Basic Trope: Nothing says "knightly" and "cool" like using a lance as your weapon.
- Straight:
- Jeanne d'Archétype is a knight of the medieval kingdom of Kickassia, famous for her skill with the large lance on horseback in both the tournament and warfare.
- Stephen the Bold is a Dragon Rider who uses a huge honking lance from the saddle of his scaly mount.
- Zwolf pilots a Super Prototype Mini-Mecha codenamed "Bedevere" after one of the Knights of the Round Table, equipped with a plasma shield and a lance-shaped weapon powered by Applied Phlebotinum.
- Exaggerated:
- Jeanne refuses to use any weapon except a lance, even when it is clearly not the right weapon for the job.
- Stephen is capable of Dual Wielding jousting lances from the back of his dragon because of his superhuman skill.
- Zwolf's lance is twice as big as his mecha, and capable of penetrating even the largest battleship!
- Downplayed: Jeanne is pretty good with her lance on horseback, but she's even better fighting on foot with her sword.
- Justified:
- Jeanne is in a setting where the feudal structure and level of technology make the lance charge a key tactic of warfare.
- The lance's reach and ability to concentrate momentum in an armor piercing attack makes it the most practical melee weapon for Stephen to wield from the back of a dragon, and when fighting other dragon riders.
- The unstable nature of the Applied Phlebotinum requires the weapon to take the shape of a tapered cone; its resemblance to a lance is explained by Mission Control to be an appropriate coincidence.
- Inverted: The lance wields Jeanne with great strength.
- Subverted: Jeanne rides around with a lance, but it's just for show and she doesn't know how to use it properly.
- Double Subverted: But it turns out that's just Obfuscating Stupidity and she's a master of the lance.
- Parodied: Sir Lance-a-lot uses his lance for everything; fighting, transport, eating his food, et cetera.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Jeanne does not use a lance in combat, even though this is what you'd expect in her setting for a warrior of her background.
- Enforced: "We need to show that this character is like a knight. Let's give her a big lance!"
- Lampshaded: "We understand that equipping your space-age mecha with a lance seems like a throwback to The Middle Ages, but try to get used to the idea".
- Invoked: Jeanne takes up the use of the lance as an untested squire, hoping that it will make her a more convincing knight.
- Exploited:
- Jeanne uses her lance's Mundane Utility to spitroast wild boars she happens to kill.
- Farmer Dennis knows that Jeanne has a long lance, and asks her to remove a pesky hornets' nest from a tall branch in his orchard.
- Defied: When offered a lance, Private Atkyns dismisses it as old fashioned and impractical: it's the English Civil Wars, and everybody switched to using sword and pistols long ago.
- Discussed: "Look at how Jeanne unhorsed sir Edward in that last course; she's the best jouster in the three kingdoms."
- Conversed: "Does this battle mech's futuristic weapon really need to be shaped like a medieval lance?"
- Implied: Sir Robin passes the tree outside Jeanne's secret grove, and sees hoof prints leading to a dead man who was apparently run through with a piercing instrument at high speed.
- Deconstructed: By focusing too much on using her lance, Jeanne neglects her swordsmanship and gets in trouble when her lance breaks in the initial charge.
- Reconstructed: Surviving this incident, Jeanne decides to train more with her backup weapon without giving up her primary.
- Played For Laughs: Jeanne's lance is impractically long, and gets her stuck when she tries to pass through the town gate.
- Played For Drama: Sir Guy, the villain, inflicts appalling casualties on the Red Shirt Army with his +4 Lance of Ruination.
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