Post originally by Oliver at 2004-07-29 12:13:38
Converted from Phorums BB System



Helstorm wrote:
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I hate to break it to you, but that is very not true. To prove it, we'll ask my uncle who was stabbed over ten times with a rather large knife whether a single blow should kill a person. Uncle?

Uncle: Definitely not true.

There you have it. Seriously, that's a true story and just goes to show that people can often withstand a huge amount of pain and injury before going down.
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Before going down. But they WILL eventually die, and when done by a weapon as the one described, not even modern medicine will be able to help them.

However, what Matt described wasn't a random result, it was MAXIMUM damage. That is: There is no way to do better. And that is decidedly unrealistic.

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In another example of truth, have you seen the news lately? A kidnapped victim in Iraq was beheaded live. The attacker had a large sword, presumably a scimitar or some simlarly curved blade. three times to lop off his head and kill him. I think even very sharp blades can fail in their duty! It just happens, and isn't a sure thing.
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The fact that the head didn't go off doesn't mean that the guy wasn't instantly dead, nor does it mean that the blade failed. What is far, FAR more likely is that the blade alignment was off because the attacker happened to have no experience whatsoever using a sword, and thus failed to perform a clean cut.

I suggest to look at any given test cutting by western martial arts organisation to see that even a semi-trained person can easily cut through flesh and bone with a single strike.