OT: Western v. Eastern martial arts

[lch]

Originally Posted by Omnirizon

Further, in the West, ownership of weaponry was perhpas not controlled, or peasants had no interest in developing makeshift weaponry, or there was no one (such as temple monks) who would commit time to studying, developing, and preserving peasant weaponless or makeshift fighting styles (as opposed to committing time to studying some wanky religion).

I think that in the west it was more or less forbidden for peasantry to possess weapons that were more sophisticated than a club, too, or quite probably a real sword was just too expensive to possess. Those who could would be noblemen who'd be in a position to support being a knight or similar. Armoured knights were pretty much impossible to beat with most conventional weapons before the advent of gunpowder.