Why are legendary weapons so often swords? Not just modern stuff like Star Wars, even Excalibur is one

Why are legendary weapons so often swords? Not just modern stuff like Star Wars, even Excalibur is one.

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We have this thread all the time.

Its because swords are a very common side-arm throughout all cultures, frequently a favored weapon of the nobility, and so common a weapon it became a symbol of warfare and fighting in general.

Probably because swords are the weapons most closely associated with the classical image of a knight, and thus are the classic "hero's weapon", and you want your legendary weapon to be used by a hero, don't you?

Because nobody wants a fucking enchanted halberd.

Star Wars had legendary weapon? Or you mean Lightsabers in general?

>even Excalibur is one.
Excalibur is largely symbolic. It's proof that he's king, but he still takes his kingdom "by the sword"
Plus, King Arthur's main weapon was a magic spear and his main sidearm was a magic dagger.

Because historically swords have, more than just being weapons, often been regarded as symbols of status. To have a high-quality sword was an example of affluence, not only because they were more expensive to produce than simpler weapons, but also because the proper training in their use was regarded as more of a regal practice rather than a utilitarian one.

Thus in many parts of the world, independently, swords became iconic of specific classes of individual within ancient cultures, and this cultural relevance has never really gone away.

Gae Bolg, Mjollnir, Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Teen Baan Arrows, Pinaka, Laevateinn, Kahvangis...

Because swords were a status symbol in the cultures that inspired most fantasy stories. They were the weapon of the professional soldier, the noble, the hero.
Other weapons may have been more efficient, especially in large groups, but IRL owning a sword implies you know how to use it.

>Metal Swords were pretty rare even in the times they were used.
No they weren't. A man-at-arms could afford himself laminar or brigandine armor, a shield, a polearm, and a sidearm (a sword or axe).
If you want to get out of the Medieval era you're even more wrong, with artillerymen and cavalrymen being issued swords well into the first world war.

I wholeheartedly disagree with you.

There's Lance of Longinus.

Your father shits in a peasant's field!

Mjolnir, Gungnir, etc

Excalibur is not proof he is king, drawing the sword from the stone was proof he was king and that was just a generic sword Excalibur was a gift from the lady of the lake.

You are partly right, partly wrong.

They were rare in the dark ages, and because of their use in the roman (auxiliary) cavalry, they became the weapons of returning nobles (the spatha), the germanic tribes turned this weapon into the symbol of status (migration era swords).

In the medieval ages, there were often artificial limitations on who could wear a sword in public, yes, a man at arms may have a sword, but he can't wear it in public like a nobleman can, and so it's still seen as a symbol of status.

I think that user meant that it was more a symbol of office as King. Arthur rarely used Excalibur himself, from what I recall, and often loaned it to his knights.

By the magical powers of inconsistent story telling, both swords are Excalibur

I'm pretty sure that's a modern misconception and in any given story, Arthur is given Excalibur by Vivian.

>Laevateinn
That's a sword

> Gae Bolg.
Holy shit yes.

swords are the most versatile weapon and also the weapon that one can do greater things with. You don't see a lot of "legendary" axe or spear warriors because those weapons are more situational. A sword is perfect on any ancient battlefield.

It's actually a wand or rod

In what way? It is a magical staff.

>You don't see a lot of "legendary" axe or spear warriors
Eromenos!

Forgot pic

He did often loan Excalibur to his knights. Mainly because Excalibur itself wasn't terribly special.
The sheath that held Excalibur was much more important and special as it had healing properties.
The reason Morgan le Fay threw the sheath away rather than the sword was because the sheath is what made Arthur dangerous

I said you dont see a lot, obviously there are legendary spear and axe warriors.

/thread

Here, have another one.

Also Sharur, Smasher of Thousands

cool, that makes two!

Here's another legendary spearman for good measure. China is full of them.

nice, now were up to three!

