Thancred's Handicap Solution

[Tsiron]

The real question is why did Thancred take up GNB in the first place when it used a weapon he was incapable of maintaining by himself?

I actually used to wonder that myself, but if you think about it it actually makes sense. Just because he needs someone to imbue his ammunition for him now and again does not negate the obvious benefit of being able to use aether again in any capacity, so if anything I'd say it's a good fit!

[Jandor]

The real question is why did Thancred take up GNB in the first place when it used a weapon he was incapable of maintaining by himself?

He can no longer manipulate aether himself, Gunbreaker is probably the only job where someone else can do the manipulating of aether ahead of time for you and the end user just has to remember which cartridges are which and trigger the effects when needed.

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Gunbreaker is sort of like a DnD Wizard if you think about it, just with a gunblade and cartridges instead of a spellbook and spells. It's the same preparing abilities ahead of time and triggering them when needed sort of magic though.

[Enkidoh]

Also when you get right down to it a hrothgarian gunblade is just a very weird sword, which could still be used effectively in the most ancient and basic way possible if all else failed, as a cutting/stabbing weapon at close range, all the cartridges do is increase the damage the blow does significantly. And Thancred is well trained in close quarters fighting with edged weaponry due to his experience in GLA and ROG.

Really though, it's a meta thing, SE needed at least one of the Archons to be a tank for Trust purposes, and Thancred's 'hero' ideals fit well with GNB, especially his feelings of regret and guilt over what happened to both Minfilia and her father, and his determination that won't happen again with a certain girl in the First, so taking up the gunblade as her bodyguard and protector made perfect sense, even despite his aetheric handicap.

[Kozh]

I would say it's more for meta reasons (tank trust that use one of the playable job). Realistically, someone as professional as him would use garlean gunblade since it is intended for non-magic user. True he can have the other to imbue his cartridges, but what happen if he was alone or separated from the group?

[Soge01]

From an old thread I made asking about how magitek functions, I learned that Garlean gunblades are powered by ceruleum, so I thought "what if Thancred's gunblade could be modified to use ceruleum as a power source through cartridges instead of needing a friend to charge his aether ones".

Though I didn't know that ceruleum is such a rare and expensive thing to get in Eoreza. Now I wanna see Tataru actually make a funny comment about it in game. xD

But yeah, I just find it weird for a character like Thancred that specializes in sneaking around now always needing someone nearby to charge his GNB cartridges. It feels too much of a handicap for him, especially if he gets stuck in situations where he gets separated from an ally that can charge his cartridges and he's used up all the ones he has on him. Yeah, sure. He can just use the gunblade like a regular sword if something like that were to happen, but how long will that benefit him until he runs into something he can't just cut with a regular sword? I don't know, it's a situation like that that got me thinking about what can help get rid of Thancred's handicap in the first place so he can do things by himself without a "cartridge charge buddy" always needing to be with him at all times.

I hope Thancred incorporates Garlean tech into GNB job during or after Endwalker so be at least has some way to not get backed into a corner without ammo to use for his gunblade.

That, or maybe his cartridges could be put in a special container that gathers aether from his surrounding, them as he moves about?

[Bhearil]

Problem is that garlean gunblades are considered a cheap copy. Their advantage lies on being easy to mass make.

Its similar to the lasguns of the imperial guard in 40k: Might not the best weapons but they are reliable enough and cheap

[Jettinson]

I feel the Hrothgar may be more than a little biased in their assessment. The Garlean gunblade is more range focused than the Hrothgar original, but we've seen it in action enough to see it's clearly got a bit more going on than just being a gun with an elongated bayonet attached. You can't carve big magical X shaped projectiles into the air with a gun.

That said though, I also don't really a point in using ceruleum in our gunblades, we can already create all the ammo we need using either our own or a friends ability to enchant the cartridges.

Let's also add Garlean doesn't just stop with gunswords. They already have used from the higher figures gunhalberd, gunwrist, gunhammer so generally speaking anything that you can attach some manner of ranged firearm in something works although the less trained and suitable soldiers won't be good at wielding them

[Bsrking5]

And here i always thought at the first sign of weakness we should put them down like we do with horses.

[Bhearil]

Let's also add Garlean doesn't just stop with gunswords. They already have used from the higher figures gunhalberd, gunwrist, gunhammer so generally speaking anything that you can attach some manner of ranged firearm in something works although the less trained and suitable soldiers won't be good at wielding them

Garleans basically added an atachment to melee weapons that allows ranged combat. It kinda follows Oda Nobunaga's idea that troops with guns can prevail against any other ranged unit and require less effort and cost to train them, and the next evolution would be "make those ranged units to not be as weak in melee" and you have a versatile force that can hold their own, be ranged or close combat,even if they are not as good as an specialist unit, while eorzean troops have far more rigid roles (either you are ranged or close combat unit, not both) and lack flexibility. You need years of training with the bow or magic to be of an use on the battlefield, meanwhile the garleans can just can give their troops guns and just tell them to point towards the enemy, because gun tech in Eorzea is centuries behind

Garlean empire behaves similarly to the roman empire and look how many evolutions the gladius had adapting it so it suited better to the different foes and battlefields. They just saw the gunblades and they adapted the versatily it gave by being able to cover several situations with the same weapon.

[ReynTime]

Don't worry about it.
If they want Thancred to do fine with his Gunbreaking abilities they will surely come up with a solution that is explained in a single line of dialogue.
ShB showed us they have no qualms about coming up with any excuse to fix things for coolness or fanservice sake.