"The Undercover Brella looks like a normal umbrella, but that's just to throw people off. It's actually made for clandestine face-splatting!"
— Sheldon, Splatoon 2
A good fighter can take anything and be able to use it as a weapon. Swords, guns, boomerangs, chainsaws, and even... an umbrella?
Yes, despite their standard use as protectors from rain, snow, and sunlight, a parasol can be a deadly weapon in the hands of any fictional character, if used the right way. In this case, they're mainly used for clubbing people to death, but some varieties of umbrellas can shoot things — from bullets to gas to laser beams. Don't be fooled if you see an old lady wielding an umbrella. Get on her bad side, and she'll whack you good!
The carrier isn't Always Female, though: another likely candidate is a Quintessential British Gentleman, given that the umbrella-and-bowler-hat combo was for many years the unofficial uniform of a British businessman.
It's a pretty versatile "weapon", too. For starters, you've got a long stick with a hard spike at one end and (depending on design) a crook at the other. Opening the parasol often lets it serve as a shield against attacks (some works get around the impracticality of this by Handwaving that it's somehow reinforced). It can even, in a pinch, serve as a parachute. Running Razor Floss along the rim of the canopy turns the parasol into a razor-edged shield. And if all else fails, you can always just hide a sword in it.
Compare Silk Hiding Steel, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery. Contrast Parasol of Prettiness, though in the hands of a Girly Bruiser, there is plenty of room for overlap.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Another
- Yukari Sakuragi's umbrella causes her death. More exactly, Yukari slips and falls down the stairs of her school; the umbrella reaches the bottom first, then opens as she's still tumbling down, and ends up piercing her neck with the metal end.
- In the backstory, a boy named Jun Hamaguchi was the only one with said umbrella during a rainy class trip. Then, a sudden bolt of lightning literally struck him through his parasol.
- Christopher Shouldered from Baccano! is a Battle Butler with an umbrella as the personal choice weapon. It has a supposedly bulletproof canvas and with it, Christopher not only kicks ass, but he kicks Ax-Crazy Graham Spector's ass.
- Black Diamond: Riko has an umbrella she can telescope into a metal baton.
- Roberta's umbrella in Black Lagoon is actually built around a shotgun with Bottomless Magazines, while the canvas between the spokes is actually Kevlar. Whilst she could theoretically use it as a club, it's mainly used to form a shotgun/shield combo.
Revy: [watching Roberta kick ass with this thing] Dutch, I know what I want for Christmas.
- In one chapter of City Hunter, a killer tries to murder Ryo's current charge with an umbrella that injects a heart attack-inducing poison, only to be mocked for using it on a sunny day and get the umbrella's tip in the ass. According to Ryo, it's a relatively common and very useful assassination instrument, even if a poor choice for that particular day.
- Nozomi from The Daichis - Earth Defense Family Anime uses an umbrella as her primary weapon. Item cards allow her to generate hurricanes or have another person use a specific attack by using her umbrella. The umbrella can also be used with multiple people to amplify a particular umbrella action. Some basic things she can do with the umbrella is to use it to cut vines, and protect people from collatoral damage and other dangers since she is the rescue type of the family. Like with every umbrella, she can also defend herself from incoming attacks or ones thrusted against her.
- Some bodyguard (not Sousuke) used one in Full Metal Panic!.
- Mei from Ga-Rei -Zero- has one of these which is also a Parasol of Prettiness.
- In an early chapter of the Getter Robo manga, Ryoma Nagare wields a weaponized umbrella that has a knife in the tip. Its ribs can also be shot as a hail of arrows.
- The Yato from Gintama use their metal umbrellas as protection from the sun, batons, shields, and… guns. While there is no normal bullet that can pierce them, a Yato's punch is very well capable of that.
- Feitan, one of the extremely murderous thieves of the Spider from Hunter × Hunter, fights using an umbrella. If angered enough, he pulls a sword out of the handle. If further provoked, he spontaneously combusts and all his colleagues take cover. But mostly he just kicks ass with the umbrella.
- In K, Yashiro uses his parasol as a melee weapon after he remembers himself as the Silver King, which grants him the use of silver aura to dramatically boost his fighting ability. It should be noted, however, that he uses his parasol almost exclusively for defense but not offence. How? By opening it as a shield against a full-on assault from another king, for example (and it works).
- The Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection story, "Hanging Balloons", sees the main character's brother using an umbrella to fend off one of the balloons, throwing the parasol into the balloon's noose before it can grab his neck and making a run for it. It works only for a while - the balloon catches up with him anyways, impaling him with said umbrella.
- Tot from Knight Hunters, just like Setsuka, has an umbrella with a hidden blade.
- Oyuki from Lady Snowblood (both manga and films) used a sword cane built into an umbrella to carry out her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- This is Rikka's weapon of choice in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! when she's under the delusion as "The Wicked Eye." It's stored in a gun holster strapped on her left thigh.
- A minor character in Naruto named Shigure uses this as a weapon, which shoots seemingly endless amounts of deadly needles. Unfortunately, that tactic only gets said character killed by Gaara, who quite easily blocked them with his sand. Judging by others we see, the umbrella is the preferred weapon of the Hidden Rain Village. Averted with a ninja from the Hidden Rain Village actually named Pain, however.
- In the PandoraHearts anime, after he is cast into the Abyss, Oz is attacked by a resident Creepy Doll and fends it off with an umbrella he finds. He also uses said umbrella as a shield against the rocks the doll later proceeds to throw at him.
- Played dead serious in Perfect Blue. It's used to stab the main character Mima after the previous weapon of the villain (a screwdriver) was lost. She was stabbed through the side of her chest.
- Ryouga of Ranma ½ easily wields an umbrella far too heavy for a normal human to carry, it can also float in water.
