So, why are Katanas so popular?
I really don't understand it.
They're nice swords. And I like them, but there are other weapons out there too.
Like the War Maul. This big honking thing that takes a lot of strength to wield and can cave in your ribs with one strike is a pretty awesome weapon too.
Why isn't this thing so popular?
In Conan The Barbarian it smashed through that huge column!
WAR MAULS FOR THE WIN!
Swords are the coolest weapon because you have to draw one. That's intimidating, especially since it can make that cool sounds, and you can draw it in a really intimidating way. (Kind of like whipping off your glasses as an aggressive gesture.) Sometimes I play an axe-wielding fighter, and when I say I "draw my axe"
I feel stupid. (And sometimes other players stare at me.)
And then it's Japanese.
I have a confession to make. When I was a little kid, I had the same obsession with ninja and samurai that many other boys had. Only I was a bookworm, so I read up everything I could. And of course, most of the crap I read was inaccurate. But being a kid, I believed everything I read.
So, ninja could climb on ceilings! They would flip out and kill people and then chop tanks with katana! (Actually, I didn't have the internet then, but you get the point. Also, rarely if ever used katana.) They would sneak into castles and kill generals. (Something they rarely did, on the grounds that the general would think of that first.) They would throw
metsubishi in your eyes to blind you, or throw a smoke bomb as they escaped. (Partially true, I guess.)
I watched Ninja Turtles obsessively. My favorites were Raphael and Leonardo... the former used sais so sharp they could stick someone's clothing to concrete (real-life sais were blunt and probably not aerodynamic) and the other guy used
two katana! (They're actually ninja-to, samurai who dual-wielded were rare, and nowadays I hate the 2e/3.0 ranger class for the imposed dual-wielding.)
Some samurai knew a technique for very quickly drawing a sword and killing their opponent in one badass motion. (Probably useless in a battlefield, but for a duel that's awesome.)
I went to karate lessons, and convinced myself that it was the unarmed version of ninjitsu. (It might even be true, but probably isn't.) I consider myself fortunate I didn't start believing in some bastardized, 90% inaccurate version of "Japanese honor", giving how impressionable kids are!
I think that of thing doesn't entirely wear off. After all, a few years ago, I found myself reading a book called the Samurai Sourcebook (written by a real historian, and it eliminated a bunch of misconceptions; reading the wikipedia article on Ryukyu finally taught me that no, the ninja were
not fighting for their homeland). I ended up enjoying it more because it was like reading Romance of Three Kingdoms again; there wasn't even that much stuff about swordfighting in it.
