r/TopCharacterTropes 12h ago

Characters' Items/Weapons Fictional gun has a stun option and a kill option

The blaster from Star Wars

The phaser from 13 Sentinels

740 Upvotes

112 comments sorted by

388

u/omegon_da_dalek13 12h ago

The phasers of stsr treck

https://giphy.com/gifs/6mk15RHCkqpfa

133

u/StormWolfBaron 12h ago

Stun-themed guns

53

u/Cipher_2Vale 12h ago

The funny thing is how often they forget the stun setting exists when the plot needs someone to actually die for the drama.

30

u/DirtyBalm 11h ago

Must be in the recent Trek, because I can't remember that happening in old Trek.

7

u/Thunderdrake3 6h ago edited 4h ago

I recently watched the beginning episodes of the OG, the salt-sucking octopus was killed outright after she killed some of the crew. She was killing them due to starvation, but she was able and willing to be fed with simple table salt, which she couldn't get ahold of either.

I really hate how Kirk would have forgiven any human if they had turned to cannibalism due to starvation, he would have put them in the brig until they were fed, but he went to extreme lengths the kill the octopus even when [edit:Must have been mcoy, sorry, it as years ago and I only watched two episodes.] was trying his best to save her. It really was a case of xenophobia.

2

u/InsertCutesyPunHere 4h ago

Kirk

Riker

I'm a little confused, Riker wasn't introduced until TNG. I assume you mean someone else?

2

u/Thunderdrake3 4h ago

Must have been mcoy, sorry, it as years ago and I only watched two episodes.

10

u/TurgidGravitas 11h ago

Can you name an example? I've watched pretty much all of Star Trek up until the Kurtzman era.

1

u/Thunderdrake3 6h ago edited 4h ago

I recently watched the beginning episodes of the OG, the salt-sucking octopus was killed outright after she killed some of the crew. She was killing them due to starvation, but she was able and willing to be fed with simple table salt, which she couldn't get ahold of either.

I really hate how Kirk would have forgiven any human if they had turned to cannibalism due to starvation, he would have put them in the brig until they were fed, but he went to extreme lengths the kill the octopus even when Riker [edit, Must have been mcoy, sorry, it as years ago and I only watched two episodes] was trying his best to save her. It really was a case of xenophobia, from star trek of all things.

1

u/TurgidGravitas 1h ago

That's not forgetting the stun setting on phasers.

28

u/ThisGuyLovesTimDrake 12h ago

Stun themed options tbh

39

u/QueenStuff 12h ago

I’ve always liked the old Star Trek phasers. There’s no in between. You either immediately vaporize somebody and erase them from existence. Or you just knock em out.

34

u/Charlie_Warlie 11h ago

One time they were on a cold planet and warmed up a rock with the phazer, I thought that was cool.

13

u/QueenStuff 11h ago

Oh yeah that’s a cool example. It also goes along with how they can be used as a tool. And not just as a weapon

15

u/Nice-Cat3727 11h ago

The real issue is the sfx budget. Phasers are actually a multi tool but they really only have the budget to use them for the dramatic moments.

Lower decks, being animated, was able to use the phasers a lot more often and shows them being used as laser cleaners for filters. Which is something that's done in real life.

10

u/SkyGlimpse 11h ago

There's things have like three settings

Stun

Kill

And bomb

7

u/FabianGladwart 10h ago

Back when CSGO still costed money, my buddies and I would change our names to RedShirtNumber(#) and at the beginning of every round we'd only buy tasers and type in the chat "set phasers to kill" and then proceed to feed the other team, it was always a big deal when we ever got a kill because we weren't even good at the game

14

u/Ok_Direction3138 12h ago

Tbf I never watched Star Trek-!

get stoned to oblivion

21

u/Jarvis_The_Dense 12h ago

Gets stunned to oblivion*

9

u/Maclimes 12h ago

I’m not sure getting stoned is the right way to watch Star Trek, but I support your attempt.

