monocyte’s blog

war is hell

I've come across this video on youtube. it's a non choreographed fight between a samurai and a knight. usually when you watch a fight scene it is from a movie and it's polished, clean and made to feel fun. it is more akin to a dance. floaty and playful.

but this scene isn't told through a lens of hollywood. it is raw, visceral and you can feel the weight. it comes down to a rolling in the sand to see who can shank each other contest really quickly. this commenter explains it better than I can:

Again (as I'm just repeating what I've commented on other Dequitem videos) - two men of some of the highest social rank in their respective culture, a rank whose role and duties require the highest martial training available in that culture, and whose affluence and wealth command the highest standard of equipment and armament... and all that devolves into two guys rolling around in the dirt desperately trying
to shank eachother in the armpit, groin, or neck. Time or place don't matter - war is hell. Always has been, always will be

this weirdly reminds me of a war video I watched from the ukraine-russia war. it was a combat footage between a yakut and ukrainian soldier and they disarm each other quickly. what follows is them rolling in sand, trying to get control of a knife to stab each other. it is absolutely horrifying. it ends with yakut soldier getting control of the knife and cutting the ukrainian soldier pretty badly. ukrainian tells him he fought better, was better and to leave him alone so he can die in peace.

this is the single most disturbing video I've ever watched. war is horrifying. it was horrifying before and it still is today. the only thing that changed is we invented guns so maybe we couldn't hear the last words of our enemy that made them human and troubled our conscience. making it less personal and giving us a lighter pillow to sleep on.

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