#eightfold longblade

[sir-avodoodles]

Closer views of the dragon trio, and some yiga confusion. There are two swords that cleave the wind??

[bluebird-ascended]

Linktober 2023 day 5: race/species

decided to go with the shiekah for the race prompt! Isn't it weird how on the character sheet thing in totk, the shiekah have hylian next to their name in parenthesis and the gerudo don't? What makes the shiekah more hylian than the gerudo?

[noirandchocolate]

This playthrough we are being in Yiga uniform as much as possible. And having all kinds of hijinks.

Our best friend is always so supportive! Yeah! Let’s go make Master Kohga proud!

…I’m not sorry.

Time to terrorize Tarrey Town, wooooo!

Racist AND capitalist I see. For shame Ramella, I’m just minding my own business.

Daily reverence at our house where we also display our official pristine Eightfold Longblade of Blademasterness.

Hanging out with the boss man himself on his private boat which we then stole. Such an honor!!!

Oh dang really?????????

Contemplating this gay life.

No.

[imaginethezeldaverse]

Thoughts on Sooga?

Oh you mean that giant hulking mass of a man with the loyalty of a golden retriever and the ability to probably split a tree with his bare hands? Love him.

Here’s a few headcanons I have:

He’s a great listener. He’s the strong silent type, for sure, but given his Yiga lineage, he's learned that listening carefully (be it when someone's talking or in your surroundings) is the best way to have the upper hand. In this case, it would be having the upper hand on being someone you can trust.

His favorite banana-made food item is a banana upside down cake.

Has carried Master Kohga on his back more times than he can count. Keeps himself in the best of shape in order to do so because Master Kohga is NOT light.

The deep cut in his mask was left from the only person other than Link to be able to get any sort of hit on him. A former Yiga, who, in a blind fit of rage at the death of his wife (Sooga's doing by orders of Master Kohga in recompense for treason), hurled his eightfold longblade at Sooga's head before being restrained.

Meditates on top of the Gerudo Highland mountains every morning in order to start his day.

[offbrand-deltatraveler]

The Master Sword is absolute dogshit in Tears of the Kingdom and some of y’all need to stop pretending it’s not

We’re told in a memory that the longer the Master Sword is bathed in holy light, the stronger it becomes. But despite the fact that it’s been cooking for half a million years on the Light Dragon’s head, it’s weaker than it was in Breath of the Wild by a landslide. And don’t give me “Oh but maybe that’s just the amount of time it needed to recharge” because it got roughed up pretty bad in Breath of the Wild too, so much so that it’s beaten up state is literally in the logo, and it didn’t even take the full 100 years to recover. And that was when it was just sitting in the center of the Korok Forest, not lodged into the biggest source of holy light in existence

“BuT 45 dAmAgE iS a LoT fOr A nOn-FuSeD wEaPoN” You shouldn’t have to help the revitalized sword of legend be legendary. In the state it’s in right now, I could use a Throwing Spear and it breaking upon impact would be more satisfying than using the glorified stick that is this game’s Master Sword

“BuT iT cAn’T bE tHat pOwErFuL oR eLsE nO oThEr WeApOnS WiLl Be UsEd” I don’t care. It’s bad to say that the Master Sword should be more powerful and then make it less powerful. It’s base power just barely rivals that of an Eighfold Longblade, and that’s bullshit for a weapon that I have to get an entire second wheel of Stamina for, and was intended to collect every memory before attempting to get when I could instead just mozzie on up to the Akkala Research Lab and get an actual Eightfold Longblade

Not to mention, you really want people to have more variety in their arsenal? Give them a reason to other than just not having a Master Sword. Even with the Master Sword’s weakness out of a picture, when I discovered the power of a Lynel Horn fused to a Zora Sword I never looked back. Which is arguably worse than me only using the Master Sword because who needs the Master Sword when I have my Lynel Saber

The way the game is structured, you experiment until you find your perfect Fusion snd then you’re set for life. The only other thing you need at that point is a Talus Heart attached to a powerful sword to make a pickaxe

I didn’t think it was possible to meat-ride something that doesn’t have meat but apparently people just love Fi that much

[touhouweed]

the eightfold longblade looks so fucking cool with the sheath relocation mod!!!!

especially on horseback!!!

