Outlaw Star Universe Favorite Weapon?

The World of Outlaw Star is filled with a vast amount of weapons ranging from Swords to Casters to the Tao Magic of the Pirate Guilds. What is your favorite weapon and why? (wow that sounds like a cheesy essay question from school)

Mine is undoubtedly the Caster used by Gene and Ron Mcdougall. This weapon is very unique in that its outdated but still extremely powerful. Magic harnessed in shells allows the user to use magic even if he cant cast magic through spells or chants such as the Tao magic of the Kei Pirates. Shells can only be made my certain people who can harness this magic properly, and are extremely hard to find. Unfortunetly for Jim, Gene sends him almost all over Centinel III and every other planet they visit looking for Caster Shells. There are a variety of shells which all have different strengths and basic elemental status. Gene recieved a number of shells from a master but was warned that each time he used these shells they would draw their power from him.

 

I took some time to think about it, and yes, I do like Gene's Caster. Even as an old, outdated weapon, it packs a powerful punch. And with the numerous kinds of shells that are sort-of available , You can never know what to expect from it.

However, Suzuka really impressed me. She has such power, and she only ever uses a wooden sword. I was thinking, back when I first saw the series that she would eventually switch to a metal sword, but she never did, and now I think I understand why. She's trained with it for a very long time. Hitokiri_Gensai, you'd be more familiar with this than I would, but after trainging with a wood sword for such a long time, wouldn't it feel more natural to her to use it, than a metal sword? And besides, it shows people how powerful she is. People think "Wow, she did all THAT with a wooden sword?!"

I guess it works out that Gene's Caster is my favorite weapon, since Suzuka's sword is simply a piece of wood without her being the wielder.

 

perhaps. The Japanese sword is very unique in its weight and balance and the bokken is very much the same. the first records of training using bokken dates back to before 1000 A.D. Many swordsmen considered the Bokken to be a superior weapon to the Shinken or "live" sword. this is a for a very good reason. The tsuka or hilt on a japanese sword is made up of a core of wood surrounded by rayskin and then has a leather or cotton wrapping on top. the nakago or tang fits into the tsuka and is secured by two wooden pegs. this method allows the blade to be completely broken down and cleaned and well maintained. but because the tsuka is not a solid piece a certain amount of torquing occurs, especially when there is a hard downstroke with a rapid twisting of the blade to bring it upwards (an example of this would be an O-tameshiyaku's cut of the remaining heart*), and if water were to get into the wooden core of the tsuka it could invisibly rot out the handle making it dangerous to use. Since the bokken is simply a single piece of wood no such torquing occurs and its easy to maintain and very easy to replace if it were to break or rot.

As for its use, switching from the bokken to the Shinken is not a very huge difference and i suspect the main reason Suszuka uses a bokken is because she can bring it anywhere without setting of detectors. Also, the bokken is a very powerful weapon. Musashi Miyamoto, The Kensei (Sword Saint) of Japan, was renowned for his ability with the bokken. he fought well over 60 duels in his lifetime and after his 60th duel he put down his Shinken and took up a bokken and still won many duels. While the bokken cannot cut it can shatter bones and crush in skulls making is a deadly weapon.

*An O-tameshiyaku is the man who tests swords for the Shogun. Testing of swords is done on condemned criminals to assure that it will serve its master in times of crisis and battle. The cut of the remaining heart is an upstroke after the cut is made to keep the blade from cutting into the platform on which the body is laid out.

 

Definitely Gene's caster. McDougall's is alright, but I've always been more inclined towards one-hand, straight, gun-looking kind of weapons instead of McDougall's goofy cross-shaped gyroscope kind of thing.

The only problem is those darn shells. Of all 20 types, he'd only seen 17 . That is, until Tenrei. Then the pesky 4, 9, and 13 shells surfaced. We could go now onto what your favorite caster shell was... No, that would be kind of difficult.

Definitely Gene's caster. I know it's a cookie-cutter response, but that's my style right there.

 

i like ron's caster better than gene's. i find the shape of it very unique. also the gun itself can block other caster shots, which is a very nifty trait to have.

 

well, then again, there was that whole deal about how weapons that used the same technological systems can defend against eachother. So, that would make me assume that Gene's gun might have been able to cancel out McDougall's blast as well. I guess we will never know.

That is, unless they come out with an Outlaw Star 2 or something like that.

What kind of similarities are there between Outlaw Star and Angel Links? I made a thread about it, but nobody seems to be responding to it.

 

Gene's caster can cancel out another's shot.

anyhow, Angel Links only has one link. unfortunetly, its been far too long since ive seen the series, but if you remember that huge dinosaur looking guy. hes in the Angel Link's Series.