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Blade Below the Shoulder

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From top to bottom:
Removable arm blade - The Shredder
Permanently-attached blade - Baraka
Blade replaces hand or arm - "Axe-Hand" Morgan
"Phenom is on his feet again, a little wobbly but still game. He's got his hands up, blades extended. Either of those things might take my head off like a dandelion."
— Dr. Impossible, Soon I Will Be Invincible

It's common knowledge that blades are cool. But they can also be a hassle to carry around everywhere. The scabbard might be uncomfortable, and the sword won't simply stick to your back. On top of that, once you finally decide to unsheathe your weapon, you are no longer able to hold anything else in one or both of your hands (or make rude gestures to your opponent). This problem is intensified if the weapon user intends to dual-wield.

The solution: attach the blade to your arm, leaving your hands free to do whatever else you may be inclined to do with them. These blades are often long, vaguely triangular, and taper to a point. Variants include:

  • Removable arm blade: Attaching the blades to your elbow, wrist, or even the back of your hand.
  • Permanently-attached blade: Embedding the blades inside your arms, from where they can be deployed and retracted by thought alone (usually employed by robots, cyborgs, and other non-regular human characters).
  • Blade replaces hand or arm: Replacing one or both of your hands or even your arms with large swords.

The last type is Awesome, but Impractical, as the blades prevent their wielders from performing mundane tasks when not in combat. They are also especially prone to Fake Arm Disarms, as they can be destroyed without gravely injuring the characters. Crafty opponents can also maneuver the wielder into getting them stuck in a wall or something else; and because the weapon is attached to the wielder entirely, letting it go isn't exactly an option. While these drawbacks mitigate many of the practical benefits of having swords attached to your body as opposed to carried, few will have the guts to question your coolness or badassery.

Wolverine Claws are a specific variant. May overlap with Swiss-Army Appendage. Can be considered a subtrope of Cool Sword. Compare its counterpart Arm Cannon, as well as Power Fist. Not to be confused with Shapeshifter Weapons, which are not limited to simply being blades. See also Hook Hand. Compare Combat Haircomb. Commonly a weapon for a Predator Pastiche and/or Wolverine Wannabe.

The examples below are divided into three categories: one, where a blade attached to the arm is a weapon of choice, but not a permanent body part; two, where the blade is permanently attached to the arm and may or may not be concealable; and three, where the entire arm is a blade.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

Removable arm blade:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Angel from Angel Beats! has five of these as her first Guard Skill.
  • A signature weapon of the titular character in Battle Angel Alita. The "Elbogen Blatt" style of "Panzerkunst" uses backwards-pointing blades attached to the "künstlers" forearms.
    • Alita's blades become retractable after she gets the nanite-based Imaginos body.
  • In D.Gray-Man, the Inspector keeps a switch-blade sword hidden up his sleeve.
  • The Energy Blade techniques of Dragon Ball (including Vegito's Spirit Sword, Salza's Salza Blade, Zamasu's God Split Cut, and Goku Black's Violent Fierce God Slicer) are performed by a character projecting a blade of ki from their hand.
  • Shooting Star Units from Black Cat.
  • In Coffin Princess Chaika, Toru and Akari's old mentor Shin fights with a pair of blades attached to his forearms.
  • Zagi from Jyu-Oh-Sei has one.
  • MagnaAngemon and Stingmon from Digimon.
  • Bubblegum Crisis: Sylia Stingray's power armour has a pair of these attached to her wrists.
  • Kurogane's Jintetsu is equipped with a knife in his mechanical elbow. For some reason, he rarely uses it after the first volume.
  • Sora of .hack//SIGN, who has one on each arm. His are retractable and theoretically removable, but he never takes them off. In the .hack// games, Kite can also attain this type of weapon (even specifically named after Sora), though it's not his only one.
  • In the anime, the Robot Girl Chachamaru from Negima! Magister Negi Magi gets a long, thin, retractable sword installed in her forearm, in addition to steel angel wings. In the manga, however, she gets a massive sword that replaces her arm entirely. The other arm turns into an equally huge machine gun.
  • Veronica in Franken Fran appears to be stuffed with spring-loaded weaponry. Given her Artificial Human nature, she may very well be literally full of weapons.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann does this with drills: the Gurren Lagann's usual weapon is a pair of drills coming out from above the wrist so in a sense it's also a Power Fist. Justified in that the Gurren Lagann can spawn drills from any part of it's body.
  • Sango from Inuyasha has a hidden retractable blade in her right sleeve that she uses as a last resort.
  • The ninja Hanzo in Hunter × Hunter has a retractable version. He uses it to threaten Gon during their fight in the final Hunter Exam.
  • Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist often uses alchemy to transmute his automail right arm into one of these blades, built in blades are also common for others with automail.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has the Gundam Exia, whose main weapon is a combination of a beam rifle and a solid sword mounted on its right arm. Near the end of the series, its upgrade the 00 Gundam gets an improved version.
      • Seems like this type of weapon is a trademark of Setsuna F. Seiei's Gundams: Exia's GN Sword I and 00 Gundam/Raiser's GN Sword III (equipped for the Final Battle). The original 00 Qan[T]'s GN Sword V is a traditional sword instead, but in SD Gundam G-Generation Cross Rays, the ELS Qan[T] is equipped again with this type of weapon, and is also capable of using the Raiser Sword like the GN Sword III.
    • McGillis Fareed from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans pilots the Grimgerde, which has a pair of swords attached onto the shields, he can take them out from the shields and wield them on its hands or simply retract them and keep them on the shields.
  • Deadman Wonderland: Senji can create these out of his own blood.
  • Casshern Sins: Lyuze has a retractable blade in one of her arms, though her being a robot may mean it is permanent
  • Kars from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has one which he uses to slaughter several SS officers, bisect Rudol von Stroheim, and save a puppy.
  • Tsukiyama and his Eviler Counterpart Naki, from Tokyo Ghoul, both wield their kagune this way.
  • 3×3 Eyes: Yakumo's weapon is a double-edged dagger blade hidden in his right gauntlet, which he's seen using starting from the second part of the story. In the fourth one, Trinetra, he's seemingly upgraded the blade using a blade inscribed with the Triclops's emblem which allows him to access the dimensional gates of Kun Lun. To really drive the point home, when Amara merges with his arm, he takes the form of a large wrist-mounted sword when Yakumo needs to fight.
  • Jack the Ripper from Black Clover has Severing Magic that conjures mana blades on his forearms that he can even launch at enemies. He can change the blades' nature and sharpness to whatever he's trying to cut up, letting him eventually counter any magical defense and cut through anything.
  • In High School D×D, when Archangel Michael gifts Issei with the Dragon-slaying sword Ascalon, it attaches to his Boosted Gear gauntlet in this fashion, and he's able to make it appear and disappear at will. He can also separate it to lend it to someone else (usually he does it to Xenovia).
  • In Red Baron, the titular robot gains as its Mid-Season Upgrade a pair of bladed gauntlets to increase its damage output.

