Is dual wielding overrated?

[CharlesEBrown]

HackMaster sounds lame if I can't dual "board."

Oh you can - or you can use one shield to attack and one to defend. It gets complicated.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

It depends on what you mean by dual-wielding. If it's wielding two swords at once, then yeah, it's overrated, b/c MCs (or other badass characters) tend to be ambidextrous sword-wielding OP characters, which gets boring pretty quick. It doesn't always have to be swords, though. It could also be other armaments, like daggers or guns. I've seen Haruki Karaboshi from Boukenka ni Narou! Skill Board de Dungeon Kouryaku dual-wielding daggers, and I remember there was this old Vietnam-War tactic of running through the woods while firing two handguns simultaneously to scare off attackers from the area. But even then, dual-wielding two of the same kinds of weapons at once gets kinda repetitive after a while.

But dual-wielding could also mean wielding two different kinds of weapons at once, like rapiers and parrying daggers (a la musketeers) or arming swords and bucklers (a la actual medieval knights/medieval soldiers), in which the dominant hand holds the main weapon (swords) and the non-dominant hand holds the secondary armament (daggers or bucklers). Personally, I find that doing it this way increases the variety of what your characters can do in a fight, since that's how I make the fights involving my MC (Janet) less repetitive in my villainess story. But that's only one way of making things less repetitive: others ways include manipulating the surrounding environment, number of combatants, the accompanying tactics used, etc.

 

[NotaNuffian]

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Another one

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Another one

I've seen girls with one 'sword' in each hand with another in the mouth too.

 

[Cipiteca396]

I don't often see dual wielding. Usually I see people complaining about dual wielding, in a way that seems terribly ironic.

It's very common in fantasy stories, and especially LitRPG and stuff, for characters to have superhuman abilities. And then they use their superhuman abilities to- act like normal humans.
"Dual wielding doesn't make sense, humans don't have the motor skills needed to make it work", says the person who can deflect storms of swords and arrows with their bare hands.
"I can't focus on using two weapons at once, one of them will just get forgotten in the heat of the moment", says the person who's simultaneously fighting and casting multiple complex spells to buff allies or attack enemies.
"This enemy is attacking me with two weapons, doesn't he know how dumb that is?" says the MC as they fly (using their wings, an entire set of limbs) and fight at the same time.

I... could go on.

But I guess the real thing I don't like is the whole, 'how many times can you do this before it feels tropey and cliche'. The answer is once. The second you put it on paper, it's a trope.
Whether it feels cliche to you is a matter of opinion. I'll never get tired of reading fantasy, even though I've read literally thousands of fantasy stories.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Machine gun on one hand. Rocket launcher in the other.

 

[Anonjohn20]

I don't often see dual wielding. Usually I see people complaining about dual wielding, in a way that seems terribly ironic.

It's very common in fantasy stories, and especially LitRPG and stuff, for characters to have superhuman abilities. And then they use their superhuman abilities to- act like normal humans.
"Dual wielding doesn't make sense, humans don't have the motor skills needed to make it work", says the person who can deflect storms of swords and arrows with their bare hands.
"I can't focus on using two weapons at once, one of them will just get forgotten in the heat of the moment", says the person who's simultaneously fighting and casting multiple complex spells to buff allies or attack enemies.
"This enemy is attacking me with two weapons, doesn't he know how dumb that is?" says the MC as they fly (using their wings, an entire set of limbs) and fight at the same time.

I... could go on.

But I guess the real thing I don't like is the whole, 'how many times can you do this before it feels tropey and cliche'. The answer is once. The second you put it on paper, it's a trope.
Whether it feels cliche to you is a matter of opinion. I'll never get tired of reading fantasy, even though I've read literally thousands of fantasy stories.

Could you finish the one you started writing? OwO

 

[Cipiteca396]

Could you finish the one you started writing? OwO

I don't know. RL has been rough, and I feel like I never have enough time to do the things I want to do. Just thinking about writing these days gives me terrible anxiety. Built up a bit of a trauma or something. I'll get over it eventually, I think, but it won't be any time soon.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I've seen girls with one 'sword' in each hand with another in the mouth too.

If her partners are skilled, her two lower holes can be taken care of too.

Then pinching at the armpits, knee pits, paizuri.

 

[corruption]

Chow Yun Fat made it cool, so it's still cool:

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Mythbusters tested duel wielding handguns.
The results: only OK under one circumstance.
If you fire both guns at once while just standing up, the first shot might work, but recoil will screw up your aim otherwise
Firing alternating while standing will have the recoil from one shot screwing up the aim for the following shots.

In a kneeling position, or with something to support your stance then you can fire both guns at once. However, only at once because otherwise recoil will take effect.

 

[theInmara]

Mythbusters tested duel wielding handguns.
The results: only OK under one circumstance.
If you fire both guns at once while just standing up, the first shot might work, but recoil will screw up your aim otherwise
Firing alternating while standing will have the recoil from one shot screwing up the aim for the following shots.

In a kneeling position, or with something to support your stance then you can fire both guns at once. However, only at once because otherwise recoil will take effect.

Still cool, though.

Especially because it would mess a normal person up.

It would never mess up a hero like Chow Yun Fat's characters, and it didn't. See? Cool.

(but, yeah)

 

[Anonjohn20]

I have an idea for a new isekai, "I, Mike Tyson, am transported to a world with monsters and magic, and I must show the power of punching all your problems away. Also there's a harem for some reason." In this Isekai, he will dual-wield some metal gauntlets and destroy monsters and stuff.

 

[NotaNuffian]

The dual wielding idea is still the same as all fighting cliche.

Either the person is a pretentious dunce or a flamboyant badass.

You only know upon performance.

 

[RecursiveDescent]

In the first comment you said:

Which is incorrect.

In your second comment you said:


Your first comment was not saying the same thing as your second comment. One incorrectly implies they are doing both at the same time, and the other implies that they are doing one thing first and another thing afterwards. Good job moving the goalpost.

I did not move the goalpost, I was explaining that there are different levels of 'coordination', it does not take much coordination to attack and defend at the same time on a basic level, because you are supposed to do it in a single motion.
Can you only move one arm at a time? No? Then you can dual wield effectively.

Move one arm upwards while swinging your other arm below it on a different axis, that's exactly what you are supposed to do.

You're acting like I'm saying you're supposed to perfectly block with one hand while performing a perfect feint attack with the other.

 

[Anonjohn20]

I did not move the goalpost, I just didn't actually mean what I typed and you quoted in your reply.

Whatever you say, dude. LOL