#Colt M1911A1

[firearms-in-film]

Fatman (USA, 2020)

[identifying-guns-in-posts]

Yeah, it's definitely a Colt M1911A1 (Colt 1911 series, chambered in .45ACP). Image is actually mirrored, by the way; you can more clearly make out one of the slide markings to be "CAL .45" once re-mirroring it in an image editor (a typical marking on most weapons to tell at a glance what type of ammunition should be used in it). The other slide marking is an illegible number that looks like a serial number. It's definitely an M1911A1 judging by the overall profile of the trigger area.

shes gonna get her knight back one way or another

[pedroam-bang]

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

[i-identify-guns-in-posts]

I am pretty sure I already know this gun, but could you identify this one please?

(An old gif, but I still like it.)

Colt M1911A1

[charliemwrites]

My brain is being rotted by mafia!price (mostly becauseof yoour very very lovely masterpiece). So bad that a very sweet thought came to mind.

So in ww2(and of course now), soldiers would have guns with a protected picture of their loved one(s) on the grips. Specifically the Colt M1911A1.

And then I thought: imagine if mafia!price had a sweetheart grip (he totally would)

Then I went into a spiral. The thought is just *muah*, chefs kiss.

Oooooh sweetheart grip is 1, such a metal name for that and 2, absolutely a thing price is participating in

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Is that...

an etched chrome Colt M1911A1 with pearl grips in episode 7 of season 4 of The Boys?

cause it sure af looks like it.

[angelsdean]

feel like this should have it's own post bc the original post got so long, anyways, feeling insane abt the fact that dean owned not one but TWO pretty guns

The iconic pretty gun that Dean uses is the Colt M1911A1, and his model is notably embellished with engravings and ivory sides. I erroneously referred to them as pearl but, well, Dean also owns a gun with a mother-of-pearl grip, the Taurus PT92AFS, which is the gun that eventually becomes Sam's go-to gun. However, we don't see Sam primarily using it until season 2 and beyond. In the first season, it's used three times. It first appears in 1x06 Skin and is first used by Dean to kill the Shifter. They both then use it in 1x10, Dean actually hands this gun to Sam, ** though the one in this episode doesn't have the pearl grips. And then the pearl grip one is again exclusively used by Dean in 1x14.

And since Sam didn't come from Stanford with his own gun in tow, and from the usage of the gun prior to s2, we can infer that the mother-of-pearl gun was also originally Dean's before Sam eventually adopts it.

Another note I want to preserve in its own post, is the fact that John uses a Colt M1911A1 to kill the shtriga in 1x18, but it is notably a plain gun of that model. No engraving and with dark wood sides instead of the ivory sides. Which again speaks to how different Dean's personal tastes are, and how it deviates from the hunter's norms in-world of preferring things simple and plain, and deriding frivolous embellishment, beauty, and adornment. Dean's got specific tastes and they contrast starkly with the hunting world's expectations and cultural norms within spn.

you can check out the references to each gun's usage throughout the show on the SuperWiki's weapon's page.

[qs63]

Amestris Military Real world Influence

This is the third of my series of long posts about the Amestrian Military. This is the post for the history nerds. There are plenty of real world references in Fullmetal Alchemist, especially pertaining to the first half of the 20th century. While Amestris and its military have often been compared to Nazi Germany (especially when it comes to the anime), the references in the manga are very diverse. Disclaimer, this is by no means an exhaustive list, there are too many for me to cover in one post, and I'm not a historian. So let me know if there's any reference I might have missed or if I got something wrong!

To see the rest of this meta series check out the Main Post..

Names

Probably the easiest reference to the real world is in the names of the military personnel. Almost all of them are named after military vehicles and equipment, mainly from World War II. Some examples:

Roy Mustang — P-51 Mustang (USA WW2 aircraft)

Riza Hawkeye & Grumman — Northrop Hawkeye E-2 Grumman (USA 60s aircraft)

Maes Hughes — Hughes aircraft series (USA aircraft company)

Black Hayate — Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Japanese WW2 aircraft)

Jean Havoc & Henry Douglas— Douglas A-20 Havoc (USA WW2 aircraft)

Heymans Breda — Breda M37 (Italy WW2 Machine gun) or HMS Breda (UK WW2 Yacht)

Kain Fuery — Hawker Fury (UK 30s aircraft) 

Vato Falman — Farman aircrafts series (French aircraft company) 

Armstrong Family — Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (UK WW2 aircraft)

Weapons and equipment 

The weapons used by the military are also based on real world weaponry. Arakawa herself admitted to using references for weapons as well as for the vehicles.[1] Not all of them are a direct copy of a historical weapon, but all of them are at least inspired by one or more of them.

