Discussion Main / FemmeFatalons

Is there a reason the page pic is the witch's hand from the new "Oz" film, but her character isn't mentioned? It certainly fits the trope.

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Removed ZC Es

Comic Books:

• Catwoman is a fan of these.

Edited by Madrugada ...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it. Hide / Show Replies

Moving these "nails primarily as weapons" examples here so they can be placed properly. This trope has been redined as per this TRS thread

Anime and Manga:

• Sumire from Venus Versus Virus has talons that she uses when she's in her Berserker mode, and the two female villains have long nails that they use as weapons from time to time.
• Lust from Full Metal Alchemist can make hers extend into spears. Technically speaking they're her entire fingers, but the effect is the same.
• Maria from Witchblade can also extend her fingers into spears like Lust.
• Cat Girls in general are an exception, as they usually have literal claws (whether they tear up furniture with them or not is up for grabs.)
• Nao in Mai-HiME (who's also an example of Finger-Lickin' Evil) has normal nails, but can materialize long metal claws as her Element.
  • One of the Galactic Beauties in the Mai-Hime manga had long talons (and was fond of meowing). Most of the female leads also had long nails (albeit the square tipped fake-looking type.
• The Chinese assassin Shaoli in Noir uses her fingernails (coated in a highly toxic nail polish) as her primary weapon.
  • Also, in Tsubasa, the vampires (such as Kamui and Fai) can extend their fingernails and use them to stab/slash people. A slight subversion, as all the vampires we've met are male.
• In One Piece, Captain Kuro is well known for his gloves with foot-long finger claws. For this reason, he adjusts his glasses using the heel of his palm, even when not wearing the gloves.
• Ophiucus Shaina from Saint Seiya uses her claw-like nails to tear her opponents to shreds and to electrocute them with her signature attack.
• Protagonist Ran Kotobuki and every girl in Super Gals wears long artificial nails.
• Evangeline of Mahou Sensei Negima, who is quite insistant about her villain status, has these appear whenever she goes to full vampire mage mode.
• The berserked self-defense program of Reinforce in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, whose naked, feminine humanoid part comes with frighteningly long and pointy nails on her hands.
• A spider demon that appears in several chapters of xxxHoLic can extend her nails to long lengths.
  • Yuko is shown having long nails in some of the offical artwork and manga covers
• Protagonist Miku Onda of the manga Shinigami Lovers has "hime-style" nails adorned with jewelry & ribbons and is a nail art enthusiast.
• Chochomaru from the anime Peto Peto-san can extend her nails into pink talons.
• Dot.Hack
  • Tabby in Roots has a pair of fist weapons with claws attached.
• Delphine in Last Exile has gold painted toenails.
• Sylia Stingray in episode 4 of the original Bubblegum Crisis sports a nice manicure.

Comic Books:

• All of the Cheetahs in Wonder Woman have had this ability — the earlier ones artificially in their gloves, the current one supernaturally.
• Lady Deathstrike in X-Men... at roughly a foot long and made from indestructable adamantium metal, they pretty much set a new standard.
  • The Ultimate version is even crazier, being able to kill from about ten feet away with them.
  Deathstrike: "I thought your girlfriend liked getting pierced."
  • In the vein of Marvel characters, Marvel's self-parodying series What The?! had Wolverina — a mash-up between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike — who had to apply press-on adamantium nails before entering a fight.
• Marvel's Hellcat Patsy Walker, among other feral-like heroes (e.g. Tigra) and villains (e.g. Bloodlust, Wild Child), can rake opponents with her talons... er, claws.
  • The same can be said of other Cat Girls (or Cat-Men in the case of DC's Catman) in comics
• One The Phantom comic had a female villain whose pinky fingernail was replaced with a small blade, and she used it when tied up to escape.
• A heroic example: Owlwoman of The DCU's Global Guardians ends up with extendable, steel-cutting nails as a superpower after some genetic tampering by the villainous Queen Bee.
• When Black Cat was with Spider Man she got claws as a side effect of Luck/Bad Luck powers from the Beyonder (or as a bonus.) But these were played very subtle; they weren't part of her costume, they didn't pop out with a loud 'snickt!' or morph into talons, they simply appeared whenever she thought someone had too much face on the front of their head, and disappeared so quickly and unremarkably that anyone who had glimpsed them wondered if they really saw them at all. Not counting the ones missing their faces, they were pretty convinced she had claws.
• Newspaper Comics example: The old Dick Tracy comics had an arc dealing with the 'Moon Maid'; i.e our astronauts discovered a race of people living in an air-filled valley on the Moon. The moon men developed two of their fingernails on one hand to the point where they were useful in slicing and dicing food items ... and someone's throat, if need be... which is where Dick Tracy came in.
• Male example: Sabretooth has the ability to generate these, as well as Wolverine's healing, as his powerset.
  • Deadpool describes those in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as "the fingernails of a bag-lady... Manicure?"
  • Spider-Man 2099 has retractable talons on his fingers and toes. He uses them both to Wall Crawl and to slash opponents.