- In addition to the typical combat uses, Ryoga will also open the umbrella and throw it with a spin, turning it into a razor-sharp boomerang-style attack. Interestingly, it's not laser-guided. Also the main reason he uses it is to protect himself from his water-induced curse.
- Kenshin used an umbrella as a weapon in one episode of Rurouni Kenshin. He even claimed to have a special style for it. Pretty unsurprisingly. Traditional Japanese umbrellas are made of wood, with rather thick bamboo ribs and stretchers, so when folded they make for excellent clubs.
- Guido from Samurai Pizza Cats is surely the king of this trope. His Samurai Sunspot Umbrella can do pretty much anything.
Comic Books
- Batman villain The Penguin has a famous arsenal of deadly umbrellas which he uses to commit crimes.
- In his first appearance, he toted around three varieties: one that shot bullets, one that shot "paralyzing gas", and one that shot Hollywood Acid. Since then, he's used umbrellas that functioned as helicopters, jetpacks, stun guns, missile launchers...
- The graphic novel Penguin Triumphant shows that Penguin's usage of these dates back to childhood when he used the sharpened tip of an umbrella to cut a bully's face. Thirty years later, said bully still bears the scar on his cheek.
- At least one origin story is that his fussy mother insisted on him carrying an umbrella everywhere, regardless of where he was going or what the weather was like. He was bullied for this, possibly inspiring him to ultimately use it as a weapon against said bullies.
- In The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #20, Marcus uses his umbrella to knock out the crook who is attempting to run Indy down with a forklift.
- Percival Pinkerton, a member of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, is fond of carrying an umbrella to the field.
- Spider-Man:
- Turner D. Century had a flamethrower umbrella.
- And White Rabbit one that shot carrots. Deadly carrots.
- Subverted in the Don Rosa story The Three Caballeros Ride Again, in which it turns out that José Carioca's umbrella is no match for an actual machete.
Fan Works
- The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Clouds," Soapy tries to steal a woman's bag of groceries in hopes he'll be caught, arrested, and put in a warm jail cell for the winter. Rather than summoning the police, she repeatedly whacks him on the head with her umbrella until he flees.
Film — Animated
- In The Steam Engines of Oz, Cool Old Lady Candace drives off the kalidah (a creature with a body like a bear, a head like a tiger, and claws long and sharp enough to tear a lion in two) that is sniffing at the box where Victoria, Phadrig, and Gromit are hiding by whacking it repeatedly with her umbrella.
- In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in WALL•E, a robotic umbrella opens up and blocks the stasis lasers fired by the security robots.
- Tarzan: Jane uses her umbrella to shield herself and Tarzan from oncoming baboons, and also uses it to beat a baboon that has latched onto her boot.
Film — Live-Action
- John Steed in The Avengers (1998) used his umbrella for beating up mooks and deflecting the Big Bad's staff attacks. It is also a Sword Cane.
- A man has an umbrella opened inside him in Le bagman - Profession: Meurtrier.
- Big Tits Zombie: Ginko is shown (in flashback) killing the man who murdered her sister by jamming an umbrella through his eye.
- In the opening sequence of The Fearless Vampire Killers, Alfred uses his umbrella to beat off the wolves which are attacking the sleigh.
- In the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only we see a booby-trapped umbrella demonstrated by Q. When it rains, the umbrella closes and sticks spikes into the victim's neck. In another scene, Bond and the girl jump off a wall using a large beach umbrella to slow their fall, as well as temporarily block them from the view of a mook shooting at them.
- The Wong Fei-Hung film (starring Chin Kar-lok) Great Hero of China has an umbrella fight scene, where Wong is attacked by an Elite Mook squadron of fighters armed with metal parasols with blades extending from their sides. Wong himself has a regular umbrella, and yet he defeats his enemies as usual.
- In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when the Doctors Jones are being chased by a Nazi fighter plane after an escape, the senior Dr Jones uses his umbrella to scare a flock of birds on the beach into flight, which causes the fighter that was chasing them to smash into the birds and crash.
"I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne: 'Let my armies be the rocks and the trees — and the birds in the sky.'"
- The main villain of the Shaw Brothers martial arts film, The Invincible Fist, uses an umbrella as his preferred weapon, one whose tip is a powerful metal spike used to kill the protagonist's brother who is The Lancer of the film and containing razor-sharp blades that stick out of its sides.
- Both young Wong Fei Hong and his father Wong Kei-Ying use an umbrella to dish out some beatdown to some scruffy street thieves in Iron Monkey. Mildly subverted in that their use of an umbrella was an expression of contempt for martially insignificant opponents. When confronted with genuine opposition, they stopped playing around with the umbrella and fought seriously.
- At the end of Johnny English Reborn, the eponymous spy is facing the Big Bad, who is shooting at him. Thinking that the umbrella he has is a bulletproof one, he opens it. It does nothing. It turns out to be a missile launcher that fires when you close the umbrella.
- In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Harry Hart's high-tech, bulletproof combat umbrella can shoot stun projectiles and electromagnetic bolas. It's also a devastating weapon in hand-to-hand combat. Eggsy uses one later during his one-man assault on Valentine's base.
- Wu Mo the Charlatan in Legendary Weapons of China uses a bamboo umbrella as his preferred weapon, using it to deflect arrows shot in his direction, and then for kicking ass. One of his highlight moments involves him kicking the asses of four umbrella-wielding mooks.
- The 1981 kung-fu flick, Swordsman With An Umbrella. No prizes guessing what the titular character uses as a weapon.
- Lemonade Joe: Chanteuse Tornado Lou beats the crap out of Horace Badman with her parasol when he tries to assault sweet Winnifred in the cemetery near the climax of the movie. Horace promptly shoots her point blank.
- Interestingly, the association of the umbrella and Wong Fei Hong is seen in other movies with him, including the notable Once Upon a Time in China series starring Jet Li.
- Lord Southmere has one in One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing.
