Holy Hand Grenade

Shouting "Holy crap!" would be quite appropriate.

"O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade, that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy."

—The Book of Armaments, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Simply put, this is when the Power of Good, which is supposedly devoted to light, love, peace, Forgiveness, and good health, is used to crush, maim, desiccate, disembowel, and destroy (usually with spells or weapons). It seems that Good Is Not Soft after all. Expect any Church Militant to have tons and tons of such items.

Now this trope often happens when Light Is Not Good, but it can come into play just as often when light actually is good. Well, when light IS good, but isn't nice or soft—but perhaps it's best not to worry yourself over it.

Can often be directly in a cycle of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, but can just as often be separate, used as a direct counter to dark magic. Weapons that are Made of Good (including Silver Has Mystic Powers) are also this.

In general, Good Hurts Evil, and "Light" or "Holy" magic tends to work most effectively on demons, undead, and other irredeemably evil creatures. In RPGs, these tend to include most of the main enemies at the end of the game. In milder cases, Holy is sometimes treated as an elemental type damage that simply can't be mitigated, or a way to induce Villainous BSOD.

Players may counterbalance this by giving the Light spells to the White Magician Girl or healer, since they'll usually be occupied with healing duty and won't be able to go nova on the enemy as often as the attack mage.

A Super-Trope to Revive Kills Zombie, Turn Undead.

Compare Light'Em Up (using light like this), Heart Beat-Down (using love like this). Elemental Powers, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Revive Kills Zombie, Depleted Phlebotinum Shells, Bolt of Divine Retribution (for when God, in whatever form he takes, cuts out the middleman).

Contrast Care Bear Stare, Hellfire, Unholy Nuke, Protective Charm and Cross-Melting Aura.

This is the most effective weapon against the Killer Rabbit.

This item is available for sale in the Trope Co catalogue.

Examples of Holy Hand Grenade include:

Anime and Manga

  • Played with in Slayers: Divine Magic draws its power from the gods of the Slayers universe (as opposed to Demonic Magic and lesser Black Magic, which is powered by demons), but it was lost a thousand years ago and the few characters who use it (dragons and their associates, like Lina's sister, etc) are generally not inclined to. Sample spells? Chaotic Disintegrate and Flame Breath. The lesser form, White Magic is supposed to be entirely made of healing, protection or at least exorcism spells, and dismissed outright as a possible weapon by more sane mages like Lina and Zelgadis, but cranky Martial Pacifist characters still manage to use it against Exclusively Evil foes (Good Hurts Evil) in what Zelgadis called "oxymoronic attacks":

Pacifist Crush! Kindness to All Creatures Kick! Good Will Towards Men Smash!

  • Most of the weapons used by the Magdalene Order of Exorcists in Chrono Crusade are some form of Holy Hand Grenades. We have holy ammunition in the form of Sacreds (regular bullets with holy oil inside to act as a small explosive) and the more powerful Gospels (bullets made with alchemical silver, inscribed with holy runes, and packed with holy oil), a sword in which the handle is a cross and the blade is made out of some sort of holy energy, etc.
  • Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato)? Trelaina: "Zordar... You have misused your power. I am here to return you to the cosmos." Ka-BOOOOM!!!
  • In A Certain Magical Index, all of God's Right Seat possess a power of some sort which relates to this trope:
    • Vento of the Front has "God's Divine Punishment", which causes everyone who feels hostility towards her to suffocate.
    • Terra of the Left's "Execution of the Light", drawn from Jesus' execution on the cross, alters the hierarchy of objects around him and alters their vulnerability.
    • Acqua of the Back has "Divine Mother's Mercy". It erases the Original Sin and allows him to remove all his biological limiters, use magic (specifically water magic on a mass scale), and Won't Work On Me practically any attack thrown at him.
    • Topping all of the above, Fiamma of the Right possesses "The Holy Right". It's a "You Win" button.
    • It's eventually revealed that Touma's Imagine Breaker is of divine origin and sealing something ludicrously powerful inside Touma.
  • In D.Gray-man, Exorcists fight using weapons made of a substance called Innocence, which is said to be 'God's crystal'.
  • While not specifically holy in nature, in GaoGaiGar Mamoru's purification abilities are mostly used to turn Zonder cores back into the humans they were made from, as well as counter the mechanization process in general. In FINAL, however, Mamoru shows us that they are potent enough to utterly vaporize his target if he dials the power up high enough. Earlier in the series, Replica Mamoru also demonstrated considerable destructive power with his own abilities, though his powers stem from a different source and may not count.
  • The Magic Council has Etherion, an extremely powerful magical weapon, with which they would have sacrificed innocent people to prevent the R-System from being completed
    • Also Makarov and Luxus' spell Fairy Law, which creates a blast of pure light that totally annihilate those who are considered "foes" by the caster.
  • In Saint Beast, Judas wields a very destructive force of light.
  • Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Nyarko, being an Eldritch Abomination, uses blasphemous hand grenades (yes, actual hand grenades).

Comic Books

  • Given all of what Green Lantern's power ring can against villainy, there's a reason why the Green Lantern Corps' Badass Creed has the phrase, "Let those who worship Evil's might/Beware my power/Green Lantern's light!"
  • The Mighty Thor was once hit by his own Hammer. It had no effect, because the Hammer can only be used for good.
  • In Hellboy: The Crooked Man, an elderly preacher take a demonic lucky charm and (in his own words) "squeeze the Holy Spirit into it". He then used the charm to draw a cross onto a shovel, which he then gave to Hellboy to bash a demon over the head with.

Film

  • Named for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, the weapon used against the Killer Rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (although it functioned just like a regular grenade).
  • In Dogma the true villain Azrael is defeated when he's hit by a golf club that the corrupt Cardinal Glick blessed for a better game.
  • Carl's concentrated sunlight grenade from Van Helsing; powerful enough to wipe out an entire mansion full of vampires when detonated.
  • Several examples in the movie Constantine, including the Holy Shotgun and the Holy Brass Knuckles.
    • And don't forget the grenade. No, really.
  • In Stardust when Yvaine embraces Tristan and shines blindingly to defeat Lamia.
  • Hellboy's gun fires all sorts of religious Depleted Phlebotinum Shells, including shells filled with Holy Water, White Oak shavings and garlic, while the gun itself is made of metal from church bells, crucifixes, and pieces of the True Cross.
  • Tron‍'‍s Deadly Disc became one of these after some upgrades from Alan. Seeing as Users are considered the equivalent of Gods to the Programs inhabiting Cyberspace...

Literature

  • Older Than Feudalism: A plague here, a pillar of fire there, giant floods, and add a dash of killing every first-born not in a marked house, and you've got Old Testament Holy and a whole lotta spare water.
    • Atypical in that half of those listed served to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the Egyptian gods (each of the Ten Plagues directly attacked domains central to the various deities of Egyptian polytheism), and that the most commonly referenced pillar of fire was never used offensively.
    • While there certainly are Holy Hand Grenade moments in the Old Testament, they're actually not that common, especially not after the Exodus. Those who think the Old Testament is all floods and plagues clearly Did Not Do the Research.
    • Elijah probably could have pulled off the title of Holy Hand Grenadier. He seemingly introduced Flame Strike as a combat spell, having called down columns of fire on two different groups of 50 soldiers each. He pulled the same stunt earlier on a sacrifice to Show up the Priests of Baal after mocking their ineffectual attempts to do the same.
      • When Elisha was mocked by a group of youth, he cursed them in the name of the Lord, resulting in 42 of them being mauled by bears.
    • Also, the walls of Jericho were taken down by seven days of trumpeting and God's very own intervention.
    • Not that it was ever used offensively, but the Ark of the Covenant had wooden handles because anyone that touched it directly was killed as though struck by lightning. This combines with the design of the Ark to make some think it was an electrical generator or something, possibly with sparks arcing between the two angel statues when in use.
  • In The Dresden Files, the primary methods (we've seen) for heavenly powers to interact with the mortal world has been through three swords that are supernaturally good at cutting up things, and soulfire, a form of magic booster that we first see used by a wizard to burn part of his soul in exchange for dramatically improving the power and complexity of his spells. While less violent than, say, giant bursts of hellish flame, very much not White Magician Girl material.
    • Note that Fidelaccius, the Sword of Faith, is able to slice through a Red Court Lord of the Outer Night with a single blow. The Swords are hardcore holy weapons.
    • The RPG makes it clear: by paying a fate point the Swords can satisfy any "catch" that an enemy's toughness or recovery powers have.
  • Shadows of the Apt: In Salute the Dark, while all past indications have been that Butterfly-kinden are utterly harmless and completely abhorrent of violence, when Salma is killed, Prized of Dragons feels hatred for the first time on her life and uses her Art to incinerate the Wasp-kinden responsible in a blinding flash of light.
  • In Under the Dome, Chef Bushey has an AK-47 with the words "God's Warrior" painted on the side. He believes that protecting his meth lab is the will of God, and he is willing to go to any extreme to do it.
  • And, of course, there is the one in Discworld. A preacher who walks across Uberwald with Forgiveness in his hands. Forgiveness is a battle axe.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "The Phoenix on the Sword", the mark of the phoenix is put on Conan's sword by Epimetrius, which lets Conan slay the demon that Thoth-Amon summoned as revenge against Ascalante, even after the sword is broken during the battle with Ascalante and his assassins. The phoenix mark is identified by the high priest of Mitra.
  • In Special Circumstances, A warrior's "aspect" basically serves this trope's purpose. Most supernatural beasties can only be killed when a warrior calls on their beliefs while in combat with them.

Live Action Television

  • In Power Rangers in Space, the Red Ranger is forced to resort to killing Zordon. Doing so unleashes a wave of goodness across the universe - all evil monsters are turned to dust, humanoid villains are turned good. That makes Zordon a holy universal nuke.

Mythology

  • There are various instances in which goodness represented by an object repels evil in folklore. Vampires, for example, are supposed to be weak to holy water, communion bread, crucifixes, etc. Unicorns were often said to be vicious, behaviorally monstrous beasts capable of being tamed only by the touch of a purehearted maiden. And so on.

Tabletop Games

  • Cleric spells can be harmful to evil and undead creatures in Dungeons & Dragons, including Holy Water, Turn Undead and Revive Kills Zombie.
    • "Smite Evil" is the signature ability of The Paladin class (who also get Detect Evil).
    • One of the more noteworthy spells in a 3.5 edition supplement was the Bolt of Glory which fits this trope to a tee. A clerical attack spell with the Good subtype that deals heavy damage to evil outsiders and undead, and could still pack a whallop to anyone but holy outsiders.
    • Inverted in that many of these spells have evil equivalents that harm good creatures. As well as chaotic equivalents that harm lawful creatures, and vice versa.
    • In Fourth Edition, clerics have even more spells that can do damage to just about any kind of creature. Clerics who specialize in these are nicknamed "Laser Clerics."
      • Also in Fourth Edition, there is the Avenger class, which is a class pretty much devoted to this trope. Slightly subverted in that unlike other divine classes, Avengers are always allowed to be unaligned, regardless of the affiliation of the god they serve. Paladins also have very strong ties to this trope.
    • Book Of Exalted Deeds is a supplement for 3rd Ed. that is just full of this trope. It starts from the basic premise that people need to play better characters, in the moral sense, and does a fine job for a while—and then you get to the Ravages and Afflictions. See, if Poison Is Evil, then Good Guys can't use it. However, Ravages and Afflictions are poisons that only hurt Evil characters, so they're okay! Some of the stuff in there is awesome—just not the Holy Hand Grenade part.
      • Most good stuff was converted from earlier books of Planescape. Warriors of Heaven—note that its author is credited in BoED too—already had magic mostly restricted to Celestials and whoever they deem really worthy, including attacks. Parts designated "only good guys" weirdly (like telepathic eavesdropping) or reminding of "12 yr old gamer girl" template from Portable Hole are new additions.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has all sorts of sanctified weaponry (and ammunition, and armour), unsurprising given the nature of both the Imperium and some of its enemies. Mostly the Church Militant, of course, but they share - and the closer a force is to the Ecclesiarchy, the more of this stuff they are likely to have.
    • The Sisters of Battle of fame, whose entire arsenal has been blessed by the clergy. This includes the requisite Holy Hand Grenades (mostly of the Willy Pete variety), but also Holy Flamethrowers & Holy Napalm Bombs.
    • And the Psyk-Out grenade, one using the waste from the Golden Throne.[1]
