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Soul Edge has keen eyesight.

Huntress: I take it that something went terribly wrong at that project—?
Dark Claw: Actually, the program was a resounding success. It produced exactly what it set out to produce: a remorseless killing machine devoid of all human compassion. A perfect weapon. They forgot one important thing about weapons. They are usually inert objects that can't get off the table and do harm by themselves. Their mistake was in creating a weapon with an imagination.

This is the use of a living creature as a weapon. This is usually simply a form of Organic Technology; an otherwise normal, user controlled weapon which happens to be a living thing. To qualify, 1) it must be alive when it is usednote  and 2) it must be separate from the user.note 

This also has a few subtypes, examples of which go on their own pages;

Especially for the Human Weapon variant, they may turn out to be sympathetic.

Compare: Empathic Weapon, where the weapon has some sort of mind of its own but isn't necessarily "alive"; Improbable Weapon User, who could use one of these; Evolving Weapon, which can be justified by this; Living Ship for when the weapon is a ship; and Loyal Phlebotinum. See Natural Weapon for weapons which are part of the user but not independently living things.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Arachnid, Alice Fujii owns a Razor Floss weapon called Kumoito that's a mentally controlled dagger-pistol with a near endless amount of spider silk. It can backfire if not tamed and is later established to be alive and able to synchronize with the senses of its wielder, but this is given no actual context and the weapon's connection to the spider-shaped Kumoito shown in Jackals is left unknown.
  • Black Cat. Creed's Imagine Blade is one in its Level 2 or higher state. If the face and the fact it occasionally cackles aren't enough of a clue, Creed explicitly says it's alive and has a mental connection with him, to the point that breaking the Imagine Blade would break his mind.
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, the sword Laios takes from the living armor still has a living parasite in it, and it reacts to potentially dangerous monsters. This is both useful since it lets Laios get a heads up to an incoming threat but can also be a problem if the sword is too scared of a powerful enemy. He names it Kensuke.
  • Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Z is a nearly mindless Pure Magic Being created by the alien wizard Bibidi for the purpose of universal conquest. Since Buu is essentially destruction incarnate, even Bibidi can't control him. Bibidi treats Buu like a bomb: he'll drop Buu on a world, unseal him and let him wreck havoc for a while, then promptly seal him again. Buu mellows out (relatively speaking) after absorbing a few Grand Kais and taking on some of their traits. He is still a dangerous monster, but he isn't focused on destroying things all the time after that.
  • In Fairy Tail, Franmalth, one of the Nine Gates of Tartaros, boasts that the Nine Gates are biological weapons that Zeref created to be able to take on entire armies by themselves. They are wholly devoted to their creator Zeref and do their best to fulfill his wishes... despite never having even met him. Turns out, they are Living Weapons meant to kill him. The whole "devoted" bit was literally wired into their creation so they would seek him out. Only Mard Geer is aware of this truth. This also includes Natsu himself, since no one but Zeref and a few others like Igneel know he's actually the most powerful demon Zeref ever made to fulfill this purpose, E.N.D., made right out of Zeref's deceased little brother's corpse.
  • An Amanto (alien) couple in the forms of a katana and a scabbard, from Gintama. The katana wants to get back his wife and he keeps sticking in Gintoki's ass until he agrees to help him.
  • Senketsu and Junketsu from Kill la Kill, and to an extension all Goku Uniforms. While Junketsu never does more than growl and snarl in a mad rage, Senketsu is completely sentient, and is not only able to speak (though only Ryuko can hear him), but also move on his own.
  • In Katanagatari, practitioners of Kyotouryuu like Shichika have it indoctrinated into them from an early age that they are swords, not swordsmen. They aren't supposed to think for themselves and should only attack what their "wielders" want them to attack. A big part of Shichika's Character Development throughout the series has him realizing that he is more than a sword.
  • Kyo Kara Maoh! has Morgif, the legendary demon sword with a personality. He seems to be neigh immortal, and can talk in theory although nothing he says is ever intelligible.
  • The Protoculture of Macross seemed fond of this sort of weapon. The most obvious example is their Servant Race, the Zentraedi, created so that the Protoculture would have super-soldiers to order around. There's also the Evil Series (which became the Protodeviln), each of which was a living superweapon with sufficient power to rend a planet in half. There's also that bird-human thing they left sleeping on Earth.
