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Royal Rapier: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
A type of [[Cool Sword]], the rapier is often associated with those of high class, or at least some suave character.
Note that in the hey-day of the rapier, it was as likely to be associated with traveling entertainers who gave what we would call “performances” with the rapier and buckler ([[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|small shield]]
If your characters are living in [[The Cavalier Years]], and especially musketeers are involved, you can definitely expect them to use rapiers.
Also included is the [[wikipedia:Espada ropera|espada ropera]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
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* Along with the main gauche, the rapier was the short range weapon for the French Musketeers on "Deadliest Warrior". {{spoiler|It received 195 kills in the simulation}}
* In one episode of ''[[Blackadder]] I'', Prince Edmund challenges Lord Dougal MacAngus to a duel. Edmund uses a rapier, but MacAngus effortlessly snaps it in half with his longsword.
== Real Life ==▼
* Rapiers did see use around the early renaissance era, usually by richer men who studied fencing, or for general self defense use against unarmored opponents. It was at the time a favorite weapon for use in duels. From a more militarized point of view, the rapier did see some limited use on the battlefield, but proved ineffectual due to its difficulty penetrating even the lightest of armor, the hard time involved in using it to slash effectively, and the tenancy of its long narrow blade to break. There is however no denying that it is more [[Rule of Cool|classy]] then the more practical military blades, which were typically more pragmatically designed to kill things without such niceties as looking good or elegant doing it.▼
** Amusingly, the earliest origin of the rapier was anything but Royal, and began life as a street fighting weapon amongst common thugs. Only later was it adopted by the higher classes and gained a 'refined' reputation.▼
*** In the early Renaissance, calling someone a "good fencer" was kind of like saying, "You're a heck of a coke mule." It implied you were the kind of scummy bastard who would learn how to fence, and clearly only people up to no good would want to know that. England even tried banning fencing schools. It didn't work.▼
** Rapiers were not inferior weapons nor impractical. They were ''different'' weapons designed for a completely different role. The rapier was designed for civilian use against a foe who had no armor in a duel, brawl, or mugging. The Capoferro lunge with a rapier killed off "old school" duelists. Military cut and thrust swords developed differently to suit the needs of their users. What was effective in warfare was just not effective in Renaissance streets, just as a Kalashnikov would make a terrible hunting rifle. Prior to this time, there really wasn't a difference between civilian and military arms.▼
== Video Games ==
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* ''[[Persona 3]]'': [[Ojou|Mitsuru's]] [[Weapon of Choice]]. [[Gratuitous French|C'est Magnifique]].
** While it is her default weapon, she can use any one-handed sword weapons, which include non-rapiers. She still, however, uses them ''as'' a rapier, slashing once on her first hit, stabbing multiple times on the second, and then ''[[Combat Stilettos|kicking the enemy in the face]]'' with the third.
** You can't mention the ''[[Persona]]'' series here without mentioning the original
* The Suikoden series provides us with quite a lot of characters wielding a rapier :
** Vincent de Boule, a former aristocrat from the Scarlet Moon Empire, uses one in ''Suikoden'' and ''[[Suikoden II]]''.
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* Richard in ''Tales of Graces'' wields these and is a prince.
* Saleh from ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'' wields one. It's fitting for a suave [[Smug Snake]] like himself.
* Noblewoman Phiona in ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'', while a member of the series' [[BFS|Heavy Warrior]] class, goes with a giant rapier as her weapon of choice, regardless of how little sense that makes.
* Sima Shi, Yuan Shao, and Liu Shan in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 7''.
* In the most recent ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games, the rapier became the weapon of choice of [[The Red Mage]] job.
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* ''[[My Little Pony]]'': In the episode "The Prince and the Ponies", the palace guards (who are of uncertain loyalty until the end) carry rapiers, and there's a bit where some of the Little Ponies swordfight with them (using their mouths to hold the rapiers).
▲== Real Life ==
▲* Rapiers did see use around the early renaissance era, usually by richer men who studied fencing, or for general self defense use against unarmored opponents. It was at the time a favorite weapon for use in duels. From a more militarized point of view, the rapier did see some limited use on the battlefield, but proved ineffectual due to its difficulty penetrating even the lightest of armor, the hard time involved in using it to slash effectively, and the tenancy of its long narrow blade to break. There is however no denying that it is more [[Rule of Cool|classy]] then the more practical military blades, which were typically more pragmatically designed to kill things without such niceties as looking good or elegant doing it.
**Aside from the fact that you really need mass to slash, rapiers had to shape what mass they had differently. That is they had to be thicker vertically to stand a thrust at such length which of course is contradictory to having a sharp blade for slashing. Some rapiers in fact were unedged and those that had edges were primarily for preventing grasping by an opponent. It is possible to make a tip cut(especially as it was not unknown to expand the tip specifically for the purpose in a circular shape) and as the neck blood vessels are there that may be the only fatal cut that can be done with a rapier. It is also possible to make a draw cut while recovering from a failed thrust or to cut as a prod or reconnaissance sort of as a fencing equiv to boxing's left jab. Neither of those is what a rapier is designed for however.
▲** Amusingly, the earliest origin of the rapier was anything but Royal, and began life as a street fighting weapon amongst common thugs. Only later was it adopted by the higher classes and gained a 'refined' reputation.
▲*** In the early Renaissance, calling someone a "good fencer" was kind of like saying, "You're a heck of a coke mule." It implied you were the kind of scummy bastard who would learn how to fence, and clearly only people up to no good would want to know that. England even tried banning fencing schools. It didn't work.
▲** Rapiers were not inferior weapons nor impractical. They were ''different'' weapons designed for a completely different role. The rapier was designed for civilian use against a foe who had no armor in a duel, brawl, or mugging. The Capoferro lunge with a rapier killed off "old school" duelists. Military cut and thrust swords developed differently to suit the needs of their users. What was effective in warfare was just not effective in Renaissance streets, just as a Kalashnikov would make a terrible hunting rifle. Prior to this time, there really wasn't a difference between civilian and military arms.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:Royal Rapier]]▼
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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