Sinister Scimitar

Yup, that can't be good...

"Have you seen those warriors from Hammerfell? They have curved swords. Curved. Swords."

— Random Guards, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Whenever an army of evil creatures like Orcs and such is introduced, be sure that most of the time they will be armed with scimitars, falchions, sabers and other curved weapons. Alternatively, a particular evil character or warrior is armed with such a weapon to underline his bad guy status. Seen more often if the "good guys" or the "good army" wields straight swords. In many cases, expect the scimitar to be far broader towards the tip than at its base and have a scalloped back edge near its tip.

Probably born from the European view of the Crusades, where Christians fought scimitar-wielding Muslims,^note In actuality, Arabs and other predominantly Muslim peoples preferred the spear and straight sword as weapons for much of the Middle Ages, until curved swords became widespread under Turco-Mongol influence, while the Crusaders used curved or machete-like falchions alongside their own straight swords. or the Turkic raiders from the steppes such as the Tatars. Another possible influence could be cutlass-wielding pirates of 17th century Caribbean.

In Chinese Wuxia novels and movies, straight double edged swords (jian, usually the taiji type which is thinner) are also preferred over large single edged swords (daidao), probably because it looks way cooler to beat someone who has a bigger sword. Also, adding to the realism, they don't use designer weapons they make up, but Real Life weapons that are roughly the correct size. Some older novels prefer heroes wielding a staff or a spear.

Of course, this trope has one primary exception: if the hero comes from a place where scimitars and sabers are used as a "default," though in these cases it's more likely because everyone uses them. See also Weapon Specialization and Good Weapon, Evil Weapon. Expect to see it often in Qurac and in "Arabian Nights" Days settings.

A possible modern day example of evil weapons having a "curve" to them can be found in many Kalashnikov type assault rifles, because the tapered 7.62x39 round they are chambered for gives the magazine a distinct curve.

Compare and Contrast Katanas Are Just Better, which is the Far Eastern equivalent to this trope. Contrast to the inverse trope of Suave Sabre in which a curved blade is a mark of a noble warrior rather than a cruel one.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The Apostle Nosferatu Zodd from Berserk never holds on a specific weapon choice, but everytime he shows up with a new sword, chances are he'll be using a curved, cleaver-like sword (and at least once, a Ram-dhao). And in an even better example, Griffith wielded a curved saber, contrasting Guts' humongous straight sword.
• In Bleach we have Lilynette Gingerback, armed with a far too curved blade. Also, a rare heroic exception in Kyouraku Shunsui, whose zanpakutou becomes a pair of scimitars in Shikai release.
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Baran the Dragon Knight General of Hadler carries a massive falchion across his back, the hilt adorned with a dragon's head. He eventually clashes with Dai, who both times faces him with a straight sword instead. Also, the fake Hero who appears at the start of the story uses a cutlass instead of an heroic straight sword.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Tao Pai Pai and Dabura from Dragon Ball use Chinese dao sabers. Also Yamcha during his bandit career◊. This was carried over in the◊ live action adaptation Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins.
  • Lord Yao wields one in Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy.
• Some scimitars pop out as outstanding weapons in Gamaran: in one case (a very long sword with a massive, curved tip) is noted that the heavy tip can deliver massive damage. The other one (a more Arabian-like shamshir or an indian Tulwar) is only saw but not elaborated upon much as the wielder is killed by Muraku..
• Hero Tales: before getting his hands on the Kenkaranbu, the Big Bad Keirou's weapon of choice is a massive, single-egded blade. Then there's Shimei, who's always seen with a curved sword around. Said sword, named Bansho Shimei, is actually the real Shimei, the man holding it was merely a corpse animated by his magic.
• Jakotsu from Inuyasha. His blade is also a Whip Sword to boot, composed of several crescent blades connected tip to tip.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple : a master-level member of Yami's armed division is a dark-skinned giant wielding an humongous curved sword with a jewel-encrusted hilt who can hit with enough strength to tear open the ceiling of a metal truck. He also has a disciple named Andaka who uses a thinner talwar against Kenichi, but is quickly defeated before he can explain the traits of his weapon.
• In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005), the bandit Ghanti wields a wicked-looking scimitar in contrast with the hero Link, who prefers double-edged broadswords.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the Minaret Gundam has the Minaret Scimitar as its chief weapon. For an added bonus, its Dub Name Change is "Scimitar Gundam".
• Not exactly a sword, but Kabuto's kunai in Naruto is curved, unlike those of other ninjas. And unlike other ninjas, he's evil.
  • Its also the preferred weapon of Zabuza Mamochi when he doesn't have his Kubikiribocho.
• One Piece:
  • The pirate Porchemy carries a huge scimitar around, and has a penchant for scalping his victims alive.
  • Cutlasses are often found for Mooks on both Pirates and Marines, although higher-ranking marines usually tend to go for Katanas, with the exception of a General Ripper by the name of Onigumo who wields eight of them when using his powers.
• In Ranma ½ during her first appearance Shampoo wielded a large Da Dao sword.
• In Rave Master the Sacrifar sword is the second most powerful form of Ten Commandments but is also the darkest and most dangerous to both wielder and enemy. Fittingly enough. Lucia Raregrove use Sacrifar in combat against Haru and later reforges his Decalogue (previously straght-bladed) into a single-edged falchion-like sword. Also his Dark Blue Crinsom manifests as a couple of scimitars, opposed to Haru's one, which are longswords.
• Vampire Hunter D: While D himself is an aversion, being an Anti-Hero at most and wielding an overly long two-handed saber, Rei from the first movie qualifes, being a villainous monster who wields a small curved sword he can unfold into a boomerang.
• Many high-level enemies in Yaiba are armed with large scimitars, namely the Mushroom Soldier, Gold and Gozuma.

