What medieval weapons would a Minotaur use in real life? FANTASY RE-ARMED

get your medieval geek on with shadow varsity t-shirts available through teespring link in the description [Music] greetings I'm Chad and Whydah minotaurs always have the axe now the Minotaur is a fantasy creature originally from Greek mythology but it certainly has been adopted into more mainstream fantasies these days Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles of Narnia and also at the movies as well the Percy Jackson movie never really seen it but there's a Minotaur in it and yes the Minotaur has certainly been adopted into a mainstream fantasy and the weapon that is most often given this creature is the axe and this is kind of in the vein of certain fantasy creatures just have iconic weapons that are you know ascribe to them the elves have the bone dwarves have the axe and I have addressed other fantasy creatures before and have a look at ok if these creatures really existed what authentic medieval weapons historical realistic medieval weapons would actually best suit their physical characteristics and of course here we're gonna really have a close look at the Minotaur and see if the axe axe the axe actually applies the accident of itself is a weapon grossly misunderstood by mainstream pop culture and stuff like that people generally in pop culture and stuff look at weapons as it's a weapon and it's equally as effective any other weapons I'm just interchangeable and the axe is bit heavier big you think you know strong creatures use them so yeah it fits well with the Minotaur but no the axe is a vastly different weapon compared to like sword daggers or pole arms with very different characteristics and very specific strengths and weaknesses the axe excels amazingly so in damage potential it is a deadly weapon but in terms of defense it sucks balls like really the axe defensive capabilities is terrible how axe is used historically well for one more often than not they're one-handed there's really only one exception where a proper two-handed axe was used on historical battlefield and that is the Dane axe a very classic Viking or you know I just brought a Scandinavian weapon now there are other weapons that you could kind of add a stretch called two-handed axes like the body SH I've always said body J but I think it's probably pretty ounce body SH and other types of poems and then of course you have the classic the iconic Paul axe but the pole axe is a unique kind of a subject and we'll get there but more often than not the axe is more commonly a one-handed weapon that was always used in conjunction with a shield why because of its horrable of you know defensive properties but combine a shield into the mix now the axe is truly a weapon to be reckoned with with that huge damage potential and you're covered or you know all your bases with this shield you can really do some damage there Dane axe and you have to understand is very much a battlefield weapon and the battlefield is a completely different situation to the situations that you're often see at minotaurs depicted in minotaurs usually monstrous creatures defending ancient ruins in fantasy settings what I'm talking about and aside from the exceptions like in Chronicles and Aria minotaurs are fighting in battlefields and stuff like that more often than not they're not fighting in battlefields and in those situations to edit axes are a very poor pick in my opinion because when you don't have when you're not in it like a rank file or soldiers let people be out and protect you're on either end you need to handle your own defense and that's when having a two-handed axe will really be detrimental unless you're wearing enough armor to cover your defenses in that regard you see axes were a fairly you know popular and prominent in the early medieval period but it does seem their popularity seems to have died off towards you know the high middle at medieval period until you really consider polearms which is the halberd and pole axe which are basically both of them really really big axes they have these big huge fat accents on them and these type of pole arms were generally used in two kind of situations one if you have enough armor the defenses are covered or if you're in a battlefield formation and other types of similar kind of pole I'm sorry one of the classic and this one this problem is actually more prevalent and both the halberd and pole axe and that was called it was the pole I'm called the now the billhook has a pretty hefty chopping in but it's hard to kind of stand see that's an axe but it certainly can function like an axe and has really nasty hook hook people and pull them down very useful to dismounting mounted opponents but do you see the pattern emerging is large two-handed axe like weapons are generally only used when their lack of defensive ability is covered in some way in terms of weapons someone just carried around for whatever may befall them on their journeys to had axes or I've never heard of the situation Hey look this is that broader context any weapon is better than none so if you need a weapon of self-defense and your only option was a two-handed axe sure go with a even just a normal axe but when people had the option the axe was rarely ever picked when they had better options to pick from the sword being the most prominent one sorry in a fair dizzy setting would a Minotaur use an axe well we've covered the properties of the axe fairly well but now we really do need to have a look at some of the characteristics of the Minotaur and it's hard to point down like these are their specific exact characteristic because they change between all fantasies that's what we've generally found with other fantasy creatures but in a general sense we can say there are certain characteristics that do seem quite uniform across the board and one is certainly strength minotaurs are always seem to be depicted as having superior strength to humans and it ranges from what I can observe to be about one and a half times the strength to twice as strong in the general sense but then you have the outliers where they are like you know have superhuman levels of strength where they're either picking up people in their hands or throwing cars and stuff like that but more generally minotaurs seem to be around a foot taller than humans and being significantly stronger but not superhuman levels they also all appear to have much greater mass in terms of just weight and girth and upper body strength it seems to be one of the things that effect