her.
• The Twelve Kingdoms: Youko's magic sword has a mind and a (bad) personality of his own. At one point, Youko's consciousness is sucked into the blade, where she meets the spirit of the sword in the shape of a talking monkey who tries to corrupt her into The Dark Side. She must beat him in a dialectical duel to break the psychic entrapping, return to her body and (finally) gain full control of the sword.
• Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid: The Extar are this in virtue of being girls turned into weapons through extreme arousal.
• In The Vision of Escaflowne, it is mentioned that at least some Ispano mecha bond with their owners, sometimes even fighting on after the death of their master. Escaflowne itself seems to possess a similar ability.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yugi and his friends talk about the "Heart of the Cards" which is a philosophy that turns out to be correct more than once. Although the actual term is unique to the dub, the effects (that is, drawing the card you need) go all the way back to the manga.
  • Seto Kaiba and his Blue Eyes White Dragon(s! — he has 3 of them) have a bond that goes beyond the normal Synchronization between duelists and cards. Even Kaiba, who insists he doesn't believe in magic, acknowledges his uncanny ability to draw it when he needs it the most. It's the spirit of a Mysterious Waif he loved in a past life.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Jaden has a similar bond with Winged Kuriboh, which in the manga has a spirit within it. Manjoume has the Ojama trio in the anime and Light and Darkness Dragon (which is also a spirit card) in the manga. In the anime, Jaden also used to have this with Yubel, when he was younger. Then he sent her off into space, and she was not happy when she came back.
• Zoids: All Zoids are technically sentient according canon, it's just that only certain Zoids get to show it in the anime series.
  • The Liger Zero from Zoids: New Century is an excellent example. It can make its own decisions, which occasionally turn out to be the wrong ones, requiring its pilot Bit Cloud to pull them out of the fire. Bit occassionally gives Rousing Speeches to it.
  • The Berserk Fury is the same way (allowing it to continue operating even when its pilot is knocked out cold).

Comic Books

• The Avengers: The Tactigon and Gauntlet's gauntlet from Avengers: The Initiative. The Tactigon has an unsettling tendency to choose...disturbed... individuals as the wielders of its immense destructive power — when we first see it, its host is Armory, a suicidal psychopath. The gauntlet on the other hand once took over Gauntlet's body when he was in a coma to protect him when an Ax-Crazy clone wielding the Tactigon was hunting him down.
• Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire: The series by Phil Foglio includes a Space Pirate character called The Pistol Packin' Polaris Packrat who wields two sentient laser pistols. One is called "Smith", and the other is called "Wesson". They are capable of speech and firing themselves, and they are demonstrably smarter than the Packrat (although that's not saying much). They profess to believe that Buck's zap-gun, "Junior", is likewise sentient, but if this is true Junior is keeping quiet about it.
• Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith: While the connection between a lightsabers kyber crystal and the lightsaber's wielder in the force had been touched on before, the series goes into more detail. Darth Vader is sent to hunt down and kill a Jedi and then "bleed" the kyber crystal from the Jedi's saber to make a dark side user's distinctive red lightsaber for himself. The crystal fights back with visions trying to bring him back to the light, but it ultimately fails.
• Doctor Strange: The Eye of Agamotto serves powerful wielders of light magic. On at least two occasions Strange ventured too far into dark magic and the Eye refused to work for him.
• Empowered: The title character's hypermembrane.
• Gold Digger: The being who offers herself up for this purpose to Fauntleroy come to mind.
• Green Lantern: The Green Lantern rings seem to qualify for this sometimes.
  • This was shown somewhat significantly in the Elseworlds story JLA: Another Nail; a Green Lantern was killed while trying to save some of the slaves on Apokolips. The ring fled before the killer could take it. It chose Big Barda as the wielder since she's the only native on Apokolips worthy of such a weapon. It let the Guardians know of the wielder "in a tone and authority that surprised" them. It also merged with a Mother Box and bonded with Mister Miracle, with Highfather's approval.
  • In JLA: Earth 2, Green Lantern's evil analogue, Power Ring, has a... power ring inhabited by a sentient being referring to itself as "entity Volthoom". Pre-Crisis Earth-3, Volthoom was a "mad monk".
• The Mighty Thor:
  • Thor's hammer Mjölnir. It doesn't matter how strong you are, but how worthy you are to wield it. The Hulk can barely lift it an inch. But Captain America was able to pick it up and throw it. Another instance had an emergency worker hand Mjölnir to a beaten Thor.
    
    Even Superman isn't worthy of it — the one time he wielded it, Odin lifted the enchantment because of the crisis at hand. Wonder Woman, however, apparently is. Which actually makes sense when you consider that "worthiness" is judged by Odin's standards, and thus a true warrior spirit (including a willingness to kill but only when it's absolutely necessary, something Wonder Woman has demonstrated but Superman has not) would likely be part of the equation.
  • Beta Ray Bill's hammer Stormbreaker has a similar enchantment. It was forged for him after he had proven worthy of Mjölnir, and really needed its power to defend his people, so that neither Thor nor Bill would have to be de-powered. Bill only realized he was taking his vendetta against Galactus too far when he couldn't lift Stormbreaker after he did something especially awful in a bid to kill Galactus.
• Nikolai Dante: Nikolai has his weapons crest, as do the other Romanovs — in Nikolai's case, this causes swords to burst forth from his hands at the moment of battle.
• Requiem Vampire Knight: Thurim's hammer will zaAAARRRRCHZZZCHZPTp those who are not worthy.
• Rogue Trooper: Gunnar, a gun fitted with a chip containing the mind of Rogue's dead buddy. There's also Bagman, an empathic backpack, and Helm, an empathic helmet.
• Runaways:
  • Old Lace, the psychic dinosaur.
  • Klara's plants might also count. If she doesn't trust you, they will make sure that you don't get anywhere near her.
• Spider-Man: Symbiotes (Venom, Carnage, Toxin, you know the guys) may fit the bill, and are about as empathic as a weapon could get. Their level of personality has crept up over the years though to the point they're more like characters.
• Steelgrip Starkey and the All-Purpose Power Tool: The eponymous device will only work for Steelgrip because he is pure of heart. He lampshades this trope when he says it feels like the APPT is silently communicating with him.
• Superman: The story The Day the Cheering Stopped has the Sword of Superman, a weapon forged at the dawn of the universe which avoids every attempt to grab it during billions of years until it is needed by Superman; whereupon it heads towards Earth and leaps into his right hand.
• W.I.T.C.H.: The heart of Kandrakar is an empathic-amulet, but with a justified reason: It's a vessel to the soul of Xing Ying, a Chinese nymph, who died when she freed the four element-dragons from an unfair punishment.
• Witchblade: The titular shape-shifting magical relic/blade/handcannon/armor.

Fan Works

• Child of the Storm:
  • Mjölnir, which as per canon only lets those who are worthy wield it, such as Thor, Steve (who, totally unaware of the significance, used it as a doorstop), Diana, and to general astonishment, Maddie Pryor a.k.a. Rachel Grey. In the latter case, it also revealed that it has an actual mind of its own, providing an explanation of sorts of what it meant to be Worthy when Maddie enquired.
  • Then there's Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring. No one's entirely sure how smart it is, but based on Strange's remarks, it's capable of forming nuanced opinions on people. In Unfinished Business, it proves that it can operate on its own, teleporting people and forming constructs, to further its agenda. This is highlighted as part of the problem with wielding it long-term: it influences people towards its agenda, which is protecting the Earth and its magic. Protecting humanity and preventing collateral damage as very much secondary considerations, leading to some obvious problems.
  • All wands are this to one degree or another, as is the Sword of Gryffindor.
  • The Infinity Stones might have some degree of awareness, but the Time Stone, is the 'odd one out' and the only one known for sure to act on its own (no one's sure if the Tesseract was just reacting to the Red Skull or not) but the Time Stone explicitly moves and acts. Most notably, it gave Doctor Strange his immortality, greatly expanded his mastery of time magic, and immeasurably enhanced his gifts as a Seer, sufficient that he's frequently assumed to be omniscient. No one knows exactly why. However, considering that Strange has spent all his very long life since trying to thwart Thanos, the smart money is that it knows what Thanos is planning and really, really does not like it.
  • Harry's sword Curtana, after its reforging, is suggested to be this — Loki warns that one should be careful when trying to pick it up, as it might 'bite'.
  • Van, the sword of Frey, ended up as this, lodging itself in the tree that was the original focus for Yggdrasil and refused to move until a suitably worthy wielder tried to draw it. This was considered somewhat odd since it wasn't actually enchanted to do this, not even by Doctor Strange (who explicitly says that it's Not Me This Time, and was as puzzled as everyone else), and it hadn't been enchanted for long enough to develop a mind of its own the way Mjolnir did.
• The Robot Lions in Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron. If their pilots are in danger, the lions will go to them even if no one's in the cockpit.
• Date A Live: Altered Timeline: The Spirit's Angels are sentient, to the point that they will take over the Spirit's bodies when they sense a power strong enough to threaten them, if the Spirits have not yet fully awakened.
• God Slaying Blade Works has Arondight, formerly wielded by Sir Lancelot of the Lake. It summons itself within Shirou's hand, because Guinevere cried for help. She wasn't the same Guinevere — as Shirou came from another dimension entirely — but she was Guinevere, and Lancelot loved Guinevere. Loved her so deeply, this love imbued Arondight and granted the sword its ability. Because when Guinevere needs help... Lancelot will rescue her. Always.
• The Good Hunter: From how Cyril speaks to his Holy Moonlight Sword in Chapter 6, we can see that the sword seems to have a rather battle-hungry personality, providing guidance to its wielder when a hunt is afoot.
• Celestia and Luna each had one in Just Before the Dawn. While Celestia loses hers during an attack, she ends up gifting Luna's old blade to Tercio after Luna ends up being banished to the moon.
• What Kyon's new weapon in Kyon: Big Damn Hero appears to be.
• Definitely John's Kansael and the Hunter's BFS Blackfire, and possibly George's Tribune ring, in With Strings Attached. The Kansael is semi-sentient and often gives John ideas about what to do with water, though he rejects many of them because they're quite scary. It is also rather opinionated and protective of him. Blackfire turns out to be a demon bound in sword shape. George's ring proves to have soul-bonded with him; at the very least, no one but him will ever be able to use it. It leapt onto his hand after having been torn from him. However, whether it's truly empathic is unknown.
  • By The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, the Kansael is getting more and more opinionated, but it saves John's bacon because of this at least once.
• My Miraculous Academia: It is implied by Nooroo that the reason why he is able to sprout butterfly wings is because Izuku wanted to be an "active butterfly" and not just support and thus "the suit responded to that."
• The Night Unfurls: The Holy Moonlight Sword whispers to Kyril about the prospect of battle whenever it glows. This trait is an expansion of the sword's in-game lore, where it is said to offer "a very private, elusive sort" of guidance to the wielder. The sword would be a bona-fide Blood Knight if it were a person.
• In Robb Returns, Dawn, the famous sword of the Daynes, is one. Anyone not worthy of touching it will notice it is quivering.
  • Other similar weapons appear to have the same shtick. Otherbane, the Gardener's spear, burns Mace Tyrell's hand when he tries to take it for himself when it is meant to be for his son Willas, and when Joffrey tries to grab the Durrandon's sword, Stormbreaker, he gets electrocuted and Blown Across the Room.
• What Eduardo's plasma gun turns out to be in Squad Broken.
• Keyblades are described as weapons that reflect the heart in The Tie That Binds and display some traits matching their owners. For example, Void Gear is noted to be eager to work with Xemnas/Ansem, and Wayward Wind abandons Ventus for a while because it doesn't want to leave Aqua alone in the Realm of Darkness.
• In The Wizard in the Shadows, the Sword of Gryffindor is this. It also shows signs of sapience, choosing its next wielder and occasionally being used by Godric Gryffindor to possess the wielder.

