The double edged axe is STUPID! - Pop-culture weapons analysed

[Music] and my axe no kimberly we don't want your axe your axe is a stupid double-headed axe and dwarves are still look you have the other axe which okay but that axe is [Music] crap greetings i'm shad and i have not hid my opinions about the fantasy double-headed axe now officially you would say double bitted uh but the double bitted axe refers to something else which i tend to think of as the double bit of wood axe and uh we're gonna we're gonna talk about it okay because even though i've mentioned tangentially that these don't work in several videos like uh things fantasy you know gets wrong about weapons as i mentioned in this video it's time to do a deep dive a dedicated deep dive as to why double headed axes like this larp version i'm holding are stupid it's very they're very dumb okay now it's not to say they're useless uh just like many of my criticism weapons you can pick up a rock and it is still a very useful weapon all right doesn't mean it's a good way the double-headed axe though honestly for what you could do with it i would actually allow the concession that this is still a good weapon it's just a very dumb one it's very stupid still even though you could do a lot of damage with it and and so the fantasy warriors people whoever use these they're gonna you know far more so than other weapons of criticism before this actually is still a good weapon but there's a lot of done with it you might be thinking well you know why well this is the deep dive we're going to go into the reasons why it's dumb why we don't see him as much historically and giving some examples of other weapons why they get a why they're much more functional having a double blade on them um like double liter source yesterday so double bladed weapons exist but why double-headed axes in particular are dumb uh and in actual fact it's in been getting this why did i even get if i dislike double-headed axes so much why do i even have this for the joke value actually um over on game nines we introduced uh an epic weapon where where having more edge was very appropriate because we get a bit more edgy over on game nights and so to signify when we get edgy there is a mighty and this this is it the double edged acts of it the double edge acts of edginess in the flesh well then we got it and i purposely got a lap one because i safer okay especially when we're handing it around in the office and things and seriously like an actual weapon that's made out of metal like it would be that's one of the biggest problems okay i i was gonna hold off until but obviously but it nearly doubles the weight now it's not doubling the weight of the handle and it's got this part so it's increasing the weight nearly by 80 percent though but in getting it and holding it and then you know just when you hold something inside it's not even the weight but it's just kind of to think about how you'd fight with her and things like this really is a dumb weapon before i get into it though i hope this all puts people think that i hate asian weapons no no i hate dumb weapons okay they're dumb i'm gonna call them out of it but i don't care if it insults anyone's feelings or anything because stupidity stuff that is not functional problems deserve to be called out look it's actually a good quality to learn to you know actually accept valid criticism it's benefited it blessed me my life in learning how to do that and i have had to learn like as a writer criticism has legitimately benefited me tremendously my life to the point where i'm now a decent writer i can write a good book that people really like and it because of that i enjoy it i like it when people point out errors because it's an error i don't want errors in my writing i want to just i want it to be good shouldn't that be good should we want good weapons wouldn't we want to use the best weapons possible like this weapon is dumb it's stupid and if you like double axes fine you're allowed i've always said you're allowed to like him but don't say it's not dumb don't say that there's some problems with it when there are i'm gonna call this out and say what those problems are regardless of culture or people's feelings and so anyway back back to this but before we get there i need to tell you about something else that will really help out your writing if you are a writer but because you're watching this video you're obviously interested in fantasy and weapons and there's a good chance you might be a world builder or a role player you could also be a game developer and the thing that will help you tremendously is this video sponsor campfire blaze which is this brilliant writing assist program which enables you to do so much more now i'm an author there's my book chronicles of everfall shadow of the conqueror and i know from experience that when i'm making my world building document and histories the character backstories the races the languages the magikarp stuff like that it becomes really hard to find out where you 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development any number of things like that you will get a tremendous use out of campfire blaze it's brilliant so please do go check it out it is highly worthwhile there is of course a link in the description below and thank you to campfire blaze for sponsoring this video so where do double-headed axes come from i think there's uh more than just one origin that has made them popular in fantasy now the most prominent one of course is that double-headed axes do exist double bitted axes for wood chopping why would you want a double bitted axe for wood chopping i believe the answer is sharpness if one head gets sharp and you have a lot of chopping to do in the day instead