History Main / RoyalRapier

* In ''Manga/SoulHunter'', Cho Komei (who looks like a french nobleman in mannerism and outfit) wields the rapier-like whip Bakuryuusaku (Dragon-Binding Rope) Paopei, which fits his previously mentioned looks and the fact that he considers himself a Duke. On a smaller note, Tou Sengyoku fights with a thin rapier sword when her Paopei is disabled [[spoiler: by Taikobou's new [[AntiMagic Super Paopei Taikyokuzu]]]] during the battle of Bokuya, and she's kinda of nobility.

* Raphael, a WickedCultured and insane vampire aristocrat and his adopted daughter Amy from ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'' wield rapiers with finesse.

* ''Film/CruzDiablo'': Being a swashbuckler it's hardly surprising this is everyone's weapon of choice, aside from a few [[BladeOnAStick pikes]] that don't see action and a couple flintlocks.

* In ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'', the lady-turned-adventurer Noble Fencer's AncestralWeapon is a bejeweled sidesword, an early version of the rapier.

* {{Subverted}} by ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}'', of all people: he uses a Spanish cavalry sword (that, in all fairness, could be mistaken for a rapier, with whom it shares the sidesword as a common ancestor). {{Justified}} as he would fight both unarmoured and armored opponents (a rapier of his time couldn't handle the latter) and both on foot and on horse (a rapier was just ''not'' made to fight on horse, while a cavalry sword, while made mainly for mounted fighters, could work in both situations).

* ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous'': Party member Camellia Gwerm is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy minor nobleman who fights in a poised and elegant manner with a rapier and buckler, when she isn't using shamanic spells.

* Soren from ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'' [[InvertedTrope inverts this trope]]. He is a low-born thief who is RecruitedFromTheGutter to become a [[TheSquire squire]] under the [[TheApprentice apprenticeship]] of [[BlackKnight Sir]] [[MentorArchetype Kyril]]. He later picks the Reiterpallasch, a rapier-gun [[MixAndMatchWeapon hybrid]], as his weapon.

* Karin Koenig from ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' is a German officer of noble blood, and wields Rapiers as her preferred weapon. Her fighting style is based on classical fencing, with Special Moves learned by collecting manuscripts from ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung''.

** When [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Queen Ehlana of Elenia]] starts wearing a sword, she chooses a rapier. Besides being the traditional noble's sword, it fits her personality: elegant, beautiful, quick, skilled at the intricate moves of Elenian politics, and deadly when she chooses to be.

A single-handed sword from Europe designed to use the advantages of thrusting and serve as a fashionable sidearm, the rapier is often depicted in pop culture as belonging to the higher classes, or at least those with some suave demeanor. If a character has one, you can expect that character to be a noble, an elegant knight, or a high-born lady who knows how to fence. Even a common-born character can use a rapier if they have a certain flamboyance or sense of style that distinguishes them from the rabble; charming rogues such as the swashbuckling pirate and TheBard often get this treatment. If this is an ImpoverishedPatrician or FallenPrincess, they might hold onto a rapier as a remnant of the social status the character once enjoyed.

* [[Franchise/TheThreeMusketeers All adaptations]] of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', naturally (including the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1921 1921]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1948 1948]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1953 1953]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1961 1961]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973 1973]], [[Film/DArtagnanAndThreeMusketeers 1978]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 1993]] and [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2011 2011]] and [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2023 2023]] film adaptations, on this wiki). Both the Musketeers ([[PraetorianGuard royal guards]], many of them of noble blood) and the Cardinal's Guard (the high class soldiers of the ChurchMilitant) use them.

* [[Franchse/TheThreeMusketeers All adaptations]] of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', naturally (including the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1921 1921]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1948 1948]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1953 1953]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1961 1961]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973 1973]], [[Film/DArtagnanAndThreeMusketeers 1978]], [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 1993]] and [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2011 2011]] and [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2023 2023]] film adaptations, on this wiki). Both the Musketeers ([[PraetorianGuard royal guards]], many of them of noble blood) and the Cardinal's Guard (the high class soldiers of the ChurchMilitant) use them.

* ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973'', and ''The Four Musketeers'' (1974), and ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'', and really, most adaptations of the novel. Both the Musketeers ([[PraetorianGuard royal guards]], many of them of noble blood) and the Cardinal's Guard (the high class soldiers of the ChurchMilitant) use them.
* In most adaptations, the weapon of choice of {{Franchise/Zorro}} is a Spanish rapier. Zorro's SecretIdentity is ''Don'' Diego de la Vega, back when the title "Don" was still reserved for the nobility as opposed to [[TheMafia crime bosses]].

