JMeganSnow said:
The premise of the show is not the same as the value you gain from the show. What I like about it (and my other friends who occasionally watch it) is seeing various period hardware and fighting styles and learning about their effectiveness. The mock-combat and the "winner" are immaterial.
It's very similar to Iron Chef in that regard, a show all of us very much enjoy.
What he said. The show isn't about the science - they get some stuff right, but they get other stuff wrong, and although they do take some tactics in to account it's often less than should be and even then less accurate.
That said, the show is about pitting two (or, in the case of gunpowder, ten) warriors against each other, head to head, and see how it turns out. In that sense, it is accurate. In the end though, it's about the entertainment and the fight at the conclusion, not the pseudo-science that goes in to their tests. That's the fallacy with their "advantage/disadvantage" ratings; advantages work in different situations, and often the 'head-to-head' nature of weapon testing is flawed in itself, since some of the weapons they put up against each other are completely different from their opponent's.
The computer program, on the other hand, seems surprisingly accurate as far as kills with whichever weapon goes; it seems like the computer, at least, knows what it's doing, even if the "experts" don't.
Slightly off topic, as far as the Ninja vs Spartan, the Spartan definitely should have won that one. That's the premise of the show; if a Spartan ran across a Ninja in the woods and they started fighting, no preparation, the Spartan would come out on top due to the all-consuming power of that shield. All the Spartan would have to do is sit back and wait, and when the Ninja closes in for an attack it's a simple matter of blocking with the shield and stabbing with the spear (or sword, if the spear has been lost). Ninja is done for. Compound that with the fact that the Ninja is unarmored and the Spartan is and that makes all the difference in a one-on-one battle. Remember, Spartans were trained as warriors from birth. Ninja, in their basic form, were first farmers and civilians, then resistance fighters against the Samurai. That makes a huge difference as well.
If they were to try and take in to account every single strategy an enemy would use, more often than not there wouldn't end up being a battle at all. The Ninja, as has been said, would attack while the Spartan was unarmored, sleeping or whatever, and the Spartan would travel with a group and not have to worry about being attacked in the night because they would set up a watch. Similar cases go for almost every match up they have, which is why tactics need to be limited.