of having to go away and sharp it again you flip the other side now you might say well there's the answer this is what justifies double-headed combat axes if it did we would have seen vastly more double-headed combat axes historically than we do today are there any i'm going to say not really there are some reference points that indicates perhaps there are ornamental double-headed axes that we see in some museums and stuff ornamental there is uh when i say a couple images i've only ever seen one or even two images of what is a double-headed axe that seems to be used in combat now i'm a big advocate that we can learn a lot from pictorial resources from the medieval period but we of course need to put it into context as well and one of the ways that we can get an idea of something it was truly problem is the amount of times we see it in art okay if something is depicted in medieval artwork to a fairly large degree across different cultures and time periods that gives us far more i have validity to say this is actually done in the past my big you know not should be controversial now um opinion that medieval archer shot on the outside of the bow over the thumb uh the reason why is because we see it every or not how much do we see double headed axes not much actually like i've only seen one or two if there is more evidence than this i will change my opinion instantly say look perhaps they are more prominent but just going off from all the medieval art that i've seen and the dearth of double-headed axes that there are even if there is more visual depictions of double-headed axes in medieval art than i am currently aware of that they are still under-represented in regards to medieval weapons in art vastly so so they would not be common and i believe they're either not very common or weren't even present and this one because if this is only one or two artworks i would say it's probably actually more likely that that is an artistic embellishment because of how rare it is everywhere else we see double-headed axes in modern-day art fantasy and this where we come to the other reason that i think has created the popularity of the double-headed axe and is that they look cool they do okay humans there is a natural aesthetic appreciation for symmetry we have a natural appreciation something that is symmetrical and balanced and it looks good and you got these interesting curves and stuff like that and and so because like really really what acts legitimately looks better one seems unbalanced when i see this that like this is a day now it's a fantasy foam day now it's not real all right i'll get a real one eventually but when i see a proper made danax what i see is functionality and utility and that gives me a bit of a buzz it's like whoa i can see how that could be used it'll be used well and i actually have an appreciation that even almost triggers the aesthetic appreciation in my brain for something that is well made and has proper practical functionality to it all right so much so that when it's a bit on the flip side when i see something that doesn't have much functionality whereas design is going to affect its utility it legitimately looks worse as a result it's interesting how that has evolved in my analytical mind but if you don't have that okay when you look at these two i can generally see why people would say this one looks better look this one is like off oddly balanced and stuff and like this is this is balanced it's symmetrical it just completes it like this is like this is like an incomplete picture you're just like you know i get it i get it and it's because of that that i think have become really popular in fantasy and yes like i actually don't mind embellishments for style if it's not at the detriment of functionality that's where i started to draw the line i think fantasy armor awesome let's at least try and make it functional fantasy sword's awesome spikes embellishments designs patterns it's great as long as it's not impractical increases the weight too much and that's exactly what's happening with a double-headed axe because one of the biggest problems i've already mentioned this video it increases the weight my nearly 80 percent if especially if it's a mirror copy of what's the front and what are you getting in return of that increase in weight not much extra function all right now you might say well what if the actual front axe gets blunted that was what seems to have justified actual double bitted wood cutting axes so yes that justifies double-headed axes not really the reason being the blade of a combat axe is coming in less contact with stuff than the blade of a wood cutting axe a water cutting axe you are chopping and chopping and chopping and chopping and chopping it like that axe head is getting in contact with wood a lot throughout the day if you've got a whole day of wood chopping in front of you you've got a lot of axe contact happening okay and that will button an axe head contrast that to a medieval context like for a combat axe even in battle the axe head is going to come in contact with your targets far less than if you're chopping like literally chopping wood chop like i said get in again in combat like if you've got out opponent yeah you might lay into them but then you'll have to find another opponent there's gaps in between and then you can't maintain it all day an axe blade is also far more durable and robust than say a sword blade and so damage to an axe head is less common than on other weapons and even if it gets slightly dulled here and there okay you're still gonna kill someone with it now contrast this to a slightly dulled axe head okay if you swing with a slightly dull accent into a tree or whatever you're chopping right and it's mildly dull that