Can we please retire the Katana...

[Miskatonic]

Not trying to sound snarky but I'm well aware of all this.

 

[Mythopoet]

I'm 33. I've seen enough Katanas in movies, anime, manga, video games, etc., to last a lifetime.

Great, good for you. I'm 33 too. I don't care how many katanas you've seen. You might as well say, "I've spent my life eating pizza and now that I'm 33, pizza has lost all its flavor and deliciousness for me. Because of this, can we please close all pizza restaurants and never serve pizza to anyone again, no matter whether they like it or not."

I'm not trying to insult you, but you're being ridiculous. If you don't like katanas then you can avoid writing about them and you can make the effort to avoid them from now on in the media you consume. Trying to impose your tastes on others is something children do. Once you're 33 you should really know better.

 

[Miskatonic]

Great, good for you. I'm 33 too. I don't care how many katanas you've seen. You might as well say, "I've spent my life eating pizza and now that I'm 33, pizza has lost all its flavor and deliciousness for me. Because of this, can we please close all pizza restaurants and never serve pizza to anyone again, no matter whether they like it or not."

I'm not trying to insult you, but you're being ridiculous. If you don't like katanas then you can avoid writing about them and you can make the effort to avoid them from now on in the media you consume. Trying to impose your tastes on others is something children do. Once you're 33 you should really know better.

Sounds like someone is taking it personally.

The whole point of this thread was to joke about a well known cliche. I think most of the people that responded to this thread picked up on that fact.

 

[Mythopoet]

Sounds like someone is taking it personally.

The whole point of this thread was to joke about a well known cliche. I think most of the people that responded to this thread picked up on that fact.

Yes, it does. I realize it may have been meant as a joke in the beginning, but your more recent posts have started to have a different tone, as if you're taking it personally when others point out how much they love the katana. When you respond to my post with a bunch of fun pictures complaining about how you've seen too many katanas, it's no longer a joke. Your tone is definitely gotten a bit condescending, hence why I posted what I did.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Well, that's the way humor works sometimes. Jokes fall flat (for some) and don't come off as joking. C'est la vie, or as the samurai would say,

それが人生です
Sore ga jinseidesu

​

Or maybe Google Translate is full of crap.

ごみ
Gomi
​

Um... I laughed at the pizza comment.



EDIT - I was ninja'd!

忍者'd
Ninja'd​

 

[Miskatonic]

Yes, it does. I realize it may have been meant as a joke in the beginning, but your more recent posts have started to have a different tone, as if you're taking it personally when others point out how much they love the katana. When you respond to my post with a bunch of fun pictures complaining about how you've seen too many katanas, it's no longer a joke. Your tone is definitely gotten a bit condescending, hence why I posted what I did.

I'm not judging anyone about their taste in fantasy weaponry beyond a bit of ribbing.

And as far as pictures, using shounen anime/manga depicting katana wielding characters ironically reinforces my point, as that's one culture that is the biggest offender.

I'm not saying anyone's taste sucks because they like Katanas or characters that wield them.

Hell, I have brainstormed part of a story that takes place in Feudal Japan.

 

[Mythopoet]

I'm not judging anyone about their taste in fantasy weaponry beyond a bit of ribbing.

And as far as pictures, using shounen anime/manga depicting katana wielding characters ironically reinforces my point, as that's one culture that is the biggest offender.

I'm not saying anyone's taste sucks because they like Katanas or characters that wield them.

Hell, I have brainstormed part of a story that takes place in Feudal Japan.

Well, then you need to work on your delivery. Or make more of an effort to make your humor obvious in this medium because humor relies heavily on body language and vocal inflection. I usually take the words writers use at face value. If the words you are using don't convey the meaning you intend them to, then you're doing it wrong.

And the very idea that a culture could be an "offender" for using one of its own cultural weapons is a bigger joke than any thing you've said so far in this thread. It's a real knee slapper.

 

[Miskatonic]

Well, then you need to work on your delivery. Or make more of an effort to make your humor obvious in this medium because humor relies heavily on body language and vocal inflection. I usually take the words writers use at face value. If the words you are using don't convey the meaning you intend them to, then you're doing it wrong.

And the very idea that a culture could be an "offender" for using one of its own cultural weapons is a bigger joke than any thing you've said so far in this thread. It's a real knee slapper.

Now who is being condescending?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Let's stop the personal digs.

Both of you.

Please.

 

[X Equestris]

If it fits the setting, I have no problem with katanas appearing. However, there are a fair number of instances where it is only there for the cool factor, and that tends to detract from the story.

