Swords and stuff.

[Thraben]

It's mostly a problem of authors not understanding what swords *are*. As in, what are they, actually, when discussing what weapons are made to do. Different weapons are used for different, entirely practical reasons within the periods they emerge in.

People stopped using the longsword because having a jack-of-all trades sword was less practical than a one-trick-pony rapier, etc. etc.

If a setting just has a bunch of different types of weaponry with no thought given to why that type of weaponry is in use, it will come off as poor creative planning to anyone who actually does care.

For my part, I make this mistake too!
'Because the author thinks it's cool' may be a valid reason for something being there, but it doesn't stop immersion and enjoyment from suffering anyway

Edit: Since a number of people mentioned what their characters use, the character I'm currently writing dual wielded a piece of rebar and a dry-erase marker for one of his fights, so there's that

 

[QuercusMalus]

I try to fit the weapons to the use and location. And have them switch if they can. As an example, MC joins the merchant guards, which are essentially a mercenary group that protects merchants traveling between the city-states. In the field they generally use swords and/or that persons weapon preference as they are mainly dealing with animals or small bandit gangs. In the city, well most still carry a sword and knife when out and about, the guards of their guild hall wield maces, Warhammers and make heavy use of halberd, bill hooks, and guisarmes, and heavy crossbows.
They are armed like this as the most likely to attack the guildhall are the troops of the city-states that they contract out to.
It's illegal for anyone not part of the forces of the citystates to have plate armor, so the guild uses weapons designed to counter that as a way of keeping the city masters off balance.

 

[melchi]

Dry Erase marker OP, wielding it adds +5 to swirly mustache drawing attempts on enemies.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I used an axe.

 

[RepresentingPride]

I used an axe.

We're talking about fictions weapons, not what you use in real life.

 

[SMKenward]

But spears being overused is understandable. After all, a spear is the perfect evolutionary form of any weapon, just like a crab is the ideal living organism. We first had small sharp pokey sticks, then made long bronze ones, then metal ones, and for a while, comedically long metal ones, and weapons kept evolving around the idea of having the best pocky stick around. Polearms? Pocky sticks with extra stuff. Swords? Pocky sticks that can also poke multiple spots at the same time on a line. Bows? Long distance pocky stick. Crossbows? Easy to use long-distance pocky stick. Guns? What if we just used the pocky end of the stick, but fired it very fast. ICBMs? I want to pocky that one guy on the other side of the world pocky stick.

Excuse me? Perfect evolutionary form? Need I remind you of the halberd, the spear that can cut and chop as well as stab?

 

[DeepWater]

Excuse me? Perfect evolutionary form? Need I remind you of the halberd, the spear that can cut and chop as well as stab?

The pike is the perfect evolutionary form of the spear though. Range almost always wins.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

IMO for me Swords just have the most cool-to-usable-space ratio. Spears may be extremely practical, but the metal bit is too small to be cool enough. Maces have good amount of metal but its round, and blunt damage isn't exactly the most appetizing or descriptive when writing a combat scene. The MC can't exactly tell that they just inflicted severe internal bleeding, especially with magic and enhanced durability or whatnot. While with a sharp edge, its much easier to tell the reader that the MC got off a critical attack. Fists don't have any metal at all, and unless you have a good enough explanation on why you can punch someone hard enough to inflict severe blunt-force trauma without cracking their own fist, you still fall into the blunt weapon dilemma. (Nails are cool as shit though).

 

[Rhaps]

I'll admit it, I'm in the camp that stories with genius swordsplay leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I get the swordsmanship is romanticized and fits well in a lot of fancy protags.

However, I'm kinda over it. Any weapon besides a sword is a breath of fresh air in an fantasy story at this point. I get that a lot of scenes one could just cross out sword and put (mace / spear / salt shaker) and the story wouldn't really need to adapt that much but still. Not using a sword is always +1 in my book.

/Rant

Swords are pretty boring now, but symbolically, they represent the tendency to kill one another. Its the weapon made specifically to kill, not originate from hunting like almost all weapons beside siege weapons.

So when my MC pull out a sword, you know shit get real.

Otherwise, my MC usually use a lance that can manipulate storm, a sunpowered handgun, a 4 tons coffin, a rifle powered with racism, the SCP Bismarck, and kinetic bombardment

 

[RepresentingPride]

Swords are pretty boring now, but symbolically, they represent the tendency to kill one another. Its the weapon made specifically to kill, not originate from hunting like almost all weapons beside siege weapons.

