Blade of Fearsome Size

If you can wield it, you can have it.

Big Fucking Sword. Or, Blade of Fearsome Size. Or, Bulky Falchion of Slicing. (Okay, that last one might be a bit of a stretch...)[1]

Whatever you call it, a BFS is an unrealistically large sword most often owned by The Hero, The Chosen One, or whatever type the lead happens to be. The BFS is often nearly as long as its owner is tall, and may or may not have other special abilities besides being humongous. If a BFS does possess other strange qualities, one of them almost assuredly prevents it from being used by other people, whether that be weight, a magical barrier, a direct link to its owner, or other means.

Usually, no other character in a game or series is the possessor of a sword that is anywhere close to as huge as the BFS. Sometimes, even when unusual swords and weapons are an everyday occurrence, characters are still surprised by the size of the lead's BFS, as it is a physical manifestation of its owner's potential power.

The Rival or a villain will sometimes own a BFS, representing a significant hurdle and challenge for the protagonist to overcome. It is rarer for a secondary character, such as The Lancer or The Big Guy, to own a BFS, but if the lead character does not possess one, one of the others in the Five-Man Band likely will.

One dubiously historical example of a BFS is the zanbato, an Anti-Cavalry sword big enough to kill a rider and his horse in one shot (bringing new meaning to a certain phrase that ends, "... and the horse you rode in on!"). Such may have been made more as a test of swordsmithing than for actual combat. The zanbato itself is based on a shorter Chinese sword, the zhanmadao, roughly the length of a Scottish claymore, also designed to cut through rider and horse at the same time. Likewise, the Germans employed a type of sword called the Zweihänder (literally, "two-hander"), which could be up to seven feet in length, and were said to allow the wielder to decapitate multiple foes with a single blow, though this only become possible once steel was available to make large but light weapons, and even then, might have been an exaggeration on the part of boastful warriors. The documented rationale for the unusual length of the zweihänder was to cut off speartips from a safe distance.

This trope includes any type of improbably large ("anime-sized") melee weapon. After the aforementioned big-ass sword, gigantic lances tend to be the most common. However, humongous hammers and titanic axes also appear from time to time, most commonly in the hands of The Big Guy (or, just for the absurdity of it all, a little girl).

An ancient trope. Oversized, unrealistic swords aren't unheard of in medieval or earlier fiction, poetry, and artwork. To make matters more confusing, most societies employing swords also made huge ceremonial swords for display, which laymen of later periods may mistake for actual war tools. Swords employed in combat or dueling were lighter than even the typical, non-BFS fantasy sword—which makes a lot of sense, if you remember it's about swinging one hundreds of times and quick enough—while the only purpose of a ceremonial or executioner's sword is to be carried along or make one strong cut respectively, there's not a lot of swinging around. Even the really big swords that were used for "fencing" with (batting aside or cutting) polearms or punching through thick armor were far lighter than we are lead to believe by various sources.

Compare Big Bulky Bomb and BFG. May well be a Bigger Stick. May involve Hammerspace physics for storage, or some sort of strange-ass magnetism. Almost always held casually resting on the hero's shoulder.

If it's being wielded with just one hand, it's a One-Handed Zweihander. Compare Dual-Wielding, Heroes Prefer Swords, and Infinity+1 Sword. May be used to create a Sinister Scraping Sound. Obligatory links to Freud Was Right and Compensating for Something are here for your convenience.

Examples of Blade of Fearsome Size include:

