Why would anyone in their right mind choose pistols? Less control over your weapon, the wound is more likely to kill you, and your weapon might misfire.
>>18440906because the Faustian spirit of Europe is (was) concerned with forwards progress. Pistols were the newer and more modern weapon, and therefore, it was often considered more chic to duel with them.
>>18440906The innate unpredictability of the exchange leaves the outcome more in the hands of the Gods
>>18440906Why do you think that you'd do better with a sword? Real sword fights aren't like movies, where there's dozens of back and forth sword strikes.There's 1-3, and then someone leaves themselves open enough to get stabbed, and things go downhill quickly from there.Take your 50/50 with the pistols, and get it overwith.
>>18440906>Less control over your weapon>and your weapon might misfirewell you're a lot less likely to be a truly skilled and trained swordsman too. All it takes to be good from a pistol from like 20 yards away is point and pull trigger
>>18440906I would imagine you'd want to use whichever you personally felt more confident with.
>>18440941This. By the time European gentry switched to pistol duels over swords dueling had reached 'national crisis' levels with the number of young noblemen it was killing. Adding in the randomness was meant to discourage dueling, as well as improve the odds that one or both pistols would fail. There were even a few dueling systems where they'd take turns to shoot at each other (the pistols were often inaccurate and unreliable enough that even if your opponent was a competent marksman it wasn't necessarily a death sentence for the man who shot second), trying to further disincentivise and randomise the practice.
>>18440906Better chances against professional duelists. Against master swordsman out of shape boomer has no chance.
>>18440943you do know, oh reddit-educated one, that we have footage of sword duels and you can find them on youtube?
>>18440906To make it more fair. One of the purposes of duelling is to deter people from behaving dishonorably enough to warrant a duel and risk getting killed. But that doesn't work as well when it's a skilled swordsman talking shit about the wife of some guy who has never held a sword. It doesn't matter as much how good you are in a pistol duel. If someone is sufficiently angry to power through being shot they can Andrew Jackson you even if you've mortally wounded them.
>>18440906>Why would anyone in their right mind choose pistols?If you know your opponent is a good fencer and you aren't would you pick swords?Guns are called the great equalizer for a reason.
>>18440906because I was having sex while you were studying the sword
"Samuel L. Jackson literally spent his presidency executing people on the white house lawn, he didn’t just sign laws; he signed death warrants at ten paces. He used his presidency to settle over 20 scores. He was out there in the Rose Garden shooting men for calling him a 'scoundrel' with a .70 caliber. He didn't just veto bills, he vetoed souls. Fuckin Legend.
>>18440906your enemy can't hurt you from afar.
