Energy Bow

Sometimes, archers in fantasy settings come across these peculiar weapons: Energy Bows, bows and crossbows without the pesky need for arrows.

Though these weapons may impart some magical advantage such as Bottomless Magazines (in the context of being able to shoot continuously with no reloading), they will still need to be operated in the same fashion as a mundane bow would, including nocking. This is despite the fact that they may lack critical parts of a mundane bow (like the string) and their projectiles may not be subject to forces like gravity or wind, making it more awkward for a trained archer to operate.

An Energy Bow comes in two main flavors:

One is a solid bow that does not fire mundane arrows, but some sort of energy-based beam or projectile instead. These kind of energy bows are more common, and may or may not double as melee weapons.

Two, the bow itself is made of energy: Hard Light is common, but there are also cases of bows made of fire and other usually-formless materials. They may or may not shoot arrows made from the same material as the bow.

Sometimes Energy Bows pop up in Sentai shows as the weapon of the Action Girl or Lady of War, and may be related to Ki Manipulation. In other settings, it's a natural weapon of choice for the Magical Native American.

May overlap with Abnormal Ammo, Spontaneous Weapon Creation, Sacred Bow and Arrows, and with Invisible Bowstring.

Subtrope of Energy Weapon — see also Pure Energy, Flaming Sword, Laser Blade, and Sword Beam.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Belldandy's angel, Holy Bell, in Ah! My Goddess, makes hers from Wind energy.
• Bleach: Quincies are a clan of human magic users who can manifest bows and arrows made from spiritual energy. Some use Hard Light bows (Uryuu's initial preference) and others use bows of such concentrated energy that they appear completely solid (his father Ryuuken's preference). Quincies traditionally prefer bows to distinguish themselves from the sword-wielding Shinigami, but they do have the ability to create a wide range of Energy Weapons that defy the expectations of reality: for example, Quincies that prefer swords can still fire arrows from the blades, and Ryuuken is capable of using his bow one-handed.
• Both Perseus and Liliana use one in Campione!.
• Yue from Cardcaptor Sakura has one of these. Unfortunately, it only appears once.
• Digimon:
  • Angewomon from Digimon Adventure, although the 'bow' is actually her arm, which is frankly rather odd looking and by all rights should break something. Then again, we are talking about a celestial being made entirely of computer code who spends most of her time in the form of a bipedal cat, so logic and the laws of physics can probably be safely ignored.
  • SkullKnightmon from Digimon Adventure: (2020) is able to freely summon one of these to replace her lances, becoming SkullKnightmon: Arrow Mode. Both the string and the arrows are made of some kind of dark energy. She is also able to use the bow after evolving to DarkKnightmon, though the string is now made of red light and the arrows have a dull red glow at the center. It may or may not be an Evil Counterpart to Angewomon's bow.
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Popp's final Finishing Move, Medroa, is performed by casting high-level fire magic in one hand and ice magic in the other, then forcing his hands together to create a shaft of crackling light. By pulling back one hand as if drawing a bow, he can then generate and fire a ludicrously powerful "arrow" capable of disintegrating entire mountains in a single shot. Unfortunately, the villains quickly realise that Dai's Lancer has become powerful enough to One-Hit Kill them, and begin preparing reflection magic and other counters to prevent him from using Medroa freely.
• Signum's most powerful attack in the Lyrical Nanoha series is Sturmfalke, an energy projectile launched from her Device Laevatein when it assumes its rare bow form. This attack is a Shout-Out to Phantom Phoenix (see the Super Robot Wars example below), just as Signum herself is an Expy of Lamia Loveless.
• In the anime adaptation of Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Iroha's weapon is a wrist-mounted crossbow that fires energy bolts from its arrowhead. Early on, she's shown to be able to fire both single shots and Spam Attacks from it.
• One briefly appears in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, used by the Rising Gundam along with, curiously, a solid-bladed naginata.
• In Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, this is Madoka's weapon if she becomes a Magical Girl - and in every previous timeline where she did. In the "final" timeline, Homura trades in her guns for a bow of her own.
• In Naruto, this is the main weapon of Sasuke's Susano, firing huge purple arrows of semi-solid chakra. Once he upgrades to the Eternal Mangekyo, he gains the ability to shoot arrows made of Amaterasu fire.
• RahXephon: The titular mecha has this technique. The bow itself is made of white energy while the arrow is blood red and capable of firing into orbit. The first time it's used this way, it's a visual Shout-Out to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Rafinha of Reborn to Master the Blade uses this as her Weapon Specialization. As a Light Artifact, only the grip and the limbs are physical, she creates and fires arrows of light without the need for a bowstring.
• Record of Ragnarok: Apollo's Great Bow fires arrows of light.
• Sailor Moon: Sailor Mars's Flame Sniper shoots some sort of red/orange energy. The bow itself appears during the casting of the spell and is made of fire.
• Slayers:
  • The Magical Gesture for casting the Flare Arrow spell is to pantomime drawing a bow and arrow, which manifests a bow made of fire before launching.
  • In TRY, one of the Dark Star weapons was a bow, compared to the other four which are magical Laser Blades of some kind. The bow is also the most powerful of the five.
• Gowther in The Seven Deadly Sins gets two of these in the form of his Sacred Treasure, the Double Bow Harritt. Both of Harritt's component bows fall under type 2 of this trope, and are suitably versatile, to the point where he can execute his signature technique by crossing them over each other.
• Siestas from Umineko: When They Cry had bows, that fired golden threads, that pierce and destroy everything with unimaginable precision.
• Suzaku from YuYu Hakusho, and his Prism Storm of Torment/Dark Lightning Shockwave technique, which shoots seven arrows composed of lightning. A single arrow causes the entire body to course with electricity, making it fatal to normal humans.