Anime and Manga

  • Being that Ranma ½ is more a comedy than anything, it doesn't allow many blades of any size to get in. That said, Shampoo still manages to get away with swinging around a massive sabre in her first appearance, even if she does trade it for Carry a Big Stick afterwards. How big is it? The blade alone is roughly the same length as the distance between the bottom of Shampoo's pelvis and the top of her head. And she swings it around in one hand. While carrying a chui (a long-handled mace with a basketball sized solid steel head) in the other.
    • That's the actual size of real Chinese dao, and they're a lot lighter (and flexible) than they seem.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth: Fuu's upgraded sword is long and large compared to Hikaru's and Umi's. Should anyone else hold it, the weight would bring them down (as the sword was made purely for her, she is able to lift it with ease, thus allowing some justification.)
  • Susanoomon from Digimon Frontier has what is, proportionally, the biggest effing blade ever with his "Zero ARMS: Orochi" weapon. He creates what looks like a BFG that's bigger then he is (which is made even bigger by the fact that he's probably more than 20 feet tall; there may be no "proportionally" about it) that creates a Laser Blade BIG ENOUGH TO BISECT THE ENTIRE DIGITAL WORLD WHENEVER IT IS SWUNG.
  • Ichigo from Bleach is a recent and well-known BFS wielder; however, the sheer size of his zanpakutō is a sign that he has great spirit power, but lacks control of it; it can be easily broken by stronger shinigami with better spirit control. He eventually gets over this problem and upgrades his sword into its Shikai form, which, while rather large, is not as huge as his original sword. Zanpakutō have another upgraded form, Bankai; for most shinigami, this changes their sword into an extremely large and powerful weapon, but in a further subversion, Ichigo's Bankai is the size of a normal sword and simply increases his speed...a lot.
    • His bankai is a daito, which is still longer than most swords, although actually used.
    • Well, as a series stuffed with magical swords, Bleach has some unusual BFSes. Ichimaru has a sword which, while of normal width, can grow to over 100 sword lengths long (later revealed to be able to become 13 kilometers long) (used to snipe enemies), and Komamura has a BFS wielding a BFS (the first S is for Samurai).
      • Barragan Luisenbarn has a Big Effing Axe.
      • Halibel ressurecution has one huge hand blade.
      • Lisa Yadomaru has a Big Freaking Spear.
      • Love Aikawa has a Big Effing club twice his size.
      • Hiyori Sarugaki has a Big Bleeping serrated saw blade.
      • Nnoitra Gilga has a Big Freaking axe/scythe thing and a huge... spoon.
    • Keep in mind, that with all these Bleach examples, Tite Kubo has stated that none of these wielders feel the weight of their zanpakuto because it is part of their soul.
    • At one point, Ichigo's father Isshin a Captain-level shinigami claims that if shinigami as powerful as himself didn't restrain their power they would be wielding zanpakato as large as skyscrapers.
  • Kazuki from Busou Renkin has an alternate weapon type—a BFL (Big Fraggin' Lance).
  • Guts and his Dragon Slayer from Berserk are a classic example. Though the giant swords he wields are relatively realistic in terms of being metallurgically problematic, with the Dragon Slayer stated to be forged from solid iron rather than carbon steel, and the art goes to great lengths to portray the weapon realistically with a lot of momentum and almost no real cutting edge. Many other characters of note have large versions of non-sword weapons as well, such as an atlatl-style spear thrower that generates cannon-like force or, in a semi-subversion, an Indian-style flexible sword that is of normal length but far more blades than normal (based on a real Indian weapon known as an urumi). Ironically, despite a painstaking attempt at verisimilitude for the weapon's effects, Berserk's creator, Kentaro Miura, has admitted in interviews that he only hit upon the idea of the huge sword as a gimmick to attract readers.
    • This extends to the Dreamcast video game based on the series, as it's nigh-impossible to swing the Dragon Slayer in tight corridors without it bouncing off the wall to little effect. In the PlayStation 2 version, set in the Millennium Falcon arc, this simply isn't an issue—most of the action takes place outdoors, while the few indoor or underground areas that Guts goes into are spacious enough to allow him to use the Dragon Slayer to full asskicking effect.
  • In The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ryoko Asakura turns her arms into twin BFSs.
  • Earth from Zatch Bell is the king of this trope. All of his spells revolve around his sword, which isn't too big for demon standards. However, some of his spells increase the size of it. Jian Ji Sorudo causes a huge sword to form at the tip of his, which he can use accordingly. Varusere Ozu Maru Sorudon is one of his last resorts, in which he just makes it rain BFS's. It is shown that if he had stayed in the fight longer, he would've awoken Shin Varusere Ozu Maaru Sorudon that just causes him to summon more, larger, stronger raining BFS's.
  • Inuyasha's sword Tessaiga is a normal-sized and rather dull-bladed katana in its unempowered state, but transforms into a BFS for use in battle whenever he has the desire/resolve to protect a human. Bankotsu's Banryuu, though technically a halberd, makes an even bigger BFS than Tessaiga.
  • Mikoto from My-HiME fits the main trope when she becomes a Dark Magical Girl later in the series.
  • Arika from Mai-Otome is the proud wielder of both a BFL and a BFS.
    • Arika gets one-upped by her own mother in Mai-Otome 0 Sifr. Her version of the Sword of Akatsuki is large enough to cleave an asteroid in half from several hundred meters off.
  • Zabuza, an ex-Seven Swordsman of the Mist and the first major villain that Team 7 faces in Naruto, has a rather nasty BFS named Kubikiribouchou ("Decapitating Carving Knife") that can repair itself with the iron from the blood of its victims. Kisame (also a former member of the Seven) has another BFS named Samehada ("sharkskin") that only he can use, and which is more or less a sword-shaped bundle of hooks as opposed to an actual blade. Its main strength is its ability to absorb the chakra of others in order to aid its master, and Kisame can also fuse with it if need be. It also happens to be alive, to the point where it's capable of abandoning its master if it finds someone else it likes better.
    • Chojuro, the young bodyguard of the Fifth Mizukage, is the last Seven Swordsmen still loyal to his village. He wields a giant fish shaped sword, that can turn into a even more giant hammer made of chakra (which he uses to blast Sasuke through a wall). Two other Seven Swordsmen also wield BFS; one is basically half blade, half giant scroll made of exploding tags, and the other is a giant rope-linked hammer and axe that can break any defense.
    • Expanding on Zabuza, Kishimoto said Zabuza's early character designs had his sword about the size of a skycraper, or at least a small building.
    • Outside of that group, the Raikage's bodyguard Darui has a sword that is basically a giant cleaver/ax with no point. It seems to be able to fold along a pivot sideways to be stored easier.
    • Temari wields a giant war fan; when folded, it is "only" about as tall as she is (making it about five feet tall).
    • Sabu has a giant axe (unlike Darui's it's more of a hatchet), which is quite a big bigger than he is. Like Zabuza, he can stick it in a tree and stand on it.
    • Gamabunta's tanto (which for him is regular-sized) was temporarily used by Tsunade as an insanely giant sword.
    • In reference to the example from Journey to the West, The Third Hokage's greatest summon, Monkey King Enma, can transform into a shapeshifting, extendable, nigh-indestructable staff that's only as long as the Hokage wants it to be, but is about as thick as the man himself.
  • Sagara Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin starts out with a BFS (a zanbato, in fact) and a rotten attitude. Soon after Kenshin destroys the sword, Sano becomes The Lancer.
    • This may even count as a bit of a subversion, as during the fight kenshin points out how impractical a BFS really is, and proceeds to easily outmaneuver the sword, which is bound by the laws of physics (especially momentum) to be a clumsy weapon.
    • That doesn't stop Sano from breaking it out one more time in the Jinchuu arc and showing it can be used for other things... like playing baseball with cannon shells.
    • Fuji of the Juppongatana also wields a tremendously gigantic sword.
  • Explored in CLAMP's debut manga, RG Veda, in which a major character carries one, and remarks that it wouldn't ever be able to cut anything, had the sword not been magical.
    • Which is sort of strange, because in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Syaoran and Kurogane are often drawn carrying swords as tall as they are (and in Syaoran's case, taller than he is).
  • The Empathic Weapon belonging to Fuu of Magic Knight Rayearth. It's bigger than she is (most pictures of her with it cuts off) and literally weighs a ton in anyone else's hands—only her wind magic allows her to carry it.
    • And Ferio's sword is also taller than he is.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Asuna's Paper Fan of Doom can upgrade into a BFS. How this works depends on whether it's in the manga or the Alternate Continuity anime series Negima?! In any case, the fan is mainly for comedy (or sparring), while the sword is the business version.
    • Meanwhile, Jack Rakan, a comrade of Negi's father, is known as "Rakan of the Thousand Swords"... Apparently, it seems, including one the size of a skyscraper.
    • Asuna's classmate Kaede is a semi-closeted Ninja whose signature weapon is a four-pointed Big Fuuma Shuriken[2] which is considerably wider from tip to tip than she is tall.[3] Also, she sometimes seems to pull it out of nowhere.[4]
    • Don't forget about Setsuna. That nodachi of hers is taller than she is (necessary for the demon-slaying work of her sword school).
    • But in weapon-to-wielder ratio, nothing beats the sword that Evangeline's puppet Chachazero uses, mostly in Negima?!. Not an unrealistically large sword, but not one that would be easy to wield one-handed. Chachazero does it just fine, though... and she's less than a foot tall, making the sword seem absolutely gigantic.
    • Most recently, Yue has started wielding a sword that's longer than she is tall. She even manages to kill a powerful demon with it.
    • Quartum can summon a pillar-sized sword with a spell. And it's on fire.
  • The Heavy Blade class in the .hack// series all wield these as a rule. For some reason, another rule for this class is skimpy armour for females, but that's another story entirely.
  • After breaking four ordinary swords in a fight, Karura Karula from Utawarerumono upgrades to a BFS that only she is able to lift; however, because she demanded it be unbendable, unbreakable, and never need sharpening, the edge is not as sharp as a regular sword, so people she hits with it tend to... splatter. She tests it out by splitting a giant boulder. Several strong men had difficulty even carrying it.
    • And then she breaks that one too, which is never mentioned again because it's back for her next fight.
  • The Ten Commandments sword, used by Haru Glory in Rave Master, is nearly as large as its wielder. Luckily, this only applies to its base form, Eisonmeteor; its other 9 forms are much more reasonably sized, with the exception of Gravity Core, which is even larger.
    • All BFS wielders in the series (and probably all BFS wielders in history) bow before the might of Uta the Eternal, who wields a sword 100 feet long and over 10 feet wide, even though he's only human sized (at least initially). It's seriously insane.
      • Except God (or whoever it was, no one's really sure), who left an even larger sword buried in the ground after taking out an entire nation by throwing it at them.
  • Aya and Maya from Tenjou Tenge share a long, long katana that could not be wielded by either of them, y'know, in the real world.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has Fate Testarossa and her intelligent device, Bardiche. Not only does its Zanber Form start out larger than she is, but it can grow to such immense length that Fate could cleave through Humongous Mecha at a distance. Slightly justified in that Bardiche only transforms into its hilt; its blade is made of magical energy, which means that Fate can extend the blade further so long as she has the mana to spare.
    • While not quite as oversized as Fate's, Signum's Levantine/Laevatein/Laevateinn is still (depending on artist and camera angle) longer than she is. Her recently revealed new sword in the FORCE manga is even bigger.
    • Cypha has two. Vita's Graf Eisen can upsize to the point that she's invisible when showing its full size. And Deville's axe... Goodness.
  • D's Masamune from the two Vampire Hunter D movies definitely fits this trope—if it wasn't for the curve of the blade, it would drag the ground whenever he wields it. As it is, it's a miracle he can unsheath it, let alone wield it with the superhuman speed he does. Well, he is a dhampir after all...
  • Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has one of these. The series even subtly lampshades it when he first fights Viral: by the time you think he's finished drawing the sword from its scabbard, he still has that much further to go.
    • It took him exactly 8,47 seconds to draw that sword.
    • Let's not forget that in the final fight with the Anti-Spiral, the TTGL uses giant versions of Enki's swords. Oh, and did I mention the TTGL is 13 billion lightyears tall? That's a BFS! Actually, two BFS!
    • Also, in the second TTGL movie Viral pilots a galaxy sized mech with 14 arms. Guess what 11 of those arms are wielding? Granted, they're not as big as the TTGL's BFS, IMO quantity over quality in this case.
    • Also, in some official art of the Tengen Toppa Gurren, King Kittan, and Agodega, (which never appeared in the manga/anime/movies, you clearly see that the TTG is wielding a katana, like Kamina. The TTG is, you guessed it, galaxy sized. Considering Kamina's normal katana is already a BFS, the TTG's katana is a BFS of a BFS.