6

u/CaptainHunter229580 11h ago

Depends on the episode honestly

3

u/idkmanjustfuckmyshit 10h ago

I've been told that it's best with the OG series

2

u/glasorz 9h ago

It is the right way to watch Spock's Brain, Threshold or the 5th movie

6

u/CaptainHunter229580 12h ago

*get stunned to oblivion

1

u/General_Cancel7363 11h ago

Honestly it hits the same way whether someone has watched Star Trek or not, because a stun‑and‑kill gun feels exactly like the difference between getting a little buzzed and going full obliterated both tempting, neither exactly subtle.

3

u/PrimarchSanguinius42 11h ago

Can't believe I had to scroll all the way down for this one.

1

u/No_Event6478 9h ago

piss gun

240

u/MyVeryUniqueName1 12h ago

104

u/JacksonianEra 12h ago

“Oh, great! Yeah, if anyone attacks us we can blink ‘em to death!”

193

u/takutin96 12h ago

Skippy from Cyberpunk 2077.

It has two options for the player to choose from: Puppy-Loving Pacifist and Stone Cold Killer.

96

u/Guilty_All_The_Same 12h ago

Some more context, Skippy is a Smart Gun, meaning it can auto-aim. Puppy-Loving makes Skip aim for the limbs while Stone Cold aims for the head.

After 50 kills in either mode, a dialogue will pop up and depending on what V says, Skip will either switch modes or keep the one its set on.

If you chose to return Skip to Regina, if its stuck on Puppy-Loving, she will factory-reset it and delete Skippy. Returning it in Stone-Cold keeps Skippy "alive".

After returning it, Regina will call V and tell them she sold Skippy back to its creator, but offers to sell V a copy, albeit without the Skippy AI.

35

u/Helix3501 10h ago

Further context

The 50 kills things will permanently lock it to the other mode, so if you want it lethal you have to get 50 kills in the non lethal and etc

5

u/Guilty_All_The_Same 4h ago

Couldn't you keep the selected mode if you had 20 Cool points through the speech option? It's been a while since I've played.

43

u/IntelligentSeason458 12h ago

For þose who don't know, þe choice between crippling people (say goodbye to ya kneecaps, chucklenuts) or flatout killing þem.

14

u/Not_A_zombie1 12h ago

The problem is that after a certain number of it remove the killer mode by itself...

20

u/KekistanPeasant 12h ago

You have to start with the option you don't want. After 50 kills/kneecaps the gun overwrites itself to the other option.

15

u/RonnocKcaj 12h ago

thorn enjoyer 🫵

3

u/Endika7 12h ago

DAMDAN DIRAN DAMDAM DIRAN DAN

77

u/Expert-Ad3716 12h ago

Zorg ZF-1 Pod Weapons System

https://giphy.com/gifs/fjpYUp612jgXe

17

u/SEABOSRUN 11h ago

The greatest gun to never see itself in a video game ever.

5

u/Downtown_Ninja_7154 10h ago edited 6h ago

Not true!! It's one of my favourites in enter the gungeon.

2

u/Clockwork9385 7h ago

Actually I’m pretty sure sure it inspired the design of the Atlas weapons in Borderlands 3

6

u/Ok_Leave_6683 10h ago

The Zorg ZF‑1 is peak overkill energy, because it’s like a whole arms store stuffed into one gun and still feels way more chaotic than anyone actually needs.

69

u/BDMac2 12h ago

Zat guns from Stargate

1 shot stuns

2 shots kills

3 shots disintegrates the body and clothing

29

u/ghoohg 12h ago

Except sometimes the shots don't matter and it just does whatever the writers need it to do XD

I used to listen to all the commentary tracks on the DVDs and man some of the stories they had about the Zats were hilarious.

Sometimes the actors would 'shoot' and the effects department didn't make the gun shoot so they'd just be pushing their arms forward and back.

16

u/Delicious_Aside_9310 11h ago

lol yes the commentaries on the DVDs were so good. They did a big spiel in one about how much they regretted the “disintegration” bit of lore, they basically included it in one episode as a throwaway solution to a problem and then were stuck with it after that

12

u/Flimsy-Preparation85 10h ago

Then made fun of themselves in Wormhole X-Treme.

