ANST - New topic

[Mitchell-CON, Paul T]

Galen of Bristol here!

I think one of my duties as a knight is to take a swing at topics like
this so...

> Honor and Chivalry are two topics that seem to be talked about
> frequently.
> I've been thinking about another spin on these venereable subjects. 
> 
>         1: Do you give an opponent choice of weapons?  Let's say you
> are
> paired with Joe Newcomer in the first round.  What about Sir
> Supercool? Do
> you insist on your favorite? Does it matter if you're Duke Hotottrot
> and he
> has no chance? Does it matter if he's the Duke?
> 
Though I am a knight and a Viscount, I have never been a "Sir Supercool"
nor a "Duke Hotottrot", except from the point of view of far less
experienced
fighters.  Generally, I'll match weapons with a person who has a
distinct
preference.  If a person declines to name their preference, I'll suggest
mine.  But I'm comfortable fighting almost anyone with almost any
standard
combination.  Of course, what weapons are available is important, too.

>         2: Do you give a point of honor to your opponent?  Arm or leg
> him,
> and would you give up your own? What if he's a superior fighter?  An
> inferior one? Would you want the same treatment? What if giving up an
> advantage *is* an advantage to you? What about giving an advantage to
> a less
> talented person to start the bout? (ie: fight offhanded against Joe
> Newcomer
> in his first tourney) Is that insulting to the other person?  What
> about
> accepting an advantage from a more talented person? 
> 
I'll generally keep an earned advantage.  I certainly take no offense
when
my opponent does so.  And I'll most often -- though not always -- yield 
when I've lost a leg or arm.

>         3.Do you *try* to win every bout?  Give 110%? Maybe only 75%?
> Does
> it dishonor your opponent (or yourself) to *not* try to the greatest
> of your
> ability? Is it ok to "throw" a bout? What if the person is  very
> deserving
> of victory? What if they are new? Or your friend? 
> 
I do try to win them all.  My ability to focus on this effort seems to
vary
rather widely, however.  But the factors mentioned above don't come into
play for me.  In a tourney, I don't believe that it is OK to "throw" a
bout.
If you're not there to win, you have no business denying victory to
those
who are.  Which brings us to...

>        4. Now to the odd one... Is it honorable to *want * to win?
> ("huh?")
> I mean, everyone wants to win,(and have fun) but where do you draw the
> line?
> No one thinks it is a "good thing"(tm) to take *unfair* advantage of
> your
> most noble opponent, but  how you answer the first three points
> determines
> what you feel is a fair or an unfair advantage, and leads to your
> personal
> choice of "how bad do I want to win?".  From insisting on a specific
> weapons
> style to refusing to call blows is a VERY wide spectrum of "want".  Do
> you
> want to win enough to change your view on points 1,2, or 3? If it's
> the
> tourney of the Canton of Wayoutthere?  If it's your local group's
> event? If
> it's Crown?
> 
This is a very 20th century question.  Only very lately has success
become
something automatically to be suspected.  The implicit assumption behind
such a question is that someone who *wants* to win will do *anything* to
win.  I believe that the SCA has had remarkable success in disproving
that assumption.  Most of us can recall many times seeing a fighter who
wanted the victory so badly that he could taste it ultimately call a
killing 
blow.

Yes, yes, we fight for fun.  I have much more fun when I win, most of
the time.  And no, I don't take unfair advantage to win.  What's unfair?
To me, unfair mostly means unearned.  If I get my opponent's leg, I've
earned that -- I may give up the advantage, but I may honorably retain
that advantage.  My 18 years experience as a fighter in three kingdoms,
having visited several more, is an earned advantage over most opponents
that I don't _ever_ expect to give up.

Choice of weapons?  I never pressue anyone to carry a weapon he's
not comfortable with.  But I'm willing to face him with something he's
never seen before.

Is it honorable to _want_ to win?  What if we all agreed that it isn't?
Would we be reduced to trying to _lose_ fights?  Would we have
to pretend that each victory was an accident (oops! didn't realize
that mace was loaded)?  In two weeks I'm going down to Raven's
Fort for a variety of reasons.  I'll fight in the tourney because I
expect it to be fun, because I hope it'll be good practice for my home-
town tourney, Elfsea Defender (y'all come!) the following weekend,
and because I want to win the tourney on the site where I was knighted,
and wear that beautiful pendant that a squire of mine once wore, and
which our queen now wears, and honor a group who gained its
baronial status with some little assistance from me as Kingdom
Seneschal, and in turn be honored as their champion.  I probably
won't win, but I want to, and I'll be trying.

Where else but the SCA?

- Galen of Bristol,
Guardian of the Tor (2nd year running)
3rd Defender of Ffynnon Gath
Victor of the 3rd Battle of the Pines
1st High Defender of Perilous Journey
15th Thegn of Grey Niche
8th Prince of Drachenwald

Galen of Bristol, Viscount, KSCA, etc.
http://www.flash.net/~pmitchel/galen.htm
pmitchel at flash.net (hm)
paul.t.mitchell-con at lmco.com (wk)
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