Pistol — Colt M1911A1 (USA 1924)

Hawkeye's pistol. [1]

Colt M1911 & M1911A

Rifle — Mauser Karabiner 98k (Germany WW2)

Hawkeye's Rifle. [1]

Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle

Hand grenade — Stielhandgranate M24 aka the potato mashers (Germany WW2)

Team Mustang's and their weapons. [1]

Stielhandgranate M24

Briggs' Tank

The Briggs' tank isn’t modeled directly after any specific tank, and rather takes inspiration from different WW1 to WW2 tanks. The manga and Brotherhood tanks take after different inspirations, with Brotherhood being more German coded than the manga tank. There's an excellent article in the tanks encyclopedia analyzing the Fullmetal Alchemist tanks if anyone's interested.

Military Cars —

We see a few military cars throughout the story. Once again the cars we see in the manga and Brotherhood are quite different, and they appear to be based on models from the late 1910s to the late 1930s.

The manga’s standard issued military car looks at least partially inspired by the American Ford model A of 1927.

Mustang's military car(manga).[2]

1927 Ford model A.

The Brotherhood art sketches have two different drawings of military cars. The first one, the one we see Mustang use, is based on the French Citroën traction avant 11CV of 1935.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood military vehicle version 1.

1935 French Citroën traction avant 11CV.

The second car seems to be inspired by the Italian Fiat Tipo 5 of the 1910s. Perhaps even inspired by one of the American made Fiat models.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood military vehicle version 2.

Fiat tipo 55.

Ranks and insignias 

With the exception of the Führer-President, the Amestrian military ranks appear to be a mix of the USA WW2 officer ranks: 

General, 

Lt. General, 

Major General, 

Brigadier General, 

Colonel, 

Lt. Colonel, 

Major, 

Captain, 

1st Lieutenant,

2nd lieutenant;

As well as the Imperial Japan NCO ranks: 

Warrant officer (Special Sergeant Major),

Master Sergeant, 

Sergeant, 

Corporal.

The history of the Imperial Japan  Warrant Officer rank is a bit confusing and complicated. In the 79 years that the Empire lasted, the Warrant Officer rank saw a lot of changes, being its own category at times, a Senior NCO at others.  The NCO Warrant Officers seem to have been specialized Sergeant Majors (also translated as Master Sergeant) that basically functioned as the most senior of the NCO ranks. Aside from this the one modern country, I could find, that has Warrant Officers as NCO is Malaysia.

The rank of Führer-President (大総統 - Daisōtō in Japanese) replaces the rank of General of the army in the USA officer classification. While the English translation is a direct reference to Nazi Germany, the Japanese word is a lot more nuanced. 

The word Daisōtō actually refers to the president of the 1912-1924 Republic of China, and if you Google it, all you will get is images of Bradley himself. The term used for “Führer” is 総統 (Sōtō), without the 大 (Dai) which is instead used in the word president 大統領 (Daitōryō), this is probably the inspiration for the Führer-president title of the official English translation. 

However, Sōtō isn't used to refer just to Nazi Germany's Führer, but rather to any fascist associated head of state. As such Germany's Sōtō is the Fuhrer, but Italy's Sōtō is the Duce (Mussolini).

The effect is technically the same (you still think of Hitler and fascism), but the Japanese word is not a direct translation of Führer, nor a direct reference to Nazi Germany, it's more subtle than the English translation. I imagine Führer was used in English (in absence of a more subtle unifying word) as it is more recognizable to the English speaker than other fascist titles like: Duce, Caudillo, Generalísimo, etc.

The WW2 imperial Japan ranks also included superior private, first class private, and second class private, but they were their own class, called soldiers, below the NCO ranks, and were mainly composed of men serving their conscripted time. This might explain their absence in the Amestrian official ranks as Amestris doesn't seem to have conscription. 

The rank insignias themselves are pretty much a copy of the imperial Japan ones. 

Amestris rank insignias.[3]

Imperial Japan ranks insignias.

Uniform

In terms of the uniform there's not one single reference or perfect match for the design, but the closest to it is probably the WW1 French infantry uniform.

Amestris military uniform. [1]

Early WW1 French uniform

Late WW1 French uniform

Aside from the color of the French uniform, the long skirt, flaps and boots are very similar to the Amestrian uniform.