Film:

• In Superman 4: The Quest For Peace, Nuclear Man has the ability to grow these.
• The main villainess in the new Around The World In 80 Days has very long and sharp cap-like nails that slip on her finger as weapons. In her fight with Jackie Chan, she thrusts her hands in a sandbag and when she pulls out her hands the nails are gone.
• Poison Ivy has short false nails in Batman And Robin.

Literature:

• Sarah from Duumvirate steel-plates her nails so she can tear out throats and make hash browns.
• Molly from William Gibson's Neuromancer has some badass razor-sharp retractable steel claws implanted under her nails.
• Tsarmina, of the Redwall novel Mossflower. Justified, as she's, well, a cat, but not used to great effect during an interrogation of a couple hedgehog babies.
• Kim Newman's vampire heroine Geneviéve has nails that, in a possible Shout-Out to the aforementioned Molly Millions, extend when she gets angry, or when she chooses to deploy them; referred to as "fingerknives", the combination of those, her eyes going red, and her fangs coming out form her Game Face.
• In Star Trek novel Sword of Kahless, the villainess is a Klingon geneticist who has filed her fingernails into sharp killing tools. When one of her Mooks brings bad news to her, she slashes with her hand in annoyance, slicing open his throat. She watches as he quickly bleeds out.
• In Death: Pandora in Immortal In Death is noted for having sharp fingernails. Max Ricker from Judgment In Death is a male example of having these.

Live Action TV:

• Maryann of True Blood can transform her hands into large claws that secrete toxic bacteria.
• Power Rangers Time Force villain Nadira had razor-sharp metal fingernails that extended into blades.
• In a Rare Male Example of this, Beecher in Oz once used his sharpened long fingernails to slash the throat of a sadistic guard and then cut his nails and flushed them down the toilet to get rid of the evidence.
• Several people in Sanctuary such as Ashley and Tesla can extend their nails into talons and use as weapons.

Toys

• Roodaka sports large claws in Bionicle. They get dangerously close to Vakama's crotch in one scene.
  • Only in The Movie, though. Her toy, ironically, doesn't even have hands.

Video Games:

• Deborah, one of you choices of spouse from Dragon Quest V, uses her nails as her primary weapon, on both enemies and the Hero alike.
• One of Dizzy's attacks consists in growing her nails and slash at the opponent. Justice has this ability as well.
• Sniper Wolf has talons in both Metal Gear Solid and its Game Cube remake. She uses them to mark her prey.
• Not particularly sexy, the Witch from Left 4 Dead slashes at survivors with her overgrown phalanxes.
• Hilda and Sonia from the Fire Emblem series.
• You don't actually see it, but York from Deadly Premonition got the scar on his face from a woman who had laced her fingernails with razorblades. Or so he says.
• The weapon of choice for Chalis in Golden Sun Dark Dawn. Resident Badass Furry Sveta can also equip artificial claws.
• Nouhime in Samurai Warriors can use these and Wolverine Claws.
• Viola in the upcoming Soulcalibur V game uses the 'gauntlet with fingertip-mounted knives' variant.

Western Animation:

• AndrAIa from Reboot is a rare non-villain to have them. They're even poisonous. And she can fire them like darts.
• Blackarachnia, of Transformers: Beast Wars takes this one to the next level: She has actual claws instead of hands - it's part of her transformation. Oddly enough, though, she doesn't use them in a fight: she tends to prefer her feet or her guns.
  • On the other hand, Blackarachnia from Transformers Animated has fingers which are still unusually sharp and claw-like at the end, while Arcee's fingers are much more normal looking.
    • Starscream also has claw-like fingers. As if his clone didn't raise enough questions about his gender identity.
• Shego of Kim Possible originally had claws built into her gloves. Whether or not this became an inborn trait when the rest of her abilities were retconned into superpowers was never addressed in the show.
• GI Joe: The Movie had a female Cobra-La assassin with sharp fingernails that dripped acid strong enough to melt through metal.
• Though all the titular creatures on Gargoyles have them, Demona's talons are more strongly emphasized, along with one other prominent physical feature (though that one only shows up when she's angry).
  • For some reason, Halcyon Reynard also has them.
    • It might have to do with his Meaningful Name.
  • Hyena has a gauntlet that provides her with talons, at least in the first season.
• A Static Shock episode with Batman had a runaway Bangbaby who appropriately names herself "Nails" due to her powers.
• Lilo and Stitch: The Animated Series: Subverted somewhat by Stitch's love interest and pink Distaff Counterpart Angel, whose arms end in short nubs (however it is suggested she can retract her claws and bring them out when necessary).

Webcomics:

• Zebra Girl has six-inch claws for fingers. An interesting variation, in that her claws are not a sign of her being evil so much as one of the first in an endless series of impositions which later lead to her giving in to her demonic side. They are, however, supernaturally sharp.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it. Hide / Show Replies

Well, I think some people are missing the "point" of this trope. Given the enormous amount of content, I think we can afford to lose the examples that are just long nails, and leave the ones that are (or in theory could be) weapons of some sort