To follow up my most recent tweet, here’s another quick thread I want to dive into real fast, when it comes to medievalists/reenactors/LARPers, and myself, sharing their experiences regarding medievalism (combat, especially) on the internet;

Sometimes it’s wrong.

(Thread/?)

(1/?) This should go without saying, but simply because you have a voice on the internet does NOT mean you’re 100% right all the time.

And any historian/history enthusiast who is worth their salt will make this evident that they live by that. We’re always learning.

(2/?) For those of us who try to “live” our experiences (books and research could fit into this discussion, but I’m largely going to remove it from my comments ahead), we tend to cement our experiences as proof.

“I do this thing, so I KNOW everything.”

You’re probably wrong.

(3/?) As I previously stated, the folks worth listening to are those who are aware of the flaws in their experiences.

I’m going to start with myself. (I won’t decide if I’m worth listening to, though )

Most of my experience comes in the context of LARP.

This has problems.

(4/?) LARP has a lot of issues with being a “true” medieval experience, and particularly American LARP. That’s it’s own thread.

For the sake of (attempted) brevity, I’m now going to narrow this topic down to combat: using weapons, wearing armor, and how it comes together.

(5/?) I practice using weapons. I wear armor of differing types. I’ve fought from 1v1 to 400+ people on a field at once.

I have “experience.” But...

My weapons aren’t real. Some of my armor is custom; some is “off the shelf” (read: bad). I often fight by unrealistic rules.

(6/?) Claiming to thoroughly understand combat when the games you play don’t allow striking the head is NOT a true understanding.

Wearing poorly-fitted steel and then saying how steel armor adversely affects the wearer? Bad.

The examples are endless.

(7/?) It’s not bad to partake in any of these things. The key is having the perspective to recognize the shortcomings of what you’re doing, in terms of how it influences your perception of the real truth of it.

(8/?) Once you can recognize that, then you can find the truth in what you’re doing. And that’s also when you realize: none of these activities are perfect.

LARP isn’t perfect. And neither are HEMA, Buhurt, SCA, re-enactment, etc.

(9/?) I’ve focused on LARP because it’s what I primarily engage with, but this applies to all of it.

How do we get better? We do as much as we can. Study HEMA, get into Buhurt, and go to a damn LARP/SCA/combat sport and fight 600 people.

Know what’s right. And know the faults.

(10/?) And READ SOME DAMN BOOKS.

But if you only read books? Get out there. Live it. You count in this discussion, too.

(11/?) Any point I brought up in this thread can go plenty deeper, but there’s only one thing I’m trying to make clear:

Some of us need to take a step back and recognize where our experiences are not the Word of God.

(But recognize where you do know things, too!)

(12/?) This thread was not a response to anything someone has said to me or anyone else I’ve recently witnessed on Twitter.

It’s just something I’ve wanted to say for a good while, because I see a lot bad information shared in the guise of “experience” from a limited source.

(13/End) So be good to each other and keep learning.

But don’t go to any one source, be it Youtuber, Twitter person, LARPer, re-enactor, etc. and think they are the ultimate expert on the whole topic.

It’s a big medievalist world. Get out there and see the whole thing!