  • ÄRMs from MÄR and its spin-off MÄR Omega can be merely magical weapons, but also sentient, humanoid or beast-like. The most notable of them is one of the two main characters, Babbo. This sassy toy with a metal head and proper gentleman's facial hair can transform into multiple different forms accordingly to his owner Ginta's imagination, including a bubble gun (yes, a gun that shoots bubbles), a cunning cat who has ÄRM of his own, a sexy maiden, and one bad mofo boss monster.
  • Naruto:
    • The Samehada (lit; Sharkskin). A living and sentient sword seemingly made from super hard sharkflesh that forms a symbiotic relationship with its wielder and has the ability to eat its opponents flesh and/or energy.
    • The Ten-tailed Beast. Unlike the Beasts that followed it, it lacked sentience. The God Tree was just that: a tree, with no mind of its own. Its rampage in the distant past was actually the work of Kaguya who was sealed within it, using its body and power in her attempt to regain her monopoly on chakra.
  • The EVA units from Neon Genesis Evangelion. They are Eldritch Abominations with restraining bolts tightened on them to keep them in control. Once that armor goes off, watch out. To make them sync with the pilot, the people who make the EVAs have to bond a soul of their mother to the EVA, though the details aren't exactly clear, with one unit having the entirety of the soul, another just having part of a soul, and another just having a clone's soul. In any case, if the pilots come to harm, especially if it's Shinji, watch out.
  • No Game No Life has the Flügel, a race of immortal, angel-like beings specifically raised for war and killing (they can even kill Gods), with Jibril as the most prominent example. However, since the setting's God, Tet, has banned violence in any form, the Flügel are now Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life, so most of them turned to reading as a way to spend their time.
  • Given an ecchi slant in the manga Nukenai Seiken-chan; "Imperials" are Living Weapons in the form of magical swords that were crafted so well they have their own souls, allowing them to not only think and talk like individual beings, but also to shapeshift into the forms of cute human girls. The manga revolves around a magical smith named Tatara whose burning drive is to learn the skills he needs to make an Imperial himself, and who gathers a number of pre-existant Imperials together in order to learn more about them.
  • Baby 5 from One Piece ate the Weapon Weapon Fruit (Buki Buki no mi), allowing her to both form weapons from her body parts and/or turn herself into large weapons including torpedoes (she can reform after the explosion), scythes and swords.
    • There have also been several examples of weapons that have 'eaten' a Zoan Devil Fruit, and gaining the ability to transform from weapon form to animal form, with enough intelligence to follow orders from their owners and on one occasion threatened. These examples include Spandam's sword Funkfreed, which ate the Eleph-Eleph Fruit (Zou Zou no Mi). The other prominent example is Lassoo, a bazooka like gun that 'ate' the Mutt-Mutt Fruit, Dachshund Type (Inu-Inu no Mi) and has the ability to transform between dog and gun form, in the same style as Funfreed.
  • The Cloths from Saint Seiya are living armor, their status as living beings granting them self-repair abilities, enough sentience to accept or reject a wielder (as most dramatically seen when the Cancer Cloth grew so disgusted with its user Deathmask it abandoned him mid-battle), and the chance of evolve under certain circumstances. Unusually, it's also shown that the Cloth's nature as living armor has the downside they can just die if damaged too much, hence the existance of two Cloths that include tools to repair and revive "dead" Cloths (or just plain execute maintenance, as the self-repair is slow and has trouble keeping up with continuous use)-with the help of a generous dose of blood from a Saint or a divinity (blood is not necessary to repair still living Cloths, but can be useful for improvements if the donor is a Saint of greater rank than the Cloth or even a god).
    • Subverted with the Black Cloths: while considered Cloths and built out of the same base materials, the creators didn't know the whole process and couldn't make them into living weapons. Or as tough as even Bronze Cloths.
  • An interesting example is Crona and Ragnarok from Soul Eater. The result of a witch's experiment, Crona had all of their blood replaced with a substance called "Black Blood" (not 'that' Black Blood) that was created in part by melting down the Equippable Ally Ragnarok. The result is a mentally unstable Tyke Bomb whose weaponized blood has its own distinct personality.
    • Half the characters can willingly transform into weapons; some can actually move somewhat independently or just transform body parts into weapons if they don't have a meister to fight with. This came about as the result of another witch's experiment centuries earlier (the sister of the witch who created Crona and Ragnarok, at that), and now many of the descendents of her test subjects have inherited the ability to transform into weapons.