 

[Mindfire]

I'd rather see one really great anti-katana moment, some instant-classic movie scene where the Katana Kid slashes a guy in armor and realizes that's the wrong place for a light weapon, followed by a friend with a good old western "crowbar sword" elbowing him aside to do the job right.

This has some, ah, unfortunate Eurocentric connotations. "Step aside, Asian! Let a White man show you how it's done!" Really, I don't think we need more Western European weapons. They're more cliché than the katana is. The difference is that they've become so common and so ingrained that we don't even notice them anymore. We just kind of assume they should be there. The broadsword is the "Default human = White" of weaponry. The katana has only become cliché because it's close enough to a Euro sword to feel kinda familiar while retaining enough difference to keep its "exotic" eastern flavor. Why not explore weapons from other cultures. The khopesh has a cool factor that is criminally underrated, China's got some neat swords, and I've heard good things about India.

 

[Mindfire]

The katana is to the east as the handgun is to the west. (See A Fistful of Dollars and Yojimbo. Clint Eastwood is playing the gunfighter version of Toshiro Mifune's ronin.)

That... explains a lot actually. The traditional western gunslinger showdown resolved by a quickdraw which results in the loser slumping over dead after remaining transfixed for a few seconds is very samurai duel-ish. Not sure why that never occurred to me before.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

The khopesh has a cool factor that is criminally underrated....

I think the Khopesh is the likely inspiration of the Dothraki Arakh in GRRM's ASoIaF.

I do agree though, it's the familiar, yet slightly exotic sense of the katana that has made it so prevalent.

India's Ghurka-style weapons, the Kukri (knives and swords), have always been attractive to me. Brutally powerful choppers.

 

[Mindfire]

I think the Khopesh is the likely inspiration of the Dothraki Arakh in GRRM's ASoIaF.

I noticed that! They look exactly like scaled-up khopesh. (Khopeshes? Khopeshi?)

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

That... explains a lot actually. The traditional western gunslinger showdown resolved by a quickdraw which results in the loser slumping over dead after remaining transfixed for a few seconds is very samurai duel-ish. Not sure why that never occurred to me before.

Magnificant Seven was also an American movie that took the plot of a Kurosawa film: Seven Samurai. It was a bit silly how the western version of the duelist was a knife-fighter. The duelist (guy on the right) came off as masterful, but his western counterpart came off as foolish: he was literally bringing a knife to a gunfight!

 

[Miskatonic]

This has some, ah, unfortunate Eurocentric connotations. "Step aside, Asian! Let a White man show you how it's done!" Really, I don't think we need more Western European weapons. They're more cliché than the katana is. The difference is that they've become so common and so ingrained that we don't even notice them anymore. We just kind of assume they should be there. The broadsword is the "Default human = White" of weaponry. The katana has only become cliché because it's close enough to a Euro sword to feel kinda familiar while retaining enough difference to keep its "exotic" eastern flavor. Why not explore weapons from other cultures. The khopesh has a cool factor that is criminally underrated, China's got some neat swords, and I've heard good things about India.

Eurocentric? Only if you are looking for it. Not even gonna bother with the rest. Don't want to be "misinterpreted".

 

[Mindfire]

Eurocentric? Only if you are looking for it. Not even gonna bother with the rest. Don't want to be "misinterpreted".

You can speak freely. This is a very charitable community.

 

[Miskatonic]

You can speak freely. This is a very charitable community.

Not going to get into racial arguments on a forum like this. Having read a few of your threads you seem to be stuck on the idea of the social injustice of too much "whiteness" in the genre.

Not taking it any further than that.

 

[Mindfire]

Not going to get into racial arguments on a forum like this. Having read a few of your threads you seem to be stuck on the idea of the social injustice of too much "whiteness" in the genre.

Not taking it any further than that.

It's not so much an issue of "too much whiteness" as it is an issue of "not enough everything else".

 

[Feo Takahari]

I'm kind of amused that Mindfire is now the one "stuck on social injustice." Our resident social justice poster loved to needle him and pick fights with him, to the point of ignoring everyone else who asked her questions. (She flounced in a huff because not enough people were paying attention to her.)

The way I'd say it is that people want more of themselves. Mindfire's black and Christian, and he posts stuff about his stories about black Christians. I'm queer and Utilitarian, so I post about my stories about queer Utilitarians. I haven't seen much of you yet, but I'm sure you have your own ideas you want to discuss in your fiction.