that but then they also have their hoofed feet which also appears to give them greater speed so minotaurs are actually pretty intimidating creatures they are some significant physical characteristics and advantages over the average human now would these characteristics give them an overall inclination towards the axe not necessarily because all weapons would gain an added advantage over you know from a person with superior strength using them not just the axe you know really big swords would get this advantage as well as polearms the situations that would prompt you to want to use an axe in my opinion are more the environments you're in not necessarily your own physical abilities and what are one of those environments well certainly what type of opponents you're facing if you are you know facing someone that either heavily armored or hot you know a thick high or something like that yeah lots of damage very useful axes certainly a good pick but do minotaurs more often fight other fantasy creatures or humans they out generally in my fantasy creature you know weapon review videos I always place the fantasy creatures against humans but in this specific case with minotaurs it does often seem minotaurs are fighting human or human-like creatures far more often than other fantasy creatures because they're the monster generally that the heroes have to fight or they're they're protecting some ancient ruin or entry into a dungeon and so in fighting humans would you want to use an axe well if the human is heavily armored the axe certainly has benefits over other weapons but with the Minotaur's greater strength enabling them to use scaled up versions of weapons across the board like a massive sword you know in fact a Minotaur is probably one of the few creatures that could effectively use a very significant type of sword a sword that does exist historically but to my knowledge was never used in real combat now why am I thinking of this sword over say pole arms and axes the answer is is that the sword gives such versatility over other types of weapons and also convenience one of the most significant advantages that a sword offers are especially over pole arms because generally it's considered pole arms are the battlefield weapon they're superior to swords in all cases well they are superior to swords in many cases but there's one area they really fall down on and that is the striking range if you've ever used a spear or pole arm you'll actually notice it is possible to overshoot the mark or undershoot it because the actual area of damage that you're striking with the axe head or the you know spike end is very very narrow and so you can miss and hit with there you know your opponent with the shaft of the weapon instead of the actual you know sharpened or spiky part of the weapon swords do not have that problem because right off from the top of the handle so you know where the handle ends and the weapon begins that is all death and so it's actually far easier to strike at someone you know with the death killing parts of the weapon on a sword than it is with polearms and that's just one example of when a sword is superior to a polearm and then you also the cleanest they're easier to carry around generally and depending on the designer sword they have this incredible balance between both thrusting and cutting a sword is also easier in my opinion to recover from a strike to strike again and again wear with a more top-heavy especially long weapon once you do a heavy strike it's a bit harder to put yourself in a position to be able to do another heavy strike again but with the sword you just go strike strike strike and just lay into them this wonderful advantage comes here from how well balanced swords generally are and so with a Minotaur a creature that doesn't really know what type of human opponents that thing is gonna be facing or her I guess can you tell between you know female and male Minotaur they generally always male in fear disease and stuff but when you don't know what type of opponent you're facing it's a good you know choice to pick a weapon that is a bit more balanced in the qualities it can give you because as great as pole arms are if you knew you are facing a larger amount of lightly armored opponents on it I honestly think a sword is probably a better pick for you our very sharp on I can hack through their light armor if they're now funny gambeson you know I love game isn't hard to cut through but if your sword is super sharp absolutely you can do it and even if you don't get the first few strikes in because a sword can recover and strike again in fast succession much easier than and then which gives you an added advantage if you're fighting more than one opponents I think the sword actually suits are quite well so then what type of sword what is this historical sword I mentioned that did exist but was to my knowledge never used on a battlefield this is actually kind of cool because very few people know of this sort so enthusiasts generally do but they brought a public note they are called bearing swords you see a bearing sword is actually basically it's a ceremonial type of long sword you can't call it a long sword because it's size is insane bearing swords I generally always be given a person and people often confuse a bearing sword with a great sword I'll give you a clue in how to tell the difference between a bearing sword and great sword one is of course the size bearing swords actually generally bigger than great swords I have a really old video that I still appreciate are going into the differences between when a longsword becomes a great sword and that's actually more individual measurements based on your own size and separate two that there is a general you will find great source to you often be head height at least by bearing swords heart bigger than head height and the next thing is that their overall proportions tend to match the proportions of what you'll find on a longsword but just multiplied in size because this is a thing bearing swords were not made to actually be practical and useful for an average-sized person and if you want a sword to be head height or even bit higher to be practical you have to be very clever in its weight distribution and that's why the design of great swords it's just ingenious in my opinion because it shows such a sophisticated level of engineering and understanding of balanced weight and theater your offensive ability cephalad so when you look at a great sword you'll see how they are made to get the balance right to make