Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 1477247" data-attributes="member: 3854">Well, I went to the show this weekend.It was. . . well. . . um. . . bad. I can't quite bring myself to say it sucked, but it was bad. Actually, it sucked.I didn't expect a historical reinactment, and I understand the limitations of such a show. But. . . well. . . let me highlight a few things:The knights fought to the death. When the first knight was down, and the victor stood over him, the king opened the decision to the crowd: Do you want this tournament to be to the death? The roar of the crowd told the king they wanted death. So the victorious knight slew the downed victim.There were children in the audience. Now, of course, there was no blood and gore in the special effects, but still. I would never bring a child to this event -- and have them cheer for violence and death. Vulgar.So each pair of knights fought to the death. First they joust. Then they'd fight on foot. When they were on foot, they'd play up to the crowd like a couple Roman gladiators (or WWF wrestlers).I was actually offended by this violent and brutal farce of a Medieval Tournament. And not really because of what was shown, but rather because of how it was billed and in front of whom it was shown -- children as young as preschoolers.During the games part of the tournament (when the knights lanced rings, and captured flags, and threw javelins from a galloping horse), the king's seer warned of a traitor. I expected a betrayal or something, and maybe the knights would have to fight and defeat an evil/renegade knight or something. But no. The "knights" fought and killed each other for the entertainment of the crowd. The betrayer was revealed at the end, and there was an unexciting fight where the bad guy (not a tournament knight) was captured by the one surviving knight. The bad guy was captured! But the various good knights were all killed by each other! WTF?!Add to this atrocious "story" the awfully bad choreography and stunt work. Timing was terrible. The combatants were dodging a blow before the attacker even wound up his swing. The combatants would miss striking their weapons together (so one could be disarmed), so they'd back up their action to put the weapons in their proper spots. Over and over and over. I was left wondering, "Do this guys ever practice these fights?"The combatants would strike their weapons together and do the old contest of brute-strength where they'd push each other's weapon back and forth and then one would kick the other to break the stalemate. But the fighters were not even straining against one another. I was like they were dancing politely.When the action was for the attacker to strike the shield of the defender, and knock him back: the defender would throw up his shield before the attack even raised his weapon.When the jousting knights struck, and their lances shattered, the loosing knight would fall off his horse well past the strike.I mean, I understand the need for safety and all, but damn. I honesty think I could have done as good at this staged combat as these guys did with just an hour's worth of practice.The more I think about it and write about it, the more I want to shout, "God, it sucked!" Even my wife, who is by no means a medieval historian (hell, she doesn't know the difference between a mace and a moat), even thought the show was bad. As we left the building after the show, we didn't talk about the show until the next morning. I knew there was something wrong when she didn't even ask me if I enjoyed it. I asked her what she thought and she asked me about medieval tournaments. Even though she had no knowledge about the subject, she realized the stupidity of having knights (all in the service to the same king) kill each other. And though she knows nothing about hand-to-hand combat, she thought the fights looked sloppy and ill timed.And the "knights" didn't even wear any real armor. Their "armor" was just that shiny silver material that you see at halloween parties. The very first weapons used in the foot combat were "spears" (looked more like Japanese naginatas) -- the blades wobbled and bent when used. So obviously fake. Sheesh, couldn't they at least have used wood "blades" or some other firm material to look like metal instead of rubber?There were some good moments -- like making sparks when some weapons clashed; good food; fun to eat with no utensils; the chancellor/MC was a good speaker; the falcon demonstration. But all in all, I will never go back, and I cannot recommend this show.I had to get this off my chest.Quasqueton</blockquote>

Verification