Buster Sword

[Warning: This entry contains major spoilers!]

About

The Buster Sword is an iconic weapon from the Final Fantasy video games series, being Cloud’s default weapon in Final Fantasy 7. Its massive size has made it one of the most well-known examples of “unreal sized swords on media^[1].” Due to the success of the series, the weapon has since become popular among fans which spawn discussions, fanart and even custom made replicas.

Origin

The Buster Sword is the main weapon belonging to Cloud Strife. The blade originally belonged to 1st class SOLDIER Angeal Hewley which was ordered to be forged by his father. The blade was later entrusted to Zack Fair after defeating Angeal in battle as a symbol his honor and dreams. When Zack was gunned down outside midgar, he entrusted the blade to Cloud while telling him that he is Zack’s living legacy. In the main game, The Buster Sword acts as Cloud’s default weapon and would appear in cutscenes and minigames despite if Cloud was equipped with a different sword.^[2]. Since its appearance, the sword has also appeared in a number of other final fantasy and SquareSoft or Square Enix games.

Spread

On December 18th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[3] user -The Omega Master submitted an entry for the weapon, defining as “A gigantic sword used by Cloud in FF7.” Online discussions about the sword can be traced back as early as May 7th, 2006, on the the Caves of Narshe, an unofficial Final Fantasy fan site^[6]. Other discussions can be found in sites such as Neoseeker^[7], Gaia Online^[8], and Fablehero.com^[9]. On September 22, 2007, Youtuber michaelcthulhu uploaded a video titled “REAL Buster Sword”^[4] where he shows off his own custom made Buster Sword (Shown left). As of April, 2015, the video has gathered more than 650.000 views. On January 30th, 2014, michaelcthulhu uploaded another video where he shows How a Buster Sword is built^[5] (shown right). As of April, 2015, the video has gathered more than 750.000 views.

On September 20, 2012 Youtube Channel Vsauce3 made a Video Titled “Could Cloud’s Sword Be REAL?” where they explain the science behind the Buster sword. As of April, 2015, the video has gathered more than 2 million views^[10]. On May 20th, 2013 Youtube Show Man at arms uploaded a video titled “Cloud’s Buster Sword (Final Fantasy VII) – MAN AT ARMS” where they create a real life version of the sword using smithing work. As of April, 2015, the video has gathered more than 4 million views^[11].

On June 6, 2014 Youtuber Skallagrim uploaded a video titled “Fantasy Weapons Scrutinized: Cloud’s Buster Sword busted!” where he discuss why the weapon is not practical to use in real life. As of April, 2015, the video has gathered more than 245.000 views^[12].

On the artist community site Deviantart, typing the keyword “Buster Sword” on the search engine will result in more than 10.000 results which range from fanart to custom made replicas of the weapon^[13].