Legolas' Elven fighting knives I'd add up there as being pretty impressive. The ones which he uses when he is in very close quarters or when he runs out of arrows, as I was always impressed with how Legolas weilded his knives with one in each hand and executed his attacks with deadly quick precision...almost like it was ballet dance in the graceful speed/fluid movement he wielded them with.
I always felt a bit sadden for Theoden when seeing what he was essentially "comatose" for when he was under that spell that made him do the bidding of Sauruman. And when awakening to realize his son was dead/his people suffering like never before, the imagery of his sword helping his memory seemed a bit hard to enjoy.
Always amazing to see how that was the case and what it meant to others to have something that saw so many differing eras and had personality. There are some guns that I've seen have the same allure.
Gxg (G²);62240937 said:Gotta say that I actually like Mustangs better than Anstons. There's more of an old school style....
On the Elvish swords, indeed, the refining process they used for those swords was always cool to watch. But nothing, IMHO, comes close to beating Thorin Oakenshield's Dwarf sword...and the way he looked handling the Orcist sword was stunning. It simply looked better with him using it than a regular elf - for when they found the ancient Elven sword named Orcrist, forged by the high Elves of the West, in Gondolin, Thorin claimed Orcrist for his own and vowed to cleave Goblins with it once again. The one using a sword can give it character apart from the one who made it - and sometimes, although the sword made by another has character on the basis of its creator, another can make it have a diffrerent character altogether. For I loved seeing how the Dwarf King wielded the sword through most of the Quest for Erebor, using it against the Goblins of the Misty Mountains. The blade of Orcrist features a curved leaf shape on one side, and a straight edge on the other, a fitting design for a blade meant to cleave Orcs and Goblins....and truthfully, very similar to what you'd see with Damascus Steel and Arabian swords in the curved aspects of it. Adorning the pommel is an emblem of the heraldry of Ecthelion of the Fountain. The hilt is shaped from the tooth of a dragon - fitting for the Dwarf King and his battle with the Dragon Smaug, although it is unknown if the tooth was acquired prior to the fifth battle of the First Age, or added to the sword with the inscription in the millennia after the Fall of Gondolin, most likely by the Dwarves of the North.
Either way, dwarfs and how they use swords rock
Gxg (G²);62240966 said:
Never in a thousand years would I argue that the soldiers of today are cowards, by ANY stretch. Matt, brother, you know my feelings about military men by now. There is NO ONE in this country with a more honorable, distinguished, or noble job than soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
But I'm speaking of the nature of war in general. While any combat would be a terrifying experience, ask most Marines what they'd prefer: an M-16 with a grenade launcher, tanks, and air cover.....or being dressed in a shield, helmet, shield, spear, and sword or being a Persian in wicker carrying a spear....walking into battle in the classical age where you're fighting eye-to-eye hacking at each other. Both are frightening, require courage and honor that's off the chart, the chance of death is still high, but I would say ancient warfare was more of a test of a warrior's mettle.
Look at the sheer numbers of maimed and dead in ancient times versus nowdays! Look at hor many of our American troops died in Iraq over all those years, and look at how many died with Alexander the Great in Iraq in one single battle!
I just maintain that there was more class to fighting a man feet or inches away with swords and spears than picking people off at a distance in the context of overall combat. But since we no longer fight that way and the terrorists take cheap shots anyway with their dirty bombs and suicide bombers, they deserve to be picked-off from 500 yards if need be!
I think your argument at the end is kind of what I'm saying, Matt? The fact that cowardly suicide bombers and splinter cell freaks dress up women in explosives under burkas, that's a cowardly thing. These people don't fight like men. That's my point. Of course it takes courage to fight such evil people! I'm just saying that, in the ancient times there were rules of combat and engagement and such nonsense just wasn't the acceptable norm.
Look at how the Greeks would raise trophies and have such clear balanced rules of fighting!
Wars are fought nowdays with the winner being the better technilogically-equipped army. In ancient times, there was more parity I think. That's all.
Not only was the nature of warfare itself obviously different, but how a nations military itself was integrated into a culture was often different than in most countries today. You have the Spartans whose society had a whole class of laborers simply so that male Spartans could be bred in the art of war and devote their entire lives to military service. It would seem that in antiquity when one nation fought another, often the entire able-bodied male population was involved (with obvious exceptions). Today there are systems that govern most nation's military conscription or enlistment.
I think that's a factor that's often overlooked when extrapolating figures, the percentage of an ancient nation's population that was involved in combat as compared to that of a modern nation.
My .02¢
Gxg (G²);62240985 said:
I caught the aspect of refinement - and to be more clear, what I was trying to note is that refinement is really a subjective matter. Someone choosing a Mustang over an Aston may be deemed to be choosing something more rugged/rough than an Aston - whereas the person choosing a Mustang may be thinking they're choosing something vintage, retro and classical...all of which are qualities many associate with true refinement. See it all the time when people choose to buy Cadillacs or Cammeros (which my step-brother has) from the 60s/70s because of the feel it gives. Used to think the buying of Cadillacs was something that happened more so in black culture - till I started seeing more young adults buying those cars all over.
Indeed - and I'm glad they left the sword with his body since that officially became his sword rather than borrowed property. The man rocked it with Orcrist.
I'd think you'd save your best weapons for climactic battles anyhow - like having good wine that you don't just drink all the time except on special occassions. Sometimes, I was hoping he'd just have them out to play with
If we're going to post car pictures, fellas, let's do it right for goodness sakes!
I often wonder on the male dynamic in regards to how much emphasis was placed on the men...and I say that in light of the role women played in history.