  • Hibana "The Punishment" Daidara from Deadman Wonderland has a BFS Whip Sword that no one else can pick up. Pretty imnpressive for an eight-year-old Creepy Child.
  • After using the Goldion Hammer (not a BFS, so much as a Big Friggen Hammer) during the original series run, GaoGaiGar gets to use the Goldion Crusher—a hammer of light made out of battleships—during the OVA.
    • And yet, when the main villain of the OVA Pulls out a regal-looking mech-sized blade, GaoGaiGar counters with a green crystal version of Gai's "Will Knife", just scaled up to GaoGaiGar size.
  • Mihawk's Kokutou Yoru in One Piece. Can be mistaken, however, for a grave cross. The first time you see Mihawk's sword, you can easily mistake it for a giant marble cross that he's resting against. Then he draws it. The sword is bigger than he is. It gets progressively more badass afterwards, to the point where he can use it to slice a tsunami wave bigger than a fortress in half with it. Horizontally in half.
    • Smoker's sword isn't nearly up to Mihawk's standards, but it is still pretty huge. And then there is Whitebeard. He is around, what, twenty feet tall? His sword is in proportion to his body.
  • In Shakugan no Shana, Sorath has one he calls Blutsauger. Both Tanaka and Satou later make several attempts to lift it, but neither of them succeeds to get it off of the ground completely. In Season 2, Yuji takes a level in badass and wields it with ease, at one point throwing it one-handed as a finishing move.
  • The Kaiser Blades from the Mazinger Z OVA series Mazinkaiser. The movie sequel has two smaller blades that are deployed from the shoulders, but the original/Final Kaiser Blade was pulled out of Kaiser's chest, was three times the length of Kaiser, and able to cut through damn near anything.
  • Silent Moebius features the magical shape-shifting sword Grospoliner, a sentient weapon of ridiculous size in its sword form. However, Katsumi rarely (or never) uses the blade of the sword to cut enemies, instead mainly using the weapon as a magic-focusing tool.
  • The Galahad Knightmare Frame from Code Geass, personal ride of Knight of One Bismarck Waldstein, possesses a sword so huge that the sheath needs its own propulsion system. Bismarck himself also wields a human-scaled replica, which is still pretty over-sized. But then again, so is Bismarck.
  • Of course Gundam also has its very own example, the Shining Finger Sword in G Gundam. (It's wielded by a Humongous Mecha but it's fragging big anyway.)
    • Gundam Seed introduced anti-ship swords, which are basically sword-shaped cheese slicers with energy blades, using the extra weight for impact. Beyond this, the spinoff manga Gundam SEED Astray has two more examples: Blue Frame's Tactical Arms, and Red Frame's Gerbera Straight II, a hundred-and-fifty-meter katana that requires special equipment just to use it.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory has a more literal example, as the giant mobile armor Orchis wields a gigantic beam saber whose handle is about as big as the (normal-sized) Gundam that controls the Orchis, and produces a blade as long as the Orchis itself.
    • The title mecha of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 normally wields a pair of average-sized swords, but can get into BFS range when the built-in beam sabers are activated. And then when combined with the 0 Raiser support fighter to form the 00 Raiser, in Trans-Am mode it can form two gaint beam swords that rival even the Shining Finger Sword in size.
      • The spinoff Gundam 00V supplemental material includes the 00 Gundam Seven Sword variant, with one of the seven swords being a physical blade (the GN Buster Sword II) that's taller than the mecha itself and weighs about 10 tons.
      • Episode 17 of the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 contained one of the largest examples of this trope in Fiction. 00 Raiser in Trans-Am mode was able to create a truly MASSIVE Beam Sabre capable of reaching up to orbit to slice in half the Momento Mori while the 00 Raiser is at the edge of the Atmosphere. According to the background material the Momento Mori is on an orbital ring 10,000 Kilometers above the Earth's surface.
    • Gundam F91 spinoff manga Crossbone Gundam has the Crossbone Gundam X-3, whose signature "Muramasa Blaster" is a fairly large sword to begin with but gets much bigger when the fourteen beam sabers built into it are activated. (It also has a beam rifle built in.)
    • Zeta's Hyper Beam Saber attack.
    • There's also the Double Zeta's Hyper Beam Saber, which is one of Double Zeta's beam cannons that can be converted into a beam saber. The more recent appearances in Super Robot Wars really ramp up how big the sword gets.
    • Gundam Wing has Epyon, the Evil Counterpart to the main character's Wing Zero. While Zero wields a BFG, Epyon has a beam sword that's powered by a direct connection to its nuclear fusion reactor, meaning it can grow to incredible lengths. This can be seen in one episode where Epyon's pilot extends the sword to incredible size and uses it to slice through the massive space fortress Barge.
    • Wing also has the Endless Waltz version of Gundam Sandrock. In the TV series, its heat shotels are longsword-sized weapons that happen to have a C-curve; in EW, they're as big as Sandrock itself.
  • Ideon from Space Runaway Ideon. One of its weapons, the Ideon Sword, a beam of pure light emitted from each of Ideon's hands. While the beam's destructive power is immense (even cleaving an entire planet in half at one point), its most peculiar quality is its length. While adjustable, the maximum length of the sword is depicted as being quite possibly infinite.
  • Balgus from Vision of Escaflowne gets one in the second episode, when facing off against the Zaibach cloaked Melefs. Considering these things managed to incapacitate with ease several other melefs (for reference, melef=15 foot tall mecha), the fact that Balgus proved harder to kill when on foot and armed only with his 8-foot long sword makes him even more awesome.
  • The Di-Swords from Chaos;Head are giant swords wielded by the six main girls of the show. In addition to being very large, they also glow, feed off emotions, and are invisible to everyone except Takumi.
  • Eat Man has a few of these, though The Boer Sword deserves a special mention. Despite the fact that it's only ever used in one hand the thing's easily twice the size of anyone who uses it, dangles a mass of apparently self-motivating cables, and commands the allegiance of an army of monsters.
  • At one point, couple of mooks in Hokuto no Ken team up swing a giant sword. Of course, being Hokuto No Ken mooks, the mookiest mooks in mookdom, they die bloodily a panel later.
  • Allen Walker and the Earl of Millennium from D.Gray-man have matching (yin-yang) swords that resemble giant cricket bats. Lavi's weapon is a hammer that can become huge.
  • Kuroki, one of the operatives in Blazer Drive wields a sword that looks suspiciously like Allan's.
  • Satan in 666 Satan/O-Parts Hunter eventually carries a Big Effin' Boomerang/Ninja Star whose size and amount of damage it can inflict is proportional to the fear and hate a person has. Thus to a fearful mook the thing fills the entire sky while to a pure-hearted angel it's a useless ring of metal (unfortunately the angel works for the bad guys).
  • The Medicine Seller from Mononoke has a sword that gets pretty huge under the right circumstances.
  • One of the combatants in the Tournament Arc of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order wields a "sword" that's big enough to need its own propulsion system and features its own energy weapon, making this a Big Fuckin' Gunsword. The combatant himself also counts—his legs have been replaced with blades and he attacks by launching himself like a shruiken. It's justified when he mentions his preferred opponents are warships.
  • Father Remington from Chrono Crusade carries a crucifix-laser-broadsword that is taller than him. he gets over maneuverability issues by simply letting the sword tip slice through the ground during a sword swing.
  • One of Tsubaki's forms in Soul Eater is a katana called the Fey Blade. For some reason, after Black* Star's last fight with Mifune in the anime, it increases in length to up to twice, if not three times, the original length.
    • A scythe example, Soul's Witch/Demon Hunter form is also massive. One of Ragnarok's equivalent modes makes him considerably larger than usual.
  • Some of the Humongous Mecha/Samurai in Samurai 7 use swords so large that they are actually independently pilotable vehicles. In the last few episodes the titular heroes use one as transportation. And Kikuchiyo actually wields one during his Heroic Sacrifice scene.
  • Shidou "Sid" Misako from Hayate X Blade has a sword that is notably bigger than most of the other girls'.
  • The Shining Trapezohedron of Demonbane looks unweildy but it has the ability to cut through dimensions and seal away powerful gods.
  • Gretel in Otogi Juushi Akazukin has the Missing Grave, a giant Sword with flowers growing on it. It can only be used because she wears a pair of Oven Mitts that give her strength like an Ogre. The sword is taller than most of the cast.
  • Housen in Gintama fights with an umbrella, like all Yato. Since Housen is also The Night King, it's a freakin' huge umbrella.
  • Tessai in Ninja Scroll has one, and it plays a big part in his own death.
  • Surprisingly enough, its a Super Robot known as Ganbarugar that had one of these and played it pretty realistically in its use. The sword is huge of course, but because of that its really hard to accurately swing it at a moving opponent, so the mecha has to paralyse the enemy first.
  • Although not technically a sword (or even necessarily a melee weapon) and not generally large, I think Bappo qualifies for this trope, he is first used as a ball on a chain, then the hammer enlarges. When he starts to use it correctly, it first becomes a hammer as his hand, and can also change to a dagger. The other uses of it are missile or summons though. Ginta is one of two shown to be able to use it (the other is the big bad) and the first person to meet him is unable to carry the weight. Bappo is also intelligent and prefers Ginta to use his strength... eventually.
  • Mewtwo from Pokémon Special has a Big Friggin' Spoon, formed from his energy. No matter how stupid it may sound, it serves as an extremely effective close-range melee weapon, not to mention it can stretch, curve, and turn into a fork to spear things with. And he once used it to deliever a Diagonal Cut on the Trainer Tower, slicing the building in two.
  • Lapis from Kaze no Stigma carries a BFS which can nullify jutsu/magic.
  • While it's not particularly huge, Trom Bone from The Violinist Of Hameln wields his father's sword, which is a bit large for a boy his size. Hamel, on the other hand, wields a BFV?a Big Fraggin... Violin.
  • Alice L. Malvin from Pumpkin Scissors has Mahne, a double-bladed sword meant to be used by cavalrymen. She uses it on foot, and wears a pair of sabatons in conjunction with it for the express purpose of kicking it free when one of the blades inevitably gets lodged in the ground.
  • A number of monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh!, including Flame Swordsman, Swordstalker, Buster Blader, Amazoness Swordswoman, and Gilford the Lightning. A monster with a sword that is not a BFS is just out of place.
  • Full Metal Panic! gives us monomolecular cutters for use by ten meter tall mechas. Mind you, swords with a chainsaw-like edge. Mao was shown to even have a holster for one. Although the first season only showed that one instance, The Second Raid had Clouseau owning Savages with a similarly sized scimitar.
  • Cattleya from Queen's Blade wields a gaint two-handed sword appropriately "Giant Killer"
  • A Certain Magical Index: Fiamma of the Right is able to produce a Flaming Sword that is 30–40 km long.
    • Kanzaki has one as well though Nanasen is "only" 2m long katana
  • A subversion from Cardcaptor Sakura: The sword wielded by Syaoran looks to be more-or-less realistically sized...but because Syaoran is just a little boy, it looks huge in his hands.
  • Averted in Yaiba, relatively speaking. Despite having a lot of swords and weapons, Aoyama rarely uses this trope. Yet, Kojiro's Laundry Pole has the power to grow really really long.
    • Also the Devil King Sword (Mao Ken) is quite large compared to Gekko. Gold in the Underworld arc wields a gargantuan scimitar, but is quite justified because it fit its size.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai La Verite episode 11. Captain Konoe Tsurugi's Onee-Sama has one almost as tall as she is, which she uses against Konoe during their battle.
  • Kurohime gets a Laser Blade and cuts earth in half.
  • Fairy Tail: Erza has Multiple BFSES in her possession.
    • Pantherlily's sword, Bustermarm is four times his size (and he's a big guy most of the time).
    • Gajeel's Karma God: Demon Blade it's powerful enough to cause tremors.
    • Ikaruga's sword is pretty large.
  • The warriors in Claymore wield, well, claymores, which are really just replicas of the historic Scottish swords that are longer and thicker. They aren't extravagantly large for BFS standards, but they seem to be realistically proportionate for the female warriors who wield them, who are half-demon anyway and are able to wield them single-handed, something that ordinary humans can't do. That, and the blades are indestructible.
    • Post-time skip Raki has also entered the ring, as he wields a humongous sword of his own.
  • While Mazinkaiser wields three swords named Kaiser Blade, the main one is the technical BFS. It is ejected from its chest, requires both hands to wield and is powerful enough to cleave Hell King Gorgon in quarters. It's no wonder that Super Robot Wars games that use the Mazinkaiser OVA storyline refer to this weapon as "Kaiser Blade Full Power".
  • In the first Tenchi Muyo! movie, Achika ends up turning Tenchi's sword, usually a lightsaber-ish weapon, into a massive energy blade, capable of cleaving Big Bad KAIN in half.
    • In Tenchi in Tokyo, when the seven jewels Tenchi and the girls hold are united, they form into a massive crystal sword. Which Tenchi doesn't really use because he's such a Nice Guy
  • In the manga Rikon Choutei, the protagonist has a really big sword, so big that he is cutting the Earth to the core with his sword. It's actually part of a divorce process. See here.


