Blade on a Stick: Difference between revisions

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** Sokyoku is a huge execution halberd.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' has Sailor Saturn and her Silence Glaive, which can cause [[The End of the World as We Know It]].

* Shizuru Fujino's Element in the ''[[~~Mai~~-HiME]]'' anime (she doesn't fight in [[Mai-HiME (manga)|the manga]]) is a large naginata whose blade doubles as a [[Whip Sword]].

* Shizuru Fujino's Element in the ''[[My-HiME]]'' anime (she doesn't fight in [[Mai-HiME (manga)|the manga]]) is a large naginata whose blade doubles as a [[Whip Sword]].

* Atena from ''[[Kamui Den]]'' is a naginata master.

* In ''[[Mai-Otome]]'', Tomoe Marguerite gets a standard spear once she obtains her {{spoiler|[[Dark Magical Girl|Valkyrie]]}} Meister Robe.

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* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'': Spears and polearms of every sort were used by quite a number of characters. Perhaps the most iconic would be Guan Yu's (possibly anachronistic) ''guandao,'' a huge curved blade on a stick.

* ''[[Discworld]]'': A pike is the favoured weapon of Sergeant Colon in the novels. "The thing about a pike, the ''important'' thing, was that everything happened at the other end of it, i.e. a long way off."

* ''[[Warhammer ~~40000~~]]'' ''loves'' polearms, and they feature in the game itself and related fluff no rarer than the ubiquitous [[Chainsaw Good|chainswords]]. Of course, the lot of those spears are chainsaw too...

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' ''loves'' polearms, and they feature in the game itself and related fluff no rarer than the ubiquitous [[Chainsaw Good|chainswords]]. Of course, the lot of those spears are chainsaw too...

** In William King's ''[[Space Wolf]]'' novels, the Spear of Russ, the ancient weapon of the Space Wolves' primarch. Prophecy says that when he returns, he will take it up to fight. {{spoiler|Which causes real problems when Ragnor loses it, fighting against a [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead|revived]] Magnus the Red, their ancient enemy.}}

** In William King's ''[[Space Wolf]]'' novels, the Spear of Russ, the ancient weapon of the Space Wolves' primarch. Prophecy says that when he returns, he will take it up to fight. {{spoiler|Which causes real problems when Ragnor loses it, fighting against a [[Back from the Dead|revived]] Magnus the Red, their ancient enemy.}}

** The funny thing is that, according to the Thirteenth Company, whom "modern" Wolves encountered during the recent Dark Crusade, Russ (who is, apparently, still alive and kicking ass in the Eye of Terror) doesn't put any real significance to the spear in question, and is greatly amused by the reverence Wolves gives to this ordinary (to him, at least) weapon. He only kept it around at all because it was a present from his father; he actually lost the thing several times himself, mostly when drunk.

** In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Encarmine'', the Spear of Telesto. Touching it briefly gives Arkio the appearance of their primarch Sanguinius, and he slowly develops with it into a [[Power Glows|glowing]] manifestation. One of its virtues is that it unleashes fire that does not harm Blood Angels, {{spoiler|which is handy for the other side, when Arkio is fighting one in single combat}}.

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* In [[Bernard Cornwell]]'s novel ''Agincourt'' the hero is an archer, but the knight who's company he joins to go off to the war cross-trains every one of his archers to use the pole-ax.

* From ''[[Beowulf]]'':

{{quote|''Lo,[[Famed in Story|praise]] of the prowess of [[Royal Blood|people-kings]]

of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

we have heard, and what honor the [[Blue Blood|athelings]] won!'' }}

* ''[[The Stormlight Archive]]'': The spear is the standard weapon of common darkeyed soldiers; swords are reserved for the lighteyed upper class. Particularly of note is [[The Hero|Kaladin]], who is so incredibly skilled with a spear that {{spoiler|he managed to kill a guy who had one of the settings resident [[BFS|big]] [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|insanely sharp]] instant death blades, and [[Magitech]] [[Powered Armor]].}}

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== Tabletop Games ==

* The original ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]'' had a comically large assortment of available polearms, including the glaive, the guisarme, the glaive-guisarme, the glaive-voulge, the guisarme-voulge, and the Bohemian Ear-Spoon. This has [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/File:MPost4498-5653d78fda_o.jpg spawned] [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/543.html numerous] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0136.html parodies].

