| Author |
Message |
    
Bill Nelson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
181
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 07:49 am: |   |
is it that in all (?) sci-fi movies, there are civilizations that have conquered space travel, have all sorts of neat electro "things", zap guns, robots et. al., but they still wear armor like the Roman Legions and mostly fight with swords? They've got those cool "blasters". What's with the swords?
bn |
Perry Comer
Unity Member
Post Number:
1392
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 08:07 am: | |
Hee hee Hee
I've been asking that question for years - All I can say is "that's entertainment" that's hollywood
I like the scene in Indiana Jones where the big guy in black comes at Indy swinging swords - Indy says, "Aw, what the heck!" draws his pistol and shoots the guy.
Answer this one - why bother with a light saber?
Give me a long range weapon like a sniper rifle. Maybe one like in an Arnold movie that has radar, sees through walls and can penetrate a tank. Oh, and throw in a box of those "follow you" bullets. NOW give me one of those and let me see what you can do with your light saber!
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
Harry Simenon
Wandering Member
Post Number:
154
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 09:41 am: | |
I think that Freud should be able to answer that one...
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Jarocal
Awareness Member
Post Number:
10
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 01:19 pm: | |
I think a lot of it has to do will the skill involved in combat with a sword or light saber type weapon. It takes quite a bit of strentgh, endurance, stamina, and skill to fight with a sword. Having a sniper rifle where you can sit 1000 meters away and sneak a shot on your opponent also seems less than honourable to many. A sniper rifle will also do you less good at point blank range with someone carrying a sword or battle axe which could be used to knock the barrel of the gun aside easily and then slice the would be shooter into ribbons. Any weapon has it's advantages and disadavantages. Archers have existed in war for thousands of years, they did not replace the sword merely were tools to use in a different form of fighting when that oppurtunity showed itself most archers still carried swords or at the very least daggors in case the enemy were too close to effectivley use Bows against. When modern guns became prevalent they actually replaced the bow and arrow not the sword and the sword did not disappear but shrank in size to become the bayonet and later a combat knife.
Even firearms are undergoing changes to better suit them for the changes occuring in fighting styles.longer ranged weapons are being substituted for shorter lighter weapons with a shorter range because many experts see urban warfare as the next real place for battles to occur. Sniper rifles are becoming the balance for the shortening of other weapons and are becoming the archers of yesteryear to thin an advancing force until they are within range of the other weapons. Even then once an enemy manages to get close enough for hand to hand combat and prevents the oppurtunity to shoot with a carbine, there are service pistols and combat kives still.
I think with the light sabres versus the laser blasters it comes down to a matter of skill and the ideal of honourable fighting methods. The Jedi Knight, as portrayed in the Star Wars stories, had trained to have such superior reflexes that they could deflect the shot from a laser with their sabre.
Another point of using Melee weapons would be that one adept in their use exides an aura of power. The characters in these stories all seem to have an innate power hidden in them (not necessarily magical) that makes them seem more atractive to our minds. In our reality swords and such weapons are considered primitive. In the stories the swords win out over the more advanced weapons and it intrigues us as readers and makes us turn the page.
Another point would be their connection to readers fascinations with real world mythos but that can wait for another post |
priceless1
Wandering Member
Post Number:
172
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 02:45 pm: | |
No, no, no, it's none of those things. They wear the clothing to show off their really great legs. They use swords because they know it excites the women.
Lynn
Lynn
behlerpublications.com
lynnprice.net
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Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1575
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 03:44 pm: | |
Aston West wouldn't be caught dead in a tight spot without his blaster......and doesn't have the physique to properly excite Lynn in a Roman legion uniform...
:-P
(I suppose I should really give my website link when I mention his name...especially since I've done some updating recently)
www.geocities.com/toddmhunter |
Harry Simenon
Wandering Member
Post Number:
156
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 03:51 pm: | |
That’s it! I will buy myself a sword. But I’m afraid I will cut off my own kneecaps! Great legs aye?
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Bill Nelson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
182
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 03:51 pm: | |
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give me a good old vaporizer any day.
I'd rather be an ignoble winner than a noble loser.
However, I would do anything to excite Lynn.
Pass me the damned laser sword and the short pants.
BN |
Perry Comer
Unity Member
Post Number:
1393
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 04:38 pm: | |
Having been shot at and shot down (in a helicopter not by Lynn)
give me the biggest gun with the best reach, shooting the most bullets
If you happen to have a lazer like in the movie about the tame gorilla that commnuicated by electroic means, I'll take one of those. Love the way it fried all those mean gorillas.
