Nerd freak out
I don't even know why, but as I was re-reading rurounihime's A Persistent Curiosity, or Why Merlin is So Bloody Fascinating, I totally freaked out at a weapons misnomer. (One that they actually use in the show, so it isn't any sort of a reflection on Ru's writing, which I love with the fire of a thousand suns.)
In episodes one and two, Arthur whips a weapon around calling it a mace. But it is not a mace. And Arthur should know it! For that matter, so should Merlin! He's a farmboy, after all, he should have recognised what Arthur was trying to bash his skull in with! This is a mace. It is basically a fancy club, sometimes with spikes or protrusions of some sort, used for bludgeoned deaths of the Very Messy variety. (Also, the weapon of choice for clerics in D&D. So don't piss off the priest.) What Arthur whirls around so skillfully (and Merlin less so) is, in fact, a flail. (It also wasn't used as a weapon of war, but historically was a harvesting tool, used as a weapon by farmers in times of great duress. Think nunchaku for the white man. And, really, I can see why you wouldn't want to use one in battle. Whipping something like that around in a battlefield, you're as likely to brain your own side as the other, and I think the boys demonstrated quite ably just how easy it is for it to get tangled. You could accidentally disarm your comrade or yourself getting it wrapped around your neighbor's sword.)
Anyhow, that's all, really. Back to reading, now. :D
(Dear god, I am such a complete nerd. I swear, I didn't used to be this bad...)
In episodes one and two, Arthur whips a weapon around calling it a mace. But it is not a mace. And Arthur should know it! For that matter, so should Merlin! He's a farmboy, after all, he should have recognised what Arthur was trying to bash his skull in with! This is a mace. It is basically a fancy club, sometimes with spikes or protrusions of some sort, used for bludgeoned deaths of the Very Messy variety. (Also, the weapon of choice for clerics in D&D. So don't piss off the priest.) What Arthur whirls around so skillfully (and Merlin less so) is, in fact, a flail. (It also wasn't used as a weapon of war, but historically was a harvesting tool, used as a weapon by farmers in times of great duress. Think nunchaku for the white man. And, really, I can see why you wouldn't want to use one in battle. Whipping something like that around in a battlefield, you're as likely to brain your own side as the other, and I think the boys demonstrated quite ably just how easy it is for it to get tangled. You could accidentally disarm your comrade or yourself getting it wrapped around your neighbor's sword.)
Anyhow, that's all, really. Back to reading, now. :D
(Dear god, I am such a complete nerd. I swear, I didn't used to be this bad...)