Karthikeya, the Hindu War God, wielded a spear as well, Odin wielded the Gungnir, and while we're on the subject of tottie-picking micks there's Lugh and Diarmuid who both wielded spears, and I'm pretty sure King Arthur had a spear but its name escapes me.

And while I'm at it, a halberd is used in the Japanese creation myth by the creator deity Izanagi.

>ill name 4 people throughout known history that used spears! that should teach him to say that there aren't many legendary spear warriors

also
>king arthur

nice! between the two of you we've now got 3 humans and 4 gods that used spears in combat! compared to the paltry thousands of legendary swordsmen.

Rhongomyniad

name some then

Moving the goalposts, eh, fuckboy.

my first post acknowledged that there are in fact, legendary spear warriors, just not many compared to swordsmen. the autism on Veeky Forums is particularly strong today.

Rhongomyniad

status symbol, much harder to make than spears and axes

also Arthur's was an allegory for forging bronze swords out of stone moulds

>training in their use was regarded as more of a regal practice rather than a utilitarian one.

t. someone who doesn't know fuck all about medieval history

a large number of people knew basic swordsmanship as a self defence skill, not just nobility.

Every single one of Arthur's knights would use lances before fighting. Pretty much every knight would first fight on horse back until their lances broke and then they would jump off their horse and fight with swords or with their lance if it was still intact.

...

I actually don't know what you're arguing about. I said there are simply more legendary swordsmen than spearmen, not there aren't any legendary spearmen.

They're commonly known and easily recognized.

It'd be like using a legendary AR-15 for an American hero. It's the most ubiquitous platform in America, so hey, why not use it?

>there are simply more legendary swordsmen than spearmen

>this is what spear fags believe
almost worse than katana fags desu

They said legendary, not apocryphal.

Start naming legendary swordsmen.

Well, if you need another man famous for using pointy stick, there's always Vlad Tepes.

its much less effort just to call you a fag tho.

...

Excalibur IS the sword in the stone as often as it isn't.
No, it's a fucking myth. There have always been different versions.
Hell, Excalibur and the sword in the stone are just a rip off of Gram from the Volsungasaga, where it's a sword pulled out of a tree. Stories originating in oral storytelling are always inconsistent and that has absolutely nothing to do with "modern misconception."
You really shouldn't mouth off about this stuff when you clearly know very little about it.

because sword are the best

All this Cu Chulain
What about my boy Fionn

That's because it's associated with jesus. You know what else is magic and associated with him? The holy prepuce. Do you want a magic prepuce?

Can I weaponize it?

Literal cuck

So was King Arthur...

>Do you want a magic prepuce?

I'd take a magic anything to be honest.

Maybe 20% of legendary weapons that come to my mind are swords. Is it really THAT often?

Gae Budihe

I think you're mistaking it for Mystletainn (I have no idea how to spell this shit)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtr Yeah i also remembered Surtur having a fiery sword.

Yeah, though legendary lightsabers are actually pretty crap, resembling an industrial tool more than a weapon.

i would belive anyone telling me it's some kind of sci-fi plasma torch.

>That exposed wire
>And what looks like a bracelet power supply
It's no wonder people in the Star Wars universe just killed each other with conventional swords WAAAAY back in the day.
That looks unreliable and dodgy as fuck.

it is unreliable and dodgy as fuck. You'd be better off with a monoedge sword. In fact a lot of characters use scifi swords in the starwars setting if only because lightsabers are an enormous pain in the ass on every level when they aren't crappy dodgy pieces of shit.

>You'd be better off with a monoedge sword
VIBROSWORD

would those be around at the same time as the protolightsabers?

>You don't see a lot of "legendary" axe or spear warriors because those weapons are more situational. A sword is perfect on any ancient battlefield.
Worst post on Veeky Forums right now

>no sheath but mine

> A Legendary American Hero would use an M4
WRONG

>It's either this or the M1911, or maybe an early colt revolver.