Comic Books

• Justice League of America: Minor superheroine and member of the Justice League Europe Maya wields a Type 2.
• Young Avengers: In the second main volume, Kate Bishop picks up a "Kree composite soul bow" from Marvel Boy. He considers it outdated, she thinks it's "vintage."

Fanfiction

• In the Alternate Tail Series, Levy uses the spell Bogha to coat her arm with runes make it into a makeshift bow, which she can fire her Solid Script spells at greater speed.
• Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness has this in the Artimus Arrow spell, which Astreal Ezrana learns in Act VI. It's also a cause of Awesome, but Impractical: the arrow is powerful enough to one-shot a Nigh-Invulnerable rylo demon, but draws so much power from the magical ether that, according to Yukari and Ruby, if they even tried to hold it, the power behind it would cause their bodies to explode.
• In Son of the Sannin, Tenten develops a chakra bow that doesn't need physical ammo, and can even be charged with different releases to create elemental arrows.

Films — Animation

• NIMONA (2023): Befitting the "medieval sci fi" aesthetic, the guards are armed with energy crossbows that shoot glowing mechanical bolts.

Films — Live-Action

• Demon of the Lute: The sole weakness of the titular demon is an ancient bow capable of generating energy arrows from chi, but it can be used only three times. Tellingly, in the final battle, the hero managed to take down the demon with its third arrow.
• In Immortals, the Epirus Bow is this. It creates infinite magical arrows anytime the string is pulled back, and can decimate both men and rocky walls. Both the hero and the villain for some reason only use the bow a few times each, despite its obvious potential for destruction.
• Star Wars:
  • Chewbacca's preferred gun is a laser crossbow. EU and other sources call the weapon "Wookiee bowcasters". According to the manual, the energy blasts have a solid metal core to increase kinetic energy, and enable ricochet, scattershot, and poison ammo, while still having the energy damage of a blaster. Essentially a railgun with a plasma sheath.
    • In The Force Awakens Chewie's bowcaster is shown to have a lot of force behind it; when Han uses it, he is surprised to see the thug he shot go flying back.
      Han: I like this thing.
  • In Rogue One, Chirrut Imwe uses a laser-longbow that can be cunningly disguised as a bo staff. He can take down fighter craft with it. Did we mention Chirrut is blind?
  • The Rise of Skywalker: Jannah's preferred weapon is a type one.
• Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman! grants Ultraman X a new weapon, the Beta Spark sword (a Bifurcated Weapon made by combining Ultraman's Beta Capsule and Ultraman Tiga's Spark Lens. It can also be converted into a powerful energy projectile called the Beta Spark Arrow, which ultimately took down the powerful monster Zaigorg.

