User blog:DustpeltX/ACTUAL Tips on Scythes (and other weapons in general)

Hey Fanon, Dust here, with the obligatory blog post that makes fun of the latest and trending thing on here for all that delicious karma.

Wait, this isn't reddit. Someone draw one of my characters then because I absolutely deserve it.

But Seriously.
I'm sure anyone and everyone who reads this knows why and for whom this blog exists and to get it out of the way:

WE WILL NOT BE TALKING ABOUT THIS OR I SWEAR TO GOD.

I'm not here to make people feel bad and to be honest, I think some of us need a better way of approaching opposing opinions, in essence: just don't type anything and leave stupidity be. Most of us are adults here, so I'm also not going to lecture any of us on this anymore than we need, which is we don't. This is my blog about scythes as a weapon so let's get started.

Scythes Suck Dick
They do. I don't care what your anime-RWBY fantasy shit is or how you or your character uses it, (curved) scythes are crappy fucking weapons. They're thin, curved blades that cut towards you. They're hazards to their users and break easily.

"Buut Dust," I hear you say

NO FUCKING BUTS MOTHER HUFFER. Scythes only have one angle of attack, which is to swing. This, plus the fact that the blade is curved towards the user and the cutting edge is TOWARDS THE USER means the range of it puts you and the enemy so close to each other you should kiss and make up before either of you get hurt.



Ruby Rose
"But Dust~ Ruby-"

Ruby sucks dick. (Except when she doesn't) Her weapon wouldn't even be viable if it wasn't for several key factors, even then they only benefit her slightly. The best example of this would be in her Red Trailer where most of her Beowulf kills early on were just gun kills. Bullets, as we know, suck dick against anything that isn't remotely cannon fodder in this universe so that advantage is gone.

Now, look closely to every kill she DOES make with melee, the blade is always dangerously close to cutting her limbs off. That's not even half the problem, notice the distance at which the Beowulf attack her at, always too close for comfort. If her p̶l̶o̶t̶  battleskirt didn't protect her, Little Red Riding hood would have been a different story.

Supa-Speederu
Ruby's speed Semblance allows her to get into range but actually isn't a very big part of why it makes the scythe a viable weapon. She could have had any other weapon and her potency as a Huntress would probably be even better. At most, her speed would only give her a surprise advantage to use the scythe and an additional angle of attack, i.e. running the scythe into the enemy rather than swinging the scythe properly.

Fucking Guns, Man
This is actually a defensive perk more than a offensive one. The recoil of the gun actually provides a retreat option for all those misses you're going to make with scythe (because it sucks dick), and also adds more power to the Speed category. So even if the user doesn't have a speed Semblance, he or she can still do the "run the scythe blade into the enemy" trick.

Engineering (Cheating)
This is where whoever design Ruby's weapon acknowleges that scythes actually suck dick. As we'll see in the Red Trailer, the scythe blade rotates such that the tang of the blade (where its handel would be if it were a sword) lines up horizontal with the pole rather that perpendicular.

This is cheating.

In essence, Cresent Rose is not a scythe in this mode but rather a war scythe which, by the way, is infinetly more viable than an actual scythe. TL;DR, war scythes were peasant weapons made from actual farming scythes. The difference being that the blade head was rotated so that it was parrellel with the pole, reinforced and the poles were made a tad longer (sometimes).

Right away, we see how much more efficient it is in this mode. Why? Because she's not fucking swinging it at herself. The blade is now actually usable on the weapon with a mighty useful kill range as well. The rotational attacks are more lethal while having no danger to herself. It's a perfectly viable weapon, but it's NOT A SCYTHE. A good way to think about this is to have a circle that highlights the danger zone of a scythe, 100% of the time, a normal scythe will have a circle that overlaps with its user when in use. Versus a war scythe, where the blade is not facing the user.

Side note: I actually addressed this issue with one of my own OCs being that I like the concept of a reaper, but also full away of how god awful the viability is.

Hoe Ta Uos Da Scythhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~
Don't.

Okay, but in all seriousness, you're going to have to tweak that shit people because I don't care how good the user is, the scythe is an argument against itself. Here are a couple ways I can think of with varied styles.

Double Edge
A key problem with the Crescent Rose design is that it has only one edge. The one edge that's on the wrong side which forces you to always be up close and personal with your opponents kind of like swinging a blunt hook that only cuts if you catch anything in it. A double edge solves this problem somewhat as the outer edge is now usable. This, however, does not eliminate the danger of having an edge face you so you still have the awkward fucking "swing at yourself till you wreck yourself" problem.

This fighting style would probably not change from the regular scythe should you use it except maybe it acts like a psuedo-sword of somekind with the outer edge, but does improve on the Crescent Rose design.

Detachable/Rotatable Blade
Steal this from Crescent Rose or just straight up pop that shit off. You're better off using a sword or even a halberd.

Fighting style is the same as swordplay or polearm arts. Detachables may make things fancy but doesn't make the scythe not suck dick.

Bladed Hammer
Vindictus does this the best. Notice that Evie (the class and character in the video) uses the scythe like a rock on a stick. She swings with the largest area possible while keeping the blade as far away from her as she can. Any sort of smash attacks she makes are always downward hammer-like smashes. If this were Dark Souls with a dedicated hit-box for the blade, a skilled user would probably space herself properly so that the head lands properly.

Style would be used like a long-hammer, large, momentum building swings and crushing smashes... but why not just use a long-hammer if you're going to do that?

''PSS. Also notice how Evie's abilities compliment her weapon, especailly her OP dodging blink. This relates to the Speed portion of the blog. Another notion that scythes suck dick.''

Guns
Fucking guns, man.

Not a big fan of guns in weapons (mostly because recoil isn't that strong in reality unless you have an elephant gun or some shity) but it can be done with enough creativity. Crescent Rose doesn't make make the scythe swing faster, it makes the hits have more energy upon impact.

I don't know, do what you want with this category, I don't even guns. #Canadian

You're All Assholes
Anyway, this is JUST my opinion having played many games and reading many works with scythes in them as well as having a thought of making a scythe character of my own.

The TL;DR of this would be that scythes would be very hard to optimize for as a weapon, it simply means you have to sacrifice many aspects of a character to actually use a scythe effectively that you practically make a scythe wielding character boring and repetitive. And why is that? Because all scythes have the same problems, leading to the same fixes that need to be done. This verses a simple weapon that can be easily tweaked, works wonderfully both in fiction and in real-life, the scythe just isn't that versatile. Again, this is JUST MY EXPERIENCE. There might be an idea out there I haven't seen or heard of that might work and AGAIN, this is a creative place where anything goes.

(EXCEPT FOLLOW THE GODDAMN RULES - this link was suppose to work but the rules are gone, QUICK MAKE THE MOST OP SHIT EVER, NOW OR NEVER GUYS)