Two weapons user is rule of cool that fails in RL

Every example I can recall off the top of my head for holding a weapon in each hand was found to be substandard usage and the off hand was eventually either used for a single two-handed weapon, a shield or left empty for balance. The secondary weapon was left in the holster, to be pulled out only when the main weapon is lost, broken, runs out of ammo or situationally improper.

There's usually some oddballs who go 2-weapons anyway, but most avoid this.

Why?

Basically, it's impractical in real life.

Like, really, really impractical.

I wouldn't say so. Miyamoto Musashi developed a technique for weilding two swords at once. The guys revered for being one of the greatest swordsman to live.

Now dual wielding guns is just asking for it.

edited 6th Jul '13 6:04:19 AM by Azure

But his two-weapons technique did not replace the usual practice in general.

Also, what one of the greatest swordsmen who ever lived could do is not a good indicator of what will be practical for anyone else.

So is it "cool" because the greatest weapons masters get away with it, or do these great masters do it to show off and intimidate?

Maybe it's a case of Difficult, but Awesome. Like, it's useful, but requires a hell of a lot more training than using one weapon at a time.

I didn't manage to get much dual wielding training during my time in martial arts, so I'm not sure of the specifics of such a difficulty curve.

It is, in fact, very difficult to dual-wield melee, but not impossible. I've seen several people in SCA use two swords for Rapier or sword and dagger. They mostly use the secondary weapon as a defensive measure, but some of the better ones will surprise you by putting additional pressure on.

I myself never quite got the hang of it. And Musashi's Niten style is actually taught in some swordsman schools in Japan. Escrima will practice with two sticks, there are some Chinese weapon styles which use two weapons (like the hook-sword thingy that Jet from Avatar used, that's a real weapon and his use of it was actually pretty accurate, even when he put them together to make a whip-thing. Chinese martial arts are kind of Crazy Awesome).

It's mostly just dual-wielding pistols that's a terrible idea. Your eyes can't focus like that, so you wind up aiming at nothing. Dual-wielding Mac 10's, on the other hand...

A secondary weapon is generally better than nothing, but a shield tends to be better than almost anything else. However, shields are bulky for the man about town, so they went out of favour after the middle ages. Mid-sized weapons can work well such as escrima sticks, jo, butterfly knives and such. When dabbling in SCA about the only two weapon combination that worked for me was a flail (ball and chain) in my right hand and a spear in my off hand. Didn't work well in mass combat but in single combat a guy with your typical sword and shield had a time of closing without getting skewered on his right flank or having the flail wrap around the shield and hitting him on the left. As for guns akimbo, there was an arcade game where you shot the bad guys as they popped up before they shot you and did damage. You could play it two player as well so just for fun I put in two quarters and used both. It was rollicking good fun but the fact was that using one pistol in two hands I could fire faster and more accurately than one in each. Typically, the "player" on my off hand would die first and then I would finish the game with the pistol in my right hand. Even given that you go through quarters twice as fast, there were more than one occassion where people would watch me using two pistols and then try it out themselves once I was done. Rule of Cool = Rule of Fun, but no, it isn't practical.