<!– Global site tag (gtag.js) – Google Analytics –>
<script async src=”https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-22856846-2″></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag(‘js’, new Date());
gtag(‘config’, ‘UA-22856846-2’);
</script>
<!– Global site tag (gtag.js) – Google Analytics –>
<script async src=”https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-22856846-7″></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag(‘js’, new Date());
Yeah unless you have a spiky hairdo , you can’t swing a sword as tall as you are…even Tiff doesn’t swing around a claymore despite her barbarian status.
I really think a poisoned crossbow and/or throwing knives are more her speed. Better if she can take down opponents fast and before they can take advantage or her “balance handicap” and general clumsiness
@Bubba, My grandfather actually had an an old rusty sword (a real one), and let me assure you from experience that they are heavy and that waving it around tires you very quickly even if you are fit (and peonie is very fit, just not where it counts for swordplay). Maybe a katana, those are MUCH lighter….
his must have been a renaissance fair type decorative reproduction. real medieval swords were quite light. you’d be swinging them around quite alot for longish periods of time in which your life depended on *not* being exhausted afterall.
your view comes from the same media that depicts them as huge flat things and armor as unusably heavy and restrictive. with knights fighting in big clumsy exaggerated heavy movements, because its more interesting that way. so for the same reason a purely decorative sword would be heavy and exaggerated too.
many collectors including museums however do have display and fail to make a distinction between 16th century+ “bearing” swords used for parades. made oversized exaggerated and blunt to look impressive but never intended to be used.
real plate armor was lighter than some of our modern soldiers equipment, real armor provided much more range of motion than you’d think too(an armored knight was perfectly capable of mounting a horse on his own, ect. like with the swords most ideas to the contrary come from a failure to separate real and decorative armors, or real and jousting armors), and real swords weighed much less than you’d think.
_____________
ex:
“the sword was, in fact, surprisingly light·.the average weight of swords from the 10th to the 15th centuries was 1.3 kg, while in the 16th century it was 0.9 kg. Even the heavier bastard swords which were used only by second-grade fighting men did not exceed 1.6 kg, while the horse swords known as ‘hand-and-a-half’ swords weighed 1.8 kg on average. When due allowances are made, these surprisingly low figures also hold good for the enormous two-hand sword, which was traditionally only wielded by ‘true Hercules.’ Yet it seldom weighed more than 3 kg.” (Funcken, Arms, Part 3, p. 26).
Actually Nicolas, Bubba is right about the weight of properly made 2 handed swords. They just have a lot of mass due to their size. That means it takes a lot more strength to stop the swing than it would with a smaller sword.
Why do you think you see such wide swings by those who can easily wield 2 handed swords compared to smaller swords? It’s because it would tire you out more quickly to try to do small swings even if you do have the physical strength to do so.
Peonie was actually doing pretty well until she over-extended herself in the next to last panel. A staff, wand, or dagger would be more appropriate for her. She also needs to learn proper posture. Otherwise the “kitchen” scene with the stew kettle will repeat.
I’m with Bubba. My daughters, at ages 8 & 10 could use my claymore … briefly. It’s not the weight of the sword really, it’s … well … have you ever tried waving your hands in the air for twenty minutes without stopping? Until one can do that, one is not ready to use a sword for more than briefly. And, most certainly would be useless in any extended combat situation.
Then again, most real medieval fights didn’t last as epically long as modern stories and movies would have us believe, mainly because people don’t have that kind of endurance. Toward the end of the armor age, when firearms began to make the scene, the armor was thick and well-made enough to turn aside most swords, so you could spend a lot of time banging on someone…but in the end, when you got tired, you moved in and grappled. Look for an opening like a visor or joint and start stabbing, hoping you were doing so faster than your opponent. That, and broken bones underneath relatively undamaged armor, was how most fights ended.
@Andor depends on the fight. For example, while not medieval one of the more successful ways that the Spanish dealt with pirates was to tire them out. A cutlass (and other heavy chopping weapons) favored by pirates weighs between 3 and 4 lbs depending on design. A rapier favored by the spanish fighting crew weighs 1.5. After about 2 or 3 minutes of the spanish boarding party just defending itself, the pirates were usually too tired to keep going. Then the spanish had lots of examples of people to take back to the fort and hang.