    Comic Books 
  • The current page quote, from the Amalgam Universe, talks about Dark Claw's (Batman/Wolverine Amalgam) greatest nemesis "Hyena" (a fusion between Sabretooth and The Joker). You can guess how much of a bad idea that turned out to be in the long run.
  • In Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire the Beemahs were bioengineered as essentially walking rat-sized blasters. Their creators were wiped out and there's a "shoot on sight" order out for Beemahs themselves.
  • The Brood in X-Men, for most of their history, the Brood's origins have been deliberately kept vague, but one story revealed that they were actually an artificial species created by the Kree to destroy the Shi'ar. This makes the Brood Marvel's version of the Xenomorphs, as the Brood were inspired by the Xenomorph from Alien for their creation.
  • Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier became this, transformed into a nightmarish and implacable assassin by the Soviets (implied to be the Red Room, the same people who produced the Black Widows), a myth of the Cold War. He was given a metal arm to replace his crippled left, and had everything but his language skills and combat training removed, before being cryogenically frozen and defrosted for missions.
  • Supreme Power: The Power Crystal that came inside Hyperion's ship is alive and sentient, and is used as a weapon by Joe Ledger, aka Doctor Spectrum.
  • The Weapon X project, full stop.
    • Wolverine was enhanced by Weapon X precisely with this purpose in mind.
    • X-23 was grown in a lab by the Facility using genetic material salvaged from Logan in an attempt to restart Weapon X, and the project leaders made every attempt to strip her of her humanity and turn her into an emotionless killing machine and hired assassin available to the highest bidder. Even after escaping Laura continues to find herself being used to kill. That she doesn't want to only ever be a weapon and greatly desires a normal life is a major part of her character. The Trigger Scent is able to force her to become this against her will. If someone is marked with the scent, "Laura" vanishes and is replaced by the ruthless and horrifically efficient weapon the Facility wanted her to be and only returns after her target is dead.

