kamugin wrote: Thu Sep 24, 2020 5:02 am
If you want to see proper, expert level of shield wielding, you must hand it over to Captain America. There's none better than him to show how it's done.
Yes, some of those fights scenes did capture it pretty good. Kind of gets to the "think of it as two swords". The shield is as active a part of your offense/defense as your other hand.
I was very pleased with Wonder Woman's use of her shield. The bit where she is crouched down behind the shield within a hail of bullets isn't as far fetched as it seems. Even a medium sized shield like she uses, with the right profile facing the enemy it can provide a lot of cover against direct fire if you put your body in the right profile.
This is even more the case with hand held weapons. Beginning shield fighters always try to hold the shield flat on, facing their enemy. What I say to them is "you aren't trying to stop the enemy from _seeing_ you, you are trying to stop them from _hitting_ you". The key is that the trajectory of your shield needs to intersect with the trajectory of their sword _at some point_. Any intersection at all is enough to take sufficient momentum out of the blow to render it ineffective. (No, you can't "power through" someone's shield, no matter how strong you are.) This doesn't have to be at the end of a stroke, where it might as well just be a piece of armor. An active shield user will keep the shield way out, and, if you are close fighting, intercepting their sword just as they are throwing the blow. You kind of "punch their fist with your fist". Stops the sword dead before it started, leaving them to recover momentum for their next shot. And you, almost invariably, use the _rim_ of your shield to block, not the flat. That's the furthest part away from you, and closest to your enemy. If you look at an old shield it's all beaten up along the edges, and the paintwork in the middle is perfect.
But all that rim work and active blocking is hard to convey in movies or in manga. I've been at fights bouncing up and down in awe at someone's expert shield work. And non-shield-nerds don't even notice it. That's just how it is.
It would be nice if it were them, but those are just a handful of way way late kunstlers.
