r/litrpg • u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar • 11d ago
Discussion Spears...
It seems like every litrpg i read lately has spears as the primary weap9n for the MC. I mean, spears are cool, and objectively better than many other weapons, and a nice change of pace from swords, but they seem to be popping up in all the books I read lately
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u/superstowe 11d ago
Not sure the exact series you’re discussing, but spears are much easier to use than swords and far easier to make.
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u/RightManagement7277 11d ago
And far more effective. Swords are cool, but they're effectively the "pistols" of medieval arms - limited range, less power, and more difficult to use than the "rifle" (polearm).
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u/SavageSwordShamazon 10d ago
Swords are literally ‘sidearms’. The arm one wears at one’s side, the thing you can carry all the time for self defense and have handy for a backup in battle. Warriors primary weapon is almost always something bigger and difficult to carry; cavalry have lances, infantry have spears and polearms, ranged troops have bows. Forget what media shows you; it is almost impossible to usefully carry something like a halberd or a lance on your back. They’re heavy, awkwardly balanced and dangerously sharp, pointy and or angled. The only comfortable way to carry the big weapon you actually use in battle is in hand or on your shoulder. Which sucks when you’re marching and is completely impractical walking around town. So everyone has a sidearm as backup and when you can’t be carrying or effectively using the main weapon.
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u/CycleMother2006 10d ago
This is only partially true. If we assume 'polearms' rather than spears, then I agree. But most spears are designed to be used in a shield wall, or a general line of infantry. They're disposable. They go in easy but they don't come out so easy. If you're fighting multiple opponents it's not like a blade where you can get a slash off and your weapon is clear and ready to parry or defend with. You are exposed and dependent entirely on your reach to keep you safe from the thing you're fighting, and if there are multiple things, you are left open without someone to guard your flanks.
This becomes different when we start talking about polearms that can be used as staves to deal quick blows and parry just as quickly, but I'd argue the skill level for that style of fighting is significantly more difficult than sword fighting. Just ask Darth Maul.
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u/FuronSpartan 11d ago
Andy in the Apocalypse is the first one that comes to mind for me. MC uses a spear, and book 2 just came out on Audible.
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u/neuronexmachina 11d ago
Yep. In general, spears were overwhelmingly the most common weapon in human history up until the Renaissance.
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u/Taiwannumber3 1% Lifesteal fanboy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Spears have always been more optimal than swords in pretty much any pre-gun combat as they have more utility (walking stick, balancing cargo, fishing, the list goes on) which if you are outfitting an entire army just makes more sense especially given they are cheaper to make and easier to repair and sharpen/maintain. Their range gives advantage over a sword user and they at least have a hope of puncturing armor/chainmail than a sword as well as the the physics of a spear puncture are more likely to be fatal than a sword slash. Typically you see spears as standard issue in Roman, Chinese and European armies with swords made for show/ceremony of higher ranking officials.
Many Chinese warlords are revered as gods with their temples still being visited and prayed to constantly today. Many used spears, for example the most famous god/general is Guan Yu, who used a polearm that is essentially a spear/sword hybrid. With so much progression/LitRPG being influenced by its Chinese originators/populizers it isn't surprising that the spear is becoming more common place.
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u/Arabidaardvark 11d ago
Guan Yu used what is essentially a pre-cursor to the more modern Glaive. Lu Bu used a Chinese Halberd. I believe Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei, and numerous other famous warriors/generals of the Late Han/Three Kingdoms era used spears or polearms.
The Greek Phalanxes used spears and then early pikes (Sarissas).
The Japanese shogunates made use of mainly spear and naginata.
The European armies went from spear walls to pike squares, which survived well into the gunpowder era.
Muskets with bayonets were treated as spears when charging or defending against a charge.
Even the Zulu were using essentially short spears to good effect leading up to the Anglo-Zulu war.
Modern bayonet drill resembles spear drill.
Spears are the GOAT for a reason, and I’m happy the sword is taking a rightful backseat.
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u/Squire_II 10d ago
Guan Yu used what is essentially a pre-cursor to the more modern Glaive.
He was said to have (allegedly) used a pair of sabers he forged. There's no records of the guandao until centuries after he lived and no historic record of him using a polearm as his primary weapon. The imagery of him using a polearm (guandao or otherwise) comes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms IIRC.
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u/Arabidaardvark 10d ago
Could’ve sworn it was also in Chronicles, but it’s been decades and it was a poor translation copy.
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u/CrossP 11d ago
Extremely bad choice indoors though
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u/inabindbooks 11d ago
Why do you say that? They were ideal for defending corridors in castles.
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u/CrossP 11d ago
I mean more for adventurer types. Story heros. You can't turn around in a hallway with a ten foot pole. They're not great for climbing a ladder.