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm has both classical weapons, and Human Weapons.
    • Classical Weapons: Magical weapons in general are noted to develop a certain personality over time, especially if they're powerful, which is the root of "the wand chooses the wizard". Wands are 'merely' empathic. Others are... more.
      • The Green Lantern Ring of Alan Scott has a personality of its own, sufficient that it and Strange can confer, and it has opinions on people — it takes a liking to Carol, for instance.
      • Mjolnir. Thanks to its sheer magical power and the nature and complexity of its Worthiness enchantment, which is designed to assess the personalities of people who come into contact with it, it's revealed to be more or less entirely sentient by the sequel. How much of a personality it actually has is uncertain, but it's capable of a) expressing emotions, b) making quite specific value judgements, c) responding to telepathic queries about the nature of being Worthy, picking examples from the questioner's memories (effortlessly breaking memory blocks in the process).
      • Ván, the ancient sword of Frey, forged of Uru and Vibranium and more or less every enchantment that the desperate Alliance of Realms could throw at it, developed one astonishingly quickly — as in, it immediately lodged itself in the oak tree that represented Yggdrasil and refused to move until a worthy wielder appeared to claim it. Every immediately suspects Strange, who was actually involved in events, but he says it wasn't him and notes that he was as confused as everyone else.
    • Human Weapons:
      • The Winter Soldier was designed to be this, a ruthless assassin and when needs be, a One-Man Army capable of singlehandedly mowing through entire squads of Aurors, defeating Captain America, the Black Widow, and Clint Barton simultaneously, killing a werewolf the size of a hummer with his bare hands, and stalemating Wolverine in a Knife Fight while carrying multiple broken ribs. There is a reason that people are terrified of him. However, a persistent streak of free will meant that he kept having to be brainwashed into obedience — and even that couldn't remove an unwillingness to hurt children if it was at all possible to avoid it (to the point where the Red Room just stopped bothering to order him on those missions as they had other assets, and HYDRA ignoring that actually triggers a temporary Heel–Face Turn).
      • The Red Son was a project designed to create the Winter Soldier's Superior Successor. When it's implemented by the revived Red Room in the sequel, they enhance a Person of Mass Destruction, rather than a latent Super-Soldier, and successfully turn them into a Blank Slate, rather than an amnesiac. The results are utterly horrifying — partly because of the sheer devastation the Red Son causes, partly because it's Harry, partly because the enhancements include — instead of a bionic arm — the Techno-Organic virus, and partly because when the person in question gets their body back, the Roaring Rampage of Revenge is even worse.
      • Maddie a.k.a. Rachel Grey is an immensely powerful psychic and Artificial Human created by Sinister out of a melange of superhuman DNA to create a case study in the development of such vast power his perfect Hound - a tracker and enforcer. She's fairly comfortable with it, considering it her purpose, though she has certain questions and desires to be more than her programming. As it turns out, she's actually Jean's Separated at Birth twin sister, who has been systematically dehumanised by Sinister to shape her into an easily controlled puppet. This knowledge causes her to literally collapse.
  • Harry's relic Dragonfang in Master Potter of Kamar-Taj possesses a level of sentience all its own, helping Harry sense foreign sources of magic and even becomes jealous when Harry has to use a wand instead of it.
  • In Earth's Alien History, the Visitors use polymorphs as living bioweapons. TeTO later studies them as such, along with Xenomorphs, X-Parasites, and other such creatures.
  • Perturabo in Perturabo in Remnant has as a sentient Dust crystal he names Baetylus that he created when he was in a sort of trance. Baetylus is capable of feeling emotions as well as any living person, including curiosity, love and blinding rage, which are generally emoted through shifts in its color, though it can communicate to others in a limited degree via a form of telepathy that projects what it is feeling to the recipient. In regards to its capabilities, it possesses the powers of every Dust type, plus a number of other abilities that don't truly have a category. As one might expect, it is insanely powerful and completely loyal to the Primarch.