Card Games

  • Steve Jackson's card game Munchkin (illustrated by John Kovalic) features characters wielding weapons (including swords) of improbably size.
    • Especially noteworthy is the Three-Handed Sword, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
    • Also the Big Honking Sword of Character Whupping. No, you can't take it for yourself, nice try.
    • Also, the Sledgehammer of Smackdown, with a head significantly larger than the person holding it.
    • As well as the similarly over-sized Unnatural Axe.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!! Surely there are other examples, but the one that springs to mind is Elemental Hero Wildheart, who wields a sword that would measure from the top of his head to his shins, were it held vertically. By fusing him with Elemental Hero Bladedge, however, you get Elemental Hero Wildedge. Just the visible part of his sword looks to be almost as tall as he is, but it's cut off by the card frame. It looks to be quite a bit longer, though. The kicker? The hilt is clearly too small for him to wield it with two hands.
    • Seismic Crasher carries two of these, one green and one purple, representing his power to sacrifice a Spell or Trap card up to twice per turn to deal damage.
    • In fact, Bladedge himself IS a BFS. That, or his costume is one - depends on whether he's a guy in a costume, or a robot.
    • It is however inverted with Defender, the Magical Knight and his... well, it would be generous to call that thing a "knife".
  • The Neopets card game parodies this with the card "Big, Heavy Sword" which depicts an Usul (unsuccessfully) trying to wield it.
  • Zenmaru in Gamaran has a gigantic katana named "Kutaragi Sadanaga". Partially subverted, as everyone points out how such a large weapon would be slow and impractical to use, but then played straight when Zenmaru take advantage of the blade's length and speed combined with his own strength to bisects all his opponents in one swing.


Comics

  • In Marvel's Thor, the concept is taken to its logical extreme with the Odinsword [dead link] , which is many times the size of anybody, human or Asgardian. Thor has successfully thrown it, but he could never wield it... not least because drawing it from its sheath causes the end of the universe.
    • Unfortunately it was badly depowered in Roy Thomas' Celestial/Ring Cycle storyline, in which we learn its origin and that drawing it, rather than destroying the universe, will merely(?) bring on the day of Ragnarok. We also find out why it's that big: it's meant to be wielded by a giant-size Destroyer, powered by Odin and all the other Asgardians except Thor, when he defends Earth from the even larger Celestials.
  • Shinryuken in Gold Digger whose Colossal Blade, Size-mitar, is one big reference to Sanger Zonvolt, listed above.
  • Korvus' Phoenix Blade from X-Men.
  • The Hackmaster + 12 from Knights of the Dinner Table.
  • The Power of Understanding from Scott Pilgrim.


Eastern Animation

  • The Estonian animation Suur Toll gives the towering leader of the second horde one. He towers over every one but the giant eponymous character, and his sword is as big as he is.


Fan Works


Films -- Live Action

  • The Kurgan in the original Highlander carries a large claymore. It's large enough that the Kurgan can't get away with pulling the sword from the Hammerspace in his trenchcoat like other immortals. Instead, he assembles it from pieces stored in a briefcase, with each piece clicking into place like a Snap-Tite model.
  • William Wallace (also see Real Life examples below) wields one of these in Braveheart, and does the usual things of chopping horses' legs off and then the heads of their riders with it.
  • The title sword in The Sword and the Sorcerer wasn't just big lengthwise, but sported three ginormous parallel blades, and these two side blades could be shot as missiles, so it was both a BFS and a BFG combined.
  • The eponymously named sword in the Japanese film Sword Of Alexander.
  • Komodo has and uses one during all his fights in Warriors of Virtue.
  • The In Name Only version of Deadpool from X Men Origins Wolverine has swords that extend from each of his wrists in a slit between his knuckles like Wolverine's claws. Taking logic into account, the swords are so big that he would be unable to bend his elbows with them fully concealed.
  • Optimus Prime, Megatron and Sideswipe all have retractable wrist-blades in the live-action Transformers film series. Prime and Sideswipe have two on each arm.
  • The eponymous main character of Machete is quite fond of... well, big frickin machetes.
  • Ramona, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, wields a big hammer when fighting with Roxy Richter.
  • The killer's ridiculously oversized meat cleaver in Violent Shit.
    • Ditto for 100 Tears.


Literature

  • In the Codex Alera, Knights Terra usually carry enormous swords, mauls, or waraxes that would be nearly impossible for ordinary soldiers to use, but thatthey have no trouble wielding due to the Super Strength that comes from being an earthcrafter. They are usually organized into groups that a particular Legion uses as a battering ram or stopgap. Even Canim elites and Vord warriors have to give way under that kind of assault. And they become real terrors if they're metalcrafters to boot.
  • Literary example, and a western one at that: Belgarion, the main character of David Eddings' The Belgariad, inherits a BFS halfway through the story. A basic gigantic greatsword forged from meteoric iron, it's got a MacGuffin (the Orb of Aldur) attached to the hilt, effectively turning it into an Empathic Weapon that will kill (almost) anyone else that touches it (putting it into the "only he can use it" category). Among other things, the Orb reduces the weight of the sword to enable Belgarion to easily wield it; in an amusing scene early in the sequel series, The Malloreon, Belgarion removes the Orb from the hilt with the sword still strapped across his back—and promptly hits his knees under the immense weight of the weapon. He barely manages to struggle out from underneath it, and throughout the rest of the series, he takes the sword off before removing the Orb.
    • The sword was actually forged to be fairly normal-sized by its original wielder, Riva Iron-Grip. Only problem was he was about two or three feet taller than most people.
    • Even though it's normal-sized for the seven-foot-plus Riva Iron-Grip, it's still much, much more heavy than steel would be. When it was newly made, Belgarath—who helped with the forging by supplying the tools, heat, and water—told Riva to not remove the Orb when he was holding the sword in one hand if the occasion came up, as the sudden return of the weight would probably break his wrist.
    • Not to be outdone, Belgariad Big Bad Torak also had a BFS of his own: Cthrek Goru, a sword about as big as Belgarion's sword. Then again, Torak normally appears somewhat taller than humans, so the sword fits his hands more naturally than Belgarion's.
    • Thanks to Garion blessing it with magic, Emperor 'Zakath is also able to use one of these in the sequel.
  • Kamahl, the protagonist in the Torment Cycle of Magic: The Gathering wields a BFS.
  • Fredric in The Castle of Otranto comes into possession of a sword so large a hundred men grow close to fainting under its immense weight.
  • One of the oldest examples in Fantasy literature (popular in the 1970s and 1980s, although Stealer of Souls was published in 1961): bad-ass Anti-Hero Elric of Melnibone his evil sentient soulsucking black rune-sword Stormbringer, one of two demonic runeblades (the other being Mournblade). Although Stormbringer was not as ridiculously big as many anime swords, it was still on the large side, and could only be touched safely by Elric... or occasionally by his sidekick. Elric himself, being of a sickly constitution, could only lift the sword when he was filled by the blade's stolen soul energies; powered-up he could swing it with ease for hours, slaughtering whole armies, but without the stolen strength, he would collapse and be unable to even lift the heavy blade, let alone fight with it.
  • Robert Baratheon in A Song of Ice and Fire, a big eating, boisterously bruising big guy Deconstruction owns a massive warhammer that his friend Ned claims many men would have hard time even lifting. Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides", inverts this trope. Being a huge man, he dwarfs his standard greatsword and wields it in one hand, like a longsword.
    • Ned Stark's ancestral greatsword, Ice, definitely counts too.
  • Two of the main heroes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, were said to wield polearms that were over 40 lbs in weight and over 10 feet in length, respectively.
  • Dragaera's Aliera e'Kieron wields her ancestor Kieron's greatsword for several books. It's literally taller than she is. But then, she's an elf by any other name, and her mother is a goddess, so at least there's a reason she can lift it.
    • This trope is also lampshaded by Vlad on seeing Telnan with Nightslayer. He wonders if some Dzur strap hilts on with no sword underneath.
  • In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong takes an impressively large BFS from an enemy and ends up demanding a better weapon from a dragon. He inspects and rejects a series of larger and larger weapons until he notices Ruyi Jingu Bang, an 8-tons pillar originally used as a measuring stick to test the water's depth during the worst flood of Chinese history. Of course, it changes size at will, so it's only as ridiculously large as the Monkey King wants it to be. Due to its weight, the novel describes it as gibbing some of the people it hits.
  • Discworld seems surprisingly lacking in these, but the Klatchian enforcer 71-Hours Ahmed in Jingo has a very large scimitar.
    • Quoth Vimes: "He's practically a concealed owner!"
  • Quantum Gravity had the weapon of intent, more accurately a shapeshifter weapon, that Lila Black brought back in the third book, and used all through the fourth. It does however, fit the trope perfectly, as the only two forms it took more than once were a pen (for concealment and easy carrying, but still usable as a weapon by simply writing threats?!) and a huge Zweihander. It is mentioned that even with Lila's Steel-Rending cyborg strength it would be too large and heavy for her to use effectively, except that it somehow balanced itself in an impossible way around her hand.
  • Dragonlance: The character Kaz wields a BF Axe in Kaz, The Minotaur. It's said in the text that it was forged by a Dwarf for a human knight and that it took two hands to wield the massive weapon (I remember it being implied that it was never wielded very well) but Kaz wields it easily with one hand performing manoeuvres which should have removed his arm from his shoulder with ease. Granted, the axe was mildly enchanted (its mirror finish would only show the reflection of people with honor) but it didn't alter the weight in any way. It's not quite as huge as many of the blades mentioned here but it's always stuck with me.
  • In Keys to the Kingdom, Sir Thursday wielded a massive, dual-handed longsword with one hand. Justified in that he's a nearly immortal, demi-god-like being. This is later subverted when the blade transforms into a slender rapier for Arthur. Don't think that made it any less badass: the blade's signature power was that it killed any living creature with even the slightest touch.
  • In Nick Perumov's Guardian of Swords cycle, Dark Magical Girl Sylvia gets to wield a Flammberg (see below) which, however, has a magic that in Sylvia's (and other "rightful" hands) gives it a properties of a Laser Blade, including near-zero wielding weight (but not for the ones hit).
  • In Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, torturer Severian is given a huge and ancient executioner's sword by his guild-master when he is exiled, named Terminus Est. The quillons are terminated by male and female heads, designating one edge for executing men and the other for women; the sword is blunt-tipped and only a cutting weapon, and sharp enough for Severian to shave with it. A channel down the blade is hollow, and contains mercury; it runs toward the hilt when the sword is held up, and flows toward the tip when swung, increasing the force of the blow.
  • The Inheritance Cycle: Eragon, in the first edition, had a five-foot-long sword. It was retconned to three-and-a-half in its later edition.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe features lightsabers designed to be inordinately long. They disappeared more or less immediately when it was considered swinging one inside a ship would cause explosive decompression.
    • Are you saying Corran's got a raging Horn?
    • And then reappeared when someone came up with a way to put it on a switch, so it would be a regular lightsaber until the user needed a blade that could cut a small spaceship in half. Luke Skywalker said "Dual-phase lightsabers seem to have been a fad among Jedi at certain points."
  • In Sienkiewicz's Trilogy Longinus's hereditary sword made a Running Gag: most people he acquaints starts with asking him why he carries an "executioner's sword" and then are shocked when he shows he can fence with it. Their family legend—backed up by coat of arms—says one of his forebears beheaded 3 enemies with one swing and Longinus woved to repeat this feat. Also, see below (claymore).
  • Duke Venalitor from the Warhammer 40,000 Grey Knights novel Hammer of Daemons is introduced with a blade as long as he is tall.
  • Malfallax from the Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius brings to bear a warpblade explicitly said to be ten metres long. He is a giant Eldritch Abomination, though.
  • The books Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn have the sword Thorn, a blade about two meters/six and a half feet long, forged from Thunderbolt Iron, that weighs so much it can't be lifted. (To everyone except its chosen user. For whom it's still so heavy it takes insane strength to use.) Did I mention it's black? Not just regular black, but black that seems to suck in light. If not for the silver wrapping on the grip, it would be impossible to see at night (or hidden deep in a frozen cave, where the hero found it). There are only two men known to be able to lift it: Simon Snowlock, the Dragon Slayer; and Sir Camaris, the one who is strong enough to use it in battle.
  • In The Riftwar Cycle, Prince Arutha gets some visitors from the Empire of Great Kesh. One of them carries a flasher, which is apparently to a scimitar what a greatsword is to a broadsword.
  • The Slash Emperor from Kinoko Nasu's short story Notes is several times taller than its user Ado Edem, and is more powerful than your average nuke. Ado Edem uses it to slice apart Type Jupiter.
  • Michael, the Knight of the Cross of The Dresden Files fame, wields a sword- Amorrachius—five feet long.
  • From a Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen you have the sword of Darkness Dragnipur wielded fittingly by the son of darkness Anomander Rake. Its about 6 feet tall with 2 foot cross guards and when you get cut by it the sword chains your soul to pull the warren of darkness away from the mouth of chaos. Justifiable in that Rake is a 7–8 foot tall demi-god but still a scary weapon to behold. Also Karsa Orlong ends up wielding a truly colossal flint sword, although as above he is fear inspiring giant of a man.
  • Obould Many-Arrows from R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels wields one; notably, it's also on fire. Obould himself as an orc chieftain was strong enough to intimidate into obedience stronger-than human orc warriors -- before he was magically enhanced.
  • In Mistborn, the Koloss wield BFSs which are proportionate to their immense bodies. It becomes relevant here when Vin a (small) human takes one and starts fighting with it. Especially awesome when Vin comes screaming down out of the sky with one to cut Straff Venture and his horse in half.
  • In the John Silke novel Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, the main character uses a large axe named the elephant killer, which is described as being heavier than an average breastplate. later, 2 giant mooks appear. one of them uses a scimitar whih is almost as long as th other man, while the other uses an axe which is described as being "big enough to be his brother"
  • Shardblades in The Stormlight Archive normally fit; the ones described in detail are about six feet long. They are also effectively weightless, which probably has something to do with the fact that used to be wielded by Gravity Masters. Note that these things will kill you with even the smallest hit to the body, so the BF Sness is mostly for show, although the increased reach probably helps too.
  • In Arabian Nights a gigantic cannibal appears in the story of Codadad. His scimitar is said to be so large that only a gigantic man like him could use it.


Live Action TV

  • Zeronos from Kamen Rider Den-O has one of these, the ZeroGasher, that also becomes a crossbow.
    • There's also Den-O's DenKamen Sword.
    • Most title Riders end up getting a BFS near the end of the series. Other examples include Kiva's Zanbat Sword, Kabuto's Perfect Zecter and Blade's King Rouzer.
    • Kamen Rider Decade gives us the Blade Blade, a sword that's incredibly massive in size, because it's made from Kamen Rider Blade himself.
  • Super Sentai/Power Rangers has its share of these.
    • A notable example is the Hundred Beast Sword from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger (called the "Jungle Sword" in Power Rangers Wild Force): All five weapons combine into a sword so big that it takes the entire Ranger team to wield it.
    • The sword used by Go-on/RPM Red was the biggest personal sword a Ranger had ever had at the time, once even being used as a (flying!) surfboard. Sadly, he's outdone in the very next series by...
    • ShinkenRed's sword, Rekka Daizanto, from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Its Cannon Mode is also the team's finisher - yes a sword that's used as a BFG, holding several disks and channeling their energy. The sword's size shows it. If the scale of the S.H. Figuarts action figure is correct, the Rekka Daizanto is eight feet long. Reportedly, the only person on staff who could lift it properly was Hirofumi Fukuzawa, the stuntman who played the suited-up ShinkenRed.
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger's takes it Up to Eleven by giving a Rekka Daizanto to their giant robot as their Shinkenger Mode finisher. Even larger still is the sword used by the robot's Goranger Mode.
    • This trope isn't just limited to the characters, but it stands to reason that giant robots will be armed with giant swords. And it doesn't seem to matter how technologically-advanced your culture or civilisation is, because the primary weapon for your Giant Robot of Doom will always be a BFS. Even if a Megazord has a cannon or flaming fists or something, you can rest assured that another robot will show up, at some point, armed with a BFS.
    • If it's the machines, it's gotta be the Super Zeo Megazord/OhBlocker. Its swords are small at first, but its finisher involves combining them into a blade SO massively massive the Zord actually can't lift it. It's combined above the head of the Monster of the Week and allowed to fall through it. The monster is often quite some distance from the Megazord when this happens.
  • In Garo, the title hero wields a reasonably-sized sword. With one of his later powerups, it can grow to grotesque proportions, allowing him to throw it, then jump on and ride it like a surfboard.
  • CSI almost called it by name.

Warrick: Can you tell us anything about the tool that may have been used?
Amy: (shrugs) BFK.
Sara: (smirks) Big knife. Great.

  • Richard Sharpe carries a heavy cavalry sword despite being an infantryman. It was reforged into a more manageable form by Harper, but it's still a BFS.
  • The Klingon Bat'leth from the Star Trek franchise is a massive, crescent-shaped blade that requires two hands to wield.


Manhwa

  • Sando's sword from Shin Angyo Onshi is bigger than she is.
  • Percer from Id has an absurdly large sword that he manages to use single handed.
  • Batu and Yuda from Shaman Warrior both employ these.


Mythology

  • Older Than Dirt: In The Epic of Gilgamesh "They cast great daggers/ Their blades were 120 pounds each/ The cross guards of their handles thirty pounds each/ They carried daggers worked with thirty pounds of gold/ Gilgamesh and Enkidu bore ten times sixty pounds each."
  • Former adversary and later vassal of King Arthur, Osla Big Knife, carried Bronllavyn Short Broad, a sword whose dimensions are never completely specified. However, it is stated that it was large enough to be used as a bridge and that Osla himself died when the sword fell out of its sheath, allowing the sheath to fill up with so much water that he was dragged under and drowned. Osla appears twice in the Welsh Mabinogion, with the earliest text he appears in dating back to 1160 or thereabouts. This constitutes one the trope's few non-Asian and non-Asian-influenced appearances.
  • Beowulf wielded a giant sword when he fought Grendel's mom. Justified in that it was in fact made by giants.
  • In The Bible, after killing the giant Goliath, David cuts off his head with the giant's own sword. Considering that Goliath was about 9.5 ft tall, his sword must have been rather large compared to David.
    • Later, when David was on the run from Saul, he is without a sword and is given the sword of Goliath from a temple. Some images have him continue to wield this BFS for his entire reign. Keep in mind that a BFS in this time period would be the size of a normal sword by our standards, as the iron age had just started around this time.
    • In Deuteronomy 28, and Ezekiel 14, one of the punishments of the wicked is to be by the sword. In chapter 21 of Ezekiel, God wields that sword, and the description of it makes it seem rather huge, deadly, and quite awesome, if not terrifying. That same huge sword is in St. John's Revelation, used by the rider of the red horse. Such a sword is said to be symbolic of war and violence.
  • While Thor was known for his hammer, his wife, Sif, carried a BFS, being every bit a badass as he was.
  • Muslim esoterica has Zulfiqar, the story of which is rather odd. The historical Zulfiqar was a sword, and a very large one at that, possibly with two points. It was captured in a raid in which both the prophet Muhammad and his younger cousin/foster brother/son-in-law Ali participated; when time came to divide up the booty, Muhammad gave the sword to Ali, and it became an heirloom of Ali's line. This would all be some minor trivia if it weren't for the fact that some Muslims decided that Ali and his line were the rightful successors of Muhammad in his role as political and spiritual leader of the Muslim Ummah (nation); this group became the Shia branch of the faith, and they represent 15-20% of all Muslims today. As a result, the sword has been mythologized substantially among the Shia: rather than being simply two-pointed, Shia legend would have Zulfiqar be more extensively or completely bifurcated, and be so great and imbued with divine power that when used, it requires an angel be around to catch it, for if it fell, it would cleave the Earth in two. Non-Shia Muslims—and a fair number of Shia ulema (clerics/jurists)--think this story is nonsense, but it remains pervasive, and as a result Zulfiqar (and variants) remains a common name among some groups of Shia (particularly the Ismailis of Pakistan, who produced the Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto).
    • Among more grounded analyses of the sword, there are many who suggest that the sword being two pointed would have been useful for "catching" an opponent's sword and twist it in a bid to disarm the opponnent, though the exact practical mechanics for this work are not always agreed on.
  • The Irish Ulster Cycle has Fergus mac Roiche's greatsword, Caladbolg ("hard sheath"). That thing could dispatch an entire army with a single stroke. Not that it gets to do so against Conall Cernach's forces, since a peace agreement had been arranged (even if he tore up a lot of his soldiers with Caladbolg at less than full force). Nonetheless, to show that his side won't be taking intrigues lying down, Fergus uses Caladbolg to cut the tops away from three hills, with one stroke each.
    • It should also be noted that, because of close cognates in Welsh legends, some scholars believe that the stories of Caladbolg were the template for Excalibur. Maybe that's why Arthur's reign persisted for so long in the stories...

Tabletop Games

  • One of the big feature of Exalted are BFS called Daiklaves. Weapons can be made from one of the five magical metals of the setting (Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Jade and Soulsteel) and then attuned to by the right sort of person. In general the weapon is called an artifact. When the weapon is a sword, it's called a Daiklave.
    • Noted to be impossible to wield by normal people... Exalts who can 'attune' to the weapon can carry and wield it as if it were lighter than a conventional sword.
    • Then there are Grand Daiklaves, which are BFS versions of regular Daiklaves. Yes, BFS versions of a BFS.
    • And the Chainklave, which fuses BFS with Chainsaw Good For Massive Awesome.
    • The Warstrider version is BFS for a Humongous Mecha.
  • Warhammer 40,000
    • Eviscerator is a huge chainsword, said to be originally designed as a demolition tool and using low-grade disruptor field. Those can cut through tank plating, if you get close - indeed, in games terms they're slightly more effective than meltabombs, limpet mines (possibly low-yield fusion, fluff is unclear) designed for the sole purpose of slagging anything with thick armour. Some Priests and the Sisters Repentia (sic) in the Witch Hunters Codex use those.
    • Justified in the case of the Eldar Avatar, because the thing holding the Big Freakin' Sword is a Big Freakin' God Incarnate Who's Really Really Pissed Off. You would be, too, if you were a God of War and Murder who was on fire 24/7.
    • The Wraithlords, Humongous Mecha powered by Eldar souls, can get a Wraithsword that also has a Eldar soul in it. For when you really need to slice a tank in two.
    • The Emperor's Champion, a special character who is part of the Black Templar Chapter, wields a sword that, from the pommel of the handle to the tip of the blade, is two feet longer than the Marine carrying it is tall. That's about ten or eleven feet. It is allegedly capable of carving straight through the armour of a Land Raider.
    • Also the new Nemesis Dreadnight used by the Grey Knights can wield an immense sword longer than some buildings are tall.
  • There are a lot of weapons in Warhammer Fantasy that fit into this trope as well. The Empire, for example, have an infantry unit called Greatswords. Ogre Ironguts have a Blade on a Stick large enough that a normal human could conceivably ram it up a Giant's nose while lying down, and the Kroxigor's weapons were described on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle page as being "trees with blades on the end."
  • Some fans believe that Japanese adoration of big swords stems from Japanese fantasy fans seeing western D&D miniatures. The miniatures had out-of-scale swords, which weren't a specific statement so much as a way to make the swords easier to see on the models as well as easier to paint. Reportedly, this was interpreted to mean that such a weapon was standard in western-style fantasies.
  • Dungeons & Dragons, in edition after edition, featured the Hammer of Thunderbolts, a warhammer so large that you needed two separate magic items to even have the strength to wield it. Once you did have said items and knew the hammer was the said Hammer of Thunderbolts, much asskicking against giants followed. The hammer was based on the myths of Thor's hammer, Mjollnir, which was so heavy (even though its handle was too short) that he needed both magic gloves and magic belt to increase his strength enough to wield it. (The Giants were the enemies of the Aesir in Norse mythology.)
    • Later editions added the fullblade, a BFS which was larger and more powerful than the regular greatsword, but required an exotic/superior weapon feat to use. Similar big fragging weapons were also included in other categories, such as the Mordenkrad/Greathammer, a gigantic hammer favored by a race called goliaths.
    • Goliaths and half-giants can wield without penalty weapons made for creatures a size category larger than they are. This might lead to a character wielding a nine-foot bastard sword, one handed. There are also magic items that let you do the same thing. Thank Heaven they don't stack... too bad they aren't very good.
      • 3.0 Sword and Fist and 3.5 Complete Warrior have "Monkey Grip" feat, allowing to wield properly weapons made for creatures one size category greater, but still with penalty. E.g. normally a human could wield an ogre's longsword as two-handed weapon (and -2 to attack), but with Monkey Grip it remains one-handed (and still -2), ditto for gnome/halfling with a human weapon. Oversized two-handed weapons normally cannot be used at all, of course.
    • Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 also features bloodlines (applied without limitations), including Titan Bloodline. By literal reading, major bloodline eventually grants the "Use oversized weapon" ability - allowing e.g. to wield a Gargantuan Warhammer (Gargantuan creatures are a category larger than the largest Giants—vertical reach about 64'). This leads to hilarity with a 3' tall Halfling wielding a Warhammer around 10 times his size without penalties.
    • A Dungeons & Dragons variant, Iron Heroes, allows you to select "Mighty Build" as one of your two Traits for a starting character. This allows you to wield weapons that are one size category larger than you, meaning that your character can wield his or her very own BFS (or whatever other weapon he or she specializes in).
    • Another Dungeons & Dragons variant, Pathfinder, has an iconic barbarian as an NPC called Amiri. She wields a giant-sized bastard sword which was taken off a dead frost giant. In something of a subversion, she has a bit of trouble wielding the thing normally because it's so big, and can only fully wield it when she is in the throes of her blood rage.
    • Also in Pathfinder, the butchering axe is a ridculously big (25 lbs!) and unwieldy axe, a creation by the strongest of orcs for the strongest of orcs. It requires a minimum of 19 Strength (or 17 for a small creature with a small version) and a proficiency feat to be used without penalty. However, it deals as much base damage as a greatsword one size category larger, then it becomes very interesting in some melee builds that require a weapon as damaging as possible.
  • Spycraft 2.0 has a sword weighing 30 lb that ostensibly represents a zweihänder, which in reality weighed less than a quarter of that—an actual sword this heavy would resemble Cloud's Buster Sword more than any real weapon and be completely impractical in any setting pretending to be at all realistic.
  • A scene in the Great Pendragon Campaign has a BFS which isn't actually used in battle but is a bridge, similar to the example in the Arthurian mythology on which the game is based, above.
  • One sample Mekton Mecha Manual robot was designed to absorb enemy energy weapons fire, to power an upgrade from its normal Laser Blade to a humongous one known as the Atomsplitter Sword. It makes a kickass Finishing Move.
  • Anima: Beyond Fantasy has several (just look at the artwork or the miniatures). Some examples are the Angelus used by Abel, the Lawgivers he gave to his followers, or Kronen's one.


Theatre

  • The three brothers in Princess Ida carry incredibly large swords in many productions.


Toys


Video Games

  • Adventure Quest Worlds has quite a few of these. The most notable is Vordred's sword, which is literally as large as a regular human adventurer!
  • The Sheriff Sword blade in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.
    • Interestingly, the Player can obtain the sheriff sword through a cheat code, and when this is done, the sword is wielded like a standard size Katana. Good thing for Vampiric super-strength, huh?
  • Princess Waltz seems to want to go for awesome because when Princess Iris uses her Eldhi Arc's ultimate sword evolution, the damn thing grows large enough to smite A CASTLE SIZED MAGIC GOLEM! To be fair, said golem was wielding a massive BFS of its own.
    • Angela has a Big Fraggin Spear and Liesel a Big Fraggin Hammer.
  • Common in the later Final Fantasy games. The most well-known video game example is Cloud's Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII, and the Masamune used by Arch Enemy and Big Bad Sephiroth. The Buster Sword is simply a really big sword, while the Masamune is a six-foot katana that aside from length has normal proportions.
    • By Advent Children, Cloud has ditched the Buster Sword and left it on Zack's grave. He replaces it with the equally huge Fusion Swords, a set of six individual swords that combine into one. Each of the individual swords is also a BFS, the proportionally smaller "side blades" being normal-sized.
    • Masamune has gone through multiple size changes between games/movies. ex. In Dissidia Final Fantasy the sword is 12 feet long. Interestly, at least one Real Life nodachi was actually that long (see below), though it was never actually used as a weapon.
    • Though it's likely due to graphical limitations, Cloud and Sephiroth are hardly the original examples, though there are the Trope Codifiers for the series. A [dead link] few samples from, earlier games [dead link] .
    • Squall's Gunblade in Final Fantasy VIII is pretty reasonable in it's default form, but some of the upgraded forms are humongous, especially Punishment and Lion Heart.
    • Steiner in Final Fantasy IX has several of these, though some are more realistically proportioned. Some of Zidane's weapons get pretty big too, but it's a bit harder to judge their actual size since Zidane is pretty short.
    • Tidus and Auron's swords in Final Fantasy X range from relatively normal to huge. They're put to shame by Braska's Final Aeon who wields an enormous anchor-shaped sword that could double as a surfboard. In fact, after he rips it out of his chest during his One-Winged Angel transformation, the sword itself becomes the platform on which the Final Battle takes place. (To be fair though, the Final Aeon is far from human-sized.)
    • Final Fantasy XII once again has swords of varying sizes, and many Greatswords tend to be huge. Gabranth wields two very large swords that can combine into one, and the swords wielded by Behemoth-type monsters are friggin' huge. Gilgamesh wields the BFSs of previous protagonists.
    • Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning's gunblades are all pretty reasonable in size but when she is in Gestalt Mode she gets her hands on Odin's newest version of the Zantetsuken which is a monstrous double sided sword which she splits into two swords which are still at least as large as she is. Justified slightly that she can only really use the thing when mounted on Sleipnair
    • Both Final Fantasy Tactics Advance protagonists hold a BFS called Judge Sword in their artwork (which make look the Buster Sword tame in comparison), but the only place they're ever seen in the games is a brief appearance during the Bishop's Judge spell in the first game.
    • Garland in Dissidia Final Fantasy brandishes a BFS bigger than entire characters, and it's so heavy he has to drag it around behind him when he walks. However, The end-all BFSes are the blades found in the Edge of Madness stage. Each one is easily three stories tall at least. And for Chaos's ultimate attack, he gets big enough to use them.
    • Final Fantasy VI's Ultima Weapon was a big fraggin' sword that drew its power from its wielder's HP.
  • Dragon Quest isn't exactly known for its BFSs, but in the ninth installment, there's a Co-op de' Grace called Quadraslash. What does it do? Well, firstly, all four party members shoot a magical lightning bolt into the sky... and where they connect, there summons an absolutely GINORMOUS sword which then drops on the opponent's head! Might I add that said sword is bigger than any boss in the game and can do more damage than your DPS could ever hope for? Here's a video.
  • Extra boss Flandre Scarlet in the Touhou game Embodiment of Scarlet Devil has a spell which summons an energy sword called Laevatein. Given that this is a 2D shoot 'em up, that doesn't sound too dangerous... until you realize that it's 10 times her height—nearly as long as the screen.
  • In Ninja Blade, one of the three weapons available to you is a huge sword that's about as long as the protagonist is tall. The game actually seems to acknowledge that a weapon so large, regardless of whether or not it actually has sharp edges, will probably do more crushing than cutting anyhow, since a few of its upgraded versions lack sharp edges entirely, making them more like clubs. As such, it's the only weapon that's any good at breaking armor.
  • Disgaea has many many examples but the Yoshitsuna tops them all. The sprite for the sword is so big in proportion to the characters that it will go partly into the ground when held pointing down from neck height.
    • It's not purely aesthetic, either. Most swords only have an attack range of one square (though the specials can hit at considerable distance). The Yoshitsuna can attack an enemy up to five squares away.
    • The giant Magichange swords in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten manage to top even the Yoshitsuna, being almost twice as long.
  • Elsword, a not-so well-known Korean online game developed by KOG, has recently released its sixth character, Chung. He uses a Cannon that is just as large as he is tall, sure, he's like 12. But he's used that same cannon since he was a baby.
  • Both Siegfried and Nightmare from the Soul Series use a BFS. Further, in Soul Calibur 3, there is an entire style based off of the BFS. The German sword style it was based on actually existed, but both characters use it in ways that a normal human could never accomplish with a two-handed sword of that size.
    • It should be noted that Soul Calibur takes whatever form the user wants, so its likely that it has the required secondary power of changing its mass.
    • Same applies to Soul Edge, though its trademark form seems to be the one it takes when Nightmare uses it. Soul Caiber, for the most part, has the trademark appearence of realistically sized sword (probably since its "default" form is a Chinese sword as used by Xiangua).
    • By Soul Calibur 4, both swords are of the BFS variety, and are portrayed that way in every character's ending. In the three Custom Character endings, lifts and wields one of the swords with one hand. If you faced Algol as the final boss, you dual wield Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, in BFS form. You also levitate.
  • Emelius in Grandia III carries a massive, jagged sword.
    • Not to mention the Granasaber in Grandia II, which turns out to be a sword-shaped spaceship. Which is implied to be based off the actual sword the Light god used.
  • The browser-based MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing spoofs this with the "Ridiculously Huge Sword", which is a three-handed weapon and drops from an enemy called "Protagonist" in the "Penultimate Fantasy Airship" who bears a passing resemblance to Cloud.
  • In Chrono Trigger, Frog wields the legendary Masamune, which is a pretty big sword for anyone to wield. However, because Frog is effectively 3 feet high, the resulting effect is this trope.
  • Kliff in Guilty Gear carries a sword that's larger than he is tall—but then, Kliff's a Miniature Senior Citizen. But then again, some of his special moves de-age him, and the sword's still as large as he is tall....
    • Guilty Gear's May, the smallest female character in the cast, combines this with Improbable Weapon User by wielding a functional anchor, minus most of the chain.
    • Dr Baldhead/Faust wields a scalpel as big as he is (which makes it some 8 or 9 feet long).
  • You didn't expect Guilty Gear's Spiritual Successor BlazBlue to hold back, did you? Jin's Katana and Hakumen's Nodachi are almost realistically sized. Ragna wields a huge, complicated sword, that is described in-game as "a massive slab of metal" that unfolds into a Sinister Scythe for his Astral Finish, and Bang somehow manages to lug around a gigantic 55-inch nail. The award for most improbably large sword, however, goes to Robot Girl Nu-13 who fuses with her sword Combining Mecha style and summons a sword the size of a goddamn tower for her Astral Finish.
  • Sanger Zonvolt of the Super Robot Wars metaseries is the king of this trope. He pilots one of the biggest Humongous Mecha in the game, and his BFS Zankatou, roughly "Ship-cutting sword"/Colossal Blade is usually even longer than that! They don't call him "the Sword that Cleaves Evil" for nothing.
    • In the PlayStation 2 remake, his Alternate Universe Evil Twin gets a new move called "Blade of the Cosmos". For comparison, both of their ultimate attacks can be seen here. (WARNING: Video contains spoilers and 200% of your daily recommended dose of awesome.)
    • And in the 3DS crossover Project X Zone, he has a new Zankantou... which he wields on foot to smite evils.
    • Later models of Grungust, such as Irm's, had their own big-ass bladed weaponry. "CALAMITY SWORD - DARKNESS SLASH!"
    • Nanbu Kaguya of Mugen no Frontier has a katana not quite as relatively large, but fitted with curved crescent blades in the reverse edge which she can release and command to slice up the enemy. During her Limit Break, she goes so far as to steal some of Sanger's lines: Waga zankantou ni tatenu mono wa nashi arimasen!/Waga na wa Nanbu Kaguya! Aku wo tatsu tsurugi ni naru desu!
    • In SRW J, if you use the right rub pilots enough, Granteed Dracodeus and Laftcranz can use this in the form of a massive green crystal blade. While Granteed's is about on par with what Zengar brings to the field, Laftcranz's is the same size, but it is a medium sized mech, rather than an large, things just got crazy up'n here.
    • Ryusei Date's mechs are also more examples of Banpresto's obsesion with this troupe. Both the SRX and Banpreios have a massive sword, that is, in fact, bigger than Sanger's. Banpreios' SPLITS OPEN and CAN CUT THROUGH DIMENSIONS. Hell, even R1 fits into this troupe, its final attack, T-Link Sword, shoots a giant glowing sword at the enemy, which also fits under Throwing Your Sword Always Works.
  • Deconstructed in Silent Hill 2 with Pyramid Head. Yes, he has a fragging huge sword/knife/thing, but he is also shown to be nearly physically incapable of lifting it (and when he does, it takes a lot of strength - for example, he can use it to perform an overhead smash which is an instant One-Hit Kill if it connects), instead dragging it everywhere he goes, illustrating his tortured mentality. And when James has the chance to wield it, he also must drag it around, and swinging it takes him several seconds as well. The film version, however, has him swinging it around all willy nilly, probably because he gets a role transplant from a manifestation of guilt to a manifestation of protection and vengeance.
    • And even if he swings it with ease in the film, he still has some trouble carrying it around. Whether this is a result of him being a representation of Alessa's pain and equal vengeance or simply the directors not caring is still a mystery.
  • Ninja Gaiden's Xbox remake features a sword known as the Dabilahro, which starts as a golden version of Cloud's Buster Sword. Upgrading it cuts holes out of its girth but doesn't reduce its length. It is explicitly stated in the menu's description to be 100 pounds in weight. Then there are the Fiend Nightmares, which wield Shikai Zangetsu-esque cleavers. And as also stated in One-Winged Angel's page, Spirit Doku wields a nodachi Sephiroth would be proud of.
  • In Okami, Amaterasu can equip swords called "glaives" as her primary weapon. Swords longer than she is, for the most part. Also, the second brush god, Tachigami, is a rat who pulls a BFS out of a scabbard much too small to contain it.
    • In the sequel, Okamiden, Kuninushi's sword is bigger then he is. Of course, he is just a small child, so the size is relative, here.
    • Nagi used a BFS named Tsukuyomi, which was used to slay and seal Orochi. His descendant, Susano, uses a BFWS which he calls Tohenboku, and is every bit as powerful as Tsukuyomi.
  • From the very beginning, the original Monster Hunter had an entire class of weapons called Great Swords. These weapons were often as big if not bigger than the user, and though extremely damaging were slow and often clumsy. In Monster Hunter 2 another variation of BFS, the long yet thin Tachi or Long Sword, was added. While unable to block, the tachi was a compensated with speed and the ability to raise the user's fighting spirit (essentially a conditional built-in attack buff)
    • The series is positively addicted to super-sized weapons. Good thing they actually shrink when sheathed (with some having a different 'folded' or 'retracted' model), otherwise most of them would be clipping into the ground 24/7.
  • The character Arngrim from Valkyrie Profile wields one of the largest swords ever seen in a console RPG. It is about twice as long as Arngrim is tall, and as wide as a regular Claymore. Considering Arngrim's size, this makes it roughly 12 feet long from point to pommel, with a 9-foot long blade. There is little significance to the fact that he wields such a ghastly-sized weapon, except as a hallmark to the ridiculous one-up-manship that tends to pervade RPG weaponry. And that he's an Expy of Guts.
    • Kashell also has a BFS. It may only be half the size of Arngrim's, but it's still longer than the character is tall.
    • Note that neither character's sprite is consistent with his artwork in this regard. The art depicts their swords as being closer to historical Zweihänders in size.
    • Considering Arngrim is an Expy of Guts to begin with, his choice of weaponry is hardly surprising.
  • The MMORPG World of Warcraft is well known for the Big Fragging Swords, as well as Big Fragging Shoulder Armor. Case in point for both.
    • And Big Fragging Guns and Big Fragging Axes and... you get the idea.
    • Shown case-in-point is actually on the average side for the game. The more epic items can fairly easily dwarf the character who carries them.
    • Also, Gnomes. Gnome Melee Classes (such as the Warrior and Death Knight) can wield two-handed swords. Often these swords are longer than the character is tall, causing them to clip through the ground when carried on the character's back. Especially ludicrous in the case of Death Knights, where the starter swords are more than one-third of the width of the character's back! Gnome Fury Warrior with Titan's Grip. A tiny little gnome dual wielding weapons bigger than themselves. It doesn't get much more ridiculous than that.
    • Armageddon is so big that NO character is tall enough for it to not reach INTO THE GROUND. It's really the only weapon in the game that rivals Thunderfury. Now that thing isn't "unique", so it can even be DUAL-WIELDED by warriors...
    • The most well-known BFS in World of Warcraft is probably the legendary Ashbringer.
    • Another is the epic troll sword Zin'Rokh, Destroyer of Worlds. Even on taller characters it visibly stands out.
  • An instance of Gameplay and Story Segregation in Drakengard. The sword that Caim wields in the cutscenes is larger by far than the sword he carries around in-game. This is taken up a notch in the sequel, when Caim's Sword is ridiculously huge when the protagonist of that game acquires it. There's also a literal BFS in Hymir's Finger, a sword that is said to weigh 50 kg (roughly 100 lbs.) and is long enough to qualify as a jousting lance. Also in Drakengard 2? A sword that's been broken in half—and is still SO huge (due to so many repeated forgings to add everything from a giant's leg-bone to the SOUL OF A CHILD, which is what finally snapped the blade) that it can only be wielded as an immense, overly-huge, ridiculously heavy AXE.
    • If you look closely, it even appears that said axe is part of Hymir's Finger, which makes sense since the blade was forged from the pretty much scrap of everything the guy who forged it ever killed.
  • The Biggoron Sword from the Zelda series. Then there were the Darknut swords from the The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker. Those things were so huge that they were only good for throwing and for breaking pillars. But they were very good as thrown/demolition weapons.
    • There's also the Helix Blade from The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask—that thing was longer than Link was tall!
    • Though not as big as the Helix sword the great fairy sword is twice as high as child-Link, who is weilding it. That's a BFS!
    • Ganondorf's sword in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, anyone?
    • In The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Link will need to use Koloktos's swords against it after unscrewing its arms. Said swords are bigger than Link.
    • Later in the game, Ghirahim uses one in the third phase of the third fight against him. It also turns out that Ghirahim is a BFS, namely, the one that belongs to Demise.
    • Actually, even the iconic Master Sword may count. Maybe its blade is not that thick, but its length is almost as big as Link himself in some of the games!
  • The last fight in Rogue Galaxy is the main character Jaster vs. a giant monster ship-sized evil... thing. Lucky for you, Jaster just got a blade the size of a school bus!
    • It starts off the size of a school bus, but is extended to ridiculous proportions during said fight. We're talking 10x Sephy's Masamune.
  • In the 7th Fire Emblem game, Durandal can only be wielded by Eliwood when he's riding a horse, and appears to be longer than the horse he's riding. Somehow the horse can jump while carrying both Eliwood and the sword. On the other hand, Eliwood's battle speed is dramatically slowed due to its weight, making it much more feasible to use lighter weapons instead.
    • Ike in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn wields Ragnell, a massive claymore, with one hand! However, it's quite shrimpy compared most of the other swords on this page. Naturally, he's the most powerful swordsman in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • The version of the Yamato Nodachi wielded by Nero's Devil Trigger spirit in Devil May Cry 4 is long. For reference, one of Nero's Action Commands involves leaping inside a frog demon boss by the mouth and attacking it from within. The spirit, which stays outside, attacks with slashes the size of the monster.
    • Not to mention Dante's zweihänder-long, Claymore-wide Rebellion which he swings faster than a rapier.
    • And Vergil/Nelo Angelo's BFS, and Dante's Sparda sword in the first game.
  • The standard Broadsword and Katana models in City of Heroes is already pretty big, but the unlockable Rularuu models are often bigger than the player character wielding it.
    • The Rikti Sword models are also pretty huge (and not exactly conventional).
    • Also, the new Tian Weapons set is 'built' on this trope.
  • The entire point of the Flash game Ginormo Sword. If you can't hit the entire screen with your sword, you haven't done enough Level Grinding.
  • Probably the last character you'd expect getting a BFS is getting a BFS: Sonic. Also, it can talk, and it's trying to make Sonic more chivalrous and knight-like.
    • Subverted considering Sonic and friends are about 3 feet tall.
  • Nyx Avatar, last boss of Persona 3, stands about 18 feet tall and wields a massive zweihänder roughly twice that size. In one hand. It's large enough that you're never quite able to see the sword in its entirety during the fight. Then again, if anyone deserves to wield a BFS, it would be the Anthropomorphic Personification of Death.
    • Junpei can wield some, too.
    • If a Shadow ends with either Sword or Giant, then you'll be seeing broadswords wider than Minato and company and at least 8 feet long.
  • The Main Character of Persona 4. Chie's ultimate Persona, Suzuka Gongen, wields a double-bladed lightsaber taller than she is. And Suzuka stands at around 7 feet tall.
  • Several characters in Dynasty Warriors/Sangoku Musou, Samurai Warriors/Sengoku Musou, their crossover Warriors Orochi/Orochi Musou, or the me-too series Sengoku Basara/Devil Kings, have ridiculously large weapon wielders alongside characters with normal weapons. Examples include a jolly fat man with a mace whose head is the size of his entire body, two vanilla BFS wielders, a few BF spears, BF gauntlets-shaped-like-animal-heads...
    • Lu Bu up to DW 5 used a halberd in one hand. In DW6 he uses a two double ended halberds crossed in one hand!
    • Guan Yu's weapon Blue Dragon is so big in DW6 that it takes two people to present it too him in his final cutscene.
    • Meng Huo in DW6 uses a PILLAR and a GIANT MUSHROOM!
    • Sun Wukong from Warriors Owochi 2 uses a staff that extends up to 30 feet
  • A couple of borderline BFSes appear in Dead Rising, but they are explicitly decorative items (the game takes place in a mall). There is a secret unlockable laser sword that grows in length if you do the spinning lariat while holding it, though.
  • Duke, Balga, Gaia and Tau each wield a BFS in Battle Arena Toshinden. Gaia even uses his one handed.
  • A form of Sora's Keyblade, Metal Chocobo, qualifies for this. As you could quess, he got the corresponding keychain from Cloud Strife himself. He also gets Fenrir (from Tifa), Lionheart/Sleeping Lion (from Squall), Oblivion, Guardian Soul (from Auron), and two Ultima Weapons, among others.
    • To be technical, it's actually a BFK (Big Fricking Key).
    • The KHII Ultima looks particularly silly on the Pride Lands, since Sora is a lion cub. The weapon he's carrying in his mouth is longer than he is.
    • Saix's weapon, Lunatic, is called a "claymore" in game text but can really only be described as a Big Spiky Sword-thing.
    • If you want to get technical, the Keyblades are all roughly the size of a regular sword. The exception being Vanitas' X-Blade...
    • Terra specializes in BFS's. His unique Keyblades in Birth By Sleep are pretty long and thick compared to Ven's knifelike smaller blades and Aqua's wand types. Ends of the Earth, the one he uses in cutscenes in his armor, is pretty big. However, Chaos Ripper, his final blade, is almost as tall as his character model.
    • And then there's a Command Style for Terra and Aqua called "Blade Charge". It's a BFS made of energy.
    • Never mind that the hilt of the sword is the size of a pencil. To be a usable sword, it would have to weigh as much as that giant blade, rendering the word even less usable than it already appears it should be.
  • The aptly-named Huge Sword from Golden Sun: The Lost Age and its unleash, "Heavy Divide". Also, Felix and Isaac's Ragnarok/Odyssey Psyenergy. And the multi-elemental summon Catastrophe. And the Excalibur's "Legend" unleash, as well as the Gaia Blade's Titan Blade and the Darksword's Acheron's Grief.
    • Golden Sun: Dark Dawn continues the tradition but a special note goes to Isaac and Garet when they appear as a Guest Star Party Member in the start of the game. They wield swords larger than any of the ones your own party will ever find! This combined with the fact that they literally saved the world 30 years earlier just adds to their badassery.
    • There's also Blados' giant katana. While it's not especially thick, it's longer than he is tall.
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night brings us the Runesword, an oversized sword that you don't swing, but rather have fly out in front of you and come back to you. And then there's Aria of Sorrow's Claimh Solais, which swings in an approximately 135-degree arc in front of you and is the best sword in the game.
    • And have we forgotten Aria of Sorrow's Excalibur? While not big, it is heavy: it comes with the rock it's embedded in!
    • Wanna make Cloud flip? Just combine two Secare glyphs and you get yourself one of the biggest woman-wielded BFSes in history.
    • In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, one of the Glyph Unions is a massive sword. As a matter of fact, another one is a massive Laser Blade.
    • There are a few of these in Curse of Darkness. One of the standouts is the Dragon Killer, which is almost as thick as Hector's body and in name seems to be a Shout-Out to Guts' big slab of iron from Berserk. It isn't as slow as one might first think, though.
    • Then there's Symphony of the Night's Crissaegrim. Aside from being a Game Breaker, two can be wielded (one on each hand) at the same time, give more actual protection than a normal shield, and it cuts several feet in front of Alucard.
  • Fiona Mayfield from Arcana Heart is a cute little eleven-year-old (sorta) in a wholesomely frilly maid's outfit... complete with gauntlets, steel boots, and a Zweihänder at least as large as she is.
  • Sarevok, the Big Bad in the first Baldur's Gate game, wields a massive sword suitable for his own great size. Even without his unholy power strengthening it, in the sequel it's one of the best big weapons in the early game. And if the Ascension mod is installed, it becomes more powerful in Throne of Baal if you return it to Sarevok.
  • The Moiety daggers in the Myst series may count. Although they're never wielded by anyone, these giant metal kunai-like knives appear in several places in Riven, and show up occasionally as a Shout-Out in later games. The knives here are merely symbolic, being scaled-up versions of normal-sized knives used by the Moiety.
  • In La Tale, some of the two-handed swords are quite literally larger than the characters wielding them. This is especially incongruous when the wielder is wearing a delicate dress.
  • Kratos from God of War is a regular BFS magnet. Weapons handled include Artemis Blade, Spear of Destiny, the humongous Barbarian Hammer, Zeus' Fist and the theoretically most powerful so far, the Blade of Olympus. Unfortunately most of the Olympian power is Cutscene Power to the Max.
  • Desann the Fallen Jedi wields a lightsaber which is bigger than usual. In the previous game, the Dark Jedi Gorc wielded a "lightclub", a.k.a. 12 feet long lightsaber.
  • While they are not anywhere near as big as some of the other examples on the page. In The Witcher, Geralt has two large swords (one is silver designed for taking out monsters). NPCs will often comment on this, such as one random NPC suggesting one could double as an oar, and a prostitute asking if he is compensating for anything. Geralt is a Witcher however, meaning he is inhumanly strong, making such a weapon more practical, and swords not made for Witchers are small enough to be hung on the waist.
    • It's not his strength that's superhuman, it's his reflexes. He doesn't have any problem wielding a huge sword because being made of meteorite iron it's lighter than any regular blade.
  • The swords wielded by the Great Brothers most certainly qualify for this trope every bit as much as any blade on this page.
  • The ultimate example is probably The Valeria Heart from The Last Remnant, which is the size of a tower and leaves a hole in the ground about fifteen feet across, of course it's not actually wielded by anyone in that state. The game also has greatswords which are long but narrow bladed(except the Yama swords, but the Yama are around ten feet tall).
  • In Bunny Must Die, the little girl main character can obtain and swing a sword three times her height. Justified in that it's a Laser Blade.
  • Nariko, the red-headed fantasy caucasian Norse-analog with an Asian father and a Japanese name (WTF?), is the protagonist of Heavenly Sword, a rare of example of the BFS being right there in the title of the game. As Zero Punctuation pointed out, much of the time this stupidly gigantic magicaly sword is split into two smaller swords, though in power stance it's one huge chunk of metal about the same size as the slim young woman who wields it.
  • Onimusha has his shares of large swords, starting with Enryuu and Rekka-ken, Kuga and the Onimusha Blade and Genma Samonji. In Dawn of Dreams, Soki's arsenal is entirely composed of BF Ss, some of which are so large and encumbering that he can barely swing them himself.
  • No More Heroes Death Metal, your first assassin to face off with, wields an impressive transforming Orange MK-II. Plus, Travis gains one Laser Blade comprised of five beams at Buster Sword length.
  • Trevor in Exit Fate.

