Everard must get past some guards to escape from Bactra:
"What he had going for him was size, strength, combat skills undreamed of here, and desperation." (p. 92)
Combat skills is the single most important item. Action scenes in cinema serials used to consist of men repeatedly punching each other on the head with no apparent effect! In a more recent comic strip narrative, one youth persuaded another to let him join a gang planning to rob a warehouse because he alone knew what to do if the Batman showed up:
What To Do If The Batman Comes While You Are Robbing A Warehouse In Gotham City
(i) Don't fight. He is a master of every combat skill as well as wearing protective garb and carrying useful devices.
(ii) Run.
(iii) Run in different directions because he can't chase everyone.
(iv) If he chases you, drop whatever you are carrying because he can't make an arrest stick without evidence.
(i) is the most important. If someone is skilled in judo, karate, boxing, kick-boxing etc, what is the point of getting into a fight? I would like to have some combat skills but am unlikely to invest the time in gaining any.
16 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm not sure about your point (iv), being caught on the SCENE of a crime at least brings you under strong suspicion of being a criminal.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. If you run far enough fast enough, then you'll be away from the scene. Anything at all to make it harder for a prosecutor to get a conviction.
Paul.
The ancient Greeks had a saying: "Even Hercules can't fight two."
There's a good deal to this. If you hit someone from behind, hard, all the skill in the world doesn't matter squat.
That's one of the reasons classic tales of one standing off many usually involve somewhere with limited access -- Horatius at the Bridge, for example.
In the practical martial arts scene, there's a phrase "dojo ballerina" -- someone who's spectacular in a supervised one-on-one on nice firm mats, but not so much in a real-world setting.
One of the most unrealistic things in movies is villains waiting and taking on the hero one by one.
Actually they just mob you.
The main response to that is not to let them get all around you and flail you down; keep moving quickly, hit one, move, hit the next, etc. It's still risky but better than nothing.
This is one reason why armor (or its modern equivalents) is so important. It lets you absorb blows without going down at once.
Size and general ruggedness also let you absorb blows without being immediately incapacitated, as long as the attacker(s) don't hit one of the spots where everyone is vulnerable.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling! And we see one of Harald Hardrede's warriors in THE LAST VIKING, the third volume, fighting off many of the English for a long time at that bridge at the Battle of Stamford BECAUSE it was narrow. I remember those implausible fight scenes in action movies. Simply MOBBING the hero/heroine would have taken care of them, many times. To say nothing of how I simply don't believe most women could fight so many big, burly ruffians. Ditto, what you said about armor, ancient and modern. Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, on a personal note I was once sparring with a woman (her name was Floralove, no kidding) and tried to "tank" her off the mats with my extra weight -- she was 5ft1 and weighed about 100 lbs or a little less.
The result was that I ran right into a spinning back-kick; she'd pulled it properly fro the distance I was, but I was suddenly 3 inches closer.
Next thing I know I'm on the ground, trying to breathe and not doing it very well.
Three fractured ribs.
If she -hadn't- been pulling it, I'd have been coughing up gouts of blood and parts of my lungs, which would have been full of bone splinters.
Bigger is better, but it's not everything.
Floralove incidentally once broke a guy's thumb in the kasbah of Marrakesh -- I stole the incident for one of the BLACK CHAMBER books.
He groped her, she reached down, locked the thumb (there's a trick to this), snapped it (this wrecks the joint absent surgical re-attachment) twisted his arm to lock the elbow, and broke that with a forearm smash.
Then she walked away.
As she said, she wasn't worried about the guy going to the police -- staggering into the station, yelling "This European beat me up!" and having to describe the assailant as five feet tall and wearing a cotton print frock.
Incidentally, even with first-rate medical care (which he was unlikely to get) that elbow was never going to be the same again either.
I almost wish Trump had tried to grope Floralove.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree on the need to make EXCEPTIONS for cases like Floralove. What I'm trying to say is I don't believe MOST women will be like her. Because I don't think most women will undergo the kind of training needed to be so skilled.
As for you, personally, it's an example of the need not to be deceived by appearances! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: there's a waitress at my favorite coffee shop who's a dead ringer for her. I mentioned a day or two ago that she reminded me of someone I knew -- she looked a little wary until I mentioned it was someone who broke three of my ribs...
(From SM Stirling.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That should have reassured her! (Smiles)
I forgot to mention that Floralove punished the man who tried to grope her too much. It would have been enough to have broken his thumb, but not to permanently ruin his elbow.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I disagree. He's not going to be doing it again, is he? Not with his right arm, at least.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Groping is bad, but not the same as rape. Punishment should fit the crime.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: agreed. If it had been rape, the appropriate punishment would have been death.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The death penalty would be esp. appropriate for rapists of children!
Ad astra! Sean
As the saying goes, it may or may not be effective as a deterrent, but it's 100% effective against recidivism.
(From SM Stirling.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
In some ways, it's more important that the death penalty is simply the right punishment for certain crimes.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment