Event Ideals (fighting)

[Deborah Sweet]

Mara writes:

>Once again we get into the "are we fighting for us or the crowd" thing.

I have always understood that the fighters are not fighting for 
themselves. That they were fighting for the honor and glory of the 
person(s) whose favor they carry (which in all likelihood are part of 
the "crowd"). That it was not important whether they won or lost, as 
long as it was a chivalrous encounter. At least, that was the spiel when 
I joined.

>When a person enters the list, most times he/she is entering to win the 
>list.  Thats what it is all about. 

I acknowledge that this is the reality. But I find it annoying that the 
fighters *say* one thing and *act* another. It goes against the 
philosophy that I encountered (see above). If it's true, why bother with 
the farce of favors and finding inspiration to fight from the person who 
gave you a favor? Just say "I fight cause I like it."

>Go to an event like Lyonesse.

While I would like to, circumstances just have never allowed it (money, 
distance, etc).

>You love to dance, and teach dance, you are good at it.  But I can
>tell you that not everyone is excited by watching it.  

Thank you. But I don't *expect* everyone to watch it. (In fact, if 
people are going to sit around & talk over the music while occasionally 
watching, I'd *much* rather they went far away from the dancing.) On the 
other hand, to me it seems the *fighters* *expect* everyone (or close to 
it) to watch the fighting. God forbid anything else be scheduled during 
the fighting! (I've heard some people say that they want such & such an 
event to "go back to the basics". Meaning they just want the heavy 
weapons combat, a feast in the evening & court. *None* of that 
extraneous stuff like bardic, A&S competition, rapier fighting, dancing, 
archery or anything else).

The majority of events are centered around fighting, so why should it be 
asking to much for the actual fighting to be entertaining to the crowd? 
Why can't we get rid of the modern-day double & single elimination 
tourney format and replace it with something more medieval? The types of 
tourney formats I'm thinking of would actually have more fights for each 
individual fighter (or at least as many as he/she was able/cared to 
have) (which is a typical complaint of most fighters, I think). They 
include ransom tourneys & passages at arms. Both of these types of 
tourneys can be set up to either produce a "winner" or not. They are 
flexible in regards to how long it takes to run them (i.e. they won't 
push things back by running late). Why can't we grow & learn?

Estrill Swet
Mooneschadoweshire