Gatling Good/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Six barrels are so much better than one.

  • Straight: Look! A man-portable minigun!
  • Exaggerated:
    • Look! A man-portable minigun that shoots rockets!
    • Triple gatling gun (as in, three separate Gatling guns combined into one weapon system). Times two.
    • A gatling gun where each of the six rotating barrels is a gatling gun.
  • Justified: The story is about Bug War. Ludicrous amount of targets makes miniguns the only viable weapons.
  • Inverted: Miniguns are among the weakest weapons in the setting. Slow-firing-but-powerful weapons are infinitely better.
  • Subverted: The minigun is experimental and often more dangerous to its users than the targets due to various technical problems like steam leaks. Plus it's accuracy is so terrible that a simple swordsman could kill its user after thousands of rounds were fired.
  • Double Subverted: Once its inventor solves those problems it's a terrifying invention that leads to the complete collapse of existing formation based tactics.
  • Parodied: Kids terrorize the neighborhood with a Gatling spud gun.
  • Deconstructed:
  • Reconstructed:
  • Zig Zagged: The heroes try using one, but it turns out they're too weak to lift it. Then Powered Armor comes in, but it turns out the bullets are ineffective. Then an A-10 comes in and proceeds to show some GAU-8 goodness.
  • Averted: No miniguns are seen, despite heroes could really use one.
  • Enforced: Everyone loves Gatling guns, and the writer is no exception.
  • Lampshaded: "Can you even find non-rotary weapons on this planet?"
  • Invoked: One regiment in the army is armed exclusively with Gatling guns, supplied with explosive rounds, and used mainly for psychological warfare.
  • Defied: The Genius Bruiser refues to take one, since it'll only slow him down and make him an easy target for a Cold Sniper.
  • Discussed: "Don't you think we may be overdoing it a little?" "Shut up and keep firing!"
  • Conversed: "Isn't it a bit odd how many handheld miniguns movies have?" "Well, it's cool."

No, that's not God's chainsaw you're hearing. That's the sound of Gatling Good.