Yup, and Groh has an even greater degree of idiotic weapon syndrome--even by Soul Calibur standards, that thing is ridiculous. At least the additional grips on Zwei's sword would allow some biomechanical leverage--less effective leverage than just holding it by the pommel like a frickin sword, but
some leverage. There's a reason why (in thousands of years of ancient warfare and an arms history replete with people ceaselessly refining methods for stabbing and cutting one-another up) no one ever adopted a weapon with two long blades stuck together with a handle in the middle: it's an idiotic liability that minimizes the leverage, striking force, range, and range of motion that you would have if you just cut the damn thing in half and used just that. Plus it would allow your opponent to constantly turn one of the blades against you by applying minimal force to the other end, since, as a matter of basic physics intuitive to anyone who's ever held a weapon (or for that matter, anyone who has ever gripped a broom handle at its center), the whole damn thing functions like a
giant damn lever in that situation... It's the dumbest weapon imagininable for anyone who took more than few seconds to examine the concept. But, whatever, it's not like there haven't been plenty of those in Soul Calibur before--I don't think Grohs weapon should invite too much obsession in a series where Voldo made the point early that these weapons and moves aren't always meant to make sense under a close analysis. So that wouldn't set my eyes to rolling nearly as hard, except, you know,
the rest of the vibe/the visual package as a whole isn't exactly giving us reasons to overlook it--everywhere one looks to find relief from the stupid, they find more stupid, so the eyeball just bounces from his goofy weapon to his nonsense eye-patch to his emo hair and back again.
Ugh, the first time I saw the release trailer for Azwel, I told a friend I couldn't tell if he looked like more like a Buck Rogers villain or a 1950's stage magician who is now mostly known as a sex offender--and I haven't come up with or seen a more apt description for what's going on there since. But, you know, sometimes a maniacal villain is fun. He feels like a bargain bin Kefka sometimes, but, uhhh, you know, he's doing his own thing I guess--that's about the best I can come up with. ;) I do think his style is the best and most visually intereesting of the three "manifesting energy weapons out of thin air" movesets that we have seen across the series, and it lends itself to a lot of great CaS designs quite well.