could increase the work you're going to need to do in the day by double okay because if your penetration on the cutting axe is half because of the blunts that's a big problem now contrast that into combat knocking someone on the head with a slightly dulled axe will most likely kill someone as much as if it was really sharp okay axes are devastatingly lethal and this is also includes armor okay because axes are great anti-armor weapons because of the weight behind them now guess what you will do as much damage to someone's head through a helmet with a sharp axe as you will with a blunt axe because it's not going to chop through metal and so sharpness is actually not nearly as crucial for a combat axe than it is for a wood cutting axe a certain level of sharpness is beneficial but most of the time you're still going to kill the person and so the concern that you might have a slightly dulled axe after a certain amount of swings is nowhere near as problematic as if you have a dull dax for wood chopping because you get far more significant benefit and utility have a really sharp wood cutting axe that you do actually out of a really sharp combat axe very interesting contrast that so so again what are you getting out of the extra axe head it will do the exact same thing as the main axe head does and sharpness again not going to be much so again about the same thing so if you can do everything you need to do with the main axe head and the back ax head is just duplicating it and not giving you anything extra it is far more a detriment and hindrance to the weapon than a benefit just makes it heavier and harder to use axes are heavier enough especially with the weight being focused on the top end and so adding another axe head on the back which is just doing nothing is ridiculous in fact it's pretty stupid it's a stupid weapon design what's interesting again because historical people they were smart they knew what's up they realized when they have an axe that oh there is another side to this that you know you could hit people at the back end maybe maybe a concussive hit but i mean is there something that we could put on the back end that allows us to do things at the front the main cutting head can't do yes yes they did a good old spike a spike allows you to do so much more that just you can't do with an axe head by itself because you'll do a lot with the axe head but if you come across particularly tough armor what if you notice your strikes have been kind of glancing off the male a bit too much oh brother i guess good solid here without spike they could do so much more and this weapon is now more versatile and deadly than it ever was before and amazingly this spike it only increases the weight by maybe what 10 20 if that no not a problem at all i'd happily accept the extra little bit of weight maybe i could even make the accent a tiny bit smaller to compensate and now i have a more versatile deadly weapon as a result even people are bloody geniuses i've been sucked into zoroar okay in my youth yeah double blade axes oh good let's go no no say no to too much head okay you don't need a double headed axe one head perfectly enough we actually see this go even further because there's another part on the striking end of an axe that doesn't have anything on what if you put a spike on a spike a big old spike on the top and the back and it's it's like a spear it's like a peak and it's an axe still it's a deadly weapon and we two-handed version say hello to the hull bird like these are such viciously optimized and deadly weapons where they get all you know they use it so you know this is what i like the appreciation of just how functional and effective these are lot i love it so what else can we say about the double headed axe well you know i think i want to do a deep dive i want to explore all the things so is there any advantage that you can get out of it what about striking with the back edge because you could strike with the back edge of a sword so you can really see that a sword gets very few detrimental impacts on its functionality by having a back edge because it has a back end anyway and all you need to do is sharpen it you're not losing anything you're not adding additional weight to get it or anything and so there's that there are some interesting things that um affect the overall you know design the geometry of the blade by having a back edge and it relates to the thickness and and the angle of the edge itself if you have a back edge usually it means it needs to be thinner otherwise you'd need to increase the angle of the blade too much talk about this in you know that has had a very significant effect on cutting performance have a video not enough people have seen that video it's a good fun little video to show in a real world application of how edge angle affects so there's an interesting contrast between double and single edge blades even on swords but the payoff the the exchange of those things are almost equivalent in what you can deal with with the advantages you get because with a sword when you strike with one edge okay and if you want to reverse it and swing to strike from the other side striking with the back edge is actually a faster motion than if i needed to do so if i if i strike with this and i want to strike on the other side if i have to reorient keep the edge facing forward and do that that's actually a longer motion than just spinning like that so if i hit there just spin there that's a faster motion that'll hit there enough to reorient the forward blade always facing forward it gives you more versatility in the angles that you can cut from so if you're going for a thing you'd always strike with the back edge and so you have far more options on how you can strike with