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[Men_in_Boxes]

Obviously my GIFs aren't a good representation but the two professions are very similar in nature and yet...the Samurai is just cooler. Why is this?

 

[Sakura]

Knights are kind of more generic, in terms of armour, weapons, etc.
Samurai are more unified and give off an air of sophistication in their craft. For example they were required by law to carry the typical two swords they have with them when on duty. Appearances were also regulated in certain situations. There is of course also all the stuff with bushido and all that. Samurai was a warrior class and it was taken seriously.
Knights weren't quite like that.

Of course, a lot of this is just romanticisation. For example, in The Last Samurai, the samurai do not use guns, with it outright being stated that they "no longer dishonour themselves with the use of firearms", when in reality, the samurai regularly used firearms, and used them in the war that the film is based upon. These kinds of depictions can make them seem cooler.

 

[Kamina]

Are they?
I think it always depends on the depiction in movies.
A knight in full plate armor sure has quite a presence.

 

[March Climber]

Depends on the knight. I always thought this random faceless knight in this Elder Scrolls trailer looked cool:



Like a medieval Doomguy.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Are they?
I think it always depends on the depiction in movies.
A knight in full plate armor sure has quite a presence.

I don’t know the details - how much did full samurai armour weight? Because one of the things you learn when studying the subject further was that medieval armours were very heavy and severely limited any possible movement in a fight. It was basically two cans of metal smacking one another trying to find and opening between the plates.

 

[jufonuk]

yeah but a knight can kick a samurai’s ass



Wait for comment about katana.

 

[EviLore]

They’re the same thing, more or less.

 

[Power Pro]

Samurai armor can make even these little guys look badass, what's not to love?

 

[kanjobazooie]

They're both equally cool.

 

[DaciaJC]

Lots of misconceptions already in this thread concerning knights.

Knights are kind of more generic, in terms of armour, weapons, etc.
Samurai are more unified and give off an air of sophistication in their craft. For example they were required by law to carry the typical two swords they have with them when on duty. Appearances were also regulated in certain situations. There is of course also all the stuff with bushido and all that. Samurai was a warrior class and it was taken seriously.
Knights weren't quite like that.

Of course, a lot of this is just romanticisation. For example, in The Last Samurai, the samurai do not use guns, with it outright being stated that they "no longer dishonour themselves with the use of firearms", when in reality, the samurai regularly used firearms, and used them in the war that the film is based upon. These kinds of depictions can make them seem cooler.

Knights were every bit as much of a warrior class as samurai. In fact, European medieval society was broadly organized into three classes: laboratores (those who labor), oratores (those who pray), and finally bellatores (those who fight), comprising knights and professional men-at-arms. Knights of noble upbringing began physical training in earnest from around the age of seven as a page, later becoming apprentices (squires) where they were expected to support their senior knightly mentor in battle. Even after being granted their knighthood, they would continue to train when not campaigning - jousting tournaments and other deeds of arms weren't just for entertainment. Samurai had their bushido, knights looked to uphold the tenets of chivalry; though I would argue in both cases, these were more romantic ideals than actual consistent codes of conduct.

I don’t know the details - how much did full samurai armour weight? Because one of the things you learn when studying the subject further was that medieval armours were very heavy and severely limited any possible movement in a fight. It was basically two cans of metal smacking one another trying to find and opening between the plates.

Medieval armor could indeed be rather heavy, upwards of 50 pounds, but well-fitted articulating plate armor was designed to spread all that weight as evenly as possible so as to preserve freedom of movement. The idea that knights were clumsy oafs who could barely take two steps in their armor without tripping over themselves is nonsense.

 

[Hudo]

I dunno, I think both are cool for different reasons.

But I absolutely had to choose, I'd go with knights. But maybe that's because I grew up hearing about knights etc. in history class and documentaries and whatnot.

 

[winjer]

A few years ago I learned of a history event, of a Portuguese ship that went on a trade mission to Japan. It's one of the few events of fighting between Japanese and European.
This was before Japan closed itself to the world. And when Portuguese ships were still allowed to trade there. And when Portugal was major naval power.
At a certain point, there was a scuffle between a few Portuguese soldiers and a few samurai. And the result was a set of 9 to 12 of duels, though they were banned at the time.
The Portuguese were equipped with Iberian rapiers. The Japanese samurai, with katanas.
The result was that the Portuguese killed all samurai, with the exception of one, because that Portuguese soldier was extremely drunk.
But the next day, the Portuguese officer in charge of that soldier, came back to town, challenged the samurai that killed his man and then killed him.

There was also the event of the Portuguese Carrak Nossa Senhora de Graça, led by Andrea Pessoa, against 30 Japanese ships.
The Portuguese comited several crimes in the region and the Japanese demanded their surrender to prison.
The Portuguese denied and a conflict emerged. The Japanese then tried to storm the Portuguese ship in port, but were repelled several times.
Though there were only 40 Portuguese defending the ship, it took 3000 samurai to finally defeat the Portuguese.

