Weapon bearing gods.

It always discomfited me Vishnu and his avatars who are eugolised as Shantha swaroopis , full of love and compassion carried weapons and killed enemies.
On one hand we have acharyas , azhwars and upanyasakars who praise Vishnu's auspicious quality of extreme compassion  and on the other hand  we have Puranic lore and epics that portrays them as skillfull extreminators .
Every idol of Vishnu carries his weapons like chakra, gadha , sword conch for blowing before a battle and Saranga viz bow and arrow   So do other gods in Hindu pantheon .Each has a specific weapon unique to them.
Is it the influence of other religions that see God only as love and highlighting it and downplaying the harsher aspects  has rubbed on us , me making me squirm at the obvious delight  that aazhwars and acharyas take in the valiant deeds by   Rama and Krishna  shedding blood as expressed in their  hymns and slokas  ?

Siva was always considered as a hot and violent god unlike calm and cool Vishnu .But avatars of Vishnu shows his other side or his actual side .

Vishnu is not totally compassionate and kind to a fault.He will use his chakra , gadha ,sword and bow and arrow to kill enemies as well as the enemies of his devotees.He doesn't do away with them with love but with his weapons.

using weapons to kill enimies is the only natural way to protects ones devotees who have taken refuge in him .Hence weapon bearing gods are part and parcel of Hinduism .

Desikan an ascetic,poet and intellectual and an important achraya of SRIVaishnavaites who has written 100's of slokas on the compassionate nature of Sriman Narayana [like Daya satakam,etc]is forced to implore him to use his weapons to drive out the enemies beseiging Srirangam in 14 the cent AD 'in his 'abheedistavam' from his exile in a remote village.

Life is a painful teacher.It also taught me  a lesson in similar vein..