# 10 Iconic Fictional Swords!



## Sir Brennen (Dec 8, 2014)

Yeah, no Excalibur OR Stormbringer. Epic Sword Fail


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## delericho (Dec 8, 2014)

No lightsaber either.


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## machinelf (Dec 8, 2014)

Terminus Est, please.


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## Wolvercote (Dec 8, 2014)

If Excalibur and Stormbringer are not included, this list is void.


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## Dioltach (Dec 8, 2014)

The Sword of Shannara, and/or perhaps the Sword of Leah -- love him or hate him, I reckon Terry Brooks has had a greater impact on fantasy than Thundercats.


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## grizzo (Dec 8, 2014)

How can you take  his list seriously. On top his top ten Flattop list he lists Herman Munster instead Frankenstein's monster.


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## MagicSN (Dec 8, 2014)

Missing: Excalibur, Stormbringer, Durandal (Roland's Sword),
Gram (Siegfried's Sword) - and probably some more Swords from northern legend
Which more or less formed our image of "magic swords".


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## Hand of Evil (Dec 8, 2014)

Stormbringer missing, is the greater fail, it being the sword with the iconic personality.  Just don't think someone knows his swords.


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## Umbran (Dec 8, 2014)

I think he's limiting himself to swords with fixed images that we have seen in media - we all agree what they look like.

Excalibur and Stormbringer have not had highly popular visual media representations, so he cannot draw such representations for us.


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## Janx (Dec 8, 2014)

delericho said:


> No lightsaber either.




A light sabre would be more recognizable than the Kill Bill sword.

The test of "iconic" is if you show a picture of the sword, I know what it is.

Kill Bill's generic looking katana is not iconic.

Even the stupid Buster Sword is at least recognizable as "that stupidly named unwieldy sword from Final Fantasy"


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## Faradon (Dec 8, 2014)

and what about the triple sword/ 3-bladed sword from the sword and the sorcerer...


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## Lord Rasputin (Dec 8, 2014)

Umbran said:


> Excalibur and Stormbringer have not had highly popular visual media representations, so he cannot draw such representations for us.



I confess to paying more attention to a scantily-clad Helen Mirren, but might I draw your attention to a 1981 film called Excalibur? And it was quite popular at the time.


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## Umbran (Dec 8, 2014)

Lord Rasputin said:


> I confess to paying more attention to a scantily-clad Helen Mirren, but might I draw your attention to a 1981 film called Excalibur? And it was quite popular at the time.




And, if someone flashed a pic of the sword used in that film, would anyone recognize it?  Probably not.


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## Ryujin (Dec 8, 2014)

Umbran said:


> And, if someone flashed a pic of the sword used in that film, would anyone recognize it?  Probably not.




True enough, but I think that the description of Stormbringer is good enough that people might guess an image based on it.


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## werekraken (Dec 9, 2014)

It is more a display of 10 iconic swords from visual media. As such, it should have included Excalibur from the movie of the same name.

If it were to have been swords from fiction, its list would have been different. I would have liked to see Grayswandir. And I second Terminus Est from the Books of the New Sun.  Stormbringer of course. Graywand and Scalpal (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) mayhaps.


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## Wrathamon (Dec 9, 2014)

While I agree that Excalibur and Storm-bringer are missing, he doesn't say the Top 10 Most Iconic.... he says 10 of the most, which leads me to think that there are more than just these 10 and these might not be the Top 10.


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## Wrathamon (Dec 9, 2014)

i would also say that all but the blood oath seem like good candidates because they are visually recognizable.  And, excalibur does have many different visualizations over the years so it might not be easy to pick which one is the most iconic. 

Black Razor is missing


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Dec 9, 2014)

So make our own list. Some nominations:

1. Excalibur
2. Stormbringer / Mournblade
3. Durandel
4. Narsil / Anduril / Sting / Glamdring / Orcrist
5. Greyswandir
6. Sword of Shannara
7. Greywand / Scalpel
8. Callandor
9. Pick you favorite of 12 Swords of Power
10. Lightsaber
11. Blackrazor
12. Fragarach
13. Hrunting
14. Chandrahasa
15. Vorpal Sword
16. Sword of Truth
17. Ice / Needle / Lightbringer 
18. Icingdeath / Twinkle
19. Sword of Gryffndoor
20. The Singing Sword
Bonus: The Sick Sword


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## Minigiant (Dec 9, 2014)

No Soul Calibur or Soul Edge? Really? If you want to illustrate, they are enchanting ones.


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## Tonguez (Dec 9, 2014)

Wilkinson Hydro three blade?


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## Mark CMG (Dec 9, 2014)

Faradon said:


> and what about the triple sword/ 3-bladed sword from the sword and the sorcerer...





_Sly Sword!_


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## Thotas (Dec 9, 2014)

There can be on excuse for not including Stormbringer, even the "there's no specifically recognized depiction of it" that works for Excalibur, the most famous sword in the world.  Because if a GM were to say to a group of players "you see that the sword is black and is inlaid with glowing red runes" and that means nothing to them, they're pretty behind on the genre, to say the least.


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## Mr0wlington (Dec 9, 2014)

I had no idea what Stormbringer was.  I guess not everyone reads the same books.


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## Thunderfoot (Dec 9, 2014)

Mr0wlington said:


> I had no idea what Stormbringer was.  I guess not everyone reads the same books.