Films — Animation

• In Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, the Wand of Light refuses to heed Annika's commands to destroy Wenlock and also refuses to work for Wenlock, showing its true powers when Annika uses it to break his spells instead.
• Firing Range gives us a literal Emphatic Tank that senses and analyzes the enemy's (actually anyone's) hatred and fear, using them respectively to dodge their attacks and kill them.

Films — Live-Action

• Alice in Wonderland: The Vorpal Sword is implied to have a mind of its own. Before the Final Battle, Alice is advised that all she needs to do is hold the sword and let it do the work. The Jabberwocky seems to have a history with the weapon, addressing the sword as his "ancient enemy" and dismissing Alice as its "insignificant bearer".
• Excalibur treats the title sword this way. When Arthur uses the sword to strike down Lancelot in anger, it shatters. Arthur immediately realizes that he made a big mistake in using the sword to destroy an honorable knight (and Merlin hangs a lampshade on it with his statement "You have broken what could not be broken."). His admission of that fact allows the Lady of the Lake to repair Excalibur and revive Lancelot.
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: The Mockingjay bow.
• Excalibur, again, in TNT's The Librarian franchise.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The Avengers film Avengers: Age of Ultron has a scene in which various Avengers (all of whom are drunk at the time) try to lift Mjölnir; Tony Stark tries, fails, and then puts on his Iron Man glove and still fails; he and War Machine then try to lift it together and can't budge it. The Hulk (who is in Bruce form at the time, but failed to lift it as the Hulk in the first Avengers movie — as stated in the Comic Books section, strength doesn't matter) can't move it. Even Captain America can't wield it (though he does manage to lift it slightly, and Thor's reaction suggests that was a lot closer than Thor was expecting). However, later someone other than Thor does lift it: While the Avengers are trying to decide whether to trust the Vision or not, Vision casually picks it up and hands it to Thor before heading out. After a few moments of stunned silence from everyone, Thor says "right" and follows, followed in turn by everyone else.
    • Avengers: Endgame shows that Captain America lifting it was actually him trying not to show Thor up, because, during the Final Battle, he manages to call it like Thor does and proceeds to wield it like an expert against Thanos. What's more, Thor knew exactly what was up and had been anticipating it, reacting with a gleeful, "I knew it!"
  • Doctor Strange treats the Cloak of Levitation in this manner, where unlike many other sorcerers' weapons, it has a mind of its own, specifically choosing the ones it will help and allow to wear it. It also often acts a Silent Snarker and a Hypercompetent Sidekick — initially, it's significantly more competent than Strange himself, impatiently dragging him towards a more effective weapon.
• Mystery Men has The Bowler, who wields a Bowling Ball inhabited by the spirit of her dead father. More often than not, she ends up arguing with it.
  Blue Raja: Am I to understand that you have inserted your father's skull into that... ball for bowling?
  The Bowler: No, no, of course not. The guy at the pro shop did it.
• The Jaegers from Pacific Rim, courtesy of the neural link. The stronger the mental and emotional connection between the pilots, the greater control they have over their Jaeger, which translates into better performance in battle. This is why many pilot teams know each other inside and out by being blood relatives, lovers, or lifelong friends.
• The Phurba from The Shadow is a living dagger with its own head and hands. While it has a will of its own, it can be controlled by a strong-willed psychic, although it responds better to attempts to control it as an extension of ones own body rather than simply ordering it around.

Gamebooks

• Lone Wolf:
  • Though no obvious evidence is presented in the books, the actions taken by the Sommerswerd to protect both its wielder and itself may prove that it has a spirit of its own. It will also blast any evil creature who tries to pick it up (as in Book 7) and Book 2 states that it will lose its powers if wielded by one without the Kai gifts.
  • A darker variant is the Darklord sword Helshezag. The sword actually tries to compel Lone Wolf to butcher his enemies, bearing more than a passing resemblance to other cursed swords in fiction, such as Stormbringer — which Joe Dever states was in fact the direct inspiration for Helshezag.

Jokes

• The field test of the "smart" nuclear bomb was a complete failure - the bomb refused to be pushed out of the plane.