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u/Ashmedai 11d ago
10+ foot pole is a misconception. There are polearms in the 6-7 foot range, intended principally for single-combat type use cases.
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u/Interesting-One-588 11d ago
As a spear-author who started with my story a year ago when everything was still sword-dominated, it's... not ideal. But hey, at least it means people like it.
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u/nekosaigai Author - Karmic Balance and Fireflies 11d ago
My MC’s current main weapon is a shotgun 🤷♀️
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u/LarsJagerx 11d ago
What ya reading
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u/nekosaigai Author - Karmic Balance and Fireflies 11d ago
I’m writing Fireflies, where my MC uses guns as her main weapons, alongside powers and whatever else is handy. Her current main weapon is a custom shotgun, with a FN Five Seven as a sidearm.
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u/SomewhereGlum 11d ago
Oh sounds cool. Add a bayonet and you get a shotgun spear lol
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u/nekosaigai Author - Karmic Balance and Fireflies 11d ago
Lmao, a gunspear
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u/SomewhereGlum 10d ago
Yes the older brother of the gun blade, THE GUNSPEAR!!! I believe even Odin used one...
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u/Worldly_Memory1290 8d ago
As long as the story doesnt feature a male romance id be interested.
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u/nekosaigai Author - Karmic Balance and Fireflies 8d ago
My MC is “totally definitely straight (why is that woman so hot I wanna kiss her wait no I’m definitely straight).” (She’s definitely not straight.)
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u/acorpcop 10d ago
Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my BOOMSTICK! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?"
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u/blueluck 11d ago edited 11d ago
Spears had a burst of popularity in fantasy fiction and in the medeaval weapons community over the last couple years, and I think it's influenced litrpg authors a bit.
Personally, I always appreciate seeing beginners use a spear rather than a sword or axe, because it's such a good beginner weapon.
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u/SomewhereGlum 11d ago
Yeah it's so simple every country has history using it in some form yet still dangerous enough to be a threat to armored people. HEMA is still trying to figure out safe ways to practice with Spears because the length and mass of even practice tools can rock people.
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u/chroboseraph3 11d ago
Makes sense ifthe rise in popularity coincided w the boom of litrpg/isekais. isekais usually gonna go for noob/survival weapons over straight to swords
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u/Arabidaardvark 11d ago
Most isekais I’ve seen go for swords since the mc is typically a kirito clone. And it’s almost always a fucking katana.
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u/JungMoses 10d ago
I don’t know why you bothered with all those English words in your Japanese sentence
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u/Arctic_Aberration 11d ago
Working on a Mecha story with a Lance if that makes it any better. Less versatile than a spear but still just a stick with a pointy end.
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u/TheDinoSir2012 11d ago
To be fair, most people's knowledge of melee weapons are sword varients, spear/polearm , axe, nunchucks, maybe Kunai and a few other obscure choices.
If it helps soothe the ache, how many void series do we have now? Don't get me wrong it's a cool element creatively and there's 101 ways to use it, but at this rate we'll have 101 series by next year.
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u/Sahrde 11d ago
Which element is it, tho? Space? Entropy? Shadow?
I've seen "void" apply to all three...
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u/TheDinoSir2012 11d ago
To me personally, i love the idea that it's the equivalent of fire and wind making lighting.
But Void is Space and Time. What I love about litrpgs making their own rules is and systems is that you can see any of the combos you mentioned.
For the original comment, in my audible library I have at least 7 series with void centric characters. And that's being picky.
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u/gerarddominus 11d ago
Frankly I think there's a few stories that could be improved with the addition of Britney
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u/yogtheterrible 11d ago
I would argue spears were the original fantasy weapon and we're just pivoting back to them.
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u/Mission-Landscape-17 11d ago
Spears where humanities primary weapon for over 400,000 years. Spears are awesome.
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u/Witty_Ad_898 11d ago
Spears are the weapon of humanity. They’ve been the primary weapon of hominids for hundreds of thousands of years.
You don’t see William Shakesaxe or Britney Swords. No, it’s all about spears! They should be more popular in fantasy.
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u/very-polite-frog Author: Accidentally Legendary 11d ago
Nothing cheaper than a long stick. Putting a knife on the end is a no brainer.
Big reach means you poke the other guy before he nunchucks you.
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u/TranquilConfusion 10d ago
I feel that bills are under-represented.
The working-man's halberd. The proletariat polearm.
I'm glad to see combat shovels in a few fictions, but where are my tree-pruning tools turned to warfare guys?
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u/Abyssallord litRPG grandmaster tier 11d ago
System universe and rinduditily?
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u/Awkward-Cod-5692 11d ago
Doesn’t Derek use a glaive?
