| David Sutton wrote: |
| Another reason is that the early Samurai was primarily a mounted archer, shields never became a part of their equipment and so were not adopted, even later when the Samurai moved away from this battlefield role. |
| Bennison N wrote: |
| And one-on-one a Spartan hoplite can't use a sword, and a ninja can. Unless the Spartan's rich, in which case he could afford a Hoplomachoi (sp?)and even then he'd rather be in a phalanx. |
| Michael Edelson wrote: |
| Another interesting tidbit that many people are not aware of is that the Japanese did in fact use shields...though the ones I've seen were more like pavises. |
| Peter Fuller wrote: |
| Jeff Arbogast wrote:
"Regarding your last comment- You are right, who cares about these silly matchups? I think it would be waaay more interesting and informative if they matched up period-contemporary rivals, such as a Viking/Norman duel or a Norman/Saxon Housecarl Hastings/style deathmatch. Or a Viking/ Housecarl match, like at Stamford Bridge.These would be very close matches with no clear winner. There would be countless others too, like a Mongol vs. a Hungarian knight. Or a Roman vs. a Greek. On and on. This would not only make far more sense but would be much more educational than the Pirate/Knight nonsense, and would provide some accurate historical content that would actually be useful. There are plenty of cool matches that would be historically correct if they wanted to do it right. But this stuff is utter nonsense." Jeff - If it was done properly, a show like that would be fantastic! What might be even more interesting would be combat situations of a more non-traditional sense, i.e., two HYW knights fighting on the deck of a ship, or combat in closed quarters such as a sappers tunnel or on castle stairs. Something that adds to the difficulty and really tests the skill of the combatants... |
| Jeff A. Arbogast wrote: |
|
One show on The History Channel lately isn't too bad, however. It's called "Warriors," and it's narrated by an ex-Green Beret. He's rather likeable and he's not a bad narrator either. He seems to enjoy learning from others instead of acting like a know-it-all. I missed the "Sparta's revenge-Plataea" episode because of a Union/Management negotiation. Grrr. It's on a Thursday night at 10pm. Very inconvenient. Take a look if you are able. While not perfect, it's a whole lot better than "Deadliest Warrior." I know that's a pretty low bar though. |
| Peter Fuller wrote: |
| Jeff -
I couldn't agree with you more. What these hollywood idiots don't realize is that history, real history, is far more fascinating and entertaining than anything they could conjure up with their CGI. I'm so sick of hollywood and it's self-obsorbed mentality of "people will watch what we produce, because we produced it." I've stopped going to movies, and I refuse to watch television programs that insult my intelligence. And I especially refuse to watch television programs that are nothing more than fantasy, but present themselves as historical fact. Reality is always better than fantasy, in my opinion. Wouldn't it be amazing to produce one of your scenarios, and then get REAL academics and REAL WMA experts to analyze the results? Now that would be worth watching. I participated in the Hastings battle re-eactment back in 2000. Wow, what an eye-opener that was! Fighting in a shield-wall is a completely different dynamic to fighting one-on-one. I've wanted to go back, and mount a tiny spy camera right beside my eye under my coif and helmet, to get a "my eye" point of veiw of the fighting. I couldn't afford to go in 2006, but hopefully I can be a part of the next one. Something like that would make a great episode for a program like this, and it could keep the experts talking for hours. With regards to the program you mentioned called "Warriors", we don't get the History Channel in Canada. Instead, we get a limp-wristed wanna-be channel called "History Television", whose idea of historical programming is re-runs of JAG and NCIS. I could never figure that out; they have virtually no Canadian content. I guess they figure that Canada has no history... |
| Quote: |
| A lot of us call it "The Hitler Channel," given their apparent obsession with Nazis. |
| JE Sarge wrote: |
| That was seriously the worst episode to date. I won't comment further lest I lose even more brain cells. |
| Taylor Ellis wrote: | ||
Wow... you weren't wrong mate... |