    Films — Animated 
  • In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the U.S. government uses Superman as a weapon against the Soviets.
  • The Elm-Chanted Forest: The evil Cactus King has some of the most memorable and weird Mooks in the form of the Spinetinglers, his royal guard that is made out living, walking halberds and poleaxes.
  • In Lilo & Stitch, Stitch was designed to be a bio-terror weapon against... everyone.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Jurassic World: It's revealed that the Indominus rex was designed to be an intelligent, hyper-aggressive bioweapon for military use. Likewise, the raptor training programs was to see if they could be given orders for similar reasons.
  • In Pacific Rim, the kaiju are revealed to be genetically engineered weapons designed to conquer worlds.
  • In Prometheus it is learned that the xenomorphs are genetically engineered superweapons. Disturbingly enough, humans were created from the same black liquid that created the Engineers' other monsters.
  • Eddie Valiant's toon bullets, and the singing sword that he picks up in the climax from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

    Literature 
  • The Hork-Bajir in Animorphs probably fall into this...they are technically separate from the Yeerks controlling them, but are under their control as weapons.
  • Immortals in the Codex Alera are slaves raised using discipline collars to enjoy pain. Nearly unstoppable, if also nearly mindless, storm troops.
    • The Vord warrior forms, as is par for the course with zerg/tyranid-style hive minds.
  • Shiftblades from The Deepgate Codex are souls of the dead conditioned to serve as weapons. Most remain in weapon shapes at all times, making them this trope, but one example in God of Clocks also takes human form.
  • Draconian Symphony has Drakkengard, a polymorphic sentient sword. She has the personality of an excitable guppy.
  • The Elder Empire: Any object invested with enough Intent can be "Awakened," given a rudimentary mind based on how it has been used in the past. This is typically only done when the Reader has a very strong understanding of the object in question, otherwise the Awakened intelligence might have very different abilities and goals than expected.
  • The two runeblades, Mournblade and Stormbringer, from The Elric Saga are soul-eating demons in the form of swords.
  • In the Ming-period classic Fengshen Yanyi, the Immortal Lu Ya at one point is seen summoning an "elongated white being with wings, eyes and eyebrows" from his magic gourd, which then paralyze the opponent with his gaze and falls down whirling on him, cutting his head off. We later learn that this thing is Lu Ya's Fabao (magic weapon), the "Immortal-Beheading Flying Knife", a weapon which absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon, turning into a living being.
  • Journey to Chaos: BloodDrinker is a sword and technically the oldest living member of the Bladi Clan. It can communicate its feelings and desires to its wielder, as well as act on its own. It also eats just the same as the other Bladi.
  • Light And Dark The Awakening Of The Mageknight: Most bonded are Empathic Weapons but the sword of the Mageknight is this trope because this knight retains their full sense of self and is capable of lucid communication with their wielder.
  • The Nemesis Saga ultimately reveals that Nemesis and her kind were created to be this. The Gestorumque are essentially organic Humongous Mecha designed to be operated by an Aeros symbiotically connected to them within a cavity in their head (though as Maigo and Endo prove, humans can fit in there too).
  • The Speaking Gun from Simon R. Green's Nightside series. A conglomeration of flesh, bone, and gristle made to look like a weapon, it is a sentient creature that longs for the destruction of everything.
  • Second Apocalypse: The Inchoroi taught the Tekne to the Consult to create the "weapon races" with the intention of wiping out humanity. Weapon races include:
    • Sranc, dog-sized creatures with beautiful faces who Zerg Rush in hordes large enough to carpet nations. They literally lust for carnage and will often mount the dead in the midst of battle.
    • Bashrag, which are three human bodies twisted into one monstrosity.
    • Skin-spies have faces made up of interlocking fingers that can arrange themselves to impersonate others. Their skeletons are made of cartilage, giving them some ability to change their build to perfect the imitation.
    • Wracu, also called dragons, are the only race that predates the Inchoroi's arrival on Earwa. They are huge, fire-breathing monstrosities that are more than a match for any sorcerer.
  • Every weapon of the Yuuzhan Vong, from Star Wars Legends. They use all three varieties and more.
  • It's an open question whether True Shardblades from The Stormlight Archive count as this, given that they are in fact a shapeshifted version of the Energy Beings known as spren, which can think and talk but have no physical body and so aren't "alive" in the scientific sense of the word. The more common regular Shardblades probably don't count, since they are spren whose minds were destroyed by the Recreance, and are much more like corpses than living creatures.
  • In the Sword of Truth, the Great War was full of these. Mriswith, Confessors, Dreamwalkers, the Travelling Well, and even to an extent the Pristinely Ungifted were all made into lethal weapons in the old war. Most of them were born as wizards or born to wizards, but treated more like tools than people.
    • The Seeker of Truth and his titular sword. Richard wasn't kidding when he bragged that he was the weapon. The sword is:
      • a magical morality pet
      • a repository of accumulated knowledge of fighting and war
      • a teacher of War Wizardry
      • a focus for the instinctive magic of War Wizards
      • really sharp
  • There Is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns: From the chapter, "Delta", when talking about a godly designed weapon that's this just so it knows how to stay out of evil hands:
    Do you know how annoying it would be if the cult or some asshat got the sword and heroes had to spent 40 hours of blabbing and dramatic speeches to get that sword back? I'm rude, lazy, and the guy who fucked up badly a few times. Least I could do was make sure that outcome didn’t happen.
  • In the backstory to George R. R. Martin's Tuf Voyaging the ancient Federal Empire's Ecological Engineering Corps used their "seedships" to introduce invasive species to enemy worlds and cause their ecosystems to collapse. Though, as Haviland Tuf, owner of the last known seedship, explained to a client in "A Beast for Norn" who wanted him to make him a monster for pit fighting, they rarely used big tough creatures with lots of natural weapons. Mostly they introduced microbes or small fast-breeding creatures. Still, he did have a few terrifying megafauna in stock that were used for "psychological warfare" and the like, which he sold to the pitfighting houses on that planet for exorbitant prices, throwing in small harmless-seeming critters that destroyed the buyers' farmlands for free.
  • Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle has the Abyss — monsters all named and based on various creatures in real life mythology. They can be controlled using horn flutes, but are otherwise hostile to anything (including their former masters).
  • In Warbreaker, a sword named Nightblood infused with so much Biochroma that it became sapient. He is Vasher's sidekick and an Unholy Holy Sword. He was made with a command to destroy evil, but doesn't really get what evil is, so he mostly just does a lot of destroying. He does do his best to fulfill his purpose, and has a tendency to act almost like a murderous puppy whenever he's ignored, which makes for some surreal and slightly disturbing conversations.
  • Harry Harrison's West of Eden books feature the Yilanè, a race of intelligent amphibious reptiles, who rely entirely on bio-technology, including Bio-weapons.
  • The Wheel of Time has the man with two souls, a fearsome warrior with one soul fully committed to protecting himself in the real world and the other fully present in Tel'Aran'Rhiod.
    • Before the Myrddraal started appearing, the Trollocs were equally dangerous to both Light and Dark, and were deployed as expendable, living weapons.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Doctor Who, the Moment from "The Day of the Doctor" is the last superweapon created by the Time Lords. The device was so powerful and advanced that it developed sentience and a conscience. It was shelved despite its immense power due to its potential unreliability. It is fully capable of preventing itself from being used if it disagrees with its user. The Doctor intended to use it to end the Time War by eliminating both sides — but instead it helped him find another way. The first thirteen of his incarnations together shifted Gallifrey into stasis in a parallel universe, while appearing to destroy it.
    Time Lord General: How could you use such a weapon, knowing that it would sit in judgement of you?
    • There's also the living metal validium from "Silver Nemesis", created as Gallifrey's ultimate defence. Unlike the Moment, it lacks the ability to go against its user's wishes.
    • The insectoid natives of "The Web Planet" used 'larva guns' — giant trained weevils that shot sparks from their snouts — to battle one another.

