Warfare experts rate 12 'Game of Thrones' scenes for realism

Insider

Weapons masters and warfare historians rate 12 "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" scenes for realism.  Roel Konijnendijk teaches ancient history at the University of Oxford's Lincoln College. He rates battle scenes and swords and buckles in "House of the Dragon" (2022), featuring Matt Smith.   Blacksmith Neil Kamimura rates forging scenes from "Game of Thrones" for realism.  Archer Jim Kent, aka Grizzly Jim, breaks down bow and archery accuracy in "Game of Thrones."  Evan Wilson is an assistant professor at the US Naval War College and an expert in 18th-century naval warfare. Wilson rates naval warfare scenes in "Game of Thrones" (2017).  Medieval-fortification expert Michael Fulton is an assistant professor of medieval history at Western University in Ontario, Canada. He looks at fortress defense scenes from "Game of Thrones" S2E9 (2012).  Jousting world champion Shane Adams rates horseback and jousting fight scenes in "Game of Thrones" for realism.  Toby Capwell is a medieval-weapons expert as well as an author, lecturer, broadcaster, and the curator of arms and armor at The Wallace Collection in London. Capwell assesses the accuracy of armor and weapons used in "Game of Thrones."  Dave Rawlings has over 15 years of experience teaching Western swordsmanship, and he teaches longsword at the London Longsword Academy. He looks at duels from "Game of Thrones."  Rebecca Simon, a piracy historian and professor of history at Santa Monica College, rates pirate battles from "House of the Dragon" E2 and E3 (2022), for realism.   Grizzly Jim www.instagram.com/thatgrizzlyjim  Roel Konijnendijk https://twitter.com/roelkonijn  Neil Kamimura https://www.instagram.com/rpm_neil/  Shane Adams https://www.extremejousting.com/about-us  Michael Fulton https://westernu.academia.edu/MichaelFulton  Evan Wilson https://twitter.com/wilsonevan    Toby Capwell  https://www.instagram.com/tobiascapwell  Dave Rawlings www.londonlongsword.com  Rebecca Simon http://rebecca-simon.com/

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:03 - Yep, if someone has got their back to you

00:04 and you have a spear, do stab them in the back of the leg.

00:06 My name's David Browning,

00:07 of the London Longsword Academy.

00:08 - My name's Jim Kent.

00:09 - My name's Erol Kren-Eyandag.

00:11 - Hi, my name is Neil Kamimura.

00:12 - Hello, my name is Dr. Rebecca Simon.

00:14 - Hi, I'm Toby Capwell.

00:15 - Hi, I'm Shane Adams, the owner of the Knights of Valor.

00:18 - Hi, my name is Evan Wilson.

00:19 - Dr. Michael Fulton.

00:20 - Today, we'll be looking at Game of Thrones scenes

00:23 and judge how real they are.

00:24 (dramatic music)

00:30 (dramatic music)

00:32 - He's got what we'll call a cant on the bow there.

00:35 I tend to shoot with a little bit of a cant.

00:37 It opens up the sight window as well.

00:39 If your bow's up straight like that,

00:41 generally, the thing you're trying to shoot

00:42 is gonna be hidden by the bow.

00:44 So, I tend to drop the bow out of the way a little bit,

00:47 which is what he's doing.

00:48 He's clearly pointing one way,

00:50 but you can see the arrow on his hand

00:51 pointing the other way.

00:52 And a lot of people call that the archer's paradox.

00:54 The archer's paradox is the fact

00:56 that the arrow's pointing off to the left

00:59 when you're actually pointing at the target at the right.

01:01 That's the paradox, and it's the flexing of the arrow

01:04 that makes it travel downrange.

01:07 Could I kill this dude running away?

01:14 Depends on the distance.

01:15 I'm only really accurate up to probably about 30 meters.

01:20 I'd get him eventually.

01:22 See, I'd be zigging and zagging.

01:23 I'd be serpentining.

01:28 There is a type of archery called a clout,

01:31 typically done by English longbow archers,

01:34 which is long-distance shooting

01:36 where you shoot at a flag in the ground,

01:40 sort of 180, 200 yards away,

01:42 shooting up, shooting down closest to the flag.

01:45 So, there are people that can shoot

01:46 very, very well at long range.

01:49 Medieval longbow archers could be pretty accurate.

