#weapons analysis

Riptide is made of celestial bronze,so it can harm demigods and monsters,and has a special feature of always returning with Percy no matter what because it's enchanted.

IVLIVS could always be with Jason because it was a golden coin that turned into a javelin,but it got destroyed pretty fast in the narrative so we don't know if it had some other frature. It was also made of imperial gold so again,could slay monsters and immortals.

Katoptris's original use wasn't for battle,since Helen used it as a mirror,but with Piper it mainly focus on its special feature: visions. It was quite useful for them but Piper hated it so we never got to know much about the dagger.

Backbiter is a modified version of Kronos's scythe (sick enough with just this,since Luke can open portals and travelable rips through space and time),but it's made of tempered steel and celestial bronze so it can kill mortals,demigods and monsters and sever their souls.

All of those swords have different feature that distinguish them from normal ones,but they are still made of typical materials for demigods: imperial gold and celestial bronze,while stygian iron is only used for one sword in the books. Luke's sword,in this list,is the only one that is similar to Nico's in term of powerfulness,but it's still quite different.

Stygian iron is a magical metal capable of absorbing or destroying the essence of: monsters,Gods,Titans,demigods and Giants. And,unlike imperial gold and celestial bronze,it can harm mortals,monsters and immortals alike,and prevent the souls of monsters from returning to Tartarus,and traps those of the people it touches.

Technically stygian iron is the strongest,of all the metals,in the books. And the only sword made of this material is Nico's. Only the children of the Underworld can touch the material,but the sword itself can only be touched by Nico,otherwise everyone else souls get trapped and things can get ugly.

Like,not even Percy or Luke had this much power in their weapons: Riptide is a "normal" sword,for how much "normal" its user is,and Backbiter had so much power because it got modified to be similar to Kronos's weapon,but originally it was just made of different metals. But Nico? Nico got a weapon of mass destruction and extermination of humanity in his hand every day. And we never talk about how much damage it can cause,and how much OP it is compared to the other swords.

It doesn't even have a name like the others,but people already know to not fuck with a black sword laying around,becuse they know it's Nico's. Because he is the only one to have,use and held that sword. That's just how iconic it is and how unique it is to everyone. And just like Riptide and IVLIVS (before it got destroyed),his sword is always with him since he can summon it from the shadows and the darkness.

That weapon is OP,literally the strongest of the whole main timeline (we are talking about more than almost 20 books) and we never gave it much more than a look.

This is just another moment of Rick "I don't want someone to overshadow Percy but I already added this....I'll just made sure to not use that too much so people will not give it much attention" regarding Nico.

OOOOOO BOWS!

now THAT is a hella good rant option right there~ I have a lot to say about bows man, they are not characterized accurately in a LOT of media lol so I might do a whole analysis on that for sure~

in terms of the other tmnt it would take me a while to do proper research to make sure I have all the facts correct. for example, I was thinking about doing a 2012 leo vs rise leo sword analysis to figure out if ANY of it is correct but they both are just so... different in fighting style and what not I think I might save that for when the movie comes out for Rise because he's gonna have his twin swords back in that and if I tried to compare their sword fighting with Leo's Odachi it would be like comparing apples to oranges

for you tho! I can do a little analysis by saying: twin swords are a pain to learn how to use, you gotta have REALLY good hand-eye coordination, strong wrists and arms, and possibly ambidextrous.

With japanese swords, it was actually very common to have a twin of some sort with your main sword, but that was primarily for samurai. Ninja may have used twin swords but it's hard to say because there isn't a ton of known history about their methods. The samurai twin swords I mentioned also are waaaaay different from what leo uses in 2012. Leo uses twin katana, while samurai had the main katana and a smaller, shorter sword always at the ready. The use of that sword was similar to a western quick draw. If you got too close for comfort, samurai would be able to quickly grab their second blade and use it to deflect and do a precise, quick-strike that could be lethal if you aren't expecting a counter. that's how samurai got to be so good in combat actually, they were strong and skilled with their style.

2012 Leo I'm pretty sure tries to twin EVERY MOVEMENT and in all honestly... I don't think that suits him? Like sure twin swords are cool but I've always thought it was weird and not really suited to his strategic mind to have two swords of similar length when I can see him kicking ass with a second, smaller sword. (maybe I'll do a post in the future about how duel wielding is overdone or something idk)

Rise Leo on the other hand, wields a giant odachi. you can even see its really heavy and awkward for him to use in the beginning. He's used to smaller swords of lighter weight and now SUDDENLY he has a sword the size of his body that has unbalanced weight. He flops around and is an uncooked noodle for a lot of the fights until he learns how to keep his balance with that dumb sword. that, my friend, is a realistic characterization of someone both struggling with a sudden weapon change that is just so different from him and how actually hard it is to weild bigger swords. Upper body strength and very good balance are important in any weapon wielding but it's a whole new ball game when you have to lift a heavy weapon. claymores are bulky and hard to wield as well, and they weigh more than Leo's Odachi (fun fact lol).

my main complaint with Rise Leo is they gave him back the twin swords in the finale because I actually liked all their new weapons, they were fun! but oh well~

when im not super busy with a huge project I may turn this into a bigger post but i hope it satisfies your cravings! (I'll get that bow analysis up in the future dont you worry ;3c )

 The Birth Stone activates a pair of twin daggers:

which in turn can be fused together into this:

After some research, this weapon in question seems to be a combination of a Madu (a type of Indian meelee weapon) and a Haladie  (an ancient Syrian/Indian double-edged Dagger). 

For comparison, here is an image of a Madu:

and here is an image of a Haladie:

OH!

okay so I know this is something not a lot of people talk about but one thing I love in the creative field is when people create or use unconventional weapons with characters. For example, Rise used fish and ladders in a fight and it's still one of the best scenes in that show like I'm not joking that was GENIUS.

or, a ton of the weapons in RWBY and how you would use them in a fight (I have ISSUES with the story in RWBY BUT! the weapons.... the weapons bring me joy) like how Ruby uses her scythe/gun to propel her forward and give her attacks more OOMF.

Creativity in a fight is important, you gotta think on the fly to win sometimes and when creators get their brains revved up and think of unique ways to use a weapon that normally would be unpractical or maybe at a disadvantage to the character's advantage because of their ingenuity? *chefs kiss*

You guys have heard me talk about how to use weapons properly and yes, that still applies with most fights. I could easily go over why a fight in RWBY works or doesn't work or ways they should have made a character move better in said fight even with their weird weapons. I could easily still bring up issues with a fight that happened in 2012 not just narratively speaking but also character neglect wise even as they once again ignore their own lore. (yes, I will take any opportunity I have to bash 2012 and their fights. I love you JJ but I can not handle how badly the fights are in that show even when you did some killer boards for it)

the more interesting the weapon, the more likely that fighting style was inspired by a certain pre-existing fighting style~ you can come up with the wildest things like a whip sword or a knife bow and it can still make feasible sense~