    Pinball 

    Podcasts 
  • The Adventure Zone: Amnesty: Duck was given a sentient talking sword named Beacon as part of his gig as The Chosen One. Beacon is, in Duck's words, "so annoying", and is actually part of the reason he tried to refuse the call for twenty years. The two eventually settle into Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, with Beacon being endlessly critical and repeatedly expressing disappointment that he's stuck with Duck, while Duck is equally irritated at being stuck with Beacon, but Duck was still destined to wield Beacon, and thus does so incredibly well.
    Beacon: Well, look at you, attempting a turn of phrase. That must’ve been exhausting.
    Duck: Do you see what I mean now? I mean, can you—-I got about five minutes of that, and I mean, I was already really, really not sure about this, and he started chatterin’ away, and I was like, “Okay. This is not for me.” He was kinda the frosting on the cake. Not the whole reason I bailed, obviously...

    Tabletop Games 
  • 1001 Science Fiction Weapons, for OGL, has a whole section on living organisms, beginning with bony blades, through blades which are currently alive and capable of injecting venom or pathogens, attack constructs and self-propelled living explosives, to a living grenade launcher which throws the seed-pod grenades which can shoot or burst open to release anything from short-lived carnivorous insects through toxic gas to blood infected with pathogens which quickly destroy various materials, chew through whole bodily systems within a week, or even liquify a man within minutes. A rather insidious type is a fluffy little creature, which in its most basic form emits a trill which hypnotises anyone in the area of effect, such that they can only stop and listen; not a good thing when deployed on a bus. More advanced versions will explode before the effect ends, showering the "audience" with fragments or pathogens.
  • "Ophitech" in the Tabletop Games setting "The Day After Ragnarok" falls under Type 3.
  • Exalted: The Exalted are this, in a sense; they were made as independent weapons, simply because any form of control would utterly defeat the purpose of creating them in the first place. Less metaphorically, there exist ways to awaken the Least Gods of things, helltech involves the use of still-living demons to empower artifacts, and Craft: Genesis has done some interesting things with artificial lifeforms. Soulsteel weapons technically don't qualify, as while they do contain sapient (and eternally suffering) souls, they are usually dead.
  • Godforsaken: A demonic rune blade is actually a powerful demon transformed into the shape of a sword. The demon cannot speak directly to the wielder, but it can make its desires known by emitting bass rumbles and dirgelike melodies, and by pulling in the direction of its desire.
  • Magic: The Gathering has had occasional mentions such as the Dancing Scimitar and its spiritual sequel, Ensouled Scimitar. There's also a whole group of artifacts called Living Weapons, which are equipments that come with their own hideous Phyrexian token creatures already attached. Considering that Phyrexian culture consists largely of mutilating and cyberneticizing each other into giant living weapons, and then beating the crap out of each other, this is pretty typical.
  • Munchkin's "Singing and Dancing Sword" (a play on the Singing Sword from Arthurian Legend and the Dancing Blade from Dungeons & Dragons) is depicted with arms and legs (and a mouth... and a vaudeville entertainer's costume) of its own, and doesn't require any free hands to wield.
  • Palladium Books have some of these in their products, most notably Rifts, in which the minions of the Splugorth have all kinds of bio-wizardry weapons and devices with trapped living creatures as the power supply, and sometimes the operating hardware; and Systems Failure, in which the survivors of the government/military are using "Organitech" weapons and armour. Using one of the firearms they've created is described as "like holding a cockroach that shoots". Now imagine wearing the living armour...
  • In Warhammer 40,000, Tyranid weapons are specially-evolved organisms fused with their wielders in a symbiotic relationship, frequently firing living ammunition. This even extends to some Tyranids, as the Hive Mind is willing to expend them like ammunition, so that some organisms are bred to fight a single battle.
    • In the distant past, the Old Ones uplifted or bred servitor races to help them fight against the Necrons. They certainly succeeded with the Orks, a species that has since outlasted its creators, lives only to wage war, and will happily fight each other if no other foe is available.

