Best polearm: Spear vs Glaive

[@gravelmonarch]

Bayonets are crazy. We went from spears to guns and people were still like; “actually let’s turn these guns back into spears”

[@ShinoSarna]

We never went from spears to guns. Before bayonets were invented, musketeers were used alongside pikemen, and pike is just a really long spear.

[@Avrage_youtube_enjoyer]

​@@ShinoSarna so we went from spears to spears with guns to guns...

[@ShinoSarna]

@@Avrage_youtube_enjoyer Yep!

[@_wayward_494]

​@@ShinoSarna yeah it's more like we went from bows and pikes to guns and pikes to just guns

[@powerofanime1]

​@@Avrage_youtube_enjoyer From spears to guns and spears, to gunspears XD

[@BigfootShaggy]

"Thrusting is better than cutting" - That's what she said

[@MarcusVance]

I mean... obviously.

[@adonisstidham9453]

​@@MarcusVance 💀

[@FIVEBASKET]

​@@MarcusVance💀

[@LongBow-rg3vu]

Depends on your taste in women

[@Lord_Marquaad]

​@@MarcusVance 😩

[@hask620]

There's a reason everyone knows what a spear is, and not everyone knows what a glaive is.

[@noahtackett6264]

Yeah, spears were cheap to make

[@vonakakkola]

that's not a good reason everyone today know what a greatsword is but it was very rare in the past

[@ChaolaoFueChi]

Which is why when we go out walking, somehow we just find a big stick to carry with us on a walk by instincts, I mean more to nature's walkways with that big stick than a city park.

[@comicstrider4851]

Well, spears get a 2x damage multiplier if you are mounted, 3x if you have the Spirited Charge feat!

[@skrrrtsusman3450]

and benefit from both polearm mastery and spear mastery

[@Ikdulo]

Is this mount and blade reference?

[@comicstrider4851]

@@Ikdulo It's a Pathfinder 1e reference!

[@Ikdulo]

@@comicstrider4851 oh that's boss!

[@kluang1]

The nickname for weapons in ancient China Spear- The King Sword- The Gentleman Sabre- The General Staff- The Grandfather

[@jacksongrantham4848]

Yeah, Whitebeard doesn't use his Bisento for much other than one-on-one fighting, and when he does fight a group, most notably during the Marineford arc of One Piece, he's able to cut swathes of marines down thanks to the slashing style blade of the bisento, which you could in theory do with a spear but it'd rely more on brute force than actual cutting. Edit: for those that don't know, a bisento is essentially a glaive with a longer and thinner blade, tho in Whitebeard's case that thing you could probably make a child sized boat hull out of that blade

[@ShatteredGlass916]

yep that weapon suits him so well. He's a hulking muscular giant with a power to literally generates earthquakes on a whim. A massive glaive meant for a wide swings is a no-brainer

[@SevenAsses]

Sugeeeeehhhh

[@owenstakeman8814]

scale in anime means nothing

[@jauneork278]

He's also a superhuman. Pretty sure real glaive users cant cut through hordes each swing. Maybe 1-3 people if they line up just right and wait for you to throw out a full powered strike. Spears just built different.

[@paulroberto2286]

It's all fun and games until Sekiro Mikiri counters your thrust.

[@thomasfrye6335]

I always just described a glance as a slashing spear. It’s a good way to let those who’ve never heard of it understand the weapon function

[@thanatonaughtgaming4493]

I love that he’s using Moriboto guardian of the spirit as the example for a spear, it’s a remarkably well done anime and actually shows a little of how she maintains uses and even repairs her spear after a fight

[@dud3655]

Basically, a spear is a car-boat, better on land but can still go in the sea, while a glaive is a boat-car, better in the sea but can still go on land.

[@connormcgehee9349]

Yeah but in this case you live near a river not the sea lol

[@titan1umtitan]

Gotta love the ducks

[@Pein718]

​@@titan1umtitan Space ducks

[@Valdyr_Hrafn]

One thing I would personally like to add: Swiping with a weapon that long generates a tremendous amount of force that will still be very effective against armor, albeit way more exhausting. Against heavily armoured opponents a spear's thrust might simply not have enough inertia to rattle them up properly. so a glaive, despite not cutting, would be more effective as it has increased mass!

