History Main / BFS

** 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': Alucard's sword is an interesting case, since despite wielding a sword that's almost as long as he is tall, the blade isn't too thick or wide. Being reasonably thin allows him to pull a OneHandedZweihander even without his SuperStrength.

Compare BigBulkyBomb, {{BFG}} (as mentioned above) and GreatBow. May well be a BiggerStick. May involve {{Hammerspace}} physics for storage, or [[SticksToTheBack some sort of strange magnetism]]. [[BladeAboveTheShoulder Almost always held casually resting on the hero's shoulder]].

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, [[DropTheHammer humongous hammers]] and titanic axes also appear from time to time, most commonly in the hands of TheBigGuy (or, just for the absurdity of it all, [[GlacierWaif a little girl]]).

* Late in Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Optimus Prime recovers the Star Saber, the sword of Prima, the first Prime. Prima and the Thirteen are a good deal larger than Optimus, and the sword is, as a result, slightly longer than Optimus is tall. [[BigBadassRig Optimus is quite literally, the size of a Mack Truck]]. Megatron later crafts his own [[EvilCounterpart Dark Star Saber]] from Dark Energon, using [[DropTheHammer the Forge of Solus Prime]], a big fraggin hammer also built for someone of that stature.

For the computer scientists reading this page, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant this page has nothing to do]] with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadth-first_search breadth-first search]]. Neither does it have anything to do with Music/BTS, as cool as that combination sounds.

For the computer scientists reading this page, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant this page has nothing to do]] with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadth-first_search breadth-first search]].

* BFS/WesternAnimation

* [[BFS/{{Film}} Film - Live-Action]]

* BFS/LiveActionTV

* BFS/{{Webcomics}}

[[folder:Manhua]]
* Lu Xiao from ''Manhua/InfinityGame'' creates a sword out of magic that is at least twenty feet tall. She weilds it one-handed.
* Ryu Hanbin from ''Webcomic/SurvivalStoryofaSwordKinginaFantasyWorld'' has a sword fashioned in the same vein as the Buster Sword or the Dragon Slayer as his main weapon, being fashioned out of the bones of the various gigantic monsters that have besieged him as he's TrappedInAnotherWorld. Because these creatures are designed to match Hanbin's combat prows, regardless of how strong he gets, this means that, when he's finally released from his prison and transported to another fantasy world, said sword is the only weapon he can actually use, as his time spent trapped in what is basically an EarlyGameHell for ''years'' has nearly turned him into the WorldsStrongestMan in his new environment. [[spoiler: The sword does eventually break, but only from Hanbin facing a challenging enough fight that he ends up subconsciously unlocking his [[BattleAura Aura]], which proves too powerful for the inexperienced Hanbin to utilise, ravaging his body and his weapon with his own strength. Hanbin is eventually able to reforge the blade into one made from the wood of the WorldTree, which can absorb his Aura and render it usable for him.]]

[[folder:Manhwa]]
* Percer from ''Literature/{{Id}}'' has an absurdly large sword that he manages to use single handed.
* Batu and Yuda from ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'' both employ these.
* Sando's sword from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi'' is bigger than she is.
* Khun Edahn of ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' has a big fuckin lance, yeah not is a sword but It is so big that it can go through the floors of the tower, although this has only been said by SIU on their blog we have not seen it yet, for a more traditional example, the white sword is quite large and is more noticeable in the hands of its smaller clones, also some random mooks have carried some.

* [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} 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 [[SpellMyNameWithAnS variants]]) remains a common name among some groups of Shia (particularly the Ismailis of Pakistan, who produced the Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto).

* WebVideo/{{Smosh}} deconstructs this in their ''[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome If It Were Real]]'' series, where [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud's Buster Sword]] is shown to be too heavy to use.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Large, two-handed swords have been made and used in a wide variety of cultures throughout history. Some are made purely for ceremonial purposes and are impractical to use, while others are quite serviceable in the type of warfare they were created to be used in.

