Trivial with the weapon the knight should be using: a spear or polearm.
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
42 points (81.8% liked)
Ask Lemmy
34763 readers
1485 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It depends on the skill of both the knight and the lion.
I like the cut of your jib
load more comments
(2 replies)
By necessity the hands and feet of plate armor are thinner and more flexible. If a lion was able to get a hand or a foot in its mouth, it's game over for the knight. They have more than enough bite force to crush the armor and the body part inside.
One big benefit of the plate armor when facing a lion is that the armor was usually shaped to deflect and defend against strikes to the head and neck. Lions usually dispatch their prey by crushing the throat and asphyxiating them. The armor should be a good defense against such attacks.
What I think it comes down to is terrain. If the lion can ambush the knight, the knight will be knocked down before they can bring any weapons to bear effectively. From there, their armor will only make their demise slower and more agonizing. If there is no cover and the knight sees the lion coming, they may be able to keep the lion at bay with weapon swipes. This gives the knight the opportunity for a killing blow or for multiple strikes to make the lion retreat. The knight just has to hope the lion doesn't charge regardless of potential harm because then it's just the first scenario again.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I choose to believe the lion wins. Fuck knights and people. I won't read anything to the contrary.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Indigenous African tribes have been successfully defending themselves from lions for many thousands of years with much less than that.
Armed or unarmed? Armor might help you not die for a while...but without weapons, there isn't much a person could do to kill a lion.
Shove an armored arm down it's throat to the shoulder. It will possibly suffocate and die. This is the advice I have emheard for unarmed and unarmored humans to survive a Jaguar attack in South America. I would wager that chain and plate mail would level the playing field against a lion.
That sounds like someone was pulling your leg. How do you get an arm down a moving animal's throat, and past it's limb-severing jaws?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Winner: Lion (in round 1)
I think you gotta consider that a knight has likely never seen a lion or a beast of such proportions before. If you put the knight into a moderate-sized arena with a large cat, I’m willing to bet the bravery of the knight fails him and he is mauled to death by the lion.
It all comes down to the mental game.
IDK man. Knights know what a bear is, lions aren't that much scarier than bears and bears are larger. And AFAIK, knights should be trained to stand their ground if fleeing is not an option, which it clearly isn't, because large animals are always faster than humans on foot and anyone who ever hunted from horseback (which was very common for knights) would know that.
In contrast, has the lion ever had experience with being hit by a sword, spear etc.? I know boars will often just keep attacking, but is that true for big cats, too, or will they decide that the fight isn't worth it and try to fuck off?
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)