In a message dated 2/18/01 6:07:51 AM Eastern Standard Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes:
<< For a supposedly experienced warrior it seems a bit daft to have all limbs exposed to any sharp edge that might be flying around. Mediaeval warriors plastered themselves with every last bit of metal plating they could stand up in (sometimes even two helmets, one on top of the other). Xena (like Conan in the De Laurentiis movies) is all image.
Er, the Celts fought absolutely naked. And warriors in Xena's "time" wore "skirts." So to speak.
Annie
From: Ashton7@aol.com
Er, the Celts fought absolutely naked. And warriors in Xena's "time" wore "skirts." So to speak.
Yeah, and look what happened to them.But I was being facetious. I could have demolished my own argument just by citing the Romans, or the Spartans (though I'd overlooked the Zulus - mind you, look what happened to them as well).
My preference for lots of armour is largely an aesthetic whim, which is why I prefer Excalibur and the 13th Warrior over swords'n'sandals epics. Another aesthetic whim is for women who aren't depicted in babe mode, so Xena doesn't really have a prayer where I'm concerned.
ObB7: I seem to be in a minority that actually liked Cally's red Saurian Major outfit. It makes her look chunky.
Neil
Neil said:
My preference for lots of armour is largely an aesthetic whim,
At some point lots of armor becomes dysfunctional though--it has a lot to do with the likelihood of falling on one's face and the unlikelihood for getting up again.
ObB7: I seem to be in a minority that actually liked Cally's red Saurian Major outfit. It makes her look chunky.
Speaking as a chunky person myself, I wouldn't go that far--but I think it's a little conspicuous for guerilla work.
-(Y)
----- Original Message ----- From: Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net
(though I'd overlooked the Zulus - mind you, look what happened to them as well).
Not fair-- they were fighting with spears, knobkerries and what rifles they could obtain against an enemy armed with the best weapons technology the British Empire could muster. At that, the fact that they managed to *win* against the British most of the time (including the brill battle of Isandlhwana, which I probably can't spell) despite these limitations, is pretty darn stunning.
ObB7: I seem to be in a minority that actually liked Cally's red Saurian Major outfit. It makes her look chunky.
I'd have to say I prefer it to some of the airy-fairy things she wore later on, which tended to make her look a bit stick-insecty.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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From: Fiona Moore nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk
(though I'd overlooked the Zulus - mind you, look what happened to them
as
well).
Not fair-- they were fighting with spears, knobkerries and what rifles
they
could obtain against an enemy armed with the best weapons technology the British Empire could muster. At that, the fact that they managed to *win* against the British most of the time (including the brill battle of Isandlhwana, which I probably can't spell) despite these limitations, is pretty darn stunning.
The Zulus didn't win at Isandhlwana (I can't spell it either). The British threw away an easy victory. They left gaps in the ranks where companies out on patrol should have been, and they put the quartermaster wagons in the wrong places so the QMs (with typical jobswurf pigheadedness) refused to hand out ammunition to soldiers from the 'wrong' regiments. Until the ammunition ran crucially short, it was not so much a battle as a massacre. A few years later, at Ulundi (not that many people have even heard of that battle), the British got it right and the Zulus hadn't a prayer. Despite being braver, better drilled and better motivated (take the legendary story where Cetsewayo marched a unit of troops off a cliff, then invited the British commander to match that).
The British also won at Rorke's Drift, and won lots of gongs as a result, but then they were up against a surplus force from Isandhlwana who had marched two days with hardly a break and were very tired, very hungry, and perhaps not that desperate to seize what was after all a pretty minor objective.
ObB7: I seem to be in a minority that actually liked Cally's red Saurian Major outfit. It makes her look chunky.
I'd have to say I prefer it to some of the airy-fairy things she wore
later
on, which tended to make her look a bit stick-insecty.
I like the stick insect look as well, though:)
Neil
Neil said [re Zulu combatants]:
Despite being braver, better drilled and better motivated (take the legendary
story
where Cetsewayo marched a unit of troops off a cliff, then invited the British commander to match that).
Not my idea of motivation--the OTHER side is supposed to kill your soldiers. I can easily imagine Blake giving that order. I just can't imagine a rush to obey it.
-(Y)
----- Original Message ----- From: Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net
The Zulus didn't win at Isandhlwana (I can't spell it either). The
British
threw away an easy victory.
OK, I bow to your superior knowledge-- I'm well outclassed here :). Although that wasn't *quite* how my History and Ethnography of Southern Africa professor put it when I was an undergraduate (but then, I think he took the attitude that right was always on the Zulu side)... I *did* remember about Rorke's Drift though, cos that was IIRC the nail in the coffin for the Zulu.
ObB7: I seem to be in a minority that actually liked Cally's red
Saurian
Major outfit. It makes her look chunky.
I'd have to say I prefer it to some of the airy-fairy things she wore
later
on, which tended to make her look a bit stick-insecty.
I like the stick insect look as well, though:)
IMO, Cally hit her costuming peak around the middle of Season 3. I really do love that grey outfit with the firey pattern.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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