What I'm getting at is this -- in the future, man's weapons will be SMART and able to kill or stunn opponents without a person being physically involved. This thing of fighting with swords and such in the future is purely the invention of writers. It ain't going to be that way.
And all this martial arts stuff, naw! When was the last time your heard someone killing somebody with martial arts. Hands and feet as registered weapons?
I did like the weapon used in the orginal DUNE movie. Sonic - there you go 
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
Steven Shrewsbury
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
822
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 06:39 pm: | |
I think that it is a riot that all of these major fant novels that take place on "other worlds" all have a basis in earth history....Savages, Roman sort of things, Tar Tars etc...sigh. Gimme a break. Right about an era we can comprehend, ya nimrods...
Most of the time they have names that are TOO HARD TO REMEMBER. Like in LEGEND, the hero is named Druss. What kinda name is that? Sounds like a device to keep your nuts secure.
That is why I chose simple names folks can remember...easy to retype, too. Lucan, Fey, Thorn, etc...
I really need to stop posting after I drink so much after mowing the lawn
Night night
www.stevenshrewsbury.com |
F.E. Mazur (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 4.224.189.251
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 03:57 am: | |
I think maybe Calvin could answer this question better than anyone. Probably Hobbs, too. |
Joy Lee Rutter
Hunger Member
Post Number:
84
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 02:57 pm: | |
Same reason Wile E. Coyote can purchase TNT and other means of mass destruction for that puny Roadrunner, but hasn't managed to hit the A&P for a REAL meal, like a juicy rib-eye steak.
Joy |
LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1490
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 03:31 pm: | |
I wanted a sword, to match some of the female leads who kick ass in my 12th century set novels.
But my husband said I couldn't have one.
Had something to do with that incident where I walked into a non-moving chainsaw and tried to remove my foot from my leg. I think he used words similar to "accident-prone" and "tragedy waiting to happen" in that argument, but I wasn't really listening past the word "no"...I was too busy putting on the pout face to make him give in.
Must be the sight of the medical file behind me deterred his weakening by the pout face, 'cause it sure didn't work this time.
Boy. The way some people have this obsession with having all of your body parts attached in the proper manner.....lol
LA
www.authorsinkbooks.com
Available now: THE BUTTERFLY GAME by Gloria Davidson Marlow
Coming Soon: DARKNESS AND DREAMS by Elura Michael-Josephine Coren
LaurieAnne
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Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1319
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 06:14 pm: | |
Hey LAurieAnne,
You have to be happy though, that he like the body parts all attached in the right manner and places. Makes for a better love life, I assure you.
Claudia |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
906
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 06:58 am: | |
When you think of primitive weapons being used in modern warfare, it becomes much less of a fantasy when looking back at the Viet Nam conflict. |
Daniel Martinez
Awareness Member
Post Number:
5
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 04:14 pm: | |
Not *all* sci-fi movies and books are like that. Michael Chricton's The Sphere was a science fiction-type book and movie, and there were no crazy weapons. Nor were there any in Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (although there *were* beings that had conquered time and space travel). I've written a science fiction entitled Artemis Grant (http://dreampassage.com) which has nothing to do with space, primitive weapons, nor strange, alien beings.
I tend to write a lot of fanasy novels, in response to what Steven said, but they tend to be realistic fantasies -- meaning they take place in the real world, but strange things happen. My work in progress, A History of Mendoh, is part out-and-out fantasy with wizards and elves and fairies and dwelves, but the whole History is a collection of books -- and one of them is a supense/thriller, written in modern day, and another is about mice and rats in a research facility (actually, underneath the research facility, in the sewage system).
I don't usually use a lot of history or ancient government in my books, because I never really paid attention in history class. Neither have I ever read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, nor any other major fantasy that I probably "should have" read before "deciding" to become a fantasy novelist. But I think I didn't actually decide to write fantasy (I actually like to read Michael Crichton, Stephen King, John Grisham, Perri O'Shaughnessy and the like, so you would think my books would be more like theirs): fantasy decided that I would be its writer.
Rarely do I have any sci-fi weapons in my books (i.e. light-sabers, ray guns, sabers and swords in general), and rarely do I use magic to implement good or evil; I think it's been over-done. I think the one exception is my first novel, written to follow Star Wars, which has plenty of typical sci-fi happy crappy. But that was five years and nineteen novels ago -- I've matured and moved on since then.