- Some Jackie Chan fight scenes incorporate umbrellas, most notably a fight in his breakout film Police Story.
- In the wuxia Rendezvous With Death, the protagonist, Hsin-Hsuan, favours using an umbrella as his main weapon, whose surface, made of metallic silk, can deflect and absorb swords and spears thrust in his direction. The 'brella's tip is a fine pointed spike, and the inner tube contains a stiletto sword. Right in the opening scene, Hsin demonstrates how good he is as a killer using this weapon by killing four challengers in a row.
- The ghost in Robo Vampire briefly uses one while attacking the priest at the end of the film; although her reasons for doing this at time are, er, vague.
- In Scream (1996), Sidney uses an umbrella as a spear to defend herself from the killer in the climax.
- The Meet Cute in The Second Time Around (1981).
Lu: You broke my umbrella!
Jones: I'm sorry. I guess I should have ducked. - Miss Heliotrope uses one in The Secret of Moonacre. Subverted slightly in that it's only shown to be a minor distraction (albeit one that helps greatly, as the movie's already over by this point and all that's needed is for the villain to see sense).
- Jackie Chan has a memorable umbrella fight in Shanghai Knights, complete with an homage to Singin' in the Rain.
- A loan shark is impaled with an umbrella in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. Directly afterward, it pops open, and it starts to rain.
- In Spider-Man 2, Doctor Octopus takes Aunt May as a hostage during a bank heist and drags her to the top of a skyscraper to goad the webslinger into attacking him; he then prepares to impale the hero with a hidden blade. Aunt May sees this, drops a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner ("Shame on you"), and wallops Doc Ock upside the head with her umbrella, saving the day.
- The opening scene in Tokyo Raiders portrays an immigrant PI dealing with some unwanted tails with a combination of whacks, hook grabbing, and some sort of martial arts.
- In The Umbrella Coup, Pierre Richard plays an unemployed comic actor, who is invited to play an assassin, but enters the wrong office and gets confused for a Professional Killer by The Mafia. He receives an umbrella with a retractable poisoned needle in the tip to assassinate a target. And Hilarity Ensues.
- He doesn't find out what's going on until the very end of the film. Even when the real killer assassinates the target and gets shot by police, the actor thinks it's all a game.
- The movie has been inspired by the Markov murder, see Real Life section. Its working title was The Bulgarian Umbrella Coup and the weapon is called "Bulgarian umbrella" several times. But the movie uses a fast-acting poison instead of ricin.
Literature
- Amelia Peabody Emerson, from the series of books by Elizabeth Peters, has made an art out of using her parasol in battle, to the point that some superstitious 19th-century Egyptians believe it to be a magical weapon. By the time she's in her 50s, Amelia actually has custom parasols made with extra-strong shafts so they aren't destroyed by the damage she deals with them, and at least one is built along the lines of a sword cane—this latter is a special present from her husband, which delights her even though she doesn't actually know how to fence. Not that that stops her. Very little stops Amelia.
- Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium: Umbrella belonging to one of main protagonists is specifically made very sturdy. It has been used as a shield against fire, bullets, and grenades. Also due to the weight of all functions and components, it can deliver a good whack. Doubles as Parasol Parachute (intended function).
- In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a furious Mrs Gloop points her umbrella at Mr Wonka, as if she is about to run him through.
- Discworld: The Agony Aunts, the enforcers for the Ankh-Morpork Seamstresses' Guild, can do terrifying things with a parrot-head-handled umbrella to unruly customers (or anyone else who threatens the "working women" under their watch).
- Elemental Masters has Nan and Sarah, who had parasols specifically made for combat since a woman can't openly carry weapons in Edwardian-era London. In a Shout-Out to Amelia Peabody, they apparently got the idea from a woman in Egypt.
- A character in The Facts of Death is killed by getting stung with a poisoned umbrella. The real-life assassination of Georgi Markov (see below) is immediately brought up during the investigation.
- Hagrid from Harry Potter keeps his broken wand inside his pink umbrella. He's not allowed to cast big spells with it, since he isn't a full-blown wizard as he didn't finish Hogwarts.
- Aw, look at Jessamine's parasol in The Infernal Devices! It's so pretty and pink and it even has flowers on it...and the edges are laced with electrum. Ouch.
- The eponymous character of Jane, Unlimited makes umbrellas as a hobby, and at the beginning decides to make a self-defense umbrella. In the five stories that follow (all based around a single choice she made in the prologue), she sometimes stays with that idea and sometimes makes something else, although she never gets to use it in combat.
- In The Lord of the Rings, elderly hobbit Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is jailed after wielding her umbrella against a bunch of thugs twice her size.
- In the Frederick Forsyth novel The Negotiator (not to be confused with the movie), a KGB agent uses the tip of an umbrella to drug Quinn, the main character.
- In The Parasol Protectorate series, one of these is Alexia Maccon nee Tarabotti's weapon of choice. It has all sorts of surprises built into it. She eventually bequeaths it to her daughter Prudence in the sequel series The Custard Protocol
- Alexia actually goes through three versions. The first is weighted with brass shot and tipped with silver in case of werewolf attacks, the second contains a number of hidden features such as numbing darts, acid mist, and a magnetic disruptor, and the third adds a grappling hook to the mix while retaining all the functions of the previous version.
- In Brian Daley's Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds and its sequels, a well-equipped "breakabout" (spacer) will often carry a "gamp" or "brolly" that can double-in-brass as a weapon, emergency shelter, and other things.
- One of the Southern Sisters Mysteries opens with the eponymous sisters getting arrested because Mary Alice hit a bank president over the head with Patricia Anne's umbrella.
- In Stephen King's novel The Tommyknockers, Jim Gardener gets into an argument with a guy at a party about the safety of nuclear power. Eventually, it deteriorates into Gardener beating the guy up with an umbrella. He notes to himself that this is the only part people will remember.