[ballroomnotoriety]

totk spoilers and self indulgent inflated ego sbtw rambles

the fucking yiga impersonate zelda to try and trap link and i'm like, hey. i did that. pay me nintendo. i guess to be fair he doesn't eat anyone in the game but he does thrash them into the ground pretty efficiently. (you guys.......stop trying to attack me with your busted-ass eightfold longblades. i have a dragon spike on a stick that heals me when i hit you for 50 damage and your armor sucks ass.)

anyway i have all the memories now and the last final quest on my checklist is destroy ganondork and i have to say. this has been incredibly validating. i am so fucking good at characterization you guys. there has not been a single moment where i've been like oh shit i got that personality wrong. they would fucking say that. the only things that have really varied so far is a) my zelda is currently running with anonymity bc she's got her hands full (and it's immediately post botw) and b) i haven't let her say "okay" because it felt weird but she does say "okay." there's stuff i'm slightly pissy about because i had it planned before totk and now when it shows up in sbtw i don't get to be openly smug that i had it right. i was afraid the sequel would kill my motivation but i am more fired up than ever (except y'know...sidequests....the amount of external writing happening is uhhhh none). got a fair amount of a sidebar done tho.

anyway i have a million thoughts about how fucking good this game is and how it feels like a Classic Zelda in a way that botw didn't and how rich the world is and how loved link is and how he is never alone anymore, not this time, and hyrule is feeling lived in now and the growth and the people and the defense squads and research teams and lookout landing, my god, and how they always come back again and again and again but people far more eloquent that i have summed it up i'm sure.

[phoenixmaiden-gaming]

I went back to the Yiga Blademaster Station and talked to the Blademaster there, in my Yiga Outfit and he congratulated me on passing the exam. He had a reward for me in the inner sanctum and it was very valuable and could only be found in the Depths, he also said to ignore the glowing ruins back there since they didn’t know what to do with it. Side Adventures – The Yiga Clan Exam (complete). So I headed through the door and on the altar were two chests, one with a Ruby and another with an Eightfold Longblade weapon. Nice. I then noticed the familiar glow of a shrine behind the altar and found a small hole that led to the back of the room and found the Suariwak Shrine: Rauru’s Blessing. I grabbed the big battery from the chest and then got my 25th Light of Blessing. I then looked around at another hidden corridor and found the glow frog and got my 66th (112 total) Bubbul Gem.

[better-than-one]

1. Weapon of choice?

Everyone

Everyone? I imagine you sent this ask meaning... the main squad, or... something other than everyone everyone, but, well... you said everyone.

Salem - Traveler's Spear (Modified)

Rowan - Kusarigama

Rilk - One Handed Swords, Nothing Specific

Zil - Frostblade

Sareema - Serpentine Spear

Juqui - Phrenic Bow

Cereus - Golden Bow (Modified)

Adaria - Scythe

Raia - Gerudo Scimitar

Koren - Boko Club(s) and Variations

Teba - Falcon Bow

Wren - Feathered Edge (Modified, Two-Handed)

Hemera - Feathered Spear

Phino - Swallow Bow

Harth - Swallow Bow

Kass - Doesn't carry a weapon. He'll hit people with the accordion if xe have to.

Saki - Feathered Spear

Tulin - Swallow Bow

Lumi - Zora Spear (Modified)

Aoh - Silver Shield

Bie - Zora Sword

Beedle - He doesn't need a weapon.