    Comic Books 
  • The Gladiator, an adversary of Daredevil, uses wrist blades as a weapon of choice.
  • Another Marvel villain, Whirlwind, supplements superfast spinning with wrist mounted sawblades.
  • This is part of the equipment of Darkseid's dog-riders in Supergirl story The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): two long blades attached to the back of each gauntlet. During a fight Batman "borrows" a pair of bladed gauntlets.
  • In the Sword of Azrael arc of Batman the titular character's new outfit includes a retractable Flaming Sword attached to one arm and a shootable one to the other.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Although the precise number and location varies between incarnations, The Shredder's costume will always include several of these.
  • Nazi villain Friedrich von Hassell has a retractable blade hidden in his sleeve in Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods.
  • Nikolai Dante can turn his hands into swords thanks to his Weapons Crest.
  • In X-Factor, sword wielding Shatterstar made a reappearance after a lengthy stay in Comic-Book Limbo, sporting an updated look in an attempt to drag him out of the Dark Age. This new costume includes a leather jacket which covers a mechanism that houses blades on either side of his forearms. So he's actually got FOUR of these.
  • Étienne Cazenac, the protagonist of the French comic La Croix de Cazenac, fights with knives (or, in one arc, shards of bone) tied to his wrists.
  • Azrael (Jean-Paul Valley) has a version of this: Two flaming retractable Katar-like blades in his gloves. Said gloves look like giant gold fists, but...
  • Debatable which category this would fit under, exactly, but in the X-Men comics mutant Marrow can and frequently does grow her bones out of her skin, break them off, and use them as blades.
  • Post-Super Genesis Wave, Sally Acorn from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) wears a pair of bracelets called Ring-Blades that can project Laser Blades. They look a lot like the ones she had as Mecha Sally (see below).
  • In Red Robin the member of the Covenant of Ka in the grey Powered Armor has a blade at her left wrist that is charged with electricity.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Assassin's Creed (2016): The Assassins both past and present uses the traditional Hidden Blade as primary weapons.
  • The eponymous psycho in Basement Jack trades in his machete for one of these, which was inexplicably in a suburban family's basement.
  • Towards the climax of Batman (1989), one of the Joker's mooks goes to dropkick Batman, while revealing blades hidden on his ankles. Batman's response is to simply punch him in the nuts.
    • For added flavor, Batman doesn't use his fist; it's a contraption that springs out. A Ballbuster Below the Shoulder, you could say.
  • Abigail in Blade: Trinity has a small silver blade that springs from her wrist that she often uses for killing blows
    • "Scream if this hurts, chica"
  • At the end of Enter the Dragon, Han uses a Katara like weapon against Bruce Lee's character.
  • The killer of The Final Terror favours one made from a billhook blade.
  • Karl Ruprecht Kroenen in the film version of Hellboy.
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: Azog has throughout the first two films possessed a mace stuck gruesomely in his left arm stump to make up for the arm he lost long ago, but in the final film, he trades the mace for a klingon-like blade when riding out to war.
  • When a side character's arm is annihilated via lawnmower in Hobo With a Shotgun, she uses the resulting sharpened forearm to stab her attacker in the gut. It's a grindhouse parody, so it's to be expected.
  • Used most egregiously in Hook, when an entire sword (hilt and all) springs out of the Captain's sleeve, and into his hand.
  • The Battle Butler Alfred in Hudson Hawk fights with a pair of retractable blades under his sleeves.
  • Man of Steel: General Zod carries a retractable blade in his right gauntlet, which he uses to stab Jor-El while Kal-El is launched into space.
  • Christian Szell, the White Angel of Auschwitz from Marathon Man, wears a spring-loaded blade in his sleeve to dispatch any concentration camp survivors who might recognize him. The film illustrates the main drawback of the Blade Below the shoulder when Szell impales himself while tumbling downing the stairs.
  • In A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger's blade-fingered glove started out this way, when he was still alive and his glove, merely a homemade murder weapon. In dreams, it evolves into more of a built-in weapon, which alternately appears on his hand whole when he sheds a disguise, or sends its blades springing out from his (or a puppet's, or a possessed boy's, etc) fingertips. In Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a scene is filmed in which Freddy amputates his hand and replaces it with a razor-tipped robotic version, but this element doesn't seem to have carried over into the character's subsequent appearances. See also Wolverine Claws.
  • The Predators have retractable wrist blades that extend to a punching, slashing length. In some versions they become very long arm swords.
  • Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes (2009) has a blade made of glass hidden in his sleeve. He attempts to stab Watson with it in the opening scene of the film, but Holmes shatters it with a truncheon.
  • Affably Evil hitman Pasquale Acosta in Smokin' Aces uses a retractable stiletto to kill people.
  • Concept art for Star Wars Episode III featured a lightsaber gauntlet, with two blades attached to the user's forearms. The idea was eventually realized in toy form in The Clone Wars line.
  • Before revealing himself, the main plane hijacker in Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying uses a retractable wrist-spike to kill several Eastern European criminals to steal a trigger device to their sarine gas weapon that's onboard.
  • Undercover Brother. During the final battle with Undercover Brother, Mr. Feather reveals short retractable blade claws that extend from below his sleeves.

    Literature 
  • Architect Of Sleep: The soldier caste of the raccoon-like sapients wear a 'Fighting Hand', a bracer with a hinged plate that folds down to cover the back of the hand with a palm strap to keep it in place; the hinged plate has four daggerlike blades usable in close combat.
  • Discworld: Inigo Skimmer The Fifth Elephant had a blade cleverly concealed along his forearm(s), as well as a sharpened metal edge in his hat, and blades on his boots. He also might be the only character in the series shown to have any competence with wrist knives. In Night Watch, Vimes remarks that even most Assassins think they're stupid and ineffective weapons.
  • Shadows of the Apt: The Mantis Claw. It's hinged, so there's even more mobility than the standard Blade Below the shoulder.
  • Hannibal: Dr. Lecter arms himself with a spring-mounted concealed blade known as a Harpy. Available at any gun and knife show, apparently. It is, in fact, a SpyderCo Harpy. The spring-mounted bit is all Hollywood, though.
  • The Reynard Cycle: Reynard acquires one of these during The Baron of Maleperduys.
    Reynard: "Someone once told me that my body was a weapon. A truer statement in my case than most."
  • Sten of the Sten series has a special knife sheath surgically implanted into his arm so he can carry a concealed blade at all times.
  • Chronicles of the Kencyrath: Scythe-arms are blade pairs attached to the fore-arm, with the longer blade jutting forward and the other back. They are used in pairs, ie one main blade and one spur on each forearm. Training with them easily dissolves into chaos, with inexperienced users not being able to keep track of the spurs. Jame, the protagonist, is an exception, finding in them for the first time a weapon that she feels right with; she subsequently carries them everywhere.
  • The Legend of Drizzt: The Gutbuster Brigade wear bladed/spiked armor on which they regularly impale opponents, in addition to carrying massive axes or hammers. Their leader has been known to walk around with an entire hobgoblin impaled on his helmet, and to kill orcs by running into them chest-first and thrashing violently until the orc stops screaming.
  • Paradox Trilogy: Devi has a sword, named Elsie, which works this way. It is embedded in the wrist of her Powered Armor and can extend or retract at will.
  • Hammerjack: Avalon is armed with stealthblades that she can extend from the wrists of her sensuit.
  • The Conquerors Saga: Lada from And I Darken has two wrist blades she can hide under her sleeves, a gift from Mehmed. They come in pretty handy when she hears something in the dark at his wedding...
  • In Space Glass, the Marauder's four arms end in blades.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who: The Clockwork Droids of the SS Madame de Pompadour wield particularly nasty serrated wrist-blades. This also applies to the droids of its sister ship the Antoinette.
  • In the miniseries The Stand (1994) , Dayna Jurgens tries to use a retractable blade tied to her arm and hidden in the sleeve of her nightgown against Flagg. He turns it into a banana.
  • As seen in his self-titled spinoff, Angel has a set of retractable stakes that can pop out of his sleeves. Not blades, but just as effective, as evidenced by the piles of dust that used to be vampires. In the same series, Wesley uses a folding sword that pops out of his sleeve. He appears to hold it like a normal sword once its extended, though. When he loses his memory in one episode the practical problems of the concept are lampshaded, i.e. he nearly kills himself. And at one point, Connor shows up with an axe blade strapped to his arm.
    • In at least one episode they're using forearm-mounted crossbows!
    • Angel's retractable stakes became iconic for the series, remaining in the title sequence until the final season, and reappearing one last time (used by Gunn this time) in the Grand Finale.
  • Apophis uses one in Stargate SG-1 in an attempt to kill Sokar. Though he failed, it's amazing he even got close enough to try, as said blade was a huge and very obvious device on his arm. He does manage to take out Sokar's First Prime and a Jaffa guard with it, though.
    • Replicarter, a robotic version of Carter who can basically shapeshift, creates her arm into a long blade in order to kill some System Lords.
  • Jean Renault in Twin Peaks. He uses it to kill a random strawberry and Blackie, the madam of One Eyed Jacks.
  • The Stinger Blade wielded by the Blue Stinger Beetleborg is one of these.
  • In Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Dominic the White Rhino Ranger's morpher is this, able to be summoned from a bracelet. The blade's handle is gripped in a fist-like fashion similar to a sword; however, the blade is aligned with the user's arm rather than being perpendicular. Known as the Rhino Blade, Dominic's weapon can also loose a powerful Super Slash finishing attack and also houses an alternate laser cannon mode.
  • Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead has an interesting variant of this trope where the bayonet attaches to a prosthetic arm he wears over his right stump.
  • The Punisher (2017): Billy Russo sports a retractable blade on his right arm, which we see him use to kill Colonel Bennett and Sam Stein.
  • Several Ultras from the Ultra Series has the ability to create energy blades from behind their wrists, used for slicing monsters apart, including both Ultraman Gaia and his partner, Agul (in fact, their blades emits a lightsaber-like hum when being used), Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman Hikari, Ultraman Ginga and Ultraman Victory.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • CMLL and New Japan Super Junior Kamaitachi has the appearance of these embedded in his arm bands, but in the name of fairness they are not actually sharpened, just shiny. In the former his Red Baron roughly translates into "The Sickle Weasel".

