In The Name Of Progress, You Signed Your Name.

In the name of progress, you signed your name.

In silence, you wrote it with their blood.

In fear, you turn your head so much, it has twisted into headlessness.

Will you wait for the sinew to snap?

They will wear your head to the next met gala.

Your childrens souls will tear you apart in condemnation, and you will let them, watching the blood drip from their haunted faces.

You will not know hell, unless it is of your own making.

Your eyelids will be peeled from your flesh, for all that you closed your eyes to keep from seeing.

You will watch your actions on loop, screaming, out of any binding with time, through a throat decayed from poisons spoken and ashes of war, permissively consumed. From lungs drowned with the shit of war pigs.

You will do this, you now choose this.

You will remember only this, nothing more.

I'm trying to understand something that seems a bit contradictive. On one hand, you say old experienced fighters can easily beat young fighters solely through their experiences. However, you also say the more someone is in combat, the more wear and tear they have. So, why couldn't a young healthy fighter take advantage of all that body strain and easier injuries that could cripple an old figher despite their experience?

Congratulations. You’ve hit on the crux of most traditional martial arts narratives—the dangerous old timer versus the young up and comer.

The young have youth and virility at their physical peak. The old have experience and wisdom.

The Aliens vs Predator 1997 card game had a great reference about old fighters. It’s a line I really like, “a bit slower, a lot smarter.”

I’ll be completely honest, it’s difficult to really grasp the vast gap experience creates until you’ve had your ass handed to you by a guy pushing seventy. Or watched him shatter a wooden baseball bat with his shin. Or watched him float through the air nimbly like a butterfly with more agility and grace than you will likely ever manage.

The funny thing is that the old, wise martial arts master on the mountain isn’t just a trope or a joke. A person who has been training for forty to fifty years can be equal parts breathtaking, terrifying, and unforgettable.

It’s true, there’s more wear, tear, and strain on a thirty year old that’s been fighting for a decade than an eighteen year old. The problem is you’re just thinking about the physical body and not the experience they’ve gained fighting and surviving for those ten years beyond what their initial training offered. What they’ve learned is the difference, because the dumb ones and the unlucky ones are all dead.

A lot of writers have this problem with writing more experienced warriors and, ironically, a lot of young fighters have this problem with experienced warriors. They both have the problem of thinking the fight starts when the violence starts, and that all violence is force on force. If you think about your fight scene (and violence in general) like you’re clashing two action figures together, obviously the younger, less damaged toy is going to hold up better. The older toy is more likely to break first. Unfortunately, life isn’t that simple. Also, if you’re just clashing action figures, your fight scenes are going to be really boring.

The name of the game is brains. One of the most decisive aspects of combat is control. Controlling when the fight happens, controlling how the fight happens, controlling the speed of the fight, and ensuring the fight happens in the place of your choosing are all part of an experienced warrior’s repertoire. Depriving your opponent of their advantages while boosting your own is strategy.

This is why the experienced fighters often end up as antagonists because they’re best able to pressure the protagonist to learn and grow. Only by learning new techniques, to fight smarter, not harder can the protagonist defeat their antagonist.

The more experienced your fighter is, the more likely they are to be fighting smart. You’re right, they can no longer rely solely on their physical advantages but they’ve been gaining in time while they’ve been losing to time.

-Michi

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— Evelyn Graham Frost, ‘Memory’

"i wanna do this with you" is a love language 🫀

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