    • And this wargear option for Black Templar characters from the same setting, Holy Orbs of Antioch. They are lethal weapons against the impure and wicked filled in equal measure with high explosives and sacred unguents. We all know what it references.[2]
    • On the defensive side of things, the high-ranked or more militant priests (and a few close allies like the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition) are given a rosarius - the badge of faith with built-in personal conversion field generator.
    • The Dreadnoughts are a fine example of this. A tomb-cum-shrine, with legs, a massive machine gun and a missile launcher.
    • A number of the Space Marines might consider all their weaponry of this nature, though it probably isn't by the nature of the setting. Depending on how zealous they are, certain Imperial Guard regiments might have the same attitude toward their equipment.
      • This will definitely be the view of the masses towards Space Marine equipment, as they're commonly indoctrinated to believe that the Astartes are literally the angels of the Emperor responsible for bringing death to the Imperium's enemies. Even spent shell casing left by them is considered something of a holy memento (more significant to those who have seen the action in question, but still).
  • Celestial Exalted get a lot of Charms with effects like this. (Terrestrials also have one or two, but they're much less potent, and are relatively recent creations, developed to compensate for the fact that they usurped, exterminated, and then demonized the remnants of the Exalted with real holy power.) There's also the Solar Circle Sorcery spell Light of Solar Cleansing, which nukes any "Creatures of Darkness" in the area, leaving everything else untouched.
    • Which is not to be confused with Cleansing Solar Flames, another Solar level spell that destroys shadowlands.
    • Wonders of the Lost Age (the Magitek Sourcebook) introduces the Sun's Fist Chakram, a literal Holy Hand Grenade.
  • Warhammer Fantasy battle and roleplay has the gods of the empire to mainly help their followers.....until they decide to unleash destructive powers rivaling those of mighty sorcerers. Brettonia avoids this by having their goddess only protect the knights from harm and give them powers when they become epitomes of good, the destructive power of their "damsels" (mystical priestesses) are given by training from elves.
  • Deadlands and its CCG counterpart, Doomtown, have the Holy Wheel Gun, a revolver with "The Right Hand of God" engraved on the barrel. It does terrible things to monsters, especially the more profane, like the walking dead, werewolves, and vampires.
  • White magic in Magic: The Gathering qualifies, including mass destruction spells like "Fire and Brimstone," "Armageddon," and "Wrath of God". Evidently Richard Garfield applied the Old Testament to that element.
    • This is particularly clear with some white spot removal spells, like Devouring Light and Smite, whose theme clashes with less-aggressive removal spells like Pacifism, Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere (who despite the ominous name seems to depict the creature affected by it as being sent to, very literally, a better place).
  • Just about any relic/artifact weapon created/used by angels in In Nomine.

Toys

  • The Light Element in Bionicle. Examples include Takanuva and Av-Matoran.

