Your sword? Your shield? The cute little octocat is now a scowling angry warrior robot?
I must be old and out of touch: I don't understand the appeal of this violent imagery. I thought GitHub was about working together, helping each other out, not slaying your foes.
I like the old octocat and octokitten better:
http://assets.github.com/images/modules/dashboard/bootcamp/o...
I understand that this stuff is all in fun and shouldn't be taken literally, I just had a rather negative gut reaction to the sword and shield and scowling. Maybe it's useful for people to know that this kind of thing will bring up negative reactions in some people. Or maybe not.
[1] https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com/images/modules/b...
I seriously doubt the reference is meant to be violent.
But... Not meant to be violent? Even if the robocats themselves are not meant to be violent, how could the introductory language about "your sword" and "your shield" be interpreted as anything but violent?
The only time I can imagine needing a sword and shield would be in a rather violent situation. Quite the opposite of the experience one might hope to have on GitHub.
https://github.com/blog/1517-introducing-octokit
and on the project page:
"Is Cocoa your sword? Let this kit be your shield."
Look, I don't mean to read too much into any of this. I just found it a bit unpleasant, that was all. If that observation is useful for anyone, great, if not, my apology for the distraction.