Basic Trope: A character uses a bow or crossbow in a setting where guns are available.
- Straight: Robin and William fight with a bow and crossbow respectively despite having access to guns.
- Exaggerated: Robin and William live in the future, where Ray Guns are the norm. They still fight with medieval style bows and crossbows.
- Downplayed: Robin and William fight primarily with a bow and a crossbow respectively, but have a pistol and a revolver as backup weapons.
- Justified:
- Robin and William specialize in stealth, and guns are too noisy to be useful to them. And the Hollywood Silencer is in short supply or isn't even a thing yet.
- Robin practiced archery as a sport growing up, and simply finds it easier to switch to combat oriented bows than to try learning to use a gun.
- Inverted: Bob lives in a world where firearms technology is still very rudimentary, making them completely inferior to a bow or crossbow, but he still chooses to use firearms.
- Subverted: Robin carries a bow, but it turns out it's a Tragic Keepsake and when he gets into a fight, he pulls out a gun.
- Double Subverted: That fight was against small fry Mooks. When the Elite Mooks show up, he uses his bow.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: William carries a crossbow, but when he gets into a fight with Mooks, he pulls out a gun. However, when he fights Elite Mooks, he uses his crossbow. Then he uses his gun again when facing The Dragon. But during the fight with the Big Bad, he uses his crossbow again.
- Averted:
- Everyone uses guns.
- Guns don't exist.
- No one uses ranged weapons.
- Enforced: The show is about modern counterparts to Robin Hood and William Tell, so it's necessary to have the heroes use those characters' respective iconic weapons.
- Lampshaded: "How do you make it through so many fights with such outdated weaponry?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Robin and William are sent to deal with an enemy who is Immune to Bullets, but vulnerable to arrows.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "Even today, a bow or crossbow has its advantages. Arrows and bolts make less noise, and can pierce a Bulletproof Vest, for instance".
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: A Hero of Another Story is shown departing on a mission. While we never see her adventures, we see all of her equipment as she prepares to leave, which includes a bow and a crossbow but no guns.
- Deconstructed: The heroes are always at a massive disadvantage against any remotely competent enemy, and only survive by a very narrow margin, sometimes through sheer luck.
- Reconstructed: They team up with allies who use guns, leveling the playing field while still being able to exploit the situational advantages bows and crossbows can provide.
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama: The heroes are time travelers from the Middle Ages. Their mission takes them to the present day, and a lot of the tension during fight scenes comes from the fact their enemies are better armed.
Get back on The Straight and Arrow Path.