The Amestrian short jacket itself seems to be inspired by the WW2 USA Ike jacket.

USA WW2 Ike jacket.

Furthermore the white lining of the Amestrian uniform reminds me of the Imperial Japan formal uniform jacket, which is itself Prussian and French inspired.

Imperial Japan Major General formal uniform.

The Briggs uniform is very much WWII winter gear inspired.

Briggs uniform.[3]

Soviet WW2 winter uniform

Finnish WWII sniper.

Out of every uniform variation, the one most German coded is, to no one's surprise, the Führer-president’s. His trench coat looks similar to the WW1 Prussian one.

Bradley in uniform.

WW1 Prussian soldiers.

In general the uniform has a very World War I vibe to it, down to the impractical, decorative parts of it like the skirt. This is an uniform that obviously predates modern warfare, very apt for the time period the story is “set on”. This makes an interesting contrast with the weaponry which seem to be mostly World War II inspired.

Other references

Ishval war of extermination 

First of all trigger warning for genocide and human experimentation. Just skip this section if you're sensible to these topics. 

Just like the Ishvalan are an amalgamation of many cultures and ethnicity, the Ishvalan civil war seems to reference multiple conflicts and events. 

Plenty of comparisons have been made with the Jewish genocide in the hands of the Nazi (and the 03 anime leans especially hard on this). There are also similarities with the Herero war and genocide at the hand of the German empire which just like the Ishval Civil war ended in 1908. Another possible reference is the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire, which also involved a minority living at the border of a nation the country was at war with and being suspected of colluding with the enemy. Both the Armenian and the Ishvalan soldiers serving in the army were dismissed, incarcerated, and eventually executed.

Another more clear cut reference made in the Ishval civil war is Mustang's and Knox’s experimentation. This would be a reference to the horrendous experiments done by both the Nazi and Japan's infamous unit 731. Both which included burning people to test treatments and the limits of the human body.

I am sorry to end up on such a hard note, but I think it's best we move on to other — less traumatic — topics.

Source

Fullmetal Alchemist Manga

Chapter 38: a counter attack signal [2]

The Complete art of Fullmetal Alchemist [1]

Fullmetal Alchemist perfect guide 3 [3]

Training Regime post

[firearms-in-film]

A Hard Day (South Korea, 2014)

Peace Breaker (China, 2017)

A Hard Day (Philippines, 2021)

Restless (France, 2022)

Hard Days (Japan, 2023)

[bloodstainedstar]

Please note: This section will be updated from time to time.

Model 1903 Springfield

M1911A1

Model 1928 Thompson

Model 1941 Johnson

COP 357 Derringer (4 Shot)

Intratec TEC-38 (2 Shot)

Glock 17

Glock 19

SIG-Sauer P220

SIG-Sauer P226

SIG-Sauer P226 Super Capacity Tactical

SIG-Sauer P226R

SIG-Sauer MPX

Sa. Vz. 61 Skorpion

MK 13 Mod 0 Grenade Launcher

Barret M107A1

Beretta 92FS Inox

Milkor MGL

Colt M4A1 Rifle with a M203 Grenade Launcher

M249 SAW Paratrooper

Walther PPK

STI Perfect 10

Gerber MK II

Benchmade SOCP 176BK

Gerber Yari II Tanto

Modified gear:

Bates GX-8 Side Zip with Gore-Tex Boots

Rothco Ventec Tactical Goggles

5.11 Tactical Twill TDU Pants

Tactical Half Face Mask

Ball Grenade

M67 Grenade

Battering Ram

Grapple Device

[pedroam-bang]

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (2016)

[stimmin-not-sinnin]

Blacklist & Whitelist

Blacklist

I want to keep this blog mostly sfw, but due to the source material for a lot of fandoms, there will be mature themes on this blog sometimes. They will be tagged #mature so you can filter the category out in general, or by individual tag, a list of which you can find here. Other than that, I will not do requests for:

RPF (No hate. Just don’t like celebrities.)

Sexual ship requests (not risking the ban hammer and porn icks me out.)

Whitelist

I have not limited the kinds of requests as of yet (though I will give you a platonic little kissy smooch if you request one of my hyperfixations from my about me). Here are some examples of things I will take requests for:

Broad themes (ex. desserts, cats, flowers)

Specific items/things (ex. rosy flannel moth, the nintendo wii, a colt m1911a1)

Any characters from fandom (even so called problematic ones. Look where you are, Valentino is my beautiful princess with a disorder. I don’t judge, blorbos are blorbos.)