[@MarcusVance]

Thats definitely true. However that sort of reminds me of the Inglorious Basterds scene about speaking Italian.

[@Mosamania]

​@@MarcusVance No, if you look at Tang, Song and even late medeival heavy infantry, you find the glaive quickly supplanting the spear in terms of heavy infantry use. There is a reason why cuktures from Japan to France adopted the glaive for heavy infantry combat as opposed to the spear. So your assertion that "spear is better" is extremely misleading for the uninformed which forms the majority of your viewers. You currently enjoy a sizeable following and as a result you should be above "A better than B" content as it is both fundemntally wrong and extremely misleading. At least do some better research man, c'mon is that so much to ask?

[@RandomGuy-ft3cj]

​@@MosamaniaFor much of history the spear has dominated. He's allowed to have opinions. I agree with him on this one, others would say a katana.

[@DanielMWJ]

​@@RandomGuy-ft3cjkatana are not a primary battlefield weapon. Never were. They were only adopted as sidearms.

[@themanwiththeplane3371]

@@RandomGuy-ft3cj actually throughout most of history the shield has dominated the battlefield, spears are just easy to make and equip but they were never the best weapons

[@CalebWilliamsonOldNerd]

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, the anime the lady of the left comes from, is one of the best anime I have ever watched. 10/10.

[@tigersnight1559]

Only one I seen actually talk about the character/ anime over the other debate lol

[@mayapilkey6805]

Sword staff? It's a weapon where you take an actual sword, remove the handle and affix it to a pole with the tang. It is done with double edged swords thus allowing it to both thrust and slash. Also poor man's polearm in the sense you have 1 sword and you turn it into a polearm and you can turn out back into a sword between battles

[@jankaigailus6702]

That could be a naginata or a winged spear

[@mayapilkey6805]

@@jankaigailus6702 is similar. It's a Swedish polearm where you have a sword attached with a massive cross guard. Looked it up again btw. It's similar to a glaive but it's a full on sword at the end of a polearm

[@TheSpeep]

It also took far less training to use a spear compared to really just most other weapons to a decent degree of effectiveness. Cutting focused polearms were easily the coolest type of medieval weaponry out there, but its hard to argue with the prominence of just the basic spear on the medieval battlefield.

[@jintsuubest9331]

We definately had wage war with each otuer using spear (swooden and stone) being the primary weapon before any recorded history.

[@joshuapena4684]

The spear comes in so many great varieties, my favorite is probably the sarrisa bc it's use in unison with others is unbelievable. The javelin is basically a spear you throw, it's cool too, but slashing polearms have something about em that make them more like a reliable weapon for the battlefield. It's much more useful to be able to slash at a distance, and stab, rather then just basically stabbing.

[@ultimateqmazing2537]

Spear is good for a 1v1 with a heavily armored oppenent. Glavie is good for 1v3 with lightly/no armored oppenents. Wider range of moverment and can force them to keep their distance so long as you dont leave yourself open after each swing.

[@steel5315]

I do agree that I prefer thrusting over cutting

[@grouchypotatowolfpack5580]

No mention of halberd to keep things fair

[@jmoneyjoshkinion4576]

Fair point.

[@PromethiaSHADOW]

Unless of course it is Gil-Galads bright glaive. That weapon cut through and stabbed through everything until Gil-Galad had his neck snapped and chest caved in by Sauron

[@Joeondeeznuts]

An Moribito reference 😳, check the anime out lad. It's had solid story and fantastic animation

[@nickkurtz7341]

Hey Marcus, I was wondering what you think of the Draupnir Spear from God of War Ragnarok. While playing I realized that Kratos makes wide, slashing swings with it in addition to normal thrusts. Is this realistic? Would this work with a real spear? I really like your videos like this, they’re lots of fun!

[@brrrrrr]

Spears arent made to slash but you could do it

[@TildeQ]

Certain spears have a wide blade that would be good for slashing, like the partizan, Draupnir might do okay at slashing from the look of it.

[@mugenokami2201]

@@TildeQ it’s also replaceable. The draupnir spear that is

[@thomasb5666]

With the theory of sword being shorter spears it seems kinda funny for people to be like "what if we put swords on the end of our spears instead of just that poky end."

