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Comments
^^^I could see Juan saying that and the sheer amount of irony produced would create some sort of hipster singularity.
Needs the word "unironically" in there somewhere.
"Bah, who the fuck uses Steam? It sucks. Big time." - RocketDude.
"Holy fucking crap I love the Star Wars prequels!"-Malkavian
"Math sucks, man" - Ponicalica.
^^The funny thing is, that while I get why I have that reputation, my opinion on the prequels is lukewarm at worst.
I just can't stop talking about it for some reason. >_>
"Man I just got a katana from FYE. Shit's so cash."-Alex.
Katana's aren't that bad as weapons, i don't think Alex would mind a katana
True 'nuff. I think Alex's frustration at the katana just comes from its disproportionate deification.
I think Katana's look cool for the same reason I think sabers, cutlasses, and scimitars look cool. I love the look of a curved blade.
Katanas are actually pretty high on my list. They have a few flaws (or at least, flaws as I see them) that put them below some other kinds of swords, but those design factors are endemic of Far Eastern swords anyway and they seemed to work just fine.
Essentially, I prefer a two-handed sword over a one-handed sword any day of the week, but two-handed swords are actually quite rare as standard forms. Europe and Japan are really the only places they took off as a standard, well-developed armament. China and a few other places experimented with them to some degree of success, but retired them pretty quickly.
Given that
- Two-handed swords are my favouritestsestests
- Two-handed swords are sort of ridiculously rare in the grand, world scheme of things
katanas are totally cool by me insofar as they're recognised for what they are; mundane steel subject to some excellent workmanship, but with disadvantages of their own. Those would be brittleness and the lack of features in the hilt. Katanas were very dedicated offensive weapons, whereas European two-handed swords were more even-minded in their attitude towards defense.
Here's a fun little difference between the two as well, but moreso in terms of how they were taught:
Longswords are actually sort of polearms wearing a sword's clothing. Katanas are more outright "swordy" in terms of application of technique. I discovered this when comparing kenjutsu to Renaissance-era civilian styles in Europe and found that they matched up better than kenjutsu and military (i.e. longsword) European medieval forms. A two-handed hilt destroys a few limitations that are found in a single-handed sword, which caused the European two-handed methods to resemble the use of polearms whereas the Japanese kept more elements associated with single-handed use of a sword.
This could be due to the differences in privatised schools in Europe and Japan. That is, Japan's fencing schools were more closely tied to the nation as a whole (while still being private, mind), whereas European fencing schools tended to be more affiliated with knightly orders or particular military bodies rather than nations. You can see this, for instance, in the exchange of ideas between German, Italian and English masters of the 15th century.
and suddenly, an essay
and all we have concluded is that swords are actually polearms and katanas are the new swords
I think katanas are pretty old. Most swords are.
Not the newly-made ones.
Well, the design of a katana is pretty old.
13th century, to be precise. Somewhat new and progressive compared to truly traditional designs. The core design of a straight sword is thousands of years old, and backwards curving swords are a later innovation than fowards-curving variants.
Of course, it's quite telling that only straight and backwards-curving swords really survived.
But not the katanas themselves!
I mean, if we go by design standards, many many things are old.
^^ It does make me wonder how a forward curving sword would fare (or hell, that one sword design I came up with and showed you)
Well, the Gurkhas seem to be pretty fond of their kukris, though those are big knives rather than swords.
"I hate sword derails" - MadassAlex
"MadassAlex leaves me Juandering about my sexuality" - JuanCarlos
"Sexuality be damned, I want nothing more than to make sweet, sweet love to Ponicalica."-everyone on this goddamned forum
>
fixed that for you
No.
"Yes" - Cygan and Legionnaire.
also
"it's spelt, 'leggonare" - Legionnaire
I think you mean
"Yes, it's fine to call me Leegy" - Legionnaire