-- Daniel Martinez,
Novelist
http://novelistdanielm.com |
Kevin R. Paglia
Hunger Member
Post Number:
59
Registered: 07-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 04:42 pm: | |
In Exile (Christian sci-fi for the newbies)I have several primitive weapons mantioned in passing. They are more of a status symbol/collectors things though, not used in real warfare. The weapons I come up with for my sci-fi are much more fun than "ray" guns. Like the opening scene in Exile were a character gets hit with a weapon that destabilizes the gravitational bond between the atoms of your body causing you to "fade away like a bunch of ballons in a wind", let's see, I also have magnisum guns where the magnesium bullets ignite when they hit you, taser tech for aggretion disipation, and dark matter "lasers". I was thinking about joining the military when I was younger for their R&D stuff but I didn't want to actually see any of the weapons I see in my head actually made.
Kevin |
LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1509
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 06:14 pm: | |
Hey, Paglia,
I think you hit something on the head there without even thinking about it.
"much more fun that 'ray' guns"
That is the plain and simple truth.
So, why do so many sci-fi creations with such educated and advanced civilizations contain swords and sword-like items?
If they didn't, the readers/watchers would toss the book aside or walk out ten minutes into the movie.
Seriously, ladies and gentleman, let's think about it. If it amounted to something like, "Our minds are so developed that we can disseminate your planet with a mere thought. Here it goes......Poof! You've been destroyed." Come on. Would you really find any interest in that?
Action. That's where the reader's attention lies. Not just dodge and shoot action...hand-to-hand combat. Real life fighting that involves skill and amazing feats of acrobatics.
Even with Star Trek, in order to keep things interesting, the alien beings had to have the ability to disable the lasers, forcing the crew of the Enterprise into old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. Without real activity, the interest dies.
Yes, we want to stretch our imaginations, but we also want an adrenalin rush with our reading.
(Of course, this may have been said somewhere up above, but I only skimmed some of these messages, so could have missed it. JMO)
LA
www.authorsinkbooks.com
LaurieAnne
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Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1584
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 07:21 pm: | |
Actually, not to belabor the Star Wars line of this thread, but the idea of a huge high-powered laser able to destroy an entire planet was more than enough to capture millions (billions?) of people's attention during the original Star Wars movie (Episode IV)...
Weaponry is simply a byproduct of the tale...the true draw for any good sci-fi is going to be in the storyline...
LA's example:
"Our minds are so developed that we can disseminate your planet with a mere thought. Here it goes......Poof! You've been destroyed."
"Come on. Would you really find any interest in that?"
This may or may not gain our interest...depending on how the story flows from there, as well as how the story may possibly flow from the beginning of the sentence to the end.
Perhaps the tale is one of a single person attempting to stop the 'developed minds' from destroying the planet (obviously, he/she fails)...many good plots could be used for that sort of a tale.
Perhaps the tale begins with the destruction of the planet. Any potential survivors have to populate another planet (and perhaps face extinction from the 'developed minds' who discover their existence).
There are numerous other avenues that could be taken with that premise...which I won't bother to list here...
Light sabres, in the Star Wars universe, I believe are still in use because the Jedi stems from an ancient order...thus they use 'primitive weapons', even though better ones are available (as is pointed out by at least one character (Han Solo) in the original trilogy).
But I digress...weapons are still just devices of the plot...as one of mine (one of the outlawed weapons in my universe) which slowly burns its victims from the inside out, turning them into a pile of organic ash...whew! The scene in which this takes place has no hand-to-hand combat, and there is no 'action' per se (until the victim receives their fitting end). The draw of the scene is the conflict between the characters, and the choice of weapon is there simply to advance the plot along. |
Kevin R. Paglia
Hunger Member
Post Number:
60
Registered: 07-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 02:35 pm: | |
In one of my "test" stories (I now harvest it for characters and technology since it is not in line with what I write now) I had a species that thought it was rude to fire at an opponent without seeing them. In their philosophy there war/conflict/combat was a way of both demostrating strength AND respect. Every one of their fighters carried a meter long iron stick with a mace head at one end and a point at the other. In the story they come to fight Earth's military to see if we are worthy to be their allies. No point in having weak allies is there. Of course the story was that some humans (due to radiation and experimentations by government) developed advanced psychic abilities like the main character that could "sense" what was going to happen seconds before it did so in hand to hand she was moving before you even started your attack. I did away with most laser and projectile type weapons because you don't want that stray shot to hit anything vital and blow a hole in space.
One of my more fun weapons developed by the humans was an Electromagnetic disruption pod. Capable of shutting down just about any computer it hits. HMMM, in space and your computer crashes, that could be bad.
Kevin |
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