Citrine - Double Axe (Modified)

Veil - Silverscale Spear

Sunstone - Iron Sledgehammer

Topaz - Drillshaft

Thorite - Stone Smasher

Link - Master Sword

Kaneli - Falcon Bow

Revali - Great Eagle Bow

Paya - Eightfold Blade

Impa - Eightfold Longblade

Sidon - Silver Longsword

Dorephan - Ceremonial Trident

Muzu - Silver Bow Mipha - Lightscale Trident

[songbird-and-her-fos]

So, I saw you managed to make models of Sooga and a Lynel in its BOTW appearance. I was wondering if you do a model of the Yiga Footsoldier from TotK, wielding the usual Eightfold Blade? Particularly a better version of this? In addition to a model of Yiga Blademaster's TotK appearance, wielding the usual Eightfold Longblade?

Oh, I didn't make them. I got them from Deviantart.

[herstarlitdreams]

Breath of the Wild: Two-Handed Weapons

Korok Leaf

Farming Hoe

Boat Oar

Woodcutter's Axe

Double Axe

Iron Sledgehammer

Giant Boomerang

Traveler's Claymore

Soldier's Claymore

Knight's Claymore

Royal Claymore

Silver Longsword

Cobble Crusher

Stone Smasher

Boulder Breaker

Golden Claymore

Eightfold Longblade

Edge of Duality

Ancient Bladesaw

Rusty Claymore

Royal Guard's Claymore

Great Flameblade

Great Frostblade

Great Thunderblade

Boko Bat

Spiked Boko Bat

Dragonbone Boko Bat

Moblin Club

Spiked Moblin Club

Dragonbone Moblin Club

Ancient Battle Axe

Ancient Battle Axe+

Ancient Battle Axe++

Lynel Crusher

Mighty Lynel Crusher

Savage Lynel Crusher

Windcleaver

Moblin Arm

[attllhak]

I'd like to know anything you'd like to tell me about Japanese swords (and any other weaponry), please! Swords are awesome.

Okay so I wasn't expecting even one ask about this but I ended up getting two, so I guess I'm sharing my absurd amount of Japanese sword and dagger trivia now.

Also I'm just dumping everything I learned here, so I'm adding a read more so if you don't want to see me dump a bunch of random facts I learned looking things up then you can skip this.

So this all started because I was looking for a sword to give Link in Surface Too Soon. And my thought process was basically that the sheikah are very much based on the Japanese and ninjas, so they'd be using Japanese weapons. This is actually pretty much canon, since Impa uses a kodachi in Age of Calamity, and the sheikah weapons in Breath of the Wild are all based on Japanese weapons as well. So, was there a Japanese sword that looked like the western swords that Link would be familiar with?

The answer is yes.

Wow that picture is bigger than I thought it was. Also I just stole this from Google, so.

But this is a tsurugi/ken sword. It is the only Japanese sword I found that was both double-edged and had a straight blade. It's a bit thinner than most western swords, but that's more whatever.

Tsurugi swords were only used from the 5th century until the 9th century, one of the oldest Japanese swords, and they continued to be made until the 10th century but they were usually dedicated to Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples at that point. They're also usually about 100cm long, which amused me because I went looking into the specifics of the Master Sword a bit later and someone put that down as ~108cm. So that amused me.

The only other straight-edged Japanese sword was a single-edged sword, the chokutō. This came from the same time period, and stopped being made some time in the 9-10th century. Some straight-edged swords are still made in Japan today, for ceremonial purposes, but while they're called chokutō they aren't the same as the old swords. These were probably based on Chinese swords that ended up in Japan.

Also, Japan separates swords by time period, and both of these swords are known as Jōkotō, which are the oldest swords.

I also learned that katanas come in two slightly shorter forms. Japanese swords are measured in shaku, which is roughly 30cm. A katana is any slightly curved blade longer than 2 shaku (60.6cm+), and there are two shorter versions of it. A tanto is actually a sword, but is used as a knife and I've seen it described as a dagger since it's never longer than 1 shaku (30-ish cm), though at one point were made up to 40cm long. They also don't have the ridge that most katanas do. They were usually carried by samurai for self defense. Samurai also tended to pair it with a tachi, which I'll get to in a bit. Katanas were usually paired with a wakizashi, which were anywhere between 1 and 2 shaku (30-60cm). They were more suited to indoor fighting than katanas, which is probably why.

