Misconceptions About BIG SWORDS
I say "this is too big to be a sword, too big, too heavy, too rough" a lot on this channel.
Seeing as how I talk a lot about the swords in Berserk, Bleach, FF7, Monster Hunter, Naruto, and more... that's expected.
The same comments always come up, so I wanted to address them.
More info on the big sword trope from TV Tropes:
The melee weapon equivalent of a BFG.
A common trope to both video games and anime, a BFS is an unrealistically large sword most often owned by The Hero, The Chosen One, or whatever type the lead happens to be. To be a true BFS, it should be nearly as long as its owner is tall. It may or may not have other special qualities besides being humongous. If a BFS does possess other strange qualities, one of them almost assuredly prevents it from being used by other people, whether that be weight, a magical barrier, a direct link to its owner, or other means.
Usually no other character in a game or series is the possessor of a sword that is anywhere close to as huge. Sometimes, even when unusual swords and weapons are an everyday occurrence, characters are still surprised by the size of the lead's BFS, as it is a physical manifestation of its owner's potential power.
The Rival or Big Bad will sometimes own a BFS, representing a significant hurdle and challenge for the protagonist to overcome. It is rarer for a secondary character, such as The Lancer or The Big Guy, to own a BFS, but if the lead character does not possess one, one of the others in their party likely will.
This trope includes any type of improbably large ("anime-sized") melee weapon. After the aforementioned big-ass sword, gigantic lances tend to be the most common. However, humongous hammers and titanic axes also appear from time to time, most commonly in the hands of The Big Guy (or, just for the absurdity of it all, a little girl).
An ancient trope. Oversized, unrealistic swords aren't unheard of in medieval or earlier fiction, poetry, and artwork. To make matters more confusing, most societies employing swords also made huge ceremonial swords for display, which laymen of later periods may mistake for actual war tools. Swords employed in combat or dueling were lighter than even the typical, non-BFS fantasy sword — which makes a lot of sense, if you remember it's about swinging one hundreds of times and quick enough — while the only purpose of a ceremonial or executioner's sword is to be carried along or make one strong cut respectively, there's not a lot of swinging around. Even the really big swords, such was the German Zweihänder, which were used for "fencing" with (batting aside or cutting) polearms or keeping multiple opponents at bay were much lighter (relatively speaking) than we are led to believe by most fictional portrayals.
Compare Big, Bulky Bomb, BFG (as mentioned above) and Great Bow. May well be a Bigger Stick. May involve Hammerspace physics for storage, or some sort of strange magnetism. Almost always held casually resting on the hero's shoulder.
If it's being wielded with just one hand, it's a One-Handed Zweihänder. See Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword for when characters wield weapons meant for a race of a different size. Compare Dual Wielding, Heroes Prefer Swords, and Infinity +1 Sword. May be used to create a Sinister Scraping Sound. Obligatory links to Freud Was Right and Compensating for Something are here for your convenience.
For the computer scientists reading this page, this page has nothing to do with breadth-first search.
#anime #gaming #sword