Oh! Ive actually done a bit of research on this! I found some scythe like weapon alternatives that work well as weapons while still maintaining the aesthetic!
@masochist-incarnate WHAT ARE THEY
IM SO GODDAMN FUCKING GLAD YOU ASKED
First, let’s start with war picks, also known as horsemans picks, or nadziaks. they look like this to start:
these weapons were fucking INCREDIBLE at piercing through steel plate armor, and was highly used by calvary in the 17th century with origins in the middle east and europe, not only were these functional weapons, but they were good, your armor wouldn’t protect you from a swing of this, and its not like not wearing armor would do you any good.
Next we have kamas, which look like this,
kamas are essentially the daggers of scythes, even being used for farming asian crops, they don’t have any real downside, and are even heavily used in martial arts
next, would be zaghals, or for long, indian zaghal axes, which look like this
these were made for a similar use as the war pick, but it’s structured to be a sharper edge with a reinforced point, which allowed it to pierce through armor, like the war pick, but kept the sides sharper, allowing it to cut more effectively, and the handles on them are short and long depending on preference.
Next we have indo persian war hammers, which look like this:
These ones come closest to the scythe in visual terms in my opinion, and are also my favourite, these ones are still armor evicerating, but have a counterweight hammer on the other side, which helps stabilise the swing, and adds more momentum, along with being a hammer on the other side.
And finally, we have the war scythe, which looks like this.
i know what you’re thinking, and yeah! i agree! its not a scythe like weapon, its a bad looking spear! these were made when farmers found out that their farming scythes were pretty sucky weapons and did like shit, so they repositioned the blade on the pole to be more usable! I hate this and i didn’t want to include this, but i have to because one of you fucks will do a 3 second google search and ask “what about war scythes” because you think you know more than me! i hate this weapon!
Also, if giant sickles are more you’re speed, there’s the Ethiopian shotel
Or, the more popular Egyptian khopesh