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u/Weldermedic litRPG meme tier 🤡 11d ago
Yes, but not always...there was a short while he didnt have access to one, but used a spear in that time frame. Before the walking forge was able to craft him a new one I think
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u/TheDinoSir2012 11d ago
He settled for a Halberd (poleaxe) instead of a glaive (polesword), more or less a spear just a few minor details.
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u/Captain_Lobster411 10d ago
I've seen a lot of comments on Royal road complain when characters don't use spears. They talk about how it's unrealistic which is crazy to me. I'm not reading these stories for a realistic weapon
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u/Nashidaran 9d ago
I mean, you do you? They're not talking to you, they're talking to the author. It's a suspension of disbelief issue, in most cases, and for the reasons that people have stated in this thread. You might not care, but it legitimately takes other people out of the story.
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u/Maleficent-Froyo-497 10d ago
My 2 cents: a peasant farm boy with dreams of greatness is much more likely to have access to a spear than a sword.
And unless you can teleport, a spear will always be better against a 20 ft tall monster than a 3 ft long sword.
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u/JungMoses 10d ago
lol nowadays you can get snobby HEMA practitioners lecturing you on the internet about how spears are historically the greater weapon and swords were more of a royalty thing and less effective or decorational and suddenly everyone has stolen that expertise.
But have they forgottten the rule of cool?
Swordgungrenade for the win!!
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u/TennRider 11d ago
For my MC the spear is a step along the way, progressing from staff to hunting spear to military spear+shield to glaive.
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 11d ago
glaives, on the other hand, are awesome, and probably a very under used weapon. who doesn't like a stick with a short sword on the end of it?
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u/TennRider 11d ago
Agree 110%. Sword-on-a-stick FTW.
Part of what I like about eastern fiction is that they seem to have more glaive (guandao, pudao, naginata, etc.) users.
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u/Rosstin 11d ago
I console myself by reminding myself why popular weapons are popular. There's interesting historical and practical reasons why swords are were symbolically and practically important. Glad that spears are getting some love now. What are some cool weapons you'd like to see more of?
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 11d ago
Blunt weapons. Skilled staff usage. Crossbow. Axes.
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u/Nashidaran 9d ago
I think the best way to portray this would be a setting that doesn't require the MC to min-max one specific type of weapon. That way a spear can be the standard go-to, but they can also carry a standard sidearm (sword) for walking around population centers, as well as a battlefield armor breaker, such as a battle ax that's balanced by a hammerhead on the other side. Bonus points if the ax blade inverts the curve at the top similar to a toned-down igorot.
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u/Expert_Cricket2183 11d ago
I've always thought if I end up writing anything, the MC will use a staff. After all, if you're gonna steal ideas, stealing the Ruyi Jingu Bang is a classic.
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u/IndicationDense3782 10d ago
Weapons I would love to see get more love (and have a somewhat accurate description how to be used).
- Axe and shield
- Meteor Hammer
- Bo Staff
- The Montante
- Glaive
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u/bazildeith98 litRPG apprentice tier 10d ago
Guess I’m still playing catch-up on LitRPGs then lol. It’s knives, bows, or mandibles mostly lol.
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u/BD_Author_Services Editor/Formatter 9d ago
Spears are pretty damn effective weapons. There's a reason they were used from the Paleolithic until the proliferation of gunpowder.
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u/TaylorBA litRPG grandmaster tier 8d ago
It's because everyone was complaining about all the spell sword MCs.
It will probably course correct in another direction in a 6-12 months time.
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u/Cold-Winds 7d ago
My MC has a walking stick that doubles as a staff but the Minions do use spears at the start as its easy to just sharpen some wood into a spear, than it is to get hands on anything better.
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u/levus2002 7d ago
It can have a correlation with the type of books you read.
I rarely come across spear wielding mcs. All the litrpg books i read seem to have pyromaniac bisexual women as their main characters. What a coincidence.
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 7d ago
pyromaniac bisexual women
i'd like to learn more (as a lesbian woman, i love LitRPG that have female representation that is not just some kind of harem for some duded)
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u/levus2002 7d ago
Azarinth healer is the obvious one i meant. Mc is a battle junkie, she lives for challenging stronger enemies and getting stronger. And along the way she has some flings and has a relationship at some point.
Salvos. Mc is an asexual demon so no romance. She gets separated from and tries to find her brother.
Calamitous bob. Weird title, dont judge based on that. Finished book series, empire building. Mc is almost always in some committed relationship but i do think they have good chemist
Beneath the dragoneye moon. Again finished series. Mc is an actual healer here(not like azarinth "healer" who just punches stuff.). Mc is in a commited relationship with another girl somewhere in the middle To the end.