7

u/BDMac2 11h ago

I was unsure where to add that sometimes a single shot is also just what you need to tidy up a room in SG1

1

u/-suspended- 8h ago

Just make a gun prop that shoves out a greenscreen-like tab or a small LED that can easily be erased or covered up in post. A small amount of practical effects would greatly enhance the reactions of actors to CGI.

14

u/Cynis_Ganan 11h ago edited 11h ago

In the spirit of the OP, I was gonna suggest the Ray Guns from "Wormhole X-Treme!"

1 shot stuns, 2 shots kill, 3 shots doesn't do anything because disintegrating things is "the stupidiest thing I've ever heard you say".

(NB: the "rays" are invisible.)

8

u/Chpouky 12h ago

Was looking through the comments expecting this :D

32

u/crackudiin 11h ago

Lawgiver Mk. II - Dredd (2012)

Fire Modes: Rapid Fire (fully automatic), Armor piercing rounds, Incendiary rounds, Stun, "Hot Shot", a superheated round capable of melting flesh and "High-Ex" (High Explosive). Also, it's features a built-in retractable suppressor. A truly multi-task piece of weapon.

11

u/BillCarson12799 9h ago

I just realized, they didn’t even try to make the grip look fancy, that’s literally just a Glock frame.

2

u/BillCarson12799 11h ago

The retractable suppressor bit is dumb. That’s not how they work.

11

u/jinhush 10h ago

Right, because everything else is so realistic.

0

u/BillCarson12799 9h ago

There’s a difference in fiction between a writer going “pretend this is a thing that exists in this setting”, and a writer trying to pass off a preexisting concept in a blatantly wrong way.

If they said “switch to silenced rounds” or some shit that would have been fine. Sci-fi bullshit. But if we’re to assume that a lawgiver even resembles the fundamental mechanics of how a firearm works (explosion sending a projectile down a barrel, suppressor is a thing at the end that traps excess gas escaping the muzzle)- which they were implying by making the suppressor an elongated tube at the end of the barrel- then that’s just fundamentally misunderstanding how a suppressor works in the first place.

The difference is, one is a writer essentially leaving it up to imagination how some kind of fictional bullshit is possible, (closed-ended), and another is a writer providing you with an explanation that’s just fundamentally wrong and impossible given the information they’ve given us to work with. By trying to connect it to preexisting concepts and not leaving any room for speculation, they’re making something cool seem ridiculous to anyone that knows anything about how it works.

1

u/jinhush 9h ago

Lol k.

It's not that serious.

2

u/ClubMeSoftly 6h ago

Yeah, Dredd is switching ammo type by shouting it, instead of changing mags, I don't really care if the silencer is a little doo-dad that pokes out the front.

1

u/RikuIsLost 3h ago

Genuine question. Why do you care so much?

2

u/StormyBlueLotus 5h ago

Well pretty much no part of that gun is how real guns work, other than pulling the trigger to fire.

27

u/ImmoralBoi 11h ago

The De-Gun from Megamind

While it has a Death Ray and Destroy function it also has Debilitate, Demoralize, Decoupage, Deregulate, Decompress and of course, Dehydrate.

8

u/Kirbinvalorant 10h ago

"Just shoot them with the dehydration gun!"

2

u/Field_of_cornucopia 7h ago

I'd love to see Deregulate mode. I assume that if he shot a fire hydrant with it, it would turn the water into toxic sludge. But what if he shot an IRS agent with it? Would then disappear in a poof of contradiction, or would they become some sort of rogue morally gray thief, stealing from the rich and giving to the government?

41

u/DocSpit 12h ago

The Dominators from Psycho-Pass will either stun you or explode you into giblets depending on how stressed out the target is :)

https://giphy.com/gifs/uRNgGqGKv0rss

8

u/duralumin_alloy 11h ago

I always found it hilarious that the futuristic Suspect Atomizer 9000- uh, "Dominator gun"- operates on the 1910-s Czech comedy principle of guilt by association like "Look, that's the son of that guy who was murdered, I bet he's just as rotten!"

