#thephilosophersapprentice

INCREDIBLES AU!!!!

I thought it up a week or two ago and it’s been consuming my thoughts ever since, I’ve been having a blast deciding powers and characters and everything :D I’ve so far written one scene from it and shared some snippets of some others, but all the stuff about it is under the tag #Incredibles au on my blog if you want to know more.

Carrying a sword propped over one’s shoulder like a rifle or fishing-rod is okay: period artists who’d seen it for real show that as standard practice for big two-handers.

Carrying a sword slung across the back as a means of transport is sort-of okay, though any evidence I’ve seen for that is Asian even though most fantasy and reenactment back-carrys are European-ish:

There’s a Thai style of fighting with two short swords (dhaab / darb or krabi?) and these statues show how they were carried. They may even have been drawn from that position, but it’s important to remember that these are SHORT swords, not full-length ones.

Carrying a full-size sword across the back and drawing it over-shoulder is not okay.

Except for short swords - and the ones in fantasy back-carry are always full-size - it’s physically impossible to do an over-shoulder draw without special pleading, special scabbards and in some movies, special editing so the sword goes from back-carry to drawn without ever seeing it happen in a single move.

Since the action of drawing a sword is the same action as slicing with it, running a bared sword-blade past its wielder’s own earlobe or jugular vein doesn’t seem very smart either. The Thai examples are single-edged, and - most clearly on the lower statue - that dangerous edge is on the outside, away from the neck. Trying the same thing with a double-edged blade is an accident waiting to happen, and IMO it won’t wait long.

Wearing a sword across the back came to major notice with the 1982 movie “Conan the Barbarian” (though Arnie never makes a draw from there). It looks cool, as demonstrated by how often it shows up in other movies, TV shows, comics, book and game covers etcetera etcetera since then.

Something I can’t fully grasp is the desperate need for back-carry and back-draw to be “Real”.

Elaborate harnesses with crossguard hooks, half-length or split scabbards and for all I know battery-powered electromagnets mean it can certainly be “Done” (see Youtube) - but though wearing genuine 14th century armour from a museum doesn’t prevent use of a smartphone, it doesn’t prove smartphones were used in the 14th century.

Until I see Western period proof of back-carry to match those Japanese examples, I’ll not believe it was ever “Real” in the historical sense its evangelists so ardently desire.

Oh, oh! I actually really like that idea.

So, the first thing I did upon seeing this was talk to a friend who loves researching things if peacocks can even live in the desert. The answer is yes, they are more than capable of living in the desert.

Also, alongside the 'domestic' peacocks in Gerudo Town there are likely also wild peacocks you can find at an oasis or two.

I put domestic in quotations because peacocks are fowl (peafowl specifically), and fowl are only so domestic. I would like to use chickens and literally any bird considered waterfowl as an example for this point.

On that note, the peacocks in Gerudo Town will probably chase you if you get too close to them. And the gerudo learn quickly and young to give the peacocks their space.

Human: this is the big brother aspect. Twilight's human side is perhaps the most empathetic but also the most passive. This is the aspect of Twilight that just wants to go home and be a farmer. Oddly enough, this persona is the closest to the way Twilight usually presents himself when not in four aspects.

Hylian: this aspect plays a similar role to Green as the regulatory part of Twilight; the one that keeps everyone on track and organized. It's also the most hot-headed Twilight gets. Hylian!Twilight has a pretty fatalistic view of fate but sees being the hero as his duty. He's the strict one and makes no bones about the fact that Twilight as a whole is a force to be reckoned with.

Sheikah: This goes along with a separate headcanon I have that Twilight is part Sheikah (no real justification, unless a headcanoned affinity for shadow magic counts.) Sheikah!Twilight is the one in charge of making sure they all stay alive. He doesn't have the same reaction of disgust to "gross" or "nasty" things as the others and doesn't hesitate to do what he sees as necessary to protect the other three. This is the part of Twilight that kept him alive long enough to reach Ordon once his family were gone.

Twili: Twili!Twilight is the shy part, but also the passionate one. He's always kind, but you rarely see him. He tends to underestimate his own strength and prefers to attack from the shadows as a result. When Hylian!Twilight is not being all that reasonable, it's usually Sheikah! and Twili!Twilight who act as voices of reason.