Earlier @Ferris mentioned how everyone can be "one shot by a fast dude with a sword", which raises a couple interesting questions.

1. Why can't the Striders do this (more broadly, why aren't sword/gun users the most deadly of the bunch)

2. Why do they upgrade their weapons at all

Question #2 is the more interesting of these, I feel, because it's also the one with the most inconsistent information on it.

Obviously every time a bladed weapon is used in "Huss mode", it works. Equius can shoot Gamzee, Roxy can stab the Condesce, and Jack can stab basically anything (even outside of this particular artstyle, Crowbar just shoots Jake in Collide).

At the same time, this seems kind of nonsensical as far as the plot goes? Like, if anyone could "just stab the Condesce", presumably they would do so, and the fight against her would last like, 5 seconds. There'd also presumably be no point in having upgraded weapons in the first place. What's the purpose of all the Bladekind weapons outside of the U!Katana and Caledfwlch if not the fact they "do more damage" against enemies who would "resist" damage from weaker blades? In the Epilogues, the gun Jade uses is described as firing "anomaly-powered bullets". Again, why did she craft this, save the fact that her regular bullets weren't cutting it (lol 🥁) against "high-level enemies"? Probably the most direct acknowledgement we get for this (unless there's something in the -sim games I haven't seen) is from the Skaianet files, wherein the Condesce notes Calamity's rifle "wounds her more than an ordinary rifle should" (implying a familiarity with rifles, being hit by them, and finding them insufficient).

Again, though, it certainly feels like you could just stab John if they didn't dodge lol. When Dirk shoots Jade with a tranquilizer dart, it seems like it's just "a tranq dart". In the published books, Hussie makes a joke about how Bro isn't "allowed" to hit Dave with his sword, because that would just end the fight instantly. So like, what gives lol. Do they become more susceptible to "real" damage when their vitality gel starts to run out? Do these gameplay abstractions only appear if they formally enter a "Strife" (and if so, why do they sometimes use these powers outside of such)?

As far as question #1 goes, I feel this mostly comes down to the fact that Dave and Dirk never really "feel" super fast when fighting other people. It's basically just Bro (and his speed is like, logistically impossible for reasons I don't feel like typing right now). Both of them are explicitly capable of flash stepping and other such anime moves, but it doesn't "come up" very often. I would just chalk this up to everyone being fast (Jade's reflexes are commented on in the Epilogues, and I think John is commented as having "windy reflexes" or something like that after he dodges Bec), but like... flash stepping seems "special", in the same way Equius' strength is "special".

Notably, the one exception to this is Gamzee, in pages 3738 to 3739. While flash stepping Cal around, Terezi says it must be enchanted with "puppet fastness". Obviously this is a joke about Terezi being blind to the fact it's Gamzee, to the point she'd attribute its movement to just "being a weird puppet", but with the hindsight of Dirk's soul being in it, English being repeatedly mentioned as "fast" in the Epilogues, and the fact that everyone who does flash step is someone who has Cal... I don't know. Could be?