Blades are safer, huh? =_= Uhhhhhhhhhh... If you say so?
So I discovered this silly bit in the Patreon comment section.
"Using weapons is safer" Um, how?? xD
How are they any "safer" than their fangs?
If anything, using blades is more dangerous. Just look at Kurojaki losing his eye to his own scythe! lol
But at least the ninja-dogs had their reasons to use weapons like scythes, shruikens, etc. because they're, I dunno, fucking trained NINJAS from generations of feud and, though I don't remember if it was explained in the manga because its in Japanese, I could assume they were most likely well-trained by their human masters through the Koga-Iga generations.
Hell, Ginga Densetsu Weed even gave them a bit of backstory about a Koga dog who, after being nursed back to health by a human boy, repaid his rescuer by stealing a samurai's sword and saving the village women from bandits.
Kyoshiro's story of Koga's Shinobi Dog, Ginga Densetsu Weed, Volume 11. Pretty neat.
Also, at least in Asmundr, there was a narrative purpose behind using spears and other blades to fight the Liulfr. The spears they used had special abilities that could harm and completely kill the Liulfr.
Thing is, you CAN have animals use human tools to fight. In real-life, there are people, particularly some disabled individuals, that have taught themselves how to use their mouths to hold things, like writing with pens, paint with brushes, and pencils, due to lack of arms. Yes, handwriting and painting tools are different than fighting tools, but it takes a ton of practice and skill to pull it off effectively. But it could save some readers less headache and also lead to some potentially interesting world-building for why and how these characters can hold, say, swords in their jaws without straining and hurting themselves.
Since dog teeth are only designed to tear and rip flesh, I can see them using swords and other blades for long-range attacks and for better/quicker damage to opponents, since blades are sharper than canine teeth. The dogs used spears to fight and kill the Shield wolves in Asmundr, but in Home, WHY do they use blades to fight? Aside from their "evolution", which is just an excuse he likes to use. How the hell many times does he have to use "evolution" to explain away why the dogs do what they do? I can imagine it'd be difficult anyway to swing around a heavy sword in your jaws without any training and without enough strength in the neck and jaw muscles. With the knives, at least I can see some plausibility since they're smaller and lighter in weight than the friggin' swords Fjordor bought the pack.
Why not design the blades in such a way so they don't hinder them? Why not design them in such a way they can not only hold them efficiently, but can also improve their natural weapons? Give them metal or iron gauntlets with claws that can compensate for their more natural but dull digging claws, like what the owls had in Ga'hoole (and what I'm doing with my hellhound story). The Guardians of Ga'hoole and the Pure Ones in The Guardians of Ga'hoole have their natural weapons, but they designed the armor and blades and battle-claws so they can be used by owls. They were weapons made by owls FOR owls. If anything, the weapons they've created enhance their natural weaponry.
The animation in this film was so fucking sick, I wish there was more serious anthropomorphic animal xenofiction being made into films like it. Ugh...
Why not go in the same direction, but with canines and felines instead of owls? And Ginga Densetsu Weed had done something similar with Sniper!
He lost his legs in the fight with Ben the Great Dane, but was rescued by a human who replaced his hind-legs with metal legs with blade-like claws.
Also, instead of using their teeth to hold blade handles, (and I explained this in my other journal about this comic) why can't they have paws that operate similarly to hands? Why can't they use their digits to hold the blades themselves? Why give them tools designed to be held in human hands when you can just design them in such a way that they can be used for canines?
Oh wait. Never mind, he's already starting to do that. Just way too friggin' late into the story.
I know some people just choose blades and swords for the aesthetic, for artistic reasons, and that's okay. Not everything in a story has to have long detailed explanations. But the problem with Home is that, while Asmundr gave the dogs a reason to use spears, Home has none for any of the dogs in Aedra, aside from "evolution". That, and his world-building in general is so severely lacking that it would make the comic a lot more intriguing if the dogs had weapons that were designed for them and their anatomy, not weapons that were designed for human hands.
The Sky-Gods invented these blades, and the gods watching over Aedra designed weapons for its sapient inhabitants, such as the Golden Lioness' bow-and-arrows according to Feaf. Why would they design them like our weapons? We use swords, bows and arrows, knives, guns, etc. because we're making up for what we lack in the natural weapon department such as fangs and claws. If these gods care so much about the dogs and felines, and are assisting in their evolution as a species, why couldn't they design the weapons so they're meant to be wielded by dog and cat jaws?
Come on! We could have had the dog equivalent of Ga'hoolian battle-claws (which is kind of what I'm doing) and blade-like weaponry that would enhance their bite and jaw-strength.
That would have been so cool...
