Ninjas weren't "guys with little throwing stars" who ran around in dumb costumes and did crazy martial arts. They were either samurai trained in stealth in espionage or farmers with improvised weapons. They weren't warriors, they were assassins. The most common thing they did was arson or intelligence gathering.
That's why they shouldn't have been on the show. They didn't fight. They stabbed people who werent looking.
^I agree that Spartan vs. Ninja was not the best matchup, but you and me differ on our reasons. You say that ninjas are more assassins than warriors, and I say that the potential of meme exploitation was wasted. I never had any problem with any of the matchups except for Spetsnaz vs. IRA (because as everyone knows, putting what might be called terrorists in a direct confrontation with one of the finest spec-ops/counter terrorist groups in the world is so suspenseful) and Zombies vs. Vampires (it's stupid to do that kind of fight on a show that had always been about real life warriors).
"Spetsnaz vs. IRA (because as everyone knows, putting what might be called terrorists in a direct confrontation with one of the finest spec-ops/counter terrorist groups in the world is so suspenseful"
You have been mentioning that way to much. They used this match up because they where both winners of their own original rounds (Taliban V IRA and Spetsnaz V Green Berrets), then put them together because hey, they both won and exist in about in the same basic time. It's not like they said "Hey, lets pick to random things to fight *Rolls dice*" and made the match, they had a bases for it as "Previous Winner V Previous Winner".
I don't know why nobody seems to like the the Spartan V Ninja, it seems like everyone wanted the ninja to win for some reason. It isn't like Teddy Roosevelt would have actually gotten into a fight post- ruff riders, or that Sun Tzu would get into a one-one one battle. Its about coolness factor, really. It's "Wouldn't it be cool if we could get, like, a ninja to fight, like, one of those guys from 300?" then half an hour of weapons testing (I like the tests, but whatever), then a fight. Ninjas fighting Spartans? Cool. So why not.
I think that Ninja vs. Hashashin would've made for a far better matchup. Not an out-in-the-open fight, but to see who'd be best at covert assassination.
"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"Leave a Comment:
Spartan vs. Ninja: Look Past The Controversy
The most controversial episode of the show is arguably Spartan vs. Ninja. I, however, found no problem with the result. For all the people who say Spartans fight as a unit or that ninjas would never fight in the open, the point of the show is straight-forward Mano-a-Mano combat. Just think about it: how many times have both combatants had identities as people who favored single combat?
Almost everybody on the show is outside their comfort zone (people like Napoleon and Vlad would have a lot more than a four guys guarding them, and the IRA and Taliban rarely fight their opponents head-on). Even though putting an unarmored man with little throwing stars and a lonely sword against a B.C.-Era Terminator seems like an odd choice, I just saw the fight as a simple Mighty Glacier vs. Fragile Speedster setup, and thought the result was completely justified.
The fight was one of the first of the show, and it was pretty cool. I can say it was the episode that got me to become a regular viewer. I found the tests to be boring, but the fight blew me away. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I liked it, even if it was only something new.
However, the show missed a huge opportunity here: do a pirate instead of the spartan. Ride the hype of the meme and settle the debate soundly.
A good episode overall. Don't let the hatred and complaints ruin it for you.