Daniel: And what's with that ridiculous sword anyway? It's like a huge slab of iron!
Sick: He's compensating.

  • Shadow of the Colossus: Even accounting for size of Colossi, the Third Colossus wields a sword that is very nearly as long as he is tall. Compared to the protagonist, said sword is as big as a highway, and so thick and heavy it acts more as a bludgeon than a blade.
  • The Queen's Sword in Ico is almost as large as a grown man, and when Ico wields it, he has trouble standing upright or even bringing it to bear.
  • Exor in Super Mario RPG is a gigantic, living sword longer than Bowser's Castle is tall. The plot of the game begins when it crashes through the Star Road, shattering it, and stabs right into the castle to become a portal for Smithy's invading forces.
    • Subverted in that Exor is stationary, and you'd have to be stronger than twelve thousand Supermen in order to be able to actually lift him.
  • The Holy Daedalus Blade, the Dark Cloud, the Chronicle Sword, and the Island King in Dark Cloud 2. The latter, in particular, is actually a surfboard-sized Tiki-mask with a pinwheel on one end and a hilt on the other.
  • Sigma uses one in Mega Man X 8, made out of scrap metal (not making this up); Sigma himself is nothing more than scrap held together by The Virus, in what is believed to be his final appearance. Oh, and Zero can use it as his own on a New Game+, effectively an Infinity+1 Sword.
    • In the Finishing Move added to the gameplay in the same game, Zero's own sword grows to BFS levels. As if being a Laser Blade wasn't enough...
    • Mega Man 8 had Swordman, a Robot Master specifically built to wield a BFS Wily ripped off. But the sword was so heavy, Swordman is composed of two halves, the upper of which tilts to counterbalance the blade. Oh, and he can channel fire through it.
    • And then there's the Zerker Sword (aka Thunder Bolt Blade, an electric based sword) from Mega Man Star Force 2 and 3.
  • In the Tales (series), we have the spirit Undine's blade in Tales of Phantasia, Philia Philis' Clemente (heavily magic-tilted and terrible for offense, unlike most examples here) in Tales of Destiny, Ruca Milda's signature weapon type in Tales of Innocence, and Decus's sword (which he keeps stored in a man-sized iron maiden) from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. There are also massive axes to be found, specifically Presea Combatir's Gaia Cleaver and Innes Lorenz' Folseus (and both characters are Mighty Glacier types to boot).
    • And then there is the VBFS (Very Big F'n Sword) in the ending of Tales of Vesperia.
    • All of Karol's swords are longer than he is tall. That's not saying much(he's 12 years old) but his first sword is so big that after Yuri cuts it in half he can use the base as a hammer. (Karol is the tank in the game and all his weapons are way too big for him)
    • In Symphonia, there are a couple of bosses that wield these, either in or out of battle. The Eternal Sword is used only in cutscenes until Lloyd gets it, anyway, but when you fight Yuan, he has a swallow blade that's about as long as he is tall.
  • In the game Rune, the character progresses to larger and larger swords (and blunt weapons and axes). There are five levels of these, with the third being the largest you might find realistically (e.g. the level 3 sword is a conventional two-handed sword). Levels 4 and 5 are these gigantic, freakazoid swords that defy all the rules of how to make a good sword—but they are the fastest and do the most damage.
  • Star Wars: Empire At War: Forces of Corruption give us Urai Fen, who uses two gigantic swords. That can destroy a light vehicle in one hit.
    • Speaking of the Star Wars games, Knights of the Old Republic (both I and II) have the Wookiee Warblade. It's both a BFS and a Double Weapon, and the item description mentions that it's designed to be kept in constant motion, presumably because stopping it and swinging it again is just too hard to do. For Wookiees. One has to wonder how the human protagonists managed to use them. It's a Double-Bladed Big Friggin' Sword, after all.
  • A few appear in Fate/stay night:
    • Assassin in has a nodachi with a length of 150 cm, or roughly five feet. Not terribly notable except the game specifically points out this is more the length of a lance than a sword and is unrealistically large. The 'actual' Monohoshizao was a more modest 90 cm. Only Assassin's obscene skill can wield such a long sword, apparently. And it's still only for dueling, not combat.
    • Berserker's axe-sword, which is a giant hunk of stone that looks somewhere between, well, an axe and a sword. It looks almost normal sized in relation to Berserker, who's about 8 feet tall. However, when Shirou uses it in Heaven's Feel, it's as big as he is. And to top it off he uses it one-handed.
    • Saber surprisingly enough uses a fairly normal sized sword that spends much of its time invisible, but is by far the shortest and smallest Servant. However when she fires off Excalibur it takes the form of a giant sword made of light
  • Flay's sword from Mana Khemia is rather wide, and can also shoot shurikens, something that looks like a laser, and transform into a giant drill. Vayne can wield and transform into a sword six times his size. Anna wields a katana longer than she is tall. One of the bosses is a BFS. Even the generic students get their hands on some of these.
  • The Blade power from Prototype turns Alex's right forearm into a two-sided... Blade around his height.
  • The Sky Fang from Skies of Arcadia. It's larger in both height and width than Vyse is.
    • Big Bad Galcian wields a lance-like BFS himself; it's roughly as tall as he is. Seeing that the Sky Fang mentioned above is only avalible in the remake on the Game Cube, it looks strange, considering that the other weapons in the game are reasonably sized.
  • Kilbert's sword Fragarch in Atelier Annie is positively huge, with the size of the handle alone matching him shoulder-to-shoulder. However, its size makes it almost completely impractical for combat, and he simply keeps it around to intimidate monsters (in combat, this is a battle command that he can use to make weaker enemies flee in terror).
  • The hero of the Dreamcast Lodoss Wars game, Beld, gets a truckload of these, including a copy of Ashram's soulstealer which is an enlarged obsidian claymore, the mithril sword which is that, shiny and white, and a little longer, and the Hakuring, a sword MADE FOR A GIANT, which is about three times as long, heavy, and wide as the buster sword, not to mention double-bladed. And with the proper speed boosting rings you can wave it about like a whiffle bat. The mithril sword has the added bonus of sometimes turning dead enemies into mithril ore based on their level, so you actually don't have incentive to use other swords once you get that one. You get a rune later which adds this affect to all swords, but since this is also the most damaging sword in the game... Ironically all the mystical or artifact swords in the game are closer in size to the moderately lengthy Roman swords like the Gladius or Spatha.
  • One of the Demoman's unlockable weapons in Team Fortress 2 is the Eyelander, a huge Scottish claymore.
  • A trailer for Three D Dot Game Heroes explains "Natural Sword Enhancement".
  • Every sword and knife in Dragon Age: Origins is one of these. The daggers are the size of arming swords, the regular longswords are the length of real-life claymores, and the two-handed swords are on a par with Cloud's blade. Like everything else in the setting, there's just enough exaggeration in the weapons to get across the large-scale, epic nature of the setting and story.
    • Especially prominent if you play a dwarven or female elven warrior specializing in two-handed weapons. You run around hitting people with a sword or axe around half again as tall as you are.
    • Though the first game at least played it somewhat realistically, two-handed weapons had ridiculously slow attack speeds as your character follows through with the momentum of your six-foot broadsword and has to pick it up again and wind up for another stroke.
  • League of Legends has an item that is actually called 'B.F.Sword'. It does do a lot of damage if you acquire it early, but its main use is as an ingredient for much better weapons.
  • The Sword of Aeons wielded by Jack of Blades and the Hero, should you make the choice in Fable I.
    • If you think that's big, you should see the Bereaver (from the lost chapters).
  • Demon's Souls has a ridiculous amount of BFS. (...among other giant weapon types.)
    • The Guillotine Axe qualifies, not because it's huge, but because the blade is as big as the rest of the axe. The Guillotine Axe is exactly what it sounds like. It's an axe designed for beheadings. Not to mention the person who wields it...
    • The "Meat Cleaver" is as big as your character, and is covered in blood. It's interesting that one of the bosses uses this weapon, and you get it by forging a weapon with this bosses soul.
    • "Bramd",like no other. It's a gigantic mace, but seriously, LOOK at that thing! Yeah... It shakes the ground.
    • The "Keel Smasher" doesn't have a blade. How does it cut you? IT'S BECAUSE IT'S SO FREAKING BIG.
    • There are a ton of other weapons like this in the game, not to mention the weapons held by the bosses...
  • The Godswords in RuneScape are BFS weapons that the GODS fought over. They are some of the best weapons in the game damage-wise, and can be bought from other players for about 20-70 millions of GP. They are also really slow.
  • The Black Key of Almarion, wielded by the Big Bad of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim.
  • Fallout: New Vegas has the Bumper Sword, a Final Fantasy 7 Buster Sword made out of a car bumper smashed at one end to be sharp and a pipe. It still has the car's license plate on it.
    • Legate Lanius has a custom version called the Blade of the East.
    • Marked Men of the Lonesome road DLC use a special version called Blade of the West
  • Xenogears has the Excalibur-class aerial battleship. You read that right. The ship itself is a sword so ludicrously massive that it can only be wielded by a battleship that can transform into a humanoid combat form.
  • Scribblenauts had some nice big swords. Super Scribblenauts added the adjective "Colossal".
  • In Arc Rise Fantasia, main character L'Arc's signature weapon is one of these.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Duel Transer, Sartr wields a giant Duel Sword: that is, a sword that he uses as a Duel Disk. And he swings it dramatically behind him every time he attacks.
  • Yo-Jin-Bo has a giant katana wielded by Ittosai; it's nearly as long as he is tall. Villain Nobumasa has a Big Freakin' Spear as well.
  • In Donkey Kong Country 2, BFS attacks you!
  • Despite the premise of super powered cosmic swords all trying to kill each other in Eien no Aselia, most of them aren't that unrealistically huge. But Karma? It's bigger than the guy wielding and that guy is pretty big.
  • The player ship in Alltynex Second wields swords that are twice its sice, oh and did I mention it dual welds them.
  • Warriors of Might and Magic has several two-handed sword weapons, including the Claymore, Wild Winter and Grendel.
  • Terraria has a few. The Blade of Grass and Fiery Greatsword are already exceptionally large, but even these are dwarfed by the Breaker Blade (which also serves as a Shout-Out to Cloud.).
  • Eternal Sonata gives us Jazz, and his...trumpet/guitar/organ sword. It's bigger than he is, and he is by far the largest protagonist in the game. You could probably fit the heroine, the hero and hero's little brother on the blade. In game terms, it's twice as slow as every other weapon, but hits twice as hard, and each blow hits twice (making him somewhat overpowered, at least for ending echo chains. He can't build them up well, though.)
  • Tera Online has the Slayer class, a leather wearing damage dealer that specializes in the the gigantic two-handed sword. The Berserker, a similar class, prefers huge axes.
  • The Indigo Fang from Otogi: Myth of Demons is wider then Raikoh and just as tall as him if not more so. It's description even says that it is very heavy, because of this heavy attacks with it do extra damage. Theres also the Golden Dragon, which is an ornate gold plated kanabo used by priests to exorcise demons, presumably by crushing there skulls in. The Big Bad Michizane wields the Sword of Seven Stars, which has a very long mirrored blade. And to top it off the Crimson King wields a huge stone kanabo that could be used as a support beam for a house.
  • Some of the swords wielded by the Fencer/Fencer Elite classes in Valkyria Chronicles II and Valkryia Chronicles III qualify. They're all so heavy that they have to be dragged backhanded across the field of battle (this posture also allows the fencers to carry a shield in front of them), and they're weighty enough that they can kill almost any infantry unit in one swing.
  • Septerra Core. Gemma's Blade, which Doskias acquires a ways into the game.
  • Augus from Asura's Wrath absolutely deserves a mention. He can extend the sword he has on his back to absolutely ridiculous lengths, fling Asura off the moon, and pierce straight through THE ENTIRE PLANET EARTH! The Official length the for the blade? 380,000 Kilometers! While it might not be as big as Gurren Lagann swords, but in a way, it probably is the biggest one ever made for a wielder close to human size.
  • The Reaver (in physical form, at least) from the Legacy of Kain series.
  • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Kirby can use a Super Ability called Ultra Sword that lets him grow his sword to massive proportions to cleave enemies and terrain.
  • War, from Darksiders, carries Chaoseater. It's a bit longer then he is tall, and he's easily pushing twelve feet.
  • Since all of the Knight's weapons in Trigger Knight use the same sprite, even the dagger is as tall as she is.
  • The Gran Centurio in Yggdra Union and Blaze Union. At five-and-a-half feet long and two wide, it is unusable by anyone not part of the Artwaltz dynasty, as the sword is specially enchanted to be near-weightless to them. Milanor tries picking it up in one of the side materials, and he can't lift it.
  • BFSes come in three different flavors in Dark Souls. There are standard greatswords like the bastard sword and claymore, the more exotic curved greatswords like the Server and Murakumo, and the totally-not-compensating-for-anything ultra greatswords like the Dragon Greatsword.
  • Rift features two-handed swords of various types, and like most fantasy games they tend to be things that would be... unwieldy in real life. UNLIKE most games, however, they don't actually scale with the height/race of your character, leading both to giant Bahmi that are essentially one-handing two-handed swords, and short-to-middle sized Dwarves that are wielding blades half again as tall as they are!
  • Some of the units in The Battle for Wesnoth have these; the Elvish Champion springs to mind.
  • Hyperdimension Neptunia gives the main protagonist Neptune a few BFSes such as the Bastard Sword and Claiomh Solais. Blanc/White Heart has giant hammers rather than swords.
  • As the strongest human in the world in Kid Icarus: Uprising, Magnus fittingly utilizes a BFS in combat. The player can use a copy of this large blade as he/she pleases, though it is listed as a club. The Hewdraw Club is also a sword too big to be listed as a blade.


Web Comics

  • Kenta ("Ken") Daisuke, from the webcomic No Need for Bushido, carries a zanbato which is as wide as he is, and approximately four times his length.
  • Jillian Zamussels, from Erfworld, carries a BFS. Her listed strengths on the cast page include "Unrealistically Oversized Weaponry" and "Hack-slash-carve-stabbity-chopchop".
  • Sir Eglamore of Gunnerkrigg Court has two swords, each nearly as tall as him: A normal metal blade, for normal threats like dragons and wolves; and a glowing blade of unknown composition, for fighting Shadow Men.
  • A giftwrapped BFS in this Misfile strip.
  • Roy's Weapon of Choice as leader of Order of the Stick (and specialist weapon, being a Fighter) is an heirloom greatsword, which while being realistic by standards of this page is still damn big.
    • The intro comic to the first book parodies the "oddly effeminate male leads" of the Final Fantasy series by showing one of them with a sword larger than he is strapped to his back, rendering him unable to move as with its point stuck in the ground the bearer is suspended several feet in the air with it strapped to his back.
  • Taken to extremes in Adventurers!!
  • Grantz from Girl Genius.
    • Otila has a HUGE scabbard (we're talking past Buster Sword territory) but no BFS.
  • Exiern: Dark Reflections. Ludicrously large sword, ludicrously tiny clothing.
  • Bun-Bun of Sluggy Freelance fame. Little bunny, huge sword.
  • Orion from Beyond Reality. It starts out about six feet long and a foot wide. After it its broken and reforged it is the same width, but only three feet long.
  • In Questionable Content, Dora keeps a pretty healthy-sized broadsword behind the counter as an anti-burglary weapon. "Coffee of Doom", indeed!
  • Ragara Karen wields one in Keychain of Creation, which is so huge it folds in half for easier carrying when the fight's over.
  • Dragon Tails parodies this trope in the RPG arc with an Expy of Cloud whose sword is so large it requires a cart for him to actually move it. Considering what Bluey did to poor Lady Moona, they probably didn't let him get a chance to use it, either.
  • Hakelda of Reliquary carries around a spiked club nearly as tall as she is.
  • The Obituator, a one-off from Oglaf is a rare, possibly even unique, literally literal example of the trope.
  • Andy Frogman in Ultima-Java: History, has Great Blades as his weapon of choice, between the beginning of UJ: History and the present, he accumilates over 30 of these huge weapons, some for their intrinsic power, some simply because he liked the look of them. By the end of the first chapter he already ahs five.
  • Biff: "Before you lift it over your head, make sure the sword isn't heavier than you are"
  • Homestuck: All of Dave's alchemized swords are taller than he is in the comic's standard art style. In the various Art Shifts they are much more realistically proportioned (as is everything else), though still of considerable size.
  • In Sinfest, a comparision of swords includes the claim that one is longer and the other is heavier.