Literature

• The Orb of Aldur from The Belgariad has a personality of its own, about that of a small child. It won't let anyone besides Garion or Eriond use it, but is sensitive to surrounding peoples' emotions. It also has beyond godlike power and a tendency to try and be helpful, whether by giving suggestions (responding with instructions to Garion's offhand, sardonic comment about writing his name in the stars) or just being overenthusiastic. Case in point: Garion uses the Orb to knock down a city's gates as a distraction. Said gates (and part of the surrounding walls) are suddenly blasted miles away into the ocean. A little while after acquiring it, he contemplates the "damaged" world and how to fix it. The Orb promptly starts feeding him instructions on how to REBUILD THE WHOLE WORLD.
• In both Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and its prequel, The Hero and the Crown, the mage Luthe warns the heroine that Gonturan, the eponymous blue sword, is a good ally, but has thoughts of her own and cannot be entirely trusted. In the former, Corlath explains that Gonturan is a woman's sword which will betray any man older than 21 who attempts to carry her. Again in both books, the sword acts to save the day with little instruction from its wielder.
• In The Braided Path, the Weavers' masks. The Red Order also have their kana.
• Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series (the books, not the Disney adaptation of The Black Cauldron) featured Dyrnwyn, a sword with runes carved on it warning it can only be drawn by certain people (originally thought to be "Royal Blood", the true translation is eventually found to be "Noble Worth"). Taran tries to draw the sword near the end of The Book of Three and gets his arm burned as a result. But then, in The High King, he happens to unearth the stolen Dyrnwyn atop Mount Dragon. Desperate for a weapon to fight a charging Cauldron-Born, he grabs and draws the sword. Only after he draws it does he realize what he's holding...and the fact that it's not burning him, proving he has actually earned the right to be the sword's new owner.
• The SIG from David Gunn's Death's Head, a Swiss Army Pistol with an embedded AI. Late in the first book, a top-of-the-line rifle is heavily modified to host said AI, as an extra dose of badass to the protagonist.
• Discworld: In Sourcery, Coin's staff acts like this when no-one is around to see it abuse Coin. It also shocks someone else who tries to pick it up. This is because Coin's father is possessing the staff to use the wunderkind as a tool of revenge.
  • The first book, The Colour of Magic features a Conan expy called Hrun, who owns a talking sword that he "acquired" from a nobleman. He regrets keeping it when it turns out to be smarter than him, and constantly attempts to give him advice.
• The Great Weapons of Steven Brust's Dragaera. They are linked to the soul of their owners, and because they contain a soul, they are intelligent, have personalities, and can even occasionally take action without input from their wielders. The wielders we've seen so far all telepathically communicate with their weapons and often refer to them as people; in fact, Blackwand, Nightslayer, and Godslayer are all described as female. Pathfinder is gender-neutral, while Iceflame (and the other 12 not yet mentioned) are unknown.
• Multiple weapons and artifacts in the Dragonlance universe are implied to be this way, including to some extent the Dragonlances themselves.
• The Swords of the Cross in The Dresden Files are three such swords. They also happen to be the most powerful weapons known (on special occasions), with the possible exception of the Black Athame. They don't initially appear to be sentient in of themselves, but are often used as a conduit by anything up to an Archangel/God himself (that incident at the end of Changes is a bit ambiguous as to which Judaeo-Christian higher being it was, though Dresden himself suggests it was an Archangel), and each chooses their new wielder, often in fairly spectacular fashion. Peace Talks very strongly implies that, in fact, each nail worked into the hilt is actually containment for a fairly powerful angel.
• The Bhelliom from The Elenium by the same author shares many traits with the Orb, having apparently limitless power (it actually created the world) and can only be safely handled and used by the wearer of two rings containing fragments of the Bhelliom. Actually Anakha, that is Sparhawk, being The Chosen One, can use it safely without the rings, since Anakha is supposed to be Bhelliom's servant anyway. The Bhelliom also seems to have a slightly more sophisticated intellect than the Orb; at some point during the second series Bhelliom starts taking over one of the companion's body to speak through their mouths. It still goes in for overblown solutions, though; at one point when they are attempting to flee pursuit, Sparhawk asks the Bhelliom for assistance, and it responds by raising a new mountain range between them and their enemies. It's quite proud of itself, too.
• The Elric Saga: Stormbringer, the black runeblade wielded by Elric of Melnibone in the novels of Michael Moorcock, is an empathic weapon with a curious and sometimes hostile relationship with its owner — forcing him, on one occasion, to kill his lover after battling to rescue her. In the end, it turns out Stormbringer was never really a sword in the first place. It was actually a powerful demon disguised as a sword that used Elric to destroy and recreate the universe, leaving it as the supreme evil power in the new one. It "rewarded" Elric with a quick death.
• Empire of the Vampire: Ashdrinker is a legendary vampire-slaying sword which Gabriel winds up wielding via means unknown. She is made from Meteoric Iron, called starsteel, and is the most legendary vampire slaying weapon in the world. However, the point of her blade has been broken off, leaving the sword with a sort-of speech impediment, which means she usually merely repeats things Gabriel already knows, much to his frustration. Whenever she is not mocking him that is.
• Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The Sword of Kings makes many judgment calls on its own, including the selection of the heir designate.
• In Andre Norton's Forerunner Foray, the artifact Ziantha found is able to manipulate people about. Ziantha deduces it springs from its being used by sensitives for generations.
• The title sword of Lord Dunsany's The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth. May also count as an instance of Defeat Means Friendship since the sword was fashioned from the remains of a monster the protagonist had to slay first and retains one of its eyes and at least a portion of its memories, yet never turns against its wielder.
• In John C. Wright's The Golden Transcedence, Atkin's knife. It has a mind of its own, uses With Due Respect, and engages in philosophical debate with him. And wins.
• Harry Potter:
  • Wands in this universe seem to act this way (as seen most evidently in the seventh book). "The wand chooses the wizard" and will not live up to its full potential in another wizard's hands. Wand ownership can apparently only be transferred by defeating the original owner in a duel, or by taking the wand by force (and against the owner's will) in some other way. Because "true" ownership has to be transferred in this way, the possessor of a given wand may not be the true owner. Additionally, certain wands are said to "absorb" facets of its wielder's personality over time, and even when properly won by somebody else, may not fully "agree" with the new owner's intents.
  • The Sword of Gryffindor seems to be empathic as well, only allowing a true heir of Gryffindor's philosophy to wield it.
• Several of the novels and trilogies of Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar universe feature Need, a magic sword with an occasionally highly inconvenient mind of its own: the events of The Oathbound are mostly driven by Need forcing its bearer and her partner to get involved any time a woman is in danger, from instances of basic domestic violence all the way up to demon-worshipping cults. Kerowyn, who inherits the sword next, puts up with such shenanigans much less, but still occasionally has to deal with things like being frozen in her tracks mid-combat because Need won't allow her to harm the enemy priestess who is about to bash her head in. Eventually it is revealed that Need is inhabited by the spirit of a female priestess/smith who had voluntarily sealed herself into the sword in order to help rescue a number of kidnapped young women. Once she regains her full consciousness in The Mage Winds she becomes much less troublesome, albeit snarkier.
• In John C. Wright's The Hermetic Millennia, Menelaus realizes that the Chimarae practice of Named Weapons stems from Ancestral Weapons that had AIs.
• His Dark Materials:
  • Possibly the alethiometer: it responds to the user's thoughts, and Lyra once thinks she can sense it scolding her for asking a question twice because she can't believe the answer.
  • Appearing in the second book in the series, there's the titular Subtle Knife. Iorek Byrnison examines and reforges it in the third book and tells Will that the knife may have its own intentions that Will himself is not aware of.
  • The armoured bears regard their armour as such — they forge it themselves from meteor iron, and taking it is explicitly compared to taking a part of a human's soul.
• Humanx Commonwealth: The title Lost Superweapon of The Tar-Aiym Krang, by Alan Dean Foster. It's actually superintelligent but can only be activated by someone with advanced Psychic Powers. Flinx and Pip together are the only beings in the universe capable of establishing the requisite link.
• The "Hestia Knife" From Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? acts as one for Bell Cranel. Since it's a weapon crafted specifically for him with a blessing from his Familia goddess, Hestia, the knife is only potent when held by him. After seeing it in action briefly, Liliruca steals it from him, and attempts to pawn it off, only to be told it's essentially worthless and not even sharp. However, after Bell gets it back, the runes on the knife light back up, showing her that it's only useful when he's using it.
• Journey to Chaos: A mage's staff in sentient because it was made from a sentient tree. They can't talk but it can make their feelings known by transmitting feelings to their mage. In A Mage's Power, Eric has to request help from a staff when he first becomes a mage, and he ends up with one that is afraid of fire. Thus, he can't use it for fire spells.
• R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt:
  • Artemis Entreri, a ruthless assassin by anyone's standards, possesses a sentient sword called Charon's Claw, a Netherese artifact that engages the mind of anyone who wields it without a magic gauntlet. Since accidently absorbing the essence of a Shade Charon's Claw has developed a "Liking" to him, and resists even more than usual anyone who tries to wield it. So far the only people other than Entreri who can use it are an epic-level monk, a Netherese lord, and Drizzt Do'Urden. In its last appearance, it seems to act a lot like The One Ring, in that it attempts to corrupt its carrier, causes him to be possessive towards the sword, and is destroyed by being thrown into a volcano despite attempts by its former owners to reclaim it and gain in power.
  • The same series also includes "Khazid'Hea," a.k.a. Cutter, a sentient sword that can change its shape and design to suit its wielder and cut through solid stone. It has a fiercely ambitious personality and wants to be wielded only by the best swordsman. When Drizzt Do'Urden defeated its previous owner, the sword hoped to be taken by him; instead, he gave it to Catti-Brie. There followed a disturbing and hilarious sequence where the sword took over Catti-Brie's mind and tried to use her body to seduce Drizzt into wielding it. In the end, however, Catti-Brie herself was able to master the sword and it agreed to serve her. Until the Thousand Orcs books, where it escaped in the hands of an Orc, was briefly wielded by Drizzt, lost in a battle with the Orc leader, and found by a Drow assassin, who gets along rather well with it.
  • Drizzt's scimitar Icingdeath has a comparatively lower-grade intelligence, but Drizzt repeatedly notes that it transmits to him a feeling of hateful glee when he attacks fiends with it.
• Light And Dark The Awakening Of The Mageknight: Bonded can be one or the other depending on how much of their personality they retain from the conversion and whether or not they're broken. Most of them are this trope because the wielder can sense their presence and a gist of their feelings but cannot communicate.
• The hydrites in the German SF series Maddrax use organic technology. And they also have shock sticks that should stun attackers.
• The eponymous swords of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy are this in addition to Clingy Macguffins. Due to the unique magic that went into their creation, they are practically living beings, with the ability to perceive and influence the people around them. At the height of their power, they can compel absolute obedience from their bearers.
• In The Mortal Instruments, the seraph blades have the names of angels, and light up when the owner of the weapon pronounces the angel name. These weapons can only be used by shadowhunters, and have been made to destroy demons.
• The Night Land and Awake in the Night Land have the Diskos◊. They are tuned to the soul of the yielder so they cannot be used by anyone else. Also they can selectively hurt only monsters and not humans.
• Excalibur in A Hard Day's Knight is shown hindering unwanted wielders and helping chosen ones. Even if they have almost no experience with a sword.
• Okuyyuki: Audrey, who is herself a sentient Talking Weapon, claims that all weapons have a sort of spirit in the animistic sense, but few are sentient and articulate like she is — especially with modern weapons, since spirits "grow up" very slowly, so most will be scrapped before they mature. She likens American tanks to dogs: loyal and well-intentioned, but not very bright.
• Magical objects, such as a necromancer's bells or a Charter-Spelled sword, are implied to have minds of their own in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series. Rather than being empathic to their user's desires, however, they seem to often have their own agendas; for example, Sabriel has to be careful when wielding certain bells for fear of causing the opposite of the intended effect, especially as some bells are known to ring of their own accord.
• The book Path of the Sword by Henry Lion Oldie essentially revolves around two separate cultures — sentient weapon and warrior-duellist — each realizing the other was sentient, as well. Yes, the weapons considered humans hard-to-train living property without any intellect, and were actually pretty angry should some other weapon ruin their favorite "appendage."
  Be damned that day when the weapons began to get names!
• Ra: All of the astras count to a greater or lesser extent, as they behave in a way that seems to encourage their use. However, special mention goes to Abstract Weapon, which is capable of transforming itself into any weapon that can possibly exist, from its default form of a dull rusty BFS, to a particle beam cannon, to a Humongous Mecha, to a magic spell capable of preventing its user from being recorded in the Akashic Records. What distinguishes it, though, is that it lists to the user all the weapons it is capable of becoming, and the further it gets into its nigh-infinite list, the more advanced and deadly the weapons are. Furthermore, it suggests potential targets to be used on, based on who the user dislikes or plans to kill, and suggests ways it can be effectively used against them.
• In the Revelation Space Saga by Alastair Reynolds, the Hell-Class Weapons are controlled by AIs somewhere between beta- and gamma-level. That is, they don't have fully-fledged personalities, but are quite capable of acting on their own initiative.
• Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures features a sword that hosts the mind of Cloudcuckoolander, Deadpan Snarker, Miles Gloriosus Dandelion, who claims to have been a demon and declares to have amazing abilities. Subverted, however, since he was just a weak cave troll who happened to have his ashes mixed with a sword. And then Double Subverted, because the first time Rumo gets blood on the blade the other occupant of the sword awakens: it's Krindle the Cleaver, a Blood Knight Noble Demon who was an exceptional fighter and adventurer (and an actual demon) before dying.
• The Spirit Thief: Awakened blades, such as Josef's Heart of War, are sentient to some extent. In Heart of War's case, it's humanlike and would be a Talking Weapon if Josef wasn't completely spirit-deaf. As it is, it communicates mainly by visions and emotions.
• The Stormlight Archive: In the second book, Words of Radiance, the bonded spren demonstrate the ability to transform into Shardblades. In fact, all modern Shards are the bodies of the old Radiants' spren, trapped in an And I Must Scream situation. In Oathbringer, two "dead" blades demonstrate the ability to have and communicate feelings and respond to people. When Dalinar picks up Oathbringer after reclaiming it he hears only a "dull" scream rather then the intense screams Radiants usually hear when handling a dead blade, and is told by the Stormfather that the blade remembers his honourable action in giving it up to save the bridgemen and hates him slightly less then it hates others. Also in the final battle at Thaylen City, Adolin's blade shows the ability to send him vague emotional impressions, as well as her name, and even manifests in seven heartbeats instead of ten when he desperately needs her to.
• Special swords called jivatma in Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer books are bonded with their owner's spirit. They also contain the wisdom and strength of whatever living thing was the first to die on that blade.
• The Sword of Truth: The eponymous sword works something like this. It is capable of affecting the wielder's emotions (mostly anger), its magic apparently tests him after the first kill to see if he is worthy of it, and its ability of destroying an opponent hinges on the wielder actually believing the opponent being a threat.
• In the last story of the anthology Wandering Djinn, Malik only manages to survive and win a battle after being impaled with an ancient sword because it changed its mind over who it wanted to help. He even says "I've always loved empathetic weapons, they tend to pick who they want to serve in the middle of a battle."
• Warbreaker features Nightblood, a blade who issues black smoke when drawn, draws evil people to wield it and destroy themselves, constantly snarks at its owner, Vasher. It was created as an Awakened object, and given the command to “Destroy evil”. Problem is, a sword doesn’t know what evil is, so it tends to destroy everything in its path, on the off chance that some evil will be destroyed along the way.
• Warhammer 40,000 novels:
  • In Graham McNeill's Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, when Uriel and Pasanius find suits of battle armor in a museum, Uriel picks out one and cannot shake the conviction that it was waiting, and for him. He has all of it but the helmet repainted in Ultramarine colors so he can wear it; not the helmet, as a gesture of respect to the machine spirits. When the Grey Knights have been convinced of their innocence, they rearm them, and Uriel receives that suit that he had chosen, or had chosen him.
  • In Courage and Honour, he is set through the suits of battle armor to replace his; he feels an even stronger urge toward one particular suit. Then, this is his new, permanent suit.
  • In Steve Parker's Astra Militarum novel Gunheads, Wulfe is disgruntled with his new tank, Last Rites II, because it was not its predecessor. When it breaks down near the end, he grumbles that she could not have picked a worse time, and the rest of the crew point out that she could have easily have picked a far worse time — she had carried them farther than any of the other tanks and broken down near safety. Wulfe realizes that he owes her more respect and when his commander makes the same comment he had, Wulfe repeats his men's objections.
  • In Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn novels, the force sword Barbarisater has a will of its own. It grows thirsty when enemies are nearby, and it can leap out of its wielder’s hands if it doesn’t wish to be wielded by them.
• In Wizards Abroad, the fourth Young Wizards novel, the Four Great Treasures of Ireland are immensely powerful spiritual entities, with their physical "bodies" merely being there to allow them to interact with the physical world. They consider their wielders to be transportation more than anything else.
• Kormak's Saga (suggested): When Kormak asks Skeggi of Midfjord to lend him the famous sword Skofnung for his duel with Bersi, Skeggi is reluctant and, though he eventually gives Kormak the sword, warns him that he will find Skofnung "difficult to handle" because "Skofnung is slow and deliberate whereas you are rash and impatient." Kormak subsequently disregards all of the instructions Skeggi gave him for handling the sword, including an incident in which he tries in vain to unsheath Skofnung against Skeggi's injunction to only draw it before the fight, to which the sword reacts by "howling". In the duel with Bersi, Kormak cuts off the point of Bersi's sword with Skofnung, but the split-off sword-point hits Kormak's hand so it bleeds, which means Kormak has lost the duel. This could be accident, or maybe Skofnung (while proving itself superior to Bersi's sword) punished Kormak for his bad treatment.
• Villains by Necessity: Truelight, Slayer of Darkness, Fenwick's magical longsword, is sapient with a Good alignment. Sam is able to sense its anger for him after he picks it up, since he's a villain. It still works when he wields the sword though.

