And so it happened that ‘Powerless’ has found its’
stripes – sort of. Tonight’s episode, (‘Wayne’s Dream Team’?) was a typical
sitcom about a work place; there was very little superhero element, mostly in
the beginning and concluding scenes. In addition, yes, apparently ‘THE
superhero’ of Charm City is the Crimson Fox. Go her.
Anything else? Well, for all of its flaws, ‘Powerless’
is still strong than AoS, despite AoS being an older and (supposedly) more ‘robust’
show by far. All is learned by comparison, in March there is going to be a
comedy – ‘Making History’ or something similar – which makes ‘Powerless’ look
really good, sophisticated, and clever.
An aside: yes, TV shows inspire one another; AoS’
itself has inspired several series, including ‘Blindspot’ and ‘Dark Matter’ (a
sci-fi TV show set in space). DCEU’s LoT has done the same thing – by now,
there are several TV shows that deal with time travel in different ways; ‘Making
History’s’ approach is that of comedy that makes ‘Powerless’ look good – and we
are talking about promo videos that are supposed to entice people into viewing
the show in question. Of course, ‘Powerless’ approaches this topic with its own
flaws: apparently it is just skipping them and airing itself on Thursday
evenings, (at least in Canada). Not cool, but it is the call, period.
Of course, in real life the relationship between U.S.
and the rest of the world continues to twist and turn: today there were news
about twenty or so American refugees who got into Canada (the province of
Manitoba) on foot – and keep in mind that winters in the Canadian prairies is
not something to be toughened out, period. Guess they wanted to get out of
America that badly; guess currently
U.S. sucks that much.
In other news, this week people learned about all of
the playable characters in ‘For Honor’ – all of them, except for the Lawbringer
of the Knights and the Valkyrie of the Vikings: this is good, but a curious
point: the sword of the Vikings’ Warlord is supposed to be a gladius? Weird.
Here is the weird part. The gladius was the sword of
the Roman Empire; in DW, the Roman Centurion wielded it in S2. It was a short,
broad sword, unlike the khanda sword of the Rajput warrior who fought the
centurion in DW, easy to wield, but—
But the Roman army fought as a cohesive unit; they
were more flexible than the Greek phalanx was, (think the Spartan in DW S1),
but regardless, there was not individuality on the level of the Rajput – or the
various Celtic people that lived beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. DW had
shown a Celtic warrior in S2 too; his weapon was the longsword, so hello,
Warden of ‘For Honor’, we will get to you in a bit.
To finish with the Romans, for most of their history,
they preferred to use their short, broad swords in combo with their shields,
which were much bigger and stronger than those of their barbarian neighbours
were. Pushing with their shields and stabbing with their swords in close melee,
the Romans’ military tactics were different from their neighbours, who often
preferred to use one-on-one combat in their battles; they used much bigger,
longer and heavier swords than the Romans did – and that included the Vikings;
(just look at their weapons in ‘Vikings’ of History channel, if you want).
Enter Warlord, technically speaking. ‘For Honor’
may be just a video game, but it is a very good video game; they went the extra
mile to make their playable characters unique, each with their own signature
weapon. Thus, the choice of ‘gladius’ is surprising, because the Vikings had
their own sword – the so-called Viking sword.
It was one of the oldest sword designs in the
post-antique Europe; it was built to slash and slice, rather than to stab.
William the Conqueror in DW’s S3 used it against Joan of Arc, who was armed
with an arming sword instead.
The arming sword was the next step in European sword
evolution: as DW has shown, it was designed to stab as well as to slash, so a
completely different set of moves was taught/learned to use this blade properly.
The longsword of Warden in ‘For Honor’ came next, thus it is more advanced than the sword of Warlord, and if you ever
have the two of them fight, (which probably happens fairly often with all the
beta testing that ‘For Honor’ is having before the big reveal later this
month), you can see the difference between the two swords; the blade of Warden
is much longer and heavier than that of Warlord.
The Japanese – to stay on topic of both swords and ‘For
Honor’ – have done something similar; for example, the nodachi – or the
greatsword – used by Kensai is older and less advanced than the katana – or
the longsword – of Orochi.
…Let’s put swords aside for the moment, and point out
that ‘For Honor’ has also tried to give backstories to its’ factions. The
Knights are spreading into Ashfield in order to recolonize and rejuvenate the
legacy of their ancestors (the ancient Romans?). The Samurai are building their
empire in Myre after losing their homeland (Japan?) to water and fire. (So, the
universe of ‘For Honor’ doesn’t have Japan? Now that is an interesting idea for
a fantasy). And the Vikings have come to Vallenheim also to rebuild anew –
something went wrong with their new home too (a reference to Vinland, maybe?). In
addition, they seem to be the naval power among the three – so maybe the final
product will have some naval battles too?
So, that’s it for tonight; so you all soon with
something less trivia-like than just sword history and evolution (hopefully).
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