Signature weapon

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A signature weapon is a weapon or weapons used by a character in a story that has made its owner so famous by using it the mere mention of the weapon makes one think of the character. The most famous signature weapon is probably Excalibur, which is almost always instantly associated with King Arthur. Other signature weapons include:

• Kratos's Blades of Chaos or Blades of Athena. Both are pairs of blades tethered to chains on Kratos' wrists.
• Raziel and Kain's vampiric sword, known as the Soul Reaver.
• James Bond's Walther PPK (later Walther P99)
• Francisco Scaramanga's golden gun.
• Agent Smith's Desert Eagle
• King Arthur's Excalibur
• Captain America's shield
• Thor's hammer Mjolnir
• The Jedi's lightsabers
• Arjuna's bow Gandiva
• Dirk Pitt's Colt M1911 pistol
• "Dirty" Harry Callahan's Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver
• Paul Kersey's .475 Wildey Magnum pistol
• Indiana Jones's bullwhip and revolver
• Roland Deschain's two sandalwood-grip revolvers, which were formed from metal melted down from his world's version of Excalibur
• Alucard's customized Hellsing ARMS .454 Casull semi-automatic handgun and Hellsing ARMS "Jackal" 13mm Auto Anti-Freak Cannon.
• Vash the Stampede's Angel Arms Eagle .45 Long Colt top break underfire revolver.
• Batman's Batarangs
• Klingon Bat'leths, Federation Phasers, and Romulan Disruptors
• Haer'Dalis has signature dual swords named Chaos and Entropy in the Dungeons and Dragons game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and it's expansion pack Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal.
• Drizzt Do'Urden is a chaotic good drow character in the Forgotten Realms who uses dual scimitars called Icingdeath and Twinkle as signature weapons. (His archenemy, Artemis Entreri, has long possessed a dagger with a jeweled hilt; the assassin is so infamous that even those who have never seen him before, but are familiar with his reputation, instantly recognize him if they see the weapon.)
• Gordon Freeman's crowbar.
• Agent 47's classic trademark weapons include his dual Silverballer handguns, the Walther WA 2000 sniper rifle, and his fiber wire.
• Solid Snake's SOCOM pistol.
• Dante from Devil May Cry carries twin longslide 1911-based handguns named 'Ebony & Ivory,' unique devil arms Alastor, a lightning-endowed claymore, and Ifrit, a set of ever-burning gauntlets.
• Lara Croft's twin handguns - Previously included/resembled Nickel-plated versions of M1911 pistols, Browning Hi-Powers, Desert Eagles and most recently H&K USP Matches.
• Link's Master Sword.
• Mario's hammer.
• Rally Vincent's CZ 75 first version
• Lupin's Walther P38 and Jigen's Smith & Wesson Model 19
• Togusa from Ghost in the Shell's Mateba automatic revolver
• Characters in manga artist Masamune Shirow's works often use weapons made by the fictional arms manufacturer Seburo.
• The Terminator's Laser-sighted longslide .45, Uzi 9mm and 12 Gauge Autoloader, and the Winchester Model 1887/1901 from Terminator 2
• Blade's sword and glaives (bladed boomerang-like throwing weapons)
• Martin Riggs's Beretta 92F
• John McClane's Beretta 92F, later a Beretta Px4 Storm
• Cloud Strife's Buster Sword and Sephiroth's Masamune long katana sword from Final Fantasy 7
• Roger Murtaugh's Smith & Wesson Model 19
• The Prince of Persia's Dagger of Time and Eagle Sword.
• The Predator's wristblades and plasmacaster
• InuYasha's Tetsusaiga
• Kurama's rose whip
• Anton Chigurh's Captive Bolt Pistol in No Country for Old Men
• Josh Randall from Wanted: Dead or Alive wields a shortened Winchester 1892 carbine called a Mare's Leg
• The Marvel character Punisher uses dual M1911 pistols.
• Horatio Caine's Beretta Cougar and later SIG P229

Many signature weapons are specially designed, or magically enchanted, so that only the heroes can use them (ex. Only someone worthy can lift Thor's Hammer; Ancient technology can only be used by people with the Ancient gene.). If villains or anyone else were to try using the weapons, either they won't work, or something bad will happen to them.