* In ''Literature/TheTamuli'', [[AuthorityInNameOnly Emperor Sarabian]] begins to use a rapier after the arrival of [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Queen Ehlana]] and the [[ChurchMilitant Church Knights]]. It's a sign that he's beginning to take control of his own country.

If your characters are living in TheCavalierYears, and especially if musketeers are involved, you can definitely expect them to use rapiers. In fact, you'll be lucky if you get to see fictional musketeers use the actual muskets they're named after at all, because HeroesPreferSwords and guns are for cowards. Due both to their pop-culture association with nobility, and their supposedly lighter weight making them easier to wield for those without massive upper-body strength, it's common for the LadyOfWar to use one. In reality, the rapier weighs about the same as other one-handed swords: It has more material in its hilt, and the weight its blade loses by being narrower is partly offset by its length and thickness. [[note]]Broad-tipped swords tend to compensate for the lack of "profile taper" (i.e a progressive reduction in the distance between the two edges) with significant "distal taper", or reduction in the thickness of the cross-section from guard to point. The rapier has a narrow profile, but to keep it stiff for thrusting it has less distal taper.[[/note]] If fictional rapiers are associated with anything negative, it will probably be the craze for dueling that spread like a disease through the upper classes at the same time, as depicted in Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. There's also the fact that many [[ManOfWealthAndTaste cultured villains and antagonists]], such as Tybalt in that play, also use one. In reality, the historical rapier was not really the sword of the upper classes; it was a civilian sidearm associated first with churls, rapscallions, ne'er-do-wells, highwaymen, ruffians, and (gulp!) ''fencers''. Only later, when nobles started to duel and wear swords to court did a thin, light thrusting blade come to be associated with high social status. See Real Life, below.

'''Remember, don't just add an example because someone in a story uses a rapier.''' You have to ''explain'' how its form or the way they use it sheds light on the character's backstory, upbringing, and personality, and makes them look classy or noble. For more information about real rapiers, see UsefulNotes/{{Swords}} and UsefulNotes/EuropeanSwordsmanship. Fictional swords called rapiers might not have all the features of historical rapiers, but any example should at least be single-handed with a straight, symmetrical, and relatively narrow blade; a fancy hilt is optional. This trope also accommodates the early rapier or "side sword,"[[note]]basically a sword with a hilt too developed to be considered a medieval arming sword, but too stout-bladed to be called a rapier,[[/note]] as well as its daintier eventual replacement, the smallsword. For the curved, more militaristic sword the rapier is sometimes confused with, see SuaveSabre.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'': Jeanne d'Arc is depicted as carrying a rapier even though her primary weapon is her flag. The ''Fate'' franchise tends to play up Jeanne as a noble, ladylike figure, despite the fact that the historical Jeanne was a peasant girl, and if anything would have used a common broadsword in battle.
** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' takes this further, with two characters notably equipped with rapiers. [[WholesomeCrossdresser Androgynous]] [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi 18th Century French]] soldier, personal spy in service to [[UsefulNotes/LouisXV King Louis XV]], and diplomat Chevalier d'Eon wields a rapier as their primary weapon in battle, while Mash Kyrielight keeps one on her belt upon gaining her 3rd Ascension befitting her status as a Demi-Servant fusion with [[spoiler:Galahad, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table]]. It's theorized that it may just be a WeaponForIntimidation however, as she has yet to be seeing using it and instead prefers to ShieldBash her enemies.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Jean Pierre Polnareff's Silver Chariot is an armored swordfighter who uses a rapier. Polnareff himself sees himself as a KnightInShiningArmor.

* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'', [[CatFolk Nyanta]], [[CoolOldGuy gentleman cat]] and resident SupremeChef wields dual rapiers and even asserts that "a rapier is a gentleman's weapon".

* {{Subverted}} in ''La Seine no Hoshi'': the titular hero was trained in fencing by a nobleman (and is engaged to his son), but carries a similar-looking but much heavier basket-hilted straight-bladed cavalry sword. She did once fight a nobleman who had one... And [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome broke it]], as rapiers are not suited to block such a heavy sword.

* {{Subverted}} in ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'': Oscar is the daughter of a count, a formidable fencer and the bodyguard of the King and Queen of France, but [[ShownTheirWork carries the standard-issue sword of a French cavalry officer of the era]].

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''

* ''Film/{{Casanova}}'': the title character, a dashing rogue who runs amok in well-heeled society, is flung a fairly fancy fencing foil hidden within a cane.

* ''Literature/TheAsteriskWar'': Julis von Riessfeld is an actual princess (albeit of a constitutional monarchy) and uses a [[LaserBlade Lux]] in the form of a rapier, Aspera Spina.

