Giant Swords

Many fictional characters use oversized swords, about which I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I think a huge sword looks cool, others it gets a little ridiculous. I'll try to find some pictures as I go to illustrate what I'm saying. Mainly it comes down to who's using the sword. Enormous swords aren't feasible for normal people to use, so there are only some excuses a character can have for using one. For example, Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy would be normal people if not for artificial genetic enhancements. That just doesn't quite... Cut it for me. Plus I guess I'm biassed since I've never been much of a Final Fantasy fan. And besides looking using weird looking swords, everyone in those games kinda looks like their oversized weapons are compensating for something. Sorry if you're a Final Fantasy fan, but you have to admit that there are manlier looking characters out there. Which brings us to someone else who uses a gigantic sword: War from Darksiders. War uses a large sword, but there's no questioning his masculinity. Especially since he is a horseman of the apocalypse and the living embodiment if war. War being war is also why he can use carry his massive Chaos Eater blade without me questioning it. He's freakin' War, so if he wants to use a huge sword, he gets to use a huge sword! Same with his brother, Death, in the sequel. He can use a variety of really big hammers, axes, etc. but it's ok because he's Death! All horsemen of the apocalypse, gods, demons, and even some half demons can use whatever weapons they want! I mentioned half demons in an attempt to smoothly transition to someone else who can get away with using a pretty big sword: Dante from Devil May Cry (did it work?). Some people like the old games, some like the reboot, some like both, and some aren't fans of any DMC games, but Dante is a pretty cool dude no matter how you... Slice it... Anyone? No...? Okay... So anyway, Dante is the son of a demon, so he can do what he wants. Also his sword isn't quite as big as some others, so it's reasonably sized for a half demon.

Retractible Swords

I've always liked strange fictional weapons. Recently, I've been noticing myself really liking retractible swords and wishing I could get one somewhere. There are collapsible ceremonial swords, but those aren't actually useable. This recent interest of mine is probably due to spending large amounts of Dishonored. There are crossbow pistols on the market, which I do like, but Corvo's coolest gadget by far is his sword. It extends out if the handle like a lightsaber, only it's made of metal. It even has a slight curve to it, which makes it more difficult to make in real life, but much cooler looking, plus it has more slicing power that way. There are other examples of cool retractible swords, but besides the one briefly wielded by Sulu in the newest Star Trek movie ( the next one looks pretty great by the way), I can't think of any more right now. It's a fairly simple concept, but as radical as Star Wars was when it came out, now there are so many franchises with characters who wield retracting energy blades that I find myself more impressed by a metal one. I also feel like a retractible metal sword is the best of both worlds since it's extremely easy to hide and carry around, but it has the comfortable weight of a metal blade. As far as I know, hard energy blades have little to no weight and therefore require very different skills from traditional swordsmanship. Not to mention the fact that the weight of the blade can put some extra force behind your strikes. And it would also be a bad idea to twirl an energy blade around like cool people in movies since if your hand slips, it would be much easier to cut yourself in half than with a metal blade. Admittedly, there are some situations where a lightsaber would be more useful, but since I don't plan on getting into any of those situations, I would prefer to have a battle ready retractible metal blade than a lightsaber.