Also, I remember an article citing an interview with Arnold from the Conan filming where he mentioned that his sword weighed about 7 pounds. He mentioned that he could only film for a few minutes at a time before needing a break. And that was back when he was in the peak of health and on steroids. Though, could be that the article wasn’t authoritative, it was before wikipedia tought us to look for references =)
You may notice, Peonie was able to hold Niels’ sword easily enough, until she lost her balance with a bit of an exaggerated swing. Control is something that comes with strength training.
It wasn’t a matter of raw weight as it was control, balance, and center of gravity.
However, Niels sword is somewhat intentionally on the heavier side of things. He finds that it allows for maximum force with his higher than normal strength.
Well, if things progress, the unicorn will refuse to be Tiff’s steed and Denver will have to pitch in. But frankly, the world better hope that it does _not_ come to this, since the offspring of a dragon with a male barbarian with anger issues is not going to be a wagonload of blessing.
True, khamya9….that’s how Maynard got Blackbeard. Technically, that was after the age of broadswords and armor, of course…by that point, pistols had rendered armor obsolete, and there was no need for weapons heavy enough to cut through them. Even with the lighter weapons, though, yes…it became exhausting. Hell, try just swinging your arm, with NOTHING in it, for as long as you can. Exactly my point…real fights tend to be short and brutal, and not as stylized as they appear in stories.
While it is commonly accepted that the average longsword weighed less than 3lb and even two-handers rarely topped 6lb, please do not forget that it is Niels we are talking about — a giant among men, capable of legendary feats of strength and endurance. It is highly likely that his sword is custom made to fit his “battletank” fighting style.
There are some interesting passages on wikipedia:
* Frisian hero Pier Gerlofs Donia is reputed to have wielded a Zweihänder with such skill, strength and efficiency that he managed to behead several people with it in a single blow. The Zweihänder ascribed to him is, as of 2008, on display in the Frisian museum. It has a length of 213 cm (84 in) and a weight of about 6.6 kg (14.5 lb). (link).
* The largest claymore on record is a sword measuring 7 feet 6 inches (2.24 m) and weighing 23 pounds (10 kg). The claymore was wielded by a 15th-century Scottish giant of unknown name and origin, though the individual is believed to have been a member of the Maxwell Clan. (link, unsourced).
* Re: Waking sleeping dragons
Tiff may be coming to the realization that she loves Denver but this should lead to introspection, soul searching and re-evaluation of her world-view. In any case, she SHOULD NOT be ready for heterosexual sex at this time.
He probably just figured that Tiff would have some defensive reaction to tackle whoever woke her from sleep… let sleeping dragons lie
It’d be very interesting to see if Denver COULD get Tiff pregnant. I mean, even outside the whole inter-species part of this, Denver is effectively considered a juvenile possibly not yet capable of reproduction for his species… Although I think there was something about simply magically producing offspring rather than proper breeding when it came to Dragons.
Still… Pregnancy might not be realized for sometime if it happens, but would certainly add one hell of a dynamic to the story, even outside the half-dragon genetics of the child.
Re armour weight, another thing often wrongly assumed about armour is that mail was lighter than plate.
I had heard the modern versus ancient equipment weight before, another thing to consider is that the weight in modern gear is mostly concentrated in the pack which means the armoured soldier had much better weight distribution however it is much easier to loose the weight in modern gear.
It isn’t just strengh (and stamina) its getting that in the right muscle groups we should get glimpses of Peonie holding things at arms length.
@Lurker Um .. you might want to re-read the archives. Tiff has always been a heterosexual woman (ever since the transformation). Take a look at First Kiss (2007-11-22) and The Body (2007-11-29). In those, Dever takes her by surprise, kisses her, and she slugs him.
But look at that first panel in The Body. After she gets over being surprised, and BEFORE she remembers she used to be a man, she actually LIKES the kiss.
Sure, she remembers being a man, and has (or had, it’s been a while now) ingrained habits from being a man. But that’s not the same thing as being a man with a female body (ie: a transgendered person).