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Warforged Armblade component in Eberron.
    • In 4th Edition, any sort of one-handed weapon can be attached to a Warforged's arm. However, they function like type three model in that the Warforged can't actually do anything with that hand while the weapon is grafted onto it, although it can be removed voluntarily and fairly quickly.
      • Actually, light weapons can retract into the Warforged's arm, if made with a specific type of attachment.
      • Not just fourth edition, they could do it in 3.5 as well. All the rules were a bit byzantine.
      • Quite the opposite problem, actually. No rules were given on how to make an item as an attached or embedded component, other than "you can."
  • The Complete Scoundrel Splatbook for 3.5 has two arm blade options - sleeve blades like the kind in Assassin's Creed, reverse-facing elbow-blades, plus knee-blades, and boot-blades. You can even get blades hidden inside an instrument!
  • Shadowrun gives us Forearm Snap-blades, which functions as an alternative to the more famous Spurs. These are meant for the runner who either doesn't have the cash for or doesn't want to deal with the Essence loss imposed by cyberware.
  • Games Workshop games:
    • In Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Skaarac the Bloodborn has Brutal Blades chained to his forearms so that the Great Khorgorath of Khorne can hack and gouge at his enemies. This is in contrast to regular Khorgoraths who make do with their natural claws and tentacles to kill their foes.
    • Warhammer 40,000:
      • Eldar Warp Spider Exarches have access to Power Blades, described as fitting onto the forearm, allowing their wielder to use other weapons in addition to the blades.
      • Chainfists are a variant of the Power Fist that combines the energy field of the powered gauntlet with the cutting power a chainsaw blade, allowing the wielder to cut through armoured vehicles and bulkheads as if they were paper.
      • Lightning Claws are weapons consisting of a number of a number of blades wreathed in a power field and attached to an armoured gauntlet. How the blades are attached to the gauntlet differ, with some attached to the back of the hand while other patterns attaching the blades to the knuckles or have them replace the gauntlet’s fingers.
      • The phase swords used by assassins of the Callidus Temple are worn on a on a bracer attached to the back of the wrist so that the wielder has her hand free to manipulate objects and handle her poisoned blades.
      • One particular Space Marine Chapter from the Cursed Founding, Black Dragons, just happened to get a hyperactive Ossmodula (implant, responsible for strengthening the bones (and accelerating their growth) of it's recepient). While it meant that Space Marines from this Chapter often were disfigured in some way (and counted as mutants by many Imperials as a result), many Black Dragons also got horns and bone blades in their arms (even retractable ones — when their Apothecaries "perfected" the development of this mutation), which are quite useful in close combat.
      • Soldiers of the Vraksian Renegade Militia have sharpened pieces of scrap metal strapped to the back of their arms to use as melee weapons during the trench fighting of the Siege of Vraks.

    Video Games 
  • Advent Rising: The Aurelians have large, scythe-like blades attached just below the elbow - and pointing backwards. Their fighting style consists primarily of elbow jabs.
  • Akuji the Heartless: Akuji's default melee weapons are his bone shives, attached underneath his elbow, which can slice up all kinds of monsters and demons.
  • Arcana Heart 3: Weiss can summon blades onto her wrists as her main combat method.
  • Assassin's Creed: The signature weapon of the Assassins is the Hidden Blade, an extendable knife attached to an arm-brace used to silently kill enemies. In Assassin's Creed, the ring finger of the Assassins' left hands are cut offnote  in order to make this usable. His sequel successor Ezio, on the other hand, pulls this off (on both hands, even) without the nasty "cutting off fingers" catch.
    • In game this is justified by Altaïr having modified the design so it's raised further from the wrist, noting that having a severed ring finger is an obvious way for the Templars to pick out Assassins. The first "Codex" page that's decrypted is his design for this blade, This doesn't stop Leonardo da Vinci, from taking a moment to freak Ezio out by pinning his hand and raising a meat cleaver before saying "Just kidding" after repairing his father's broken blade he inherited.
    • In Brotherhood the Prowler — a Templar attempt at fighting Assassins using their own methods — also has a forearm-mounted switchblade, if a wider and less fine-looking one, whose two blades pivot at the back to form a single blade in front. Ezio had to abandon the second (built by Leonardo, right-handed) of his Hidden Blades at the Siege of Monteriggioni, but had the original left-handed one replaced (or covered with a single-piece metal vambrace) upon his arrival in Rome, and Leonardo later constructed for him another right-handed Hidden Blade that now fit into the wrist of a leather glove.
    • And in Revelations, Ezio loses his right-handed hidden blade again (the intro video shows him losing his left-handed hidden blade, but in gameplay he's missing the right-handed one) and has it replaced with one modified by the Assassins in Constantinople to have a hook on the end of the blade, allowing for more maneuverability when climbing and new abilities in combat.
    • Each of Ezio's recruits in Rome was issued a Hidden Blade created by Leonardo da Vinci (as revealed in the Facebook game Project Legacy). By 2000 it had become "mostly ceremonial," but was still in use by the Assassins, and in fact Desmond Miles fought off a Templar invasion of an Assassin safehouse by wielding one.
    • Assassin's Creed III presents a further variation. Haytham and Connor continue to wield two hidden blades, but the left blade (the one traditionally used for assassinations) has been modified so that it can be pivoted off the mechanism to be used as a clip point knife.
    • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag uses a broad-bladed variation that makes the blade look like a dagger. While subtlety is blown (the blade is worn over the clothes), it is also very useful for open combat. They still use two of them.
    • Assassin's Creed: Unity goes back to one blade, but now it has a mini crossbow attached to it; the new moniker is "Phantom Blade".
    • Assassin's Creed Syndicate brings back the dual blades, and now they have a hook attached to propel the user on buildings and make impromptu zip-lines.
  • BioShock 2: Big Sisters have a massive hypodermic needle which they use to impale enemies.
  • BloodRayne: Rayne wears sword-length blades attached to wrist cuffs; they mechanically rotate and extend in the same direction as her lower arms, with grips that she holds to keep them in place.
  • Champions Online: The Nephilim and PSI Mooks wear those. While the former can wear them even on their legs, the laters' are made of energy. Like many other costume pieces, blade bracers are unlockable and, despite being purely decorative, very popular amongst the players.
  • City of Heroes: With Weapons Customization, several varieties of arm blades are offered as an option for the Claws powerset.
  • Cortex Command: In the Dark Storm mod, the Tengu armor guys use an electro-magnetic charged knife which is attached to their wrists (like the Assassin Blade in one of the above examples)in their melee attack, the knife was once a separate weapon in the mod up until lua's introduction in the game.
  • DOOM Eternal: The Doom Slayer's new armor now sports a massive extendable blade on his left arm.
  • Fallout 2: Frank Horrigan sports a massive extendable knife attached onto his armor on his right forearm. Though the armor itself is permanently grafted onto Horrigan, the blade probably is removable for maintenance purposes, and you actually can loot it from him after killing him (though, only by exploiting engine quirks). It's a pretty powerful melee weapon.
  • Fighting Force has female enemies on the 5th state that have these.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Kiros uses a pair of katar (mistranslated in the English-language version as "katal").
  • The first weapon you can use in Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a pair of wicked-looking curved blades strapped to your arms, which you use to butcher enemy gladiators. You're given a sword after arriving in the Elysian fields in stage 2.
  • Guilty Gear: Chipp Zanuff has an odd variant. His weapon is a blade that runs parallel to his forearm and is attached to a armband he wears there. In the opening animation, he sometimes clicks it into place
  • Halo:
    • The Elites absolutely love this type of weapon, as exemplified by the appearance of the Energy Sword itself, which is effectively an oversized katar. This is often a One-Hit Kill weapon that can turn invisible with its wielder, and (as of Halo: Reach) has its own assassination animations when wielded.
    • In Halo: Reach, Elites also carry retractable Energy Daggers in their gauntlets. These are small blades that only appear in assassinations without the sword.
    • Halo Wars: Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee carries full-length swords on both arms with knuckle guards.
    • Arbiter Thel 'Vadam eventually gets his own custom Energy Sword with a knuckle guard, called the "Prophet's Bane."
  • League of Legends: Talon and Zed's signature weapons. Talon uses an oversized katar-like blade on his right arm (unlike the characters he's based on) while Zed uses a pair of katar-like blades mounted in his gauntlets. Both of them are classified as Assassins.
  • Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver: When Raziel acquires the Soul Reaver, it manifests as an energy blade extending from his palm.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The Garo have a scimitar strapped to each hand. Although they could be holding it under their ponchos, the attacks they use suggest otherwise.
  • Mass Effect 3 brings us Omni-blades, diamond-hard searing hot blades flash-forged by one's omni-tool.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Sundowner, a cyborg boss, fights with a pair of machetes, one of which he attaches to a hinged clamp on his forearm while holding the other in his hand, which turns his entire arm into a makeshift scissor with enough strength to decapitate any unfortunate soul in between the blades.
  • In Monster Hunter, this weapon type would normally fall under the Dual Blades category.
  • Mortal Kombat 11: Rain uses a katar as a weapon in this game.
  • Otogi: Myth of Demons: Tsuna has one of these on his left arm as a secondary weapon.
  • Overlord: Green minions will convert weapons they pick up into blades attached to the backs of their hands (starting with two blades on only the right hand with very basic equipment, like farming tools and ending with three blades on each hand with the most powerful equipment).
  • Paladins: Talus has some kind of stone knuckle duster on his left hand that has rectangular spikes jutting out of it. With it, his punches are hard enough to send foes reeling back despite his small frame.
  • Planescape: Torment: Annah dual-wields punch daggers, which she is very good at concealing. . .though how she could conceal much of anything in that outfit is hard to imagine.
  • [PROTOTYPE]:
    • Alex Mercer can change his arm into a giant blade from the shoulder down on command. It is sharp enough to slice through the toughest hides and metals including tanks at the cost of having to kill and consume hundreds of people to stay alive.
    • James Heller and all the other Evolved that Mercer created in the second game also have this ability, more so with the other Evolved who, unlike Heller, seem to have just one special ability and dual armblades from the shoulder down.
  • Samurai Shodown: Gen-An's blade-glove and Kusaregedo's bone-spike arm. Going here because they can be dropped or broken away (In the latter case, as with all weapons, a new one shows up moments after).
  • Soulcalibur: Voldo's weapons include wrist-mounted motorized meat grinders, guillotine blades, pairs of antlers and regular katars.
  • Spectrobes: Rallen has a sword as one of his optional weapons. It sucks, though.
  • StarCraft: The Protoss Zealots have Energy Blades mounted in their armor. Dark Templar wield a single Warp Blade on their right wrist, though in StarCraft II, they've switched to a two-headed "warp scythe".
  • Star Wars: Republic Commando: The Melee weapon is a miniature vibroblade mounted into the back of a clone commando's gauntlet. Crosses over slightly with permenanly attached blade because it is a part of the armor. It's very effective.
  • Stormrise: The Sai faction has access to the Spectre unit type that fights with energy blades projected from it's forearms.
  • Street Fighter EX's Doctrine Dark wields a pair of retractable katars on the edges of his forearms that pop out below his wrists. Said blades have various lengths depending on D. Dark's special move/super combo.
  • Strife: The punch dagger. The only stealth available available besides poison crossbow bolts, the damage it deals depends on how many stamina upgrades the player has. With enough upgrades one can easily stab Templars and Crusader Tanks to death.
  • Unbound Saga: Tian Razorbone, an Assist Character, have retractable blades attached to his wrists, handy for helping you slice up mooks in stages where he appears as a backup.
  • World of Warcraft features "Fist Weapons" that can range from things that look like brass knuckles to full-arm sleeves featuring teeth, claws, spinning blades and/or other accessories.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY:
    • First seen in the Black Trailer, Atlesian Knights are humanoid robots with the ability to transform their hands into either blades or guns.
    • Fox uses weapons that encase his hands and attach at his wrists. The blades are so long they extend backwards from his wrist to end somewhere behind his elbows.