[@jmoneyjoshkinion4576]

Sharp stick to stick with sharper stone on end = spear/arrows. Longer knife (with discovery of metal) = sword. Put both together = glaive.

[@religiouslyhealing5400]

I’d love to hear the niche that glaved polearms fit into

[@RageABoo]

Aoe dmg vs single target dps

[@burnttoast26]

Lightly/un-armored enemies. Also glaives were usually combined with guisarmes/fauchards, so they were often used for parrying other polearms.

[@littlebigbiddy]

While it doesn’t detract from your real life take on the weapons, Whitebeard was over 21 feet tall and that was really the only weapon that could both fit him and endure his attacks with it.

[@ZapStrideGaming]

Yeah. It's also why bayonets were made for stabbing/thrusting between shits, and not usually designed to be slasking with. Same reason.

[@somekid7867]

glaives are awesome though because you get the cutting edge of a blade combined with the insane amount of force applied to the end of the tip through leverage, meaning you get insane amounts of force exerted on a razor edge and, assuming the blade can handle it, will cleave through anything without armor (emphasis on without armor)

[@griffinwatson5197]

Seeing Balsa represented makes me happy.

[@Asrudin]

One of the best female warrior depictions to ever exist.

[@TheJacobbridges25]

I just love glaives lmao

[@themanwiththeplane3371]

Glaives are actually a lot better against armor bc Swiping with a weapon that long generates a tremendous amount of force that will still be very effective against armor, albeit way more exhausting. Against heavily armoured opponents a spear's thrust might simply not have enough inertia to rattle them up properly. so a glaive, despite not cutting would be more effective as it has increased mass!

[@crab264]

A glaive is what you want if your opponent doesn’t have a spear. A spear is what you want if you want to win. There’s a reason why spears have been the dominant weapon, even guns have bayonets, effectively making them a spicy spear. That being said I like glaives a hell of a lot more. The Bardiche and the Guandao are some of my top favourite weapons of all time. Something about them is so satisfying, they’re hard to wield initially, but once you get the hang of it you get this feeling of flow and grace that just doesn’t exist with other weapons in my eyes.

[@18Krieger]

Most examples of Glaives I remember seemed to be guard weapons.

[@RageABoo]

When you thrust with spear, you usually get one guy at a time, when you swing and swipe, you can get many.

[@GiggaGMikeE]

They are pretty commanding looking and it's expected that whoever is wielding it would recieve some kind of training to get the position. Also it's arguably easier to make a glaive look ornate while still being combat ready compared to a spear.

[@Glacier_Noir]

Awesome~. Moribito was such an awesome anime, too bad they didn't continue animating the other books, as well as the rest of the books getting translated to English. Only up to Book 3 I think was translated? Balsa was crazy at wielding her short spear. One of the best spearsmanship I seen in anime. Anyone else? 😙👌

[@pauloazuela8488]

I think glaive is good for sweeping group enemies when you're outnumbered. While Spears do lethal damage to a target. Take note I meant this on unarmored-light armored opponents. Since I remember Glaives are use in horseback a lot specifically on Asian sides like China and Japan. Don't know for Western since Lances and halberds were there

[@destinypurpley]

I love glaives, mostly because I see them as very effective 1 on 1 weapons, I d 100% agree that spears are better in large groups though, although I could see glaives working similarly to spears on horseback if you are fighting someone who isn't on a horse

[@nessesaryschoolthing]

"And what niche is that?" Pruning trees.

[@CaptnBadassary]

I still love glaives. Spears are awesome too but just the way glaives are used is like art to me lol.

[@alexhulea2735]

Glaives are also solo weapons. The wielder is never part of a formation. And quite honestly, i've seen heroes and officers mentioned with either spear or glaive. Might be a status symbol to some degree

[@Mosamania]

The Glaive is just an over all better weapon than the spear for one on one fighting and for VIP defense. Royal Guards from Japan to France chose the glaive as their weapon of choice for this role for a reason. It is great at keeping multiple assailnts at bay, good at tight area fighting using certain techniques, good against armored opponents, and you won't be at that much of a disadvantage in case your opponent closed the gap as you can still threaten with a blade using certain armpit techniques that is curiously prenet in Japanese, Chinese and European treatises. It doesnt just "look cool" it is an extremely functional weapon for the highly trained, desciplined soldier occupying specialized roles such as bodyguards and heavy infantry.