Live-Action TV
- In The Americans, a poison-tipped umbrella is used to subtly poison a young man, to blackmail his mother.
- John Steed from The Avengers (1960s). His had a sword inside, but he didn't always feel the need to draw it.
- In an episode of Boy Meets World, Cory keeps having nightmares where he kills all the people he loves. He describes how in one of them, he shoved an umbrella down his best friend's throat and then opened it. "Shawn... I Mary Poppinsed ya."
- Colonel March of Scotland Yard: Being a Quintessential British Gentleman, Colonel March naturally carries an umbrella, which is also a Sword Cane. However, he is also shown to be a dab hand at using it for Cane Fu without drawing the blade. For example, in "Hot Money" a criminal attempts to draw a gun from a desk drawer, only for March to hook the man's swivel chair with the handle of the umbrella and spin the chair around, then knock the gun from his hand with the brolly.
- Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor used his umbrella as a makeshift weapon on occasion.
- Father Brown: In "The Numbers of the Beast", the Victim of the Week is stabbed through the heart with the tip of an umbrella.
- "The Frogs and the Lobsters" of Horatio Hornblower has a Played for Laughs and Discussed example. There is this gem from Major "My Lord" Edrington when he discusses his tactics with Hornblower on their mission in France. His mama must be one tough lady with her parasol.
Earl of Edrington: No artillery would dare to cross here and if they tried, my mama could beat them off with her parasol.
- Kamen Rider Hibiki: Subverted by Kabuki, who uses a parasol to block attacks and conceal his own sword before striking, but he never actually attacks with the parasol.
- In Kessler (the spin-off of Secret Army) a neo-Nazi assassin kills an Intrepid Reporter with the Bulgarian umbrella trick.
- Mouse (2021): Bong-yi's grandmother beats Ba-reum with an umbrella when she mistakenly thinks he's about to kill Bong-yi.
- In Murder, She Wrote, Gentleman Thief Dennis Stanton has an umbrella that's a Sword Cane and can launch darts out of the tip. Since he prefers to avoid bloodshed, he generally has other uses for it: It also "makes an excellent club", has lockpicks built into the handle, and he frequently used the hook to trip people up.
- In The Nevers, weaponized umbrellas are one of many concealed weapons Prudence has invented to keep herself and the other Touched safe without being obviously armed. They're sturdy enough to be used as a club, have a taser built in, and the handle can even turn into brass knuckles for hand-to-hand.
- Madame Noir from Ressha Sentai ToQger uses her umbrella to kick butt.
- The preview trailer for the Korean drama series Runaway Plan B (도망자 / Do Mang Ja) shows a female character using a purple parasol to fend off attackers in a busy street.
- Mycroft Holmes from Sherlock has an umbrella with a built-in sword and gun.
- Ultra Series:
- Ultraman Leo: One of Leo's sidearms is the Leo-brella, an extendable giant umbrella that can act as an Attack Reflector, a spear, or release an energy blast as a finishing move.
- Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga introduces a new monster, Mecha Musashin, whose initial sidearm is a fireball-spewing umbrella.
- Referenced in Yes, Prime Minister where Hacker, desperate to prevent the French President bringing a dog into the UK suggests asking the Bulgarians if they have any spare umbrellas. This is a reference to the real-life murder of Georgi Markov by the Bulgarian Secret Service.
Music
- In the Lemon Demon song "Samuel and Rosella", the eponymous character, annoyed by a young person in Hot Topic, "didn't like the way he dressed, so they closed their umbrella and they rammed it through his chest."
Podcasts
- The Adventure Zone: Taako has an umbrella (an Umbra-Staff) which, in addition to giving him spellcasting bonuses, can also eat the magical artifacts of any magic-user he defeats and steal their power. It used to belong to his sister Lup, whose soul became trapped inside the umbrella for over a decade until Taako broke it during the Story and Song-finale.
- Dario from the Cool Kids Table game Here We Gooooo! wields a parasol that he grabbed from his mom as he left to go on his adventure.
Professional Wrestling
- A tradition of British wrestling back in the '60s and '70s was the front row being full of grannies who'd smack and poke and Heel that came their way
- In Progress Wrestling, there's Marty Scurll who uses this as his weapon of choice. He brings one to the ring and if he's having trouble winning the match cleanly, he will resort to hitting his opponent with it.
- Jack Gallagher, another Brit and Progress alum, keeps his trusty umbrella William III by his side in the Cruiserweight Division. He has even used it against Chris Jericho in the 2017 Royal Rumble.
Radio
- In Bleak Expectations, Ripely Fecund's quick-thinking method of dispatching an Immune to Bullets zombie is a particularly creative variation of this;
Pip: [horrified] Oh my God... you stuck your parasol through that undead's eye... and then opened it inside his head!
- The Goon Show: In "The Affair of the Lone Banana":
Seagoon: Have a care, Latin devil — I am an Englishman. Remember, this rolled umbrella has more uses than one.
Moriarty: Oooh!
Seagoon: Sorry. - Our Miss Brooks: In "Plaque for Mr. Conklin", Mrs. Davis belts Mr. Conklin with a mahogany-handled umbrella. She thinks Mr. Conklin has amnesia. It Makes Sense in Context.
Tabletop Games
- Exalted has Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers, one of the Deathlords. Her weapon of choice is the Umbrella of Discord, a dreadful thing stitched together from the flesh and bone of five Solars killed in the First Age.
- GURPS Steam-Tech has the Defensible Brolly, a woman's umbrella which, at the touch of a button, flattens its canopy into a shield and produces a spearhead from the centre, enabling her to fend off an attacker.
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, see entry in Literature section above, is a hero character in The Lord of the Rings wargame by Games Workshop, armed with an umbrella. However, she has a special "Umbrella is not mightier than Sword" rule, which negates any wounds she could have inflicted.