    Webcomics 
  • Coheed of the The Amory Wars has several curved blades along his left forearm.
  • Kor'Maril in Drowtales has these to compensate for his height.
  • Zeetha in Girl Genius uses a pair of swords with horizontal grips, similar to Katar (see below), which effectively extend over the tops of her hands.
  • In Impure Blood, the Cyborg has this. Roan tears it off and kills him with it.
  • Arminius Vambrey, a vampire hunter in Sluggy Freelance, conceals stakes in his sleeves. "And you thought these elbow pads just made me look tenured!"
  • Waterworks features an entire alien race where each person has four long blades affixed to their legs and arms since birth, useful for all kinds of things. They're a major part of the culture, and losing one's blades or not caring for them properly is grounds for social stigma.
  • Baskerville from Dogfight uses this as his main weapon when he fights.
  • Bun-bun of Sluggy Freelance attaches switchblades to the sides of his front paws on his spacesuit in "The Heavens and the Earth" to fight in zero-g. It doesn't work, because his main opponent holds him at bay by putting a hand against his helmet, and the suit lacks the mobility for him to do anything from there.

    Western Animation 
  • A minor villain in Batman Beyond had retractable chainsaws in his wrists and knees. The latter proved to be a liability as they got stuck on walls and floors.
  • Police chief Lin Beifong metalbends the bracers of her armored uniform into punching daggers to attack an Equalist Mini-Mecha on Episode 7 of The Legend of Korra.
    • Kuvira makes a similar, segmented blade out of the metal in her own uniform during her duel with her former mentor Suyin.
  • In the fourth season of The Venture Bros., 21 equipped himself with these, as well as developing some muscles.

    Real Life 
  • The Katar.
    • As well as its larger cousin, the Pata.
    • The wielder still has to hold both katar and pata. They're not attached to the arm; they're just held with a grip perpendicular rather than axial to the blade. That being said, they are almost certainly the inspiration for this kind of weapon in fiction.
  • In reality, a long blade that is parallel to the forearm note  would be impractical, both because the wrist joint is so important in the use of a sword and because it would be dangerous to the user. A hard blow to the blade could potentially cause the forearm to break.
    • You could use it to stab people effectively, as the motion for stabbing would be similar to a punch. This was often how the above-mentioned katars and patas were used historically, but no one in fiction ever seems to do that with solid blades.
  • Strap-on climbing spikes are sometimes used by professional tree trimmers or phone linemen to climb tree trunks and telephone poles. Subverted in that they're strapped to the legs, not the arms.
  • In its most popular form, the karambit can be attached to one's hand by means of fitting a finger through a hole in the pommel.
  • Undermining this trope was the original purpose of the handshake: To dislodge any concealed weapons from within one's sleeves, and to assure others that one was not carrying anything to begin with. Suffice to say, it was done much more forcefully back in the middle ages than it is today.
  • Ladies and gentlemen, the Serbcutter. Originally it was just a knife for cutting sheaves on the field, but then...

Permanently-attached blade:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Alita from Battle Angel Alita had elbow blades during her Motorball days, and although they later got mounted on a blade for a time, Gally later recovered them in their implanted form with her Imaginos body.
  • Jeremiah Gottwald from Code Geass, after having his body effectively rebuilt for the second time, gains two concealed swords, one in each arm. Oddly, his blades are longer than his forearms and clearly are not telescoping, so it's unclear how this actually works without impair his arms when the blades are retracted.
  • Taopaipai from Dragon Ball is rebuilt as a cyborg with this type of blade. He reveals it in his fight with Tenshinhan, using it to inflict the wounds that later become Tenshinhan's chest scars.
  • Guyver: The titular suit has two lethal blades attached to the forearms just in front of the elbows. Guyver III has 4, a pair on each arm.
  • Tre's Impulse Blades in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS are energy blade versions of these that appear from her wrists.
  • Mazinger series:
    • Mazinger Z: In the last season, Mazinger-Z got equipped with the "Iron Cutter", two retractable blades stored in each arm. Often he used them in combination with its Rocket Punch to slice enemies from far.
    • At the end of the Go Nagai manga, Sayaka got herself a new Fem Bot. One of its weapons were two blades attached tot he forearms it could shoot like a boomerang (joining this trope with Rocket Punch and Precision-Guided Boomerang).
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: Each fist of the titular mecha was surrounded by triangular blades pointed backwards. When Grendizer used its Rocket Punch, those blades bent forward. So, the enemy was shredded being being punched.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed can transmute his automail arm to use one of these in combat.
    • Once Lan Fan gets an automail arm, her arm has a blade coming out of the elbow.
  • It's a pretty common vampire power in Trinity Blood.
  • Both Kusanagi and the Big Bad in Blue Seed can do this thanks to their mitama. They're retractable, but still apparently part of the body.
  • Raideen: God Breaker! Gorgon Sword!
  • Gundam:
    • There are a few examples all over The 'Verse such as the GM Sniper Custom that has a box beam saber affixed to its left arm, while the Turn Delta has one on each arm.
    • The RX-0 Unicorn Gundam from the Gundam Unicorn novels/OVA has two beam sabres mounted in its forearms (on flip-out panels) for use in this fashion, the MSN-06S Sinanju also has a pair.
    • The GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam from Gundam SEED has a beam saber mounted on each of its limbs.
    • The ninja-themed GF13-021NG Gundam Spiegel from Mobile Fighter G Gundam is equipped with Spiegel Blades on its forearms. These katar-like weapons typically protrude backwards from the elbows but can be reversed to a forward facing position as well.
  • The VF-27 "Lucifer" in Macross Frontier, along with its cyborg pilot, Brera Sterne.
  • Saiha's En Jin in Flame of Recca, which turns the main character's flame into a sickle-like blade that protrudes from his wrist.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Sachiel, the third Angel does this with its arm bones.
  • In Reborn! (2004), Varia officer Squalo has an artificial hand with a sword attached to it. The hand can be flipped to cover blind spots.
  • Witchblade or Cloneblade users from Witchblade have extendable/retractable blades attached to their arms. The main character, Masane, has one, while those with upgraded Cloneblades have two. Masane acquires another one after learning to increase her power using the Witchblade
  • Sasori from Naruto. He stuck his sword into Sakura's gut. Sakura planned on keeping him focused on her by holding onto the blade, thinking he wouldn't let go and would worry on just finishing her off first; then he detached his puppet limb to reveal a blade within it, and promptly went to finish off Chiyo. Didn't work out too well, he got stabbed right in the heart capsule by the first two puppets he ever created, the ones made in the likeness of his deceased Mother and Father. Then he died.
  • Ikuro Hashizawa of Baoh fame. When in his "Baoh" form, he can brandish one on each arm, made of his own (albeit parasitic form) flesh. Said blades are known as "Reskiniharden Saber Phenomenon." He can even cut them off and throw them.
  • Kars from Jojos Bizarre Adventure has blades on his fore arms that he can retract into his arms at will. Their sharpness is due to the fact that they double as chainsaws. He can also sprout blades from his legs. These are all also apparently a biological part of his body.
  • Shinkuro from Kure-nai, as a child, had a sword-like blade placed inside his arm while he was training with a family of ex-assassins after the death of his own family. It pops out through his elbow when he gets overly agitated in combat, and in the final episode he proves to be frighteningly efficient with it. He now regrets having it put into him, though, and is trying to be strong enough not to ever need it.
  • In Transformers: Cybertron Starscream's Cyber Key-activated weapons are a pair of arm-mounted blades. And in Episode 25, he uses them to great effect when he goes on a Foe-Tossing Charge through the entire Autobot army. One is eventually broken, and later replaced with a cannon.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Among Ghidorah's remnants and "children", MaNi/Elder Brother possesses a retractable bone spike-claw in his reformed arm. Among Godzilla's allies, Scylla uses her sharp-bladed legs to combatively slice openings in her foe's skin,not unlike Mothra in her imago form.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Godzilla
  • Hellboy:
    • In the opening of the first Hellboy movie that takes place in WWII, Kroenen first empties his sidearm on the Allied soldiers before he has arm blades pop out his sleeves, and begins to slice and dice the unfortunate GI's. Near the end, he retracts the blades back into his sleeves when forced to perform a different action.
    • In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the golden army soldiers all have blades that pop out above their hands. Two of them, each made of red-hot gold.
  • Sorceress Irendri in the finale of Once Upon a Warrior, after she transforms into her powerful snake-human hybrid monster form, where her arms then extends a pair of organic swords resembling a serpent's spine.
  • Pacific Rim:
    • Striker Eureka sports curved "Sting-Blades" attached to its forearms.
    • Gipsy Danger has 'chainswords' in both arms.
  • The Predator has a pair of forearm-mounted claws on each arm, which pop out to four times their resting length when in use. In Predator 2, when one of them is captured, it is noted that there's no way to remove them without killing him, implying that they'd rather die than be disarmed.
  • RoboCop has a retractable spike that comes out of his right hand, which he uses to interact with machines - but ends up used as a weapon as well.
  • RoboGeisha provides an interesting take on this, as one of the many hidden weapons in the protagonist Yoshie's arsenal are a pair of retractable katanas that emerge from her arm pits.
  • The titular Shin in Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue has a set of razor-sharp protrusions on his forearms that act like serrations on a knife, allowing him to cut into the flesh of his opponents. They're also key to him performing his Finishing Move, in which he jams the serrations of his forearm into his opponent's neck, then rips their head off, taking the spine with it! While the serrations can be seen falling out, they can instantly regrow, descending out from the flesh of Shin's forearm after the previous ones detach
  • Sony's Spider-Man Universe: Riot in the first film and Carnage in the second film transform their hands into blade-like weapons.
  • In Spider-Man 2, a stabbing blade is concealed within at least one of Doctor Octopus's Combat Tentacles, which appears from the centre of the claws when deployed. What purpose such blades had in conducting research on nuclear fusion is anyone's guess. Though it could have been added in after the fact, when he decided he had to do whatever it took to do what he set out to do.
  • Transformers Film Series:
  • X-Men Film Series
    • Wolverine has Wolverine Claws, as does Deathstrike in X2: X-Men United, only hers are rapiers of some sort.
    • X-Men Origins: Wolverine:
      • Weapon XI has full length retractable katana blades in each arm. At least Wolverine's blades might've slid into his forearm allowing him to bend his wrist. This guy has no excuse. The blades are in fact so long that he shouldn't even be able to bend his elbow.
      • Sabretooth in the same film has Wolverine Claws, what with him being Wolverine's brother. They grow out of his fingernails and are shorter than Wolverine's, but clearly operate on the same principle.