So when my MC pull out a sword, you know shit get real.

Otherwise, my MC usually use a lance that can manipulate storm, a sunpowered handgun, a 4 tons coffin, a rifle powered with racism, the SCP Bismarck, and kinetic bombardment

the 4 tons coffin took me off guard

 

[Rhaps]

the 4 tons coffin took me off guard

It also shoots homing missiles but my MC usually just swing it around like a psycho

 

[Rezcore]

Swords in fiction bug me... like in fantasy, why is that peasant carrying a sword, 1 they're expensive, and 2 the training necessary is insane. I do HEMA with my local club, I've done so for about 10 years, I'm considered proficient enough to teach, and I find myself going, no use stick in fight scenes. Another thing I hate... twink archers. Because, lol no.

 

[Triskele_Lynx]

Having spent a lot of time with a rapier in my hand, and having dabbled in German longsword, I have to confess I like swords.
Any well-crafted fight scene will get my attention and respect, regardless of the weapons used.
For me, as long as the weapon fits the character and the world, I don't mind. Unless you're writing about Mad Jack Churchill, an anachronistic weapon needs a good explanation.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I might be a jaded piece of shit.

...

I am a jaded piece of shit.

I couldn't care less if the MC uses a sword, an iron cudgel, a pink rabbit vibrator with three types of pulsation or bare knuckle sandwich. As long as there is fluff (ie some mumbo bull like names such as The Milky Way Sword which is just a flurry of stabs or How Bout I Slap Your Shit palm strike) to make me entertain like a baby to jingling keys, I am fine.

Also, slight sad that @Rhaps ' coffin does not do corpse summoning. It is a coffin. Symbolic wise a cadaver container, not just a magic missile launcher/ brick.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I'll admit it, I'm in the camp that stories with genius swordsplay leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I get the swordsmanship is romanticized and fits well in a lot of fancy protags.

However, I'm kinda over it. Any weapon besides a sword is a breath of fresh air in an fantasy story at this point. I get that a lot of scenes one could just cross out sword and put (mace / spear / salt shaker) and the story wouldn't really need to adapt that much but still. Not using a sword is always +1 in my book.

/Rant

Mine's got tanks, guns, flying beastmen as fighters and bombers.

 

[Goodmann]

Just go with a twin blade for the win!!

If it's a fantasy story, there is no need to talk about carrying a weapon or drawing it cause it can be easy with any spatial object to carry and draw them as easily as a sword.
Again, in fantasy, a lot can be added to Axes and Maces to defend and be versatile, like a sword.

For me, it's just the movement that is bland to read. Again, I might be biased because I haven't read any story with that type of weapon.

Ps:
Hell even a boomerang is good as a weapon!

A boomerang is a hunting tool for killing birds and small mammals; if it misses it takes half a minute or so to return somewhere near you. War used throwing sticks -- heavier & didn't return (so it wouldn't clobber your own side). A boomerang might keep you in meat on the way to the battlefield but it would break on the first hit if used as a club (too light)

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The sword "family" (ranging from the tiny main gauche - essentially a buckler with a dagger sticking out of it - all the way up to the Claymore or Zwiehander) has been highly romanticized in fiction thanks to its long use in Europe (heck, swords training is even required for some modern military organizations). Everyone has at least a vague idea of what a sword (or epee, or rapier, or saber, or scimitar) is, and how fights with them look both in sporting events and in cinema. Familiarity breeds overuse, true.
In the fantasy story I have in development (not sure where it will be posted), there is a "warrior women" culture that uses swords (more like magic epees really) that can be concealed as gemstones for their main weapon, and I do plan to have a fight between one of their best and a minotaur with a bardiche (big freakin' axe). The other Warrior Woman is a character who managed to surprise me every step of the way - she was supposed to be a minor support character but kept demanding more screen time and will probably pick her own unique weapon when the time comes, just because that is how she works.

 

[melchi]

Mine's got tanks, guns, flying beastmen as fighters and bombers.

No wonder the saint is having trouble sleeping.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Mine's got tanks, guns, flying beastmen as fighters and bombers.

Dude's playing Red Alert, innit?

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Dude's playing Red Alert, innit?

Ah! Speaking of Red Alert, my story also got Kirov--I mean, military dirigibles bombarding their enemies with cannon fire.