swordscomic
24071
492
13
Aug 13, 2025 11:00 PM
swordscomic
24071
492
13
VaultGirl69
#7 The Forge-o-Matic runs on AI.
TheFastpaws
But what if the two beard types got mixed together?
DiabloD3
nation543
QWEST!
Carl99
#4 Those Bees are weirdly adorable :).
ThingsThatDontJustifyGenocide
Oh boy, a tomato!
realizedagain
Goddamn these are clever.
sleepinggreenidea
*cleaver
realizedagain
Ouch, no need to pommel me for that.
GoodBrotherGrimm
Sword. (I just want to be included)
Zixtank
#1 fun fact; the zanbatou (literaly "horse slaying sword", as the comic states) is a real kind of sword and it's length is absolutely ridiculous. It was made to be used to slay horses in combat, but rarely if ever used because, well, it's blatantly useless in combat and not worth the steel.
Keairan
Most of them ended up being showpieces for the smith, ie, look what I can do.
CommunCreator
Seems like the same effect could be achieved with a pike or naginata.
NeoNeanderthal
Hence they were barely used. Well, that and the Japanese treated naginatas as women's weapons. History is full of very cool looking weapons that were about as useful as a rubber chicken in military engagements. A good deal are probably legacy warrior weapons, another portion were used chiefly for dueling or assassination, many were meant to solve a very specific problem and some were just plain stupid. The whip swords from anime were a thing. Bladed whips. In China there were swords you could1/2
CommunCreator
I just mentioned naginatas because I couldn’t name any other Japanese polearm. I mean, swords are cool, but the majority of armies centered around damage at a distance; bows and spears and such. If you let the enemy get within arm’s reach, you’re going to have a bad day.
NeoNeanderthal
There kind of aren't. They had spears in bladed and non-bladed varieties, but those aren't so unique as to warrant special mention. Naginatas are the most famous variety of glaive, to the point that they usurped the term for most people. Japan being Japan as in a naturally fortified location, further fortified for hundreds of years didn't really have as much use for the shmorgasboard of polearms Europe(for instance) employed while fighting in more...accessible terrain. Time and place I guess.
NeoNeanderthal
2/2 wear as a belt, they were that flexible(to avoid confusion these aren't the previously mentioned bladed whips). That served no function in battle, but people who weren't supposed to have one could conceal them under their clothes. Shaolin spades require massive space to swing them, but since the monasteries were banned from having armed forces they worked around the restrictions with modified tools and hand-to-hand combat to...limited effect.
NeoNeanderthal
3/3 And almost everything we associate with ninjas was meant to be concealed either as a gardening tool(kama), a musical instrument(nunchucks were literally two flutes you could tie together with a string, cover the holes and fill with something to add weight like water or sand) or a straight up stick(straighter than normal for japan swords/long knives whose handle and sheath looked like a singular piece of say bamboo).
Freemasonry
I thought nunchaku were originally rice threshers and shared their origin with the Chinese sanjiegun