[@WesternCommie]

I really love spears. Weapons are not something I am trained in, but I love watching weapon sparring. When the spear fights other weapons, it rarely seems to lose if the person is an expert in the weapon.

[@SwiftDeath0608]

This is why when polearms are concerned the Lucerne or the Poleaxe are my favorites.

[@loltock5544]

I wonder which one would be better for adventuring with. My personal preference would be glaive, but that's just because I think they look cool. Not sure which would be more practical for long journey's or adventuring into the 'unknown' type deals.

[@dannypestolesi712]

I could imagine a glaive being better at spacing. You in the wild and a wolf is on you, the slashing edge you can swing around near them is probably more likely to connect.

[@melwyn789]

​@@dannypestolesi712 if wild as in the open grassy field then sure, but wild as in a forest or a jungle good luck swinging that long stick without hitting any tress, big branch or rocks so in this case a spear is better.

[@jmoneyjoshkinion4576]

By yourself or a small party, the glave for wider slashing aoe chance to hit. 10 + and if your group is able to be in a formation during encounters, a spear or spear and shield wall is more effective.

[@Mosamania]

​@@melwyn789 Glaives on average are also excelent thrusting weapons. Marcus just grossly missed the mark on this one.

[@JaredCarter6625]

this feels like the debate on longsword vs katana

[@JohnStormForge]

Glaives were usually used for guard duty.

[@taistelusammakko5088]

Thats a broad statement

[@olivercuthbert1152]

I always enjoy your videos, they are calm, educational and just give me a nice warm feeling. Thank you for being on the platform.

[@kenshinbattousai374]

Polearms are best employed against more heavily armored foes. As a diehard glaive fan.....spears are just the best sticc.

[@aegis-gaming]

It makes me happy to see Balsa here

[@benniek1050]

In the hands of Whitebeard even a stick would be the superior weapon.

[@spacemarine6212]

Both are super cool though.

[@Ozgand]

You had a thousand possible examples of spear wielders and you chose Balsa? My good man, you have impeccable taste.

[@atasukecetin90]

What if the glaive has a strait tip for thrusting ? I guess the spear would still have the Range advantage

[@Krokmaniak]

Then it becomes a type of spear. Depending how you do it you can get partisan, rohatyna, szponton or another type of spear with broad spearhead a d possible hooks (like some glaives)

[@ekamandalaputra5517]

​@@Krokmaniak that hooks could pull the horsemen from their horse too. But i think it's hard to do, right? 😅

[@volk551]

Spear humanity's weapon of choice for 2 million years?

[@BigRed87]

How about halberd?

[@Konpekikaminari]

Thrusting > slashing still applies

[@User-vu1jq]

​@@Konpekikaminariisn't halberd main is slashing?

[@themanwiththeplane3371]

@@Konpekikaminarithe halberd is a way better weapon than the spear

[@Konpekikaminari]

@themanwiththeplane3371 I didn't say it isn't I said "thrusting > slashing", and halberds have excellent stabby bits

[@User-vu1jq]

@@Konpekikaminari halberd is a spear but with steroids

[@ntorix599]

The true benefit of a spear over a glaive is its nimbleness and cost. Glaives have more metal on the end and are therefore heavier and slower but the glaive out preforms the spear in both cutting AND stabbing. It has a longer point which means it goes deeper and is a bit wider which means it leaves a bigger hole. Additionally most glaives have a hook specifically designed to catch other polearms like spears.

[@yammoto148]

While a sword staff is made for slashing you can thrust and follow up with a slash easily, where as a spear has to continously thrust to get results. In a martial duel I believe the glaive is better for all the angles at which you can cut your opponent. Where as while the spear is more lethal its more predictable as its going to lean on its main strength more.

[@hansyolo8277]

There's a reason spears are the most used weapon in human history

[@SkullpunkArt]

Hey, I don’t know if you’ve already done a video on this, but what kind of weapon would a werewolf use assuming they had the mental faculty to do while transformed? Also what armor would they wear?