01:53 The bow looked like it had what they called pony limbs,

01:57 where you've got the basic bow,

01:59 and then you'd have another set of limbs

02:01 that come off the front.

02:02 So, that limb is attached to that limb,

02:04 and that limb is attached to that limb,

02:06 and that gives you way more power.

02:08 So, it would be perfect for that kind of, you know,

02:11 killing dudes running away kind of archery.

02:14 I'm gonna need a nine for Game of Thrones, I think.

02:17 - Hello, everyone.

02:17 My name is Ruhl Gunn-Einleinberg.

02:18 I teach ancient history at the University of Oxford.

02:26 - The coordination required to do this

02:28 is completely impossible.

02:29 There were battle formations

02:31 where you would have shield balls in front

02:33 and then spears sticking out

02:34 to sort of drive the enemy back.

02:36 Obviously, the Macedonian pikemen

02:37 are the big famous example.

02:38 There are Mesopotamian examples from, like,

02:41 way back 2000 BC.

02:43 It wouldn't work like this, though.

02:44 You couldn't really form them in a circle.

02:46 They would form up in blocks,

02:47 and they would maneuver in blocks,

02:48 and that's hard enough.

02:56 Once you're fully surrounded,

02:57 I mean, there's nothing you can do, really.

02:59 You're in big trouble.

03:00 You can try to break the spears.

03:02 Persians are known to do that against the Greeks.

03:03 Their spears are longer,

03:04 so they literally went up and snapped them in half by hand.

03:07 But that's a desperation move,

03:08 and it doesn't really get you anywhere.

03:10 If you're in an encirclement like that,

03:12 of a proper pike formation,

03:13 then you're just doomed.

03:15 You probably surrender.

03:16 Crushes in battle do happen.

03:26 But most of the time,

03:27 when people do get crushed into a small space

03:29 and the dead start piling up,

03:31 it's because they're trying to run away

03:33 and they can't escape

03:34 because there's a river or a ravine or a wall,

03:36 and they get stuck there.

03:38 The panic of a trampole,

03:39 they do depict that pretty well.

03:40 When horses turn up unexpectedly,

03:47 especially behind the infantry line,

03:49 you would give up and run.

03:50 There is almost no chance that that formation would hold.

03:53 The very unrealistic thing in this scene

03:54 is that no one knew that cavalry was there.

03:56 It's possible to hide small units in woods or hollow roads

04:00 or behind some geographical feature.

04:03 But a large force of cavalry

04:04 is gonna throw up a lot of dust,

04:05 it's gonna make a lot of noise,

04:06 it's gonna scare the birds and the animals.

04:08 You know this is coming.

04:09 I think this one does an interesting job

04:11 of trying to give you the visceral horror of a battle,

04:15 and I really do appreciate that.

04:16 The tactics are nonsense,

04:18 but it does give a sense of desperation

04:20 of some of these struggles.

04:21 So maybe five out of 10, six out of 10.

04:24 (dramatic music)

04:27 Again, they should have been digging ditches.

04:31 Literally, all they do is just stand around

04:33 carrying spears from one point to another.

04:35 You should be digging ditches, many ditches.

04:37 Once your first ditch is ready, build another one.

04:40 The female characters,

04:46 other than the ones who've been trained to fight,

04:47 are basically just sort of hiding in the dungeon

04:49 and not doing anything.

04:50 In actual sieges, especially when it was this desperate,

04:53 I mean, they would just be expected to contribute.

04:54 You know, women, children, old men, everybody does something

04:57 'cause there's always things that people can do

04:59 even when they don't fight.

05:00 You know, go and carry arrows and stones

05:02 up to the people on the walls,

05:03 go and put out fires, you know,

05:05 help with water and food,

05:07 help with clothing and the wounded.

05:09 There's no way you would just stick them away

05:11 in a corner somewhere.

05:12 These catapults are obviously in the wrong place.

05:18 They should be on top of the wall.

05:19 Like, why would you put them outside of the walls?

05:21 They're gonna be overrun.

05:22 You can't move them out of the way quickly enough,

05:24 so put them on top of the wall.

05:25 That's where you put your artillery.

05:27 So you can put your cavalry in front,

05:32 and it totally works,

05:34 if you don't expect your enemy to stand their ground.