a sword would you get these type of advantages with a double bladed axe i say not enough to justify them let me tell you why axes are already a more heavy and cumbersome weapon than swords swords can be very agile very light very elegant redirecting the direction of an axe takes an effort already so much so that the effort that you need to redirect an axe is almost equivalent if you needed to redirect it anyway to use a back edge if it was there and i'm seeing almost an equivalent movement in terms of speed and you're not really getting much anyway also here's another interesting thing because axes are heavy you can use them easier by separating your hands far more so than you can on a sword look at how far my hands are apart here and so on the recovery swings i can grab it further up to go again now it is vastly more difficult to utilize the back edge when my hands are this far apart because crossing over look what i needed it's different if my hands are close and i can cross over as easy as that but crossing over to use a back back edge cut when my hands are this far apart it's like it's much more difficult so already just the natural kind of rest position of two-handed axes limits your ability to use the back edge a lot because look if i'm here and i want to strike with the back edge is that any difference to just doing that in actual fact it took more motion and movement to realign the back edge than simply having the front edge to hit already so in some cases utilizing a back edge on an axe is a more complex movement a movement that takes longer than if you just keep using the front edge okay so are there any strikes that would be faster with an extra axe head for a backside strike so if you go down like this and perhaps you do that okay okay you could probably do it uh would it take much to realign actually not not that motion really i mean the amount of effort i need to push to just move an axe already slows it down that any you know equivalence of switching is a null point here's another thing why swords benefited from having two edges we're not necessarily an axe edge alignment there are some strikes in which you will get cleaner edge alignment when striking with the back edge then we're striking with the front like look at look at the angle i need to hold my head up just from the front edge this is an awkward angle okay but if i do it with the back edge look at that i can raise my arm higher i can lean my sword down i can strike with the back edge much much easier and so for more effective edge alignment i am benefited by the double edged sword being able to strike at the back edge and trying to do a front edge cut from this position which is really awkward try yourself you got a sword pick it up try and strike with the front edge forward i hit a cup coming down strike like that is really awkward but on the back edge clean simple easy this is really important because if you get edge alignment screwed up on a sword strike i can legitimately not injure your opponent even with a sword you can make contact the edge alignment is off and they just got even thick clothing you won't cut as well edge alignment is vastly less important with an axe than a sword if you get edge alignment off just with an axe strike so much force is still going through that it's got very high chances of still injuring and incapacitating your opponent i'm not saying engine alignment is not important with ax it is okay but it's less important and there are less positions that you can strike from holding an axe where you need very specific biomechanics to do effect because you don't strike axes are so heavy you don't get the option of really doing these fancy high counter strikes almost nil power generation these are heavy you need to do big strong strikes with this and so most of the primary strikes from the axle i'm just analyzing it casually here almost get no added benefit of having the option to do the same strike on the back side of the blade this again so you're not getting much an axe simply is a very different weapon to a sword and so as i mentioned there are just less strikes that you could do better with the back edge having the option to hit like that or you just hit like that like really i'm going through them all and i'm not seeing back edge strikes to be very beneficial on double-headed axes and it seems like historically medieval people they found that as well because we see so few of them and so these are all the reasons i can think i mean can you think of any reason at all that might justify having a second axe head to get a double-headed axe and even if you can i would still say well does that really make them worthwhile do you get enough benefit to justify the additional weight and the compass and also justify not doing something vastly better like putting a spike on the back end which is so she allows you to do more so it doesn't really make it better than a spike i can't think it does but if you can share them in the comments i'd love to read them but when i look at it for the reasons i've mentioned double bladed double-headed axes ah dumb yes stupid weapons if you like them that's fine i guess you know still i like my fantasy bit more realistic it's just me it's just me thank you for watching guys i hope you have enjoyed and of course i hope to see you on the next video here on shadowversity so until that time farewell and you know i am holding the double edge active edginess and it's so hard because this sorry about powering cut oh god i'm gonna do it i'm gonna say it get a seat [Music] you

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 557,189

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Id: aNbXU0ndRIs

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021