Dark Knights hold their swords like idiots...

[ScarecrowJames]

The swords they wield is already fiction. They to the real man would be incapable to wield. A base ball Bat would have been a better weapon. This is a game where men can jump incredibly high in the air in a heavy suit of armor and cast fireballs/etc. Its fiction.

[Jonnycbad]

Sorry to necro this but I just started playing DRK. They hold it exactly like Cecil does in FF4. Additionally, Dark Passenger is exactly like Cecil's Dark Wave ability in virtually every way.

[EdwinLi]

You will have to blame the series Berserker for using this type of sword for this type of sword stance.

Dark Knight in FF14 is partly inspired by Gut from Berserker

[Shurrikhan]

I don't know, when your fighting for your life its usually better to pick a stance that doesn't look like when someone hits your sword its going to break your wrist.

Better to take the impact with a palm supporting than letting it just carry through, and that stance can take quite an arm-crushing hit without breaking one's wrists.

The guard being used is akin to a hangen / hanging guard or an offset Ox guard, probably the best general stance one has against swords, staves, axes, clubs, or whatever, wherever there may be a strong downwards strike or flurry of downward blows. (Against another sword, or any weapon with similar speed ad reach, it would be raised further to actually protect the head and likely aimed more pointedly at the opponent's head or upper chest; altogether this particular variant looks very lazy, as if baiting more than blocking.) It mostly looks silly simply because it's a counter-guard, usually paired with the dodge, where the downward force of the parried attack accelerates your own circling following strike. The problem is, we don't have counters in this game. Better that, though, than something that would require winding to be of any use, such as cloud's middle guard (where the countering strike itself then looks almost exactly like the DRK guard as you offset the attack and stab or rising cut through).

Apart from that bit of realism, to take as you like, you can blame Cecil, as mentioned above.

@ErikMynhier awesome vid. I personally tend to open in Iron Door or Middle Guard, and use Ox only transitionally unless feinting, but I have fought against quite a few people who can actually make a very, very effective use of hanging out in Ox. They're usually larger, slower-footed, but very quick with thwarting and hewing strikes. By just setting themselves deep and turning frequently but naturally if you circle, it often feels like trying to get through a steel wall rather than an actual sword. Springier opponents, however, I've noticed tend to prefer to hang out in more comfortable, low-tell stances like middle or roof. Sorry, rant.

[ErikMynhier]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqE...ature=youtu.be

[Reila_Circus]

You will have to blame the series Berserker for using this type of sword for this type of sword stance.

Dark Knight in FF14 is partly inspired by Gut from Berserker

The inspirations from Berserk pretty much are restricted to the Job story.
Heres a bit of an example to those who beat the level 30-50 DRK quests.

Other than that, Guts has never really used that stance except on certain promo art. As Johnnycbad has pointed out, it's based on Cecils stance more than anything.

[BHGlobbd]

OP does nothing but make complaint threads, I literally see at least one every two days.

[basketofseals]

Well FF14's NIN is inspired by Naruto

Ninja tropes existed waaaaaaaay before Naruto.

[Granyala]

DRK doesn't even look half as awkward as the WHM staff holding pose which screams "I don't know WTF I am supposed to do with this thing ... am I at least holding it right?"

[Toguro]

For people who haven't seen the stance.