Take a look also at Big Ifs (2013-03-14) Tiff says “And what if I decide I’m not broken?” That’s a pretty strong indicator that she’s become comfortable as she is.
I would not be surprised to see Tiff and Dever sleeping in different tents, neither would I be surprised to see them sleeping in the same tent.
Quartz: she is holding it by the hilt, and those tend to be wrapped in leather (the only one with woollen gloves was Tiff, everyone else had mittens, except Niels with his armoured gauntlets)
@Chris, I never said that Tiff was not a heterosexual woman, she’s falling in love with Denver after all. What I did say is that she should not be (emotionally) ready for heterosexual SEX yet.
To expand on it, consider just this one aspect: we have no indication that Tiff has any knowledge of contraceptives. Therefore, as far as she’s concerned, sex leads to pregnancy and babies. She has yet to show that she is ready for motherhood and I can make a strong case that she has not yet progressed to this point.
As for “And what if I decide I’m not broken?”, it was phrased as a question, meaning less than total acceptance. Tiff is considering the possibility, probably is leaning toward accepting it, but has not wholly embraced it. And there should be no sex with Denver until that happens.
It’s all well and good to ask the combat giant to teach you how to fight but it might make more sense to ask someone closer in size and musculature to yourself. A fighting style for a veritable giant is not necessarily a good style for someone significantly smaller…
Be a Producer!Your name/title with an optional SFW hyperlink will be posted prominently HERE following the close of the month! You’ll also receive monthly mailings from Exiern’s author, Scott T. Hicken!
Yep, here it comes.
Yeah unless you have a spiky hairdo , you can’t swing a sword as tall as you are…even Tiff doesn’t swing around a claymore despite her barbarian status.
I really think a poisoned crossbow and/or throwing knives are more her speed. Better if she can take down opponents fast and before they can take advantage or her “balance handicap” and general clumsiness
Most swords weight only a couple of pounds. Even the biggest two handed swords actually used in combat weighed probably around 7 lbs.
Most swords weigh only a couple of pounds. Even the biggest two handed swords actually used in combat weighed probably around 7 lbs.
@Bubba, My grandfather actually had an an old rusty sword (a real one), and let me assure you from experience that they are heavy and that waving it around tires you very quickly even if you are fit (and peonie is very fit, just not where it counts for swordplay). Maybe a katana, those are MUCH lighter….
his must have been a renaissance fair type decorative reproduction. real medieval swords were quite light. you’d be swinging them around quite alot for longish periods of time in which your life depended on *not* being exhausted afterall.
your view comes from the same media that depicts them as huge flat things and armor as unusably heavy and restrictive. with knights fighting in big clumsy exaggerated heavy movements, because its more interesting that way. so for the same reason a purely decorative sword would be heavy and exaggerated too.
katanas weigh maybe 2.5 lbs, most(Real) European swords weigh maybe 3.
many collectors including museums however do have display and fail to make a distinction between 16th century+ “bearing” swords used for parades. made oversized exaggerated and blunt to look impressive but never intended to be used.
real plate armor was lighter than some of our modern soldiers equipment, real armor provided much more range of motion than you’d think too(an armored knight was perfectly capable of mounting a horse on his own, ect. like with the swords most ideas to the contrary come from a failure to separate real and decorative armors, or real and jousting armors), and real swords weighed much less than you’d think.
_____________
ex:
“the sword was, in fact, surprisingly light·.the average weight of swords from the 10th to the 15th centuries was 1.3 kg, while in the 16th century it was 0.9 kg. Even the heavier bastard swords which were used only by second-grade fighting men did not exceed 1.6 kg, while the horse swords known as ‘hand-and-a-half’ swords weighed 1.8 kg on average. When due allowances are made, these surprisingly low figures also hold good for the enormous two-hand sword, which was traditionally only wielded by ‘true Hercules.’ Yet it seldom weighed more than 3 kg.” (Funcken, Arms, Part 3, p. 26).
“A couple of pounds” is still a heavy piece of steel to be holding at arms length for any length of time, never mind swinging it productively.