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has a LaserBlade version of a rapier, called a lightfoil. It was invented by a Sith sect called the Mecrosa Order and adopted by the nobility of the Tapani sector; the latter modified it to be slightly weaker than a more usual lightsaber, but much easier to use for a Muggle.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]'' has the gymnast Kasumi Yoshizawa wielding one as her main melee weapon of choice likely due to her more sophisticated aspects, such as knowing how to dance.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', Prosecutor Barok van Zieks is a well-to-do member of the gentry who wears a smallsword.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]

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%% * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePony'': In the episode "The Prince and the Ponies", the palace guards (who are of uncertain loyalty until the end) carry rapiers, and there's a bit where some of the Little Ponies swordfight with them (using their mouths to hold the rapiers).
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* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Fantasy'' has Sigvald the Magnificent, whose trademark weapon is rapier. He may look like a flimsy pretty boy, but he can slice you to ribbons with it, plus he's the mortal champion of Slaanesh.

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', M'Quve's YMS-15 Gyan uses a beam saber in very rapier-like fashion. Given his aristocratic tendencies and [[WickedCultured cultured]] [[CulturedWarrior behavior]], this makes a lot of sense.

* The [[Manga/TheLegendOfZelda manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' has Ralph, a descendant of the royal family of Labrynna, trying to kill [[BigBad Veran]] with a short rapier. This is a departure from the game, where he used a traditional arming sword instead. Cap'n, the [[CulturedBadass cultured]] undead lover of Queen Ambi, also carries a rapier to contrast the staves and daggers wielded by his men.

* The Prince(ss) class from ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity'' initially uses Rapiers. So do Buccaneers, which combine traits of Musketeers and Pirates.

* The Prince(ss) class from ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III: The Drowned City'' initially uses Rapiers. So do Buccaneers, which combine traits of Musketeers and Pirates.
* In the most recent ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, the rapier became the weapon of choice of TheRedMage job, a class of suave fencers with a pimp hat skilled in both black and white magic. Notably, the [[PublicDomainArtifact Joyeuse]] became a recurring weapon and is always a fencing sword.

* In ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'', the rapier is the weapon of choice for [[TheWisePrince Prince Arutha]]. At the end of the first series, it gets infused with a magic-repelling artifact, which lets it harm demons and other supernatural foes. Arutha's popularity causes rapiers to become much more widely used in the Kingdom during and after his reign.

* Lara Raith from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' uses one as her WeaponofChoice, usually paired with a pistol. As befitting her high status in vampire society, the hilt is encrusted with rubies.

* In ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'', the rapier is the WeaponOfChoice for [[TheWisePrince Prince Arutha]]. At the end of the first series, it gets infused with a magic-repelling artifact, which lets it harm demons and other supernatural foes. Arutha's popularity causes rapiers to become much more widely used in the Kingdom during and after his reign.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Braavos has an indigenous fencing style called water dancing that uses rapiers. True to the weapon's real life history, the city-state is filled with street-fighting bravos. Westeros favors knightly longswords, but Jon Snow has a slender sword made for LittleMissBadass Arya Stark that resembles a rapier. She receives lessons in the water dancing style. Her swordmaster, Syrio Forel, really ''is'' as cultured as his WeaponOfChoice implies (it's unknown if he's of noble blood, however), but the other bravos seen are little more than street thugs in fancy clothing.

** ''VideoGame/Persona3'': Wealthy and cultured heiress [[LadyOfWar Mitsuru Kirijo's]] WeaponOfChoice. [[GratuitousFrench C'est Magnifique]]. Even when she uses other one-handed sword weapons, she uses them ''as'' a rapier, slashing once on her first hit, stabbing multiple times on the second, and then ''[[CombatStilettos kicking the enemy in the face]]'' with the third. In ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'', she throws in a [[PrettyInMink white fur]] [[BadassLongcoat coat]], which goes with the rapier to giver her a total KickingAssInAllHerFinery aspect.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]'' has the gymnast Kasumi Yoshizawa wielding one as her main melee WeaponOfChoice likely due to her more sophisticated aspects, such as knowing how to dance.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': Julis von Riessfeld is an actual princess (albeit of a constitutional monarchy) and uses a [[LaserBlade Lux]] in the form of a rapier, Aspera Spina.

** [[RebelliousPrincess Estelle]] from ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' can wield these as well as {{s|impleStaff}}taves. She also wields a shield, and has the highest defense stat by default among your characters. However, she doesn't have many combat Artes, being a better mage than a fencer (although very capable in expert hands).