05:37 So putting your cavalry in front is a time-tested,

05:39 you know, very common strategy, totally works,

05:42 unless you're fighting ice zombies

05:44 who are not going to break,

05:45 and they're not scared of you,

05:46 you're just wasting your cavalry.

05:48 So it's the right tactic for the wrong moment.

05:50 There are probably several battles

05:52 and other battles in "Game of Thrones"

05:53 where this could have worked really well.

05:54 Should you find yourself fighting an army of ice zombies,

05:58 so put your artillery on the wall,

05:59 dig many ditches, just lots and lots of ditches.

06:04 You can put, of course, your infantry in front

06:06 if you want to confront them there,

06:07 because that means that you will have several stages

06:10 to fall back on after that.

06:12 You won't sort of blow everything all in one go.

06:15 But put your cavalry away from the main line

06:18 so that once the enemy is engaged,

06:20 once your ice zombies are stuck against your line,

06:23 you can then swoop in from the side

06:25 where they're not expecting you and overrun them.

06:28 I mean, it's not going to really necessarily win your fight

06:31 against an army of ice zombies,

06:32 but at least it means that you are fighting them

06:34 in a way that they don't expect.

06:36 At least you will have done something

06:37 with your cavalry that made sense.

06:38 But otherwise, I mean, obviously it's all a bit silly.

06:41 So, you know, what should we say?

06:43 Five out of 10?

06:48 Why not either let the archers handle it

06:50 or send out a formation of guys?

06:53 Let him try and break a shield wall on his own

06:55 with only a little sword?

06:56 He's not going to have a good time.

06:58 Obviously, every time he has to fight someone, he stops.

07:05 That's when he would get shot.

07:07 And he has to do that several times and then find cover,

07:10 which just happens to be there.

07:12 He's immensely lucky.

07:13 He's basically wearing sort of premium-grade plot armor.

07:16 Also, I'm begging movie makers to please stop it

07:19 with the orders to the archers.

07:20 This never happens.

07:22 The knock, draw, lose thing, it's not real.

07:24 Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

07:26 The crab feeders men, the men in yellow,

07:31 they actually have these swords and bucklers,

07:33 which is a very particular style of combat

07:36 where they have these curved swords

07:37 and these very small shields.

07:39 Usually they would have been made of metal

07:40 and you can actually use them both to guard yourself

07:42 and to attack.

07:43 So they have a very particular style of armor

07:45 that you don't see in movies or TV series a lot.

07:48 In terms of the fighting, it's just chaos.

07:55 Everybody's just running around,

07:57 engaging the enemy one at a time,

07:59 hacking at anything they can see.

08:00 It's very exciting to watch, but this is not a battle.

08:03 This is just a big mess.

08:04 Two out of 10.

08:05 Hi, I'm Shane Adams, the owner of the Knights of Valor,

08:07 full-contact jousting company.

08:09 I've been jousting for well over 25 years.

08:12 I have 20 international jousting championships

08:14 under my belt.

08:16 (guns firing)

08:19 They hit, but it was just a glancing blow.

08:22 There is no penalty for missing your opponent,

08:24 but you're gonna be behind in points.

08:27 If you hit the target, whether it be a smooth plate

08:31 or whether it be a target shield,

08:33 you get a certain amount of points.

08:34 And ultimately, if you unhorse your opponent

08:37 in the full-contact style,

08:39 that's the maximum amount of points.

08:41 There's probably well over 19, 20, 25

08:46 different styles of jousting.

08:48 Yeah, see that ridge around that shield?

08:53 Bad news.

08:54 You don't want a lip around the shield.

08:57 You don't want any spot where that lance

08:59 is gonna connect and lock into the lip.

09:02 You wanna be able to deflect the lance away from your body.

09:04 So, completely wrong shield.

09:07 (horse galloping)

09:10 The jousting that was there,

09:13 it was decent for a theatrical style joust.

09:17 If there were true knights,

09:19 they wouldn't be holding their shields like that.

09:21 They're leaving themselves completely exposed

09:23 from the top of the shield to your throat, head.

09:26 That scene where the horse actually does fall

09:29 into the joust list, usually it would be the opposite way.

09:33 So, the person would be getting hit,

09:35 coming off to the right side.

09:37 Based on the fact that we do real full-contact jousting,

09:39 we always drop the reins.

