Hello friends! It’s Trope-Day and boy have I got a great one for you today. Personally, I’m a huge fan of tropes and am a firm believer that a trope is made or broken by the way it is utilized.
Today’s trope is purely aesthetic.
One-Handed Zweihander
What epic fantasy is complete without an unreasonably sized BFS? And, if you’re going to have an unreasonably sized BFS, you may as well throw in a guy who can unreasonably wield it one handed.
The One-Handed Zweihander trope is, well, exactly what it sounds like. It’s a weapon designed to be used two-handed, but due to story reasons (or otherwise just the rule of cool) a character is able to wield it with one. Laws of physics need not apply.
While, admittedly, this trope is more common in video games (just look under the video game tab of it’s TVTropes.org page), there are still plenty of examples in literature as well. Notable examples include characters like Gregor Clegane (of Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire fame), aka The Mountain, wielding a greatsword one-handed, and specific kinds of weapons such as the shardblades from the Stormlight Archive series. You’ll also find One-Handed Zweihanders featured prominently in a number of anime/manga series as well, like Berserk or Naruto.
Whether played straight, subverted, or justified, there’s no denying that the One-Handed Zweihander is just plain badass. Do you have one in your story? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time, my friends, may your writing be plenty and your struggles be few!
Kerry Share
Just Another Struggling Writer 
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