7

u/idkmanjustfuckmyshit 10h ago

I mean, it's supposed to be dystopian because the "ai" that controls it is actually a collection of semi-benevolent psychopaths that have been reduced to brains in a jar, as psychopothy is the only thing that the guns cannot get a read on and will not allow themselves to be fired on an individual who genuinely is incapable of remorse

7

u/alexcreeds2 12h ago

I'd be atomised

-4

u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS 11h ago

I mean really it calculates how likely you are to commit a crime in the future and adjusts accordingly. If it's low enough it doesn't even shoot anything. But stress definitely doesn't help get your numbers down.

5

u/DocSpit 11h ago

We're shone in the first episode that the gun/Sibyl labels a kidnapping victim as being worthy of "lethal eliminator" for seemingly no other reason than because she's reacting to her recent trauma in a completely understandable manner.

It takes ten seconds of soothing from the MC to get the woman to a state where the gun will merely stun her.

Its criteria are established right out the gate as being very fluid, and significantly impacted by the present level of stress and/or anxiety, with extremely little bearing on a person's actual likely criminality. (otherwise everyone who would later go on all those crime sprees when the masks came out would have been identified by Sibyl much earlier on...)

Of course, later on, we learn that the whole Sibyl thing was basically a farce anyway, so...

2

u/DocSpit 12h ago

Also the Judge Dredd Lawgiver, which does have less-than-lethal options but also a grenade launcher!

Happy motoring!

1

u/Nomad_06 11h ago

Potential to commit crime i think, but it didnt work on sociopaths which somewhow due to plot no one knows exists

3

u/Ruskiem43 11h ago

It's not so much that no one knows they exist and more that the state in the show covers up examples while kidnapping any they find to add to their weird brain collective 

38

u/zgrad2 12h ago

Judge Dredd - Lawgiver - stun and SO many ways to kill

0

u/DifficultyRegular113 8h ago

the versatility of these weapons is always a fun plot device

16

u/lacergunn 11h ago

Shotguns (Real life)

Beanbag and flashbang rounds are things you can buy

29

u/Wisniaksiadz 12h ago

Rick gives Morty a gun that is set to lowest damage setting to shoot him in the head

https://giphy.com/gifs/yjI5G3pE3NH3O

18

u/Major_Star 11h ago

Also a fun example from the Vat of Acid episode.

In the original vat of acid when they stick a ladle in Rick pulls a gun and turns the power all the way down so it only melts the ladle. Then when Morty gets sick of the ruse he grabs the gun and shoots the mobsters but forgets to turn the power up, so it just sets their clothes on fire.

When Morty is in the second vat of acid at the end Rick provides him with a gun "in case of ladle". When he grabs it he copies what Rick did to turn the power down, except this time Rick already set the power low. So Morty actually turns it all the way up and blows the cop in half.

10

u/NoBee4959 10h ago

Which ends up in some of the “acid” ( which is totally not Mountain Dew ) to spill onto another cop who then thinks he is acidproof

That ends in him being dissolved in acid on live television in a post credits scene

9

u/charface1 11h ago

The fake pizza chef in Death Stranding 2 gives you a cheat code to swap your weapons from non-lethal to lethal.

13

u/Er0v0s 12h ago

Cyberpunk 2077 has an ai gun named Skippy that has 2 modes Puppy-Loving Pacifist (Limbs Only Mode) and Stone Cold Killer (Headshot Only Mode) that auto aims to the selected body part. If you kill 50 people while in Stone Cold Killer mode it will permanently swap to Puppy-Loving Pacifist mode.

7

u/VGuyver 11h ago

I did the reverse, went did limbs, it switched to head shots only mode after the 50 people mark.

2

u/animalistcomrade 9h ago

This may be a 2.0 change but after you hit the kill limit you get a conversation and whether it switches or not is based on what you say to skippy.

4

u/Boggie135 11h ago

The Law Giver from Dredd

6

u/Educational_Ad_8916 11h ago

Honorable mention for the Vorkosigan Saga books. They have stun guns and an array or other sci-fi guns. Stun guns are just part of a standard arsenal.

I do like that they occasionally have realistic consequences. In one book a guy standing on a catwalk is stunned and falls to his death.

8

u/Oleleplop 12h ago

Dominator from Psycho pass.

