How do weapons and skins work?

[Biscuit]

Got a red sword skin for Lancelot. Applied it and his default turned into red. Then I go to equipment grids and the verona bow I set before is still being used by Lancelot for story quests.
So why is it that there is another weapon called Little Scarlet (which was supposed to be the name of his skin) sitting in my inventory, complete with upgrade and equip options as if it were a different weapon??

Current weapon: https://imgur.com/a/vvfipYU
Supplies: https://imgur.com/a/ZlGu2rI
Skin: https://imgur.com/a/H6RxSMI

What the heck is going on here? I am confused af.

[Fish]

so, only a small selection of weapons actually have skins that can be unlocked for the character.

The large majority of other weapons are purely stats so any character can equip any weapon type, but they are passive stats boosts only and have 0 impact on your looks.

On the other hand, when you set the weapon skin from the character selection menu, these are purely visual changes and have no stats no matter which skin you pick.
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The weapons that do actually unlock skin will show a small character portrait icon on the corner when you get it.

[Biscuit]

you said nothing i didn't already know

[Biscuit]

my question is why does a cosmetic exist separately from an identical real weapon

[Fish]

I'm not sure what part of that you're not understanding?

It's called a weapon skin for a reason. The weapon is what unlocks the skin, and once unlocked, you can pick that skin at any given time; while the weapon itself functions like any other weapon as a passive stat boost.

Not every weapon has a skin given how unrealistic it'd be needing to create a high quality 3D model for every single weapon available in the game, considering this game is ultimately a fighting game, so each character just gets a handful of weapon skins.

The way they unlock is by acquiring the associated weapon that share the same look/name, but that's simply how they unlock. Skins are otherwise completely separate from your weapon grid equipment.

[Biscuit]

I guessed out that much but this thing is so weird and unheard of that I thought there was something more to it. Normally a skin is a skin and nothing more, right?

[Fish]

Yeah, but in this case, you weren't getting just a skin as a drop/reward.

What you actually got is a weapon drop that also happens to unlock its own appearance as a weapon skin for you to use in the future. Hence the weapon itself you can still use just like any other weapons that don't contain a skin unlock.