Live-Action TV

• A possible example is the forcelances in Andromeda, since if they're given to someone who's DNA code isn't allowed, they'll shock the user.
• Doctor Who: The Moment in "The Day of the Doctor", an ultimate Time Lord weapon that became so advanced it gained sentience, thus no-one dared use it for fear it would turn on them. When the War Doctor activates it to stop the Time War by destroying both Time Lords and Daleks, it takes the form of future companion Rose Tyler in an attempt to convince the Doctor not to activate it and help him figure out a better option.
• In Earth: Final Conflict, the skrill are bio-engineered weapons fused to a human operator's forearm, and which draw upon the operator's own blood supply — so rapid use can cause the human to pass out. In fact, and not generally known to the characters, the skrill were originally an independent sapient lifeform; and despite the best efforts of the Taelons to eradicate that sapience, they sometimes communicate with their hosts.
  • The Taelons implant their human agents with brain-enhancing implants called CVIs which secretly suppress their emotions and instill loyalty to the Taelons; it's the CVI which allows the agent to control their skrill. Because protagonist Boone receives a modified CVI that allows him to retain his free will, he can't fully control his skrill and must persuade it to work for him. Once he does, however, his skrill operates at a much higher level than others'.
• Journey to the West (1996): Sun Wukong's iconic golden staff, the ruyi jingubang, has this trait in this adaptation. It's particularly notable in the second season after Sun Wukong was Brought Down to Normal after losing a fight to the Long-Armed Ape - the staff literally drags Wukong into a sacred cave after Wukong suffers a Heroic RRoD, pushing for its master to regain his abilities.
• Madan Senki Ryukendo: The Madan Ryu, who are as much a part of the main cast as the heroes themselves. Notable is one scene where Sixth Ranger Koichi's ZanRyuJin does his backtalking for him.
• Power Rangers Cosmic Fury: The Cosmic Orbs operate according to these principles. They don't seem to be sentient, but when a character displays heroism, they will glow and "bond" with them to make the person into a Cosmic Ranger. Fern's orb activates when she rescues Solon, and after Zayto dies, his orb glows blue to signify that it's time for Ollie to rejoin the fight.
• Sledge Hammer!: Though the audience never sees anything unusual about Inspector Sledge Hammer's custom .44 Magnum, he treats it as a living, breathing entity. Subverted in one episode in which Hammer is hallucinating and the viewers do see his gun talking, complete with animated barrel/mouth.
• In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Warhead", the Series 5 Long-Range Tactical Armor Unit counts as one. It's been launched accidentally, so Voyager's crew have to talk it out of exploding. It's even been programmed with propaganda on the enemy to motivate it.
• In the Star Wars serial The Mandalorian, Din Djarin, the titular character, comes across a legendary Mandalorian artifact: the Darksaber. It was the lightsaber of the only known Mandalorian Jedi in ages past. He learns the hard way that it is an empathic weapon as all lightsabers are, as it is cumbersome and ungainly when wielded by him, and stated as such by the Armorer. In the hands of someone more deft and trained in its use, like Bo-Katan, it is a much more quick and lethal blade.

Music

• Blue Öyster Cult: "Black Blade" is about Stormbringer, the sword of Elric of Melnibone, told from Elric's perspective. The words spoken by the blade at the end of the song are spoken by Michael Moorcock himself.
• Leslie Fish: "The Arizona Sword" tells the story of a lordling who commissions a blacksmith to make a magic sword for him, which the smith shapes so as to embody and defend life and freedom. When the lord announces his plan to use the blade to conquer the land and hold it under his rule, it twists in his hand, falls on him and runs him through.

Puppet Shows

• Pili Fantasy: War of Dragons: Several, most notably the cursed sword of Yenna and the Salamander sword. The latter of which is quite sentimental, being unwilling to harm the man involved in its creation.

Roleplay

• In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, the shadows that Sebastian controls are said to be semi-empathetic, capable of reacting subtly to his mood and intentions.