    Video Games 
  • The female combat dolls created from humans in the BlazBlue: Ignis, Nirvana and Minerva.
  • Drudge weapons from The Conduit are basically this. They groan when you pick them up, use biomass as ammunition, and even breathe.
  • In Destiny, the Dreadfang (a sword) and Stolen Will (a shotgun) are Taken weapons, that is, weapons that were Taken. Given that only biological things can be taken (even the Vex are technically bacteria in mechsuits), it gives pause. They also double as evil weapons, or at least until you get your hands on them.
  • Diluvian Ultra sees you using two types of weapons, technology-based and organic-based. The latter resembling eldritch, tentacled creatures who wraps themselves around your arm when equipped, and spits projectiles at enemies.
  • Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest has Kleaver, a giant cutlass that serves as the second boss of the game. At first it looks like something’s holding it from below the lava pool it sits in, but halfway through the fight it starts floating on its own accord.
  • The sword Vigilance in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. The epilogue suguested that the sword grown in power and is alive. Probably, because she is made by using the bones of an ancient high dragon and some of the dragon's essence still remain in the sword.
  • The Blade of Ahrah from Dust: An Elysian Tail.
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, Daedric weapons and armor are created by binding the spirits of lesser Daedra to Ebony forging materials. Since Daedra possess Complete Immortality (their physical bodies can be destroyed, but their spirits endure and reform), this means that every Daedric weapon and armor piece is still "alive". Fortunately, since each Daedra is an immortal Time Abyss, being used as a weapon or piece of armor for a century or so (Daedric equipment tend to vanish on its own after a while) isn't really a big deal.
  • Fallout:
    • Deathclaws are said in the lore to be chameleons genetically engineered and hybridized with other animal stock to replace American troops in the war with China; after the Great War, they have become the intelligent, vicious predators they are in the games. This is considered to be Broad Strokes canon, though, as this backstory is not explained in the main games.
    • The K9000 cyberdog gun from the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Old World Blues is a dog's brain stuck in a machinegun frame. It barks, whines, growls, and has two metal ear flaps and a little sensor/sniffer thingy that can detect enemies before you see them. Such a thing should really not be cute, but it manages, somehow.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, you accidentally create this with the Anima Weapon line. When making an Anima Weapon, the weapon for that class is infused with so much aether (the building blocks of life in that universe), that a new life takes. As you make the weapon stronger and stronger, it becomes more and more sentient and, at the end, comes to realize that it might actually be a Primal of sorts. However, it doesn't mind and wants to help protect you no matter what. And there's a major possibility that it'll just keep getting stronger.
  • Fishgun sees you kicking ass with a gun made from a fish, which is still alive and can spit projectiles at enemies.
  • Frogun: The titular character is a frog-like sentient weapon, and speaks up throughout the game to provide tutorials and helpful advice.
  • Geneforge has several Type 3 weapons, most notably the "batons," gun stand-ins that eat and mate. (Also, creations are Type 1, but they're Mons, so no matter.)
  • In Granblue Fantasy, Primal Beasts were created and/or altered to be weapons of the Astrals during the War.
  • The God Eater series has the God Arcs, melee and ranged weapons made with Oracle Cells, the very thing the Aragami are made of, and because of that, they are among the few things that can harm and kill them.
  • Half-Life has the Hivehand, basically a living alien beehive which shoots a constantly replenishing supply of bee-like aliens. There's also the Snarks. If you can get some from their nest, you can sic them on enemies, where they'll pester them rather effectively until they either get smashed or blow themselves up.
  • In Halo, Hunter duos (each a bonded pair of Lekgolo colonies in armor) are deployed more like equipment than infantry. Halo 3 revealed that Scarabs are just really big Hunters.
  • High on Life is about working with a collection of sapient (and chatty) species of living firearms (and one crazy knife) known as Gatliens to kill an alien cartel that has enslaved bioweapons and humans alike.
  • Incision has the bio-launcher, an eldritch, multi-tentacled, slug-like creature who can shoot acidic projectiles from it's front, with you holding the creature's body and aiming it at enemies. You name it "Kitty".
  • Kingdom Hearts has the Big Bad from the first game, Ansem, who fought with a monstrous Living Shadow known only as the Guardian; it seems to have no will of its own and merely acts as a weapon for the character, however, Kingdom Hearts III reveals the Guardian is in fact Terra's Heartless, kept bound to his body.
  • League of Legends has a few:
  • Legacy of Kain: The Soul Reaver is an example that charitably be described as "complex". While the blade itself is powerful on its own, it doesn't become a living weapon until after Raziel's soul is imprisoned in the Reaver. The catch? The Soul Reaver is eventually destroyed when Kain strikes Raziel's past self with it, with Raziel's future soul then becoming Raziel's own Wraithblade. And when Raziel merges with the Soul Reaver, it is his future self that makes up the Wraithblade that ends up purifying Kain of his curse of insanity. Wrap your head around that.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Starting in Ocarina of Time, the series's resident Legendary Weapon, the Master Sword, is said to have a mind of its own. In said game, the sword decided that young Link wasn't strong enough to wield it, putting him to sleep for seven years so he would be worthy.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Fi is the spirit of the Goddess Sword, manifested as a young girl. The Goddess Sword eventually becomes the aforementioned Master Sword, establishing the identity of its mind. Ghirahim, The Dragon, turns out to be one as well; he's the living embodiment of Demise's sword.
  • In Metroid Prime: Hunters, Kanden's Volt Driver was stated in a Scan Log as being a Living Weapon.
  • One of the calling cards of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was its spin on the idea of "live ammunition". To explain, Stranger uses tiny living creatures as ammo for his crossbow (each with various effects).
  • Pokémon X and Y has the Honedge line, a sword that evolves into two swords, then a sword and shield, all of which wield themselves. If a human tries to wield them, they eat the human's life force. The "living" status of Ghost Pokemon has always been a subject for debate, however. Amusingly, they look pretty similar to the pictured Soul Edge.
  • The Badgersaw from Postal III is kind of a cross of this type with type 1. It's a badger with a harness, so that you can hold it and have it maim your enemies.
  • The Sonic Eruptor from Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is essentially a frog-like creature attached to a holder. When the gun is fired, the creature unleashes a mating call loud enough to create a devastating shock wave.