The Japanese Samurai are very cool, but in the real world, they had a tendency to get their asses kicked by European soldiers.
There were no major wars, between Japan and any European country. Only minor skirmishes.

 

[Bartski]

legends speak of them used katanas to shave their balls

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Ninjas are cooler than both

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Medieval armor could indeed be rather heavy, upwards of 50 pounds, but well-fitted articulating plate armor was designed to spread all that weight as evenly as possible so as to preserve freedom of movement. The idea that knights were clumsy oafs who could barely take two steps in their armor without tripping over themselves is nonsense.

The more you know.

 

[winjer]

Ninjas are cooler than both

There were Samurai that were Ninja.
In reality, Ninjas were just spies, that could be anyone. Like a gardener, a geisha, a samurai, etc.
And they weren't jumping on roofs and climbing walls to kill a bunch of people in the shadows.
Ninjas were mostly listening and sending information back to their Daimio. Very rarely did they kill anyone.

The image we have today of Ninjas is as exaggerated and silly, as James Bond is to spies.

 

[John Marston]

A bit off topic but I was a member on a movie forum when "The Last Samurai" came out.

I started a thread with the title "How can Tom Cruise be the last samurai? He doesn't even look Korean".

Hilarity & outrage ensued for 20 pages.

 

[Madserb2023]

It's mainly due to their portrayal in the media. The Samurai are just depicted as being much cooler especially in anime etc. As with Ninjas who for the most part didn't dress all in black running across rooftops throwing darts, neither Samurai or Knights were quite as fantastical in reality. Ninjas dressed mostly like normal people and were more likely to poison your tea than anything else. knights and Samurais were very much the medieval version of a Victorian gentleman with honor, chivalry and duty being the main thing. They were just as likely to do the gardening as fight. That's not to say that they didn't, and no doubt would have been a spectacular sight to see. It's also due to Western media being more grounded. Knights tend to be depicted as a unit on the battlefield fighting alongside a mainly peasant army rather than an invincible fighting machine which Samurai are depicted as being. In reality Samurai were no different and fights between Samurais would have lasted about 5 seconds.

 

[thefool]

Templar Knights mog everyone

Europe history is unparalleled yet its media depiction is, mostly, very dogshit.
On the other hand, japanese media popularized samurais.

 

[Wildebeest]

Samurai were more recent historically, and many Japanese people still have a sort of weird obsession with their rules and lives. I think that European men-at-arms are treated totally irreverently in that they are presented in a totally fantastic and unrealistic way, with anachronistic plate armour used way before or after it is appropriate. Then you have all the weird games workshop and blizzard stuff with the giant sledgehammers and insanely oversized shoulder plates. Often it just makes them look goofy and juvenile and not like serious warriors.

 

[calistan]

Samurai look cooler because almost everything Japanese looks cooler and more exotic.

I do like knights though. I was really into King Arthur as a kid, you can't beat Roger Lancelyn Green's version of Le Morte d'Arthur. One of the best children's books ever.

I've got the hardcore Malory/Caxton version now. It comes with a glossary for translating knightspeak into modern-ish English, and even that can be pretty confusing.

bestyayl : cattle
fyaunce : promise
graythe : to make ready, to prepare
loving : praising
miscreant : unbeliever
myssaye : revile
noyous : hurtful
steven : a voice, a sound / a time of performing any action previously fixed upon
took : gave
warison : reward
yerde: issue, seed

 

[FunkMiller]

Of course, in reality a samurai would get bodied by a knight in about five seconds.

The iron available in Europe was far superior to Japanese metals. Both sword and armour would have been much better on the knight.

As ever, popular culture skews things horribly.

Also Knights survive into the 41st millenium:

Checkmate, weebs.

 

[StueyDuck]

it's just that one has been featured more in visual fiction than the other due to the nature of Western media and where it started. It also doesn't help that 60s-70s media was inherently super camp. dudes with obviously plastic swords and armour made by their mothers for a school project were never going to look cool.

The Templars were fucking ruthless and there were absolutely badasses and crazy stories of knights and knighthood to be told.

 

[Sakura]

Knights were every bit as much of a warrior class as samurai. In fact, European medieval society was broadly organized into three classes: laboratores (those who labor), oratores (those who pray), and finally bellatores (those who fight), comprising knights and professional men-at-arms. Knights of noble upbringing began physical training in earnest from around the age of seven as a page, later becoming apprentices (squires) where they were expected to support their senior knightly mentor in battle. Even after being granted their knighthood, they would continue to train when not campaigning - jousting tournaments and other deeds of arms weren't just for entertainment. Samurai had their bushido, knights looked to uphold the tenets of chivalry; though I would argue in both cases, these were more romantic ideals than actual consistent codes of conduct.