Canon and non canon ships (limited to 3 characters due to stimboard size.)

OCs (Your own or ones creator has said are free use, like 2P Alastor or Vax.)

F/O scenarios (ex. Vox takes care of you while you are sick)

Bands or a specific song (no albums. I don’t have time to listen to an album.)

Fictives (I am a singlet, but I have a lot of system moots. I’ve seen other blogs refuse to do fictive boards, so if you want one I’ll happily do it.)

I have some guidelines for submitting certain types of requests here that I ask that you read before you make any submissions. I am doing this for fun so please read them for my own sanity (and you don’t get upset when I reject the request.) 

[khlebs]

Colt M1911A1 - 11×60mmR Mauser

[rxgueone]

TANK

Word count: 2,048

Summary: Austin is basically a US soldier in WWII, the Invasion of Iwo Jima is taken place. Just a short story on the battle. (This isn’t historically accurate)

Warnings: war, gore, angst, guns, knife, stabbing, bout it.

Tags: none.

Note: I love learning about WWII. I wish it never happened. But hearing all those battles and war heroes are genuinely fascinating to me. I also love writing about war in general. I figured Austin always suited the role of a soldier, which I guess he does since he will be in Masters of the Air, a show about the Mighty Eight.

MASTERLIST

—

The soldiers mind was in a buzz. He and his squad had pushed forward into the beaches of the pacific islands. Hooking his arms around his comrade, he dragged them back. He could hear screaming in the background, blood curdling cries and others begging for help.

His comrade grabbed his hand. “Thanks Butler.” His comrade thanked, blood staining the back of his hand.

“No worries, Charlie.”

“I mean it Austin,” Charlie looked up at him, “you’re a good pal.”

“Lets not get all sentimental here.” Austin smirked, finally making it towards a small group of people that hid behind the sandbags. He turned around to look at a soldier with a medic patch, dipping his head and trusting him. He had ran back into the field, holding his M1 Garand.

Falling back in with the other soldiers, they climbed up the sand. Keeping their heads low to the sand, Austin held out his gun, pressing the stock of the Garand on his shoulder. He said nothing but press back on the trigger repeatedly. ‘Ping’ reload.

He could see others getting up and running past the barricades, he heard a missile land on the ground. An explosion of sand slapped his face. The sound of ringing filling his ears, he shook his head. Looking around a bit, Austin could see a tank. He got off the sand, kicking it out from beneath to go run towards it.

The tank prowled forward, and he hid behind it. Other soldiers following him to hide behind the tank. The tank’s cannon pointed towards a bunker. Firing off towards the cement bunker, the walls crumbled instantly. He could see bodies inside falling, blood staining the walls.

As the tank rolled across the beach of the island, Austin was already at the third hill of the island. He hid behind some sand bags, pressing the stock of his rifle on his shoulder. He aimed through the iron scope, lining up his shot with a nearby enemy. Pull. They dropped to the ground.

The ground beneath him shook violently for a moment. Sand raining down onto his ragged uniform. His eyes looked up, seeing a soldier go flying with the sand. They landed on the ground near him. His eyes stared, wide like a doe.

Their face was gone, their jaw had been shattered. With their left leg only being muscle with their femur bone showing. Their stomach seemed to have been ripped out, their own intestines flopped out onto the beach. Their right leg bending the opposite direction, snapped in two.

Forcing himself to stop looking, he looked right into the bunker that was close by. Seeing a comrade crawl up to the side of it. He saw them put on a gas mask, hiding their face. Grabbing the gun they held, they pointed it into the bunker.

They had shot out flames from the nozzle, and he could hear the sound of the enemy screaming. Getting off the sand to run towards the bunker. Austin could see the enemy soldiers screaming for help, their bodies burning. They thrashed violently on the ground, dropping just like that.

Seeing the entrance to the trenches, he ran into them. He switched out his Garand for his Colt M1911A1, running through the trenches. Another soldier with a lighter colored uniform ran out in front of him. He stepped back to aim his Colt quickly emptying out the mag. The soldier dropped face flat, revealing the Red Sun on their back. “That red sun makes you a target.” Austin grumbled, quickly reloading his pistol.

He could hear the sound of gas going off in the distance. A good 10 meters of the trench had burned into flames, greeted with screams. Austin ran past his comrade to go into a bunker, unclipping a grenade off his belt. He chucked it into the bunker, a soldier beside him crouched down and covered their ears. Austin could hear foreign screaming, an explosion inside which immediately quieted the screaming.

