Firefly (TV series)/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
Firefly (TV series)/Headscratchers (view source)
Revision as of 21:29, 22 September 2014
, 9 years ago→Dueling Etiquette
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*** Yeah, I noticed that line too, exactly what I was thinking. The rules about the second shooting you if you try something underhanded in the preliminaries probably apply here to a pistol duel too. Maybe, for once in his life, Mal simply knows better than to try something suicidal like attacking during saluting or taking a cheap shot when they bind then break. Unfortunately, he just didn't know ENOUGH to avoid challenging a master swordsman. When he started to get desperate, he started to fight dirty, but maybe in the resulting scrabble Atherton's second couldn't get a clear shot before it was over. By that point, it might have been in the second's best interest not to shoot so that Mal would spare Atherton.
** Not sure if this applies in the duels in the setting, but in [[Real Life]] a lot of sword duels did, to a degree, involve some dirty fighting, at least once the duel actually began. Technically it wasn't allowed, but no one would fault you for punching your opponent or stomping his foot or gouging his eye in a fight to the death.
*** There's lots of "dirty tricks" that are perfectly legal, if for no other reason than that nobody thought to make them against the rules because 1) no proper gentleman would even consider doing so during a duel and 2) you'd have to be insane to do it. One episode of ''[[Sharp's Rifles]]'' has Richard demonstrate the latter by letting his opponent stab him in the leg... deeply enough that the suction of the wound makes it effectively impossible for the foppish man to pull it out. Disarming your opponent like that would probably be against the rules... if anyone had even cared to think up the absurdity of the idea beforehand.
== River Breaking Free From the Reavers/River's Physical Strength ==
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