Deadliest Warrior season 2 starting soon

[GhostMachine]

Deadliest Warrior season 2 starts April 20th, and all the match-ups have been announced. The season premiere will be SWAT vs. GSG 9.

Unfortunately, they're doing more historical figure matchups, and some of them seem to be forgone conclusions:

Attila the Hun vs. Alexander the Great

Jesse James vs. Al Capone (seriously?! It'll be Capone winning by Tommy Gun, I bet)

Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu (Sun Tzu literally wrote the book on war, so I can't see any way they can justify it if he loses)

The other matchups will be:

Aztec Jaguar vs. Zande Warrior

Persian Immortal vs. Celt

Roman Centurion vs. Rajput

Somali Pirates vs. Medellin Cartel *

Nazi SS vs. Viet Cong *

KGB vs. CIA (no idea if it'll be one on one or a squad battle)

Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer

Commanche vs. Mongol

Navy SEALs vs. Israeli Commandos

If they do a season 3, I'd like to see Miyamoto Musashi, Alaric I and Robert The Bruce used.

*Two battles that I hope end up with no winning side, everyone dead.

Oh, and if the first season aired in the U.K., I'm betting they didn't air Taliban vs. IRA?

[RoyWill Rumble]

Wait, people watch this? o____O

[CadeSydal]

Hell yeah. I do.

[ADG]

Yeah they showed the IRA vs. Taliban episode in the UK. Geoff Desmoulin contacted me on Twitter after I expressed how tasteless I found the show.

[SilentBob2004]

Loved the first season of this. Interesting history stuff + badass weapons being tested = Greatness.

Any idea when its airing the in the UK on Bravo?

[apsham]

Hell yes people watch this show, what isn't there to like about it - got some good historical information in there, some interesting concepts and such.. good fun.

[YI]

Oh, and if the first season aired in the U.K., I'm betting they didn't air Taliban vs. IRA?

Not only that, it was used as part of some TV quiz hosted by Charlie Brooker (where I actually found out about "Deadliest Warrior").

And I've tried to watch this, but for the most part I just find it boring.

[Guest Big Dog]

I watch this so I can laugh at their lack of knowledge about the combatants and their equipment. A Norseman throwing two boar spears at once with both hands, HA!

[probablyoliver]

What on earth does GhostMachine have against the Viet Cong? You realize America were the baddies in 'nam, right?

[GoGo Yubari]

Deadliest Warrior is a good "nothing else is on but I just sort of want to watch TV" show. It's basically trying to turn a bunch of history geeks (admittedly history geeks who can kill a man fifteen different ways) bickering over the Ninja vs. Pirate meme into this big epic show.

Plus, the actual simulated fights are generally very well blocked. I watched Apache vs. Gladiator the other night while I was doing classwork and I was surprised at how drawn into the actual fight I was.

[Mick]

Some of the first season episodes seemed to have a 'well duh' factor attached to them. Take Pirate vs Knight. I asked my nine year old niece who would win. "Pirate!" "Why?" "He has a gun!"

The major decisive advantage in that fight was in fact the pirate having a gun

What sold me on it was in the very first episode when they showed the Roman Scissor. After seeing the carnage that baby could inflict, my mindset went into "Oh hell yeah!" mode.

Here are my picks...

Attila the Hun vs. Alexander the Great

Jesse James vs. Al Capone

Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu

Aztec Jaguar vs. Zande Warrior

Persian Immortal vs. Celt

Roman Centurion vs. Rajput

Somali Pirates vs. Medellin Cartel *

Nazi SS vs. Viet Cong *

KGB vs. CIA

Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer

Commanche vs. Mongol (I say this yet I have Commanche in my blood :\ )

Navy SEALs vs. Israeli Commandos

[Thrilla]

I've acquired the first five episodes of the first season (are there any more? Can't seem to find them if so) as a friend of mine was always going on about the show. Really enjoyed it so far, its nothing spectacular but the weapons are cool as are the tests and then the fight at the end is well done. Glad the Samurai went over the Viking, although I was a little surprised the Apache beat the Gladiator.

Also, Chuck Liddell destroying that side of cow was awesome.

[GoGo Yubari]

There are nine episodes in the first season so yeah, you're missing four.

[Thrilla]

Hmmm... They're not up on EZTV, so I'll have to search the web for them I guess.

Is it just me that thinks the addition of guns into the equation really takes away the fun of the program? The Pirate/Knight episode was alright but I really can't get into the mafioso against the yakuza.

[Mick]

Hmmm... They're not up on EZTV, so I'll have to search the web for them I guess.

Is it just me that thinks the addition of guns into the equation really takes away the fun of the program? The Pirate/Knight episode was alright but I really can't get into the mafioso against the yakuza.

Guns that aren't modern are fine, I think, but when it comes to stuff like M-16 vs AK-47, I could really care less. I mainly watch to see weapons that had little to no knowledge of, like the mere that the Maori used.