Comic Books

• There is an obscure Immortal Iron Fist villain called Scimitar. He's The Dragon to Master Kahn, an evil sorcerer. Guess what his weapon is.
• In Suicide Squad, Rustam, the head of the terrorist-for-hire group the Jihad (and Rick Flag's Evil Counterpart), carries a flaming scimitar, called the Psi-Scimitar, that can cut through anything.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin: The guards chasing the title hero wield scimitars. Jafar also conjures up a wall of them to hold off Aladdin for a moment during the final battle, one of which Aladdin himself grabs and uses to attack Jafar, even stabbing him with it after Jafar turns into a giant cobra.
• Talon's weapon of choice from Batman vs. Robin is one he carries on his back.
• Fantasia 2000: The wicked Jack-In-the-Box wields a scimitar against the Tin Soldier. Ironically, because of the curved blade itself he ends up slipping and falling into a hot stove head-first.
• Peter Pan: The Turk, one of Captain Hook’s pirates, is armed with a huge scimitar. This doesn’t prevent him from carrying it in his teeth, though.
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: The executioner uses a scimitar with a yelman to decapitate Sinbad but in the end he does not succeed due to the intervention of Eris.

Films — Live-Action

• Black Panther (2018): The standard issue weapons of the Border Tribe are shotels that they wield in tandem with their cloak-mounted energy shields.
• The Ottoman mooks in Dracula Untold carry kilijs. On the other hand, Sultan Mehmed II arms himself with a silver-plated Western longsword to use against Dracula.
• Mulan (2020), the Rouran's army seems to mostly employ curved swords with barbed ridges, while the Chinese army is mostly using straight swords and spears. Best seen in the final duel between Mulan (holding a jian) and a Bori Kahn (using the above-described sword).
• Raiders of the Lost Ark: The huge swordsman has a Big Fucking Scimitar and the Thugs in the sequel brandish curved swords too. Does little wonder against a gun, if Indie can locate it.
• Star Trek: Nemesis: Not a literal sword, but the Big Bad commands a warbird called Scimitar. It proves to be more than a match for the Enterprise.