They both ran in, Austin being greeted with a Red Sun soldier, he shot at their head, turning the corner to fire three more shots. His eyes darted to the exit of the bunker, unleashing two more bullets. “Shoot Butler,” he could hear a voice behind him, “you react quick as hell.” Austin looked back to see his friend Thomas. Who adjusted his helmet. Austin said nothing but shrug, walking out of the bunker.

He ducked his head immediately, seeing a missile hit the ground. Bodies went flying, and so did helmets. He pushed Thomas back into the bunker seeing blood raining down their direction. A tank had rolled into the trenches. Shooting out another missile through its cannon, the ground rained sand.

Both of them ran out after, looking at the mountain on the island. He could see other soldiers running through the trenches and up the mountain, kicking out mud from underneath them. The tank had roared loudly, beginning to move with them.

Austin looked up at the sky, hearing the sounds of Jet Fighters engaging into dog fights. He could see a Warhawk heading towards a Mitsubishi Zero. Both nose diving towards the mud, the Warhawk fired off a pelt of bullets. Breaking the Zero in two, it had crumbled and landed nearby. The ground shook underneath them once it had landed, erupting in a pit of flames.

As they ran through the trenches, Austin had lost Thomas somewhere while running. He could see torpedoes dropping from the sky and landing nearby, destroying a few tanks.

He could see blood from his own comrades raining down on him. Torpedoes continuously landed beside him, he kept running however, pushing on. A Warhawk made a dive, dropping a bomb onto a bunker then sharply shooting back up into the air.

Pushing through the trenches, he ran into a bunker. Holding his Garand he fired off on three enemies, running past their bodies. He saw one of his comrades jump off the roof of the bunker and land beside him, squirming onto their feet.

They both entered another bunker together, which was connected to a cave. Austin could see that he held out a M3 greaser gun, firing off on the enemy. Austin shot past him, clearing the bunker quickly. “Grenade!” His comrade quickly unclipped one off his belt, throwing it into the cave. They both ran back and dived down, shielding their heads.

A brief explosion, then both quickly turned around. Smoke filling both their nostrils, he cleared his throat. They bad both grabbed their gas masks off their bags, quickly putting it onto their faces. They walked deeper into the cave, looking through the smoke.

Austin felt hands suddenly wrap around him from behind. Throwing him down onto the ground. He could see a Japanese soldier in front of him, holding out a knife. Without thinking Austin reached for his holster, shooting the side of the soldier four times, he saw their expression slowly relax. Blood stained his uniform, as the soldier fell on Austin.

Pushing the soldier off, he quickly got up and ran out the cave. Taking his gas mask on and putting it back into his bag, he ran up the mountain again. Running into a cave, he could see his comrade again, who he recognized. It was Robert, who put on their gas mask. Pointing their gun into the cave, they had let loose of all hell. The screams of the enemies who seemed to be cooking just by the power of the flamethrower made Austin shiver.

However, when Robert had finally made his way into the cave. Austin followed behind him, the stock of his rifle against his shoulder. He looked up at the mountain past the cave, seeing Japanese men running inside. He fired off, hearing more gunshots following his. “I need more gas!!”

“They’re falling back!” Another had called in the cave. “Go go go!!” Austin obeyed the orders and ran deeper into the cave. Shooting his Garand again. ‘Ping’ reload.

All of them were slowly making it up the mountain. As they made their way out the cave. Austin could see a Zero heading right towards them. The soldiers shouted something ‘fallback!! Fallback!!’ They were saying at the top of their lungs. Austin froze in place, watching the Zero diving straight towards him.

He stood his ground as the others fell back. He was a soldier, if he were to die. So be it. A Mustang flew out of nowhere, ramming into the Zero. Austin blinked his eyes back to reality, seeing how the Zero and Mustang both fell into the pacific ocean. “Holy mackerel…” Austin breathed, not believing what he had just witnessed.

“C’mon Butler, let’s go!” Someone smacked the back of his head. They ran up further on the mountain. A Warhawk looped down, to the top of the mountain, firing off on the Japanese soldiers. Painting the mud with nothing but blood and casing shells.

Austin stepped on a few loose legs and arms. “We’re gonna have em now.” He heard someone say.

Austin hid behind a rock, firing off his M1 Garand. He looked straight at another Red Sun soldier, shooting them in the chest 3 times. He looked at the other soldier that hid near the flag post, their helmet flew off their head. His eyes darted the top of the mountain, more of the US Army closed in slowly, surrounding the mountain.

