Seriously, tell me how a man or woman dressed in leather or
fur, or heaven forbid, nothing more than wispy gauze can face off against
professional soldiers dressed in chain, plate and chain or even full plate
armor and win. Oh I get it, these are
heroes, the heroes are supposed to win; it’s part of their reason for being.
The bulging muscles of Conan, hero of Robert E. Howard, were girded in furs or
cloth or on occasion chain armor. Which makes sense because the world he is
envisioned is one where such armor or lack of, is expected.
But I have issues with stories taking place in a more
medieval setting where the heroes are wearing chain bikinis, or simple leather
armor or *gasp* are bare-chested and
never once worry about the people facing off against them.
Presumably the soldiers in fantasy stories are professional
fighting men and women, skilled in their martial style, wearing armor and
fighting as a unit. Yet we constantly see them bested by semi-naked or naked
heroes, which simply doesn’t make much sense. I understand we want our heroes
to survive; in fact it is vital that they do survive for the sake of the story.
But anyone who has been involved in a melee will tell you, your head has to be
on a swivel or you will get poked, sliced or otherwise hit in some way. It is
not reality to write that the hero will survive unscathed, and while heroic
fantasy is in fact fantasy, there has to be a modicum of realism to make us
care for the character. A clear and present sense of danger if you will, that
at any moment, our hero may suffer defeat.
This brings me to weapons. Swords are not just tools that
can be interspersed willy-nilly into a fantasy novel. If you are talking
medieval fantasy with a European backdrop, you will be hard pressed to find the
Katana of a Samurai, or a heavy bronze shield of a Spartan. They just don’t
fit; seriously they are not part of the medieval references that the writer is
drawing from. And no, a Katana is not the end all be all sword, regardless of
the hype the Japanese propagate.
When you write heroic
fantasy, please try and keep the weapons and armor relatively close to the
period you are describing, and don’t down play the skill of the soldiers you
are slaughtering helter-skelter by the hundreds. They may not be as skilled as
your hero, but in large numbers they can be dauntingly effective.