Actually Nicolas, Bubba is right about the weight of properly made 2 handed swords. They just have a lot of mass due to their size. That means it takes a lot more strength to stop the swing than it would with a smaller sword.
Why do you think you see such wide swings by those who can easily wield 2 handed swords compared to smaller swords? It’s because it would tire you out more quickly to try to do small swings even if you do have the physical strength to do so.
Peonie was actually doing pretty well until she over-extended herself in the next to last panel. A staff, wand, or dagger would be more appropriate for her. She also needs to learn proper posture. Otherwise the “kitchen” scene with the stew kettle will repeat.
I am not sure if i want the “two” to be sleeping in the same tent or not.
I wonder if we’ll get a “reverse Peonie” moment, when Peonie goes to wake up Tiff and Denver…
Any Sword training takes strength training too.
Because Peonie can’t wield a sword, she gets to wake up a sleeping dragon and its mate?
I’m with Bubba. My daughters, at ages 8 & 10 could use my claymore … briefly. It’s not the weight of the sword really, it’s … well … have you ever tried waving your hands in the air for twenty minutes without stopping? Until one can do that, one is not ready to use a sword for more than briefly. And, most certainly would be useless in any extended combat situation.
Then again, most real medieval fights didn’t last as epically long as modern stories and movies would have us believe, mainly because people don’t have that kind of endurance. Toward the end of the armor age, when firearms began to make the scene, the armor was thick and well-made enough to turn aside most swords, so you could spend a lot of time banging on someone…but in the end, when you got tired, you moved in and grappled. Look for an opening like a visor or joint and start stabbing, hoping you were doing so faster than your opponent. That, and broken bones underneath relatively undamaged armor, was how most fights ended.
Seriosly I thought she was going to cut her clothes off and feel like tiffany already.
@Andor depends on the fight. For example, while not medieval one of the more successful ways that the Spanish dealt with pirates was to tire them out. A cutlass (and other heavy chopping weapons) favored by pirates weighs between 3 and 4 lbs depending on design. A rapier favored by the spanish fighting crew weighs 1.5. After about 2 or 3 minutes of the spanish boarding party just defending itself, the pirates were usually too tired to keep going. Then the spanish had lots of examples of people to take back to the fort and hang.
Also, I remember an article citing an interview with Arnold from the Conan filming where he mentioned that his sword weighed about 7 pounds. He mentioned that he could only film for a few minutes at a time before needing a break. And that was back when he was in the peak of health and on steroids. Though, could be that the article wasn’t authoritative, it was before wikipedia tought us to look for references =)
Now thats a task, I eagerly await the next comic good sir.
The real question now, Is Tiff still able to ride her unicorn? Or is peonie about to catch sight of something Tiff will struggle to explain.
You may notice, Peonie was able to hold Niels’ sword easily enough, until she lost her balance with a bit of an exaggerated swing. Control is something that comes with strength training.
It wasn’t a matter of raw weight as it was control, balance, and center of gravity.
However, Niels sword is somewhat intentionally on the heavier side of things. He finds that it allows for maximum force with his higher than normal strength.
Yes! The pointy end goes into the other man.
She has the moves and positioning correct, she should just use a ‘regular’ sword
Wait wait wait, please don’t say the other two “slept” together
And certainly don’t show it, or the messy/tangled aftermath 🙁
Hope fully Denver is done using his sword on Tiff when Princess P cups barges in on them.
Well, if things progress, the unicorn will refuse to be Tiff’s steed and Denver will have to pitch in. But frankly, the world better hope that it does _not_ come to this, since the offspring of a dragon with a male barbarian with anger issues is not going to be a wagonload of blessing.
True, khamya9….that’s how Maynard got Blackbeard. Technically, that was after the age of broadswords and armor, of course…by that point, pistols had rendered armor obsolete, and there was no need for weapons heavy enough to cut through them. Even with the lighter weapons, though, yes…it became exhausting. Hell, try just swinging your arm, with NOTHING in it, for as long as you can. Exactly my point…real fights tend to be short and brutal, and not as stylized as they appear in stories.
