Ever since I trained in Taekwondo in high school, I’ve been interested in how fights are portrayed in mainstream media. I’ve gone all the way from wondering why I don’t spar as beautifully as Jet Li fights to concluding that it is the movies (and anime!) who don’t spar as realistically as real life.
Nowadays, it is easier to find material on the subject. YouTube is full of videos detailing why Game of Thrones have such great battle scenes despite the fact that Jon Snow is a pretty shitty swordsman. That said, I don’t really watch Game of Thrones so my gold standard for swordplay eye-candy remains to be Peter Jackson’s work, for all its narrative faults.
So it is interesting to find an analysis of The Battle of Pelennor Fields from a real-life military perspective. Go give it a read—you don’t need to be acquainted with military literature to get the gist of it. If anything, it will give you an insight on modern military tactics.