* The original ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' had a comically large assortment of available polearms, including the glaive, the guisarme, the glaive-guisarme, the glaive-voulge, the guisarme-voulge, and the Bohemian Ear-Spoon. This has [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/File:MPost4498-5653d78fda_o.jpg spawned] [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/543.html numerous] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0136.html parodies].

** Fortunately, they cut things down to a more manageable list in 3rd edition (along with the other swords, axes, and other antisocial devices). One of its [[Sourcebook]]s explicitly stated the intent to avoid making stats for weapons that are fundamentally similar. So far, this is carried over to 4th as well.

** The lance in particular is ''the'' best melee weapon to use on an aerial mount. ''[[Dragonlance]]'' is named for a group of artifact weapons that are powerful against dragons and that can be wielded from dragonback.

** One of the best examples of a polearm wielder in D&D lore is [[Chaotic Evil|Gruumsh One-Eye]], god of [[Our Orcs Are Different|orcs]] and [[Ax Crazy|savagery]], wields a great iron spear as his primary weapon.

* In ''[[Warhammer ~~40000~~]]'', the elite daemon hunting chapter of [[Space Marines]], the Grey Knights, wield psychically charged Nemesis Force Weapons as their standard close combat weapon, the forms of which are generally halberds and glaives, though some are swords, axes and hammers. Halberds and glaives are the standard form for the 40k RTS ''[[Dawn of War]]''.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', the elite daemon hunting chapter of [[Space Marines]], the Grey Knights, wield psychically charged Nemesis Force Weapons as their standard close combat weapon, the forms of which are generally halberds and glaives, though some are swords, axes and hammers. Halberds and glaives are the standard form for the 40k RTS ''[[Dawn of War]]''.

** The Adeptus Custodes ([[Dark Messiah|The Emperor]]'s guardians) use a spear - before the end of the Horus Heresy, it had [[Bifurcated Weapon|a bolter incorporated in it]].

** The Eldar are also fond of this - their Farseers and Warlocks can carry Singing Spears, ''anti-tank'' Blades On A Stick. The Avatar of Khaine also can bring a spear into battle.

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* Women from Samurai families were expected to have a functional ''naginata'' as part of their dowry. The naginata was also the favoured weapon of the ''sohei'' [[Warrior Monk|Buddhist warrior-monks]].

** Naginata blades were made using the same costly and laborious process as katana blades, but were often made longer, or at least had longer shafts. So if they broke, they were re-made into katana/wakizashi/tanto depending on how much blade was left.

** Although the sword was "the soul of the Samurai", the naginata was actually their primary battle weapon for much of their history; along with [[Bow and Sword In Accord|the bow]] when fighting from horseback. At the peak of the Samurai's power, the sword was used predominantly for dueling rather than warfare.

** Although the sword was "the soul of the Samurai", the naginata was actually their primary battle weapon for much of their history; along with [[Bow and Sword in Accord|the bow]] when fighting from horseback. At the peak of the Samurai's power, the sword was used predominantly for dueling rather than warfare.

** The naginata wasn't the only spear available to the Samurai. Popular amongst Samurai and Ashigaru (peasant levies) alike was the yari spear. Longer than the Naginata and with a shorter blade, the Yari ranged in size (from about 3.3 feet to 20) and was a popular weapon for large formations of Samurai and Ashigaru during the Sengoku Jidai era. Samurai tended to wield shorter versions of the Yari: Ashigaru wielded the longer varieties. The Yari became popular because of the Mongol invasion of Japan; in the brief clashes, the Mongols and Koreans advanced in tight formation. The Japanese learned the lesson.

* The Swiss mercenaries of the 15th century deserve an entry of their own. For a long time, it was an established truth that the only force capable of beating Swiss pikemen was an equal or greater number of Swiss pikemen. The first national army to ever beat a force consisting only of Swiss mercenaries was a French army that outnumbered the Swiss force 15 to 1.