Literature

• Lampooned in this 2018 entry (by Steve Lauducci, Bethlehem, PA) for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
  Captain Calamari loosed a plasma bolt from his crossbow, but the charging cyborg knight hefted his magna-shield and deflected the sizzling violet flare into the dust, forcing the square-jawed hero to coolly reload his cumbersome, anachronistic weapon and wonder as he did why he couldn't have a blaster pistol like Han Solo instead of being stuck in this weird hybrid cyber-medieval universe.
• Cradle Series: Most archers have something like this. In fact, the only time we see bows with wooden arrows is in Sacred Valley, which is infamously backward. Mercy in particular is known for weaving techniques together, making an arrow that will poison someone's body, destroy their mind, and pin them to the floor all at the same time. That being said, because Sword Beams are a basic technique, swords are actually a ranged weapon in this world. Therefore, bows are a bit rare and considered overspecialized; swords can be used for both melee and ranged combat, while bows can only be used at range.
• Discworld: In The Light Fantastic, an energy bow is used to fire a magical arrow to track Rincewind's exact whereabouts on the Disc. The arrow, a concentrated spell, will also kill him, but to the wizard Spelter, locating him alive is not necessary.

Live-Action TV

• Whenever a Rider in Kamen Rider uses a bow-like weapon, there is a high chance it fires laserbeams instead of physical arrows.
  • Kamen Rider Kuuga is the first to introduce this trope to the franchise. The titular Rider is able to transform regular guns into a crossbow that fires energy blasts.
  • The Riders who use a Genesis Driver in Kamen Rider Gaim use the Sonic Arrow as their primary weapon: a bow that uses a spring-loaded lever in place of an actual arrow, and fires energy arrows. It also has blades on the limbs of the bow, allowing it to be used as a melee weapon.
• Deirdre from The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg had a crossbow that fired bolts of air (but the special effects made it resemble an energy weapon of some sort).
• Power Rangers:
  • The Pink Ranger's Power Bow sometimes fired arrows charged with pink energy in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • In Power Rangers Zeo Princess Archerina of the Machine Empire (by marriage) fired energy arrows out of her Sword.
  • In Power Rangers in Space, Psycho Pink shot energy arrows. They'd become physical arrows (with the same punch) during Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.

Manhwa

• Iris from PHD: Phantasy Degree can materialize bows and arrows from pure magic. It is said that all elves can imbue magic into their archery, although Iris is one of the most talented of them all.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has a lot of these:
  • Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia:
    • Native American Mythology (Hastsezini the fire god has a bow that shoots a shaft of fire; Heng the thunder spirit has a bow that shoots lightning bolts for 30 miles)
    • Hindu Mythology (Indra has Vajra, a bow made of rainbows that shoots lightning bolts)
  • Gods, Demi-gods and Heroes
    • Norse Mythology (Valis has a shortbow that can fire arrows of lightning)
  • Legends and Lore
    • Hindu Mythology (Brihaspathi's bow fires arrows of brilliant light that blind the target)
  • ''The Horde Campaign Set has the Iron Bow of Gesen, which can fire a lightning bolt three times per day.
  • Dragon #127 has the Phantom Bow, which can fire "shimmering arrows" that vanish if they miss.
  • Edition 3.5:
    • The Brilliant Energy weapon enhancement causes a weapon to pass through non-living matter harmlessly (usually allowing it to ignore armor), and can be applied to arrows and other munitions.
    • On article on the WotC Dungeons & Dragons site presented weapons from the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) cartoon including Hank's energy-stringed bow "Heatseeker" (under the name "Hank's Energy Bow"). It's often regarded as the best ranged weapon ever printed for the system, as not only does it deal untyped damage which bypasses all forms of Damage Reduction and energy resistance, it grants the wielder a ranged version of the Power Attack feat,^note Allows the user to reduce their attack accuracy by an amount of their choice, and receive a proportional bonus to damage giving archers a significant damage boost that's normally exclusive to melee characters.
    • The "Force" enhancement from Magic Item Compendium causes any ranged weapon requiring ammo to deal force damage rather than the normal physical damage done by the weapon.
    • The 3.5e Soulknife class has a Prestige Class that changes its mind blade to a mind bow, in accordance with the second version of this trope. Its arrows deal additional damage based on the user's Wisdom score, which can dovetail easily with the Zen Archery feat^note Use Wisdom in place of Dexterity to determine ranged attack accuracy (and possibly classes like Monk or Shiba Protector) to create a character whose fighting style is based solely around Wisdom. At higher levels they can also shoot an arrow that phases through nonmagical barriers, and shoot the bow in melee without opening themselves to attack. It's often regarded as a stealth upgrade or fix to the base Soulknife, which unfortunately trades a lot of its combat ability for a weapon that's frequently weaker than what other characters are using.
    • The fan-made "Phantom" enchantment is essentially the magic equivalent of this, alowing a bow to fire pink energy arrows (even without a string) and letting crossbows and firearms to work without ammunition, shooting blue energy instead and only requiring you to recycle the firing mechanism.
• The Solar Exalted have Charms that allow them to shape arrows, and eventually bows, out of Essence.
• A Pyramid article about ultra-tech arrows for GURPS includes a "force arrow" made on the same principle as the force swords. The emitter (equivalent to a force sword hilt) is a stubby metal cylinder with fletching and a nock. The activation button is in the nock, meaning the arrow appears automatically when you draw back the bow.
• Magic: The Gathering: Ravnica's Silhana Starfletcher is one of the first varieties.
• The Maiden Guard in the 8th edition of Warhammer have glowing bows that fire more powerful arrows than normal bows.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Kongu Inika's Laser Crossbow.