Tabletop Games

• CthulhuTech: The Engels are these, which is only natural given that the Evangelions are a major inspiration for them. Given that they're lobotomised, cyberised Eldritch Abominations (and the Hamshall appears to be a Star Spawn of Cthulhu), they're a) kind of alien to humanity, and b) require brain surgery to be able to operate them.
• Dungeons & Dragons has rules for intelligent weapons, though they are technically treated as NPCs and often qualify as characters by themselves. Among the examples in the Dungeon Master's Guide of 3.5 Edition is a talking sword that recalls the above Discworld example in that is said it would be best suited for a deaf swordsman.
  • In 4th edition every artifact is this kind of item, although only one of the presented ones is technically a weapon (the Axe of Dwarvish Lords).
  • The mechanism was partially put in as a limiter on power. The more powerful a sword is, the more likely it is to be intelligent and have a high ego score. The higher the ego score, the more likely it is to withhold abilities and/or outright lie to the player in order to fulfill its purpose.
  • In 5th edition, there's a whole subclass of warlocks utilizing these type of weapons called the Hexblades. Instead of signing a treaty with a greater deity who only occasionally steps in to make sure you aren't breaking protocol, the diety actually follows you on your adventure in the shape of your personal weapon and can be transferred between different weapons of your choice if the Pact of the Blades feature is chosen.
• GURPS: Thaumatology actually has rules for characters that are living weapons.
• Ironclaw: The spell "Supernatural Indenture" allows a character to attempt to bind a supernatural creature to an artifact, such as a weapon, which another character can then use by taking the gift of Supernatural Bond.
• Legends Of Anglerre includes rules for intelligent items both as equipment and Player Characters.
• Pathfinder:
  • The entire "Bladebound" archetype for the Magus class is a direct Shout-Out to The Elric Saga, complete with gaining an intelligent bladed weapon that can eventually consume the souls of its kills as their signature weapon.
  • The power invested in artifacts^note enchanted items above and beyond regular magical items is often enough to give them some form of will or personality, and this applies to artifact weapons even when they don't cross into full Talking Weapon territory. They typically have alignments of their own and give negative levels to wielders whose alignments don't match theirs, and often have stipulations and conditions beyond this.
    • The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords wants to be wielded by a dwarf, and will grant charisma damage to non-dwarves who dare to take it up. If this goes on long enough, the Axe will actively transform its wielder into a dwarf in order to have the bearer that it wants.
    • The Seven Relics of Kazavon each contain a fragment of the will of the ancient, evil dragon from whose body they were crafted. These include the Bound Blade, a bastard sword crafted from Kazavon's claws, and the Staff of the Slain, crafted from Kazavon's tailbones and home to both Kazavon's personality and that of the wizard Kolwyddon, who switch control every dawn and dusk.
    • Most of the Seven Swords of Sin bear imprints of the personalities of their original wielders from whom they gained their names. Chellan, the Sword of Greed, bears an imprint of the original Chellan's fanaticism; Garvok, the Sword of Wrath, is inhabited by the consciousness of the gladiator who first wielded it; Shin-Tari, the Sword of Sloth, is home to the intellects of the conjurers who created it and who were its first victims; Tannaris, the Sword of Envy, is possessed by the soul of either the Runelord Tannaris or his same-named son and bodyguard, who died when Tannaris-the-Runelord tried to kill Tannaris-the-soldier; Ungarato, the Sword of Gluttony, houses the soul of the barbarian warlord who seized it from its Runelord master shortly after its creation.
    • Ovinrbaane is a cursed greatsword that attempts to trick its wielders into thinking that they're its original wielder, a barbarian warlord named Armag, and that everyone they see is an enemy that needs to be destroyed. Further, Ovinrbaane gradually transforms its wielder into a perfect copy of the long-dead Armag, in an effort to recreate the one it perceives as its true master.
    • Serithtial is a bastard sword dedicated to defeating the servants of the dark god Zon-Kuthon, especially the dragon Kazavon. It will accept any wielder so long as their goals align with hers, but will attempt to seize control of them should they forsake this crusade.
• Rifts, and much all of Palladium Book's games have these in the form of rune weapons. Which all have a personality because a living sentient creature must be sacrificed during their creation in order to trap its life essence/soul in the item.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Certain Imperial devices work like this, particularly their Humongous Mecha. Eldar psychically attuned weapons also have personalities of their own. Chaos Daemon weapons are exactly halfway between this and Artifact of Doom.
  • Imperial forces act as if all weapons with "machine spirits" are like this, and will treat them with respect. At times, it can be hard to tell if they're right.
  • Daemon weapons are typically sentient, and are sometimes known to try and impede their users for fun.
    • The Black Blade of Antwyr wielded by Castellan Garran Crowe is a Daemon weapon that spends its times trying to corrupt and kill its user. Its corrupting evil is so great that it once corrupted three entire sectors of the Imperium and is speculated to be either an incredibly powerful greater daemon or a forgotten Chaos god. The Inquisition could not destroy it and the entire Grey Knights chapter had to be deployed to stop it .Crowe must always have one of his hands holding the blade, otherwise it may possibly escape again and never uses the power of the weapon itself, merely using it as an ordinary two handed sword. The sword also keeps trying to kill him with every swing. It is known to be able to recognise other daemons. It once offered advice to Crowe on how to defeat Skulltaker, one of it's ancient enemies.
    • Drach'nyen is a Daemon weapon wielded by Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos. It changes forms to whatever it's current master wishes (Currently a greatsword). The Daemon that is formed from the blade was born from the first murder committed by humans.
  • Rogue Trader reveals that even Imperial starships have personalities of some sort. Not AIs per se, but ships seem to have definite preferences (ex. some are constantly itching for battle, others will do anything to get away from a fight.)
  • Asurmen, the Dire Avenger Phoenix Lord, has a Diresword that contains the soul of his brother, who was killed by a daemon.

Toys

• BIONICLE: It turns out that the Mask of Life is, quite literally, alive. The curses that it strikes onto others are the result of it either attempting to defend itself, attempting to create a new guardian to protect itself, or bestowing a "gift" (though its gifts tend to backfire on the recipient). Needless to say, Blue-and-Orange Morality is at work here, and a character who used his Mask of Telepathy on the Mask found himself astounded by the alieness of the mind in question. Eventually, it went so far as to give itself a body to try and understand other living beings better and got some Character Development.

