A society where you can just challenge some rich prick to fight to the death and they’re looked down on if they refuse? I think it’s obvious why it went away :(
well back then basically all rich men went through martial training from a young age, whereas poors like us didn’t receive any training. So dueling was a very one-sided affair where the rich could basically use their elite upbringings so crush interpersonal disputes
Honestly in a swordfight, a very enthusiastic beginner is far more dangerous than most intermediate level fencers. There are a lot of little “rules” used in fencing to try to hit the other guy without opening yourself up, and if you don’t know any of those rules it’s far harder for your opponent to predict and defend against your attacks. Not to mention that people who get stabbed or chopped up don’t tend to die immediately, so even after delivering a fatal blow, you still need to be ready for that practically-dead guy to be trying to kill you for at least a few more seconds. If your sword’s stuck between his ribs, tough shit, guess you both lose.
As much as guns create new horrors that we never could have imagined before (such as mass shootings and artillery bombardments and so on) swordfights are fucking horrifying and the fact that almost no one ever has them anymore is probably a good thing
A society where you can just challenge some rich prick to fight to the death and they’re looked down on if they refuse? I think it’s obvious why it went away :(
well back then basically all rich men went through martial training from a young age, whereas poors like us didn’t receive any training. So dueling was a very one-sided affair where the rich could basically use their elite upbringings so crush interpersonal disputes
yeah but what if they came up against someone who was simply built different
Honestly in a swordfight, a very enthusiastic beginner is far more dangerous than most intermediate level fencers. There are a lot of little “rules” used in fencing to try to hit the other guy without opening yourself up, and if you don’t know any of those rules it’s far harder for your opponent to predict and defend against your attacks. Not to mention that people who get stabbed or chopped up don’t tend to die immediately, so even after delivering a fatal blow, you still need to be ready for that practically-dead guy to be trying to kill you for at least a few more seconds. If your sword’s stuck between his ribs, tough shit, guess you both lose.
As much as guns create new horrors that we never could have imagined before (such as mass shootings and artillery bombardments and so on) swordfights are fucking horrifying and the fact that almost no one ever has them anymore is probably a good thing
my source is count of monte cristo and eventually he was just built different, so point taken