One Crazy, Sick Dude

To those who read history, we've come acros the the frightening name of Vlad the Impaler. When I was a kid I remember reading about how he relished in drinking the blood of his victims and using instruments of terror like impaling to strike fear in people.

 Vlad naturall had to make an appearance on Deadliest Warrior.

While I tend to take the show with a grain of sea salt, it nonetheless is interesting to watch.

People have pointed out a lot of problems and inaccuracies with the show but that's what it is, entertainmnent. The main problem I have with the show is the seeming lack of interest in factoring the "x-factor" in battles. Yeah, Vlad was a madman who very well have killed Sun Tzu one on one but in a field of battle one could reasonably assume he'd be polished off a military terrain. Same with the Romans. In two episodes, the Romans didn't fair well, but the strength of the Romans was the the organization and ruthlessness of the entire army. In other words, the whole was the greater of the sum of its parts. I doubt the Romans would have lost to many of the warriors featured on the show.

It tends to mix up great military generals, leaders and strategists with fighting entire non-descript armies like, say, vikings (not suggesting there weren't great viking leaders). My point is it can't seem to make up its mind. Either you pit Napoleon against say, Macarthur or you pit La Grane Armee with the American army of WWII.

Rather, the show extracts a character from the entity it derives from. For example, Alexander the Great. Yet, for the Romans it didn't introduce Julius Caesar or Augustus. So on this front they need to work out the details. 

The results are also based on a one on one simulation of a 1000 fights. I want to see armies go at it. I don't want to see what one or five guys did with the five weapons. It really tells you nothing.

All that being said, it's a decent enough show and watching Vlad as depicted on the show left me in awe. I don't think, so far anyway, anyone comes close to this psycho. Even the Vlad experts played their parts well. It helps that East-central Europe (Romania/Wallachia and all that) is historically one creepy area.