- In Munchkin Cthulhu, one of the classes is Monster Whacker, and one of the illustrations for it is a woman beating up a small monster with her umbrella.
- In the New World of Darkness Core Rulebook, there is a piece of fluff where a character fights off an attacker with an umbrella (and stabs him in the eye for his trouble).
Theatre
- In the play The Turn of the Worm, two teenage thieves break into an apartment where two old ladies live. Pina, the feistier of the old ladies, stabs the male thief in the foot with an umbrella (it was revealed earlier in the show that she sharpens the point specifically for this purpose).
Video Games
- The second boss of Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action! has multiple simultaneous occurrences of this trope as one of her attacks.
- Lieselotte of Arcana Heart, who uses her umbrella as a Magic Wand to cast the spells of her Arcana.
- Luna from Arc Rise Fantasia fights with an umbrella, in contrast to her sister Paula, who fights with a Sinister Scythe. However, she's primarily a mage, and even her normal attack has her shooting a magic bullet from the tip of the umbrella while opening it, and not hitting the enemy directly.
- Trilby in The Art of Theft sports a trademark multi-purpose umbrella, with a grappling hook at the handle end and a taser at the pointy one.
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation : Aveline uses a version with a built-in poison dart launcher. It's one of the few defences of her Lady persona and is slow to fire. On the other hand, it draws no suspicion to her and has a good range.
- Batman: Arkham Series: Associated with the Penguin, naturally
- Batman: Arkham Asylum: The Penguin doesn't actually appear, but a display case in Arkham Mansion shows several of his umbrellas and his top hat. It serves as an answer to a riddle, and solving it unlocks his character profile.
- Batman: Arkham City: He uses one that doubles as a gun to murder one of the captive police officers in his museum. This is actually the only time he uses one as a weapon. He otherwise uses brass knuckles (ineffectually) against Bruce Wayne, Mister Freeze's cannon against Batman, and then finally a grenade launcher against Batman after losing the freeze gun.
- Batman: Arkham Origins: He's seen carrying an umbrella, but we never learn if it doubles as a weapon. Some of his mooks can be overheard wondering why he always carries one, and speculating if they double as weapons. They suggest a gun, sword, poison dart gun, or a spiral that he can use to hypnotize people. The others dismiss that last one as unlikely.
- Batman: Arkham Knight: Averted. The Penguin only ever uses normal guns. This in addition to his decidedly unkempt appearance, may be to indicate how rundown he now is.
- In BlazBlue Rachel is prone to using Nago as one. And also prone to using him as everything else.
- One of Bang Shishigami's distortion drives has him toss an umbrella... which then rains dozens of nails on the opponent.
- Bloodless, the blood-controlling vampire from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night carries an umbrella that doubles as a melee weapon. In addition, she can also summon flying umbrellas that function as Attack Drone.
- Bug Fables:
- Monsieur Scarlet, an effeminate ant criminal who's the main target of the "Requesting Assistance" sidequest, uses the pink umbrella as a weapon, dealing a lot of damage with it. It's also a magical artifact that allows him to teleport, cast illusions, and drain the lifeforce out of his enemies.
- Madeleine carries around a leaf umbrella that she can use as a weapon during her second sidequest. It only deals a paltry 2 damage, but she hits twice a turn to make up for its low damage output.
- Zack totes one in the Beach Episode mission of Crisis Core, and it apparently does the same amount of damage as his BFS.
- Cuphead has the boss Sally Stageplay. She has many attacks, and a chunk of them involve her parasol, including using it to summon mooks, to teleport, and to spin it around the floor while she floats above you.
- In Dead Rising, the Parasols you can pick up around the mall are actually ridiculously effective. They allow you to perform a Foe-Tossing Charge that sends zombies flying in all directions, despite the fact that the flimsy wood-and-fabric construction really ought to buckle with a single hit.
- Dead Rising 2 exaggerates this with the Parablower.
- Death's Door has an umbrella weapon hidden in the first location you enter. It's a Joke Weapon weaker than anything else you can get, but beating the whole game with it nets you an achievement.
- Polka from Eternal Sonata embodies this. Not only does she open it up to shield herself with, but she can dish out quite a lot of damage once she gets Gold Moon (the best weapon for her by far the most powerful, and it heals the whole party 10% per turn in battle, with a nice 5% experience gain bonus for all at the end of battle).
- Fallen London: One of the more expensive weapons you can buy is a Poison-Tipped Umbrella. It's not quite that dangerous, but it significantly boosts your sneakiness when used. Helps that the Neath offers some really nasty poisons.
The modern assassin's companion. Be careful when it rains.
- Aerith's joke weapon in Final Fantasy VII is a parasol, though she's still the White Magician Girl so it isn't exactly badass.
- In Fire Emblem Fates, parasols
are used as ranged and melee weapons.
- Fire Emblem Heroes, features a handful of seasonal units that use a parasol or umbrella as a weapon.
- Hat Kid's umbrella is her main weapon in A Hat in Time. She starts out being able to whack enemies with it, but can also acquire upgrades like a hookshot and a pogo bounce.
- In Genshin Impact, Navia, one of the 5 Star characters from Fontaine wields a Parasol Shotgun as part of her character kit. This is seen in her Elemental Skill "Ceremonial Crystalshot". To make it more detrimental to the opponent, any crystal shards produced when making a Crystallize reaction, it gives the skill more damage.
- Gunbrella, as the name implies, is an action game where you go around kicking ass with a machine gun fitted inside an umbrella. Said 'brella can also open into a deflector against certaiñ projectile attacks.
- Holy Umbrella has a magical umbrella as the player's main weapon.
- Hours (2020): The Visitor's weapon is a metal umbrella capable of shooting a laser beam and digging through the ground.
