History Headscratchers / DeadliestWarrior

* The fans {{completely missing the point}} in the Musketeer Vs. Ming Aftermath. Honestly, it's just half an hour of French Bashing.

** Read the comments on Spike's website for any episode and you'll see a litany of FanDumb - it's one thing to complain that one of the recreation fights at the end wasn't realistic or wasn't well done, but these people seem to honestly believe that they're computer-generated simulations that decide the outcome of the episode. You'll see comments like "Come on - if he hadn't just stood there staring at the pipe bomb, the Taliban guy would have won!" No, loyal Spike TV viewer, if the IRA hadn't won the matchup, the person who wrote and choreographed the final fight (with the specific intent of showcasing all the weapons from the episode and arriving at the winner determined by the computer program by any means necessary) wouldn't have written in the part where the pipe bomb kills someone. (And that's just the ones that are there to actually discuss the episode and not just [[CulturalPosturing make racist comments]], or brag about their own alleged [[InternetToughGuy martial expertise]].

*** Meh. They rehashed the {{Mafia}} in the James/Capone matchup.

*** The GSG9 isn't exactly the German equivalent of the US's general SWAT teams. They're more like the equivalent of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, which is a "super-SWAT" unit based on the US Army's Delta Force, with similar selection and training, and often said to be fully on par with members of the US's various Tier 1/Special Mission Unit operators. GSG9 routinely trains with them, too, as well as with various actual elite Tier 1 international military units such as the famed SAS and Germany's own KSK. Basically, the SWAT team should have been made into mincemeat.

* Green Berets vs. Spetsnaz. They immediately failed experimental design 101 by testing the two grenades under completely different circumstances, with the Spetsnaz guy throwing his in a washing machine and the Green Beret throwing his in a tall, glass box thing. Seriously guys, if you want to * prove* that one thing is better than something else, you ''have'' to do it under the same circumstances, or you end up with confounding variables. They failed again with the firearms later, which [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] pointed out in his own review of the show. To paraphrase him, by setting up these little obstacle courses, the show is testing the user instead of the weapon. So what if the Green Beret guy hit one more target with his pistol? [[YouFailLogicForever That doesn't prove that the Green Beret pistol is better]], it just proves the Green Beret himself shot more targets in that specific situation. There are a myriad of reasons this could have happened. I will say, though, that at least in these more modern situations, they do a much better job at choosing comparable weapons. I mean, chakram vs. a ''scorpion? Seriously?''

** Actually, that points out another [[YouFailHistoryForever history failure]] on the part of the show. The Waffen-SS were not an 'elite' organization in the German military. In fact, some Waffen-SS division received ''worse'' training and equipment than the standard Wermacht divisions. ''Some'' of the divisions were elite, mainly the first, second, and third, but because the Waffen-SS was made up of volunteers, there was no guarantee of quality. But I would agree that yes, at this point the show is just trying to milk controversy for ratings. So, just another reason for me to hate this show.

** Worse still is that this makes the victories almost meaningless. If the winner will be gimped anyway to the point that his victory seems like a matter of luck ("it could've gone either way!") it comes sooner across as a weak excuse to dissuade the many complaints of biased testing ([[YouFailLogicForever "it's not biased if the battle was close!"]]).

* The {{fan backlash}} {{completely missing the point}} in the Musketeer Vs. Ming Aftermath. Honestly, it's just half an hour of French Bashing.

* If you want to complain about a single specific moment, use the DarthWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck page.

* Not wanting to sound like an Internet nerd, but Spartan vs. Ninja really bugged me. No way would a single ninja reveal himself in broad daylight. He would sneak into the Spartan camp and kill the Spartan in their sleep. The whole episode was just a FanWank to ThreeHundred.

*** I had the opposite reaction: I didn't think they'd be promoting the Spartan as such a MemeticBadass had the film [[ThreeHundred 300]] not come out shortly before this episode.