Video Games

• Grey and Khita in Atlas Reactor, both characters on The Straight and Arrow Path in a futuristic sci-fi setting, have bow-like weapons that shoot bolts of energy. Grey has a solid pistol crossbow that shoots bolt-shaped blasts of energy, while Khita has a longbow that can shoot both bolts of energy and what seems to be solid arrows (albeit ones that ignore gravity).
• In Awesomenauts, Cowboy Cop Rocco wields an ACOG Blackout G-Mag Laserbow. It doesn't really fire like a bow (despite being longbow-shaped, it's semi-automatic and held in one hand), but the bullets fly like arrows.
• The Short Bow of Gesen in Baldur's Gate II shoots small lightning bolts and doesn't need any ammo.
• In Bayonetta 2 there's the Kafka weapon, a large bow crafted from the body of a demonic dragonfly that has a endless supply of venomous spears or even infernal insects that it can fire.
• Both types are used for bow Legends in Brawlhalla, though many fall under type 1. One of the only type 2 Energy Bows in the game belongs to Koji in his Shin Sekai appearance. The widely-used type 1 bow model is what allows the Legends to wield their bows as melee weapons, in turn enabling them to execute the bow's trademark ridiculously long combos without clashing with logic. Why Shin Sekai Koji can execute them as well as anyone else, however, is likely the work of another trope altogether.
• Rising Sun Archer Maidens in Uprising, the expansion to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, seem to use energy bows of some sort. They're physical bows, but they glow at the ends and the arrows they shoot glow too and are effective against tanks.
• In Dark Souls II the Bow of Want crafted from Nashandra's soul has a special attack that fires lightning without using any arrows.
• Dark Souls III has the Miracle Lightning Arrow, introduced in the Ringed City DLC. Using it creates a bow out of light that fires lightning bolts.
• Hunters who unlock their third, void-based class in Destiny get to fire bolts of void energy from a bow formed of void light.
• Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening gives Dante a a demon laser crossbow/gun called the Artemis. It's really useful when equipped with Gunslinger style. One can target multiple enemies at once, can be fired into the air, resulting in a rain of bolts on enemies, a huge charge with extra damage. Also, there are enemies called Enigma, demon statues with multiple limbs that can cast energy bows to attack.
• The Amazon's Magic Arrow skill in Diablo II fires a bolt of mana that replaces the need for arrow quivers and does extra damage. A few unique bows have the special property "Fires level X Magic Arrow", meaning they shoot Magic Arrows as the basic attack and can be used with Strafe or Multishot.
• Magic bows in Dragon's Dogma are an example of the solid type. They're nifty weapons that at first look like an elaborate set of stringless limbs. When 'nocked' however, they form a bolt of magical energy that can lock onto, and home in on targets.
• The attack, Shining Shot, from Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest IX is a powerful bow technique that fires a burst of light arrows at enemies.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, there's the adept level spell "Bound Bow", which summons a nifty looking purple flame Daedric bow, and 100 Daedric arrows for 120 seconds.
• Serah's Bowsword in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a variation of the concept. The arrows fired by the bow are actual physical, and oddly crystalline, arrows, but they don't actually exist until after Serah has loosed one.
• Takumi, one of the main character's siblings and an archer from Fire Emblem Fates, wields the Fujin Yumi, which has a bowstring made of wind magic (hence the name), and fires arrows made of the same.
  • When he gets possessed by Anankos and becomes the Final Boss of the game's Conquest route, his weapon is replaced by Skadi which has a bowstring of darkness and fires arrows made of darkness.
• Glimmer In Mirror has the Chiling Light spell, summoning a bow made of light right above you and fires an arrow made of light as well. However this spell can only attack enemies directly above (and do nothing else).
• In God of War II, Kratos gets Typhon's Bane, a bow that shoots gusts of wind instead of arrows. In III this is replaced with the very similar Bow of Apollo, that shoots arrows of fire instead. Bow of Apollo looks like any other bow, whereas all the parts of Typhon's Bane except the grip are made of a sort of gas-like substance.
• Several of the summons in Golden Sun attack enemies with these.
• The Ethereal Crossbow from Heretic fires crossbow bolts of green magical energy in a burst, being the equivalent of Doom's shotgun in that game.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Aqua's Keyblade Glider is also a giant bow that fires energy arrows. As cool as her bow is, it's only able to be used in two areas of the game.
  • Birth by Sleep also features Braig wielding "arrowguns" that are crossbow shaped and fires energy bolts.
  • In Kingdom Hearts III, the stylechange for the Shooting Star Keyblade gives Sora his own crossbow shaped arrowguns that fire magical energy arrows.
  • Kingdom Hearts III also gives Xigbar a special move where he combines his arrowguns into an energy bow.
• Ezreal in League of Legends fires blasts of light from a bow which emerges from a gauntlet on his left hand. Usually the bow is small and only seen for a fraction of a second, but when he channels to summon his ultimate attack, the thing is enormous.