Web Original

  • These sometimes appear in Survival of the Fittest, where Danya sometimes puts medieval swords on the list of weapons to be assigned. Such swords include a 55-inches-long Claymore, a 6-feet-long Zweihänder, and a Grosse Messer.
  • Kuar in Tech Infantry is only somewhat huge, but a world with werewolves, vampires, and other supernaturally strong characters facing off against supernaturally-tough enemies who may be Immune to Bullets, big honking swords are commonplace.
  • Kings of Power: 4 Billion%: one of the characters has a very prominient BFS.
  • MSF High Forum: Sam wields one of these. A large claymore to be specific. So does Mercurius.
  • During a Champions game, one player claimed that a 40d6 killing attack was not excessive for a photon torpedo because "That's only as much damage as 25 sword hacks." That, combined with a healthy dose of Star Fleet Battles, gave us Buccaneer!, whose sword was so huge it did the equivalent of 25 sword hacks.
  • Black Knight in Marvels RPG sports Excalibur, which on top of being a BFS is also an Absurdly Sharp Blade able to release lightning shocks and instill Primal Fear just by being wielded.


Western Animation

  • Parodied in the Kim Possible episode "Viru-Ron" (with a wink for those who get it) when Rufus and Wraithmaster keep expanding their swords to ever-more-unliftable size.
  • William gets one of these in Code Lyoko once virtualized. It is implied that this is a subconscious choice inspired by his love.
  • In Titan Maximum, Claire carries a sword made out of aggregated diamond nanorod, which is actually the hardest substance currently known.
  • In Generator Rex, an original production for Cartoon Network, one of Rex's apparent weapons of choice when he morphs his arm is a sword that he calls the "BFS" (Big FAT Sword.)
  • The Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures episode "Expedition to Khumbu" both subverts and lampshades this trope. While playing a game in Questworld, Jonny gets attacked by a scorpion-type monster. He immediately asks I.R.I.S., the AI user interface, to equip him with a Gatling gun; the computer, however, gives him a shield and a fairly small sword instead, explaining that it's the only type of weapon permitted in that level. Jonny, of course, tells her she'd "better make it a big sword!" So I.R.I.S. makes it grow until it's longer than he is tall. Given that this is a computer game, you'd think they'd play the trope straight, but as Questworld was designed to be realistic, the sword is too heavy for him. As he stumbles with it, he goes "give me a break, I.R.I.S.!" and then he falls. The sword breaks in two, Jonny complains, and the computer quips "you requested a break." He still uses the broken sword to fight the scorpion monster, though.
  • Several times in Adventure Time; in "Mortal Folly", Finn orders Jake to "Be a big sword."
    • In "Morituri Te Salutamus", Finn says, "I can't kill my best friend [...] without a bigger sword!", and the Fight King promptly gives him his bigass sword.

Real Life

  • Practitioners of Baguazhang, a Chinese internal martial art, train with oversized swords to build strength and so on. It's relatively easy to find daos almost five feet long and weighing around 5 lbs. The guy in the bottom pic of the Wikipedia page on Baguazhang is training with an oversized dao that looks like it could give the Buster Sword a run for its money!
    • Several other sword schools teach like this, such as Katana schools using the larger Dachi in training.
  • History tells of a Frisian pirate and rebel by name of "Grutte Pier" (literally "Big Pier") who rose to prominence during the early sixteenth century. He was reported to be an enormous man, and strong enough to bend coins one-handed with three fingers. Sources estimate his height to have been at least seven-feet tall, based around the length of the two swords reported to be his—both seven feet in length. According to legend, Grutte Pier was strong enough to behead multiple men in a single blow.
  • The Nodachi is most easily discribed as a larger version of the Katana, and was intended to be used by foot soldiers against calvalry. Typical examples were over five feet long, which is longer than the typical Japanese man is tall
    • A more specialized version of the Nodachi was known as the Zanbato, literally "horse-killing sword" or "horse-chopping sword". It differed from the Nodachi mainly by having a ricasso approximately 12-18 inches long, allowing it to be used as a short polearm as well as a sword against cavalry; similar to the German Zweihander. It is believed to be derived from the similar Chinese zhanmadao (also literally transated as "horse-chopping sword").
    • This mind-bogglingly enormous nodachi is 377 cm (over 12 feet) long, and is the largest sword of its type known to exist in Japan. Other examples, though none of quite that magnitude, can be found on the linked site.
    • And this particular example was made to test a forging technique, not to be actually used in a battlefield.
    • Many (perhaps even most) nodachi were never used in combat. Forging one was proof of a swordsmith's skill, and owning one was a status symbol for a samurai wealthy enough to afford it. The only remotely useful thing that could be done with a sword longer than the height of its wielder was to fight off horsemen while on foot...and polearm weapons such as the naginata and the nagamaki were cheaper to build, easier to train people in, and all-around better at that particular job in the hands of a skilled soldier.
  • When you're trying to arm a giant, sometimes a normal sword just won't do. Peter Francisco was well over 6'6" and joined the patriot cause when the Revolutionary War broke out. Since most weapons were designed at at time when the average man was 5'8" George Washington decided to arm the man with a specially made sword... that measured 5' long, longer than some of the soldiers in the army were tall. This sword proved... useful. At just the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, he killed 11 British Solders with it. This number does not include the (presumably large) number of men who ran away shrieking like girls at the sight of this man on a charging horse swinging this thing. Big Fucking Guy. Big Fucking Sword.
  • Civil War officer Heros von Borke was another larger-then-usual man who needed a larger-then-usual sword. An immigrant from Prussia, the 6'4" dragoon officer became a Confederate cavalryman. And he bought his 42" German made Solingen sword to play with.
  • The Scottish claymore is a real-life example; it was designed with the weight and length to take the heads off several unfortunate Englishmen in one swing once you got some momentum behind the swing. Having said that its use died out mostly because it was responsible for too many friendly fire casualties. The claymore was still definitely a BFS, albeit in a different order of magnitude than most of the ridiculously-sized blades in this trope.
  • Real claymores were typically around 140 cm of length and weighed less than 6 lbs. There are numerous existing examples in museums. None of these, while impressive, are even theoretically capable of cutting through several people at once, nor were they designed for it.
    • William Wallace's supposed claymore was five-and-a-half feet long.
    • The Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh houses a claymore—admittedly ceremonial, but still—that is at least seven feet (a bit more than two metres) long in total. See for yourself.
  • The German "Zweihänder" was up to 6 feet long, weighing up to 7 lb. (3 kg) and used in both hands, allegedly to break up pike formations.
    • These swords were up to 180 cm long (the blade itself being 150 cm long) and in skilled hands could easily decapitate a horse.
    • Most of the time, however, they were used more like a short polearm. There is a second grip and smaller quillions (hand guards) further up the blade that allow it to be used like a short spear.
    • Its correct that you can also use them like a spear, but thats just one additional option this sword has. Its perfectly safe to use them as a sword as well. See for example this video on YouTube
    • Please also note that the addition of a second guard as part of the blade, and the protection of the blade by leather up to the second guard, as seen in the YouTube video, was actually a later development. Early swords of this type didnt have these features.
  • Two-handers are included in the iconic image of the Landsknechts (hired foot soldiers, often not of noble origin). Those who actually used twohanded swords were called "Doppelsöldner" (double mercenary) because they received double payment.
    • They also used a Flammberg, a 5 kg(!) two-handed sword, whose blades were made in wave pattern (thus making it (sort of) a real Flaming Sword ). The point is a small contact area, so it could cut better, and cut repeatedly, like a giant saw. The usage was the same as by Zweihänder, but also in "foot against horse" situation.
    • Flamberge, flammberg, flambard, etc., etc., is actually a catch-all name for any western sword with a wavy blade, and they weren't any more effective than regular swords. The only function of the wavy blade was to look fearsome. These blades were also more difficult to construct, which could make them slightly more fragile than regular ones. By the time these swords were coming to use, the use of plate armor was decreasing rapidly anyway, so armor penetration wouldn't have been a big concern.
    • Function of wavy blade was to try and combine straight blades thrusting and cleaving power with curved blades cutting potential. It may have worked, but with firearms taking main role on the battlefield, whole concept was abandoned.
    • Mail armor is also effective at blunting just about any kind of cutting attack, though that shouldn't be interpreted to mean that no wound will be inflicted at all—it'll hurt and likely inflict a rather nasty laceration, but it won't cleanly slash through the armor. The German longsword, though sharpened on both sides, was, in battle between two armored men, used in the "half-sword" fashion, wherein the swordsman shifted his off-hand to grasp the blade at roughly its mid-point, which effectively turned the sword into a (rather short) spear, to be used to thrust at the opponent where he was unarmored or only armored by mail, or to be used as an aid to grappling (a very important part of armored combat). Even after landing a spear or sword thrust, the armored opponent would only be weakened, very rarely mortally injured. Grappling and the use of a long dagger to inflict precise thrusts to the vitals would usually ultimately end the fight.
    • Mordhau, or inverted grip, was often used with longsword or zweihander. By gripping the blade of the sword with both hands, with cross-guard up, sword was turned in a two-handed warhammer, which was much more effective in dealing with platemail wearing opponents.
    • Thick pieces of plate armor were virtually sword-, arrow-proof and it wasnt until the 19. century before guns had indeed turned so strong that traditional plate armor wasnt able to protect from them any more. In fact, modern bulletproof vests of military quality are again very much like a platemail, using among other things a titanium layer (instead of steel, because titanium is more lightweight) to distribute the shock of the impact of a bullet. The plate armor simply vanished the nature of war changed. The old nobility lost its function, and ordinary people couldnt afford these extremely expensive kinds of armor.
    • Of course, there's always a vast range of quality (and thus cost) and weight (which is a trade-off): a really thick steel plate is impenetrable for anything short of anti-tank rifle, but you can't make a whole suit of this, while a thin plate of mild steel is good enough light blades, but won't stop an axe or mace. A dense mail of thick spring steel can stop bullets, though cut the "protected" surface, while a soft wire in sparse patterns stops well only knife or saber cuts (stainless steel of butcher gloves is very strong by medieval standards).
  • Pepin the Short's sword was about 1,83 m (little over 6 feet) long. The most remarkable thing is that Pepin himself was 1,37 m (under 4 feet and half) tall.
  • Not exactly a sword, but this basic trend is subverted in the sabre-tooth tiger. Many look at the sabre-tooth as being far more vicious than recent species of cats (such as lions and tigers). Truth be told, the evolution of cats canines to smaller size made them more deadly and effective than the sabre-tooth was. Sometimes smaller is better.
    • This isn't a subversion as sabertooths lived alongside ancient lions and such that had teeth the same as modern cats. Furthermore, according to evolutionists, saber teeth evolve and re-evolved in several lines of cats (and even a south american marsupial) several times over prehistory. It's clear they were very effective at what they did, being most likely specializations for killing very large prey animals. The only flaw might have been that if those large animals died out then the saber teeth would no longer be useful and instead would get in the way. Its much the same for any animal that is specialized for a limited diet.
  • See here for a man using a real-life replica of Cloud's buster sword.
  • Hasbro's Nerf, best known for its toy guns, began selling swords in 2008. The first two, Thunder and Shadow Fury, are approximately 18 inches long, a few pounds heavy; their 2009 sword, the Marauder, is almost enormous by comparison.
  • The Guan Dao was, as legend has it, used by Guan Yu. While it's pretty normal for a polearm lengthwise, it weighed almost 20 kg. Even larger ones were made for training/testing, at over 70 kg.
  • Most of the real life BFSs actually are very sleek and light weapons, and well balanced. The pommel acts as a counterpoise to balance the weapon and make it wieldable. Modern testing of the actual Landsknecht Zweihänder have shown they are excellent weapons, and can be wielded without problems, providing the wielder is proficient on footwork. Most BFSs in museums are procession swords - more accurately "sword-like objects" - not intended to be used in combat, but more as ritual decorations.
  • The Italian Spadone (sometimes called Spadone a due mani, literally Great Sword in two hands), and its relative, the Iberian Montante (See a training example here) were very large swords, frequently exceeding five feet in length. The montante was usually used against other weapons, while the Spadone was used in the same fashion, but also used in duels. They averaged 5–6 lbs, and were quite maneuverable.


Waldorf: So why do you suppose this trope shows up in so many video games?
Statler: If you ask me, I say the developers must be Compensating for Something.
Waldorf: A low budget?
Statler: No, a lousy game!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

  1. ↑ Despite the page image, "Best Friend of Spikyhairedheroes" died before it even took off.
  2. ↑ lit. Wind Demon Shuriken
  3. ↑ And she's almost six feet tall...
  4. ↑ Word of God is that it splits into four sections, which she stacks and carries on her back
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