Katanas (and from what I can tell, tantos and wakizashi as well) stretch through almost every sword era, from Kotō (which came right after Jōkotō at around year 900 and ended in 1596) right up until the modern day Gendaitō (which is everything from 1876 to today).

Katanas were created slightly after a similar sword, the tachi. Tachi are older, beginning production shortly after the tsurugi and chokutō began to phase out, with katanas only showing up at around the 14th century at the earliest, which is also when the tachi started falling out of style. Tachi were roughly 70-80cm long and more dramatically curved than katanas.

Like katanas, tachi also have other swords that were basically it but shorter/longer. I mentioned above that Impa in Age of Calamity used a kodachi, which is a slightly shorter tachi. It's a little shorter than 2 shaku, and might have been a primary sword, unlike the similarly sized wakizashi, which was a secondary blade. But one source told me no one actually knows exactly what they were used for, so. An ōdachi (or nodachi) is a really big tachi. They're roughly around 3 shaku (90cm), but as usual there's no set size. The ōdachi were really popular around the 14th century for some reason but fell out of style around the Edo period.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Windcleaver and Eightfold Longblade in Breath of the Wild are probably both based on ōdachi, considering the size of them. I want to assume Impa using a kodachi is a point in my favour in this sense, but I have no proof of this theory. They look similar to ōdachi/tachi and are big, that's all I've got.

There's also the nagamaki, but all I know about that sword is that sometimes it's handle is as long as the blade. It has a long handle. That's it's defining feature and that's all I know about it.

Moving on to dagger, because I did some looking into those as well when I decided to give Impa a dagger in Surface Too Soon.

Yoroi-dōshi were extra thick tanto, made for piercing armor and close-quarters grappling. They're usually between 20-22cm, though some were shorter than 15cm. And that's when I stopped looking into them.

Kaiken were actually very commonly carried by women, and women who married samurai where expected to carry one when she moved in with her husband, and were typically used for self-defense or ritual suicide. Between 20-25cm, and usually single-edged and very rarely double-edged, they had a little pocket sown into kimono where they were kept. They're actually still used as a traditional accessory for some kimono today!

Which left me with the two daggers I flip flopped on for Impa, the kunai and the kabutowari.

I'm pretty sure most people know what a kunai is. It's in most media with ninjas. What you might not now is that they aren't throwing weapons, and actually weren't originally weapons at all. They're repurposed masonry and farming tools, used to shape stonework and for digging holes and prying. The sides were left unsharpened for bashing soft materials like plaster and wood. Only the tip was supposed to be sharp.

Ninja actually did use kunai, since it's a repurposed farming tool. Most ninja weapons were repurposed farming tools, since they were easy to acquire and not particularly suspicious if you got caught with one. I mean, if you've got a garden spade on you most people aren't going to assume you're going to use it as a weapon. They were meant to be hand-to-hand combat weapons, meaning that any media depicting it as a throwing knife is incorrect, since they're actually hold-it-in-your-hand-and-stab-someone weapons. (Amusingly? The only media I've seen use kunai for their actual purpose is the original Hyrule Warriors. Sheik uses kunai as hand to hand weapons in that game.)

Also, Wikipedia made it clear that they can be confiscated by airport security. Like, I could have guessed that but thanks? It doesn't say this for any other weapon, I don't know why.

Kabutowari I'm pretty sure most people don't know about. Also called 'hachiwari', they were carried by samurai and resemble a jitte (a blunt, baton like weapon. I didn't do much research on jitte so don't ask me about them). They're usually about 35cm long but could sometimes be around 45cm.

There are two types of kabutowari, the dirk-type and truncheon-type. The only thing you need to know about the truncheon-type is that's nigh-identical to the dirk-type but blunt, and so not meant for stabbing. The dirk-type was sharp, and was used to parry an opponent's sword, hook the cords of armor or helmets, or separate armor plates like a can opener, and could be used to pierce the unprotected or weak parts of an opponents armor, like the armpit area.