Video Games

  • Joshua's attacks in The World Ends With You, several of which involve casting beams of holy light surrounded by cherub angels.
  • In the Final Fantasy games, and a few other Square Enix series, "Holy" is often equal to "Flare" in terms of effect and damage.
    • Should be noted in the days Nintendo had censorship policies (not anymore, since it kind of made developers leave), Holy was given different names, like "Fade" in Final Fantasy I, "Pearl" in Final Fantasy VI and "White" in Final Fantasy IV and a handful of others.
    • In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, spells and items that would harm the undead were considered Holy by the in game laws.
    • In addition to Holy, Final Fantasy I also included the Dia series of spells, initially translated as "Harm". Dia's power only affects undead creatures, but it causes heavy damage to them. Later games did away with Dia and instead implemented the rule that Revive Kills Zombie.
  • In most Shin Megami Tensei games except Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army (which lacks a light element altogether), "Hama" (light) has the exact same effect as "Mudo" (dark) - insta-kill (in some, it just halves the target's HP).
    • In the later games, there's also the aptly named Megido, which deals Almighty damage. No enemy resists Almighty, except a handful that resist everything.
  • Light elemental weapons in some of the Castlevania games:
    • The holy water and the Item Crash Hydro Storm, or Divine Storm.
    • The Claimh Solais in the Sorrow games.
    • The Holy Sword in Symphony. It is quite effective for that part of the game.
    • The cross, which acts like a boomerang, and its Item Crash, Grand Cross, which is represented as a gigantic beam of light surrounded by twirling crosses.
    • The Bible itself.
    • The Vampire Killer itself is a holy whip, and if you face a Belmont in combat, they are always resistant to holy damage.
    • Proving that Light Is Not (Necessarily) Good, one of the Animated Armors you fight in Circle of the Moon is a Light Elemental. Other enemies in the series are Light-aligned as well.
    • The early games had a cross necklace as an item. When picked up, it creates a bright flash of light that kills everything on-screen.
  • Ragnarok Online has the Holy element which is extremely resistant to Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Poison, and Ghost attacks, but was both weak when attacked by and strong in attacking Shadow and Undead.
  • Master of Magic has Life magic, their offensive spells only work on creatures of Chaos, Death or summoned creatures though. Their beneficial spells make it probably the most powerful magic in the game.
    • Word. Life-backed armies get buffs out the wazoo. Beware of even the humblest spearman unit buffed with Heroism, Invulnerability, Righteousness, Holy Armour, Holy Weapon, Lionheart, Crusade, Charm of Life and a stacked Prayer/High Prayer - not to mention getting Healed even if you do manage to damage them. Heroes, meanwhile, not only get all these benefits but can be Resurrected as well!
  • World of Warcraft has the Holy school of magic, performed exclusively by priests and paladins. While most Holy spells are for healing or buffing, there are a few damage spells and a Holy DPS priest makes a viable—if challenging and unorthodox—character option. What's nice about holy damage is that there's no resistance or immunity to it, at the cost of dealing slightly less damage than the other schools.
    • Retribution Paladins are essentially all hand grenade, no miracles. Though still very holy about it. Discipline Priests and offensive Holy specialized paladins are a balance of this and healing skills.
    • As of the last patch before the Cataclysm expansion, an unorthodox build of protection paladin (who live to protect other members of the party) can literally outperform many traditional DPS classes, both in burst AND overall damage, while still retaining its ability to survive tremendous damage. Holy Hand Grenade indeed.
    • A few items play this trope straight, such as the Reckoning Bomb fired from one of the siege vehicles introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It devastates a huge number of undead, without doing any damage to the living (or the Forsaken, those Undead redeemed by Sylvanas).
  • Crono in Chrono Trigger uses "Heavens" element magic. This is why he learns Life, and makes two pairs of opposing elements (Fire and Water, Holy and Shadow), but the English version names it Lightning (since some of his attacks and multitechs cause lightning to strike from the heavens) instead. Luminaire is the best example of this trope. The DS version renames his brand of magic "Light" magic, bringing it closer to the original Japanese naming.
  • Grandia II plays this straight with Elena's ultimate move, White Apocalypse.
  • Most of Sora's powers in the Kingdom Hearts series, including the Keyblade itself, are said to originate from the Light.
