i'm trained in historical fencing
please don't patronize me because i value actual physics and their use in combat over pure fan nostalgia/favoritism factor
i can totally go all-in on that with all the hypotheticals in the world, but for me it's more fun to think of fantasy weapons that are actually feasible to exist and be wielded in the real world than to dream of completely impossible scenarios i would never be able to obtain without violating all known laws of physics (example: i can physically forge both the buster sword and narsil from lord of the rings--but i can only
feasibly expect to wield the latter, because the former is simply too oversized and impractical to even consider using)
if someone can swing a heavy thing easily, they can swing a lighter thing with even more speed and therefore deadliness
but if you wanna go that route
The real thing, and the buster sword is a huge powerful sword. So... if one has always thought
"Id love to use that"
one would need the arm power to use it. You could sum this whole post saying "why use that when you could just use a gun" But the point is its your dream weapon. , Dream Weapon Not
you need
way more than just "arm power" to effectively swing a sword
only people who have no real understanding or experience of the physics of swordbased combat think this way (and if you don't have those things, that's okay--it's why i'm going to the trouble of explaining myself in greater depth)
wrist and forearm strength and flexibility dominate standard "brugh-hagh tough guy" overall arm strength
something like the buster sword barely even qualifies as a sword--its sheer weight alone would crush long before it ever cut (no, i don't care what the fantasy series says, this is a thread and question of real-world people wielding their "dream weapon(s)" so therefore real-world logic must apply, sorry if that bothers you)
can a really strong muscleman lift something really heavy a smaller and "weaker" person might not be able to? yep
can a smaller and "weaker" person outclass the really strong muscleman in actual combat due to their smaller frame coordinating speed and dexterity and flexibility over raw power? you're damn right, and i'm living proof of concept on that note
anyway, on top of wrist/forearm strength, efficient swordplay facilitates good core and leg strength even moreso, because good dexterity in the wrists doesn't mean jack if you don't have the core strength and footwork/balance coordination to support whatever you're doing with your arms
so all in all, cloud being able to wield the buster sword really has absolutely nothing intrinsically to do with his upper arm and shoulder strength to physically lift the thing--even barret could probably
lift it, but lifting and wielding are two very different things
cloud's skill with it is a question of his dexterity and core/leg strength (since what do you think act as shock absorbers and energy transferrers when he makes contact with something? that's right, all that kinetic energy is gonna travel through his body and go straight down him into the ground, and being able to manage that shock and not flub up requires more than just big biceps)
we already know he was a reasonably skilled swordsman prior to jenova gene transfer--those additions just upped what he had to eleven and raised the ceiling to which he could rise up to, they didn't just make his biceps stronger and that's it
"lets use a real life weapon, that is far more practical"
This is not that hard a concept to grasp?
look at all those swords cloud can use that have same or similar real-world counterparts, and those counterparts have centuries of documented use, practicality, individual physics, and technique (and truth be told i could list way more real-world bladed weapons that have reasonable similarity to the red-boxed ones in cloud's arsenal, but for argument's sake as well as the sake of not bogging the thread with an even MORE massive image, i only need a few obvious ones to illustrate my point)
i don't even
have to say "well cloud should just use an oakeshott type XVII or a claymore or a standard european arming sword or a greek xiphos or an egyptian khopesh or a talwar or a chinese dao or a thai krabi," because he has a whole bunch of weapons that are
already similar in size and shape to real swords
i don't need to cite a million real weapons to demonstrate that a lighter weapon will do more damage in the hands of someone capable of extreme heavy wielding--FF7 already
has a good lot of swords that fit that description
the muramasa and yoshiyuki and hell even the nail bat are all (doubtlessly) a massive weight drop from the buster sword and would actually be capable of clean cutting power due to the sheer weight not overpowering the cutting edge
the same goes for heaven's cloud/butterfly edge/enhance sword/rune blade--their shaping is all pretty reasonable, the only factor that might need adjusting is the length and thickness of the blades themselves in relation to the hilts and guards (a sword doesn't need to be huge and thick to cut effectively--lighter things can be moved more quickly, and quick movements combined with the fact that highly-sharp edges tend to be micrometers thick at the actual cutting edge (the edge you see on a sword isn't actually its true edge--the true edge is so thin it's invisible to the naked eye) add up to even a small light sword being capable of incredible cutting power in the hands of an expert wielder)
imagine, if you will, the strongest man on earth (the REAL earth), and let's assume he can lift telephone pole-sized logs with relative ease
now imagine that same man swinging a four-pound sword with proper technique and edge alignment
the sheer force of power
behind the swing will make that light sword capable of tremendous and devastating damage against a given target--a strong person swinging a heavy thing is completely nonsensical in the context of combat (wherein
speed and technique, not raw power, determine the victor more often than not), regardless of whether or not it's a final fantasy game and not the real world
cloud has speed, cloud has technique, cloud has raw power
logically speaking in a combat context (and i should mention the FF series kinda RUNS on "how fast can you attack your enemies, can you strike before they do" scenarios on account of the whole ATB thing that's been around since, oh i dunno, the franchise first
started), someone who has strength and speed
and technique should choose a weapon that best complements their skills--and since we already went over the importance of speed, it seems a no-brainer which option (light or heavy weapon) is the most sensible
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bear in mind i'm not here to cause a ruckus or derail the thread, but i'm not about to be patronized because i gave an honest answer to the thread's question and the OP got upset because it wasn't the kind of answer he wanted
that and i take some enjoyment in discussing these kinds of swordplay technicalities given my immersion in them
all i'm really trying to get at here is that it seems rather hypocritical and unfair to say that i don't "get it" or that i'm somehow not "grasping the concept" because i gave an answer more based out of feasible practicality than pure fan love