MovieChat Forums > Marco Polo (2014) Discussion > Why were the Knights Templars so useless...

Why were the Knights Templars so useless?

posted 9 years ago by zen0x
15 replies | jump to latest

Glossing over the fact the crusaders were never involved with the Mongols in this fashion. Mongol armies were most effective as mobile hit and run troops in open areas. The Crusaders were most effective as either heavy shock cavalry or close quarters specialists. Therefore I think it's fair to say a heavily armored crusader would annihilate a Mongol on the ground just like a Mongol would likely annihilate a crusader on a horse in the open.

I mean common the Knights Templar history is replete with examples of outstanding fortitude and courage against overwhelming odds. However, the knights portrayed in the show seemed to die like they weren't even wearing armour, none of them seemed to have shields and most seemed to lack any of the formidable marshal prowess they possessed in real history.

[–] finchy_000 9 years ago

They were caught off guard fighting one of the most formidable armies of its time in their own lands

[–] wind_of_rage 9 years ago

It was a suprise attack. Exactly one Crusader had an armor on the rest caught entirely off guard.

[–] zen0x 9 years ago

Seems pretty thin to me, where were the pickets and scouts? 7 thousand men on horseback make a *beep* load of noise.

And even if they were caught completely unawares, how long does it take to pick up a shield, after all most of them seem to have had enough time to get their mail and tabards on.

[–] z098979 9 years ago

They were disorganized because a herd of flaming horses ran through their camp and blew most of it up. The Templars had no time to regroup before the horsemen charged in cutting them down as they tried to retreat from the flames.

[–] zen0x 9 years ago

Yeah and how likely do you think those shenanigans would have been? Apart from the fact that a screaming horse on fire is hardly inconspicuous, they in reality would have been observed well before that could have taken place.

There was very little cavalry involved in the fight it was mainly infantry from what I could see and cavalry does not excel at fighting in close quarters. A situation like this would only benefit the more heavily armoured and better trained foot knights who as you can see were mainly fighting people in yellow cloth without a shield.

[–] robinson-w-walsh 9 years ago

Maybe they weren't Templars? There were other orders of Crusader knights. Maybe these were just the low-grade ones since the bulk of them would have been fighting in the Middle East and Europe.

[–] zen0x 9 years ago

The red cross on the front of their tabbards would indicate that they were Templars, the The Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights had different crosses and colouring.

[–] Top_Shelf 9 years ago

scoffs @ "real history"

LOL

History is what those in power at the time wanted to be told.

[–] movie_nazi 9 years ago

You do realize that the Knights Templar had a pretty crappy track record when it came to actual battles. They failed to hold on to the Holy land and failed in attempts to take it back from the Muslims. In fact, there are few instances when they actually displayed military prowess.

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[–] articappleman 9 years ago

they failed to hold it due to logistics

[–] willsons-2 9 years ago

The short answer is that the show-runners wanted Kublai to get a win this time round. That meant a rout of the Crusader/Mongol force.

Remember they considered themselves to be a superior force about to attack an inferior force. They thought they were safe from discovery because of Achmed's misdirects (which had been quite effective to this point).

They also just experienced "shock and awe" with the flaming horse attack. Granted, it seemed to me to be rather unlikely that the horses would survive that long to actually attack the camp, but hey, this is television...

Personally, I thought Marco's father's prowess with the sword was the weak point in that part of the show.

"I care about the law. It's justice I don't give a toss about." Cleaver Greene

[–] steve4192 9 years ago

As a military history buff, I was not a fan of that scene either. The fact that all the main Mongol characters dismounted and got into sword fights annoyed me, as that is the exact opposite of what they would have done. Mongols were INCREDIBLE fighters on horseback, but once they were dismounted they weren't anything special. Almost all of their martial training was on light cavalry techniques. They didn't spend much (if any) time training as infantry. Any infantry fighting that was done was mostly left to their auxiliary forces composed of non-Mongols from conquered lands.

I suspect they chose to film it that way because fight choreography is one hell of a lot when it only involves two trained stuntmen/actors without a horse in the mix. It's also easier to film, more dramatic as they face off, and allows for flashy Wu Shu moves that they couldn't do on horseback.