Hi everyone,
I am always amazed at the impractical weirdness produced in fantasy art when it comes to weapons. Whether in movies or games, we see big, heavy, clunky chunks of steel with weird spikes everywhere. I also wonder that artists don't take more inspiration from actual historical weapons.
Well I just stumbled on concept art for Disney's john carter of Mars movie:
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=13007 produced by artist Seth Ergstrom. This fellow seems to know a few things about South-East Asian weapons (Filipino in particular)
Have a look at the way he incorporates panabas, garabs and other pieces in his work.
Emanuel