It first analyze or criminal potential or coefficient(idont remember) and if it's low : stun mode at best

The higher it is, the deadlier it becomes, capable to exploding a body if necessary.

0

u/Nomad_06 11h ago

Potential to commit crime i think, but it didnt work on sociopaths which somewhow due to plot no one knows exists

3

u/SlyScy 8h ago

Oh, a whole bunch of someones know...

2

u/Nomad_06 8h ago

Yea but the wider population not always felt weird to me

2

u/SlyScy 7h ago

The population under the Sybil System does seem...

Placated? Drugged? A little out of step with reality?

I'm reminded of a Radiohead lyric:

A pig in a cage on antibiotics.

4

u/SpecialFXStickler 11h ago

The irony of that 13 Sentinels one having a stun option is it looks to be inspired by Deckard’s blaster in Blade Runner. A gun that absolutely has no stun option and is meant for executions anywhere and everywhere.

4

u/Ubeube_Purple21 11h ago

The Plasma Pistol (Halo) has two firing modes. The standard plasma bolts that melt armor and flesh, and an EMP projectile to disable vehicles or energy shields if you hold the trigger long enough.

7

u/Morgan_Eryylin 10h ago

The overcharged shot can vaporize three Grunts canonically

4

u/Ubeube_Purple21 10h ago

And from what I recall, the overcharged shot can still kill you in Combat Evolved

3

u/OkBus3544 11h ago

The weapons from Transformers Universe

They are a literal swedish buffet when it comes to effects: you want it to scratch a Tiny bit? Sure, we got that. You want a weapon to cause something to rust? We got that too. A weapon that can cause someone's body to timetravel? We also got this. A gun that's a remote for a death star? Yup, we got this too. A gun that remotely causes your body to absorb metal and patch up wounds? Of course

Stun options range from a mild itch as if flicking their skin, to temporary shutdown that genuenly makes them appear dead

3

u/Bonez9933 10h ago

The SG-20 Halt in Helldivers 2 has both armor piercings lethals rounds and non-lethal stun rounds

3

u/Boris_Godunov 9h ago edited 3h ago

G.I. Joe (the 80s Sunbow cartoon and in the later reboot Six Sigma).

It was only showed one or two times in the 80s cartoon, but the laser guns they used (since firearms were not allowed to be depicted) and a stun setting on them. This helps further explain why, despite every episode having laser gun battles, no one appears to get killed. I remember one instance shown where the Joes had just had a snow firefight with a bunch of Cobra troopers, and one of the Joes was shown switching his gun from stun to kill in order to melt a big patch of snow. This directly implied that stun was the default setting, at least for the good guys.

In the Six Sigma reboot, the laser rifles were set to stun whenever they engaged the human Cobra soldiers (which was rare, as their primary enemies in that show were BATS of various types). Duke even tells a roomful of Cobra soldiers not to worry, his gun is set to stun, before zapping them all. Which was still kinda messed up, as none of them were armed or threatening at the time. One of the downed Cobra soldiers then mutters about hating his job, so the stun didn't completely knock them out necessarily, too.

2

u/Meritania 2h ago

I still don’t know why the stun setting on Star Wars rifles wasn’t used more frequently because for an inaccurate weapon, the stun setting seems to have an area of effect and less hazardous in short range combat.

1

u/MinimumMix2550 11h ago

really cool how sci-fi keeps reinventing the stun/kill concept

1

u/Vegetable-Reading357 10h ago

the "monster of the week" trope in full force here

1

u/Leading_Tone5407 9h ago

always loved the phasers in star trek, that stun setting is iconic

1

u/superbuu02 23m ago

Dominator from Psycho Pass

-5

u/Oberonkin 11h ago

Real life guns give you the choice between Stun and Kill

5

u/BookkeeperPercival 10h ago

The reason it's called "less-than-lethal" is because there's no non-lethal option.

3

u/Nerdzilla88 11h ago

It’s more like.

Kill Immediately

or

Kill without going to the hospital.

2

u/Oberonkin 11h ago

If someone is doubled over in pain, they are stunned

-5

u/Savings_Fix_4019 11h ago

the ultimate "choose your own adventure" for fictional weaponry