Blade of Fearsome Size: Difference between revisions

An ancient trope. Oversized, unrealistic swords aren't unheard of in medieval or earlier fiction, poetry, and artwork. To make matters more confusing, most societies employing swords also made huge ceremonial swords for display, which laymen of later periods may mistake for actual war tools. Swords employed in combat or dueling were [http://www.thearma.org/essays/weights.htm lighter] than even the typical, non-BFS fantasy sword—which makes a lot of sense, if you remember it's about swinging one hundreds of times and quick enough—while the only purpose of a ceremonial or executioner's sword is to be carried along or make one strong cut respectively, there's not a lot of swinging around. Even the really ''big'' swords that were used for "fencing" with (batting aside or cutting) ''[[Blade on a Stick|polearms]]'' or punching through thick armor [http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html were far lighter] than we are lead to believe by various sources.

 

If it's being wielded with just one hand, it's a [[One-Handed Zweihander]]. Compare [[Dual-Wielding]], [[Heroes Prefer Swords]], and [[Infinity+1 Sword]]. May be used to create a [[Sinister Scraping Sound]]. Obligatory links to [[Freud Was Right]] and [[Compensating for Something]] are here for your convenience.

 

* Being that ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is more a comedy than anything, it doesn't allow many blades of any size to get in. That said, [[Anime Chinese Girl|Shampoo]] still manages to get away with swinging around a massive sabre in her first appearance, even if she does trade it for [[Carry a Big Stick]] afterwards. How big is it? The blade alone is roughly the same length as the distance between the bottom of Shampoo's pelvis and the top of her head. And she swings it around in ''one hand''. While carrying a chui (a long-handled mace with a basketball sized ''solid steel'' head) in the other.

** That's the actual size of real Chinese dao, and they're a ''lot'' lighter (and flexible) than they seem.