    • The sequel features the 'Reflect' series of spells, which utilize the element of Light. While Reflect itself is a simple Beehive Barrier, Reflega not only absorbs most attacks, it also does equal damage to any enemies in range. In many cases, you can trick a boss into killing itself.
    • And then there's Roxas in the Final Mix + version of the game, who can complement his deadly melee attacks with sword-shaped pillars of light, seemingly teleport around by obscuring his movements with gleam, and throw homing balls of light at you.
    • Queen Minnie in Kingdom Hearts II wields this type of magic. Yes, that Minnie.
    • Her husband Mickey also excels at Light magic. In Birth By Sleep one of his most powerful abilities and his finishing move are both named Holy(something) and he's boasted other light based spells in previous games.
      • Sign of Faith is his unique spell used in his D-link, and the finisher is Lightcharge. That's right, folks, Mickey Mouse is a paladin.
    • Ven graduates from wind-based powers to light abilities later in the game with the abilities Faith and Salvation (both of which deal damage to enemies AND heal you, as well as being nearly identical to the abilities Roxas throws out during his Final Mix boss battle with Sora ), not to mention his Wingblade command style.
  • Light arrows in the The Legend of Zelda series since Ocarina. They were silver before.
  • A few units in the strategy game Age of Wonders can deal Holy damage, which is a useful damage type in that it has a chance to cripple enemies with the Vertigo debuff. Most spells that deal Holy damage are from the Life sphere of magic, and the incorruptible, quasi-angelic High Men race has several units that deal holy damage in melee or from afar, the earliest example being the Saint unit, which can fling Holy Bolts as an effective ranged attack.
    • In sequels Archons (High Men stand-in) do it again, as well as Good priests and summoned units like Angel.
  • Seiken Densetsu 3 has light magic as one of its 8 elements, with spells like Saint Beam and Silver Dart. It is unique among the 8 elements in that it utilizes your Spirit stat, instead of Intelligence.
  • Nexus War is all over this trope. Evil may have the dirty tricks, but Good has all the big guns. Embracing the holy love and peace of Paradise lets characters turn into firestorms, throw cars and trees, replace limbs with weapons and summon holy war machines. Let's not even get started on all the smiting. When Heaven goes to war, it goes to war.
  • One of the random encounters in Fallout 2 is with a bunch of knights in power armor looking for the Holy Hand Grenade. Another random encounter features actual grenade itself, but it is regrettably unreachable due to script error.
  • At least some games in the Fire Emblem series have Light as a category of attack magic. In the games that have a magical Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors, Light beats Dark, but loses to elemental magic.
    • Not to mention that in The Sacred Stones, the class "Bishop" got to deal bonus damage to monsters.
  • Guild Wars has smiting prayers in general, and Ray of Judgment in particular, which is arguably the most powerful spell against a stationary target.
  • The mikos of Touhou do this quite a bit. In fact, even the goddesses they worship themselves aren't averse to rolling up their sleeves and getting into brawls using their "miracle" power to level massive destruction at whatever random Gensokyo resident they feel like fighting with at the time.
    • Then again, in the Touhou series, Miracles are essentially another word for magic, specifically the magic of filling the screen with more bullets than the U.S. army has in its arsenal.
      • Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth gives the ShoutOuts to Monty Python and Wizardry by mentioning the HHG of Aunty Ock.
    • A more specific example are the Celestials, whose very body is anathematic to the Youkai. Too bad the only playable Celestial is a colossal Jerkass...
  • Champions Online offers the Celestial powerset with the Blood Moon content, focusing primarily on abilities that can both damage enemies and heal allies. There are a few individual abilities in other powersets as well, particularly Condemn in the Supernatural set which hits the enemy with a column of light from the sky and can stun enemies near the point of impact.
  • This is the shtick of three of the four Priest subclasses, especially the Crusader, in Dungeon Fighter Online.
  • The Tales (series) games has had Light-element attacks, like Photon, Holy Lance, and Judgment, since the very beginning. And despite it being a lightning-based spell, the Indignation spell fits under this trope; the incantation describes the caster as commanding heavenly powers to send down "Divine Lightning"; when the spell is cast, the skies part and lightning falls from the heavens.
    • An exception is Tales of the Abyss, where Judgment counts as a Fire-element spell.
      • Indignation is sometimes a light elemental spell when there's no separate lightning element.
      • The Tales of Legendia version of God's Breath (incorrectly localized as Judgement) hits enemies with an actual holy hand.
