look. look at this beautiful sword meme. i’m going to cry

@petermorwood

I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but it’s always worth repeating, and this time I’m adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)

Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.

Here are Celtic bronze swords…

…Ancient Greek Xiphoi…

… and a Roman “Mainz-pattern” gladius…

Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.

Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. They’re weapons if necessary…

…but since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.

This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside it…

…but may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.

A couple of internet captions say it’s for “cutting ropes” which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Hero’s rapier (!!) wouldn’t be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didn’t work as well as intended for any purpose.

I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).

A lot of “flamberge” (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.

The giveaway is the centreline: if it’s straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.

Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.

Again, the clue is the centre-line.

Incidentally those Parierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.

Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.

There’s no doubt about this one either.

The reason - though that was a part of it - wasn’t just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.

However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasn’t that much of an advantage after all.

Here’s a Circassian kindjal, forged wiggly…

…and an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wiggly…

There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.

These more practical historical versions are usually called “sword-breakers” but I prefer “sword-catcher”, since a steel blade isn’t that easy to break. Taking the opponent’s blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.

NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.

The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next one’s blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.

So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.

Here’s a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesn’t even have an odd-shaped blade…

Just a very flexible one…

If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to start…

i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much

Cattitude

So my cat is sleeping between my legs and then this happened and I laughed so hard he woke up.

that’s a potato

Your cat looks like an uncooked chicken

he became so smooth i’m so proud of him

Doctors HATE him for discovering this one skin-smoothing trick!

Every now and then this post picks up traction again and honestly those last two replies are my favorite so I’m reblogging to preserve them on my blog forever.

also hey thirteen and under year olds that are following me, i cannot stop you from going on this site but at least use the block button very very freely

it is absolutely fine to block people that you feel unsafe around - especially if you’ve already made it clear to them you’re uncomfortable and they don’t leave you alone

oh! and if they guilt you about it? you’re allowed to have boundaries. nobody’s entitled to you. thanks for coming to my ted talk

— onlinecounsellingcollege.com (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

by やまこ

by やまこ

I’d like everyone to see this

{Credit to amalasrosa on Twitter}

#real #not to be salty but this is what ive been saying#like everyone out here really still acting like fanfic isnt really writing#like its subpar and like it cant be good and have amazing lines#even fanfic writers treat it like its LESS and like theyre PLAY writing and not actually writing#like friend buddy ican ASSURE YOU that fanfic is every bit as real and good as writing from books#the only difference between fic and actual books is that books go through several stages of processing and editing and filtering#and are worked on by professionals who studied the craft of editing#while fanfiction cuts that filtering and everyone gets a chance to be heard and to be read#and instead of editors we have peer editing and reviewing#dont be fucking tricked by the mass notion that anything that young girls and queer people are interested in is immediately bad and subpar#bc it is fucking not #i will FIGHT for it #fanfiction (tags by @crossroadswrite bacause they add so much to this post)

The real irony is there is plenty of fanfiction that goes through more rigorous editing than some published fiction. So the difference in quality between fanfiction and “professional writing” is totally arbitrary and made up. Except that some things that are more expensive are worse.

Fanfic has really raised my standards for what constitutes good writing.

me in 50 years

I want to know what Miyuki did to piss off the fire nation the first time

Everything changed when Miyuki attacked

Did the guy in the blue shirt just throw the guy with the black shirt off a bridge for respecting women???

No, the guy in the black shirt willingly jumped off the bridge to go get the love letter, because he respect women that much.

when you drink yo respect women juice

PSA

y’all

need

to

read

Shimanami Tasogare

It is an amazing manga with an almost entirely LGBT+ cast and talks a lot about gender identity, sexuality and troubles faced by those within the LGBT+ community (especially for younger members). Also it is fucking BEAUTIFUL.

Kamatani Yuuki’s use of imagery and visual metaphors never fails to take my breath away.

Please just read the damn manga.

I personally had an emotional breakdown because of this manga having a character I felt so connected to so definitely give it a read my dudes.

guys it’s getting an official North American release!

Volume 1 will be out on May 7th!

I also want to point out that there’s ace/aro rep in this series too!

I was absolutely shocked, never expected to see that kind of rep in manga, but it’s there! The author identifies as X-gender and asexual, so it’s LGBT+ rep being written by an LGBT+ author!

It’s a really great series!!

MEASLES UPDATE 2/23/19

This is unacceptable. Measles is still out there and hurting people. We really should not be seeing measles in this day and age, since medical technology has progressed to the point where we have the luxury of long life. There’s been more of a push than ever to overturn vaccination exemptions, and at this point, they’re needed more than ever.