@twinklecake tbf as an initial prototype its no surprise that its basically a spirit stone mechanism attached to a pre existing sword design, why would she reinvent the sword when her expertise is magical mechanisms? Also unless that mechanism is stupidly dense I don't think it has enough leverage around the centre of mass to meaningfully effect its use considering its about an inch from where the centre of mass would be. Its nothing special as a design but I don't see why it has to be.
@Aquareed It just seems not suitable for close combat. I don't know about the toughness of spirit stones, but they are open to hits. And that accessory seems like it will make it harder to fully use the grip.
@twinklecake@Aquareed Well its both a "prototype"(of the MK II variety) and also a "Unique Weapon" (as in stronger than the future finished product, like Ernesti's Silhouette Knights)
The "prototype" part comes from her inability to use magic itself (when she tries the err Mk 1 ver, she burned herself for fire. Blade becomes worthless for water and for Earth its... Its just a normal sword.) [MK 1, aka Mana blade can be seen hanging on the wall ch 4 pg 11]
The "unique" part comes from the materials, using 6 spirit stones instead of 1, making it "part wand" etc.
Also to be entirely fair to her, the blade is done by a blacksmith, not her.
@Kalamel Half the time she breaks those windows are accidents... flight accidents. Turning those windows to metal grills would kill her. The other half of the reason
is to avoid her responsibilities (such as wearing dresses to go for events, etc). They (knights included) would do a dramatic chase all over the castle to capture the princess. They do it routinely..
@Aquareed There's a long way between "didn't reinvent the discipline" and "did a thing as uninspired as it is faulty".
@Nep Who cares about entirely hypothetical justifications of the Watsonian kind that you had to sit there and come up with yourself? If the mangaka didn't put an explanation for the shittiness of the sword in canon, it means that it is the mangaka themselves who were shitty at designing. And it wasn't just any old thing, it was a very plot-relevant magic sword, wielded by one of the protagonists, in a goddamn fantasy setting, with a focus on magic engineering specifically. Fuck that handwavy nonsense; this is a big fuckup.
I'll even go so far as to say that even if you were a typical female reader who couldn't give less of a shit about the source of my nerd rage, this would still be a fuckup, simply because of how visually uninspired and unappealing the feature accessory is that was now handed over to the lady who's supposed to be really beautiful and elegant and all that jazz. And she's now stuck with that ugly thing in her hand? Nah, fuck that shit. The rest of the art isn't quite as thoughtless as this either, so it's just too blatantly disruptive on all fronts.
@twinklecake: The design drawn here doesn't match the one in the novel. While the basic rapier design and the handguard are the same, the novel cover shows that the star-shaped section for the spirit stones is an integral part of the hilt. Basically, right below the crossguard the hilt itself is shaped like a star with the stones set in it. It isn't a separate piece the way it looks in this chapter here.
All the sword philosophy here is under the pretense the blade's being used as a rapier when in reality it's intended to take the form of a longsword or just be use as a wand. Using it without magic as nothing more than a sword is probably detrimental, design be damned. Also the alloys used in its construction may not be for rigorous use as an actual sword, and might even be useless outside of magical conductivity.
Applying weaponry standards of a non-magical niche to weaponry designed to be used in tandem with magic exclusively is folly. It's just a uniquely crafted wand intended to buff all magic forms and use cavalry buffs on itself
@Madcat6204 That looks pretty good to me. A very fantastic, unrealistic blade that doesn't trigger the shit out of my sensibilities but instead looks like it's been designed and crafted very purposefully for its function.
@Simply_Fiction I don't really have the energy to elucidate the distinction through words after blowing that rage wad, but compare between Madcat6204's post I quoted and the sword in the manga.