• The Talon Engineer in Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer uses this as his main weapon, known as the Omni-Bow. It can fire five arrows at once, either in a fanning formation, or in a straight line that homes in on enemies. Not only that, but he can also fire Concussion Arrows, which blows enemies off their feet, or Armor-Piercing Arrows, which do massive damage against protected enemies.
• Might and Magic VI and VII, at least, have artifact bows that do this. The bow itself is perfectly real and substantial, but the missiles are ice or lightning spontaneously generated when the (unloaded) bow is fired. Additionally, a bow with the "Of Carnage" enchantment inflicts no extra damage, but the missile explodes on impact with a small but useful blast radius (which confusingly does not count as magic damage for those creatures immune to normal weapons).
• Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat can conjure a glowing green bow to fire arrows of spirit energy.
• Clerics from Perfect World have Plume Shot as their starting attack skill, which looks like a bow and arrow made out of purplish-white energy, and deals physical damage while using the magic attack stat.
• Some of the attacks of Emilio in the game Psychic Force have him fire arrows of light.
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps gives Ori new weapons, including an energy bow that can be upgraded to fire several projectiles at once.
• After his first trip to the afterlife, Tommy in Prey (2006) can summon a spirit bow. During the resurrection sequences after death, you even use the bow to shoot flying creatures to determine how much health and mana you spawn with.
• The Crystal bow in RuneScape, made out of elven crystal, has well over two thousand inherent charges, each of which creates one glowing green energy arrow. It's not a truly popular weapon, though, as it degrades over time, and turns into a small piece of crystal once its charges are depleted. The recharge itself is fairly expensive as well, starting at one million ingame coins at first, though it comes down to a fifth of the original as the bow attunes itself to you.
  • Another, and more reliable in stats, is the Zaryte Bow, which is energy arrow type. At a cost of around 20 million coins and expensive repairs here and there, this bow rivals that of some of the stronger crossbows, and packs quite a punch.
  • Yet another, even stronger Energy bow, is the Seren Godbow, which is currently the strongest weapon in the game. To obtain it, you have to either cough up billions of coins, or fight Telos, an SNK Boss with some of the toughest mechanics in the game, until you get the unpowered bow and three untradeable orbs required to power it up.
• Shattered Pixel Dungeon provides the Huntress class with one of these, replacing the boomerang from the base game
• Super Robot Wars has a few, including:
  • Super Robot Wars Advance: The Angelg is armed with a bow from which it can fire rapid energy arrows as part of its "Illusion Arrow" attack, or a huge fiery bird for its Finishing Move "Phantom Phoenix".
  • Super Robot Wars Judgment: The Bellzelute's Finishing Move "Orgone Rifle A" (Absolute) docks its pistols to the top and bottom of its Orgone Rifle in a crossbow-like formation, the core of which then splits into a Wave-Motion Tuning Fork and generates a massive arrow of crystallised Orgone as the Bellzelute draws it back.
• Pit's bow in the Super Smash Bros. series. This extends to Dark Pit as well.
  • Plus all of the bow-type weapons he can use in Kid Icarus: Uprising; though this is a more borderline example given that these bows don't need to be nocked.
• The archer class in fantasy MMORPG TERA has a bow with a magical string that generates all kinds of arrows for the player to fire, without the need for a quiver.
• The Pulse Bow in Terraria changes any arrows it uses into energy bolts that can ricochet and pierce through enemies.
• Valkyrie Profile:
  • Lenneth's bow attacks are composed of some kind of energy, setting her apart from the other archers in the game. Likewise when she appears in Radiata Stories.
  • Most of the Archer attacks in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria manifest in this way. Incidentally, archers in this game were considered very powerful.
• Completing the campaign for "The New War" of Warframe, Warframes get access to the Sentient-made bow Nataruk, which is a type-1 variant of this trope: an organic solid bow with an energized string and arrows. It's a little faster than most other bows you'll be using, in that tapping the fire button will allow you to fire a single arrow quickly. Holding the fire button allows you to play a little minigame with the reticle, as the last third of the reticle will mark a sweet spot you have to release just in time before the full charge to do extra damage... you can still fire an arrow at full charge for extra damage and infinite punch-through on bodies, but you'll definitely want to aim for the 'perfect shot' for that extra crit chance^note full charge grants a 50% crit chance with a 2.2x crit multiplier, but a perfect shot grants a 60% chance for a 2.4x multiplier.
• The Legendary Bow Thori'dal: The Stars Fury from the Sunwell in World of Warcraft generates magical arrows when the bowstring is drawn. It was more impressive back when you needed ammo to fire a ranged weapon, but the bow still has a unique firing animation.
  • Chronologically appearing before Thori'dal, the artifact "Thas'dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners" still uses physical ammunition (and has its own quiver), but is capable via certain traits of firing coalesced wind arrows.