Because back in the day soldiers didnt write much and when it did it never went down the history books. Noblemen and generals, with their lifelong training with swords, never really partaking in the battle, did write the history books along with the clueless monks.

Its daid that nearly all historical sources might be wrong because nobody fact checked anything and the writters were usually the textbook case of neopotism of writing.

I mean shit, romans had everyone thinking they were immortal robotmen who walked in tight formations and mainly used their swords because the generals and officers were literally dickwaving in their "battle" reports.

Mostly because swords are common across cultures. Swords were difficult to make (spears, axes, etc don't have the same length of metal that must be resilient) And thus expensive. And as a side note to that: Swords don't have any purpose beyond use in combat, to own a sword meant you were wealthy enough to buy something most people won't use day to day, and implied you were trained to use it.

Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.

Wasn't it the scabbard that was the really potent artifact? Something about not ever bleeding to death (or bleeding at all) while wearing it.

Gungnir too.

I dunno man, if it's legitimately Jesus' then it probably cures leprosy or something.

A legendary weapon is the weapon of a hero, and a hero need sot be able to face all comers, so he needs a weapon which while perhaps not the best in every case, will still serve him well enough in any fight.

"[The sword] is such a weapon that all the people use it; the one who knows (how to use it) and the one who does not, young and old are protected by it everywhere. And it (the sword) is (such) a good brother that it does not become inactive in wide or even narrow places. One needs it on the sea and on the land and in crowd. On a very windy day the lance becomes a burden for its possessor, but this (the sword) never becomes useless. And on that day the archer can not shoot his arrow straight, (therefore) no one can do without the sword."

"Although they have many weapons, they would never be able to do without the sword, but those who have swords can do without all the other weapons."

Muhammad Ibn Ya qub Ibn Ahi Hazzam al-Hattali, Kitab al-Furusiyya va'l-Baytara, 14th century

Similar ideas can be found, for example,. within current day Japanese koryu bujutsu.

Legendary swords and history books don't quite seem to belong together.

Still, while one should of course always be critical of all sources, writing off the vast majority of primary sources as wrong because they claim things didn't happen they way one thinks things happened (such as relying on swords in close combat instead of javelins) may not quite be the best way to go about it either.

I meant for a story set in the present day. Obviously before the invention of the AR (and honestly, before the time where ARs started selling like hotcakes around the 2000's) a different, more period-appropriate weapon would be chosen.

Yes, the sword itself was simply a sword.

It glowed and he occasionally used it to blind people, stopped mucking about with that once he got the dagger though

the scabbard made you invincible pretty much

Yeah, eventually, but the legacy is ultimately rooted either in pre-roman or dark age symbolism and caste. Not high middle age or renaissance

Because it's the most relatable of weapons. Nevermind the status of how it's hard to make well and a symbol of nobility and church, it's simply a very comfortable concept of a weapons. A hammer or axe, you need to ready it, heft it, swing it to make it have impact. As much tool as weapon. A knife is getting there, but it's small, more of a last resort. A sword though, you can swing, you can stab, quick and easy to handle, simple but powerful look, you can gesture with it, have some reach with it, and it's a weapon before it's a tool. It just feels right as a heroic and legendary weapon of choice, if only by how easy it is to remember and see used.

>even Excalibur is one.


>He's never heard of Axecaliber

Because so many legends wielded them.

El Cid was a cool bro.

Indeed

>not posting the rival city lord's matching spear

The only legendary weapons I can think of that actually are thought to exist by people are the Spear of Destiny and Atilla's Sword.

Nobody thinks the spear of destiny is real, it's not actually ascribed any power in the bible as I recall, and even if it were it'd probably be a pilum, more of a javelin and not a proper spear.

I want to see more legendary guns.
What would a legendary gun be and what powers would it have?

Look at this retard. Look and laugh at him.

It's a kenning niggas.

'Damage twig' means sword. It's a creative way of saying sword.