* JoanOfArc? What, why? She's just a [[FauxActionGirl farmgirl]], and she [[ThouShaltNotKill never actually killed anyone. In fact, she held her banner with both hands so as to avoid using her sword]].

* {{Headscratchers}} is for plot holes, not an excuse to complain about anything and everything that annoys you.

* Knight vs. Pirate struck me as the most unfair episode of all. The only weapon the pirate brought that actually penetrated the knight's armor was shown to misfire more often than actually work and it took too long to reload to get a second shot; and the test assumed the knight wouldn't be holding his shield in front of his torso as he charged the pirate. Meanwhile, every weapon the knight brought cut right through the pirate. The grenado test was especially egregious as they suspended the thing right next to a suit of armor (despite the fact that it required its user to light a long fuse and then throw it - useful when thrown aboard an enemy ship, but not exactly likely to go off anywhere near a mobile enemy; and again, they assume the knight wouldn't hold his shield up when someone threw a flaming metal ball at him) and it ''still'' doesn't penetrate it. Nevertheless, they give it an edge over a morningstar that crushed a skull to powder with a single blow on the rationale that the loud explosion could be disorienting. One would think that someone used to fighting and training wearing a ''metal helmet'' in the midst of other people covered completely in metal would be more likely to suffer from hearing loss than to be easily disoriented by loud noises. And even if you allow that the grenado might be effective as a shock weapon, that's giving "concussion" an edge over "skull reduced to powder." One of the show's mantras is "This is ''Deadliest'' Warrior, not Most (whatever non-lethal effect a weapon has just demonstrated) Warrior," and it's possibly the only time a weapon that couldn't score a lethal wound has been given an edge over a lethal one.

This was probably the worst simulation on the show. The pirate got numerous kills for weapons that were simply unable to pierce the knight's armor. 15 kills by a slashing weapon against an opponent in full plate? Nearly 200 kills by a weapon incapable of even damaging the knight's armor? Their "state of the art simulator", made by a company with a name right out of Harry Potter, is clearly just a medium consulting pirate ghosts.

This is especially odd when you consider the ninja's black eggs, when used in the simulator against the Spartans, lost the edge to the Spartan spear (IIRC) for not being 'deadly', despite being ''far'' more distracting than a grenado would have been. That whole match-up just seemed ridiculously skewed towards the pirate.

*** Horses and the arquebus(or tempo, by it's Japanese name) were common things that the Samurai used, and your whole argument is "that doesn't count". But for the sake of argument, let's say the Samurai got into his armor, grabbed his spear and bow, but not an arquebus for whatever reason and left his horse because he just felt like going for a walk with all of that stuff that day. The Samurai would still defeat the Spartan he came across. I've listed my reasons why, if you looked into Sojutsu you'd know that there are several ways to get around the Spartan's defense. The stuff I'm telling you here isn't obscure, it's right there on ThatOtherWiki if you want. Or if you're a huge wikipedia naysayer there's a book I can recommend "Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior" by Thomas D. Conlan. I will gladly give you one point though "this show's focus was never meticulous historical accuracy", you're right, it wasn't. This is one of the least accurate shows on television. Scroll down a little, look at what people have already said and try to find a retort for all of it. This show isn't about historical accuracy, if it was it wouldn't be on Spike. But without historical accuracy, these aren't warriors they're portraying but loose characitures thereof. And given the overall accuracy of this show, the Spartan portrayl is likely about as accurate as the Samurai one, i.e. ''not''. Your point about "this is the Deadliest Warrior", no, they've only ever paid mind to the weapons not the warriors themselves, and the use of the horse and arquebus makes the Samurai more deadly in a one on one fight, that's just the way it is. Anyway, this has gone on for a lot longer than it needed to, if you have anything further to say it would be in both our best interest for you to PM me instead.

