D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 is Anime! Wait, what?

[DandD]

Nah, I'll survive it.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Nah, I'll survive [skipping Dark Horse Conan.]

Yeah, well, I'll "survive" not having biblical knowledge of Eva Longoria. Doesn't mean I shouldn't jump if the chance presents itself.

Just think of Conan as your Eva Longoria!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Dude, you just now realized a lot of Pathfinder art is at least slightly anime-inspired?

Seriously?

Where the hell have you been, man?

Next you're going to tell me Warhammer art is inspired by punk rock and heavy metal! Stop it with your way-out theories and brand new revelations that no one has ever once thought of before, ever! Please! You're going to blow my mind!

 

[Nytmare]

That's because everything that is bad is Anime/Manga/Popsicle. D&D 4th edition is bad, so it's Anime/Manga/Toopsie-Woopsie. But everything that is good is not Anime/Manga/Rowser-Bowser, and because Paizo and/or D&D 3.X was good, nothing of its art was Anime/Manga/Hulk Hogan.

Hulk Hogan was a popsicle?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

You want Anime? Open up the Pathfinder preview PDF and browse the races section for the art. Doesn't get much more anime than this.

Whats the difference between this, and say oh comicbook art?

*edit* posted too soon, or too later rather

 

[Moon-Lancer]

Thank you. I'm so sick of bikini-clad warriors. Some artists should be banned from drawing women...

Add me to the list of WAR-haters, I guess, based on this and that PHB cover. (Not sure what else he's done, but frankly those two pieces are enough to judge by. Ugh.)

um... your avatar has a scantly clad bunny girl warrior with a giant sword. I am a bit confused.

Parn sure did want to ride one.

Are you kidding, Deed could have flashed him, and Parn would still be looking at king kashues? sword.

 

[Zamkaizer]

Barbarian women LURV BIG SWORDZ:

 

[Moon-Lancer]

i need to learn lineless art. gah!

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Okay...I got to admit, that's a DAMN good impression of a panserbjorn, and I can see Iorek like that...but my, Lyra really grew up healthy, didn't she? And that's definitely not a subtle knife she wields there either.

 

[ArmoredSaint]

Because the letter column is full of letters from people who are fanatical about the prose Conan, and who constantly remark upon how faithful the Dark Horse series is.

I have all the Dark Horse Conan comics, as well as the complete collection of Howard's original stories. While the Dark Horse adaptations might very well be faithful to the original in terms of plot, they're a lot more lax when it comes to Conan's equipment.

Just for fun, let's have a look at Conan's personal defensive gear in each of the original Howard tales:

1) "The Phoenix on the Sword" features Conan hurriedly arming himself in an "elaborate" suit of Aquilonian plate before the assassins rush in.

2) In "The Frost Giant's Daughter," we are told repeatedly that Conan is wearing mail.

3) Conan wears no armour in "The God in the Bowl" since he's breaking and entering.

4) Again, he wears no armour in "The Tower of the Elephant."

5) The Scarlet Citadel, another King Conan story, describes Conan in "black, gilt-worked" full armour.

6) In "Queen of the Black Coast," Conan is "invulnerable" in his "horned helmet...(scale)hauberk and greaves...and ringmail...sheathed his arms and legs."

7) In "Black Colossus," Conan exchanges his mail hauberk/coif and bascinet for a suit of full plate that includes "gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses, and sallet."

8) Conan wears only a loincloth in "Iron Shadows in the Moon" because he has been on the run following a defeat.

9) Likewise, in "Xuthal of the Dusk."

10) Conan once again has no armour in "The Pool of the Black One" because he has been swimming.

11) In "Rogues in the House" Conan has no armour because he has just escaped from prison.

12) No armour again in "The Vale of Lost Women." Here, Conan is living amongst a primitive culture that does not use armour.

13) I can find no reference to Conan wearing armour in "The Devil in Iron." Conan has once again been on the water.

14) Conan is climbing up a sheer cliff at the beginning of "The Servants of Bit-Yakin." No armour here, either.

15) In "The Black Stranger," circumstance once again finds Conan on the run having escaped capture, and therefore armourless once again.

16) Nothing again in "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula."

17) Nor in "Red Nails."

18) Conan wears a (chain)mail hauberk and a helmet throughout "Beyond the Black River."

19) Conan is described as wearing Turanian mail under his shirt in "the People of the Black Circle."

20) Conan is in mail again in "A Witch Shall Be Born."

21) Conan goes through several suits of armour, both mail and plate, in "The Hour of the Dragon."

So, out of 21 stories, Conan wears armour in nine of them. Of those in which he does not wear armour, several feature him having just escaped either from prison or from dire circumstances and we may presume he lost any armour he might have had. In general, it may be said that Conan chooses to go without armour only when the situation calls for going without it, as in any enterprise that might involve climbing a building or a cliff, or when the environment prohibits it, as in piracy.

Conan himself preaches the benefits of wearing armour--even for sneaking around in the woods--in a monologue in "Beyond the Black River."

Clearly, he's not the stereotypical stupid, loincloth-clad barbarian that popular culture would lead you to believe he is--at least not by choice. He sensibly wore armour when his circumstances called for it, and when it was available to him. By choice, he only goes without armour if he has to climb something or swim. I don't think it can be said that Conan intentionally "goes adventuring" without armour.

It's fine for you to be smitten with the pop-culture image of the naked barbarian, but Conan isn't a good exemplar of the cliched archetype.