Austin could see another Warhawk diving down, firing off at the top of the hill. He could see his own comrades falling off the hill, clawing at the mud before they rolled off. Austin could see bomber jets and fighter jets all going down towards them.

The torpedoes violently hit the top of the mountain, rocks breaking off the side. Austin ducked down again, seeing another torpedo fall. They wouldn’t stop, he kept his head hidden down low. Looking up at the flying debris, he could see an amputated leg land near him. Making a gruesome sound as it landed, blood splattering on him.

As he pushed to the top, looking through the iron sight of the Garand. Pull. Pull. Pull. Pull. He emptied out his mind completely. ‘Ping’ reload. He continued to move forward, watching more of his comrades falling off the mountain.

The mountain shook violently once again as a torpedo dropped. “Jesus Christ-“ Austin paused for a moment, the gunshots slowly stopping. He looked back up at the sky, seeing a dog fight. A Zero getting chased by another Warhawk, the Zero spun in a quick circle, attempting to shake off the Warhawk. However, it didn’t work, from what Austin could tell. The Zero plunged into the ocean, the Warhawk pulling up from the dive.

Austin said nothing as another torpedo hit the mountain. Losing his footing, he almost fell over. Only to be grabbed by someone who had saw him. “Stay on your footing Butler, c’mon we’re about to win!” They ordered.

“Yes Sir, I apologize.” He got up quickly, making his way up. He was almost at the top now. A US soldier had popped his head up from the grass, tackling a Japanese soldier. He saw them get their hunting knife out, stabbing it into their neck.

Austin got the cue, and so did the other soldiers. The remaining Japanese soldiers had raised their hands up in the air, dropping their weapons, and kneeling down. The American soldiers ran up to the top of the mountain, arresting the Japanese.

—

Austin sat in the debris, holding his journal and pencil. He was staring out at the ocean. The pacific war was going to continue. That, he knew of.

Looking at his left hand, he stared at his golden wedding band. Something he never took off. He knew other soldiers had worn them on their dog tags. Kept photos of their wives in their jackets, journals, whatever. Most of them had a woman waiting back at home. Including himself.

He smirked, shaking his head as he stared back at the ocean. Kissing his wedding band as he did so.

[angelsdean]

rewatching 1x18 rn and noticing sam’s using dean’s Colt M1911A1 (the engraved ivory grip gun) when they go to kill the shtriga. which isn’t an instance listed in the superwiki weapons catalog.

ever since I made that post abt how Sam’s go-to gun (Taurus PT92AFS, mother-of-pearl grip) appeared to be one of dean’s first in s1, I’m noticing which guns sam uses. In s1 sam really doesn’t have a particular gun of choice, with the Taurus not becoming his go-to til s2, (and even then he doesn't purchase this gun himself, dean already had it in his arsenal). which makes sense that sam is just using whatever dean has on hand since he's fresh off of stanford and didn't come with his own gun in tow

[maniculum]

I think a lot of it is just people going, like, “does it matter?”

Yes, there are a bunch of different types of polearm, but medieval writers at the time didn’t necessarily bother distinguishing. In Njalssaga, for instance, there’s a character — Gunnar — who uses a polearm. He’s a major character, he features in multiple battle scenes, and this polearm is basically his signature melee weapon. It’s traditionally translated as “halberd”, but that’s kind of a guess. It’s legitimately not clear what this weapon looked like.

And that kind of makes sense when you think about it. Say you’re writing a detective novel. Is the protagonist more likely to say, “A man walked into my office with a semiautomatic Colt M1911A1 pistol” or “a man walked into my office with a gun”? The specifics of the weapon are unimportant, and the reader can be expected to pick from context any details that might be important (e.g., they’ll probably just assume “handgun”, and stuff like how many bullets it holds, of what caliber, etc., will only come up if relevant.) Being specific about the model of gun & its features is a marked decision — it says something about the narrator if they go into detail on that score.

And that’s when we have mass production & standardization. Back when every weapon was hand-made, and each one could be different from each other one, taking the time to specify the features of the weapon being used in a given scene would just be kind of an unnecessary hassle. Just say “flail”. If specifics like the length of the chain or the design of the head become relevant, provide them then.

Also, you know, I think there’s some doubt surrounding whether flails were actually ever in widespread military use. So maybe naming the specific types was never a priority.

one of the more upsetting things you notice if you look back at older european weapons is that nobody fucking named any of the types of flail so you've gotta describe them by appearance every single time