* Khun Edahn of ''Manhwa/TowerofGod'' has a big fuckin lance, yeah not is a sword but It is so big that it can go through the floors of the tower, although this has only been said by SIU on their blog we have not seen it yet, for a more traditional example, the white sword is quite large and is more noticeable in the hands of its smaller clones, also some random mooks have carried some.

This trope includes any type of improbably large ("anime-sized") melee weapon. After the aforementioned big-ass sword, gigantic [[BladeOnAStick lances]] tend to be the most common. However, [[DropTheHammer humongous hammers]] and titanic axes also appear from time to time, most commonly in the hands of TheBigGuy (or, just for the absurdity of it all, [[GlacierWaif 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 [[http://www.thearma.org/essays/weights.htm 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, such was the German Zweihänder, which were used for "fencing" with (batting aside or cutting) ''[[BladeOnAStick polearms]]'' or [[RadialAsskicking keeping multiple opponents at bay]] were [[http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html much lighter]] (relatively speaking) than we are led to believe by most fictional portrayals.

* Pepin the Short's sword was about 1.83m (little over 6 feet) long. The most remarkable thing is that Pepin himself was 1.37m (under 4 feet and half) tall.

* The ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōdachi ōdachi]]'' or "great sword" (also known as a ''nodachi'' or "field sword") is most easily described as a larger version of the ''katana'' or ''tachi'', and was intended to be used by foot soldiers against cavalry. Typical examples were over five feet long, [[http://www.freewebs.com/toufuushogunate/Nodachi.jpg which is longer than the typical Japanese man is tall]]. Some of them were truly humongous in size, but actually weren't meant to be used in combat, rather to show the skill of the swordsmith and to be offered to shrines or as gifts. With the slow expansion of the many variants of the Yari polearm, the nodachi gradually saw less use in infantry and cavalry. There are also styles of using the ''nodachi'' in a very aggressive manner to defeat polearms, by essentially advancing toward a foe with polearm and using multiple rapid downward cuts to batter the enemy weapon down and cut the head and shoulders with the sheer weight and momentum of the blade, or as a weapon from horseback as with the tachi. Most nodachi were commonly used before the Edo period, as later regulation forbade the use of swords beyond a certain size (forcing several blacksmiths to clip and shorten many swords), which is believed to have caused the loss of several of these blades. Famous nodachi include the Bizen Osafune Nagamitsu/Laundry Pole belonging to Kojiro Sasaki and the Ichimonji sword gifted to Uesugi Kenshin (a folk tale states that he wanted to shorten the sword to a uchigatana size, but he dreamt of a beautiful woman begging him not to do so and he complied).
* Derived from the nodachi, there's the ''nagamaki'': started off as a nodachi with an extra wrapping around the lower half of the blade for better leverage, it gradually evolved in a proper weapon, halfway between a sword and a polearm. While the usage of nodachi has been contested, the Nagamaki (with its longer handle and better leverage) was apparently widespread enough to generate the idiom "Yari ga tsukaenai nara, nagamaki wo tsukae" (If you can't use a spear, use a nagamaki). It was said to be a favourite battlefield weapon of UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga himself.
* Similar to the nodachi, the Chinese blade known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhanmadao zhanmadao]] (horse-cutting sword), reputedly used as an anti-cavalry weapon by Chinese infantry. Most famous for his Japanese name, ''Zanbatou'',although unlike the nodachi, it never had historical use (as Zanbatou is merely the translation of the term zhanmadao rather than a weapon of his own).
* [[http://japantrip.tripod.com/nodachi/norimitsu.html This]] mind-bogglingly enormous ''ōdachi'' is ''377 cm (over 12 feet) long'', and is the largest sword of its type known to exist in Japan. However, it was made not for use in battle, but to test a particular forging technique. Other examples, though none of quite that magnitude, can be found on the linked site.

[[caption-width-right:350:You know what they say about [[CompensatingForSomething guys with big swords...]][[note]][[ComicallyMissingThePoint They have big sheaths, too!]][[/note]]]]