Literature

• Mallorean soldiers in The Belgariad are described as using large and clumsy curved broadswords.
• The Calormenes in The Chronicles of Narnia are based on Middle Eastern countries and, as such, are armed with curved swords. Their sinister nature is so emphasized that Eustace isn't even allowed to carry a scimitar even though he knows how to fight with it, but has to relearn how to fight with a Narnian longsword from scratch.
• Many evil guys in Conan the Barbarian are equipped with curved blades, especially King Yezdigerd. Of course, Conan used them too, as well as anything else he could lay his hands on.
• Dragonlance: Nerakian warriors use scimitars. In one of the books a Solamnian Knight even calls them "Nerakian Rippers".^note Note that even if some scimitars had a double edge they were usually used as sabers for slashing.
• In Fengshen Yanyi, at one point tyrannical King Zhou fights against Huang Feihu and his generals wielding a large dao, fitting his status as a cruel monarch.^note (Though in some art, he's seen using a dadao polearm instead.) Another notable user is Yu Hua, who makes his second appearance wielding the "Blood-Curdling Divine Sword", a curved blade which can suddenly change size and whose blade is coated in a deadly poison which forcibly clots the blood of whoever it cuts. Near the end, Daji and her sisters attack the heroes in an ambush and Daji, The Corrupter of the three, uses two curved swords, while her sister the Jade Pipa Spirit wields a long dao adorned with bird engravings.
• A very common trope in the Fighting Fantasy series, where the hero usually gets a broadsword or a longsword and scimitars are often employed by enemies, such as the Lizard King, Balthus Dire and the High Priest of the Night Dragon's cult. Tellingly enough, the only gamebook where you start off with a scimitar is Seas of Blood, in which you play as a Villain Protagonist.
• Played with in the Forgotten Realms as Drizzt Do'Urden he is a good guy, fighting with two scimitars; many bad guys tend to use "straight" blades. However Drizzt is a Drow a usually seen as "evil" race who left the very evil city of Menzoberranzan where he grew up. So whilst he's not evil his fighting style is typical of a "bad guy" race.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • Some Orcs wield curved blades, as do the Haradrim (also called Southrons).^note the narrative explicitly calls the Haradrim swords "scimitars", and implicitly compares the Haradrim to the Ottoman Turks. Averted with the Uruk-hai Orcs employed by Saruman, who arms them with straight swords.
  • The films arm most Uruk-hai with ugly, clumsy straight-bladed cleavers◊, but these are known as "scimitars" despite not being scimitars in any sense. That being said, they are still viable as over-sized machetes.
• Parodied in Moving Pictures: When Victor is playing a sinister desert raider, he isn't sure why his sword is "bendy", because he thought they were supposed to be straight. The wardrobe mistress, Mrs Cosmopolite, suggests that they might start out straight and become bendy from use, adding "A lot of things do."
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: while pretty much all sword users employ straight greek blades, Kampe the Drakaena wields two massive scimitars (repeatedly described as such). As if the sinister part wasn't already emphasized by her monstrous appearence, she's also an extremely ruthless gaoler working for the Titans and her blades ooze green poison. After her death at the hundred hands of Bryares, her scimitars become part of the trophies of Halfblood Camp, though now are bent in a rough W shape.
• In the fantasy novel Shadow Keep The Dragon (a 10-foot-tall humanoid demon) pulls a large scimitar from his throne in order to take on the main characters.

Live-Action TV

• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger use curved swords as their close combat weapon, of course they are not really heroes as other sentai teams are. Only Pink and Silver lack any evil intentions.
• Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger did this with the very first Sixth Ranger, Burai the Dragon Ranger. He wasn't an agent of Bandora from the start, but hated his brother Geki for an obvious reason. Apparently, Bandora made him a Sword of Demons to put him under her control, but the sword was destroyed by his tears when he was defeated by his brother.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers kept this with Burai's American counterpart, Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger. The blade was created to make sure his Brainwashed and Crazy status remained and was only freed when Jason separated him from the blade and destroyed it with his Power Blaster.

Pinball

• This is the protagonist's weapon of choice in Sinbad.

Tabletop Games

• In the role-playing, tabletop adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, the standard orc is armed with a scimitar, though the game also mention and include stats for the orcish longsword and knife. Notably, scimitars are less effective (damage-wise) than longswords.
• Pathfinder:
  • Orcs are proficient with falchions, even if they're a class that wouldn't normally be (along with great big axes). They have a reputation for leading to unexpected player deaths at low levels when they get lucky with the weapon's wide crit range.
  • Worshipers of the Mother of Monsters Lamashtu use both curve-bladed falchions and kukris.
• Orcs and Goblins in Warhammer Fantasy (and by extension in the spin-off board game HeroQuest) indulge in scimitars. Also the Tomb Kings armies, which at least have a Egyptian-like setting. Dark Elves also favour these weapons.

Toys

• Transformers: Generation 2 did this with their Laser Rods: While the Autobots had straight and slender blades, the Decepticons used wide, curved blades.

