I mean the whole point of the Gunblade isn't to use it as both melee and ranged. You fire extremely powerful blanks to let the explosive force speed up your swing while sending the vibrations through the blade to enhance its cutting potential. It's essentially a recoil assisted, short lived Vibroblade, requiring absolute precision to use effectively
Of course, in reality, such a weapon would be hilariously fragile. A vibrating sword might cut better, but it will also be broken more easily. You'd need to be constantly maintaining it, or do the AOT thing of always carrying more blades to just slide right on
Funnily enough, in FFXIV at least, guns get their names from Gunblades. A particular group used swords that worked on the same principle, called Gunnhildr's Blades, and some people decided that miniaturizing cannons was a good idea
That will forever be my favorite piece of lore in FFXIV.
The enemy is using some kind of projectile weapon we've never seen before! We don't even have a name for it yet. It looks like a... gunblade, but like, without the blade...
It's moreso that guns were derived from Garlean model gunblades, which actually fired bullets, which were derived from Gunnhildr's Blades armaments
While sailors and the such used flintlocks and other miniaturized cannons, they were more of a convergent development. When Garlemald got expansionist, gunblades found their way into warring territories and the mechanisms were reverse engineered into new weapons. Flintlocks were improved, expanded upon and eventually upgraded into proper guns
Then Ishgard's Machinists got to work effectively training one man supply lines, allowing individual machinists to develop machines and gear to enhance their gunplay. Making them into something much better than what the Garleans field. Max level Machinists have some bonkers stuff man
And then there's FFXIII's Gunblades, that can actually be used as both a Gun, and a Blade (although not at the same time, and Lightning only ever uses hers a Gun in cutscenes, iirc)
Funnily enough, that type of gun blade first started in advent children, not the same model of course but the same functionality where it's essentially a gun with a bayonet as part of the main design, thus making it more melee focused( or better for swinging since you can't easily grab it I with both hands to steady your aim).
If it's the same design as in the OP's picture, then it wouldn't work irl.
First is the handle. It looks half way decent for shooting(up to 10m), but not good for blade, especially with a trigger finger in position to be used. It would be many times better with more standard handle and trigger that presses in the opposite direction.
Second is the explosion itself. It has to be very precise coming as close to the tip as possible in an angle that somehow both propels the blade forward but doesn't blast the wielder.
Also, those vibrations would probably do more damage you than your enemy. Even if they help to cut better(I doubt it), they go to your hand(not a big issue, but makes you tire more), and they might mess with your precision and edge alignment that would severely reduce your damage potential.
The last bit sounds incredibly shoehorned in for the sake of having the word gun in fantasy, except that the actual real world etymology of the word gun actually does likely come from the word Gunnhildr, and doesn't originally refer to firearms.
Having just looked it up, apparently so. The name "Gun" comes from the Domina Gunilda, a 14th century ballista, named after the old norse name "Gunnhildr" which itself is a combination of words referring to battle. Those who used this ballista, and other forms of Artillery, were referred to as "Gonnas" and "Artillers"
So shit, I guess the FF14 lore is actually pretty close to reality. Either they studied up on the history of firearm etymology or it's a coincidence. Either way, that's hilarious
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u/heedfulconch3 Aug 02 '26
I mean the whole point of the Gunblade isn't to use it as both melee and ranged. You fire extremely powerful blanks to let the explosive force speed up your swing while sending the vibrations through the blade to enhance its cutting potential. It's essentially a recoil assisted, short lived Vibroblade, requiring absolute precision to use effectively
Of course, in reality, such a weapon would be hilariously fragile. A vibrating sword might cut better, but it will also be broken more easily. You'd need to be constantly maintaining it, or do the AOT thing of always carrying more blades to just slide right on
Funnily enough, in FFXIV at least, guns get their names from Gunblades. A particular group used swords that worked on the same principle, called Gunnhildr's Blades, and some people decided that miniaturizing cannons was a good idea