Video Games

• Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword: Eternity swords fall under this. Some of them aren't very intelligent, but have will. Some are intelligent as well, and others are intelligent enough to be truly rational.
• In the game Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny, the Azure Azoth (wielded by the protagonist Felt), and the Crimson Azoth (wielded by the antagonist Chaos) are possessed by spirits that give the blades their power. In his case, Felt was the Chosen One able to pull out the dormant Azure Azoth when his peaceful world of Eden begins to crumble and goes into the parallel world of Belkhyde (which likely represents Earth) to save both worlds, and is assisted along the way by the spirit of his weapon. On the other hand, the spirit of the Crimson Azoth turns out to be The Man Behind the Man and the actual Big Bad of the game who has been using Chaos throughout the game (through a promise to use its power to resurrect his dead little sister if he should succeed). Also, while not a weapon, the Share Ring that allows Felt and his adopted sister Viese to communicate (via letters) and send items to each other across dimensions seems to have this quality.
• Baldur's Gate:
  • Yoshimo's +1 katana from Baldur's Gate II. To very loosely quote the flavor text, traditional enchantments on katanas are next to impossible due to the extremely high basic quality of the swords. Instead, it's implied that fallen warriors may have begged a Wu Jen to infuse their fighting spirits in their weapons with their last breaths, giving the swords a tiny sliver resembling sentience that improves effectiveness in battle. (This might make the enchanted katanas wielded by about everyone in an army of drow in the expansion pack difficult to explain.) Yoshimo's own sword isn't mentioned to be magical at all, but instead implied to have bonded with Yoshimo to the point where it's superior to a normal katana and refuses to be wielded by anyone else.
  • Xan from the first game has an elven moonblade, who are all empathetic weapons. Because the moonblade has chosen him as its wielder, only Xan can use it.
  • Lilarcor, meanwhile, falls under a completely different trope. Not much 'empathy' to be had on that front.
• The Bard's Tale has the Ego Sword, an arrogant talking blade that the narrator notes is the perfect match to the Bard's personality (to which the sword replies "Well, I am a bastard sword you know.").
• BlazBlue: The Nox Nyctores choose their owners and will protect the owner if the need arises. As seen in Jin's story in Continuum Shift, a Nox Nyctores can cease to activate if it doesn't approve the owner anymore and will even attempt to take over the owner's mind to fulfill its mission. There are only 10 of such weapons in existence, all in different forms and shapes. More info on them here.
• Brave Fencer Musashi has the greatsword Lumina, which apart from ANNOUNCING THAT... IT HAS ABSORBED... A SCROLL, will occasionally point Musashi in the right direction or do something surprising to help him stay alive. And, oh yeah, there's a huge freaking lizard wizard sealed inside it.
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had a talking sword as one of the familiars you could gain. Early on, it remarks that Alucard can't possibly use him — but once you're a high enough level, he starts calling him Master, and ask how he can serve.
  • The Vampire Killer whip that appears in (most) of the other Castlevania games is also a bit of an empathic weapon as its true power is only unlocked when a Belmont descendant wields it. Also, the fiancé of the first Belmont had to willingly sacrifice her life in order to empower it. And in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, it is shown to preserve within itself a memory of the last Belmont who used it, in PoR's case, Richter Belmont.
• The Blade weapon from Cave Story. A throwing sword that has King's soul living on inside it. Nothing special unless you have it at max level, in which case King's soul takes ghostly form and slices up everything in his path when you throw it.
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale: The brush. It's the true source of the corruption, manifests the darkness and doubt of every past wielder, and takes on their forms in the finale.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has Skippy the Smart Gun who temporarily joins you in a sidequest.
• In Dark Cloud, one of the weapons you can find is a talking slingshot named Steve, who gives advice about any monster you aim at, as well as talking about other unrelated things, such as his mother being a catapult, and he seems to have a crush on his owner, Xiao. He can be upgraded just like most other weapons... to Super Steve, which bears very little aesthetic change, apart from the cape adoring the human-shaped slingshot handle. And yes, it still talks.
• While more than a few guns in Destiny 2 qualify for Evil Weapon status, any piece of armor made from the bones of an Ahamkara, a type of "wish-granting" dragon that appeared after the Traveler, and which were eventually hunted to near-extinction because of those abilities, would appear to be this. The lore entries always feature quotes pushing Guardians to recklessness and braggadocio, and the words "O bearer mine," indicating the creature's will lives on through the imbued armor or artifact.
  Sealed Ahamkara Grasps: Plating the Ahamkara bones in silver helps to quiet the auditory hallucinations... o bearer mine.
• Most of the swords and other melee weapons in Devil May Cry are empathic.
  • In the first game, the Alastor (sword) and Ifrit (gauntlets) actually attempt to kill Dante as a test of worthiness.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening:
    • Dante's weapons (aside from the keepsake Rebellion sword and his guns Ebony & Ivory) are all actually the remnant of a defeated boss. Even Rebellion is implied to be this, too, since he can hoist it over his shoulder without cutting himself, and when it does get a taste of its master's blood, it unlocks his Devil Trigger form.
    • Agni and Ruudra. While other demons in the game become weapons for Dante in death, these brothers' true forms are weapons; a pair of scimitars with head in their pommels, wielded by two identical headless bodies. Which means after being defeated, they can still talk.
      Agni and Ruudra: You shall take us with you! We can be of great help to you!
      Dante: ...Okay, but on one condition.
      Angi and Ruudra: What is it? Name it!
      Dante: No. Talking.
    • Played for Laughs moments later: when Dante shows off his skills with his new weapons, one of the brothers tells him "Impressive." Cue Dante banging their heads together and reminding them of the condition. When they stay silent, he merely comments "Good."
  • The Devil Sword Sparda is the strongest case for this trope, as while the weapon may or may not carry the soul of the Legendary Dark Knight, it certainly shares his will. While multiple villains have been able to use it’s power, it’s full potential can only be accessed by Sparda’s decendants, like Dante, or wielded by those it deems worthy, like Trish. Even when it is used by the villains, the weapon seems to have a wicked sense of humour: Arkham, a man who gleefully sacrificed his family to transform into a demon, is twisting into a bloated mass of tumours and tentacles, while all that Sanctus, a man who worshiped Sparda and abandoned his humanity to become more like him, can do with the weapon is swing it around, and the power it does provide is fragile and easily overcome. And when Dante does use its full power, he can take on Physical God Mundus and win.
  • The Yamato displays signs of this in Devil May Cry 4 as well, seeing as it repairs itself in response to Nero's strong desire to protect Kyrie and grants him its power for that purpose, leaving Agnus in disbelief that Nero accomplished what he had been trying and failing to do for years. Alternatively, it could be because it sensed that Nero is the son of Vergil, its former master.
• In Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together, Woodie has an axe nicknamed Lucy, which has infinite durability and speaks to him periodically. She makes small talk when held, and complains when dropped or left in a backpack. Other Survivors can not pick up the axe.
  DST Compendium: The other Survivors are not quite sure whether Woodie is simply mad, or if there might be something else to the seemingly inanimate object. Sometimes they swear they can hear a jovial female voice speaking to Woodie when no one else is around...
• Dust: An Elysian Tail: The Blade of Arrah is quite alive, having flown out of its own temple in order to find Dust.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The artifacts of the Daedric Princes play with it. The artifacts have a tendency to disappear and separate from their wielders if said wielder becomes too dependent on them or otherwise uses them in a way not intended by the patron Daedric Prince. How "empathic" the artifacts actually seem to be varies, and it may be more the will of the Princes simply taking the items back. They are most often handed out by the Princes themselves to faithful servants and tend to show up where important events are unfolding, justifying the appearance of the items in high concentrations in certain regions.
  • The sword Umbra crosses over with Evil Weapon. It was forged long ago to steal the souls of its victims. However, the wielder of the blade becomes a victim as well. Over time, it takes over the mind of the wielder, until they begin to refer to themselves as "Umbra", and turns them into a vicious Blood Knight. Either they slay their opponents and steal more souls for the sword, or they are slain, and the sword finds a new and more powerful wielder.
  • From the series' lore, the HoonDing, the Yokudan/Redguard spirit of perseverance over infidels and "Make Way God", will manifest in mortal form whenever the Redguards need to "make way" for their people. In some tellings, the HoonDing does not manifest as a person, but as a weapon. Specifically, a sword.
• Emerald Dragon has the Vendidad, a magical sword Atrushan obtains late in the game that contains the spirit of the titular Emerald Dragon.
• In Fallout: New Vegas there is a rare entirely non-Magical example in the form of the K-9000 Cyberdog gun, a fusion of Dog and Gun. It uses it mechanical sniffer to find enemies for you, which is useful in a situation where you have no companions.
• Relic Weapons in Final Fantasy XI have their own personalities in cutscenes or when owned by an NPC. (The axe Guttler complains to its owner that it is thirsty for beastmen blood for example.) Once you spend a hundred or so million gil to get one of your own, they become much less talkative.
• From Final Fantasy X-2, Vegnagun is a super-weapon capable of sensing the intents of others, fleeing from those who would dismantle it, and allowing for its firing against a target...which it was less discerning of.
• Finishing the Dark Knight chapter in Final Fantasy Dimensions reveals that the man the party knew as Graham was an empty suit of armor. The real Graham is a ghost who bound himself to the dark knight's sword. His apparent Heroic Sacrifice didn't destroy him, it just broke the spell he had over the armor—he remains with the party as a Spirit Advisor and an equippable weapon. (He can even get an upgrade later to bring him up to snuff for the final dungeon.)
• This is a common justification given in the Fire Emblem games for why certain weapons are only usable by a single character. Lyn's Mani Katti in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for example, only allows Lyn to remove it from its sheathe and doesn't let anyone else use it. Zephiel's Eckesachs in The Binding Blade is another example, usable only by the king of Bern.
• Galaxy Angel: The Angels pilot Emblem Frames, space fighters powered up by Lost Technology. They're equipped with HALO systems that read their pilots' desires, powering up from positive emotions and shutting down when the wrong person is piloting them or when the usual pilot has a breakdown.
• In Golden Axe The Duel, the Golden Axe's power has grown to the point that it can transform into a living suit of golden armor. Fighting the Axe itself is the final test to determine who will wield it.
• Guilty Gear has A.B.A., who carries around Paracelsus, a gigantic key (and fights with it, too).
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Sora's Keyblade is very particular over who wields it, and will normally teleport itself back into his hands if held by anyone else. This is used humorously in the second game when Jack Sparrow asks for the Keyblade as payment. Sora willingly hands it over to him only for it to return to Sora a second later. He can also summon it back to him if it's knocked out of his hands, as seen in his dream-fight against Roxas. If he doubts himself, the Keyblade won't stick around, as seen at Hollow Bastion.
  • Kingdom Hearts II reveals that the ownership of a Keyblade can be transferred, but only to other worthy wielders, as seen when Riku gives a Destiny's Embrace Keyblade to Kairi.
  • Roxas and Xion have a pair that get passed around a bit, Xion borrowing Roxas's a couple times, Riku taking Xion's a couple times, and finally Roxas taking Xion's and wielding it along with his own before Riku takes it back again... and it all makes sense in context.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep sort-of clarifies the process. Sometimes the Keyblade is passed down (Yen Sid giving Mickey the Star Seeker), while in other cases, existing Keyblade wielders can grant the same power to those with strong enough hearts (Terra to Riku, Aqua to Kairi).
  • Data-Sora, the manifestation of Sora as recorded in Jiminy's (digitized) first journal in Re:coded, was supplied with a programmed replica of the Keyblade for use in the Datascape. That imitation Keyblade was later shattered by Maleficent, only to be replaced by an authentic one responding to Data-Sora's genuine experiences with Mickey & friends.
• King's Bounty features a great deal of weapons and other items that are emphatic, which is expressed in their "morale" value. For example, a dragonslayer sword likes to fight dragons (duh) and using it for other fights lowers its morale until it refuses to provide its benefits until the morale increases either by killing a dragon or "suppressing" it, which is done through a special fight. Some items can also be upgraded through such fights.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords had a lightsaber crystal that changes stats based on your alignment. Though it's not technically alive in any sense, it "just" (never mind how) reflects your own Force signature.
• The Legacy of Kain series has the Soul Reaver, although it's a much more primal version. By the end of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, you find out that the Reaver is actually Raziel's own soul.
• The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda only accepts pure hearted heroes as its wielder. As The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword reveals, it actually did initially have a true mind and personality, complete with the ability to project a body, but she had to go into a permanent sleep mode to delete the mind of the God of Evil after the sword absorbed it, leaving what amounts to the sword equivalent of subconscious reflex for the most of the series. As of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, she seems to be somewhat conscious again.
• The Dual Blade from Lufia series was originally related to Arek the Absolute, who's the mysterious boss of the four Sinistrals, but then Maxim emerges as a hero and uses the sword to defeat Arek's evil subordinates. Ever since then Dual Blade is to be discovered and used by Maxim's descendant whenever the Sinistrals strike again.
• Fawful's vacuum helmet is this, at least in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. After Bowser separates it from Fawful to fight him, the helmet is more than capable of fighting the Mario brothers on it's own.
• Path of Exile: Animate Weapon turns weapons you'd find dropping from enemies into temporary minions that attacks enemies on their own. The Dancing Dervish is a unique weapon which after a Kill Streak animates on its own.
• Planescape: Torment:
  • One of your companions, Dak'kon, wields the last known Karach blade. It is made of chaos-matter and its form and abilities change to match the power of its user. If you did deeper in the dialogue it's revealed that a former incarnation of the Nameless One saved Dak'kon purely because of the blade, with the intention of eventually taking it for himself. It's implied that the Nameless One's power and force of will would make the blade phenomenally powerful.
  • You also meet an NPC called Ingress, whose teeth are empathic (if not outright sentient; it's hard to tell since The Nameless One doesn't speak Tooth Language). If you help her she'll gift the teeth to you, and they turn into Morte's Evolving Weapon by having you ask them to improve. Some Dummied Out dialogue also involves the teeth forcefully invading Morte's jaw for insulting them.
  • Finally, Nordom carries a pair of gear spirits, partially sentient spirits of mechanics that have taken the form of crossbows for him to use. Nordom can requisition them for improved ammunition.
• In the main series, Pokémon are generally shown less as the cute pets/best friends they are in the anime and more as a valued tool or weapon. A tool/weapon treated with love, compassion, and empathy but still a tool/weapon that lives in its toolbox/holster until needed.
  • Pokémon X and Y introduces Honedge, a Steel/Ghost pokemon that's actually a sword, making it a straight example of this trope.
• The Chaos Emeralds in Sonic the Hedgehog. As Sonic Adventure put it, "The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos." Downplayed since they're typically used as a Plot Coupon and this aspect doesn't come up that often, but this was key to resolving the conflict in Sonic Adventure since the water kaiju Perfect Chaos was empowered by anger at the violence inflicted upon its Chao brethren ages ago, but the Chaos Emeralds still retained enough positive energy for Sonic's friends to empower Super Sonic and calm it down by beating it up. This indirectly comes up again in the climax of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), as it's implied the Master Emerald is manifesting Robotnik's thoughts into power and Sonic similarly uses his own bonds with his friends and family to become Super Sonic.
• The Soul Calibur series of games features a few empathic weapons, all of which are (one way or another) the result of direct or indirect contact with the main evil one:
  • Although much closer to an Artifact of Doom, Soul Edge is a fully sentient weapon that seeks to control its wielder into killing people so it can eat the souls and gain power. The sword has an actual soul/mind (Inferno) and can communicate to its wielder mentally, usually to harass or demoralize him/her. It can also form into any weapon the wielder is most familiar with when held.
  • Soul Calibur was originally a bit emphatic, merely choosing to protect its wielder from Soul Edge and help fight it. IV and V, however, saw the sword go through considerable development: IV revealed it to actually be a purified shard of Soul Edge itself with an opposed but extreme goal to achieve peace and order by freezing the world in crystals. In V, it becomes the driving force for Patroklos when his older sister Pyrrha is manipulated into becoming the next wielder for Soul Edge. Though apparent in IV, it becomes clear that Soul Calibur herself can be just as bad as Soul Edge since she is only concerned with killing Soul Edge and its wielder and possesses Patroklos and removes his empathy to become an unfeeling and loyal Knight Templar. Also, much like Soul Edge, it changes shape to accomodate her wielder.
  • Ivy's sword, Valentine, is described as sentient, having been (unknowingly, at the time) animated by the evil energy of Soul Edge. It has a mind of its own and will protect Ivy from any harm, as shown in her ending during IV, where the sword shatters itself to protect Ivy from the evil of Soul Edge when the sword was destroyed.
  • Taki's second sword, Mekki-Maru, is somewhat empathic as it was also affected by a shard of the sword forged into it. It reacts strongly to the sword's energy and other similar emanations.
  • Yoshimitsu's self-named katana gains some sentience as well, once again due to its proximity to Soul Edge's aura. It feeds on the negative emotions of its wielder, slowly gnawing at their life. As it fed of Yoshimitsu's desires for revenge, he found a way to keep the sword in check, but since his successor (who's similarly furious at his mentor's killer) is incapable of doing it, he needs a second sword that palliates the effects of the first as a (temporal) failsafe.
• Suikoden uses this trope quite a lot:
  • All the True Runes are implied to choose their own bearer.
  • Every gun in the setting is also implied to have a soul, and may refuse to work for people who don't have the "right" to operate them.
  • The Star Dragon Sword has a significantly abrasive personality, and often disagrees with its' wielder. You have to fight it in the second game before you can use it.
• Perry, the multi-purpose umbrella used by Peach in Super Princess Peach, who also talks... and is actually a boy who was turned into an umbrella by an Evil Sorcerer.
• In Super Robot Wars, the mecha sometimes act like Empathic Weapons, especially when people with Psychic Powers are using them. See this clip.
  • And then there's the Masou Kishin machines, giant mecha hailing from a techno-slash-fantasy-medieval land, which as quoted by legends function as chariots by a patron elemental god. Their level of empathy is mostly left in the air, however.
  • The Mechanoids also are mostly requested by their pilots to perform their attacks than "piloted"to do so. Justified in that they have a mind and even a voice of their own, and that their power output is highly dependent of the pilot's willpower.
  • Speaking of which, every pilot has indeed a "Will" statistic representing fighting spirit that modifies his or her robot's stats and determines what attacks it can use. Depressed pilots deal less damage, take more, and can only use basic weapons.
• The Swordians in Tales of Destiny. They actually contain the spirits of legendary heroes, thus can talk and have to put up of the naive stupidity of Tales leads.
  • Soma in Tales of Hearts don't have feelings of their own, but through them you can form a Soma Link. The party actually meets the "server" for Soma Link transmissions late in the game.
• Tales of Symphonia has the Devil's Arms, a collection of weapons which are cursed, alive, and probably evil. There is exactly one Devil's Arm each character can wield, and after completing the miniquest associated with them they can be the most powerful weapons in the game, since they deal more damage for every monster you slay.
• Team Fortress 2 has the Eyelander, a haunted sword that the Demoman can use. It talks on occasion, but all it can say is "headsss". Killing opponents with it decapitates them and provides the player with extra health and speed until they die. In the comics it’s capable of full speech, watching movies with the Demoman and criticizing them for inaccurate portrayals of ghosts.
• The above weapon is seemingly the same one used by the modern-times Yoshimitsu from Tekken, whose katana is described as turning its wielder crazy if it's not used to kill (bad) guys.
• The Shichishito sword in Tenchu, owned by Lord Mei-Oh. It appears to have a bit of sentience, capable of seeking and returning to its master. It's also corruptive if used by other people (or forged into their katanas...)
• Too Human: Baldur's melee weapon (it can be reforged into practically anything), Fenrir, is a bloodthirsty AI imprisoned in a weapon. It can be heard snarling as Tyr holds it.
• The Titans from Titanfall and Titanfall 2 are these. Titans are piloted via a neural link, and each Titan comes with an onboard AI that can only link with a single Pilot at any given time. When the pilot isn't in the cockpit, Titans can move and act all on their own. The second game's plot revolves around the fact that Titans are empathetic weapons to begin with.
• The Blackrock Sword from Ultima VII and its The Black Forge expansion. The sword is only usable because of a demon sealed in the hilt of the sword, making it perhaps the ultimate tool in the entire game. This sword can instantly recharge the player's mana, instantly kill any enemy in one swipe, can provide hints for the player (by "talking" to the sword). In the sequel, it is lost (along with all your other gear) to a magical lightning storm. When you finally retrieve the sword, you are soon forced to release the demon and thus lose most of its awesome power. You can eventually repair the weapon, but it never becomes as powerful as it was before.
• Universe at War has Viktor, Mirabel's battlesuit, which has lines of his own (if not understandable). The two serve, together, as one of Novus' hero units. Viktor's just as sentient as the rest of the machine race. It's just that while the others use Translation Convention and eventually explicitly communicate in English, Viktor only ever speaks to Mirabel, and therefore doesn't bother.
• Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni-: The Extar's prowess is tied to their emotional state and closeness with their Liberator.
• In Warcraft III, Arthas's blade Frostmourne is one part of the Lich King's soul that eventually turns him into the undead.
  • Frostmourne's sister weapon, the axe Shadowmourne. The Lich King speaks to you through it.
  • A cinematic in Legion shows Shallamayne to have an empathic connection to it's former wielder: as Anduin uses it to speak with Varian.
  • Several of the Artifact Weapons in Legion are this, and will comment on certain events or characters throughout the expansion. Xal'atath even eventually becomes a hot purple elf chick, and then skeddaddles to goodness knows where. Aluneth has some choice comments about Suramar. The Shards of Frostmourne have some comments about the certain locations. Thal'kiel has commentary about his warlock wielder's style.
  • The Doomhammer refuses to be wielded by Thrall after he cheats at Mak'gora. Although the weapon doesn't speak, this confirms that it at least has an empathic connection to the Elemental Lords.
• Asgard from Wild ARMs activates only when Cecilia shows understanding of its purpose and reluctance to fulfill that purpose. Cecilia also shows respect for it by asking it for help rather than forcefully controlling it. To a minor degree, the titular ARMs of the series also qualify, as they're usually portrayed as only usable by certain people who have the capacity to attune their bodies and spirits to them.
• In Wild ARMs XF has two. The first is Strahl Gewehr, and gun that can only be used by a princess medium and channels the power of the Guardians. The other is Iskander Bey, which can only be used by Yulia and her descendents.