[@atlas6543]

a mace since they dont have any smash damage

[@jintsuubest9331]

A 762nato or 68×51 battle rifle with special stock design to accommodate the canine facial feature. Obviously the best and lightest ceramic plate we got tailored to fit their body profile. If you want pre firearm stuff, bow + hand and half weapon + a bigger buckle. If using crossbow, you can cover head to toe with plate. If using standard bow you will not be able to use gauntlet.

[@SkullpunkArt]

@@jintsuubest9331 ah, okay thanks

[@Mosamania]

A rune of death blade obviously.

[@noahtackett6264]

Tbh the odds of anyone having any sort of sharp silver anything is so low, especially in battlefield scenarios, that mobility would be more important. Weapon wise they'd probably use either a mace, sword, or Warhammer with a crow's beak depending on context. Or dual wield a combination of the above

[@jakelnordstrom]

Stabbing is also easier to do for massive, largely untrained combatants.

[@raizel.07]

General ouki op 😤

[@srmizemize7191]

Pikes were a good in between and they wrote the battlefield and the transitional.The pike and shot Era.

[@RageABoo]

When you thrust with spear, you usually get one guy at a time, when you swing and swipe with a bladed polearm, you can get many. Not saying that spears can't do what glaives can and vice versa, but there are different shapes and sizes plus builds for specialization etc etc.

[@9_2gv2]

insect glaive goes crazy beyond belief

[@gavinkemp7920]

Spears are also easier and cheaper to manufacture. Which is very important when talking about formation fighting where you need to produce large quantity of them. After all the spear was slowly replaced by glaive like weapons which indicates that the spear advantage wasn't in a one for one combat capability.

[@zeroxssir492]

bit off topic but bro thats a good knot on your tie I hope you do those yourself and provide instructions cuz you do dress very well for a lot of vids and I appreciates that about you

[@blakepuntervold3165]

I feel like I would prefer a glaive because you would most likely have extra weight which would give a lot of power with all that leverage

[@josefptacek113]

Whenever discussion about if some weapon or tool is better comes up, it's always easy anwser because you just have to look up what is or was used more often

[@CreativityNull]

What about weapons that tried to be a good compromise of both slashing and stabbing at length. Examples would be a Halberd and a Zweihander. The downsides would be extra difficulty of use, thus requiring more training and experience. In the case of the halberd I think the main problem is the extra weight and size on the end. It would be harder to get into tight spaces and harder to maneuver due to the weight being on the wrong end of the lever, but it would serve the same purposes of both the glaive and the spear. It was especially good against mounted enemies for this reason. The zweihander was used primarily to counter spearmen due to its length being able to be used as a makeshift spear and having the shorter length (relative to a polearm) if they cut through the shaft of a spear to be able to maneuver in and secure the kill before the spearman readied their sidearm.

[@exodosthesoulbanish]

its also easy to give a spear to someone as they just have to point the sharp end at whatever they need to hit.

[@Laughing_Dragon]

I just like glaves because they look nice and cool.

[@unfortunaterabbit5900]

Thats why I'm rooting for Team Halberd

[@NiCoNiCoNiCola]

That's the thing: Whitebeard has both a glaive and a spear. Some say the spear is much more dangerous

[@02WB86]

friendly reminder that halberds are really good at both

[@hypnoticrobotgaming]

Thrusting is better until the mountain of a man wielding the glaive cuts your spear in two and proceeds to do the same to your arms in case ya missed it the first time

[@user-rx6kx9zy9n]

Its more to do with the fact Glaives are heavier, Usually shorter to help with balance, and also require more metal. Spears generally are simple and effective to teach to Civilian drafted militia and can be as simple as a sharpen long stick. Which is the reason why Long spears dominated the battlefield.

[@truongquanghuy6419]

I think glaives add weight on each swing which counter normal parry while spears provide flexibility but the impact on the hits are not really as intense as glaives

[@luckypeanut9943]

A re-enactor myself I love using my gleave for one-on-one tourneys but no my spirit will always be better during battles

[@HelloThere.....]

Essentially, nobushi vs any blade wielder in for honor.

