Basic Trope: A Holy Weapon that turns out to be not so Holy.
- Straight: Cornelia the Shining Knight is on a Quest find the Holy Blade Calaver to defeat Emperor Evuls. After she succeeds in doing so, it is revealed that the Holy Blade Calaver is a weapon possessed by an ancient evil known as Lucia the Light Star and she is later possessed by the weapon.
- Exaggerated: The Holy Blade Calaver is actually a sword that is possessed by all the evils of the world that will annihilate the world on the slightest touch.
- Downplayed:
- The Holy Blade Calaver merely causes the wielder to awaken their Superpowered Evil Side.
- Any kind hearted person who wields the Holy Sword becomes a noble seeker of justice, any not so kind person becomes a pitiless Knight Templar.
- Justified:
- The sword is already used to seal the ancient evil to begin with.
- The Archangel Calaver belonged to turns out to be Lucifer.
- People can spread rumors, so there's no certainty that "Calaver" is even the real name of the weapon, and it's implied to have been made up to get Cornelia to wield it.
- Inverted:
- The Holy Blade Calaver used to be a truly holy weapon, but the Malicius corrupted it at some point into an Evil Weapon when no one was looking.
- The "Heart of All Evil" is said to be very dark. After much struggling to prevent it from being gotten, Cornelia is forced to use it expecting a Deadly Upgrade or Deal with the Devil. However, it turns out that while the heart contains a lot of evil, it has the ability to absorb evil from other sources, essentially making others good or absorbing evil magic.
- The "Heart of All Evil" is believed to be an unholy weapon simply because the look of the blade and the aura given off seems dark/evil, but in truth the sword's power in the hands of a benevolent wielder negates the fact, and it doesn't corrupt the owner.
- Subverted:
- It turns out the possession Cornelia got had done a lot more good rather than evil, despite being more brutal when possessed.
- Lucifer lost Calaver before he first sinned.
- At first Calaver was said to be holy and feared by demons. Then it was said to have corrupted the wielder and driven him to kill angels and they feared the weapon and sealed it away. It turns out that it is just an incredibly powerful sword that demons and angels both fear because it can let mere mortals permanently kill them
- Double Subverted:
- However Cornelia simply got possessed away from innocents, as when Cornelia gets to the town bad things happen to the inhabitants.
- but after the seeding of said sinning.
- Parodied: The Ceremonial Blade Calaver is supposed to be holy. Upon slaying Evulz with it, it turns out to be evil... by suggesting minor inconveniences such as hiding the tip under a napkin. Calaver is horrified that Cornelia is surprised that it isn't suggesting that she murder random people.
- Zig Zagged: Calaver is said to be a holy sword. That possesses the owner after they have killed. The spirit is actually on a quest to destroy evil. But by evil it means anybody who disagrees with it. But it's actually very reasonable...
- Averted: All swords are correctly identified as evil or holy.
- Enforced: "We need to have some way to imply religion is not a force of good, even if the followers aren't bad people." "Why not make a holy artifact do evil things?"
- Lampshaded: "This was supposed to be a holy sword. Well, I guess even evil things can be considered holy by the right people."
- Invoked: Rumors are deliberately spread about a sword to make people believe it is actually a holy artifact, rather than a can for evil.
- Exploited: Cornelia, after removing the curse from herself, decides to trick an otherwise "clean" politician into wielding Calaver so she has grounds to kill him.
- Defied: "This sword shows a spirit living inside of it. I have to make sure everybody knows the weapon should not be used."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Cornelia is a villain throughout the story. When her background is looked into it's mentioned that she used to be quite the hero until she went on a quest for the church to slay Evulz with a holy sword.
- Deconstructed: Religion breaks down because items that are called holy are actually not good at all. People stop believing in a god and chaos spreads through he country as people look for some higher power to worship. The possessed Cornelia, capitalizing on this, starts a Religion of Evil and founds The Empire using the power she has over the people. Eventually Evulz is all but forgotten because of the terrible reign of Cornelia.
- Reconstructed: Despite the evil artifacts calling god into question, people realize that they themselves can do good, and so they defeat the now evil Cornelia on their own, and that victory strengthens the will of the people more than the religion they lost.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The sword is supposed to hold the very balance of the cosmos in place, and when Cornelia gets possessed even the most powerful start to fear her because of the now unholy power she wields. Suddenly an assassin strikes, a man trained to take care of the possessed ends it quickly, moving to hide the sword again to prevent others from being possessed, spreading false rumors to dissuade others from searching.
- Played For Laughs: The chamber with the sword is littered with signs that all say things like "The sword is totally not evil" and "Very holy, so holy an angel would cry at its holiness" despite the blade being black and purple with serrated edges and and spikes growing out from it, as well as "Evil" carved in the blade.
- Played For Drama: Cornelia is running out of options to deal with Malicius and is left with a sadistic choice when she finds out the holy sword is evil as well. Does she use her last hope of victory at the cost of possibly becoming worse then the evil men she wants to stop or does she let herself and all she cares for die uncorrupted?
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