Long ago, in a distant land, I, Pear-ku, the evil shape shifting fruit of darkness unleashed an unspeakable hunger. BUT a foolish apple farmer wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal time and flung her into the future, where my evil is LAW. Now the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Pear-ku.

these comments be talking about the swords and all I want to do is dual-wield  
dem tiddies

@Doctor The I  
But it is historically accurate, at least as far as ronin are concerned.

SHIROYAAMAAAAAAAA!

Now that’s a katana

Someone talking about dual wielding? Who cares? Boob freckles and swords are all that matter here.

I’ve done some research on dual wielding weapons, and here’s what I found: It’s cool, but not practical.
 
In terms of firearms, it hinders aim, and makes reloading a weapon a pain in the butt. For medieval weapons, such as swords and flails, it was more practical to just use a two-handed weapon, or a shield. However, there were two groups of historical warriors that did dual wield regularly: Japanese Samurai or Ronin (Like AJ is being depicted as here) and vikings.
 
For the Japanese, it was a belief that shields were a sign of weakness, meaning they never really used them. As such, they would have two weapons, one for each hand, to use in combat. For the record, the Japanese even had a weapon, called the Kanabo, specifically to destroy shields. While on the subject of Japanese weapons, Ninjas used either easily concealed weapons, or re-purposed farming equipment, so they could hide who they were more easily.
 
The Vikings, however, had a different reason, based less on belief and more on convenience. They used two weapons at a time to avoid carrying a cumbersome shield. They were raiders, and needed to move fast and carry a lot. A heavy shield would inconvenience them more than it would help them, since they tried to avoid getting into any real battles against better armed people.
 
For the curious, my main source is here.
 
Yeah, it’s a bit flimsy, but that’s what I found, and it really makes sense. I was aware of the Japanese belief about shields before hand, but didn’t know they dual wielded until now. At the same time, it seems that, aside from those two cases, dual wielding was cool, but required so much training and space, it wasn’t practical for the army setting most warriors were in.
 
tl;dr, Japanese used it because of beliefs, Vikings used it for convenience, other historical warriors used shields or two-handed weapons, and firearms should never be used two at a time. It’s flashy, but not the best for combat.

@marik_azemus34  
And yeah.. reality is quite grey and plain.

@Doctor The I  
Reality is boring. And thank you.

@marik_azemus34  
You are.  
But in reality it isn’t. I’m not questioning your art but the technique itself. Entire art is well made god dammit.

@Doctor The I  
I’m the creator. I decide whether or not dual wielding is more effective.

@marik_azemus34  
I know it looks cool, it’s just not as much effective.  
Atleast it’s not a pic of edgy black-red oc dual wielding two handed ugly bad designed swords.

@Doctor The I  
Depends. If you’re doing RP combat stuff, dual weilding is extremely effective, since your system most likely does have breakable shields but not breakable weapons, so parrying can ward off attacks that would normally break your defense, and you also may not have bashing damage rules for shields, which limits you offensively, and even if you do, prop shields are much less wieldly than prop weapons. Swift strikes win fights.
 
If you’re doing Dagorhir you absolutely want a second sword over a shield unless you not only have a tower shield but your enemies do not have a red weapon.

@Doctor The I  
 
Dual wielding looks cool. End of discussion.

@Doctor The I  
In Japan, shields were not used in personal combat. If you were without a weapon, you might use a steel fan as a brief hand shield, but you’d drop it as soon as you got a sword, or try to use it as a weapon itself.

@Lawful Girly  
Dual Wielding in general is not effective. Better to keep a shield in off hand or just wield a two handed weapon. Shield is more effective than second sword, you can hit with it as well. Sword is weaker in grab than shield.

@Doctor The I  
You’re thinking of guns, in which, yes, dual wielding does significantly reduce the effectiveness. Samurai were expected to dual wield at least some of the time, though of course the off-hand weapon would be a shorter sword, the wakizashi.

Dual Wielding is not effective…

Gotta get back, back to the past, samurai Applejack!

@TheAscendent  
“…I, Pear Steve, the pear growing master of darkness, released an UN speakable fruit, but a foolish apple farmer stepped fourth to Oh pose me…”

Long ago in a distant land…

Long ago in a distant land…

from artist:  
Applejack takes up her father’s weaponry and travels to Neighpon, determined to find out what happened to her parents.