Poll: Deadliest Warrior, Crap and Poor-Taste?

[Rawne1980]

If I wanted to watch something for historical accuracy i'd watch the history channel. If I want to watch a collection of over excited folks hack a pigs corpse up with a katana i'll watch deadliest warrior.

Do I think it's in poor taste?

No, I very rarely take anything I watch on TV seriously. I very rarely take anything seriously for that matter.

 

[Pyramid Head]

The target audience is MMA fans who know fuck all about actual martial arts, military tactics, philosophies, and who probably think professional wrestling isn't scripted. What the fuck did you expect, genuine effort?

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Also, Deadliest Warrior-related: why do the guys who claim to be total badasses always seem to be complete and utter dickheads? I seriously doubt any true professional is going to strut around, bragging and arguing because he's placed all his faith in the outcome of a notoriously idiotic virtual fight just to prove how big his dick is. Where the hell do they find these guys, and who decided to let them near deadly weapons?

True professional? "Guy who trains to use ancient weapons and fighting style" isn't generally a profession. Most of the experts are hobbyists, perhaps with a related job- meaning that most of them are fanboys, with varying degrees of fanboyish behavior attached. The most entertaining thing I've seen on the show was the Scottish guys taking the piss out of the Zulu expert.

 

[IronicBeet]

You can't really expect too much from a Spike TV show. It's incredibly inaccurate a lot of the time, but it's entertaining to watch. That's the main point of it.

The games are pretty neat, too.

 

[Duskwaith]

Now, I say that the IRA vs Taliban episode was in poor taste for a few reasons. Firstly because according to the show the IRA (Irish Republican Army, a group of terrorists trying to make Northern Ireland part of the Republic of Ireland) are "freedom fighters" fighting for "the freedom of Ireland". The show is incredibly sympathetic to them (but not to the Taliban of course) despite the fact that the IRA were terrorists, who killed innocents. You may say why worry, but I say that there is a strange amount of IRA sympathism in America already, and while people are entitled to opinions, I want people clear that the IRA are terrorists, not freedom fighters, not oppresed liberators.

The other reason is about an event that happened for a split second, but disgusted me. While watching a video of an IRA bombing (which killed civilians) the main host went, "WOW, HARDCORE!" I wonder what he did when he watched the videos of 9/11, did he say HARDCORE then? Seriously, what a moment of utter tastelessness.

One Mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. T.A.L

And the bombing they showed didnt kill anyone it blew up an old telecom exchange in Belfast they didnt just happen to film a random bomb going off without know one knowing since the IRA left warnings for such devices.

Its a tv show, not an direct scientific study of two opposing forces based on technicalities that would be far too boring people why else would every fight take part in a carpark?

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

You're missing the point by taking the supposed purpose of the show way, way too seriously. The whole "WE WILL DECIDE ONCE AND FOR ALL WHO THE GREATEST WARRIOR IS" pretext is just their way of marketing the real purpose of the show: manly, gory, morbid weapon porn. Let's face it, the most entertaining part of a truly scientific and objective approach to a "who would win" show would still be the part where they beat the everliving shit out of ballistic dummies with weapons; SpikeTV was smart enough to trim the fat and make the show entirely about how badly a certain era of weapons would fuck someone up, and even included a doctor to give clinical diagnoses on how badly the surrogate body's day just got ruined.

They then tie each episode of weapon porn together quite neatly with a theme, a goal, and a sense of competition that pretty much guarantees that its viewers are going to have a favorite from the get-go (case in point: I'm pretty sure most of the ire directed at the show comes from people that saw their favorite side lose and go "BULLSHIT THAT WOULDN'T HAPPEN BECAUSE [INSERT UNACCOUNTED-FOR TECHNICALITY HERE]").

The point of Deadliest Warrior isn't to provide a realistic depiction of what would happen if samurai and vikings ever did face off and then provide a concrete, scientific verdict; the point of the show is to say HEY VIKINGS AND SAMURAI ARE PRETTY BADASS HUH HEY LOOK AT WHAT THEIR SWORDS CAN DO TO A PIG OH MAN OH JEEZ IT COULD CUT LIKE A HUNDRED PEOPLE IN HALF WITH ONE SWING THATS SO FUCKING COOL, DUDE DID YOU KNOW THAT A VIKING THROWING TWO SPEARS AT ONCE CAN PIERCE A LOG AT 1500PSi OHMUHGAWD... and really, it's an admirable goal that it delivers on in spades. It's like Mythbusters with all the boring science shit and speculation cut out, and based entirely on killing people. And then they cap it off with a live-action fight between a pirate and a knight in a fucking suit of armor dueling to the death. What are you complaining about?

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

i think its an interesting concept, but i also believe we cannot compare warrior across history accurately. There are far too many variables to be considered and combat is all part luck as well, so no one can garuntee an outcome. Numbers alone hardly consititute human interaction in any medium.