Webcomics

• Darken: The sword wielded by Komi comes complete with an eye and shape-changing abilities. However, it tends to speak its mind a lot, and thinks its owner is better suited to the Regalia, despite his protestations. Normally, only its owner can hear its voice, although it has also spoken to Casper. The sword also has the unsettling ability to possess its wielder. That, along with the fact that it was found held by its previous wielder's corpse, and the warning that Mephistopheles' servant gave to Komi concerning the sword, brings the sword closer to Stormbringer levels of Doominess.
• The Dreamland Chronicles: Alex's sword. It's not too empathetic to him.
• Dies-Horribly's artificial arm in Goblins combines this with Morph Weapon. Typically it transforms itself into some sort of spiked weapon in response to Dies' near-constant fear of his Prophetic Name coming true, but it can also be used as a grappling hook, spiked shield, and a protective cocoon.
• The Last Halloween: The weapon of the main character follows this trope, in several scenes actually following her and levitating into her hand.
• Magick Chicks: Melissa's wand has a will of its own and possesses a strong sense of justice. Which is why it reacted positively to Tiffany and even guilt-tripped Melissa into helping her, when it heard Tiffany might die.
• Nodwick: It was explained once that Yeagar's sword is actually obscenely powerful but was traumatized by his using it for a long list of rather distasteful acts.
• Sluggy Freelance: Chaz is an odd example. While the sword is sentient and capable of killing almost anything, it is only able to do so when it has tasted the blood of the innocent. Even after that, Chaz only stays powered up for a short amount of time. A previous wielder took advantage of Chaz's ability and became an extremely powerful warlord. The current wielder, Torg, is a good person and has never killed somebody for the purpose of activating Chaz. Also, while not powered up, Chaz has very slight ability to influence his wielder, making Torg a slightly more capable swordsman until he learns how to fight for himself.
• Tower of God: The Thirteen Month Series. So far, two have been seen: the needle (think a rapier, but sturdier) Black March, which is actually a lustful woman with a very specific taste in men, so that she never cooperated with her previous Master, Princess Yuri, and Green April, a long hook that is more like a Blood Knight and berserker and can expand and split into multiple branches.

Web Original

• In The Mech Touch, the X-Factor is an unproven theory on how mechs are, in some way, alive and able to affect the pilots that use them. Ves scoffs at the idea until the Mech Designer System allows him to stumble headfirst into it early into his career. Later on, Ves learns how to channel his creativity and passion into his designs to increase the X-Factor of his mechs for pilots to synchronize with.
• A lot of advanced personal weapons in Orion's Arm have integrated AIs to make up for their users' pathetic reaction times. Some, known as "Demon Weapons" have their own agendas that might conflict with that of their wielders.
• Tech Infantry has the magic swords Kuar and the Sword of Omens, both of which have something of a personality and alter that of their owner.
• The Whateley Universe has Destiny's Wave, the talking sentient sword given to Bladedancer by the Eight Immortals of the Tao. It has the spirit of a great Taoist warrior embedded in it, and is capable of cutting anything that its wielder wants to be cut.

Web Videos

• Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara's Magic Gun showed a minimal level of empathy when it stopped him from shooting himself in the head. It seems to consider him a friend and a partner... his parents, to their deserved misfortunate, were regarded a bit more poorly.
• JourneyQuest partners the long-suffering wizard Perf with the "the sword of fighting" which has a will entirely its own and the capability to enhance its wielders fighting skills — or in the case of Perf, is his only source of fighting skill. When not sulking over who the chosen one turned out to be, it is near constantly spewing obscenities, insults, or whatever movement it happens to be performing at the time. The sword is also vaguely sadistic, taking great pleasure in slaughter regardless of the victim although, with a marked distaste for Orc.
• No Evil: All four Tezcatlipoca, having formed from the shattered remains of a mirror born from the merger of two spirits, are sentient weapons. Though only the Black and Red have been seen doing much more than be picky about their wielders. The Black Tezcatlipoca isn't a conventional weapon so much as a shapeless black ooze that creeps across the land putting people into an enchanted sleep which forms a strange bond with a creepy child, while the Red Judgement Scythe has been observed to talk to spirits who tried to wield it, and lived to tell the tale.

Western Animation

• In the Adventure Time episode "Blade of Grass", Finn's newly-obtained grass sword first appears to be an Evil Weapon bent on keeping itself attached to his arm whether he wants it or not, but when he accepts the fact that the sword will always be with him, it does a Heel–Face Turn and becomes this.
• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Princess Maya's staff has been known to defy her commands to fire energy bolts, at one point telling her brusquely "lethal force not required," during the middle of a firefight.
• Ben 10: The Omnitrix has a mind of its own — possibly more than one. It will often turn Ben into an alien other than the one he's trying to become, and has a tendency to act in self-defense by zapping bad guys who try to tear it from Ben's wrist. Ben doesn't ask it for help so much as argue with it when it acts up. You could probably even say that the Omnitrix is trying to teach Ben something. His usual plan is to turn into Fourarms and just smack everything around until the problem's solved; forcing him to use other, more complicated aliens like Grey Matter and Cannonbolt is a good way to make him fight more strategically. It also seems to dislike being removed from Ben's wrist. It seems almost happy and enthusiastic when it jumps back on him after being removed in the Season 2 finale, and after being stuck in the bottom of Ben's closet for 5 years, it refuses to work, and the watchface turns blue ^note Forget the Blue Screen of Death; that watch was just feeling blue. When Vilgax later steals it during Alien Force, the watch refuses to work for him... until Ben presses the dial in a Tricking the Shapeshifter plan. Even though removing the watch is now possible in the sequel series, Azmuth still seems sulkily resigned to the fact that Ben must be the wielder of his invention.
• Bugs Bunny was tasked to take a singing sword from a castle guarded by a dragon in the Oscar-winning short "Knighty Knight Bugs"; the sword is a bit on the heavy side for him and has the habit of breaking out into song at inconvenient times. Given that this is Looney Tunes (and Bugs Bunny), Hilarity Ensues.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The performance of the Planeteers' rings depended on their state of mind. So if someone was ever, say, despairing and feeling sorry for himself, or high — (stop scoffing, it happened) — the ring wouldn't respond.
• In Centurions, the heroes' Assault Weapon Systems respond to their mental commands.
• In the first season of Exo Squad, Able Squad sacrifices their E-Frame mecha to stop a NeoSapien plan. When Marsh disconnected from his, preparatory to dropping it in a volcano, its onboard computer unexpectedly said, in its emotionless female voice, "Farewell, Operator J.T. Marsh." Another squad member uttered a bromide about "Humans are great creators, but often do not know what they create."
• Felix the Cat's bag of tricks, particularly in The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.
• The Exotar in Invasion America, a glove made of pure phlebotinum, gives the hero superpowers — but eats the hand of anyone else who wears it.^note The wielder has to be of the direct genetic line of the alien ruler.
• Parodied in Jackie Chan Adventures. Jackie uses a magic walking stick to battle some bad guys. When he gets disarmed, he calls for the stick to return to his hand, only for it to fly into his gut and knock him out. It's played straight when Jade retrieves it and fights with it perfectly. It was implied that this wasn't the first time that Jade has used that stick.
• Kim Possible: Though appearing only once in the series, the Lotus Blade is implied to be one. In addition to being able to transform into nearly any kind of weapon (and then some) in the hands of those who possess Mystical Monkey Power, it can be summoned by a pure-hearted wielder, and it seemed to have a sense of humor since it ripped off Ron's clothes as it flew by. Since then, it has become a One-Scene Wonder, and has been a subject that appears in many fanfics, as well as having its abilities fleshed out.
• ReBoot: Glitch and the other Guardians' keytools are almost literally a Do-Anything Robot, able to become any tool or contraption ranging from simple devices to complex machines, and has never been unable to respond to ANY command (barring being incapacitated or damaged). In turn they show sentience, being capable of making decisions based on vague wording or the general needs of its Guardian. This was amusingly demonstrated in one episode when Bob was fighting Megabyte and Bob panics, telling Glitch to turn into 'anything'. It decides to turn into a lamppost, which Megabyte runs into it face-first.
  • In one episode Glitch was incapacitated by Hexidecimal accessing a Reality Warper Paint app, literally melting off his arm. Acting on his own Bob managed to gain access to the app and revert all the changes, but still needed Glitch to finish the job. He called for Glitch, now reformed, who immediately flew across the city to aid him.
  • Turbo revealed to Matrix that keytools choose their wielders and would refuse to function for anyone they don't like, and it's later shown that keytools are intelligent and can even communicate directly with their guardian. Glitch was the one to suggest to Bob to fuse together.
  • The Daemon arc revealed that the keytools abandoned any Guardians that Daemon had infected. This is why Daemon needed to infect Bob to make portals. Being fused with Bob, it was impossible for Glitch to leave like all the other keytools.
  • It's later shown that Keytools are also able to enact plans behind their guardian's back. When Bob and Glitch unmerge (Glitch upgrading in the process), Glitch attaches itself to the duplicate Bob actually Megabyte with a portion of Bob's code, letting his take his appearance, seemingly rejecting "our" damaged Bob. Bob seeing this assumes he is indeed the copy between the two Bobs. Only Glitch didn't reject Bob. It went to the Fake Bob to retrieve the missing fragment of Bob's code, unmasking him as Megabyte before returning to the real Bob and repairing him. For extra irony, Glitch waits until Phong, administering the wedding, asks "if anyone knows why they shouldn't be joined in marriage" to expose Megabyte.
• Samurai Jack has Jack’s sword in this role.
  • It cuts through anything when he wields it, but in the hands of the evil Aku, it's suddenly as lethal as a plastic butter knife. It's specifically an evil-destroying weapon, so it can't (or won't) harm the pure-hearted.
    Aku: How!?
    Jack: [laughs] Even I had forgotten that the sword was forged with purity and strain. It can only be used for good. In the hands of evil it can never harm an innocent and so Aku... it cannot harm me but it can harm you.
  • In episode XLII, "The Aku Infection", it was practically Jack holding the sword, but due to being controlled by Aku, it couldn't harm the monks, having the effectiveness of a club when used on them.
  • In the fifth season, Jack is shown to have dropped his sword down a hole at some point during the last 50 years. In the episode "XCVIII", it's shown that he was tricked into murdering a trio of goat kids that Aku had turned into monsters. The goats were technically innocent, and upon using it to kill them the sword "abandoned" Jack, requiring him to go on a spiritual quest to retrieve it.
• In Sofia the First, although not properly a weapon, the Amulet of Avalor possesses a certain degree of self-awareness, enough to know when its bearer is doing something good or bad, in order to deliver a blessing that can be very useful for Sofia or deliver a curse in order to make her understand when she's doing something bad. We then find out why it acted that way — it's holding its original wielder.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Royal Magic Wand changes into different objects based on who's wielding it. For our heroine Star, it looks like a classic Sailor Moon-style Magical Girl wand. For the noble and uptight Moon, it was a crystallized scepter. For the warmongering Solaria, it became a large sword with a lightning bolt-shaped blade, for the fun-loving Festivia, it was a wine goblet, for the artistic Estrella, it became a pen, for the strict Eclipsa, it became a parasol, and so on and so forth.
• The Darksaber from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels seems attuned to its wielder's state of mind. If it's held by someone who's conflicted or who lacks belief in oneself, it becomes heavy and hard to use. Someone who is self-confident and clear-headed can wield it as gracefully as any Jedi.
• ThunderCats (1985):
  • The Sword of Omens seems to be partly empathic. On many occasions the Sword of Omens reacted on its own, usually by flashing and growing, to Mumm-ra or other evil characters touching or even just approaching it. In one episode the sword was broken after Lion-O was tricked into attacking Tygra with it, and the rest of the episode revolved around the ThunderCats trying to find a way to fix it. Furthermore, the sword has exhibited something of its own personality, such as when Lion-O decided to hunt for sport. The sword reacted by flying from the ThunderCat's hand, embedding itself in the ground, and refusing to be removed until the spirit of Jaga appeared to tell Lion-O that it will not cooperate in an act of evil.
  • At one point Mumm-ra uncovers Excalibur, King Arthur's legendary sword. The swords do battle (eventually abandoning their wielders and duking it out in the air) until Excalibur pierces the Sword of Omen's eye. The ThunderCats suddenly collapsed at the destruction of the Eye, but fortunately Merlin the Magician appeared to restore it before Mumm-Ra could fully triumph.
  • In another instance, Mumm-Ra tricked a Samurai named Hachiman to go after Lion-O, only to discover that both of their respective weapons refused to come out of their scabbards, since neither person was evil.
• In the ThunderCats (2011) episode "The Forest of Magi-Oar", the Wood Forgers tell the Cats that Viragor has been terrorizing them and the forest. But when Viragor attacks later in the episode, the Sword of Omens won't work against him. Lion-O later figures out that it's because Viragor is the forest's true protector, and the Wood Forgers are really the ones terrorizing him and the forest.
• Wakfu: It has a set of weapons with demons known as Shu-Shus that are bound to them. One of the main characters has the demon-bound-in-sword Rubilax which never limits its use, rather encouraging its wielder to go all the way, sometimes into being possessed by it. Rubilax's eye in the hilt is fairly expressive.

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