09:41 So, that way there, if you get off balance,

09:43 you're not gonna be pulling your horse

09:45 to the extent that you're gonna be pulling your horse

09:47 down onto the ground with you.

09:48 I'm 265 pounds.

09:50 Add my armor, I'm 415 pounds.

09:53 Riding a 2,000-pound horse,

09:56 charging at 20, 25 miles an hour

09:59 against the same opposing force, it's a car wreck.

10:02 So, when we hit, there is a lot of force being generated.

10:06 Both guys were not wearing proper equipment

10:11 as far as gorgets to protect their necks

10:13 because the lance could hit and come up

10:15 and straight into your throat.

10:17 You could tell right away,

10:19 looking at the tips of the lances,

10:21 the hound's lance didn't have a cornel on it,

10:24 didn't have a tip on the end, it was a sheer point.

10:27 Knights back in the olden days,

10:29 the nobility were the ones jousting.

10:31 They didn't wanna go out there and kill each other.

10:33 And the ends of the lances had cornels put on them,

10:37 again, to disperse the impact force on the knight's armor.

10:40 It's like a cast fist put on.

10:43 Well, if you don't do that,

10:45 you have a scene possibly like this.

10:48 And historically, that could have definitely happened.

10:51 So, I'm a total Game of Thrones geek,

10:53 and I love the show.

10:55 However, I have to give it a four.

10:58 Hi, I'm Toby Capwell, I'm curator of arms and armor

11:01 at the Wiles Collection in central London.

11:03 Since I was a kid, I've been riding horses

11:05 and fighting in armor.

11:07 I've taken part in competitions,

11:09 armored combat all over the world.

11:11 If I could change one thing, I would change this.

11:18 He's wearing his gorget on the outside of his breastplate.

11:23 A gorget is that neck plate.

11:25 He should actually have plates covering his throat.

11:27 The gorget has neck plates in here,

11:29 and it comes down and has this larger chest plate.

11:31 That chest plate should be underneath the breastplate.

11:35 And the breastplate has a turned edge

11:37 to stop things sliding up into your face.

11:40 But if anything does get past, it hits the gorget.

11:43 But in Game of Thrones,

11:44 they habitually put them on the outside,

11:48 and it's a howler that I just, I can't abide.

11:52 Hi, my name is Neil Kamimura.

11:54 I'm a bladesmith, blacksmith from Hawaii.

11:56 My business name is T. Kamimura Blacksmith.

11:59 It was established in 1932 Hilo from my great-grandfather.

12:03 So the fact that he could take the handle off

12:12 with two taps of a hammer,

12:14 it definitely wouldn't have survived battle

12:16 as you were hitting edge to edge.

12:18 But at least they took the handle off on this one.

12:21 Some of them are pinned and a lot of them are through,

12:23 and then the pommel is what holds it on.

12:26 But you definitely can't just take it and be like,

12:29 and then it comes off, you know what I mean?

12:32 So when you're melting steel

12:41 in like an open-faced crucible like that they were doing,

12:45 one, there wouldn't be just like orangey flames,

12:48 like it would be the most insane looking at the sun.

12:52 That's one.

12:53 Two, the actual crucible itself would need to be hot.

12:57 That is just black, so it didn't heat up,

13:01 but yet somehow the sword is melting on a black surface,

13:05 which is the most ridiculous thing ever.

13:09 Swords that were poured and casted like that were bronze.

13:19 They weren't steel.

13:21 It takes about 3,000 degrees to melt steel,

13:24 that kind of steel.

13:25 Bronze is a lower melting temperature,

13:28 so that was a lot easier to melt and cast.

13:30 But when they do cast it, it wasn't in an open face.

13:33 On both sides was it casted, so that you pour it in the top

13:37 and it fills up and makes a perfect mold.

13:39 The sword would look like a cookie on a baking sheet,

13:41 you know, so that's just bull [beep]

13:45 I don't quite understand how they got one sword

13:49 and melted it and you somehow made enough

13:51 to make two swords now.

13:54 You actually lose mass as you melt steel like that.

13:59 I would definitely give that a four.

14:03 - Hi, my name is Evan Wilson.

14:05 I'm a professor at the US Naval War College

14:07 and I'm an expert in 18th century naval warfare.

14:10 That's supposed to be sort of the bowsprit.

