Speak Softly, Carry a GIANT SWORD!

[jami]

gvinny, awesome post! Those political cartoons are excellent!

[gvinny]

*bow*

Thanks... yeah... I had forgotten how excellent some of the artwork was in some of those. Just google "Political Cartoons" and get back into the early 1900's and you find some very cool stuff.

*grin* I knew SOMETHING got me through Mr. Rortvedt's American History class... I had just forgotten it was all the political cartoons in the textbook.

BTW... what are you doing reading posts/posting like the rest of us posers?

Go draw something. Post Haste. Preferably more Wanda... ^.^

[jami]

Heh, unfortunately, I'm at my day job. No drawing for me until tonight.

If I could comic all day, you can be sure I'd be drawing lots of Wanda! She's one of my favorites to draw.

[Aliquid]

I'm sorry... Ever heard of a bastard sword? A Claymore? A Zweihander? Giant swords exist in reality, and have been actually used in combat. I myself have worn, drawn and swung a sword that was considerably longer than my arm.

Yes, but this sword is literally as long as she is tall, not the lenght of her arm. A typical Claymore is 4'6" long, not 5'6". That's a 20% increase in size. On top of that, her sword is 3 times (if not 4 times) as wide as a Claymore. So, that's close to a 400% increase in mass. Considering a claymore weighs 5.5 lbs, her sword would weigh 22 lbs.... a big difference.

It's called a quick release baldric, folks.

And she doesn't have one of those, she has a standard scabbard.

I'll agree that some anime swords go a little beyond reality, but not by as much as most people think. Just cuz it's bigger than a short sword or a dinky little rapier, it's not unrealistic.

I think the substantial increase in width is more unreal than the increase in length.

[gvinny]

Heh, unfortunately, I'm at my day job. No drawing for me until tonight.

If I could comic all day, you can be sure I'd be drawing lots of Wanda! She's one of my favorites to draw.

Woot! I'll take all the Wanda I can get

Yeah... day jobs pretty much blow. Personally if I could I'd be writing all the time, but you... my friend... are much closer to that 'non-work' goal than I.

Speaking of day-jobs I should probably go, I've got a router that's acting like it's had some bad fish.

At least posting made the first half of the day fly!

Later Jami... keep up the good work.

[gvinny]

PS... Does anyone know the psychological term to describe Aliquid's post?

How about getalifeaphobia? Fear of, you guessed it, "Getting a Life!" Or maybe nitpickerson’s disease.

I mean, come on… the chick has got a HUGE sword, and she’s clearly able to wield it cause she’s got zamussles, so drop it.

Holy hell…

Aliquid are you the kind of person who watches a movie and says “That car shouldn’t have exploded like that because the explosive capabilities of gasoline in the ratio of oxygen/gas that would be present at the moment of impact, represented here, fall far from the ratios required for said explosion!”

Whatever… thanks for sucking the imagination/creativity/magic/hope out of my world.

You know who says what’s possible and what’s not? The people who make this stuff up! Not you, not me, and not the scientific community.

It’s people like Aliquid that give me as a fantasy addict AND as a Christian a headache.

Can’t anything just BE?

That said.

In an argument about the feasibility of said sword given Earth/science dynamics you have a good point. Gratz.

[Aliquid]

You know who says what’s possible and what’s not? The people who make this stuff up! Not you, not me, and not the scientific community.

It’s people like Aliquid that give me as a fantasy addict AND as a Christian a headache.

Can’t anything just BE?

Clearly you read way more into my post than I had intended.

First off, I don't really care, I was just making an observation.

My issue was with Kit's post trying to justify the sword with "real world" examples. That type of sword is not possible in the real world, and I had to shoot the argument down. In a fantasy world it makes sense, but don't try to justify it in the real world.

In Erfworld, she can weild the sword, and she can do it well. The size doesn't matter, and the shape doesn't matter. It is a fantasy world, and the laws of physics do not apply. I would never argue otherwise.

[gvinny]

*sheepish grin* (can we get one of these emicons? Sheep with a grin, preferrably looking abashed)

I stand by what I said, as a windows into MY put-uponness but an apology is required.

Aliquid... you know, something almost stopped me from posting that because I had the feeling it was a rant, and now that I've popped back in to check... yes... indeed it was.

I blame it entirely on routers and their poor taste in fish, however I think I still need to say the word.

Sorry (there it is), Aliquid, you were hit by stray rant-fire, but it was from a friendly.

*extends hand*

For those concerned, the router is much better after a little R&R and it's buddy (the wireless card) got a new driver version. I live for these small victories.

[Aliquid]

Sorry (there it is), Aliquid, you were hit by stray rant-fire, but it was from a friendly.

No worries. A simple misunderstanding.

