The Trident - Mere Fantasy or Practical Weapon?

The trident is an iconic weapon seen in the hands of gods, superheroes, and other characters in roleplaying games and other fantasy fiction. Was it just a tool and symbol in history or was it used in combat as well?

Let's take a look a the design with its practical pros & cons, as well as examples of two and three pronged spears / polearms from various time periods and parts of the world. Of course there is nothing wrong with less restrained fantasy, but those of you who like to incorporate some level of realism into your writing may find this useful.

Thanks to Ace the Super Villain for making the 3D animations for visual reference in this video. Check out his bundle of weapon models:

If you're looking for reproductions of medieval & renaissance polearms (affiliate link):

*** Sources ***

Luristani bronze trident
Viking harpoon / fishgig

Sasumata & Sodegarami (Japanese mancatcher designs)

Chinese Tang Pa & Tiger Fork

African tridents

Vietnamese trident

Brandistocks

Artwork:

*** Music ***

"Cavern of Wonders" by Hitctrl

Royalty-free music by Alexander Nakarada (creative commons license)

Outtakes:
"Little People At Work" by Horrorpen
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC BY 3.0)

Outro:
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records
Used with artist's permission

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[Charok]

Mainly used for moving sea hay for their sea horses and sea unicorns.

[MrAranton]

When hunting dangerous animals like tigers or boars or bears you don't want maximum penetration. Getting penetrated by a spear doesn't kill the momentum of any of those animals would have while they're attacking. And even with a lethal injury they might still crash into or even bite or hit the hunter before they die, because once the hide of the animal is penetrated there's not a lot of resistance left. With a trident the points go in, but the material connecting them would not, which stops the animal - provided the trident has a sturdy shaft and is solidly planted to the ground. Weapons like the boar spear have "lugs" or wings that serve the same function.

[phenixryte]

'The pitchfork is a flimsy weapon.'

Geralt of Rivia: Coulda fooled me.

[waranyaketkaew]

Hi, a Thai here. The Burmese trident you mentioned was common for ancient warfare in south-east Asia. It was used in elephant duels. The reason why it was very decorative is the fact that the only people who mounted elephants to battles were the royalty. Hope this info will be useful to you guys. :)

[aroenweind]

Love this "unconventional weapon" talk. Really interesting to see your more experienced POV and how you bring examples from everywhere in the world

[CazadorSlayer]

Hell, they probably wanted the gladiator's weapons to be as ill-suited for real combat as possible.
Makes your valuable gladiator slaves less likely to die, and less well-equipped if they revolted.
I love how you really go in-depth with your explanations and show multiple real-life examples.
Even after all these years, every video teaches me so much info I never even considered before!

[UncleRJ]

6:22
Skall: "Sometimes a fork without the center spike"
Me: "A twork"

[DamonFyrian]

Fantasy tridents also have a thing where they are thrown like spears. So in that instance specifically, the barbs would do some good by making it so the target can't just immediately pull the weapon out without causing serious damage to themself.

[SovereignAUS]

I could literally feel Skal's look of rage when he noticed the strip of light on his chest. Also I feel like the Bident with the outward blades would probably be good for trapping/slashing and targeting unarmoured limb sections with the inside of the blades like fixed scissors and stab at the right angle during a slash, which I feel would be useful if you catch an enemies blade in the centre you could quickly move their blade aside and swing back quickly with a slash or stab.

[silverhand]

As someone whose last Dark Souls character was a bident user named Joe Bident, I appreciate the bident joke

[sizanogreen]

A trident becomes usefull with "channeling", "riptide" and/or "loyalty" enchantments put onto it.

[zacharyhiland]

I think the V shaped, bladed ones look like they would be really effective for targeting limbs. You have the chance of spearing the limb with the points, but if that misses, the thrust would turn the sides of the blades into effective slices to the sides of the limb, which would get deeper as the thrust goes further.

[LuxisAlukard]

I hope I'll live long enough to see at least 10% of Skall wishlist.
Also, I would like to see Skall with enough money to do that.

[ryanschmidt]

I could see tridents being given to soldiers fighting just in front of a pike block or phalanx or shield wall, etc. Use the tines of the trident to control enemy weapons and let a soldier with something far more devastating like a Beac du Corbeu (Spelling?) or halberd get a really solid hit forcing the opponent to either drop the weapon or have their skull look like a dropped watermelon.

[kencoffman]

I really enjoy the discussion style content! You are always willing to look at the less obvious ways to use the weapon. Would it be possible to make a video on the shillelegh? I know they are basically just a stick but they are crazy effective. Cheers!!!

[So_Iace]

The side blades that are bent outward might intentionally lessen the depth of the stab. You don't need to send your spear all the way out the enemy's back just deep enough to cause sufficient damage and then your goal is getting the weapon out of the enemy for another attack.

[TheGuzeinbuick]

Skall just wanted to say, please NEVER change your outro music. It's so relaxing and pleasant. I always let it play it out.

[IdentityCrisis]

"Did you just kill that guy?" "Yes. I killed him with a trident." "You might want to lay low for a while."

[arquentur]

I'm sorry that your having to fight with the algorithm, but I gotta say, I do appreciate the new variety and topics you've been covering!!

[jerrycashew]

The pitchfork-halberd-gun actually made me laugh out loud. history has once again proven it doesn't have to make sense. xD