  • There's a reason that the mutant monsters in Resident Evil are called B.O.Ws, or "Bio-Organic Weapons". The whole point behind Umbrella, and later organisations, is to engineer living weapons.
  • Soul Series:
    • The demonic sword Soul Edge is the Big Bad of the series, and unlike most examples, it looks organic even to a casual observer, appearing to be made out of bone, muscle, and a single eye. It used to be an ordinary sword many thousands of years ago, but was used to kill so many people that it developed a mind of its own, and an insatiable hunger for human souls.
    • Soul Calibur, made from a fragment of Soul Edge for the purpose of keeping it in check, is no less alive than its counterpart, and as Soul Calibur V shows, can be just as manipulative and ruthless.
  • Four out of the six weapons in Prey (2006). One will even look around if bored
  • In Scorn, the player character wields a biomechanical rifle, which is made of muscles and organs wrapped inside a metallic exoskeleton. It's also a Swiss-Army Weapon, as it actually consists of two separate creature-tools; a rear half that serves as a universal handle, and an assortment of front halves that are swapped in and out for different functions, including a rifle, shotgun and grenade launcher. The segment where the rear half interlocks with the front half even has growths that resemble a nose and eyebrow ridges.
  • Shadows of the Damned has Garcia's sidekick Johnson, a demonic skull-torch who can transform into various guns. His default form functions as both a torch and Garcia's melee weapon.
  • One of these is at the center of the The Reveal in Slain. The "Bathoryn" people keep referring to? It's not the old warrior you're controlling, it's his sword, a thinking, speaking blade created by Lord Vroll, who refers to it as his son.
  • The stasis weapon in Star Trek: Elite Force is this.
  • Sundered has the Shining Trapezohedron, a sentient, talking crystal that serves as the protagonist’s primary weapon. It’s a Morph Weapon that forms blades, fists, and other appendages out of tendrils of dark energy, which coil around whichever limb the protagonist is currently swinging at an enemy. Beyond that, it has the power to “corrupt” the various gadgets the protagonist picks up throughout her quest, making them more powerful by turning her into a monster whenever she uses them. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to be an Evil Weapon and a fragment of Nyarlathotep.
  • In Sword of the Stars, the Liir "biological weapon" known as "the Black" that all but wiped out the Suul'ka is a gigantic Liir Elder with an environmental support suit similar to the Suul'ka who has dedicated his life to eradicating them.
  • The Tactics Ogre games have a spell/scroll called Snapdragon that allows you to turn an ally into one of these.
  • Warframe: War, the BFS wielded by The Shadow Stalker is actually a piece of the Sentient Hunhow and holds his consciousness.
  • Tekken: Yoshimitsu's sword is called a "cursed weapon" because it is actually sentient, and has been since it was passed down from his predecessors in the 16th century. By the sixth installment, it is weakening because it has not been fed the lives of evildoers for a while. Yoshimitsu fears that it will corrupt him if he continues wielding it, hence why he trades it in favor of an ordinary sword for fighting.
  • World of Warcraft features a number of weapons that are alive. Such as the Dark Edge of Insanity, an axe that drops from an Old God. The axe itself appears to be covered with black reptilian skin, and is adorned by a huge yellow eye, that BLINKS and turns in its socket. Another example is Terestrian's Stranglestaff, the upper end of which consists of a rather disgusting octopus-like creature with squirming tentacles and a beak. And Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer, is actually a Zergling/Felhunter-like creature stretched to the form of a staff. The head of the beast is the head of the staff, which clacks its jaws littered with very sharp teeth, and lashes forward with its tentacles.
    • The Mogu created the lizard-like Saurok as a living weapon to police and control their empire. The Saurok were too wild to be controlled in such a manner and eventually rebelled against the Mogu.
    Lorewalker Cho: There is a problem with creating a living weapon... Who now wields the power?
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Blades are intelligent beings born from a core crystal. They provide their Driver with a weapon and channel ether into both Driver and weapon, increasing their physical prowess and giving them access to powerful arts. If their weapon is lost or even destroyed, a Blade can simply recreate it from their crystal. Any living thing can have the affinity to bond with a core crystal; humans are the most common, but monsters are occasionally seen with Blades , and even Blades can become Drivers to their own Blades. There's quite a bit of argument in-universe on whether Blades are people or just tools, since a Blade can't usually survive without a Driver, and if the Driver dies the Blade returns to their core crystal and loses all memory of their previous life unless that Blade becomes a Flesh Eater. It's later discovered that this too is part of their life cycle: Blades eventually grow into Titans.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • DSBT InsaniT: Shovel can hop around and stuff, and is Kerry's weapon of choice.
  • Deconstructed in Freeman's Mind: a somewhat sane person who just dealt with freaky aliens of all sorts wouldn't want to touch a freaky organic weapon.
  • SCP-127, The Living Gun from the SCP Foundation. On the outside, it's a totally normal MP5K. Except the magazine is locked in place, and it shoots teeth.
  • Even given some of the strange origins that hololive members in later generations have had, Indonesian Branch Gen 2's Anya Melfissa stands out as being an inanimate object turned Ambiguously Human, specifically a type of dagger known as a keris. She claims to still retain some of her blade-like properties, claiming that humans risk hurting themselves by touching her hair or extremities.

    Western Animation 
  • In a Celebrity Deathmatch between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino, both sides used Woody Allen as a weapon.
  • In Dave the Barbarian we have Lula, the magic sword, who sometimes is ashamed to be Dave's partner. This seems to be common in universe, as we see many living weapons (and non-weapons).
  • The titular protagonist from the show Zak Storm wields Calabrass, a sentient, talking pirate swords who can give him Elemental Powers. He is also his mentor and the literal key to escaping The Bermuda Triangle.

    Real Life 
  • The real world has a long history of the use of bacteria/viruses as weapons, starting with the Mongols.
  • Crazy Real Life example: The Boxer Crab.
  • It's hypothesized that some whales use the barnacles that grow on their skin like biological knuckle dusters when defending themselves against orcas, even evolving rough skin patches to increase the likelihood of barnacles taking root on them.


 
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Underwear Felony

Penny's had her chance to impress Emperor Eddie and she was doing so well, only for her yo-yo to disrobe Poor Eddie, exposing his underwear. Angry and embarrassed, he sentenced her to prison for ten thousand years.

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