[The Vanishing Hitchhiker]

PS... Does anyone know the psychological term to describe Aliquid's post?

Incidentally, was the term you were looking for "catgirl slayer"? Or am I still not awake?


Anyway, no one seems to be arguing about the size of the Arkenhammer, nor the precense of gigantic mallets in anime. Of course, it's maaaagical, so maybe no one finds it suspicious.

Ah, maybe that explains the sword. A wizard did it.

[Demented]

In a world where excellence of warfare involves sending as many (hideously ugly) creatures as possible into the fray, you can only judge a good strategist by the size of her sword. Wave tactics do not bear subtlety.

[RandomNPC]

maybe in this world metal is really light, so to have the cleaving power they need to have lots of it. there was a knife made specificly in world war two that had a silly amount of metal between the two sides of the blade, specificly to smash german helmets and still have the ability to hurt the brain behind the skull inside said helmet. needless to say they only made the knives because the germans had hugely thick helmets.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

I reserve judgment until a trigger-happy wizard appears with a giant staff and a giant sword. Also a giant beard. But not necessarily in that order.

Or I could say, I love it, I don't care about weaponry size as long as it's got firepower or size enough to frighten AND kill with deadly efficiency, and also 'Johnson vonJohnson Buerger'. Simply because I always say Johnson vonJohnson Buerger.

[Aren]

The worst thing about oversized swords is how long it takes my lackey to sharpen them each morning.
*sigh*

Good help is so hard to enslave...

[TinSoldier]

The worst thing about oversized swords is how long it takes my lackey to sharpen them each morning.
*sigh*

Good help is so hard to enslave...

Now that is funny!

[Shhalahr Windrider]

*sheepish grin* (can we get one of these emicons? Sheep with a grin, preferrably looking abashed)

I believe the redface () is supposed to fill that roll. It's no sheep, but, hey, we can't all be ruminants.

[kit]

Yes, but this sword is literally as long as she is tall, not the lenght of her arm. A typical Claymore is 4'6" long, not 5'6". That's a 20% increase in size. On top of that, her sword is 3 times (if not 4 times) as wide as a Claymore. So, that's close to a 400% increase in mass. Considering a claymore weighs 5.5 lbs, her sword would weigh 22 lbs.... a big difference.
And she doesn't have one of those, she has a standard scabbard.

I think the substantial increase in width is more unreal than the increase in length.

And as a girl who can only aspire to 5' with the help of heels - I can swing a claymore. The width: yeah, you have a point there. The scabbard: yeah, in the cast pics, she has a standard scabbard. But it's not actually attached to her belt or a baldric, so it's not so much a matter of drawing as of dropping the scabbard (as someone mentioned already, I think). I was more speaking in general.

I'm sorry if I came off as harsh or anything. Obviously fantasy is outside the realm of reality, and obviously comics exaggerate proportions for artistic and humor reasons. My point was more that it's not as far from real as some people think. I guess y'all got smacked with my knee-jerk reaction to 'big swords are stupid'.

Oh, and for the people who said it was too 'anime'... I'll reapeat what some other people have said: big swords do NOT equal anime...

I happen to hate anime myself. But man, I looooove big swords!

[lord_khaine]

what, am i the only one here who just read this comic becasue of the artwork?

[faeriehunter]

I would like to see oversized shields. The perfect defense against oversized weapons!

[magic8BALL]

...or really tiny shields that are JUST AS EFFECTIVE! Thats heaps funny!

[Constantinople]

...or really tiny shields that are JUST AS EFFECTIVE! Thats heaps funny!

Bucklers. Proper shields, they are, and they often have a sharp bit on them to smack around the head of your enemy when s/he’s not looking.

[Thes Hunter]

This is my obligatory poking-fun-at-ridiculously-oversized-swords post.

Y'know...

It isn't the "unrealism" of it that bothers me most about it; it's the homage to Japanese animation. The big sword fetish started in anime (Berserk?) and hit the big time with that terrible Final Fantasy VII. Why must absolutely everything reek of anime influence nowadays? Fifteen years or so ago, it was fresh, new, edgy...

But now...it's so pervasive that it's become unoriginal. So far, Erfworld appears to me to be yet another in a long line of forgettable, cutesy, lackluster, anime-influenced comics.

I love Order of the Stick, and will continue to follow it as long as it runs, but I will ignore Erfworld. Can't we have something innovative instead?

I see it like this.... Trends, they happen.

Now what I mean by that takes a few more words to explain.

You might be a happy little Assyrian wandering around Khorsabad thinking "Why do all our gates have winged human headed bulls on them now?! Back in my day we had Lions at our gates and we were happy with it. Now everybody has got to have one of these Lamassu on it!"

Oh... umm... I see you blinking at me like I am a crazy woman, so maybe I should pick a more contemporary example.

So you might be a happy little Frenchman and you are wandering around Paris, around the turn of the former century and see all these fuzzy paintings pop up. and think "What's with these kids these days? One of them starts painting without their glasses and that was fun and nice for a while, and now they all do it? Why can't they go back to doing something original like Donatello*! Now that was something!"

And those of you not forced to take 16 credits of art history, the renaissance was not original... the sculpture for sure borrowed heavily from Greek, Roman and Etruscan sculpture still sitting around Rome.

My whole point is this: nothing is ever really original, the modern artists thought they were doing something new, but there is similarity there with cave paintings carbon dated back to early Homo Sapiens Sapiens, and the drive to be original just for originality's sake drives people to create some really stupid things. (I have an example of this, but it's not quite safe for a PG13 Forum, all I will say is that is has to do with a Cube.)

So maybe the trend with this very general style of drawing is 'stale' for you. Though Mr. Noguchi's style seems to be influenced by Japanese animation, it is in no way a 'copy-cat' of that style. It seems to me that you take issue with any style that has been informed by Japanese animation, and I find that position slightly absurd. It is like saying that you don't like any music now a days, because it's all been influenced by Rock and Roll and that people should do something original like Jazz and Blues. But then again, it is your every right to dislike Rock and Roll, or anime based art.

I, however, personally really find it interesting that Mr. Noguchi is using regular proportions for the body, but enlarging the head. And he seems to be borrowing not only from manga stylings, but other sources as well, and blending this with his own style making something, that I find unique.


* I tried not to pick a Ninja turtle, really I did.

[Maurog]

Speaking of people that have been influenced by previously existing styles, what about that Rich Burlew guy? I mean, stick figures are sooo 40000 years ago, how is that in any way original? Sheesh!

[Kalbereth]

Hehe. This comic is great, even if it lacks the clear humor of some of the OotS strips. Then again, subtlety seems what ou were going for anyway, so great job. And strangely enough, that line from Teddy Roosevelt is one of the few things that stuck with me from AP US History...odd...

[foil_fedora]

OK, I think there's actually logic at work here... of course the swords are oversize... did you notice the size of the heads they're designed to lop off?!?!?

Form follows function, people.. and pseudo-logic must be obeyed!

[LurkerBeneath]

I vote for an oversized phillips screwdriver making an appearance..

Well, presumably there's an Arkenscrewdriver somewhere. If the Arkenhammer is any indication, it should be oversize. I don't know if it's Phillips or regular or Torx or ..., though. I guess there could even be one of each type.
-LB

[Retromancer]

3 pages and no one's asked for Rodriguez to make an appearance with his giant boot yet?

you all should be ashamed of yourselves.

[Demented]

OK, I think there's actually logic at work here... of course the swords are oversize... did you notice the size of the heads they're designed to lop off?!?!?

Form follows function, people.. and pseudo-logic must be obeyed!

Its not the size of the sword that counts... it's the width of the neck!

[gvinny]

Well, presumably there's an Arkenscrewdriver somewhere. If the Arkenhammer is any indication, it should be oversize. I don't know if it's Phillips or regular or Torx or ..., though. I guess there could even be one of each type.
-LB

Actually... given our current Arken-model I'm assuming the arkenscrewdriver would be of the Playschool variety with a flashing handle and 'Real Workshop Noises', mayhaps a rotating bit, now if they'd only introduce a 'Bob the Builder' oracle we'd be all set.



Hmm... large head... small body... Jami, you got some splainin' to do.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

1) Wielding an oversized sword is not that difficult to imagine. Most ppl in our world have the equivalent of DnD's strength score of 10 with few examples between 12 and 14 and only a handful of ppl ever reaching strength 16. Remember, an 8th level DnD fighter can have, without magical aid, a strength score of 20. Said figher can lift 800 pounds above his/her head. This super-strength is fairly common in DnD heroes. Don't try to think if a normal human could use said oversized sword but if Hercules could.

2) Huge weapon weight/size does not really make them impossible to lift. Most people can fairly easily lift 40 pounds with one hand, let alone two. The problem is with tiring out during a fight and the weapon being unwieldy. But that is not a problem with the strength scores most hero-characters have.


That said, oversized weaponry should be as common as beings with strength scores above 14. A being with strength 15 could wield a weapon twice as heavy as a normal, strength 10 human with the same effort. A being with strength 20 could wield a weapon four times as heavy. Besides, fairly large weapons are essential due to the use of "uncroaked" infantry. While a few stabs from a shortsword can send most normal fighters to their graves, a skeleton or similar "uncroaked" being has damage reduction, making small, fast weapons fairly useless.