- In Immortal Souls, the female members of the Black Martyr vampire gang wield Parasols of Prettiness as these by way of being Elegant Gothic Lolitas.
- In the Game Boy version of Kid Dracula, the main character eventually receives an umbrella that can block projectiles. Death says it belongs to his father. Does anyone recall Dracula ever walking around with one of these?
- In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Roxas and Xion's Joke Keyblade is an Umbrella. To be specific, this Keyblade looks like an upside-down umbrella, with the curved handle serving as the "teeth" of the Keyblade and the tip acting as the handle.
- There are three of these in Kingdom of Loathing. The Titanium Assault Umbrella is listed as a one-handed weapon, as is the Goatskin Umbrella (whose real advantage as a weapon is that it stinks of rotting goatskin).
- The last is a little drink umbrella, which as you might imagine, is pretty useless, except to those with advanced enough Cocktailcrafting skills to use them in making potent drinks.
- There's actually a fourth, but it can only be made from the first two — the gatorskin umbrella. Its real use isn't in fighting, although it's just as strong as its predecessors, but instead in protecting you from a flow of sewage while descending to Hobopolis. Unfortunately, the sewage is potent enough to melt your umbrella, so you need a new one each time.
- Kirby has, at different times, had umbrella-toting enemies he could absorb. While the Parasol isn't the strongest power he can gain, it does slow his falls. And it even naturally protects him from attacks from above.
- Kaguya from The Legend of Tian-ding is a kunoichi who fights with her wagasa. And can surprisingly put up quite a fight using said weapon.
- In LEGO Batman, not only does the Penguin, inevitably use an umbrella as a weapon, so does Alfred.
- In LEGO Dimensions the Sixth and Seventh Doctors use their signature umbrellas (multicouloured for Six, black with a question-mark handle for Seven) as weapons.
- Lost Ark: Aeromancers use umbrellas as their signature weapons, and use them in about every way you can imagine: melee attacks, shields, ranged weapons, summoning Hostile Weather—you name it!
- Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage: There are enemies who use umbrellas as both weapons and shields.
- Lan uses a high-tech parasol defensively in Mega Man Battle Network 3, to block a brainwashing beam.
- The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom: P.B. Winterbottom's umbrella.
- In the Speccy game Mystery Of The Nile, one of the player characters uses an umbrella as a One-Hit Kill weapon.
- In No One Lives Forever, chemically tipped umbrellas are used for terrorist attacks.
- Rosalyn from Okage: Shadow King is an interesting variant. She only uses a parasol to disguise her curse — she casts a pink shadow when hit by direct light. She actually attacks with a sword. She does, however, use it to cast magic.
- Kazan from Omega Strikers uses his parasol to push and pull enemies and the Core around the arena. His moveset changes depending on whether the parasol is open or closed.
- Kagura in Onmyoji who happens to share voice actor with another umbrella-wielding Kagura…
- There are also Youkai with the body of a human and the head of an umbrella.
- Oriental Legend have Chang 'er, the Goddess of the Moon, as a playable character, who kicks all kind of ass using her trusty umbrella.
- This, and drops of water picked up with it, was your weapon in Parasol Stars.
- Phantasy Star Online had two types of parasols, both usable only by women. They're among the best melee weapons for the non-melee classes.
- Phantasy Star Online 2 has more parasol variants that can act as swords, rods, or gunslashes, on top of now being usable by characters of all genders.
- In Level 2 of the Pinocchio Licensed Game, Jiminy Cricket can use his parasol to attack enemies.
- Prayer of the Faithless: Mia can find an Umbrella Scabbard to hide her sword in:
A seemingly innocent umbrella that one can hide a sword inside.
- In Puyo Puyo Tetris, Ess carries around a parasol that matches her green color scheme. She's seen using it to attack in her animations during puyo/Tetris battles.
- Radiata Stories has one of these as a unique weapon. It has a base damage of 1.
- Adorably Precocious Child Shizumaru Hisame from Samurai Shodown. He does have a concealed sword, but the umbrella is his primary weapon.
- Okuni from Samurai Warriors uses a parasol as her weapon of choice, and has been using it for every appearance of hers.
- The elegant Kitsune Kiyoko Nanabi from fighting game Schwarzerblitz uses her umbrella as a weapon.
- The thunderstorm umbrella from Secret Agent Clank is an umbrella that shoots lightning
- Azai Nagamasa's joke weapon from Sengoku Basara 2.
- Yagyuu and Mirai from Senran Kagura both use umbrellas as weapons in different ways. Yagyuu uses an oilpaper umbrella that can sprout out blades whereas Mirai uses a Gothic Lolita-style umbrella that has a machine gun attached to it.
- In Siren 1, the character Risa Onda can get an umbrella as her weapon. It deals the lowest amount of damage compared to other melee weapons, but is surprisingly efficient enough to take out the Spider Shibito one-by-one with practice, and can even be used to take out an incredibly dangerous Mina Onda if the right steps are taken. An umbrella can also be used as a weapon in Siren 2, but is notably weaker in power to the point where it barely cause the standard Shibito to flinch from the attack.
- Parasoul in Skullgirls uses a western-style umbrella that is also a Living Weapon as her main fighting tool. Her sister, Umbrella, who later joined up as DLC, also uses her own umbrella as a weapon.
- Setsuka from Soul Calibur III, as a Lady Snowblood Expy, keeps a short sword concealed in her umbrella. Her fighting style is battajutsu, the art of rapidly drawing, attacking with, and then sheathing the sword. Of course, she has at least one or two attacks that have her smacking her opponent with the umbrella itself.
- The Arsenic Candy gang in Spider-Man 3 use umbrellas as one of their primary weapons.
- Splatoon 2 introduces the Brellas, an entire weapon class. They shoot ink from their ferrules like shotguns, and when opened, serve as a protective shield against enemy attacks. Brellas can also launch their canopies as stronger attacks, though they leave the user defenseless for some time. The Undercover Brella is a more subtle and sophisticated version as a Shout-Out to Kingsman: The Secret Service which trades launching the canopy for a continuous shield.
