Director reveals a clever secret about Link’s scabbard for the Master Sword.

Having a sword-swinging hero wear his weapon on his back when not in combat is a pretty common costume design choice in anime and video games. Not only does it look cool, having the sword secured to the character’s back saves animators the trouble of having to account for how it would hang at their side, possibly interfering with the character’s movement or bumping into other things in the environment.

However, there’s a reason why most real-world swordsmen throughout history wore their sword at their hip, and that’s because it’s really hard to get a sword into or out of a scabbard that’s on your back. The lowest point of the blade needs to be able to clear the top of the casing, which means you need long enough arms to be able to hold the entire sword above your shoulder in a vertical grip, and most people’s frames aren’t built for that to be something they can easily do with a sword of much length.

Japanese cosplayer and Twitter user @sakigake_cos got a frustrating reminder of this while cosplaying as The Legend of Zelda’s Link. While the costume worn by @sakigake_cos, modeled after the Nintendo star’s design for Breath of the Wild and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is fantastically faithful and well-realized, when it came time to draw the Master Sword from the sheath on @sakigake_cos’s back, the cosplayer simply couldn’t get it out.

Luckily, some helpful advice was on the way, and from a very authoritative source. After @sakigake_cos shared a video of the unsuccessful unsheathing attempt, none other than Masahiro Sakurai, director of the Super Smash Bros. franchise, popped in to the replies with a solution.

Sakurai, who later called the cosplay “Wonderful” in a follow-up, said:

“For Link in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, when he’s using the sheath, it gets pulled down. It’s still not enough to where it’d really reach, but it’s good enough to make a match with the sort of motion from the original games and the fitting of the scabbard’s harness.”

Sure enough, watching Link’s victory pose where he sheaths the sword, the angle of the scabbard does look like it gets a little more horizontal just before he inserts the blade.

Along with voicing their happy surprise at an esteemed industry icon taking the time to help out a fan, several commenters pointed out that the Zelda games often employ camera angles or cut timing that lets them avoid showing exactly how the sword gets into/out of Link’s scabbard. @sakigake_cos was determined to make the motion happen in real life, though, and, applying Sakurai’s advice in reverse, was able to get the sword out in one cool, smooth motion with some shoulder dip to make the pull more diagonal than on the initial attempt.

So when you run into a problem that you don’t know the answer to, don’t despair that the real world doesn’t have a Triforce of Wisdom like the Zelda games do, because maybe, just maybe, Sakurai can provide the answer you need.

Source: Twitter/@Sora_Sakurai via Hachima Kiko
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