Hook swords



Hook Swords (also known as twin hooks, tigerheads or tiger blades) are three-weapons-in-one: a long pole with a hook at the end, an arced blade above the fist, and spearhead beneath the handle. They are Jet's primary weapon. In addition to combat, Jet finds many creative ways to use his hook swords.

In our world, the tigerhead is an exotic Chinese weapon traditionally associated with Northern styles of Chinese martial arts, but now often practiced by Southern styles as well.

Jet's Hook Swords
The majority of the time, Jet simply uses his tigerheads as dual swords or hooks them together to create a nunchuck-like weapon. However, he finds many other inventive uses for his hook swords:


 * The twinhooks are Jet's primary form of transportation in his forest home. He can hook the end of one of the swords on a tree branch, then, extending his other sword, catch hold of another branch and thus literally swing through the trees.


 * In the episode The Serpent's Pass, Jet is seen using his swords to stack bowls of rice on top of one another.

Jet's hook swords first appeared along with him in the season 1 episode Jet, then later in the season 2 episodes The Serpent's Pass, The Drill, City of Walls and Secrets, and Lake Laogai.
 * Jet can hook his swords together to access out-of-reach objects (see above picture).

Hook Swords in the Real World
Most antique examples and artistic depictions of the tiger blades are from the late Qing Chinese dynasty or later, suggesting that they are a relatively recent design. The hook swords were an exclusively discreet civilian weapon, appearing in none of the official listings of Chinese armaments. These weapons were also often utilized by Shaolin monks. Often used in pairs, the hooks of the weapons may be used to trap or deflect other weapons. Modern routines for hook swords are often very flashy, and may involve techniques such as linking paired weapons and wielding them as a single long, flexible weapon. They can also be known as qian kun ri yue dao, meaning "Heaven and Sun Moon Sword".

Trivia

 * In the video game Avatar: The Burning Earth, Jet's Power-Up attack involved his hook swords glowing orange. This increased the damage of the hook swords upon opponents.
 * In the super deformed short School Time Shipping, Jet uses his hook swords to make a heart in an effort to win Katara's love.