The Ultimate Weapon of Terror

The Ultimate Weapon of Terror

When you are a villain trying to terrorize all that there is to serve your evil ends, you’ll find it a much easier job to do once you get yourself the ultimate weapon to terrorize with. We’ve seen this kind of weapon again and again in the world of fiction, haven’t we? Every other bond film has the bond villain hijacking some kind of weapon of mass-destruction. Like a laser satellite installation to set someones lawn ablaze, preferably that of the White House or the British parliament.

The most iconic ultimate weapon of terror has to be the Death Star in Star Wars. A moon shaped space station capable of wiping out an entire planet in the blink of an eye. That’s really hard to top in terms of size, scope and comprehension. Its overwhelmingly terrifying and very easy to explain and understand. Though we can find a more subtle example of an ultimate weapon of terror, I believe, in the form of the One Ring of Power in Lord of the Rings. A magic ring capable of corrupting and dominating all living things through the mere whim of its dark creator.

True, it’s not as overwhelming and to the point as a giant space station with a world destroying death ray. But it is more insidious in how it cloaks its potential of terror, even when you know its history of ushering in a time of terror. What harm can a little ring do, eh? And there also lies the temptation of using the ring and its power against the enemy, which, due to the corrupting influence of the ring, would only result in playing it into the hands of the enemy. You have every reason to fear what this ring can do should it be returned to its master, or what it can do to you as its bearer, but it likely doesn’t come to your senses until its too late to fight back.

At least in the case with the Death Star you can fight back at the ultimate weapon of terror directly. In the case of the One Ring of Power you can’t. You don’t lay siege on the ring. The ring however lays siege on you every step on your way to Mount Doom, the only place it can be destroyed by simply being let go off (Simply, but not easily). Either one in each fashion, the Death Star or The One Ring, I consider a formidable ultimate weapon of terror. And with those examples presented to you, dear readers, I would now like to present a different angle to this topic.

Now, we do usually see the villains use an ultimate weapon of terror, yes? But what if we would have a scenario where the good guys uses an ultimate weapon of terror instead. For it to be justified it would in all likelihood be used for defense purposes. A weapon of deterrence against an evil force that would be unmanageable without the force and fear from said weapon. Now, for simplicity’s sake, let’s say its a weapon along the lines of the Death Star, as in: a superpowerful ray weapon of some kind.

And then this ray weapon mysteriously seizes to be operational. And unless the hero or heroine can go in and make this quest to have it operational again, the capital, or the homeworld, of the good side will be overrun and destroyed by the evil force. Sounds like a cool idea for a potential story I just came up with on the go. Might be something for any adventurous storyteller out there to make happen, maybe?

So what are your thoughts on the ultimate weapon of terror? Have you ever implemented such an element in your storytelling? Does the idea about having the good guys use one of those for ones tickle your imagination?

Let me know in the comments. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go back to my side project of inventing a giant ray beam that can target and eliminate any lifeform on the globe, on the atomic level, on a mass scale. My first target will be covid-19. And then—THE WORLD!!!

Helixfinger out!


Post by Andreas Helixfinger! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Andreas_Helixfinger/


- Banes is taking family leave for a little while.