The secret is in the arc of the blade and the drawing cut. Cutting with a katana using hammer motions like a long sword or an axe wouldn't work as well. The Michonne character is very skilled with a sword - though a bit inefficient in samurai terms. She still forces a lot where a greater swordsman would conserve more energy with greater precision. But hey, who wouldn't start getting forceful in a zombie crush?
Good katanas are wicked sharp and exceedingly rare. The question is, where did she get a good katana? A museum exhibit?
I've wondered about the origin of her sword, too. Still, you don't need a museum piece, plenty of excellent ones are easily obtained that would more than suffice. You do realize they still create katanas today in the traditional method as well as using industrial methods. It's not all the crap they sell on Home Shopping Network or Replica catalogs. For $500 you could easily order a sword that would do what hers does. For $1000 you could order a custom hand-made sword made in either the traditional fashion or using modern techniques and materials. Just don't sport one around, cops are kind of funny about that for some reason. Caveat: Not for amateurs. These things are like cocked loaded guns.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58NVoTocUOk[/yt] Keep going past the 50 second mark. That says pretty much everything I have to say about the "awesomeness" of a katana versus just about any other kind of sword.
Battery chargers can still be in use as long as electric generators are able to power them, which will be as long as their magic petrol holds out. Then you can work on some solar power or wind power as well
LOL. She tripped over what looked like a string or small rope tied between two poles which just looked oddly placed to me, why would anyone put it there? wouldn't you risk exactly what happened? As I said in an earlier post, I just hope we don't start seeing more of this type of "contrived" thing that makes our heroes look dumb or clumsy and are obvious plot devices. On a side note, did anyone notice the bicycle wheel noise maker they set up inside the fence line when Carol was fixing the waterline? Why wouldn't you set these types of things all over the place to draw the Walkers AWAY from the prison? Better yet into some sort of pit that you could set on fire daily to destroy whatever you trapped? As a Michonne and her Katana, for all we maybe she was taking Kendo lessons or something. I actually have a real Ninjatō (Ninja Sword) that my step father had made for me when he was in the Philippines, it's very well made and very sharp, you can physically see and feel the difference of something you would pick up from like a world of blades type place for $49.99. So if we ever had a Zombie Apocalypse I'd damn sure give it a go.
Shhh! Don't you dare offer rational, obvious solutions! Characters MUST stumble through bad decisions from the writers! I do too, and have friends who were trained to use it, but for all of their skill, they cannot cut through a tough, hard mass like the skull as though someone was cutting into a block of butter. Michonne doing that is crossing the border into superhero territory. It is like she's using a Lightsaber.
Yeah those guys in those vids posted above are some pretty hefty guys but in the same token the Zombie virus seems to have turned a regular human skull into the consistency of an egg shell, how many times have we seen our heroes step or stomp on a Walker head and squished it like cantaloupe?
Oh? Can you verify they have solar panels (you never see) or chargers? To suggest either is writing for the show. At least Woodbury established a solar power source from the start. As for batteries, in order for it to last, they need to be regularly charged. Even then, batteries go bad (iPod, anyone?), so were are the replacements coming from? .....and music he readily listens to. If I found my neice's player.....the pain...the pain....
Can you verify they don't? Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Basically, until a character says they don't or we see something that proves they don't, your assumption that they don't has no real merit. Bestbuy, Walmart, Sears, etc. Take your pick. Batteries will easily last on the shelf for 2+ years. See here for an example. Rechargeable batteries, while they may lose their initial charge while sitting on a shelf, will still be useable (able to be charged and function) for just as many years as expendable batteries. Moving on.....
Well I have a car charger for my Zune, nothing saying they can't plug things like that in on one of their runs, just saying. If someone ran across my abandoned 2013 Ford F-150 FX4 (yeah I went there ) and I hadn't taken anything out of it they would find (that could be possibly useful in a Z A). 1. A 40 cal S&W handgun with an extra clip, 26 hollow point rounds total. 2. A small toolbox with basic hand tools. 3. A basic first aid kit. 4. A 120 gb special edition Gears of War Zune loaded with over 5,000 songs and the car charger for it. 5. A car charger for an Andriod Razor. 6. Maps for the 5-6 surrounding major cities.
We've long ago had to come to terms with the fact that Walker skulls are of lesser bone density than a normal person's. They stomp them to mush, they bust them open with blunt objects, and with enough force, one splayed open with nothing more than a chain link fence against it Get use to it. If it helps, I attribute it to being related to the zombification process, which is wholly fictional , and entirely unbelievable in and of itself. It's all part of the same bag, man
Swords are cooler to talk about than ankles. Well, unless you're into ankles. Anyway, in the comics... Spoiler: Michonne's sword's origin story Michonne was into fencing and martial arts pre-apocalypse, and was a fairly athletically-minded person even in her profession as a lawyer. She got the katana from the neighbor's kid, who collected them. She was sure that the kid had killed her cat and messed up their fence. Fencing doesn't have much to do with the proper use of a katana, but one thing can lead to another. Assuming any of this translated to the TV character, it gives a reasonable background into how she can wield it, especially with ample undead bodies to practice on. IMO, the REAL question is how she learned to maintain the blade. Such things, even with light use, will tarnish and wear over time. Maybe she picked up a book on katana maintenance along the way. Or, maybe the same stuff that's keeping gas, batteries and zombies from decomposing is working on sharpened blades too. :P
Well so long as she looks after the blade and keeps it sharpened, there's no reason at all why that thing couldn't cut through a skull that easily. I mean, that's what they're designed to do, no? I'm sure if you check youtube there'll be no shortage of people demonstrating what a proper katana can do to melons and coconuts with relative ease.
I don't doubt you can do that with it, I just think the whole sword wielding thing is out of place with the rest of the show.
Daryl wields a cross bow. Actually l in a world where zombies are attracted by loud noises Michonne and Daryl's methods are better than gunfire.