    Literature 
  • Known Space: Kdatlyno have natural blade-like growths on their knuckles, elbows and knees.
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible: Phenom has retractable blades surgically implanted in his arms.
  • William Gibson's recurring razorgirl Molly Millions (from Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic) has retractable scalpel blades implanted in her fingertips.
  • Ravenor: One novel has a throwaway character whose body has been heavily modified, with a blade like this being one of the additions. The character's hand split open, with the fingers forming a sort of grotesque guard, with the blade emerging from there. If that sounds like Squick then you really don't want to know what the new recurring character the scene introduced did to him.
  • The Hork-Bajir in Animorphs are basically walking Cusinart, born with blades attached to their elbows, wrists, ankles, knees, tail and forehead (the poor mother...). Somewhat anticlimactically, they use them for gardening and harvesting bark from trees... at least, until some other aliens show up and parasitically possess them in order to turn them into a slave race of living superweapons.
  • The Mantis-kinden in Shadows of the Apt often grow barbs down their forearms with their Art. They're most often used as a secondary weapon, though, adding one more way for them to kill you.
  • The Yevetha, the antagonists of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, have retractable blades in their wrists. Depending on the artist, it's either a single blade out of the inside of the wrist or two blades out the sides.
  • Super-Soldier Roland from After the Revolution has a foot-long retractable razor implanted in his right forearm. Due to his Technical Pacifist vow he tries not to use it, to the extent that in his first fight he considers tearing said arm loose at the shoulder and beating his opponent into submission with it before deploying the razor.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Model 0005 Cylons on Battlestar Galactica have retractable wrist-mounted blades for melee fighting. The newer Centurions instead have fingers that fold out into powerful claws.
  • In the "Look At The Princess" episode trilogy of Farscape, the Peacekeeper agent Jenavian Charto has a stiletto blade concealed in her wrist.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's warzord Cyclopsis has twin wrist blades after being reconstructed by Lokar following the first time Ultrazord blew it up. It slices off one of the Megazord's arms and the drill tip of Dragonzord's tail. In Round 3, Dragonzord gets payback by using its tail to break the blades off.
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Adam's demon arm had a retractable spike that extended from the base of the palm.
  • In Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, the genetically modified Nietzscheans (Homo Sapiens Invictus) have bone blades in their forearms that can be extended and retracted at will.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Celestial series battlemechs in BattleTech usually mount a large Retractable Blade on one arm. Though most well known for their appearance on the Celestials, Retractable Blades can be used in other 'Mechs. However, they're considered to be the weakest among the already impractical melee weapons a mech can mount unless certain optional rules are used.
  • Mechwarrior, the RPG spinoff of Battletech, features concealed blade weapons as an option for anyone with a cyborg arm, including the infamous Manei Domini◊ units employed by the fanatical Word of Blake.
  • In Keith Baker's Dreaming Dark trilogy there is a Warforged named Indigo. She has two concealed blades in her arms.
  • Shadowrun offers hand razors, which are small blades implanted under the nails, hand blades, which extend along the outside of the palm and little finder, and spurs, which extend beyond the hand and can reach sword-like sizes. All self-respecting street samurai will have at least one implanted weapon.
  • In Warhammer 40,000, members of the Black Dragon Chapter of Astartes suffer from a genetic mutation that causes bony protrusions to grow from their limbs and heads. Retractable bone blades that grow from the forearms are one of the most common forms for this mutation to take and the Chapter’s veterans typically coat them with adamantium to make them extra-effective.
  • The company Macrotech advertises their version of this as "perfect when guns are illegal and swords are too inconvenient" in GURPS: Bio-Tech.
  • Rifts:
    • If we tried to mention all of the bionic parts that grant this in, we'd be here all night. Not to mention the drills and chainsaws.
    • Tirrvol Sword Fists are aliens whose arms naturally end in long, ivory blades; they use their prehensile feet to handle things instead.