Video Games

• Kemsyt from Age of Mythology holds a comically large broad-tipped scimitar to go with his arabian looks. Don't expect to see it in action though.
• In Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 the monsters haunting the Hammer Hall dungeons combine this with Flaming Sword.
• In Batman: Arkham City, while all the run of the mill assassins of the League of Shadows use modified katana as weapons, Ras al Ghul himself wields his trusted scimitar, and so does his daugther. In a subversion, Batman briefly borrows one to fight Clayface.
• Orcs in Battle for Wesnoth have a predilection for curved swords and knife, to reflect their brutal and primitive culture, as well as the usually evil Naga. While the Elves are usually good and most of their soldiers use curved knives or blades, but they can be hostile and cruel in some campaigns.
• Gehrman in Bloodborne combines this with Sinister Scythe, his signature weapon is the Burial Blade, which can transform between a scimitar and a scythe.
• The Necromancer from Castle Crashers wields an elegant, curved sword.
• Clive Barker's Undying has the Trsanti militants attacking you with very large scimitars.
• Conqueror's Blade has the Chain Dart & Scimitar hero weapon—a deadly assassin-style class which is among the most powerful hero weapons in the game.
• In the Dark Souls series, these come in two categories: the Curved Sword class weapons that are your standard fare like the "Scimitar" and the "Falchion", and the Curved Greatsword class weapons that have a little more swing speed than regular Greatswords. Both are known for having a higher chance of causing the "Bleed" status than most weapons and are often seen in the hands of Skeletons of both normal and giant size.
  • Knight Lautrec of Carim is known to Dual Wield a pair of shotels, which have become a regular staple in the series. He's also quite the morally reprehensible guy, murdering the Guardian of Firelink Shrine bonfire halfway through the game.
  • Zigzagged with Shiva of the East: his weapon of choice is the rare Murakumo (An oversized mix of katana and machete) and originally he was supposed to be a shady guy whose merchandise comes from the fresh corpses of other adventurers, but most content regarding him was cut.
  • Gravelord Nito wields a giant curved sword which is highly poisonous and, most importantly, seemingly composed of bones and corpses mashed together. While he's a giant figure made of interwined skeletons and darkness, not to mention Lordran's equivalent of the god of Death, he's more of a neutral figure, which you have to slay for his Lord Soul.
  • In the second game, the Flexile Sentinel is a grotesque, two-torsoed Lizard Folk tasked with corraling the Undead and take them to the Lost Bastille: the front body wields two gigantic curved swords you can forge for yourself.
  • The second game, you can obtain the Nil Curved Greatsword as a treasure in the Frozen Eleum Loyce. Resembling a massive black scimitar crafted with earth and raw ore, it's kept in a frozen chest guarded by three dormant Soul Golems. While it's generally a good weapon, the description mentions how the Ivory King considered the weapon so evil and dangerous he decided to seal it away. (The only special power is the fact that it grows much stronger with each New Game + played).
• In Dead Rising 2 one of the magicians, Roger, dual wields scimitars and are more than willing to wield them against you.
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: There's an enemy croc named Kutlass. Three guesses for what he wields. There's also the second boss, Kleever, a Living Weapon version with glowing red eyes and the guardian of Crocodile Cauldron.
• Dragon Age: Origins: the standard Darkspawn longsword and daggers are both viciously curved, crude-looking and barbed, fitting for a horde of monstrous, never-resting monsters. By contrast, swords used by most of the other races tend to be straight, with some exceptions (in particular a large, vicious-looking blade with a serrated back).
• The Darkspawn in Dragon Age II after their redesign (though the Darkspawn Longsword in the original game did look a lot like a Ram Dao).
• In the Drakensang series, wicked scimitar users include Dark Amazons, certain types of skeletons and orcs. Also Tharkath and the other High Elves he turned against you during the final act of the Expansion.
• This trope is Played Straight several times in Dragon Quest: nearly all the swords the hero can wield, with occasional exceptions (such as the recurring Dragon Buster sword, which is falchion-like) are straight and/or double edged, while enemies tend to wield both straight and curved swords.
• Dragon Quest XI: the Sword of Shadows is a massive falchion with a yatagan-like edge and massive spikes protuding from the back, while its good counterpart, the Sword of Light, is straight as an arrow. Literally, given the arrow-like tip.
• In Dynasty Warriors there are several curved sword users, both heroic and villainous. In the (debatably) latter case, there would be Xiahou Dun pictured above and the much less debatable Dong Zhuo who combined this with Serrated Blade of Pain before his weapon was changed. Inverted early on for the "main villain" Cao Cao, who has never used weapons beside his trusted straight Sword of Heaven.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Alik'r all wield scimitars, though they aren't evil, just somewhat suspicious in the eyes of the more close-minded Nords of Skyrim. Nazir, who's a member of the Dark Brotherhood fits this to a tee however.