Webcomics

• In Mystery Babylon, one of the ancient artifacts of power in Kick Girl's collection is Cupid's Bow, which fires arrows of energy that cause large explosions. Though initially wary of letting her companions touch anything so dangerous, she eventually gives it to Delilah.
• Wayward Sons: Ipalyo's custom weapon. Stored in Hammerspace, and uses his Force Field powers to form arrows.

Web Original

• Dreamscape:
  • Keedran, in her true form, can fire an arrow of light.
  • Kaila can fire arrows of darkness from her pitchfork.
• SCP-154 is a pair of bracelets that creates one of these. the arrows however are the bones of the arm.
• A variant of this trope appears in Xionic Madness 4, where Xero unlocks a new weapon called the "Light Arrow". A double-bladed single-edged sword, which true to it's name is also a bow that fires energy arrows, thus the blade's edges both face in the same direction and the blades even bend like an actual bow when Xero fires an arrow.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: Omniverse: This is one of the many functions of Rook's Proto-Tool. Both the drawstring and the arrows are made of energy.
• Dungeons & Dragons (1983): Hank the Ranger's weapon "Heatseeker" was an energy bow.
• Futurama: The Native Martians use bows with energy arrows.
• Hercules: The Animated Series: The Armageddon Bow, commissioned by Ares and forged by Hephaestus. It was an unstrung bow with a face, but pulling back the "string" allowed it to fire energy arrows that hit with the force of lightning (or rather a little less to keep Zeus happy). Hephaestus, annoyed at Ares, made the thing a Talking Weapon which couldn't stop lamenting it's existence as an instrument of war. At the end of the episode, the bow winds up in Cupid's hands and is quite happy to now be used to bring people together rather than blow them apart.
• The Legend of Zelda (1989): Zelda has a physical bow, but her arrows are made of energy.
• MP4orce: Thrash wields an energy bow in his digital form.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Energy bows are the Nightsisters' weapon of choice, explained as having plasma based arrows and a plasma bowstring with a grip at the center, since the string is deadly on its own.
• Steven Universe: Opal is a Gem fusion that fuses the weapons of the two Gems she's made of, Amethyst and Pearl, into an enormous bow which shoots magic arrows.
• Transformers: Animated: Rodimus Prime uses a bow. The string and the two arrows it fires at once are made of orange energy. Mostly, this homages/parodies Hawkeye, whom Rodimus has always resembled; this version's resemblance to him is greatly increased and he carries the same signature weapon.
• Voltron Force: Allura's Voltcom weapon. The Blue Center Voltron formed by her lion gets the Titanic Trident, with freezing powers instead.
• Wakfu: Evangelyne, as well as other Cra people, have bows that can shoot energy arrows which cause a variety of magical effects.
• Winx Club: Sky wields one on Eraklyon when he's brainwashed by Diaspro.

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