    Video Games 
  • Bloody Roar: Xion the Unborn has these in his beast form. His Primal Fury ending cutscene indicates that they're either in his human arms too or he can at least access them without transforming.
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Mantis Blades are a cybernetic implant that gives people retractable blades that deploy from the forearms.
  • Daemon X Machina: One of the upgrades players can purchase for their outer is a cybernetic right arm with an attached Laser Blade.
  • Dark Devotion: The Executioner, the first major boss, has a large semicircular blade growing out of his left forearm.
  • Dark Forces: The phase 1 Dark Troopers are skeletal battle droids, each sporting a vibrosword attached to the wrist of their right arm.
  • The Necromants from Demon Skin are humanoid mutants from the depths of hell whose arms are organic blades. Both of them.
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Adam Jensen, the protagonist, has two straight, square-tipped blades hidden in his bionic arms, which can extend either from the wrists or elbows, allowing him to take down enemies in awesomely over-the-top ways. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, he gets an experimental augmentation that lets him fire them out of his arms.
  • Digital Devil Saga: Serph, while in his demon form has two retractable blades protruding out of his forearms. At least they look to be part of his actual anatomy in that form.
  • Elden Ring: Malenia's blade, the Hand of Malenia, lacks a handle and is instead built directly in to her prosthetic right arm.
  • Killer Instinct: Fulgore, a cyborg assassin, has plasma charged blades mounted on his forearms.
  • League of Legends: Nocturne has a pair of scythe-like blades on both of his arms.
  • Legacy of Kain : Raziel gets a wraith-blade bound with himself, which extends from his open hand on command — at least until the last game, when it becomes a normal sword-shape.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon:
    • Grublin commanders have a sword-like blade in place of a right hand.
    • Crossbow orcs have dagger-like blades growing from their right wrists.
  • Lost Planet: The PTX-class Vital Suit has a chainsaw mounted on its left arm. That's right: A Mini-Mecha with twin-gatling guns and an arm-mounted chainsaw. Needless to say, they're the most powerful mechs in the game.
  • MadWorld: Jack has a retractable chainsaw built into his bionic arm.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Baraka is a member of the nomadic mutant Tarkatan race, most of whom possess long retractable blades extending from their forearms. Baraka is not an exception. However, those arm blades can be taken off from a Tarkatan if Erron Black wielding one strapped to a handle is anything to go by. Close examination has revealed that the blade carried by Erron Black was removed from a Tarkatan by relieving said Tarkatan of their entire arm — its handle is actually the radius and ulna severed at the elbow and wrapped in leather, and the hilt is a skeletal hand.
    • Mortal Kombat X: Kano has retractable elbow blades that he shows off in one of his intro animations. However, they appear to be mostly for show and aren't used in gameplay.
  • Pokémon:
    • Grovyle and Sceptile have blade-shaped leaves growing from their elbows, which are strong and sharp enough to serve as weapons in combat.
    • Gallade is an odd variant. Ordinarily, his arms don't even have blades, but when he enters battle, he can extend his elbows to make them Absurdly Sharp Blades. They become much more blade-like when Mega-Evolved.
    • Iron Valiant, a future Paradox Pokemon and a descendent of Gallade//Gardevoir, possesses red blades extending from its arms similar to those of Mega Gallade. It can also detach them and combine them into a handheld Double Weapon.
  • Shade: Wrath of Angels have your demonic form, where upon activation your arms then turns into scythe-like blades capable of ripping enemies apart. You lose them after a while however. There are also gigantic demon enemies whose arms are blades and spikes.
  • Super Robot Wars: The Humongous Mecha Soulgain series has extendable blade on each forearms. Unextendable variant of said blades are used in Endless Frontier by combat android Cardia Basirissa and Arkgain, a smaller combat robot based on the Soulgain.
  • Tales of Hearts: Kunzite has these as his prize for being the first playable robot in the Tales Series, and he gets the third kind as a bonus — two extra blades attached to flexible arms mounted on his back.
  • Tekken 6: Alisa can deploy chainsaws from her arms while fighting.
  • War of the Monsters: Togera extends spikes from its wrist during punch attacks, and Robo-47 replaces its hand with blades for some of its attacks.
  • X-Kaliber 2097 has a couple:
    • Chainsaw's titular chainsaw is built into his right arm.
    • The third boss, a ninja-like cloaked mutant with swords grafted in both arms which he can use to shred away Slash's life in a hard-to-avoid Spin Attack.
  • Zone of the Enders:
    • Jehuty has an energized blade attached to its right arm. It runs along the forearm from the wrist normally, but swings to the front when engaged.
    • Conversely, both Dolores in Dolores, i and Testament in Fist of Mars use Type 3 Morph Weapons, with their entire forearms changing to a blade or Arm Cannon when needed.

    Visual Novels 
  • Dies Irae: Ren Fujii's weapon is a huge curved blade that extends from his elbow that he can summon and dismiss as he desires.

    Webcomics 
  • Outsider: The outermost finger of the left hands of the insectoid Umiak takes the form of a claw that can be pressed back against the forearm to crush or extended for slashing and stabbing attacks. Some of their hardtroops posses a metallic version of this, sometimes entirely replaced by a long knife.

    Web Original 
  • Bosun's Journal: A variant. The spindly stabbers skewer their prey using the extremely long, spear-like nails of their index fingers.
  • Mortasheen has a few creatures with these, most notably Skoffix, a flightless avian whose arms each bear a finger whose claw is modified into a long, curving blade.
  • Whateley Universe: The assassin Tinsnip can manifest swords over both hands. Apparently, his "signature move" is a scissors-snip. Squick.

    Western Animation 
  • In the third season premiere of Transformers: Animated, a newly-upgraded Sari Sumdac has a pair of energy-blades extending from within her forearms, though they are later permanently disabled and never seen again. Word of God (via Wyatt's formspring) is that they're still there, but their power output has been heavily reduced. Sari probably isn't too keen to use them again after what happened to Bumblebee.
  • Transformers: Prime: Arcee has two retractable forearm-mounted blades, while Optimus and Ratchet have ones that can replace their hands when necessary. Optimus has full-length swords similar to his movie weapons, while Ratchet's could sort-of pass for surgical tools. Megatron carries a BFS that slides out of the area between his right arm and his permanently-mounted Arm Cannon.
  • All the way back in the second episode of The Transformers, Optimus Prime was able to retract his fist and replace it with a glowing energy axe. Despite his figure having removable fists that could easily have accomidated such an accessory, it wouldn't be until 2003 that an action figure was released that had the axe.

    Real Life 
  • Mantids (such as the Praying Mantis) actually have two of these facing opposite directions that act as pincers when the arms are extended.
  • Mantis shrimp specialized in hunting fish have raptorial arms designed to stabbing. It's already pretty easy considering the species can already punch with the force of a .22 caliber bullet fired from a rifle. This may not count, as the mantis shrimp's "arms" are actually modified mouthparts.
  • One of the most distinctive features of the dinosaur Iguanodon is a thumb spike, a sharp protuberance on both of the dinosaur's hands in the rough position of a thumb on a human hand. There is some debate as to what the spike actually did, with most paleontologists theorizing that it was used for self-defense, or in combat with other Iguanodon, wheras others believe it was used to crack open hard-shelled fruits, seeds or nuts.
  • Spinosaurid dinosaurs like Spinosaurus, Baryonyx, and Suchomimus had a greatly enlarged thumb claw. Scientists aren't completely sure what the claw was for, but suspect that it was for clawing fish like a modern grizzly bear or to hold down large prey while ripping it apart with their jaws.

Blade replaces hand or arm:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Koku from B: The Beginning can turn his left arm into a extremely sharp blade.
    • Izanami can turn her left leg into a similar blade, an ability that she passes onto Koku after he kills her.
  • Creed's Phantom Blade Lv.3 in Black Cat replaces his arm with a Tao Blade and sprouts an extra arm.
    • Eve in the same series usually morphs one of her hands into a blade to use as a Shapeshifter Weapon.
  • Shira in Blade of the Immortal, after losing a hand, decides to sharpen the bones in his arm and use that as a blade. Apparently, when he decided this he forgot to consider that it would hurt like hell to hit something with it. Like he'd care anyway...
  • In My-HiME, Robot Girl Miyu can replace her lower arm with a sword (among other things).
  • Chachamaru in Negima! Magister Negi Magi carries one that replaces her standard arm along with an Arm Cannon. How she goes back to her normal arms has yet to be seen.
  • The Mazinger series:
    • Mazinger Z: Mechanical Beast Brutus-M3 had a scimitar-like blade replacing one of its arms.
    • Great Mazinger: Several Mechanical Beasts had bladed weapons -or even spiked maces- instead of hands or arms. The first examples appeared in the last episode of Mazinger-Z (Gratonios) and in the first episode of the sequel.
  • The true form of Allen Walker's Innocence in D.Gray-Man is a BFS that is made from his arm. Different from the usual "third kind" of this trope in that the sword isn't attached to his body any more- he has to hold it in his remaining hand.
  • Snimon from Digimon is a virus-hunting praying mantis sniper (mind you, all of that besides "praying mantis" is All There in the Manual and never witnessed, but he is pretty badass) who cleaves opponents with its giant blades, and is capable of shooting pink crescent beams from them with its Twin Sickles attack (known as Shadow Sickle in Japanese. There's a better version called Ultimate Twin Sickles, which increases the number of energy blades fired.) He's also one of the rare Mons who can overpower Digimon of higher levels than he.
    • Omegamon/Omnimon's Transcendent Sword is technically this, since it comes out of his "hand" - which is composed of a WarGreymon skull/helmet instead of an actual hand with fingers. (Unlike Snimon, we don't have to worry about how he picks stuff up. This is a Fusion Dance Super Mode saved for special occasions and only taken on under dire circumstances. In his? Their? default form of Agumon and Gabumon, they've got hands, though Agumon doesn't appear to have thumbs.)
      • Similarly, there's Duskmon. Like Omni/Omegamon, the blades are extended from his "hands" with are shaped like a pair of draconic skulls. Unlike Omnimon, he spends a great deal of time in this form, making one wonder how he held things other than "biting" them.
    • Shurimon has giant shurikens for hands and feet, and his limbs are actually coils and are extendable. Again, combat form.
  • One Piece': Axe-Hand Morgan... well, has an axe for a hand. A big one. Specifically his right forearm has been replaced with an axe, not even bothering to remove the handle, which can be seen stretching out the skin behind his elbow.
  • Soul Eater: The bladed Weapons can do this, with Death Scythes like Spirit and Soul managing more varied transformations.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • One of the combat automail arms that Buccaneer uses over the course of the series, the "Crocodile", is this combined with a chainsaw.
    • Envy at one point turns its lower arm into a blade when fighting Ling. In the original anime, Envy uses the same trick on Ed, except this time he/she kills him with it.
  • Dororo: Hyakkimaru, the main character, has swords concealed in his prosthetic arms, which slide off just below the elbow when he needs the blades. After he regains his real arms, he switches to wielding the swords as normal.
  • Gunsmith Cats: Gray equips himself with a bladed prosthetic after Rally Vincent blows off his hand. He swaps the blade for a hook for everyday use. He can shoot the blade like a spear using a powerful spring built into the forearm.
  • Genzo: The wild girl Otsuru uses a rusty blade as prosthetic right hand. Later the main character Genzo build a better curved blade for her.
  • Brigadoon: Marin and Melan: The gun-swordsmen have one arm that ends with a blade instead of a hand, and another that ends with an Arm Cannon.
  • Blood+: Solomon Goldsmith shapeshifts one of this hands into a blade as a weapon of choice.
  • Baroqueheat in Dazzle can change his right hand and forearm into a sword when he needs to.
  • Franken Fran: Gavrill, unlike her sister Veronica , doesn't have blades inside her body, but is able to transform her body into, among other things, said blades.
  • Accel World: Deconstructed. Kuroyukihime's avatar was generated with blades instead of arms due to her desire for power at the expense of human relationships. At one point she expresses regret that this means she can't embrace the Innocently Insensitive Haruyuki.
  • BLAME!: Maeve has a large blade in the place of one of her hands. The other is replaced by an Arm Cannon.
  • Blue Ramun: Zig-Zagged — Rowan's dragon Tisuodo has lost his right arm above the elbow, but is able to summon/ create a dragon-headed prosthesis that he can use like a Whip Sword.
  • Gamaran Shura: after being deprived of his right arm, psycho assassin Raio Magami didn't give up fighting and instead crafted himself a katar-like scissor blade he calls "Vajra" and attached it to his right arm as a new weapon alongside his [[Whip Sword Urumi). He even developed a technique specifically for Vajra.