** My first thought was...''NightAtTheMuseum''.

* The Vikings in episode 2 were viewed as raiders who fought for quick booty, but in reality they were just likely to be soldiers who fought for the control of the entire country, or served as a bodyguard to a chief or an emperor. Their main chose of short range weapon wasn't just an axe, it was also a sword. As long range weapons they didn't just use spears, they were just as likely to use bows with penetrating arrows, or even rocks thrown with deadly force. Their skills were underestimated, since they trained at fighting at least once every day, usually with experienced Vikings as teachers. They didn't just fight for a chance to go to Valhalla when they died, many Vikings were Christians and they were still just as BadAss.

** Or maybe TheyJustDidntCare and wanted to show a sword fight like any other swrod fight on the show: the two warriows bash their swords together until one person hits the other.

** I'm didn't say that blog was 100% accurate and the Word of Truth, just that it was a good place to start. There were a lot of issues that were very real, like how the grenado was even going to be used in a one-on-one fight at all, how the crossbow would have likely eliminated the pirate before he got close enough to fire any of his weapons, and the overwhelming advantage of the knight in close-quarters combat due to his armor.

*** Season 3's superior testing may have provided an answer to this admittedly long-winded argument: An armor comparison between Chingiz(Genghis) Khan and Hannibal Barca showed Hannibal's armor to flat-out fail..two things to keep in mind: 1. Chingiz's armor and weaponry are roughly in the same league as the Samurai, but probably inferior, and 2. Hannibal was the leading statesman and general in Carthage, a state which had wealth and resources that Sparta couldn't ''begin to dream about''. So at the very least, his armor will equal that of the Spartan's, and will probably exceed it in quality. So, the comparison is valid. As far as the horse goes...it's a fair question. In this troper's opinion, the show needs to strike a fair balance between a fair fight and historical reality; if we are going to ask "who can beat who", then we need to acknowledge that some warriors will have advantages that others will not..in some ways, the above statement shaped the world we live in.
*** Hannibal's armor did ''not'' "flat-out fail." His bronze chest-plate stopped a thrust from reaching deep enough to injure him, and the statistics for the fight showed that it was only penetrated 4.22% of the time. That is, it failed one time out of every twenty-three or twenty-four strikes to the armor. The only part of his armor that had a significant rate of failure was his helmet, which was not the same helmet that the Spartan used and was made of brass instead of bronze. The Samurai's naginata, being a cutting and piercing weapon, would not have the sheer force behind it to break through solid metal armor, even primitive varieties like the Spartan's or Hannibal's, and would probably achieve a similar result as the Turko-Mongol Saber.
*** Again, wrong. For one, they never attempted to pierce the Spartan chestplate with the naginata during the re-test. Naginata were perfectly fine for thrusting like a spear, and steel is three times as strong as bronze, bar none. The fact that the steel-age samurai lost to the bronze-age Spartan is ridiculous at best and downright comical at worst. The fact that the Spartan's sword didn't immediately break on contact with the samurai katana shows DW's commitment to "accuracy." Even with the shield, the Spartan's inferior armor would have done him in immediately.
*** You're still stuck on the misconception that steel being stronger means that it will automatically cut through bronze like it's made of butter. Bladed weapons do not pierce armor well, armor was made for the express purpose of keeping them out. Having a sword/naginata made out of a stronger material will not change the fact that you're trying to pierce or cut through solid metal. You could dent it, pierce a tiny distance in, and chip a weaker sword, but the battle will be over before you could cherry tap the bronze to failing point. Again, look at the Turko-Mongol saber's effect on Hannibal's bronze breastplate. What are you arguing, that they used a cheap replica instead of a real steel sword, since it didn't match your perception of steel going cleanly through any bronze in its path?
*** It's not a "misconception" at all. There's a reason that bronze was dropped in favor of iron-forged weapons as soon as ironworking techniques were developed. And it was because steel was a far superior metal that could destroy bronze weapons and armor without much effort.

* AlexanderTheGreat vs. AttilaTheHun. Dear ''God''...

*** If they really cared about political correctness, then they wouldn't have had IRA vs. Taliban or Waffen-SS vs. Viet Cong. And by the way, in the latter matchup, the Nazis won.