• Throughout most of the Final Fantasy series, Odin's instant-kill swords are often curved blades, often wicked into a rough lightning-like shape. Also, the Dark Knight class tends to wield curved swords (Katanas too in some games) while its counterpart, the Paladin, tend to wield straight longswords.
• Count Borghen in Final Fantasy II is a cowardly piece of work and a braggart, and his weapon of choice appears to be a cavalry saber.
• Gauntlet Legends features mountain grunts carrying twin scimitars.
• Played straight with God of War's Kratos who's still an Anti-Hero/Villain Protagonist and uses the curved (and multi-jagged) Blade of Chaos/Athena/Exile and, in the first game, Artemis' Sword. It's even shown in the comics that he used one when before meeting Ares. Also the Persian King and tons of scimitar-swinging mooks.
• In King's Bounty series, scimitars are the weapon of choice of both pirates and Orcs. In Dark Side, Bagyr's given an enchanted scimitar which gives him more leadership over Orcs and later can obtain a more powerful one by liberating the island of Tristrem.
• The "Bandit" type Heartless found in Agrabah in Kingdom Hearts. Though, given that Guest-Star Party Member Aladdin also uses a Scimitar, it's likely simply the default sword for that world.
  • Riku's Soul Eater resembles a falchion. As expected by the trope, he spends the first game in the darkness. He continues to wield it in Chain of Memories, but as he is skirting the road to the dawn, the weapon feels less sinister. By Kingdom Hearts II, it's become a Cool Keyblade called Way to the Dawn; while it IS inspired by the Soul Eater, it has a straighter blade and bears more light-based elements.
• The Legend of Dragoon: When Zieg takes back the Dragoon Spirit from Dart, his sword becomes a sort of flaming scimitar.
• The Legend of Spyro:
  • The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: The Ice King wields a wicked curved falchion made of ice and alternatively a curved glaive.
  • The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night: King Gaul, the Big Bad of the game and the ruler of the Apes, fights with a pair of hooked scimitars.
• Majesty, Goblins are Always Chaotic Evil and their standard soldiers are armed with curved swords. By contrast, none of your heroes have such weapons.
• In Metal Slug 2 and 4 there are Arab-looking enemies, berserkers, and pirates all armed with scimitars. They can even toss it at you.
• Miitopia has a boss that is a big sentient scimitar (though the game refers it as the "Sword"), which bears a stolen Mii face. It is fought with a sentient shield. Later in the game, smaller versions of it named Doom Swords and Spirit Swords appear.
• Onimusha series:
  • Wielded by Recurring Boss Marcellus in Onimusha: Warlords, essentially a reverse billhook.
  • Also Nobunaga's One-Winged Angel form from the third game turns his demonic Whip Sword into a massive, serrated scimitar with a hooked tip ominously named "Oni-Slayer Samonji".
• In Resident Evil 6, the J'Avo B.O.W. met in China are often armed with large Dao sabers and are Ax-Crazy goons.
• Wan Fu from the first Samurai Shodown game. Averted of course if you play as him, though he's still an unpleasant fellow.
• Salt and Sanctuary: curved swords are among the weapons to be found, with a particular example being the poisoned Virulent Scimitar, a curved blade which can ooze poison in the wounds. Other nasty examples include the backswords used by the marauders and the Seawolf Cutlass, a curved, jagged greatsword in possession of the Disemboweled Husk, the zombified, tortured remains of Captain Hager.
• The fearsome Devil King of The Sixth Heaven Oda Nobunaga in Sengoku Basara combines this one with Sword and Gun, thought is more like a Falchion. In later installment, Matsunaga Hisahide has a black powder-enhaced scimitar as one of his weapons.
• Final Boss Ein from Seven Samurai 20XX wields a large darkness-shrouded scimitar with a top-heavy tip and an ornate handguard called the "Sword of Algathion", which apparently he created thanks to the teachings of the book he carries around.
• Shantae series: Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: Risky Boots and her pirates use scimitars, but unlike the other games, Shantae uses them too, as the particles of the Orbiting Particle Shield spell in its final tier, ths Scimitar spell:
  Scimitar: Spend MAGIC to SLICE foes to SMITHEREENS with this high-speed orbiting weapon!
• Skeleton Mooks in Warcraft III are automatically armed with scimitars, no matter what. Also, the Anti-Hero Illidan Stormrage dual-wields a contorted case of double scimitar.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has two examples, one a straight example (ironically) of the "sinister" part and the other an aversion, but both spoiler-laden. The straight example is Malos' Aegis Sword/Monado, which is notably curvier and spikier than the straight Laser Blade Shulk used in the first game.

Web Animation

• Cinder in RWBY is a villain and one of the most personally invested in taking down RWBY. While she can create and use a variety of weapons, she's been seen often using a scimitar to fight, such as at Haven against Jaune, and in Atlas she dual wields a pair while battling Penny and Winter. Ironically, it's eventually revealed that the scimitar was a gift from her mentor Rhodes who tried to help her escape from her abusive family, only for it to go horribly wrong.

Webcomics

• In Looking for Group the enemy soldiers attacking Kethenecia in the past are armed with scimitars.
• In The Order of the Stick we have Zz'dtri who, being a clone of Drizzt, wields two scimitars and the Death Knight assaulting Azure City wields one and also the Beetle-men bandits. Crystal's sword/dagger may count too.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Puss in Boots features an evil Scimitar that corrupts its wielder and thirsts for blood.
• Batman: The Animated Series: In "His Silicon Soul," when Batman fights Android Batman in the Bat Cave, Batman tries a surprise attack with a straight sword. Android Batman then takes a curved sword out of the weapons cabinet next to him and they clash blades a few times. While Android!Batman is a Tragic Villain, it is still murderous.
• In Gargoyles, during the "City of Stone" arc, Duncan duels MacBeth with a slightly curved falchion, which is quite noticeable, since so far in the flashback everyone used straight broadswords.
• Looney Tunes: Hassan, the huge Arab guard who appears in some shorts and wields a massive scimitar.
  "Hassan CHOP!!!"
• The Pirates of Dark Water: most of the pirates of the show seems to prefer curved, impractical-looking cutlasses and scimitars, such as Bloth the Pirate Lord. On the other hand, Ioz, the least morally-oriented of the main heroes, owns a jagged scimitar, but by contrast, The Hero Ren wields the broken longsword once belonging to his father.
• In the two-reel Popeye cartoon Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, Abu Hassan and his forty thieves all carry huge scimitars.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: amoral pirate captain and mercenary Hondo Ohnaka carries what's unambiguously a scimitar in Season 5 and at on point is seen using it against attacking droids.

Aversions

Anime and Manga

• 3×3 Eyes: the Sword of Madurai used by its owner to seal Benares in the past looks mostly like a scimitar. Later on it's used by Yakumo Fujii.
• Bleach has Shunsui Kyoraku's Shikai, which takes the form of two large scimitars.
  • Also in the filler episode 287, which has a "Arabian Nights" Days setting features scimitar-looking Zanpakuto for everyone.
• Dragon Quest: Your Story has Lucas wielding the curved sword of his heroic father Pankraz from the beginning of his adventure to the very end, and is undeniably The Hero, but not The Chosen One, who's his son (who gets to wield the Zenithian Sword).
• In Fullmetal Alchemist Ling Yao's main weapon is a dadao.
• Again in Hero Tales, where Housei can split his bladed bow in a couple of scimitars and use them to finish Shimei off.
• In Hoshin Engi we have Mokutaku, whose Paope Gokoken takes the form of a couple of scimitars.
• Agon◊ from Hunter × Hunter. Though he's more neutral than fully evil/good.
• In Inuyasha the Tessaiga blade is fang-shaped, hence looking a bit like a massive scimitar. Though in its de-powered state it's a katana.
• In Naruto, Izumo and Kotetsu both used curved blades.
• Rave Master: One of the other forms of Ten Commandments is Million Sun which is definetively positive.
• In Sailor Moon, Sailor Uranus uses the Space Sword, which is a curved sword that looks a lot like a jeweled scimitar. In this case, the fact that she has it is proof of her pure heart, since it's one of the three talismans and came out of her pure heart crystal.
• In Seven Deadly Sins: Meliodas' sacred treasure sword takes the form of a short curved blade, while his evil brother Zeldris wields a straight executioner sword instead, in a reversal of this trope.

Fan Works

• Hugh from The Night Unfurls is a heroic example — one of his weapons, the Simon's Bowblade, is a curved sword when in blade form.

Films — Live-Action

• The 13th Warrior has the protagonist, Ahmad, struggling with the Viking sword. It's too heavy for him as he keeps on stumbling with his swings, unable to cut a wooden stake which one of his Viking companions had easily chopped off. So he grinds the sword to resemble a scimitar, and proceeds to chop the stake effortlessly.
• Thong in Cave Dwellers is the main character and a scimitar-wielding Barbarian Hero.
• The Farmer from In the Name of the King defends his farm from the evil Kurgs with a large, machete-like curved blade.
• Gai Xing from Red Cliff is seen using a dadao in battle, and is one of the good guys. Most of the other characters (both good and bad) use straight swords and pole weapons instead.
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has Azeem, played by Morgan Freeman. He is Robin's righthand man and quite noble. As a Muslim warrior, he has a scimitar as a weapon.

