User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/Buggy's Shock!/@comment-4754162-20120313025930/@comment-3425840-20120314044231

Yes if you make moves in the air, it indeed is more difficult to stab because of the muscles you have to use for that motion. How ever when you cut through something then it is a different story. Say for instance you stab a man in the belly/chest/throat - that is the typical vitals. You would have to push the sword into flesh and as the tip of the sword would have a little area at the point of contact, the effective pressure would be pretty high even if you do not put all your strength behind it. However in case of a slash, I agree it would be much more fluid, but it if you want to kill the opponent then you have to cut all the way through him and thus when you do that the point or rather line of contact would be a big one; that acting along with the moment (as the hilt where you hold is further from the body of the opponent) would cause you a lot of resistance. (Note, in case of a stab no moment will oppose you as it would be a straight attack with your wrist acting as the origin of force and the tip of the sword which is aligned to your wrist as the point of contact).

So in short, while you hit the target, the stab has only the density of the target as an obstacle course, whereas slashes needs to overcome density, reduced pressure and moment. Thus even though the slash is easier to make, it is not necessarily easier to pull through.

And yes, every armor has weakness. Also I do agree that generally most of the fatal blows are from stabs. Where I differed from you was when you referred to stab wounds being more lethal owing to the force behind it. In my opinion, they are more lethal because of the nature of wound they create. As slashing completely through someones' body requires immense strength and favourable position, it is difficult to go for the kill with a slash attack, thus they (slashes) normally ends up injuring limbs or surfaces. Stabs however are piercing and could be performed in relatively more versatile ways, therefore they ends up usually being the fatal strike (also, as they goes from one side to another through the body, they are harder to treat and more likely to cause injury to internal organs than slashes). I hope I have managed to explain my thoughts?