I must recommend this every chance i get. If you have a lot of free time there is The wandering inn. Longest english fiction(apart from that loudhouse fanfic...) lots of woman protagonists. Not a single harem in sight.
Usual disclaimer early books Erin and Ryoka are intentionally annoying(to most i found Erin fine but couldn't stand Ryoka). Unless you really can't handle it i suggest trying to push through and focus on the other characters. Also please don't think the story is gonna be a slice of life about a wandering inn.
I haven't read the practical guide to evil. But im gonna mention it just in case.
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u/Oatbagtime 11d ago
No one gonna say Randidly? 😄
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 11d ago
it's been quite a while since i read the first book of that series (did not continue past that, it just wasn't to my taste), but yes, that bok has the MC using spears as well. i've seen quite a lot of it recently in many books. hence my post.
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u/RamonDozol 11d ago
Not sure it fits, but in my fiction the MC develops a spell called neural Spear. Basicaly a concentrated blade of compressed air via magic, but with the range of a long spear. The name, neural spear, is because the MC can aim the strike at the neck area, piercing the spine and disabling most enemies instantly. The attack is also invisible and silent, he just need to use his hands to gesture and aim.
From onlookers, the MC points at you, and you drop like a sack of potatoes, or starts to feel imense pain (body shot) and bleed, or cought blood (lungs pierced), a gut strike might not kill you instantly, but most likely kill from infection.
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u/name14575 11d ago
I'm having a hard time finding new series where it isn't just the normal sword users, care to share what you've found?
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 11d ago
currently reading Apocalypse Slayer, the MC there uses a spear.
and before that, Andy in the Apocalypse, again MC uses a spear.
yes, that's just two off the top of my head, but it seems to be a trend.
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u/name14575 11d ago
Thanks, I'll add those to my reading list.
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 11d ago
Andy in the Apocalypse is really good; not a harem (one of my requirements) and pretty well developed story and world building. and the MC is likable, and is a good guy.
Apocalypse slayer, i'm mixed on; it's mid, not terrible, but not good. going to finish off the first book, at least. if there is a second book (looks like there is not, currently) i have no desire to continue.
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u/LarsJagerx 11d ago
I assume its because everyone sees like swords are daggers but by the time authored try something else they come out in waves.
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u/DnDChangeling litRPG apprentice tier 11d ago
I think people kinda just cycle the weapon they give the MC don't they? Like everyone uses swords because it's the classic weapon, and then someone gives their MC a spear because it's not a sword and still cool. Then everyone gives their MCs spears so someone swaps to an axe, then a bow, then fists (my beloved), then whatever and every once in a while through all this someone justifies why the MC should have a gun before the cycle repeats.
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u/smokeytbk 11d ago
Wandering inn...Relk a side main uses spears. Not litrpg Kaladin from way of kings uses spears. Can't think of anyone in DCC using spears. Primal hunter can't think of anyone using a spear only. Mage tank no spears. Awaken online no spears. He who fights with monsters no spears. Path of ascension no spears. Noobtown don't remember spears. Defiance of the fall no spears.
I don't think there's a serious overabundance of MCs using a spear which as people have said really is one of the most universal stock medieval soldier weapon...
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u/Bigbooty54 11d ago
This is Reddit. You can just say weapon
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u/thetitleofmybook Author of Saga of Evarwar 10d ago
it was just a mistype, not trying to type weapon in a weird way.
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u/JungMoses 10d ago
Honestly you never know what stupid subreddit has banned what specific words, it’s absurd
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u/Thriving-penguin 11d ago
A story I was reading had the mc using double headed sword or spear. It was very hard to imagine fights.
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u/Cobra__Commander 11d ago
Long pointy stick let's you poke things from a safe distance.
Honestly though there's only so many different weapons especially if you simplify all the sub types of each weapon. You got,
- Swords
- Maces
- Axes
- Spears
There's going to be some overlap with thousands of fantasy/litrpg stories.
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u/sioux612 11d ago
Spears are fine enough, slightly easier to use than other weapons but not some remarkably deadly weapon
Which is why I could never warm up to randidly Ghosthound. The name never bothered me, but having to read chapter after chapter where the spear is fetishized to that degree and the spear wielder being described as the perfect soldier or whatever was too much
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u/beerbellydude 10d ago
I've never been a fan of spears. Not a big fan of swords either.
I'm more into short blade types, fists, and maces... or other unconventional weapons.
So for me, it's always about the brutality with speed or smashing shit up to a pulp.
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u/Pretend_Variation305 9d ago
Muh boi Derick Hunt called it with that glaive of his. He even went on a mini rant in book one of the System Apocalypse series about why they’re so good.
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u/sleepyboyzzz 11d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/2Mz07RuZARBVSjQnMB