Description - Blog Posts

Gonna hold onto this

Writing Weapons (1): Swords

The Thrusting Sword

Type of fight scene: entertaining, duels, non-lethal fights, non-gory deaths, swashbuckling adventure

Mostly used in: Europe, including Renaissance and Regency periods

Typical User: silm, male or female, good aerobic fitness

Main action: thrust, pierce, stab

Main motion: horizontal with the tip forward

Shape: straight, often thin, may be lightweight

Typical Injury: seeping blood, blood stains spreading

Strategy: target gaps in the armous, pierce a vital organ

Disadvantage: cannot slice through bone or armour

Examples: foil, epee, rapier, gladius

The Cleaving Sword

Type of fight scene: gritty, brutal, battles, cutting through armour

Typical user: tall brawny male with broad shulders and bulging biceps

Mostly used in: Medieval Europe

Main action: cleave, hack, chop, cut, split

Main motion: downwards

Shape: broad, straight, heavy, solid, sometime huge, sometimes need to be held in both hands, both sides sharpened

Typical Injury: severed large limbs

Strategy: hack off a leg, them decapitate; or split the skull

Disadvantage: too big to carry concealed, too heavy to carry in daily lifem too slow to draw for spontaneous action

Examples: Medieval greatsword, Scottish claymore, machete, falchion

The Slashing Sword

Type of fight scene: gritty or entertaining, executions, cavalry charge, on board a ship

Mostly used in: Asia, Middle East

Typical user: male (female is plausible), any body shape, Arab, Asian, mounted warrior, cavalryman, sailor, pirate

Main action: slash, cut, slice

Main motion: fluid, continuous, curving, eg.figure-eight

Shape: curved, often slender, extremely sharp on the outer edge

Typical Injury: severed limbs, lots of spurting blood

Strategy: first disable opponent's sword hand (cut it off or slice into tendons inside the elbow)

Disadvantage: unable to cut thorugh hard objects (e.g. metal armor)

Examples: scimitar, sabre, saif, shamshir, cutlass, katana

Blunders to Avoid:

Weapons performing what they shouldn't be able to do (e.g. a foil slashing metal armour)

Protagonists fighting with weapons for which they don't have the strength or build to handle

The hero carrying a huge sword all the time as if it's a wallet

Drawing a big sword form a sheath on the back (a physical impossiblity, unless your hero is a giant...)

Generic sword which can slash, stab, cleave, slash, block, pierce, thrust, whirl through the air, cut a few limbs, etc...as if that's plausible

adapted from <Writer's Craft> by Rayne Hall

KH OC week 2024 - Day 6: Journal Appearance.

I would like to write a little about Hajime's design and why it is exactly the way you see it now.

The hairstyle has been there since the first design (I wrote about it), the reason why it is so: Hajime is directly connected to Vanitas, and Vanitas is a part of Ventus. However, the back of Hajime's head is shaved (the exact reason is still unknown in the plot, perhaps it was done by Even, perhaps it is his personal manifestation). Outside of the plot, I did this so that Hajime would have more of his own personality in his look despite how he is related to certain canon characters.

Directly about the face: Hajime has quite thick eyebrows and eyelashes, this is his own manifestation. The Hajime's gaze is heavy, the corners of his eyes are lowered. The eye color is jade, which has been with him since his very first design and is in fact the opposite color of the eyes of the Unversed. It is also noticeable from the look that Hajime has a darkened area from the eyebrows to the eyes: this is also natural for him. What was received later: dark bags under the eyes.

+ Hajime has an interesting feature: when he cries, his tears are partially colored black. This pigment is secreted by his body. This is also reminded by the darkened tips of his fingers and toes.

The Hajime's skin color is noticeably dark, which was inspired by Master Xehanort. This can be explained by the fact that Vanitas is connected to darkness.

When I drew his outfit I relied on the designs of the Unversed from Birth by Sleep. I took a little from each Unversed and came to the version that you can see now. (+ I think I'll use the last one for his appearance in KH III).

I really wanted to convey the feature of the Flood: pointed limbs, so Hajime has such pointed shoes and silver claws on his gloves. (+ I really love Aqua's shoes). The color of the outfit is inspired by the same Unversed.

@khoc-week