It really depends on what time period and country you are talking about, in regards to knights. The whole page and squire business wasn't always a thing, and wasn't always a requirement. For example William (later the conqueror) was knighted at 15.
In any case, by warrior class, I meant you were born into it. Being a Samurai was hereditary. You typically couldn't just "become" a samurai.

Depictions of knights tend to be from all sorts of time periods and places, with varying portrayals (owing to the long history), while depictions of samurai almost always come from a certain time period and feature a very consistent "cool" version, which is why I think they generally come off as cooler.

A few years ago I learned of a history event, of a Portuguese ship that went on a trade mission to Japan. It's one of the few events of fighting between Japanese and European.
This was before Japan closed itself to the world. And when Portuguese ships were still allowed to trade there. And when Portugal was major naval power.
At a certain point, there was a scuffle between a few Portuguese soldiers and a few samurai. And the result was a set of 9 to 12 of duels, though they were banned at the time.
The Portuguese were equipped with Iberian rapiers. The Japanese samurai, with katanas.
The result was that the Portuguese killed all samurai, with the exception of one, because that Portuguese soldier was extremely drunk.
But the next day, the Portuguese officer in charge of that soldier, came back to town, challenged the samurai that killed his man and then killed him.

I've seen this story before on the internet but have never been able to find any evidence of it.

 

[winjer]

I've seen this story before on the internet but have never been able to find any evidence of it.

As far as I know, the record is in the Torre do Tombo, in Lisbon, Portugal.

But this result of the Portuguese winning so easily is not surprising, considering they were using rapiers.
Remember that in a duel, a rapier has a huge advantage over any other sword, due to it's range and speed of the point.

 

[SnapShot]

cool armor/outfit

 

[willothedog]

Knights rule

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[winjer]

 

[AJUMP23]

They are the same thing, just for different cultures.

 

[Punished Miku]

I prefer knights honestly. Ninjas are right up there though. Pirates kind of suck.

 

[Bring Back Scalebound]

Any Knight that follows the Space Marine look (Bulky to hyper bulky), can get out-cooleed by anything, for me...

Unfortunately, in media, a lot of Knights follow that design.

But this is just my personal thing. There's not a single male character in Street Fighter 6 that I want to play as, because all of them besides Jamie, looks super muscular and bulky. It looks awful to me (Besides Zangief, because he was always like this)

I don't know how to answer that beyond my pet peeve.

 

[Xyphie]

Pretty much this.

 

[Lambogenie]

Japan does everything better.

They even make knights cooler.

Weeb out.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Samurai are not cooler than knights at all. However, fantasy pirates and rogues are cooler than both.



P.S. Japanese weapons, armor, and architecture suck. Only good thing I can say about them is they are amazing gardeners.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Got some bad news OP. I love samurai too, but most of the stuff we think of when it comes to Samurai, such as Bushido, came out during the Edo period, when they didnt have much to do except sit around and think on what it meant to be a Samurai.

If you want a realistic depiction of what most Samurai were like, watch Twilight Seibei. They were essentially white collar office workers. Accountants, logistics managers, warehouse managers.

 

[Mattdaddy]

Because knights are traditionally white.

And according to Ubisoft, Samurai are traditionally black.

And black people are cooler and have more swag than whites.

 

[GymWolf]

They are not.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Fact: Ninja are the highest level of samurai gone bad.

It’s on the internet, therefore it is now true.

For real though, knights in stories are slightly better than samurai, in real life… I’m not sure about that.

 

[EviLore]

Nothing stops this train

 

[West Texas CEO]

Fact: Ninja are the highest level of samurai gone bad.

That's a myth.

The highest level of rogue samurai are Ronin.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Nothing stops this train

Is that a Jedi?

 

[Trogdor1123]

That's a myth.

The highest level of rogue samurai are Ronin.

Lies! It’s on the internet!

 

[GymWolf]

Is that a Jedi?

 

[Wildebeest]

If you want to know who the real psycho cavalry of the era was, it was the Mongols. Neither the Japanese nor European horsemen could stand against them. Japan was saved by weather, and Europe was saved due to everything in Europe being too shit and far away to care about.

 

[West Texas CEO]

it's a reference to Star Wars?

 

[IDKFA]

Knights are cooler. It's not even close.

Knights (I'm going to refer to 14th and 15th century knights here) look a lot cooler.

Their weapons were superior. European steel outclassed Japanese steel.

Armour was far superior.

Chivalry trumps bushido

Knights win

 

[BossLackey]

I'm reading Musashi right now and I still don't think samurai are cooler than knights.

They're each the warrior class of their respective feudal societies with dope weapons and dope armor. There so so many parallels between them.

Also, one point against samurai, thousands of ronin raped and pillaged their own neighbors as soon as they became masterless.

 

[GymWolf]

it's a reference to Star Wars?

Yep, the last masterpiece called the alkaline or some shit.

 

[IDKFA]

William Marshall, the 1st Earl of Pembroke, would have chewed up Miyamoto and shat him out before breakfast.