History Series / DeadliestWarrior

* ArcherArchetype: Bows are used by lots of warriors before the invention of gunpowder. Interestingly, archery was a skill ''both'' sides brought to the table in the "Alexander the Great vs. Attila the Hun" battle; Attila and company used traditional bows and arrows, although it was the powerful composite recurve bow, while Alexander and his men used the more esoteric gastraphetes (the belly bow) and, if you want to stretch it a little, the ballista. Although historically speaking, the gastraphetes was rarely used and never produced in any significant quantity. The gastraphetes was a bulky and poorly designed crossbow, so Alexander preferred to use archers with normal bows as well.
** Historically, Alexander also used horse-archers, but to a much lesser degree and was quite rare. Most of Alexander's army were phalangites, basically soldiers carrying a giant 18 foot pike - that would have been utterly useless in single combat. Geoff Desmoulin says they brought in the ballista because [[RuleOfCool "how can you NOT test that weapon"?]]. The Roman Scorpion also operates by the same logic, being a gigantic torsion catapult. Both, however, were originally siege weapons--and several say that the idea of bringing in siege weapons for one-on-one combat is...questionable.
** When the Zande experts show off their bow, Max Geiger isn't impressed. "We've seen ''a lot'' of bows and arrows." And, indeed, the Zande are the only archers yet to not be all that impressive.

* DropTheHammer: William Wallace brought a warhammer of impressive size ''and'' clout.

** In French Foreign Legion vs. Gurkhas, a dummy gets it’s eye shot by the bolt action rifle of the Gurkhas.

* BoobsOfSteel:
** The [[DarkActionGirl female KGB agent]] in the KGB vs. CIA episode.
** UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc in the Deadliest Warrior Legends game, growing at least 4 cup sizes. She also has literal BoobsOfSteel with rather form-fitting chestplate armor.

* RatedMForManly: Oh, where to even ''begin'' with this.
** Seriously, also how the French Musketeer is presented.
** Once you take a man that personifies AuthorityEqualsAsskicking, such as UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and put him in the mix, this show may have moved to TestosteronePoisoning levels.

* ManOnFire: In IRA VS the Taliban, the IRA bring a flamethrower to add a little gas to things. According to the doctor, it would be a nightmarishly horrible way to die--even after you get out of the flames, your bones would still be cooking you from the inside.

* BladeOnAStick: Almost too many to list, the list carrying the following weapons: the Samurai ''naginata'', the Spartan ''dory'' spear, three types of halberds (used by the Knight, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, and Hernán Cortés), the ''xyston'' of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, the Zande ''makrigga'', the Centurion's ''pilum'' javelin, a Persian spear that didn't have a name attached to it, the Celtic ''lancea'', the Comanche war lance, a Mongol glaive, Genghis Khan's ''jida'' lance, Hannibal's ''soliferrum'' javelin, and Ivan the Terrible's ''bardiche'' poleaxe. Nearly all of them proved extremely effective.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: During the season finale live Aftermath, a simple one was played using clips of dialogue from Max Brooks (zombie expert and son of Creator/MelBrooks).

* ShownTheirWork: Every episode is one gigantic orgasm of research, testing, and displaying work before the final showdown. However, there have been protests against the research, with some people crying DanBrowned. In the show's defense, there is a lot of testing and research done that is not shown because of time constraints.

* DanBrowned: There's controversy about the scientific and statistical validity of the tests and whether the experts know what they're talking about. Some people have legitimate complaints about the capabilities of individual warriors portrayed in situations. Others are just nerd raging.
** As a note, the combat scene follows RuleOfCool and is not really intended to be well researched or informative.

* AnAxeToGrind: One of the most common weapon archetypes seen on the show. Some examples include the Apache's tomahawk, Viking's great axe, the Knight, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler's, and Cortez's halberds, Attila's scythian axe, the Immortal's sagaris, and Ivan the Terrible's bardiche.

* SaiGuy: One of the Yakuza's weapons.

* WeaponOfChoice: Each side is given about four or five different ones, which are graded against each other.