Swords

I guess my idea was rubbish. Did you read the quotes from Sharpe on the description of the sword?
Well, I think that might be a bit too far. Not everyone spends as much time learning useless information as I. I didn't see any quotes to read, but I am quite familiar with the design and purpose of the weapon in question.

I do think we have room in the history of swords and other weapons to have some more interesting pieces than just a cruciform arming sword for every single character, so outside-the-box thinking is a good thing.
 
Well, yes. The saber is a somewhat clumsy weapon in some iterations. Swords do not typically cut through other swords, even lighter ones, since you don't parry at right angles. Contemporary swords with the saber would have been smallswords that, while lighter and having less cutting power than the saber, would have outperformed it in most situations due to their versatility. By the time 1796 came around, swordplay was already becoming a lost art. Cavalrymen and infantry officers were pretty much the only people carrying them into battle at that point, and duels were generally fought with pistols.
 
Would we want the earliest practice of elven martial arts and swordsmanship to look more like later times, where the emphasis has shifted from martial practice to sport? Since there is no war in Valinor, it might seem more an idle past time looking back to the dangerous times in Middle Earth during the Journey rather than relevant to contemporary needs. Which...would be an interesting starting point?

Kalaripayattu, like most martial arts, went from a time period where it had a very practical use to a period of suppression to a re-invented modern version.
 
I do see the value in doing this, I just want to make sure that our guys are _effective_. They are individually superior to their foes every time they meet them, so they can't just have their "forms" memorized. They have to be actually good.
 
Yes, I think we will have the opportunity to build up to the first battle between the host of Fëanor and the orcs, though. Fëanor draws his sword on Fingolfin at the end of episode 10. We should see then that he is using a good form, that it's a powerful position, not just waving around a blade. Fëanor is good at everything he does. Then in Episode 11, while he's exiled, he can work on teaching his sons better swordsmanship. And then everyone gets some practice at the Kinslaying early next season. And by the time they get to the orcs....mow 'em down.
 
Yes, I think we will have the opportunity to build up to the first battle between the host of Fëanor and the orcs, though. Fëanor draws his sword on Fingolfin at the end of episode 10. We should see then that he is using a good form, that it's a powerful position, not just waving around a blade. Fëanor is good at everything he does. Then in Episode 11, while he's exiled, he can work on teaching his sons better swordsmanship. And then everyone gets some practice at the Kinslaying early next season. And by the time they get to the orcs....mow 'em down.
Sounds like a good idea.
 
We can also cast actors with martial arts experience if we want them to be convincing with their onscreen swordsmanship. They could have a lot of good details go into a fight even if it's a 'flashy' TV fight scene.

For instance, this guy is the president of Thailand's national kendo federation:
MV5BMTY0NjcxMzE3N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDE5NTk0OQ@@._V1_SX1500_CR0,0,1500,999_AL_.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3307918/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

(This also means I'm suddenly only 4 degrees of separation from Ryan Gosling, which is just weird. I've practiced kendo with a guy who has practiced kendo with Vithaya-sensei, who has been in a film with Ryan Gosling. Really weird!)


Actors can also be trained to fake good form, to look convincingly like they master the weapon in a brief scene with good training/direction. The 'master' swordsman in Seven Samurai...wasn't.


And of course realism isn't always the most important thing in a fight scene. The premise of this anime is 'What if samurai were basically Jedi with swords that could cut through anything? Also, giant robots.' I'm sure some of the animation is informed by real martial arts moves, but....it's quite clearly fantastical, beyond even 'Legolas shield surfing' levels and closer to 'Legolas taking down a mumakil' or 'Legolas jumping on floating rocks'.


I am not saying we want that level of fantasy fighting, but some fantasy elements can probably creep in - they're elves, they're allowed to be amazing and (somewhat) gravity-defying.
 
Agreed. A good swordmaster is going to be absolutely critical. Also, even though this is the "swords" forum, I want to make sure that we make good use of other weapons as well. The sword is an excellent, and beautiful sidearm, but once you get to heavy armor, it becomes a secondary weapon. Even a sword specialized for use against heavy armor like this one:

SeanFlyntItaliansword1.gif


Notice the long taper to a very acute point and the quite deep profile of the blade. It is designed for rigid thrusting, sacrificing some of the cutting power by removing weight from the end of the blade. A sword like this would be used to find the gaps in plate armor and drive through the mail underneath, perhaps putting the off-hand on the blade to help aim the thrust more accurately, and help keep the blade rigid.


Yet, this weapon is still nowhere near as effective against heavy armor as something like this:

A06-BK627.jpg

Or this:

therionarms_c1306b.jpg


Or even this yari (spear) from Japan:

F-2005T-1-3.jpg
 
I guess the Orcs would use hammers? It's their style. Maybe we throw in an Orc with a really big hammer like this one:
BTSConanBarbHammerSm.jpg
 
That hammer is a bit too big to be used by anything short of a troll, but yes, I think pretty much any race would use hammers of one kind or another.
 
What I was thinking of was a kind of orc larger than the rest, that would wield a hammer like this, or a normal sized orc wielding this atop a mount of some kind, like a warg. The guy wielding the hammer in the photo I posted is 6'5".
 
Yes, an actual hammer that size would be too big for the guy in the picture to wield. The only reason he can do so in the picture is because it isn't solid.
 
Maybe I could throw this in the discussion on humor, with some Orc wielding a weapon much too big for him?
 
This is about as big as a real warhammer could get:

MaulHammer.jpg


And that probably weighs in at about 5 pounds. A troll, as Marie and I pointed out would likely have no trouble wielding the weapon you pictured. As to humor ... I really don't know if slapstick humor is what we're going for in battle scenes, because an orc wielding the hammer up there would likely take a single swing, and be killed while trying to bring the weapon up again.
 
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