14:18 That's the mass that sticks out the front of the ship.

14:21 That's really essential to hold up

14:22 most of the rigging of a ship.

14:24 If you were to put elaborate metal claws

14:27 on the front of it, you'd first of all,

14:29 probably not be able to sail the ship very well.

14:31 Secondly, be very heavy on the front of your ship

14:34 and cause your ship to go like this.

14:35 You can run your ship into the other ship

14:37 and then board it from there,

14:38 but you do that by just clambering over your own bowsprit.

14:41 You don't do it by staging an elaborate entrance

14:45 in which you just made yourself a target, right?

14:47 I mean, they stand there shocked that it's your own,

14:49 but like, just shoot him.

14:50 Flaming arrows, I would say no.

14:57 That's not something that would work,

14:58 mainly because to make a flaming arrow work,

15:01 you probably have to light it on your own ship.

15:03 And fire is by far the biggest threat to ships.

15:06 Wood, canvas, pitch, tar,

15:08 like this stuff is really flammable.

15:09 Firing flaming arrows at someone else's ship

15:11 is much more likely to set your own ship on fire

15:13 than to set the other guy's ship on fire.

15:15 The fact that they correctly identify

15:17 that one of the greatest fears for a fleet would be fire,

15:22 and that would be the thing that would make Euron scary,

15:24 I think is accurate.

15:26 Hi there, my name's David Browning

15:27 from the London Longsword Academy.

15:28 I'm a full-time swordsmanship instructor.

15:30 That's quite nice because in effect,

15:41 you have a very, very nasty version

15:44 of a movement of conclusion.

15:45 This is basically where in using a sword to parry here,

15:49 we then do something with the offhand.

15:50 If we were doing Verdadera,

15:51 the idea would be to restrain the opponent's weapon hand

15:54 so we can control it,

15:55 and we can choose whether they live or die,

15:56 and we can show mercy at this point.

15:58 If you're doing this, this is lovely.

16:01 He doesn't have to worry about the guy's offhand so much

16:03 because the guy has both hands on the sword.

16:05 There's a closure off of the line,

16:07 and the guy giving him the distance

16:09 because he doesn't have to move his feet.

16:10 The guy's gonna come and hit him anyway.

16:12 He gets to push it aside.

16:13 He gets to thrust through.

16:14 He's got control of the opponent's sword still,

16:16 and he gets to finish him.

16:17 So that I actually quite like.

16:18 That's pretty good.

16:19 I'm not entirely sure holding your hand palm down

16:22 with a long sword is a good way not to get the sword taken.

16:25 Oh my goodness, this is terrible.

16:26 There is so much bad in this.

16:30 Again, we're back on this idea

16:32 that if you've got a long sword,

16:33 you have to do this with it,

16:35 and it has to be wide and spinny,

16:36 and it has to be this big moves.

16:37 It's meant to be dexterous.

16:38 You have this idea that there's basically half an L,

16:41 the idea of being this kind of space here,

16:43 rather halfway between here and here.

16:44 You don't wanna be more than this way,

16:46 far away from your opponent with the point at all times.

16:48 So if they drive you away,

16:50 you're trying to find a way to get your point onto them.

16:52 Most long sword is intrinsically trying to dominate a space

16:56 very, very close into the core of your opponent.

16:59 If they move you sufficiently around,

17:00 you're immediately back at another opening.

17:02 If they stay tight on the blade and the angle's tight,

17:05 just enough to parry like so,

17:06 you'll try and drive the blade in,

17:08 still maintaining contact on that.

17:09 All this wide around movement is complete nonsense.

17:13 (swords clanging)

17:16 Okay, knocking the blade down and striking back up.

17:18 Now, you could argue that this is almost a nodding in effect.

17:22 The idea of beating someone's blade down

17:23 and then hitting back up with the false edge.

17:25 (swords clanging)

17:27 Here you see where the sword is sweeping wide,

17:29 and one person is standing with their point

17:30 right in front of the other.

17:31 You don't parry, then come back here.

17:33 You stand here and you stab them immediately

17:35 because the blade has moved out of presence.

17:37 (swords clanging)

17:39 Well, that was good.

17:40 Yep, if someone has got their back to you

17:41 and you have a spear, do stab them in the back of the leg.

17:44 That, again, redeeming feature,

17:45 that's given another point.

