Topic: About Vlad III's Existence on Castlevania

[Shiroi Koumori]

To add on the image on Alucard's sword: The HoD image shows that the hilt is silver instead of the gold in the SotN.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/1/18/Castlevania_Harmony_of_Despair_360_Wallpaper.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110919170349&path-prefix=de

[TatteredSeraph]

I own a re-enactment style heavy rapier.  The Alucard sword isn't a rapier at all.  The blade looks that narrow because of an element of perspective I would say.  The hilt is also completely wrong, especially the hilt.  Using the portrait picture, it looks more like a standard longsword.  I wouldn't say that the in game sprites show a basket hilt sword either.  I'd say it looks more like a hand guard, which did eventually evolve into the full basket.

[zangetsu468]

I own a re-enactment style heavy rapier.  The Alucard sword isn't a rapier at all.  The blade looks that narrow because of an element of perspective I would say.  The hilt is also completely wrong, especially the hilt.  Using the portrait picture, it looks more like a standard longsword.  I wouldn't say that the in game sprites show a basket hilt sword either.  I'd say it looks more like a hand guard, which did eventually evolve into the full basket.

Long sword with a not so long hilt imo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longsword

The closest thing I could find to the sprite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swiss_cavalry_sword.jpg

[X]

Alucard's sword in the official arts resembles a Long sword or possibly a Bastard sword depending. The sprite image on the other hand seem to resemble a Cutless or Saber (Even a Cavalry sword) because of the way the hilt guard is in line with the handle.

[theplottwist]

Something I think I should point out:

Even Alucard's sprite itself is quite different from his artwork. Hell, in the sprite he has what appears to be kneepads, something completelly inexistent on the artwork.

I'd say we should always favor the artwork for canon descriptions rather than sprites, because some things on the sprites are done to favor readability above accuracy with the concept art. Though, in Alucard's case, he appears with three different swords on art done by Kojima, with one more on art done for Judgment. The sword is not consistent.

[theplottwist]

I have the Japanese SOTN manual and the names are the same with the English version.
Maybe the Japanese assumed that Tepes is an actual surname for Vlad and not a moniker. I thought that was the case as well when I first got the game and it still messes up my mind. Alright, maybe IGA's vania world is an AU of ours, similarly with what he is planning with Bloodstained. That would settle a lot of things. hahaha.

I always assumed this to be the case, because there are glaring historical inaccuracies in CV. Setting CV as an alternate universe solves almost every history issue.

[TatteredSeraph]

Something I think I should point out:

Even Alucard's sprite itself is quite different from his artwork. Hell, in the sprite he has what appears to be kneepads, something completelly inexistent on the artwork.

I'd say we should always favor the artwork for canon descriptions rather than sprites, because some things on the sprites are done to favor readability above accuracy with the concept art.

I think that the 'kneepads' are meant to represent in sprite-form the turn overs on the tops of his boots.

Long sword with a not so long hilt imo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longsword

The closest thing I could find to the sprite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swiss_cavalry_sword.jpg

I'm finding details on wikipedia that show something similarish to Al's sword called an 'Estoc': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoc, http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l114/odingaard/Swords/MRL%20Old%20Gothic/IMG_20121004_142903.jpg.  I'd say that's pretty close to what's shown in the concept art.

[Dracula9]

You get a separate Estoc in the game, though.

Let's also not forget that the sword changes size depending on the art piece in question.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/4/4d/Alucardgrey.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080227202634
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/2/27/Alucard_002.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150129003339
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/1/18/Alucard_HD.png/revision/latest?cb=20100901193911
http://cdn.horriblenight.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alucard.jpg

Pretty much a losing battle to try and identify what the Alucard Sword is based on concept art.

The method in which Alucard strikes with it (as well as most other swords) would be a better place to make inferences, methinks.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Well he swings it one handed, which means it's balanced like a short sword, or a bastard sword at the very largest.

Examining the sword styles popular in Lisa's era would doubtless also prove enlightening.