Literature

• In Belisarius Series both sides are likely to use curved swords. Belisarius himself on one occasion is noted as using a "Persian sword" instead of a Roman spatha.
• Bloodbones: your starting sword is nondescript, but the Infinity +1 Sword required to end the game successfully is a large cutlass made of bone and enchanted with voodoo magic. Justified by the piratey setting.
• Conan the Barbarian has also used several curved swords himself, including scimitars, sabers, and tulwars (which are wrongly described as long knives). He however often stated that he was at his best with a western longsword.
• Averted and played straight in The Dark Elf Trilogy and the rest of The Legend of Drizzt. Drizzt Do'Urden (a dark elf but one of the most morally upright characters in whole series) wields twin scimitars, but so do some of the other drow. Note however that in contrast to the typical drow, Zaknafein used straight blades.
• Discworld:
  • In Moving Pictures, Victor uses a scimitar in the click Sons of the Dessert. He's not impressed.
    Victor: I thought swords had to be straight.
    Mrs Cosmopolite: Perhaps they start out straight and get bendy with use. A lot of things do.
  • In Jingo, 71-Hour Ahmed has a huge scimitar. Vimes considers it the opposite of a concealed weapon; the wielder is concealed by it. He actually does look like one of the bad guys at first, but he's really an honest cop trying to stop the war, essentially Vimes's Klatchian counterpart. He is still considerably more ruthless than Vimes, as well as an Assassin, but he's not a bad guy.
  • In Monstrous Regiment the squad were originally intended to be pikemen, but due to a lack of supplies they ended up looting a bunch of sabres from a cavalry group they got the drop on. While Sergeant Jackrum wields a pair of cutlasses that are described as more like giant cleavers than swords.
• Many of the 108 stars of Water Margin wield dao. Though they're technically outlaws, and many have questionable morals, they are ultimately the good guys. The most famous dao-swordsmen of the bunch are Wu Song who carries two along with his staff, and Yang Zhi, who has his family heirloom saber.

Live Action TV

On Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the heroine Alice carries a scimitar as her main weapon, since she was taught swordplay by the genie Cyrus, who is from Agrabah.

Music

• In Silly Wizard's humorous folk song "The Errant Apprentice", the apprentice certainly finds his Turkish rival's scimitar scary but, in fact, he was the aggressor, and the Turk is just defending himself.
  Sure, bravery's no virtue,
  When some heathen's trying to hurt you,
  And all noble thoughts desert you,
  When you see his curly knife.
  

Tabletop Games

• Mielikki, the good-aligned goddess of the woods in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms setting, uses a pair of scimitars. It's also the favoured weapon of her followers, including Drizzt Do'Urden.
• In the Eberron setting, the elves of Valenar - who are ethically ambiguous and warlike, but not outright evil - favour a double-ended scimitar.
• In the Pathfinder RPG's main setting, Golarion, the Goddess of Healing, Redemption, and the Sun uses the scimitar, along with her clergy. Her worshipers can even get the ability to easily deal nonlethal damage with a slashing weapon. Granted, Sarenrae's followers are warriors as well...