17:47 (swords clanging)

17:48 (men groaning)

17:51 - Women did actually fight judicial duels,

17:57 especially in Germany.

17:59 Women, you know, historically weren't knights.

18:01 That's a fantasy element here,

18:03 but they did fight judicial duels.

18:05 And later, they fought civilian duels as well,

18:09 particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries.

18:11 - You may ask anything of me you desire.

18:13 It is within my power.

18:15 It is yours.

18:16 - Your grace, I ask the honor of a place

18:22 in your Kingsguard.

18:23 - I like this because knights often did fight formal combats

18:28 for other reasons beyond the legal procedure

18:32 of a judicial duel.

18:33 Sometimes they fought what were called deeds of arms,

18:36 which were these kind of exhibitions fights,

18:39 a lot like this.

18:40 And it's just about the prestige and the fame,

18:44 the celebrity aspects of knighthood,

18:46 which is something "Game of Thrones" does really well.

18:50 - Today is not the day I die.

18:51 - Both sides in this judicial procedure

18:59 are fighting with champions,

19:02 professional fighters who volunteered

19:05 to act on their behalf.

19:06 And that is absolutely a real thing.

19:08 It's almost very much like having your own lawyer.

19:10 This person will come and fight for you.

19:12 - I'm not sure quite this much exhibition jumping about

19:17 is a good idea here.

19:19 I'm a bit wary of anything

19:20 that might give your opponent information

19:22 about how you move and what you're capable of.

19:26 - I think it's potentially a good way

19:27 of releasing your own adrenaline.

19:29 If you stand there and you're very sort of like stoic

19:31 and you're kind of, "Hmm,"

19:32 then all of that adrenaline is coursing through your system

19:34 and it makes your reactions very, very jumpy.

19:36 So it's almost like this feeling of freeing up your limbs,

19:38 ready to fight.

19:39 - It seems like a spear with a wooden haft

19:46 is a bad choice when you've got a seven-foot tall guy

19:49 with a big sword facing you.

19:51 I guess you don't have to let him hit it.

19:53 - I do like that the majority of the deflections

19:55 with the spear are ones which accentuate

19:58 the movement of the sword.

19:59 There's good deflections.

20:00 There's not these attempts to confront the weapon, mainly,

20:03 which is very, very good.

20:04 There's not very much of this just direct threat,

20:07 threat, threat, changing through from side to side to side.

20:09 There is an awful lot of movement around the opponent.

20:14 Cavendish talk about getting behind your opponent.

20:17 Marazzo talks about walking to their shoulders.

20:19 - Like a modern fencing match, just up and down.

20:21 - With very few exceptions.

20:22 You're categorically trying to get the best,

20:24 most advantageous position that takes your opponent's arms

20:27 out of their natural position of strength.

20:33 The way that we portray people who are incredibly large

20:37 in general forms of fiction is massively fiction.

20:41 That person who is immensely strong has to be,

20:44 for some reason, uneducated and unable to move.

20:47 And this is not true.

20:48 You get some absolute premium, huge athletes.

20:52 - Who move fast. - Who are nimble.

20:53 Yes, terrifyingly fast and are intelligent

20:56 and use that to their own advantage.

20:58 It would be nice, really, to see a fight

20:59 that represents that.

21:00 Not only is this person huge,

21:03 but they have studied their art.

21:04 - Oh no, you can't die yet.

21:07 You haven't confessed.

21:08 - Say it!

21:09 - He clearly has made a mistake with all this gloating.

21:14 You've got to keep your emotions under control.

21:17 You've got to stop with the pride

21:20 and the celebration prematurely.

21:22 A knightly kind of mental preparation

21:25 is about keeping a very even kind of dispassionate mindset.

21:30 - I'm gonna go for a seven and a half.

21:32 I really, really like the way the spear moves.

21:34 I hate the way the sword moves.

21:36 I'd be willing to give it a six.

21:37 - Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Fulton.

21:40 I'm an expert at siege warfare and medieval fortifications.

21:44 Knight attacks can take place.

21:52 There's nothing to say that they didn't

21:53 or that they shouldn't.

21:55 Are they trying to go through a gate?

21:57 There are three ways to overcome a wall.

22:01 You can go over it, in which case you use ladders,

22:04 siege towers, stuff like that.