[TatteredSeraph]

One of the reasons why I was looking at arming/knightly swords, and estocs, Rayne.  The estoc idea based on Ayami Kojima's artwork could be feasible despite the estoc weapon in game being available, is that the Alucard sword is particularly special, with powers of its own (perhaps some of why it's sigificant as a hereditory blade?), as well as its wielder being of Dracula's blood.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Well, the likely real life equivalent of the period was likely to be a Szabla, a sort of Polish-Hungarian saber. It doesn't resemble the art or sprites at all, but the wide, sweeping cuts Alucard makes with the weapon in his sprite animation are indicative of a saber type weapon.

[zangetsu468]

If we're basing on how fast the sword can be swung, the length of the blade and the weapon's design (in sprite) all combined, I'm saying a cutlass best fits the profile:

http://www.toledosword.com/pr/LARP_Pirate_Cutlass_Latex_Sword.html#938629
http://www.kaswords.com/browseproducts/Caribbean-Skull-Crossbones-Pirate-Cutlass-Sword.HTML

Which correlates to both human, wolf and bat sword sprites:
http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Alucard_Sword?file=Alucard_Sword_Icon.png
http://www.castlevaniacrypt.com/img/sotn/sprites/alucard-wolf.png
http://www.castlevaniacrypt.com/img/sotn/sprites/alucard-bat.png

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I applaud your effort to match the sprite exactly, and a Cutlass does indeed seem to be the exact match, but I have a feeling they were going for the Szabla. Really, a saber and a cutlass are very similar weapons (a saber tends to be longer with a more pronounced curve, but other than that they are very similar weapons).

However, as the cutlass didn't emerge until 17th century, and was used almost exclusively by sailors, I fail to see how Lisa or Dracula would have owned one in the 14th century in order to pass it to Alucard. It's a weapon that simply doesn't fit the timeframe of the most likely forging of the Alucard Sword.

A Szabla or other saber weapon would however be a shoo-in, especially as the Szabla is region-appropriate, first entered wide use around that time, and is a weapon style associated with nobility in Poland and Hungary. It's highly probable that a Wallachian Count (or his wife) would have at least one to pass down to their heir. The Szabla is simply the most logical choice.

[AlexCalvo]

Doesn't the idea of how the sword is swung relating to its weight kind of fly out the window, being that Alucard is a Dhampir, and thus has at least some level super strength.  Couldn't Alucard probably wield a fricken zweihander one handed?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Doesn't the idea of how the sword is swung relating to its weight kind of fly out the window, being that Alucard is a Dhampir, and thus has at least some level super strength.  Couldn't Alucard probably wield a fricken zweihander one handed?

The balancing would still affect it heavily. Swinging a sword improperly according to how it is balanced can effectively destroy its cutting ability or power.

Western European blades that we associate with knights and myth today tend to spread the weight evenly along the blade with it concentrated slightly above the median of the blade's length to preserve the power in a slashing swing while keeping stabbing as an option.

Far Eastern blades such as Katanas are primarily stabbing weapons with a secondary purpose for rigorously controlled "cuts" as opposed to slashes (as made distinct by the Book of Five Rings by legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi) and as such keep much of the weight balance closer to the grip for better control.

The weapons Alucard would have been raised around would have been very Slavic and possibly Turkish depending on whether or not Dracula captured the weapons of his enemies. These were very different from the weapons used by Western Europe and the Far East. They would have had heavy blades curved such that weight is centered towards the tip of the blade with a generous pommel to counterbalance that -- these were unequivocally slashing weapons not meant for stabbing at all. As tested by Deadliest Warrior, the blades used by the army of the historic Vlad Dracula were among the deadliest they'd ever seen when used properly, capable of shearing through flesh and bone alike when swung with reasonable force.

Furthermore, a Zweihander/Bidenhander swung one handed by a supernaturally strong being would still be a giant rapidly moving iron or steel weight around the wielder's body -- being able to heft and swing the weapon does not equate control. It would easily throw Alucard off balance and leave him wide open for a counterattack, and possibly damage his spine regardless of how strong he is; because that strength plus the weight of the weapon and its momentum can make for very dangerous forces acting upon the user's body. Dhampir strength or not, there's no practical reason for it.

Add to that the fact that scholars cannot reach agreement on how a Zweihander would actually even be USED.

Swords are not cudgels -- they have very precise engineering involved and to use them in a manner that is not in accordance with such precision engineering makes the weapon less useful, if not more dangerous to the idiot trying to use it.