\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nrtrixie\n\nAnd this is what happens when a\u00a0masterfully\u00a0crafted katana collides with a masterfully crafted\u00a0longsword.
\nSuck it, katana
\n“But\u2026but gloriously folded 1000 times Nippon steel, b-but” -
\nSUCK IT WEEABOOS
\n;_;7
\nWait, why is this being tested edge on edge? Edge on side is more common.
\nIt\u2019s actually not. When i was learning sword, the first thing you learn is to catch the enemy\u2019s blade with the edge of your own. When you catch with the flat, the angle costs your wrist a lot of strength. It\u2019s all physics. Edge-on-edge actually is the appropriate way to parry. It nicks up your blade, yes, but better the blade than your body.\u00a0
\n
True. The intensive smithing process that produces katanas is mostly about compensating for the shitty iron sources, in battle samurai were cavalry archers or maybe heavy cavalry that charged with polearms, the image of samurai as swordfighters and duelists (and poets, and brave facers-of-death) mostly comes from the Edo period, a time of peace when the warrior types tried to justify their social position through increasingly ridiculous romantic gestures.
Like, this is a pretty common pattern when an age of war ends, the warriors turning their energy to petty bullshit, seeing who can put together the most absurdly expensive/expensively absurd outfit, who can tell the best epic tale about how awesome they are and think up the cleverest way to throw poetic shade at each other, all starting feuds and killing each other over dumb teenage-boy honor shit.
Like, think about the French nobility at Versailles. Or wealthy Italian families after Condottieri stopped mattering in battle - that\u2019s the setting of Romeo & Juliet, where the Montagues and Capulets are all throwing costume balls and walking around with swords and figuring out cute ways to double-entendre insult each other and killing and dying in the street and the real power lies with the Prince who is like \u201cOh my GOD you guys, stop it, you\u2019re bothering the merchants.\u201d That\u2019s a lot closer to what samurai swordsmen were like.
Hell, think about the way the actual gang wars of the crack era to capture corners (that is, productive territory) gave way to gangsta rap, diss tracks, and silly bling.
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