  • Church Militant Ciel from Tsukihime wields the Seventh Holy Scripture, a unicorn horn fused with the soul of a sacrificed girl. Clearly, however, this wasn't good enough for her, so she modified it into a pilebunker. It's so powerful that it can stop the reincarnation of a Dead Apostle, INCLUDING Roa. Or, rather, it's specifically designed to stop the reincarnation of one such as Roa, and happens to stop reincarnation by any lesser being. It's filled with the power of all church verses, theories, sermons, etc, that deny reincarnation, imparting that belief upon the one hit.
  • Worms has a literal Holy Hand Grenade just like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A "HAAAALELUJAH!" choir sounds in the air, and immediately after that, sweet mass destruction is the outcome.
    • As a Shout-Out in Team Fortress 2, those who bought Worms Reloaded before its release get a promotional helmet for the Soldier. Holy Hand Grenades included. Taunting with the Equalizer will result in an "HAAAALELUJAH!" choir playing in the air, and foes too close will be reduced to tiny bits.
  • Sacred: Seraphims' powers are based on this. They even have Holy Hand BFG!
  • This is an actual usable item (with the appropriate and predictable results) in the third installment of The Bard's Tale series.
  • The holy water, white mage and paladin's attacks in Battle for Wesnoth, there was even a “holy” damage type in earlier versions.
  • The game Duke Nukem: Time To Kill features a literal "Holy Hand Grenade" as a weapon similar to the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, found when Duke travels back in time to the middle ages.
  • In Doom II RPG there's the Holy Water Pistol which makes most demons empty their bowels with fear(not literally), and to all Lost Soul variants, it does critical damage.
  • In Dragon Quest IX, the final ability of the Paladin, Solar Flair, is a light type ability that does respectable damage. Even better, the spell doesn't work off of Magical Might (the offensive spell stat), but Magical Mending (the healing spell stat). Since the ability can be given to any class, to any member once unlocked, it is the perfect move to give to the Priest, who has the highest Mending, yet not an offensive ability to speak of, so it's right at home with them.
  • In the Undead Nightmare expansion of Red Dead Redemption, John Marston is given vials of holy water by the Mother Superior of a nunnery in Mexico. They function like Molotov Cocktails that only affect the undead, causing them to be burned by blue flames.
  • The Plasma Grenades in Halo, which the Covenant refer to as "holy flare", "prophet's flare", or "cleansing flame". They're actually more akin to Sticky Bomb than this trope, though, but they're holy as far as the Covenant are concerned.
  • Fate Cards in Septerra Core - magic cards atributted to one of four main gods of Septtera mythology - Marduk, Gemma, Dogo and Kyra and combining specific cards can dwell more into this territory:
    • combining specific cards with summoning card allows you to summon Marduk, Gemma and lesser mythological or legendary figures to attack your enemy or Kyra to heal the target and damage the undead enemies. Dogo's primary card - Joker - gives you random summon.
    • Combining two primal cards of Marduk and Gemma - Law (removes all negative effects from the target) and Chaos (target turns berserk and may attack it's allies) unleashes destructive power upon your enemy. Combining them with Mirror will create black hole.
  • The offensive Miracles in Dark Souls "Wrath of the Gods" and "Emit Force" basically channel your Faith into big explosions. Divine weapons are also the only things that can put down true Undead like skeletons permanently without killing the necromancer animating them first.
  • Mario uses the cross sub-weapon in Super Mario XP and uses it like a boomerang. When Mario uses the item crash, he raises his hands and summons a ton of crosses to attack his foe.

Web Comics

Western Animation

  • The Rainbow of Light from the original My Little Pony cartoon. Megan uses it to obliterate Tirac in the pilot episode.
    • Much the same applies to its direct descendant, the Elements of Harmony in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Although its first use is to dispel dark magic rather than inflict serious harm, its second shot petrifies a being of pure chaos energy. Bastard had it coming, too.
  • The Matrix of Leadership in the various Transformers continuities, especially the first television series.
  • Energybending in Avatar: The Last Airbender, being not only the original and thus purest form of bending, but also implied to be divine in origin, what with having origins in the spiritual world and being used solely by the Avatar. In the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra, Amon claims to have acquired what appears to be the exact same thing from the spirits.
  1. ↑ i.e. more or less literal "holy crap"
  2. ↑ It's from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, click here to see it in action
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