• vexikron@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Giant sycthes are impractical because they are absurdly top heavy and extremely unwieldily when used by an actual human being who has to follow the laws of physics.

      Halberds are far less top heavy, far easier to wield, and can be used for stabbing as well as slashing.

      Now, Kama on the other hand, actually are practical and useable weapons. Got a pretty long history of use going back to the Okinawan roots of Karate, resisting the oppression of Samurai after basically all obvious weapons were banned.

      Kama are basically hand held miniature scythes used for farming, but they are absolutely usable as effective melee combat weapons, particularly when wielding one in each hand.

      More versatile than two daggers in that you can actually block or redirect slashing attacks from swords, even lock up a spear or sword thrust if youre skilled and well practiced.

      The problem with kama and many other actually quite practical melee combat weapons is that basically the combat style is much more technical than what any game has so far figured out how to be able to make work with a control scheme.

      EDIT: Dear god I just noticed the double scythe. In real life such a contraption would be highly likely to result in the user of such an implement seriously injuring themselves. An absolute nonsense weapon only making any sense in a fantasy realm.

      EDIT 2: While strange, a Klingon Batleth is actually a more practical weapon than a Giant Scythe in that its actually possible for a humanoid to wield such a thing without becoming immensely tired quickly, and it doesnt leave huge openings if an attack misses or is blocked, being able to more easily maneuver into a block or other attack.

        • banichan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          Me, although this may only apply to scythes in DS1+2. The handle doesn’t do much damage, if any. The blade end has to connect to do real damage.

          • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            9 months ago

            Ffs…it took your reply to realise this was a DarkSouls meme…here I was thinking:

            Fucking duh…of course the haft is gonna hurt if you smash a mfr with it!

  • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    9 months ago

    You probably already knew this but they did make scythes for combat.

    Literally just rotate the blade so it’s in line with the handle and you have a war scythe.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      9 months ago

      This does, however, require fabrication of new blade mounting hardware and likely swapping out the snath with a straight staff. The contoured snath of an English/Nordic-style scythe would not work well.

      Then, you have Austrian scythes that are even worse suited to combat as their blades would likely break as soon as any hard armor was encountered. Unarmored or soft armor like a gambeson could work well but, the thin blades would likely not last and one would likely be better served by a spear.

      • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        9 months ago

        You’re not wrong. But you also have to take into account that most weapons of war were simply repurposed farm equipment.

        Farmers and peasents would be forced to fight with whatever they had on hand and the most successful weapons were slightly redesigned to be better suited for combat. Hence the war scythe.

        Eventually they evolved into things like halberds or billhooks and other polearms.

  • Landless2029@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    9 months ago

    I’m also a fan of the esthetic of scythes. Unfortunately they’re unwieldy but so are most greatswords!!

    There’s an anime where the main character got a oversized sword to take on a raid boss. Interesting design where it had a handle on the bottom and he held it with realistic physics.

    Can’t find a screen shot for it tho.

    https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=16443

    Found the Manga page for it

    https://mangadex.org/chapter/e7834b3b-533a-4f9c-bb78-4207891d851e/9

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Historic greatswords are relatively easy to handle, they’re meant to be weapons to be wielded by humans (albeit trained ones). A scythe isn’t a weapon at all.

      Whoops, wrong sub!