    Comic Books 
  • Marvel Comics minor villain Razorfist, as the name implies, has two foot blades replacing each hand. The difficulty of, for example, eating are frequently lampshaded; Razorfist shirks all responsibility onto others to care for him (and they do because oh crap he is a crazy muscular martial artist with freaking swords for hands). This Razorfist is actually the second or third, depending on how you count it - he originally shared the name with his brother, each having only one blade-hand. He's so used to them that, whenever someone decides to replace them for prosthetic hands, he gets completely lost on how to use them.
  • Razorsharp of The DCU team books Psyba-Rats and Blood Pack was a Playful Hacker (with Cracker tendencies) whose superpower was that her arms could morph into swords. In Psyba-Rats she mainly used them to climb walls and break into buildings (in a good cause, usually); in Blood Pack she was reluctantly put in a position where she'd have to use them in combat.
  • The Avengers villain The Grim Reaper has a scythe blade on his right hand. Originally it was a Type One "techno-scythe" supplied by the Tinkerer. Later, his right hand got amputated and replaced by a magical scythe when he was empowered by the demon Lloigoroth.
  • Amokk, from Hyperkind, has his hands replaced with foot-long blades. In the second issue, he laments that he'll never play the guitar again, until he and the rest of the team discover that they can shapeshift back to their human forms.
  • The Outsiders once fought a villain named Nunchuku, who instead of hands, had, well... what do you expect? He was arguably one of the less silly opponents The Outsiders faced.

    Film — Animated 
  • In Quest for Camelot Ruber does this towards the end with Excalibur with a magic potion that combines objects.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The blind Persian executioner in 300 has swords instead of arms.
  • In Child's Play 2, Chucky's hand is ripped off when a door closes on it. He then uses his remaining hand to stab his knife into the floor and remove the handle from the blade, and then plunges the blade into his arm stump.
  • Hyakkimaru from the movie Dororo has a sword in place of each arm, covered by a functional artificial limb (much like Vash's left 'hand-gun'.
  • Edward Scissorhands has, well, blades instead of fingers.
  • Enter the Dragon. Han replaces his (false) hand with a torashuko claw in his iconic fight with Bruce Lee's character.
  • Ash from Evil Dead, with his chainsaw hand. Groovy. Becomes the first type in Army of Darkness when he gets a new mechanical hand.
  • All the monsters from Frankenstein's Army have meathooks, saws, or Jaws-of-Life for hands.
  • Azog of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has a thin orc blade to replace the arm he lost in a previous battle outside Moria. However in the previous two films he had a simple mock metal forearm and hand, meaning he could also qualify as a Type Inote .
  • In the made-for-TV movie adaptation of Moby-Dick (the one that stars Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab), Ahab and crew meet up with another whaling ship, whose captain lost an arm to the white whale. He had it replaced with a harpoon.
  • Cogliostro from Spawn (1997) can turn his arm into a glowing sword, or at least the movie version can.
  • One ability of the shape-shifting T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He gives Todd an arm-blade through the mouth while posing as Janelle when John calls up his (now-dead) foster parents.
  • Shang-Chi features an Elite Mook who has had one forearm replaced with a retractable, apparently red-hot-at-the-edges blade; his license plate is RZRFST and his car has a giant, graffiti-tag RAZOR FIST on the side, so he's pretty definitely the MCU version of Razor Fist (See comics, above), albeit one with fewer limb-blades, but more brains.
  • Wild Wild West. When Jim West fights several of Mad Scientist Dr. Loveless's altered men inside the giant mechanical spider, one of them has extendable sword blades implanted in his arms instead of hands.
  • In X-Men: Days of Future Past, while the Future Sentinel’s Eye Beams are quite powerful, they are slow to charge, and when caught up close they tend to resort to forming their arms into pikes and running targets through.

    Literature 
  • In the third part of Piers Anthony's Battle Circle Trilogy, Neq the Sword, the titular character has his hands cut off by bandits. The surgeon who he rescued at the same time agrees to replace his left hand with a simple prosthetic claw, and his right with a sword. Unfortunately, his bad temper, coupled with a sword permanently attached to his arm, wind up causing unnecessary deaths. He remedies this by welding a glockenspiel to the sword so that it would never kill again. !
  • In The Malazan Book of the Fallen, the K'Chain Che'Malle (Big intelligent lizard creatures) are bred for specific purposes, so the K'ell Hunters have big blades instead of claws or hands.
  • The sword-armed man who was hunting Merlin in The Wings of Merlin, who lost his arms when Merlin burned them off in a fit of angry Power Incontinence during the prologue of the series.
  • In After the Golden Age, the supervillain Steel uses his power to turn his lower arms into steel blades.
  • Assault Sergeant Tellos from the Soul Drinkers series lost his hands in battle but, due to extensive nerve damage, was unable to have them replaced with bionics. So that he could continue fighting in service of his Chapter, Tellos jammed chainsword blades into the stumps.
  • In the Saga of Egil One-Hand and Asmund the Berserkerslayer, the young warrior Egil loses his right hand in combat with a giant, but later he earns the gratitude of a dwarf who heals his wound and then forges a special sword for him which has a socket instead of a hilt so it can be fixed on Egil's arm stump. With this device Egil can fight as before, and in fact becomes a feared swordsman.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers again: Some of the Putty Patrollers had swords, axes, or blunt maces for hands. Also, the "Jaws of Destruction" monster had saw-hands which were soon severed.
  • In Stargate SG-1, the human-form replicators (or at least Replicator Carter) can morph their hands into blades.
  • In the Torchwood episode "Sleeper", the sleeper agents of Cell 114 have arm blades that aren't pleasant to look at.
  • Tons of Ultra Series kaiju fall under this category, but perhaps the most notable one is Dorako from the original Ultraman, who looks an awful lot like a non-cyborg version of Gigan above (and keep in mind that Gigan debuted in 1972 while Dorako first appeared in 1966).
    • Ultraman Max and Ultraman Mebius (plus Ultraman Hikari) have these weapons as part of their movesets; Max can summon a wrist-mounted energy blade called the Max Galaxy, which he uses to fire an incredibly powerful beam, summon forcefields and channel solar energy into his body, while Mebius and Hikari can both summon forearm-mounted energy swords from their braces to slice away at foes.
    • Ultraman Agul can form a Laser Blade from his hand as a melee weapon. Gaia gains the ability to do the same after receiving Agul's light, and even has a sword duel with Bizorm, a monster who can do the same, in Episode 42.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Games Workshop games:
    • In Necromunda, Pit Slaves are generally modified by their owners so that they can perform their duties more efficiently. Scrap slaves will have their arms and hands replaced with buzz saws, mining slaves will be outfitted with rock drills and fungus harvesting slaves will gain a pair of razor sharp shears. Those slaves who find themselves in the fighting pits of the underhive often have chainswords fitted to their arms in place of their hands with the famous rebel slave Bull Gorg having both his hands replaced with a pair of turbo chainswords.
    • Skrag the Slaughterer from Warhammer had his hands removed after he angered the Tyrant of his former tribe. To stop the bleeding, Skrag jammed cleavers into the stumps and now uses them to slice 'n' dice his victims.
    • Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
      • Some Ogor Butchers replace their hands with Stump Blades so that they are always ready to carve their opponents into juicy morsels.
      • The model for the Bloodstoker of the Bloodbound Warhordes has his barbed Torture Blade inserted into the ragged stump of his right wrist.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The hook horror is a monster with a body like a bipedal beetle and a head like a vulture. Each arm end with a single, enormous hooked claw, hence the name.
    • Sword spiders have legs that end in sharp, chitinous blades that resemble metallic weapons.
    • Rules for replacing a missing hand with a hook, short sword, or hand axe were present in older editions of the game, though they've been absent since 3.0 Edition since starting then rules for having a limb chopped off were taken out of the game.

