10 Iconic Fictional Swords!

Freelance illustrator and animator Robert Shaw created an infographic displaying 10 of the most iconic swords in fiction. It's a great list, although it does rather prompt a "What, no Excalibur?" response. The graphic includes swords from The Hobbit, Highlander, Thundercats, Kill Bill, Conan, and more.

Other than Excalibur, what other swords would you include on this list?

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[Umbran]

Because if a GM were to say to a group of players "you see that the sword is black and is inlaid with glowing red runes" and that means nothing to them, they're pretty behind on the genre, to say the least.

Hardly. The books are back from the 1970s. They are, for lack of a better word, kind of old and out of fashion.

In fact, the original Elric of Melniboné seems to be out of print as a stand-alone paperback (or, at least, Amazon doesn't carry that ISBN) - you have to buy a collection to get it, new, it seems.

 

[Ryujin]

Hardly. The books are back from the 1970s. They are, for lack of a better word, kind of old and out of fashion.

In fact, the original Elric of Melniboné seems to be out of print as a stand-alone paperback (or, at least, Amazon doesn't carry that ISBN) - you have to buy a collection to get it, new, it seems.

That rather surprised me so I checked, and you're absolutely right. Seems that my original paperbacks, in good condition, could net me a couple of hundred bucks. New releases in collections only.

The problem with the expression 'iconic' is that with the sort of stuff we're talking about here, it's very age dependant. I couldn't give a damn about the Buster Sword. It just isn't on my RADAR. Just a few years ago very few people would have a clue what "Sting" looked like but, with the advent of the Jackson movies, now even youngsters recognize it. A goodly chunk of fantasy fans in their 40s and up would instantly recognize Stormbringer, but not the younger crowd.

 

[Thotas]

More obviously than ever, there needs to be a film adaptation of the Elric material. That's what I've learned today.

 

[Ryujin]

More obviously than ever, there needs to be a film adaptation of the Elric material. That's what I've learned today.

Couldn't agree more. Just make it story driven, not star name driven

 

[Tonguez]

How many of the above would you recognize without the captions?

Lion-O's sword, He-Mans sword and Sting

30% it seems my sword-geek is suspect

and yeah clock me up as never having actually read the Elric novels either

 

[Wrathamon]

How many of the above would you recognize without the captions?

I would say 7 or 8 of them. I wouldnt have gotten kill bill or zelda. Conan because its colored weird might have been thrown me for a bit.

 

[Ryujin]

The Hattori Hanzo Sword is too generic looking for me to have ever gotten that one. Now if it was the sword of Zatoichi, then that would be a different story.

 

[Riley37]

Greyswandir. Preferably the blessed +7 Greyswandir.

 

[Richards]

I nominate...the Hackmaster +12.

Johnathan

 

[Uder]

1. That list is cool, looks good, and 100% accurate to top it off.

2. The word 'iconic' has been abused to the point that it has very little meaning to most people.