That's okay - I didn't know the Kill Bill sword - I detest that style of movie so, no idea of it.


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## MarkB (Dec 9, 2014)

Thotas said:


> There can be on excuse for not including Stormbringer, even the "there's no specifically recognized depiction of it" that works for Excalibur, the most famous sword in the world.  Because if a GM were to say to a group of players "you see that the sword is black and is inlaid with glowing red runes" and that means nothing to them, they're pretty behind on the genre, to say the least.




I've heard about the novels and about Stormbringer, but I've never read them, or a description of Stormbringer's physical appearance. I think it tends to make a strong impression upon those who've read the novels, but that doesn't necessarily translate to it being iconic and recognisable across the FRP community.


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## Jhaelen (Dec 9, 2014)

MarkB said:


> I've heard about the novels and about Stormbringer, but I've never read them, or a description of Stormbringer's physical appearance. I think it tends to make a strong impression upon those who've read the novels, but that doesn't necessarily translate to it being iconic and recognisable across the FRP community.



Sacrilege! ;-)
Well, at least among (old) D&D players it should be well known as the inspiration for intelligent swords. Blackrazor is pretty much a blatant rip-off. Just like Vecna's Hand and Eye are a blatant rip-off of Corum's Hand of Kwll and Eye of Rhynn... I have no idea how obscure these references are these days, but back in my teens Moorcock was as much of a must-read as Tolkien.


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## Lord Rasputin (Dec 9, 2014)

Umbran said:


> And, if someone flashed a pic of the sword used in that film, would anyone recognize it?  Probably not.



How many of the above would you recognize without the captions?


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## Dioltach (Dec 9, 2014)

I have to say, it's a nice enough picture, but what's the point really? The artist has copied a series of existing visual representations of fictional weapons and provided short descriptions. There doesn't seem to be any unifying criterion for the selection (time, medium, theme), and the artist hasn't added anything to the existing images or information.

Basically he's saying, hey, these are some swords that I think are cool.


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## Mercule (Dec 9, 2014)

Masamune lived in the 13th and 14th centuries, AD. Not sure where the 590 BC date comes from, unless that's Ramirez' birth.


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## Umbran (Dec 9, 2014)

Thotas said:


> Because if a GM were to say to a group of players "you see that the sword is black and is inlaid with glowing red runes" and that means nothing to them, they're pretty behind on the genre, to say the least.




Hardly.  The books are back from the 1970s.  They are, for lack of a better word, kind of old and out of fashion. 

In fact, the original _Elric of Melniboné_ seems to be out of print as a stand-alone paperback (or, at least, Amazon doesn't carry that ISBN) - you have to buy a collection to get it, new, it seems.


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## Ryujin (Dec 9, 2014)

Umbran said:


> Hardly.  The books are back from the 1970s.  They are, for lack of a better word, kind of old and out of fashion.
> 
> In fact, the original _Elric of Melniboné_ seems to be out of print as a stand-alone paperback (or, at least, Amazon doesn't carry that ISBN) - you have to buy a collection to get it, new, it seems.




That rather surprised me so I checked, and you're absolutely right. Seems that my original paperbacks, in good condition, could net me a couple of hundred bucks. New releases in collections only. 

The problem with the expression 'iconic' is that with the sort of stuff we're talking about here, it's very age dependant. I couldn't give a damn about the Buster Sword. It just isn't on my RADAR. Just a few years ago very few people would have a clue what "Sting" looked like but, with the advent of the Jackson movies, now even youngsters recognize it. A goodly chunk of fantasy fans in their 40s and up would instantly recognize Stormbringer, but not the younger crowd.


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## Thotas (Dec 9, 2014)

More obviously than ever, there needs to be a film adaptation of the Elric material.  That's what I've learned today.


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## Ryujin (Dec 9, 2014)

Thotas said:


> More obviously than ever, there needs to be a film adaptation of the Elric material.  That's what I've learned today.




Couldn't agree more. Just make it story driven, not star name driven


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## Tonguez (Dec 9, 2014)

Lord Rasputin said:


> How many of the above would you recognize without the captions?




Lion-O's sword, He-Mans sword and Sting

30% it seems my sword-geek is suspect

and yeah clock me up as never having actually read the Elric novels either


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## Wrathamon (Dec 9, 2014)

Lord Rasputin said:


> How many of the above would you recognize without the captions?




I would say 7 or 8 of them. I wouldnt have gotten kill bill or zelda. Conan because its colored weird might have been thrown me for a bit.


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## Ryujin (Dec 9, 2014)

The Hattori Hanzo Sword is too generic looking for me to have ever gotten that one. Now if it was the sword of Zatoichi, then that would be a different story.


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## Riley37 (Dec 10, 2014)

Greyswandir. Preferably the blessed +7 Greyswandir.


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## Richards (Dec 11, 2014)

I nominate...the _Hackmaster +12_.

Johnathan


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## Uder (Dec 12, 2014)

1. That list is cool, looks good, and 100% accurate to top it off.

2. The word 'iconic' has been abused to the point that it has very little meaning to most people.


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## Kaodi (Dec 12, 2014)

I am sorry, but at a glance it appears you all fail. 

_FORM BLAZING SWORD!_


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## Thunderfoot (Dec 12, 2014)

As I'm re-reading this I just thought of a totally iconic sword that isn't on the list - the sun sword from "Thundarr the Barbarian"  - I miss that cartoon.


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