    Video Games 
  • The Butchers from Dead Island are highly aggressive zombies whose arms end in razor-sharp bony stubs they use as weapons. It's implied their Horror Hunger drove them to chew their own hands off.
  • Three of the Blight Ganons from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild make use of this trope.
    • Waterblight Ganon can project an energy spear from a block at the end of its left arm.
    • Both the Fireblight and Thunderblight Ganons can project energy swords from their arm stumps. When the former Turns Red, it will light its blade on fire.
  • The Katana robot in One Must Fall has crescent-shaper blades instead of hands while the Shredder robot has claw-shaped cutters. In both cases the blades are monomolecular.
  • Warcraft features Kargath Bladefist, who leads the Shattered Hand clan of orcs. The Shattered Hand clan has its origins in the orcs enslaved in mines by ogres. They were kept from escaping by having one hand chained to a wall while they worked. One day, Kargath decided he'd had enough, so he strangled his overseer with his chain and sliced off his manacled hand, replacing it with a blade. He then encouraged his fellow slaves to follow his example, and they rose up and killed their ogre masters.
  • StarCraft:
    • The Zerg Hydralisk has arms that end in huge scythe-blades that it cannot use in combat (although it does in cutscenes), because somebody was unable to incorporate melee and projectile attacks in one unit. In StarCraft II, it's able to finally use those blades, even if the difference between a blade swipe and its regular ranged attack is minor at best.
    • The Ultralisk which has two giant Kaiser Blades on its head.
  • In League of Legends, Urgot, prior to his rework, has one arm replaced with a blade, the other replaced with a CANNON. The skin Dreadnova Gangplank also replaces most of Gangplank's body with cybernetic augmentations, complete with his sword arm becoming a blade from elbow-down.
  • Blade Golems in Neverwinter Nights 2 including one controlled by the player.
  • Both Protoman and Colonel in Mega Man Battle Network. This lets them engage in Loophole Abuse in the sixth installment - CopyBots can't use Battlechips, but that is not an issue for them since both of them have a sword in place of one their arms.
  • The forearms of the Pokémon Kabutops take the form of curved blades.
    • Scyther as well.
    • And Gallade.
      • Gallade has fingers. The blades are on its elbows, like a Guyver.
    • In the fifth generation, Pawniard and Bisharp have them. (being basically made of living blades)
    • In the ninth generation, Ceruledge has two blades made of fire and ghost energy for arms.
  • In City of Heroes, some members of the Freakshow gang choose to replace both their hands with blades (or hammers). Flavor text mentions they rely on other gang members to feed them.
  • Space Pirate grunts in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes seem to have replaced one of their limbs with a blade.
    • Although considering the Pirates are giant Flying Mantises, how do you distinguish their regular arms from blades?
  • Krauser in Resident Evil 4 gains this◊ as a mutation when infected with Las Plagas. Appropriately enough, considering he's an amoral knife-wielder.
  • The Scrapers and the Missionary boss in Silent Hill 3 have blades for arms.
  • Clive Barker's Jericho provides some especially horrifying examples in the form of the Cultist and Crusader-types of enemies.
  • So do the Liars in Baroque; they like to thrust those blades into the ground and chase the protagonist with them.
  • The player characters of [PROTOTYPE] and [PROTOTYPE 2] are practically in love with this kind of weaponry. Three out of their five offensive powers involve turning their arms into bladed implements. The Claws ability "merely" grows oversized arms that end in foot-long, razor-sharp "fingers", the Whipfist produces an extendable tentacle with a razor end, and their iconic (and aptly named) Blade power turns the entire right arm into a big, honking sword of destruction roughly as big as themselves.
  • One of KOS-MOS's many, many abilities.
  • Blade Man from Mega Man 10 has swords instead of hands. AND his head.
    • What a tour guide would do with all those swords though, we will never know.
    • Sword Man also has a sword fitted to his right arm in Mega Man 8.
  • In Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, the Troopers not only Dual Wield these in replacement-for-the-hand form, but they do the same with plasma blasters and combine them with the blades on the same arms.
  • The enemy type in The Suffering which symbolises execution by decapitation not only has forearms replaced by blades, but the legs below the knees too. Don't ask how it manages to maintain balance when running.
  • The March Hare from Alice: Madness Returns sports one of these, but never gets to use it.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the demon Drahmin wields an iron club in place of his right hand and forearm (and it's always on the right).
  • One of them happens in the Saw II: Flesh & Blood video game, with a victim.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • In Daggerfall, Ebonarm is a god of war worshiped in the Iliac Bay region as the companion and guardian of all warriors. He has an ebony blade permanently fused to his right arm, hence his Meaningful Name. He is also a Black Knight, never seen without his suit of dark ebony armor.
    • In Oblivion, in the Shivering Isles expansion, we have the Gatekeeper, a sizeable Frankenstein-like monster guarding the entrance to the Isles. One of his arms is a giant blade. After killing the monster, we are tasked later on with putting him back together, using various body parts. For his arm, we can choose between the exact same blade and also an axe and a mace. The cut content suggests that there was also a regular fist to be included too...
  • In Rimworld you can replace your pawns' arms, weather they lost the limb or not, with Mechanoid blades. This, predictably, gives the pawn in question a severe penalty to work they do compared to even a regular prosthetic, but it equally predictably gives an excellent modifier to melee attacks. Assuming the pawn is unarmed, anyway, since the game AI will prioritize held weapons even if their arm blades are superior.
  • Zone of the Enders: Both Dolores in Dolores, i and Testament in Fist of Mars use Type 3 Morph Weapons, with their entire forearms changing to a blade or Arm Cannon when needed.
  • Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction introduces the Ravager xenomorph. It's main form of attack are two massive blades (called Hullblades) in place of its hands and it's the only type of xenomorph that kills it's prey outright instead taking them alive to use as hosts as it's the hives answer to the human and predator Elite Mooks.
  • In Dark Devotion, the twisted little green monsters in the Den of Corrupted Nature have bony scythes in place of hands. They occasionally drop these blades when they die, allowing the player to wield them like a pair of knives.
  • In the Mega Man Battle Network games, the Sword chip and its many variants temporarily turns the NetNavi's hand into a sword.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Final Space:
    • Gary's prosthetic robot arm can reconfigure into a stabbing blade this.
    • After merging with a Titan, the Lord Commander can transform his arm into a stabbing blade.
  • Generator Rex: one of Rex's favoured weapons, after the dual Power Fist, is to transmute his hand into a BFS.
  • Shiv, a supporting Static Shock villain, could replace his hands with nifty energy blades. If memory serves, this power was relatively versatile, but true to his name, he always came back to this...
  • Transformers:
    • Optimus Prime again, this time in Transformers: Generation 1, with an Energon axe in the three-part Series Premiere. Megatron had an Energon Mace. Despite using these weapons only that one time in the entire series, they're considered iconic to the characters, and even referenced by similar weapons in the movie listed above. Both of the characters Masterpiece series toys included plastic versions of the weapons. These were more of a combination of the second and third types, given that they retracted their hands to deploy them.
    • Yet another Optimus: his Transformers: Prime incarnation has two arm-blades and two arm-cannons. Both of Ratchet's arms can also become short swords ("I recommend dissection.")
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
  • When Villain of the Week Zorax loses his gun, he makes swords appear from his wrist gauntlet. He matches Leonardo blow for blow, then cuts one of Leonardo's swords (a katana) in half.

    Real Life 
  • Not quite a blade, but a man named Aron Ralston who, after getting his arm trapped under a boulder for 5 days whilst mountain climbing, cut off his own arm to free himself, then proceeded to replace the amputated limb with an ice pick and climb the crap out of some more mountains.
  • Galvarino, war leader of the Mapuche tribe in the 16th century, was captured by the Spanish and had both his hands cut off to serve as a visual warning to the rest of his tribe. Because he was a total badass, however, he went back to the tribe, got them super-pissed at the Spanish, and then tied blades to his arms to compensate for the fact that he had no hands. He then proceeded to lead an army against the bastards who disfigured him. The Spanish ended up killing him eventually (they wanted to let him go because they felt sorry for him, but he would hear none of it), but it's important to note that the Mapuche tribe was one of the few that never fell under Spanish rule (it joined Chile in the 18th century).
  • Before modern prosthetics, individuals who lost a hand in an accident or in combat could have a hook fitted over the stump.
  • The dinosaur Mononykus had lost two of the fingers on its hands, leaving only a large single claw (hence the name: "One Claw"). It's suspected that it may have used this claw to break into insect nests like a modern anteater.

 
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Video Example(s):

Razorfist

Razorfist uses his heated blade arm to slice through metal as he fights Shang Chi.

King Olly blade...

Assassin's Hidd...

Slayer

Alternative Title(s): Wrist Blade, Blades Below The Shoulder, Arm Mounted Blade, Arm Embedded Blade, Bladed Hand, Bladed Arm

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Razorfist

Razorfist uses his heated blade arm to slice through metal as he fights Shang Chi.

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Main / BladeBelowTheShoulder

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Razorfist

King Olly blade...

Assassin's Hidd...

Slayer