them still functional even at such an incredible size well in contrast to great swords bearing swords throw that idea out the window they just keep the standard proportions of a longsword and increase them to the point where they have to be way too heavy to ever be used practically for a regular sized person and yet they were generally made as ceremonial kind of swords and they'd be put on display in town halls and stuff like that to show look at the resources we have in this land and in our town that we can make this huge big sword for the sake of just having it huge and big to show off look at our craftsmanship our ability and our resources we're cool because we've made this really big cool sword and I think it works because what I see bearings does I'm like wow that's cool and then we have here a creature that could probably use a bearing sword quite effectively and their damage potential because of their weight would be why a bigger than the average great sword because there would be so much heavier and in fact they seem to be perfectly made for creatures that are at least a foot bigger than humans with twice as much strength and so a Minotaur with a bearing sword my goodness all right like in terms of fighting gets armor there'd be so much weight and force behind this sword anyway that you could just give that people permanent brain damage by knocking him in the head with these blades and if they're not wearing armor all right goodness unless if the sword isn't super sharp you wouldn't be out of truck through gambeson but the force behind it you would turn the person into jelly on the inside anyway and if it is super sharp you just drop swathes through your opponent's and then you have the added advantage that swords bring which is a much wider and longer striking range a much quicker recovery from your strikes just continually attack and an excellent balance between both cutting and thrusting and in terms of reach comparing the range you would get on this bearing sword to a really really big polearm I think that the bearing sword would offer all the reach advantage necessary already and that the additional reach that a Minotaur might have in using a really large pole arm wouldn't add really any more advantage because once you have reached a weapon that out reaches the opponent's weapon any additional reach doesn't necessarily add more advantage but in fact can be a disadvantage especially with the short a striking end of certain pole arms like pole axes hull birds and no hooks because the further those pole arm heads are away from you know the actual warrior or creature using it the easier it be for opponents to pass that striking end which is one of the methods of combating polearms is to rush the person using and usually you need to have to block or dodge the first strike which isn't as difficult as you might assume I've actually done this many times inspiring and then simply grappling the shaft or pushing the shaft away and striking at the person using it so this is just another reason in my mind why in this specific context a really large sword will actually be more beneficial in my mind for a creature logically to like what the Minotaur is compared to a really large pole arm so in my mind I think that's actually one of the best picks for the type of melee weapon for a Minotaur some of you might be wondering what about the natural weapon their horns and stuff like that I actually don't think that you know yeah that should be neat a first peek for a Minotaur that would be a very big backup because there's a problem with the horns right and that's if you miss and your horn gets stuck in something which is actually been known to happen with actual you know Bulls bulls when they charge and they miss and they hit something bull those have been known to get their horns stuck in you know objects trees wooden stuff like that and they can't get free and then they starve to death and die and if a Minotaur was charging a competent you know warrior who has our significant weapon of some kind which could be speed pole an axe sword or whatever right there putting their head on the most vulnerable position because they're leaning down forward and charging you know the most vulnerable thing right there of course the actual forehead part would be pretty thick but still it's like presenting your head yeah here you go hit me of course if you miss the hit the person will probably be dead but still a different risk in my opinion so I think Minotaur charging last option rely on their greatest strength mass they would also be out of charge with their weapon instead of charging with their head so charge with the sword strike or something like that allowance could be useful in that situation they certainly have the mass to do some heavy hits but it's kind of only one hit once the lines either snaps breaks or get stuck in your opponent that's it so a more versatile weapon overall yeah again sword there is of course another weapon that would suite minotaurs beautifully well okay like really so because of their significant upper body strength and I talked about this far more in depth in my video reviewing what best weapons would suit orcs and that is the bow because a bow gets up huge you know benefit in terms of its power from the strength of the person using it so just pretend I repeat everything I said about bows and orcs on this video with minotaurs because that would minutes or seemed to be stronger than all-sec actually yeah depending on the fantasy and therefore minotaurs would get all the same benefits that orcs would get but more and there you go I think we've covered a lot of different angles thought processes been really fun but of course there is one last important fact that you know we need to consider and it's this wood female minotaurs give have adders and give milk like like normal cows and if they did could that be weaponized I'll let you share your thoughts in the comments below in regards to that last fact and I look forward to reading them so I thank you for watching guys I'll see you next time and until then [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 279,673

Keywords: minotaur, fantasy, creature, medieval, monster, class, dnd, dungeons and dragons, weapon, weapons, sword, swords, bearing sword, longsword, ax, axe, rpg, roleplaying, role, playing, video, game, skyrim, lord of the rings, game of thrones, historical, analysis, myth, mythology, elf, dwarf, orc, hobbit, dragon

Id: Fr2TVu54qVA

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2017