I watched Conan the Barbarian on Sup Forums's recommendation and it was actually really good...

I watched Conan the Barbarian on Sup Forums's recommendation and it was actually really good. What was the whole riddle between flesh and steel though? I'm not very smart to be completely honest.

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That might makes right basically. Steel is a gift from God.

How so?

His father tells him that steel is the strongest.
Tulsa Doom shows him that he has power over people by might and influence, basically flesh.
Then at the end he recognizes that the steel Crom left behind was not some metal but the will to act and determination. That's why he breaks his fathers sword, and that's what's more powerful than anything.

Well everything in the film happened through brute strength.

and force of will

It's all about metallurgy and swordmaking.
His father told him that he should study the secrets of steel so one he could make the perfect alloy for forging blades.

Oh okay. Thank you and sorry for my lack of understanding.

i thought that it was more like the aswer to the riddle was a union of both philosophies,you need steel to fight but also a powerful will,so the answer would be a union between steel and will.

Steel isn't worth shit without the strength and will of a man behind it.

That's what I took away from it too, that physical steel can only take you so far but a steel will to back it it can get you the rest of the way. Considering he becomes a king in his own right eventually that's what makes sense to me.

But then why did Doom place such value in collecting steel near the beginning of the film?

Yeah, pretty much.

Howard actually wrote some really good verses about Conan as a king that deals with the failings of the kind of soft power Thulsa Doom espouses.

>Gleaming shell of an outworn lie, fable of Right Divine
>You gained your crowns by heritage, but Blood was the price of mine
>The throne I won by blood and sweat, by Crom I will not sell
>For promise of valleys filled with gold, or threat of the Halls of Hell!

>When I was a fighting man, the kettle-drums they beat
>The people scattered gold dust before my horse's feet
>But now I am a great king; the people hound my track
>With poison in my wine cup and daggers at my back.

>What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
>I who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
>The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing.
>Rush in and die, dogs — I was a man before I was a king!

This
the steel was inside you all along!
I was also the faggot from the other thread that was saying it's partially about accepting your mortality.
Steel and flesh are both temporary. Understanding the riddle of steel means knowing that you can break and be broken. Conan was forged by his enemies and hardships but ultimately chose to wield himself for his own ends.

His power wasn't his mastery over his enemies but his mastery over himself. That's what kept Doom from controlling him.

thats actually pretty damn good. Any more or links to source? Please.

really makes you think

A lot of Howard's poetry is weird; I don't think The Road of Kings was ever published in it's full form; the whole thing was chopped up and used as epigraphs for other Conan stories-- I think each of those stanzas above was used for a different tale. Pheonix on the Sword and Red Palace, I think, but I don't remember the third. Other people reassembled the stuff afterward.

You can probably find more by googling for Howard poetry or the like, though.

Conon should have an Irish type accent though, not a germanic one.That's my only quirp.

Do you have a vagina? If yes you can't get this movie.

Literally why? He came across as more Eastern European in combat to me.

>Conon

Is that the greatest poster ever?

What a short fucking bitch sword

Milius's entire filmography is fucking gold, essential conservativekino

i'v read in wiki, that there was supposed to remake conan, so him and the wachowski now sister went and meat to try and write a scenario, but it said that they couldnt work together on a scenario because of too much desagreament.

just immagine a 65 John Milius seeing these two guys coming i would pay to watch those meeting

Its all in the movie really...
youtube.com/watch?v=P2EQ0FlVks4

I concur. This is the answer. They didn't put too fine a point on it but this is the takeaway.

It also helps because it is part of the philosophy that Arnold lived in his life; One goes to the gym to become stronger but the weights don't lift themselves, it is by will alone that you make your body stronger. If you don't have the will to push yourself you will never be the greatest that you can be.
youtube.com/watch?v=druuGP4I0M0

if you remember, his fathers sword was stolen when he was a child and he never had it. The breaking of his fathers sword only proves that truly "steel isnt strong, boy". He takes it as a symbolic victory and then takes that shattered blade to kill Thulsa Doom fulfilling a promise to himself as a child.

Really, the entire movie is an endictment of hippie culture and personality cults. The strong ruling over the weak willed no matter how peaceful something is on the surface.

Google Frank Frazetta. He even has a documentary about him.

>unironically linking a Rich Peeano video.

Plz.

American commies always complain about MUH 50s and McCarthy (rightfully) going after them, but the fact that Hollyjew consistently blacklists right-wingers and conservatives for 50 straight years now goes conveniently unnoticed. They literally killed dozens upon dozens of talented careers due to ideology. Fucking pieces of shit, they make me sick.

Have in mind that Conan The Barbarian is a deeply Nietzschean script. The riddle of steel is the power of will, the Will to Power.

It's not the steel that is powerful, but the flesh that wields it. Are you fucking retarded?

Cimmerians were proto-Celts.

I love this movie so much but this part always makes me cringe a little.

Basically Conan is told to study the blade.

Did this movie predict modern women?

You boys are practically spot on. The true answer, at least for Conan, to the Riddle of Steel is the Will to Power. The mind is the greatest weapon and used in perfect cohesion with the flesh and the steel, renders the warrior in question nearly unbeatable, peerless on the field.

But also the Riddle of Steel is sort of an open ended question. Each will give their own version of their answer when asked before Crom at the gates of Valhalla. When Valeria is asked I doubt she gives the same answer Conan would, yet clearly she is permitted entry.

You're stupid then

yes, pic related

Conan is an Irish name. His people are based on ancient Irish mythology.

One non-Greek accent is the same as the next-- it all sounds like
>bar bar bar bar bar
anyway.

based

>Historical Cimmerians were proto-Celts
>so they must speak with a post-proto-Celt accent
>in a fantasy world
Yeah, no.

From Saturday's thread. The films theme is Nietzsche.

> God is dead but don't be a nilhlist cos that's shitty. Seek out hardship cos that shit will make you better (ubermensch), don't be a nu-male pussy (last man). Ignore what church / society tells you and form your own values dawg.

What is so hard to understand?