Video Games

• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura has several kinds of scimitars and falchions as free-to-buy weapons (including those which shoot fireballs). Moreover, one of them is a full-blown Infinity +1 Sword and a backup Sword of Plot Advancement.
• Both Altaïr and Ezio from Assassin's Creed have used curved blades. Also justified in the first game, which is taking place in the Holy Land after all.
  • In Assassin's Creed III Connor has a nice selection of curved swords to choose from. And in ACIV Edward Kenway can dual wield a pair of pirate cutlasses.
• Baldur's Gate II has the Spectral Brand, an enchanted scimitar that starts out as a +4 weapon but can be upgraded to a +5 with a Skull of the Lich. While the weapon's description calls it an unholy abomination that should never have been unleashed on the Realms, the good or evil nature of your party (and your gameplay choices) determines whether it's truly sinister or not.
• Kaleh, Kalenz and Li'Sarr from Battle for Wesnoth, along with the good-aligned elves and orcs.
• In Bug Fables, Stratos, a member of Team Slacker, uses a big scimitar as his primary weapon, yet, in spite of his intimidating appearance, he is kind, polite and easy-going.
• Now, good scimitar users from Drakensang include good amazons, Tulamnid playable characters, Djinns and Tie'Shianna's palace guards. Nothing stops your playable character (whatever class is chosen) to learn how to fight with a scimitar/saber (though larger one are considered as "Two Handed Swords" instead).
• Dynasty Warriors, as mentioned before, has plenty of good aligned warriors armed with Daos, usually of large size, such as Huang Zhong (when he's not playing as an archer), Zhou Yu before the sixth game, Sun Jian from the sixth game onward and Sima Zhao, who's the friendliest and nicest of the Sima clan.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Morrowind's Tribunal expansion adds Ebony Schimitars, which are favored weapons of Almalexia's High Ordinators. Though they possess some of the same Knight Templar traits of the standard Ordinators, they are not inherently "sinister".
  • There are a handful of scimitars to be found in Skyrim, most of which are wielded by redguard mercenaries who can be antagonistic towards the player, but will remain neutral unless you attack them first (or flat-out tell them that you're out for their blood). While nothing prevents a scimitar-wielding Dovahkiin from routinely slaughtering entire cities for shits and giggles, they are still a (designated) hero destined to prevent The End of the World as We Know It. The trope is however played straight with Velehk Sain, the pirate dremora, who dual wields scimitars.
  • While not called scimitars, many of the swords and greatswords in the game have a slight curve and single cutting edge- namely the Orcish, Ebony, and Daedric, with the Falmer, Forsworn, and Noddic swords also looking somewhat like scimitars, albeit more primitive.
• One of the first characters you play as in Eternal Darkness is an almost stereotypical Persian warrior, and naturally enough, wields a scimitar, and later a huge Ram Dao.
• In Golden Axe III, Sarah Vane uses a scimitar and is one of the heroes.
• Contrasting the books, Joe Dever's Lone Wolf features curved one-handed swords for Lone Wolf to use as common weapons aside from the Sommerswerd, and this is even discounting the swords you can obtain from the Giaks, which play this trope straight.
• From The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Gerudo, denizens of the desert, most notably from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, are known to carry scimitars as weapons, and, in the latter game, Link can wield them himself, including the Scimitar of the Seven, a weapon wielded by the Gerudo Champion Urbosa. The Hyrulian Gerudo are never pure evil in and of themselves (Ganondorf notwithstanding, though he was never shown to wield a scimitar himself), though they do initially serve an antagonistic role in Ocarina of Time before Link earns their respect.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the pirate Jolene wields a cutlass. She appears to have a limitless supply of them, considering she leaves one behind every time she loses to Link.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword features the boss Koloktos, a Multi-Armed and Dangerous ancient automaton that begins the battle fighting barehanded (at most, throwing ranged chakrams), but in the second half wields a giant scimitar in each hand. Link has to use the Whip to tear apart its limbs, and once it drops one of its scimitars, it turns out Link can just barely carry it and swing it around, and doesn't Koloktos itself look like a nice target?
• Mount & Blade features scimitars as an available weapon choice, primarily belonging to the Khergit and Sarranid factions—neither of which are any more or less evil than any other kingdom in the setting. The player themselves can elect to carry one, as its speed and cutting power make it well suited to wiping out lightly armored archer units.
• The Prince(s) in the Prince of Persia games tends to favor curved blades. The enemies also use them, but starting with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within are also armed with a wide variety of various weapons, ranging from knives to chakrams to axes and hammers.
• In Runescape, scimitars are a popular weapon type, especially on free-to-play servers. Their popularity is attributed to the tradeoff of a faster speed for lower damage. Monkeys also seem to be fairly fond of them.
• Sengoku Basara: Some of Keiji Maeda's weapons are scimitaresque, but he's the nicest guy around.
• Blue Dragon from Swords of Destiny is a Da Dao sword used by our hero.
• In Wynncraft, Water-based weapons for Assassins appear as cutlasses instead of daggers.
• The other (averted) example in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the Catalyst Scimitar, used by Nia once she reveals herself as a Blade. Nothing says "Good Weapon" like a flowering tree branch with a blade made of pure water, and as the name implies, it acts as a catalyst for its wielder's incredible healing powers. As for said wielder, she's very much one of the good guys and a nice person deep down (if a bit rude and cynical at first), and healing is her specialty, to the point where she can completely reverse the damage caused by Malos' destructive powers, even with the aforementioned Monado.

Western Animation

• In Gargoyles, Hudson's signature weapon is a short curved sword, possibly a saex, he employs in combat, but he's the wisest and oldest of the pack.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: King Katuunko of Toydaria carries a noticeably curved sword with him as both a symbol of status (offering it to Yoda as sign of alliance) and mean of self defense (briefly uses it to duel Savage Oppress). Katuunko himself is one of the noblest and most honorable characters in the show.

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