Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - has anyone seen the "deadliest warrior" show ?

A Senefelder · 7th September 2009, 03:08 PM

I have had VERY limited exposure to the show, but one of the things i've noticed is that while it focuses a fair amount on how much damage the various weapons are capable of imparting, they generally don't deal to much with the amount of punishment the human body can take which leaves a hovering impression that taking a just a whack or two from alot of these impliments will be immediately leathal ( something Hollywood has already in large part set in the modern mindset, armour always fails, the sword,axe,arrow always penetrates, and everyon who gets shot gets blown backwards 10 feet ).

I was lucky enouhg to sit in a bit at a Western Martial Arts conferece we were set up at in 2004 on a class in medieval weapons and human physiology, taught be a pair of doctors. They talked at length about how tough it really is to immediately incapacitate a human being and used a number of examples, both modern and period. A few I remember were the story ( this was a while ago but I believe this was culled from the journal of the doctor who treated the case, if I recall correctly ) from a German landkneskeckt regiment. Several fellows were gaming at dice, one angered at another over his losses began to fight. The end result was that one of the participants walked under his own power into the doctors tent with the blade of a halberd buried in his head, which was removed succesfully and he lived. Another was the story of a farmer in the midwest in the 90's whos tractor rolled over while he was on it, crushing his arm beneath it. He was forced to cut away the crushed limb with I think a pocket knife in order to escape. He went to his house, his wife applied a belt as a tornequet, after she dressed, and they then drove the 40-50 miles to the hospital, stopping for coffee on the way. The last one I remember distincly was the story of the two fellas, again in the 90's who had imbibed a bit to much while screwing around with a sword cane. One fella ran the other completley through the center of the chest. It was nearly 8 hours before the fella who'd been impaled felt bad enough to seek medical attention. Humans are an odd combination of fragile ( we can be injured relatively easilly ) and tough ( it takes a fair amount to put us out of action for good ), combined with will power there is a huge variable in any martial trial that is very difficult to calculate, and also impossible to ignore if the analysis is to be serious. Its not a bad show ( it is meant to be entertaining first and foremost ) but from the little i've seen of it, I wouldn't mind seeing the toughness of human physiology acknowleged as more of a factor in martial actions.

7th September 2009, 03:08 PM	#11
A Senefelder Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 214	I have had VERY limited exposure to the show, but one of the things i've noticed is that while it focuses a fair amount on how much damage the various weapons are capable of imparting, they generally don't deal to much with the amount of punishment the human body can take which leaves a hovering impression that taking a just a whack or two from alot of these impliments will be immediately leathal ( something Hollywood has already in large part set in the modern mindset, armour always fails, the sword,axe,arrow always penetrates, and everyon who gets shot gets blown backwards 10 feet ). I was lucky enouhg to sit in a bit at a Western Martial Arts conferece we were set up at in 2004 on a class in medieval weapons and human physiology, taught be a pair of doctors. They talked at length about how tough it really is to immediately incapacitate a human being and used a number of examples, both modern and period. A few I remember were the story ( this was a while ago but I believe this was culled from the journal of the doctor who treated the case, if I recall correctly ) from a German landkneskeckt regiment. Several fellows were gaming at dice, one angered at another over his losses began to fight. The end result was that one of the participants walked under his own power into the doctors tent with the blade of a halberd buried in his head, which was removed succesfully and he lived. Another was the story of a farmer in the midwest in the 90's whos tractor rolled over while he was on it, crushing his arm beneath it. He was forced to cut away the crushed limb with I think a pocket knife in order to escape. He went to his house, his wife applied a belt as a tornequet, after she dressed, and they then drove the 40-50 miles to the hospital, stopping for coffee on the way. The last one I remember distincly was the story of the two fellas, again in the 90's who had imbibed a bit to much while screwing around with a sword cane. One fella ran the other completley through the center of the chest. It was nearly 8 hours before the fella who'd been impaled felt bad enough to seek medical attention. Humans are an odd combination of fragile ( we can be injured relatively easilly ) and tough ( it takes a fair amount to put us out of action for good ), combined with will power there is a huge variable in any martial trial that is very difficult to calculate, and also impossible to ignore if the analysis is to be serious. Its not a bad show ( it is meant to be entertaining first and foremost ) but from the little i've seen of it, I wouldn't mind seeing the toughness of human physiology acknowleged as more of a factor in martial actions.