Basic Trope: Gatling guns are much more effective than other types of guns.
- Straight: A man-portable minigun carried by PFC C.T. Finnigan is shown to be extremely effective at killing lots of targets, putting the rest of the team's weapons to shame.
- Exaggerated:
- PFC C.T. Finnigan's man-portable minigun shoots rockets. It's able to effortlessly reduce entire armies to Ludicrous Gibs.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan carries a gatling gun where each of the six rotating barrels is a gatling gun... Where each of those rotating barrels is a gatling gun!
- EVERY soldier is fitted out with a standard issue minigun. The funding is practically infinite for such a ridiculous undertaking, and the batteries, ammunition, and minigun are all connected in a backpack system.
- Downplayed: The usual Squad Automatic Weapon is a man-portable minigun, which takes on the design of a Light Machine Gun with three rotating barrels and a 500 round round belt (which can be fitted into a drum magazine), that has been designed to actually be easily portable by the average person, sadly sacrificing its hugeness and awesomeness for the efficiency of a regular old machine gun. It's a powerful weapon, but not unrealistically so.
- Justified:
- The story is about a Bug War. A ludicrous amount of targets makes miniguns one of the few viable weapons.
- The minigun is used alongside Powered Armor, which negates the weight of the gun and allows PFC C.T. Finnigan to carry plenty of ammo.
- Inverted: Miniguns are among the weakest weapons in the setting. Slow-firing-but-powerful weapons are infinitely better.
- Subverted: The minigun is experimental and often more dangerous to its users than the targets due to various technical problems like steam leaks. Plus its accuracy is so terrible that a simple swordsman could kill its user after thousands of rounds were fired.
- Double Subverted: Once its inventor solves those problems, it's a terrifying invention that leads to the complete collapse of existing formation based tactics.
- Parodied:
- Every weapon is some sort of Gatling Gun (Gatling Rockets, Gatling shotgun, Gatling sniper, Gatling Flamethrower, Gatling crossbow, and Gatling blowdart pipe).
- Kids terrorize the neighborhood with a Gatling spud gun.
- Zig Zagged: The heroes try using one, but it turns out they're too weak to lift it. Then Powered Armor comes in, but it turns out the bullets are ineffective. Then an A-10 comes in and proceeds to show some GAU-8 goodness.
- Averted:
- No miniguns are seen, even though the heroes could really use one.
- Miniguns are treated as being no more or less effective than other weapons.
- Enforced: Everyone loves Gatling guns, and the writer is no exception.
- Lampshaded:
- "Six barrels are better than one!"
- "Can you even find non-rotary weapons on this planet?"
- Invoked: One regiment in the army is armed exclusively with Gatling guns, supplied with explosive rounds, and used mainly for psychological warfare.
- Exploited: "I know these guys-they think rotary cannons are awesome. Which is why I cut the power, so none of them will work when we attack."
- Defied: The Genius Bruiser refuses to take one, since it'll only slow him down and make him an easy target for a Cold Sniper.
- Discussed: "Don't you think we may be overdoing it a little?" "Shut up and keep firing!"
- Conversed: "Isn't it a bit odd how many handheld miniguns movies have?" "Well, it's cool."
- Deconstructed:
- PFC C.T. Finnigan tries to use a minigun while on foot, without a tripod or any other support. The knockback sends him flying straight into a nearby wall.
- PFC C.T. Finnigan runs out of ammo in about 20 seconds of continuous fire.
- Maj. R.T. Tropesmann tries to use a minigun, but is easily shot due to a lack of maneuverability. Miniguns are cumbersome.
- Reconstructed:
- So giving miniguns to foot soldiers was a bad idea. Never mind. Let's just stick them on Powered Armour instead.
- Alternatively, give them to Super Soldiers.
- Do what Richard Jordan Gatling did: place the damned thing on a tripod, find a nice little spot you can fortify with a very clear line of sight to the kill zone (and also hopefully is far away enough that you only need to do tiny adjustments to your rain of lead instead of swinging around like crazy), and pull the trigger and don't let go either until you are out of ammo or everything is dead.
No, that's not God's chainsaw you're hearing. That's the sound of Gatling Good.