[@stevemanart]

The crazy-azz do anything polearms like the Halberd and Bill-Hook are the best

[@teancrumpets5685]

this is why halberds are king, big spike and hefty blade

[@StormBringare]

IIRC glaives would usually have a thrusting spike.

[@youtubecensorship842]

There's no better with most weapons, only different uses and purposes.

[@Thornac400]

I would say it's more a matter of context. Spear wins in more contexts than Glaive, but single fighter not expecting much armor on their foes will want for a glaive. It's why White Beard uses one, it matches his niche.

[@thehermitdruid]

Spears dominated pre gun, and then when our guns are out of ammo we put a knife on the end of it and go back to good ol spear 🤣

[@Huy-G-Le]

Basically explains why the Naginata fall out of usages after the Kamakura period 12th century in Japan and foot soldier rise to prominence.

[@adriangeorge9197]

Uff Balsa Yonsa.... Gotta give some moribito love

[@PhantoRoyce]

I figure if you’re as strong as white beard a glaive is essentially a war hammer

[@abdellahaitouchrif1152]

Kingdom Aoki glaive gang here🤘🤘🤘

[@lordpyralis]

I think most medieval games look down on thrusting in favor of slashing or chopping. Take for instance Bannerlord's combat where their normal spears barely do anything to shields and thsir glauves are able to take out two enemies at once with a swing.

[@Phantom_tpa]

Spear on one side glaive on the other

[@ryancox5313]

I mean, the spear is probably the first weapon in history, so I can believe that

[@noahfoster3767]

In one-on-one, open ground fighting, I’d go the glaive any day, any day. In formation based fighting (with or without shields) the spear easily wins out.

[@Mosamania]

Context is key in this situation. In a duel and none formation combat, glaives dominate. In formation and mounted fighting, spears dominate. Glaives quickly became the weapon of choice for all body guard soldiers across the world, from Japan's Naginata to the French Swiss Guard. We can see across multiple cultures the tendency of heavy infantry to switch to glaives almost universally. I would highly appreciate it if you go into context in an actual video instead of just saying "thrusting is better" and then giving people flase information like that.

[@realsupercobble]

I feel the spear is more versatile. However glaives COULD be used to thrust, or at least some could. Also depending on design, glaives could be used against heavier armor with a blunt side. However it would take a LOT of skill and practice to use properly. Spear’s can be wielded masterfully, but can be easily utilized by those who are untrained. Glaives are way harder.

[@sauravnarayan5077]

Spears for mobility, Glaive for attack power.

[@troperhghar9898]

And yet in dnd its 1D6 vs 1D10

[@zealfonso3987]

Plus most of the time on horseback especially when moving around you'll be using one hand only and in biomechs it's tiring af, so thrusting/long range stabbing is more efficient, tho if you got dismounted a glaive/polearm might just be a good thing

[@_NobodySpecial_]

If you were unarmored slashing attacks were the most debilitating and would end fights faster as well as almost guarantee a kill if you cut a wide and deep enough gash. For armored opponents you switch to a bladed mace or similar. I'd still prefer a Halberd to a glaive or a spear anyways

[@thenexus7343]

I like that white beards is curved like a sword. And its got a big tip to do both prettt well

[@danielmachulka7428]

A lot of these "which is better" arguments are highly dependent on the situation and how much you value honor honestly. On a battlefield a company of spearmen is just more effective but in a one on one duel a spear is only lethal at one end so closing in on a spear user is the best way to deal with them (you need a shield, good reflexes or can't be afraid or above grabbing the shaft though) Feel free to stop reading at this point if you don't want a personal story. My father and I joined a HEMA group when I was younger and I was progressing with a sword faster than he was. He started using a spear. I deflected the spear, grabbed the pole at the centre and thrust him back with a slow kick he was disarmed and promptly lost the duel

[@SaintJames14]

Cutting ends battles, stabbing ends wars

[@kongdragon4364]

I have a question what is the glaives speshilty I’m geissing it would be for people that like cutting more and poeple you are fighting alone

[@Dragnridr3]

I don't know if I can agree with this assessment. Even with Versatile the spear only does 1d8 of damage compared to a glaive's 1d10. Combine that with its Reach property and you create a considerable threat range without having to give up your weapon like a thrown spear would.

[@klendatas1]

Mmm lineage2 drednought times!