- Josephine from Suikoden V.
- Princess Peach has one as an item in Super Mario RPG and Super Princess Peach.
- She even gets this as one of her special attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series, which also doubles as Parasol Parachute. In Melee, there is also a different parasol item that can be used by other characters to slow down their falling speed or hit enemies. In Ultimate, Daisy is also able to use a parasol for one of her special attacks as she is Peach's Echo Fighter.
- It's also her signature gadget in Super Paper Mario — and it renders her utterly invulnerable to everything.
- Peach's parasol in Super Princess Peach was actually a child named Perry before he was kidnapped from his grandfather, transformed by evil magic, found by a merchant, and sold to Toadsworth. In the end, he does not return to normal and instead decides to stay with Peach. That's right. She's using a child as her personal parasol. He can also eat enemies. Not many parasols can say that.
- Peach returns with Perry in the fan game Super Mario Fusion Revival. It serves as her equivalent to Mario's Raccoon Suit, including her use of Perry as a melee attack.
- While Peach isn't a playable character in Super Mario 3D Land, one of the pictures of her escape and recapture shows her taking down a Goomba Tower with her parasol.
- Tales of Zestiria has Edna as the first in the Tales series to use one and she uses it for firing magic attacks. And poking "Meebo" for her amusement. Her case is justified too; though she's a powerful Earth Seraph, she's too small to really pull off massive feats of strength like other Earth Seraph without extreme pain afterwards so has to deal with a lighter weapon. And, in regards to Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, Water is weak to Earth and an umbrella, as a Water-elemental weapon, makes it easier for Edna to channel her magic.
- In Tun Town your default melee equipment is your umbrella. Which you swing like a sword.
- In the Tarzan Licensed Game for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, during the seventh level, "The Baboon Chase", Jane can use her parasol as a shield to protect herself from any baboons approaching her from the front as she rides on Tarzan's back.
- The Civilian in the original Team Fortress. Later reused for the famous They Hunger Half-Life mod.
- In They Hunger, the first weapon you pick up is an umbrella. It is still powerful, capable of breaking many much harder objects found in the game.
- In the RPG/dating sim Thousand Arms one of the recurring boss fights is Bandiger, a lanky man in a white disco suit who uses an umbrella for a weapon, and his magic. He is actually far more powerful than the rest of the bad guys you fight through the game, and way more annoying.
- The Neotokyo intro cutscene in TimeSplitters 2 has Ghost using one to protect himself from Sadako's Gang (who had Wolverine Claws).
- In the Touhou Project series, a few characters have parasols or umbrellas as part of their outfit, and two of the most powerful qualify here:
- Yukari Yakumo always carries a parasol, which she uses as a weapon in Touhou Suimusou ~ Immaterial and Missing Power and Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody.
- Yuuka Kazami also carries a nice parasol, made out of a flower that never withers. This parasol is also used to cut loose with the original Master Spark, as well as the more recent Dual Spark and other huge magical laser spells.
- Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object brings us the Cheery Forgotten Umbrella Kogasa Tatara. Being a Karakasa, not only does she carry an umbrella, she is an umbrella herself. Naturally, she uses her umbrella to shoot danmaku, and some of her spellcards even include throwing flying umbrellas at you.
- Mamizou Futatsuiwa uses a karakasa (which is actually another tanuki disguised as one) as a weapon in Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade.
- When processed, Sybil Reisz from Transistor wields the parasol that she was frequently seen with as the social coordinator of Cloudbank. As a boss, she folds it up and uses it like a rapier; making consecutive long-ranged and high-speed slashes at Red. Interestingly, a similar (if not identical) parasol can be found planted in the ground inside the backdoor, leading some fans to speculate that Sybil may have been using the Sandbox as her own personal space.
- Inui from Umblade Senki wields a red umbrella. He can attack and glide with it, yes, but most importantly, once it is open, it blocks stuff. Any stuff. Bullets, spikes, bombs, giant dinosaur feet, massive explosions, and lasers, and even atmosphere friction!
- In The Untold Tales Of The Vocaloids, Shizuka, an Optional Party Member, has an umbrella as her weapon. Her strength stat is quite low, though, and it couldn't be swapped with another weapon.
- Lilka from Wild ARMs 2 uses umbrellas as her equippable weapon. She attacks by thrusting it into the enemy and opening it, and also swings it around when casting magic. She also poses with it in her Victory Pose.
- Umbrellas are available weapons in the Yakuza games and can be used to attack enemies, alongside having their own unique heat actions.
- A notable use of an umbrella as a weapon in a cutscene was Majima's debut in Yakuza/Kiwami where he uses it to discipline a yakuza mook that picked a fight with Kiryu. As Majima is about to seriously harm him by using the end tip to stab the poor bastard, Kiryu stops Majima before he could seriously harm the poor mook.
- Being the playable deuteragonist of Yakuza 0, Majima has a special heat move when it comes to using an umbrella, which is called "Essence of Umbrella Onslaught".
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Nanba's default weapon is an umbrella.
Visual Novels
- In Little Busters!, one of Mio's unique weapons is her Parasol of Prettiness. It's pretty useless in battle, though, and in a fighting system where all the weapons are improvised and other weapons include things like bars of soap, origami, and eel pie, that's saying something.
- In Yumina the Ethereal, Kirara's weapon is one of these.
Web Animation
- The RHG gladiator Umbrella revolves around this trope. His multi-purpose umbrella is a Swiss-Army Weapon that functions as a blade, an energy blaster, a shield, and more; he can even surf on it.
- In RWBY, Neo's signature weapon is Hush, an elegant, lacy parasol. Despite its delicate appearance, the canopy is sturdy enough to block (explosive) bullets, and there's a stiletto blade hidden in the handle and another spring-loaded in the tip.