I gave Impa this dagger for the simple reason that it looks cool. That's it, that's the whole reason. Also, it looks like the Eightfold Blade in Breath of the Wild:

See the hook? I couldn't find any other blade with a hook like that, so I think the eightfold blades are at least a little bit inspired by kabutowari, but made a lot bigger so it could be a sword. I have no proof for this outside of that hook though, so.

[noirandchocolate]

*sipping banana whiskey on a Wednesday night*

What if…guys what if. The Yiga Clan’s Blademaster exam historically wasn’t really that easy. What if Tears of the Kingdom simplified it (Doylist explanation) or the Clan changed and simplified it over the 100 years since the start of the Calamity for some reason (Watsonian explanation)?

Because. It just feels too easy. Even if the person attempting it isn’t Link, with access to fast-travel points and sky islands to drop from. The guy at the Blademaster Station who’s apparently in charge of administering the test even marks the locations of the frog statues on Link’s map! Come on. That’s too easy. And has nothing to do with swordsmanship either! It can’t be that simple.

*pours another shot*

Yeah I think…. There’s got to be more to it. Or there was. Way back when. (My primary headcanon focus is always on AoC timeline anyway.) I think! The banana offerings are just the first part. And the statues are placed new for every candidate. And you have to journey about to find them yourself. It’s meant to test your scouting, perception, and overall survival skills, to make sure you’ll be useful on missions outside the Valley. Can you spot the statues? Climb/teleport up the cliffs? Be in the harsh wilderness of the Highlands and desert for a period of time? (Don’t worry, there’s always (more or less) someone around monitoring you, you (probably) won’t die, they’ll grab you and you’ll just fail the test attempt.)

But then if you can do it, that’s not all. I think! The exam has also got to include tests with the two-handed weapons Blademasters traditionally wield: the windcleaver and eightfold longblade. Tests on technique and form, performing certain strokes, draw speed, things like that. There would also be tests on the arcane arts like the Earthwake technique.

And then—!

You have a match with the Right Hand! Who’s the lead Blademaster teacher/mentor. You don’t have to beat them of course (and in the case of Sooga, you probably wouldn’t), you have to impress them. Hold your own. Get a hit in where you can. Show off everything you know, against the person who probably taught you a lot of it.

Oh and then if you manage to succeed at that?

You fight Master Kohga. And try to do the same. Imagine! Having to try countering all that magic, all that power! It’s a true test, to make absolutely sure you’re good enough for one of the elite martial positions in the Clan!

Afterward, the Master and Right Hand confer and make the final decision whether you pass and become a Blademaster or not. And then you get given your official blade (either type, your choice) and a lil’ feast/party to celebrate you joining the ranks.

*downs the rest of the drink*

Anyway that’s what I think.

(I also think it would’ve been fun in TotK if passing the exam earned you not just a pristine eightfold longblade (easily breakable and lost) but info on the locations of more Clan branches you could travel to to get the pieces of an actual Blademaster armor. Like you could do some kinda additional lil’ quests to get them, to make it more interesting/worthwhile. The Footsoldier-style armor gives you stealth and a set bonus nighttime speed boost for that light fast build. Maybe the Blademaster one could give stealth but the set bonus is proficiency with two-handed weapons? Either letting you swing them faster or they all get a little attack+ bonus?)

*waves glass on my way to bed* ANYWAY THAT’S WHAT I THINK.

[annyllel]

I was messing around with the camera rune and the free movement trick, and I realized that I could get Link in selfie mode with his weapon just out in his hand. I could not move, as I can with the free movement trick, but he had his weapon out. I just thought that it was a little fun...and cool!

[velcrow-exe]

I like to think that after the events of botw Zelda went to train with the Sheikah and learns how to wield an Eightfold Longblade. And I imagine this is what she wears when she fights.

[scarletlich]

I saw a screenshot from Creating a Champion that said the eightfold longblades had crossguards that were very squared off and designed to be stood on. Hence, this pose.