22:06 You can go under it, which is not a great strategy

22:09 because they can have emerging on the other side

22:11 one by one if you tunnel under.

22:13 Or you can go through.

22:14 And the best way to go through

22:16 is actually to undermine the wall.

22:18 Dig a big cavity underneath the wall.

22:20 You prop up the wall above with wooden posts.

22:23 You throw a bunch of combustibles in.

22:25 All that support gets burnt out.

22:27 The wall above falls down.

22:28 Lighting arrows on fire like this,

22:34 Hollywood loves to do it.

22:35 Serves no practical value

22:37 unless you're trying to set a thatched roof cottage on fire.

22:40 So they kind of got up to the base of the wall here.

22:47 This is a safe spot in so much as it's hard

22:51 for archers to shoot arrows at them from here.

22:54 But you can just drop some stones over on them.

22:56 It's economical.

22:57 If you consider that every arrow has to be made by hand,

23:01 that's not a short process to make an arrow.

23:03 So when they're throwing off all these volleys of arrows

23:05 and shooting them off as fast as they can,

23:07 that's not very efficient.

23:08 You drop a bowling ball on somebody

23:10 and it stops them in their tracks.

23:13 Defenders exit a gate and try and attack the besiegers.

23:21 That's reasonably common.

23:22 The issue here is why.

23:25 You would only do this if you needed to.

23:27 Those attackers didn't have the numbers

23:29 they probably needed to overcome these defenses

23:31 to begin with.

23:32 In the medieval period, leadership is directly tied

23:38 to military performance and prowess.

23:41 So for a commander, they have to be aware

23:43 of what's going on if they are kind of a warrior figure,

23:47 which the most effective military kings usually were.

23:51 So having someone on top of the wall, organizing things,

23:56 definitely not beyond the realm of possibility.

23:58 I don't quite see what they're gonna accomplish

24:02 once they reach the base of this wall.

24:04 So I'm gonna give this one maybe a three out of 10.

24:08 - Hello, my name is Dr. Rebecca Simon

24:10 and I'm a historian of the Golden Age of Piracy

24:12 from the time period of approximately 1650 to 1730.

24:17 (dramatic music)

24:19 - This is not accurate to reality at all.

24:25 Pirates were not known to feed people

24:29 to any sort of animals.

24:30 Now there were a couple of extremely brutal pirates,

24:33 George Louther and Ned Lowe,

24:35 who sailed in like the late 1710s and early 1720s.

24:39 And they were known to really brutalize their victims

24:41 by cutting off body parts, such as maybe their ears,

24:45 part of the nose or their lips.

24:46 And they reportedly would broil some of these parts

24:50 and force their victims to eat their own body parts.

24:53 These are the only two cases that I've seen

24:55 where this has happened.

24:57 And it was very much again, the exception to the rule.

25:00 And these stories very well may have been exaggerated

25:04 because we only know so much

25:06 about what actually happened on a pirate ship,

25:08 but pirates never fed any victims to any animals.

25:13 (dramatic music)

25:15 They're fighting against pirates who look to be land-based.

25:22 They're not fighting these pirates at sea,

25:24 they're fighting them in their pirate stronghold.

25:27 Now during the golden age of piracy in the early stages

25:29 from about like 1650 until about the 1670s,

25:33 we do see a lot of land-based pirates known as buccaneers.

25:36 And a lot of them were initially French pirates

25:38 who were exacting revenge against the Spanish.

25:41 They had a lot of rivalry in terms of plantation islands

25:43 during that time.

25:44 And so that is something kind of interesting to note

25:47 is that they're taking sort of a detail

25:48 possibly from the early stages

25:50 of the golden age of piracy here.

25:52 Being that there are pirates fighting on land

25:54 rather than at sea.

25:55 One other thing to note is that the captain,

26:01 he's not really engaging in battle very much.

26:03 He's not fighting with the crew.

26:05 That's common.

26:06 Pirate captains were the ones to oversee the battle.

26:09 They were the ones giving the order.

26:10 I would give this clip a one out of 10.

26:13 There's nothing accurate in this at all.

26:16 (gentle music)

26:18 (gentle music)

26:22 (gentle music)

26:24 (gentle music)

26:27 (gentle music)

26:30 (gentle music)

26:32 (upbeat music)

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