- Kirby from Sonic for Hire uses one occasionally.
Kirby: This umbrella works wonders for murderin'!
Webcomics
- Aerynn from Electric Wonderland gives a laser-shooting umbrella to Shroomy after Shroomy realizes her boyfriend Parker didn't give her anything for Christmas.
- In Homestuck, John obtains the umbrellakind strife specibus and alchemizes the Barber's Best Friend, an umbrella made of razors. He never uses either, though, in favour of hammers.
- In The Phoenix Requiem when Anya and Jonas visit the city, they meet the sister of the man who shot Jonas. She is rather unhappy about him being alive and attacks him with his umbrella. Not that it would be a deadly weapon, but she just went mad and started hitting him with whatever she had in her hand.
- Hon Akraptor from Tower of God uses an umbrella that can fire and shield against Shinsu. And he uses it to pierce hands, too.
- Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has Ace carrying an umbrella on a clear day for "stylish combat dramatics". It fits his characterization as a Quintessential British Gentleman-esque action hero.
Western Animation
- In the Dennis the Menace episode, "Wheeling and Double Dealing", Winston kidnaps an old lady and disguises himself in her clothes to trick Dennis and PeeBee into helping him so he can steal their perpetual motion race car. Once Dennis finds the real old lady and rescues her, she wastes no time getting back at Winston for what he did to her.
Old Lady: (smacking Winston with her umbrella) I'll teach you to mistreat a helpless old lady!
Winston: I already know how! - Looney Tunes:
- Yosemite Sam gets a dose of this from some angry mothers in Ballot Box Bunny.
- Sylvester often gets hit over the head by Granny (or a similar character) when he's going after Tweety Bird.
- Miraculous Ladybug has two so far:
- The titular villain of "Stormy Weather" wields a parasol with which she can control the weather.
- On the heroes' side, the Rabbit Miraculous wielded by Bunnyx grants an umbrella as its signature tool. Aside from being a melee weapon, it can open portals through time.
- Private Snafu: In "No Buddy Atoll", Snafu accidentally knocks out his Japanese foe when he mistakenly triggers the umbrella function on his Swiss-Army Weapon.
- In a Samurai Jack episode with the arguing bounty hunter ex-couple, the wife wielded one of these.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil gives us Eclipsa's version of the Royal Magic Wand, which is a pretty parasol that she uses to fire devastating spells against her enemies.
- Rainbow Quartz 2.0 from Steven Universe has a large umbrella as their gem weapon, a combination of Pearl's spear and Steven's shield. They can use it to float when opened and ride on it when closed, leaving a rainbow streak behind as the umbrella essentially acts like a rocket. They haven't been seen using it in combat but seeing as it's a Gem weapon, it most likely can be used for both offense and defense.
- One of the gadgets used on Totally Spies!, including by Alex in the opening credits.
- In the "Ballpoint, Penn., or Bust!" episode of Wacky Races, Penelope Pitstop hits the Gruesome Twosome's dragon with the parasol from her car.
Real Life
- "Classic" umbrellas (cane-like, non-telescopic) are perfectly able to turn into vicious stabbing weapons due to the five-inch metal spike on top, which is naturally sharp and can be further sharpened if needed. A military man trained in bayonet combat also knows how to hold it with both hands to avoid bending the shaft, and hook-handle umbrellas are also extremely useful for striking or tripping opponents. Moreover, in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to carry knives with blades longer than three inches, but you can carry an umbrella almost anywhere and still be seen as unarmed by most people, including law enforcement.
- The use of the Western umbrella became an integral part of the Hung Gar kung fu when Doctor Wong Fei-hung saw their prevalence as China became increasingly westernized in the latter part of the 19th century. It also became the weapon of choice that came to define Wong Fei Hung in cinema, notably those in which he is portrayed by Jet Li.
- The style of Bartitsu utilizes walking sticks and, yes, umbrellas. Pierre Vigny, a particularly renowned practitioner of one such technique, once (by his own account) fought off several Apaches (Parisian street gangsters, not Native Americans) with a light umbrella. This now somewhat forgotten martial art may be responsible for many of the examples listed here.
- Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha, the two greatest masters of Capoeira, were known to be skilled umbrella fighters. Both of them carried umbrellas everywhere regardless of the weather, and the former's contained a hidden blade. Another master, Mestre Onça-Tigre, gave a famous exhibition about how to defend a knife attack with an umbrella.
- In another example of bizarre Truth in Television, people have actually made umbrellas designed to fight. A company called "Unbreakable Umbrella" makes and sells umbrellas that have strong shafts and frames and are built to be used like a baton, and the Philippine Secret Service has used combat umbrellas that can split watermelons. Also, when firepower is needed, you have this gun/sword/umbrella.
- The Umbrella Murder: On September 10, 1978, the London-based Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov died of ricin poisoning. It was later determined that he had been killed by a poison capsule that was injected into his leg by the tip of an umbrella, most probably the work of the Bulgarian Secret Service. Any fictional Conspicuously Public Assassination using this trope is likely inspired by this incident.
- The Markov weapon was later tested and confirmed by the MythBusters. They successfully recreated the umbrella weapon using both a gas cylinder and an air gun.
- During the Battle of Arnhem, British paratrooper Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter armed himself with a pistol in one hand and his signature combat umbrella in the other. Devised as a way to mark himself as an Englishman due to his chronic inability to remember passwords, the umbrella came in handy for more military purposes when he used it to disable a German armoured car by thrusting the rolled-up umbrella through an observation slit and incapacitating the driver.
- Britney Spears allegedly beat some paparazzi with an umbrella.
- Prinz Ernst August von Hannover did attack a newspaper reporter with an umbrella. A computer game was even made based on this incident and what led to it.
