The Belgariad was the first really good Fantasy I'd read in a long time (compared to preachy Narnia or stilted LoTR). I only wish the Mallorean had maintained the consistency of the first series.
True, but Eddings makes just as many mistakes regarding weapons and armor, including some consistently ridiculous ones. For example, characters who use rapiers are consistently mentioned to "slide the point of their rapier through the rings" of an enemy's chainmail for a lethal stab. As someone who makes chainmail, this is bullshit. This is a reproduction of historically accurate chainmail - flat, riveted links.
That just stands out to me because in college a group of us went to see it, we took up a whole row, and you could probably hear our groans of disgust from the lobby.
Like the Estoc I talked about at length? Or the stiletto (which again, generally burst links rather than "sliding through them") dagger? Or the Aahlspiess, which was a POLEARM?
The stiletto was what I was thinking about as a hand-held short-range weapon, and of course there are bodkin arrows or bolts for ranged weaponry, but I didn't know if there was any kind of parry/thrust sidearm (other than a hammer) that had some kind of "oh and because of this it's also good against mail." The tuck kind of fills this bill, but I assume since it wasn't really meant to be sharpened, it probably wasn't very good for slashing.
Neither were rapiers. A lot of historical rapiers were diamond or hexagon shaped in cross-section. There were cut-and-thrust swords with similar hilts, and are often referred to as rapiers, but were not used in at all the same way. A rapier was not a battlefield weapon: thick cloth could deflect it. In fact, a frequent tactic was to use one's cape or cloak as a shield if you didn't have a buckler or parrying dagger. The later evolution of rapiers, the small sword, was even more fragile: there are frequent reports of blades snapping when being stepped on by an opponent or by hitting a brass button on one's jacket.
If only it was the same one Cruz is from *sigh*
I think you guys get Alaska.
No thank you. Well, only if we can deport the Palins.
Yeah, I definitely agree with this one. Especially when they get caught up in some petty argument. I know they're just human, but I can't help feeling like one of my gods lost his shine when an artist I like comes down to a troll's level.
I'm in a really good one where there are no dirty diaper pictures or rash pictures and people are actually supportive. It's been a life saver.