Re: Sword weight
While it is commonly accepted that the average longsword weighed less than 3lb and even two-handers rarely topped 6lb, please do not forget that it is Niels we are talking about — a giant among men, capable of legendary feats of strength and endurance. It is highly likely that his sword is custom made to fit his “battletank” fighting style.
There are some interesting passages on wikipedia:
* Frisian hero Pier Gerlofs Donia is reputed to have wielded a Zweihänder with such skill, strength and efficiency that he managed to behead several people with it in a single blow. The Zweihänder ascribed to him is, as of 2008, on display in the Frisian museum. It has a length of 213 cm (84 in) and a weight of about 6.6 kg (14.5 lb). (link).
* The largest claymore on record is a sword measuring 7 feet 6 inches (2.24 m) and weighing 23 pounds (10 kg). The claymore was wielded by a 15th-century Scottish giant of unknown name and origin, though the individual is believed to have been a member of the Maxwell Clan. (link, unsourced).
* Re: Waking sleeping dragons
Tiff may be coming to the realization that she loves Denver but this should lead to introspection, soul searching and re-evaluation of her world-view. In any case, she SHOULD NOT be ready for heterosexual sex at this time.
He probably just figured that Tiff would have some defensive reaction to tackle whoever woke her from sleep… let sleeping dragons lie
It’d be very interesting to see if Denver COULD get Tiff pregnant. I mean, even outside the whole inter-species part of this, Denver is effectively considered a juvenile possibly not yet capable of reproduction for his species… Although I think there was something about simply magically producing offspring rather than proper breeding when it came to Dragons.
Still… Pregnancy might not be realized for sometime if it happens, but would certainly add one hell of a dynamic to the story, even outside the half-dragon genetics of the child.
@Sword weight: really… and no comments on the healing for some of these massive hits these people have taken: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=226
Ahhh, the magic of fiction.
She should be wearing gloves. Holding freezing cold metal is NOT a good idea.
Re armour weight, another thing often wrongly assumed about armour is that mail was lighter than plate.
I had heard the modern versus ancient equipment weight before, another thing to consider is that the weight in modern gear is mostly concentrated in the pack which means the armoured soldier had much better weight distribution however it is much easier to loose the weight in modern gear.
It isn’t just strengh (and stamina) its getting that in the right muscle groups we should get glimpses of Peonie holding things at arms length.
@Lurker Um .. you might want to re-read the archives. Tiff has always been a heterosexual woman (ever since the transformation). Take a look at First Kiss (2007-11-22) and The Body (2007-11-29). In those, Dever takes her by surprise, kisses her, and she slugs him.
But look at that first panel in The Body. After she gets over being surprised, and BEFORE she remembers she used to be a man, she actually LIKES the kiss.
Sure, she remembers being a man, and has (or had, it’s been a while now) ingrained habits from being a man. But that’s not the same thing as being a man with a female body (ie: a transgendered person).
Take a look also at Big Ifs (2013-03-14) Tiff says “And what if I decide I’m not broken?” That’s a pretty strong indicator that she’s become comfortable as she is.
I would not be surprised to see Tiff and Dever sleeping in different tents, neither would I be surprised to see them sleeping in the same tent.
Quartz: she is holding it by the hilt, and those tend to be wrapped in leather (the only one with woollen gloves was Tiff, everyone else had mittens, except Niels with his armoured gauntlets)
@Chris, I never said that Tiff was not a heterosexual woman, she’s falling in love with Denver after all. What I did say is that she should not be (emotionally) ready for heterosexual SEX yet.
To expand on it, consider just this one aspect: we have no indication that Tiff has any knowledge of contraceptives. Therefore, as far as she’s concerned, sex leads to pregnancy and babies. She has yet to show that she is ready for motherhood and I can make a strong case that she has not yet progressed to this point.
As for “And what if I decide I’m not broken?”, it was phrased as a question, meaning less than total acceptance. Tiff is considering the possibility, probably is leaning toward accepting it, but has not wholly embraced it. And there should be no sex with Denver until that happens.
It’s all well and good to ask the combat giant to teach you how to fight but it might make more sense to ask someone closer in size and musculature to yourself. A fighting style for a veritable giant is not necessarily a good style for someone significantly smaller…