[GhostMachine]

Some of the first season episodes seemed to have a 'well duh' factor attached to them. Take Pirate vs Knight. I asked my nine year old niece who would win. "Pirate!" "Why?" "He has a gun!"

The major decisive advantage in that fight was in fact the pirate having a gun

What sold me on it was in the very first episode when they showed the Roman Scissor. After seeing the carnage that baby could inflict, my mindset went into "Oh hell yeah!" mode.

Here are my picks...

Attila the Hun vs. Alexander the Great

Jesse James vs. Al Capone

Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu

Aztec Jaguar vs. Zande Warrior

Persian Immortal vs. Celt

Roman Centurion vs. Rajput

Somali Pirates vs. Medellin Cartel *

Nazi SS vs. Viet Cong *

KGB vs. CIA

Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer

Commanche vs. Mongol (I say this yet I have Commanche in my blood :\ )

Navy SEALs vs. Israeli Commandos

The problem with Knight vs. Pirate WAS Pirate winning due to a gun, when the flintlock did jack shit against armor during the testing and didn't even hit where it was aimed at and the Blunderbuss misfired the first time and only one pellet penetrated the armor the second attempt - though that second attempt would have been lethal. They should take misfires and problems in testing into account for the simulated battles. Worst fight in the show's history, because the Knight came off like an idiot (if the Knight had picked the shield back up and put his visor down, the Pirate would have been chum!) and the ending was too contrived. They could have at least made it seem like the Knight was going to win, standing over a downed Pirate and about to run him through, only for the Pirate to grab a Blunderbuss and blast the Knight. That would have made a LOT more sense than a flintlock to the face after too much crawling around to be believable.

The flintlock was the worst weapon tested in that episode, and the morning star is arguably the best hand to hand weapon they've had on the series yet.

I agree with most of your picks, except I think it'll be Al Capone over Jesse James and Sun Tzu over Vlad the Impaler, while Alexander vs. Atilla could go either way, but I think Atilla will win due to having the ranged advantage. Al Capone due to one weapon; the Tommy Gun. No real reason for the other pick, except if they had fought in real life, Sun Tzu would have kicked Vlad's ass. Sun Tzu literally wrote the book on war, and Vlad did get get defeated a few times.

Edited April 26, 2010 by GhostMachine

[OctoberRaven]

Am I the only one who thinks Sun Tzu vs Vlad is a stupid idea?

Nobody's even sure who Sun Tzu was other than the author of Art of War. We don't know if it was one person or several who wrote it. Vlad was a soldier but was more famous (or infamous depending on your view) as a very cruel administrative leader.

Unless it's a tactical duel with mass armies fighting, I don't see how this can be a logical battle.

[Toe]

Deadliest Warrior: The Game?

Ohhhhh yeah!

[Mick]

Am I the only one who thinks Sun Tzu vs Vlad is a stupid idea?

Nobody's even sure who Sun Tzu was other than the author of Art of War. We don't know if it was one person or several who wrote it. Vlad was a soldier but was more famous (or infamous depending on your view) as a very cruel administrative leader.

Unless it's a tactical duel with mass armies fighting, I don't see how this can be a logical battle.

Well, the big difference is that yes, not much of Sun Tzu is known aside from the book, Vlad the Impaler literally kept the Ottomans out of Europe, and nearly 1900 years separate them. They might as well pit Julius Caesar against Robert E. Lee if they're going to go for that much of a time difference.

WHO IS THE DEADLIEST WARRIOR? CAESAR OR GENERAL LEE?!

As for tonight, pretty meh. SWAT vs GSG9 is more or less the same role. This, along with Green Beret vs Spetnaz, were pretty boring since they used weapons that were so similar. Mafia vs Yakuza was a least different, as was IRA vs Taliban.

[GhostMachine]

I didn't watch it (because Lost was on and I didn't want to bother watching something I wouldn't be able to finish), but they ran a 90 minute special to determine the deadliest modern warrior and deadliest ancient warrior from the first season winners. They pitted the Spartan and Samurai against each other, and the Spetsnaz vs. the IRA.

Both bad matchups, in my opinion, and I hope they re-run it eventually, because I want to see

How the fuck they justified Spartan beating Samurai!

, since I looked up the results but they weren't detailed; just told who won, not the # of kills or anything.

Deadliest Warrior is pretty entertaining, even if you realize they only take weapons into account and not other things like hand-to-hand abilities (Yakuza would have fucked up the Mafia if they did) and tactics.

My one problem with the show that I find hard to overlook is the tests sometimes don't make sense. I'd rather see them do the same exact test with each side's weapons, rather than having one side use a weapon on a ballistics gel dummy with fake bones and organs inside or a hanging side of beef, then have the other side attack a dead pig or foam dummy.

Edited April 21, 2010 by GhostMachine