Talk:Characters/@comment-26489286-20150627041658/@comment-31.33.217.53-20150712215242

Sakamoto Ryôma was a Kengo, a sword master.

Yet, he was more marchant in his head than samurai. It gave him an excentric personality and revolutionary ideas, but at the same time, he lost a lot of things in understanding of Bushidô. It is well known that the famous Chiba dôjô Ryôma studied in was specialized in Gekiken (Kendô, sword fighting sport) and thus he forgot verry simple truths about Swords... such as : a katana is beautiful because it can cut. And because the samurai who wield it give it a soul... or rather, share his Soul with the Katana. And the opposite is also true, as probably already know all persons playing this game or frequently visiting this site. ;)

When the friggin' WASP came to Japan in order to kill more whales (and take their oil... yes, they were already oil hungry back then, and of course, they didn't ate the meat, they throw it into the sea lol), they bringed along new fire arms. During the begining of Tokugawa Bakufu, Swords were still important and practical because guns were more about intimidation and killing in long range, melee was unavoidable (and still is, kinda). But that aspect of war diminished a lot, and Ryôma (among other fake samurai, like Ito Hirobumi) thought that it was gone forever and that katana had became useless crap or piece of art only good for museums and private collections of rich merchants and nobles.

We speak of men like Mori Arinori, who suggested to abandon Japanese language for English. And he was listened. He also commited several other blasphemy... just so you know, in Modern Japan, they will throw you in jail just for stealing some cents on a toomb. Recently, their is also a huge scandal about people poisoning centuries old Sakaki (sacred trees) to make money. Those men praying for the Samurai's demise were that kind of people.

To be fair, Ryôma was kind of a nice guy. 8)

He didn't liked too much killing people. So, he used a gun, but mainly for intimidation. It seems he never actually shot someone with it, or at least not lethally. He acted like that because he had no confidence in his skills, nor in the power of Swords. Unlike guns, you can't do a mass shooting with a sword. Because they are less dangerous, men can equally fight with them : strugle, strive, loose and win more based on skills than luck.

The most effiscient, powerfull gun, the one who killed the most is without any kind of doubt : the Sniper riffle.

So yeah... LUCK. Luck of having one and being good at it. Luck of not being a target. Luck of knowing it if you are. Luck of having somewhere to hide from sniper shooting at you and your fellows. Luck of having a sniper covering you while with your assault riffle or shotgun, you make sure the ennemy soldiers are not closing in. Not until all of them got killed by snipers.

No skills, all luck. Just like US military power is based on death from above. That's the only miracle Jesus (or Zeus, maybe) really granted to them. And of course, they never won a war without clearly unfair advantage. In fact, they even managed to loose some of them. :v

Swords and Nihontô are different. Especially Tôken, treasured Swords.

Swords were still important at the verry least until WW1, reason for why the Japanese made a lot more for WWII. And through all the 20th century, the greatest mass murder weapon was the machette... a blade. Though by far inferior to the katana or longsword, still a sword.

In the end, the only purpose of assault riffles equiping soldiers is film & video game fantasy, feeding the military-industrial complex and killing civilians. That's their only purposes... guns and bombs. The only thing they are really usefull for.

Even if you try, you would need DIVINE skills to mass killing civilians with a sword. Because even when you don't have a brain, you have legs. And defenseless civilians and cowards can still run for their lives... a sword can't shoot them in the back (at least, not dozens of them at the same time), nor can most primitive weapons. Not even berserk rampage mod Machii Isao-senseï would be able to do that. In fact, greatest the Budôka is, and the less likely it becomes. But of course, all mass shooting who ever happened were not carried by super soldiers or trained commandos... all of them were done by civilians with poor skills, even children. That means any psycho can do it.

...

After reading me, you can that they were wrong. Sticking to the sword was the best solution for everyone. Sakamoto Ryôma, Itô Hirobumi, Samuel Colt... all of them were wrong. '''So verry fucking wrong. orz''' And they will never know it.