How have you made chain weapons (such as the flail or whip sword) make sense in your world?

So chain weapons. I'm defining them as weapons that have a handle attached to some sort of chain which then has some sort of head attached to it, such as an axehead. In real life they have very limited use in actual combat and are mostly fictitious. Especially the sword whip, which as awesome as it is is more likely to cut the wielder than anything. Most problems have to do with how hard it is to aim the swing properly, and especially edge lines.

So how did you get around this?

I did so on complete accident. The Magic of my world is essentially telekinesis at its most basic form. However it requires a direct pathway from the mage to what's being controlled, which can be done through any material or even vacuum. However magic from other people blocks magic, which means it is incredibly important mages have a medium to use magic on things. That's where chains and whips come in, they can be maneuvered to things that can then be controlled, and can be telekinetically controlled as well. And because the chain is the only sure thing the mage has, they may as well add a weight or point to it, so they can use it to attack. And because of telekinesis they don't have to worry about angles not aligning or arcs going out of control because they control it. Also, if a mage dies, it's better the person who killed them can't use their weapon, or at least it does to mages egos. Therefore illogical weapons like chain axes and sword whips make perfect sense