Cowboys vs. Space Men
At first I was gonna ask the age-old Pirates Vs. Ninjas question, but this forum might be a little biased. So, I'm gonna ask; who could win in a fight: cowboys or space-men.
Of course, a fight could mean just a one-on-one combat or a full scale battle with an army of cowboys and an army of space men.
EDIT: Oh, and please tell me why you choose what you choose, because I'm thinking of writing a college essay on this subject.
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OH YEAH. Now that's what I call BADASS: The Motion Picture Masterpiece.
Oh, and my vote goes for Cowboys in a 1-on-1, as they're the masters of the duel, but Spacemen in a full-scale war.
Hmm... good point. Spacemen technology will definitely triumph over cowboy weapons. But when they are armed with nothing, it could end either way.
As for the debate... For me being a cowboy, spaceman, pirate or ninja is not about hats, weapons and gadgets. It's about the moral code. What makes a cowboy or a spaceman so interesting and appealing to people? What is their archetype? What is their nature?
Let's start with the cowboy. He is an explorer. A man looking for a new life, because he doesn't fit in the old one. He has a pistol, a horse and a past covered in mystery. The most iconic cowboys seek vengeance rather than justice. They are loners with a something that haunts them and they try to deal with it. The lost soul looking for redemption, sometimes selfish and sometimes just, but allways alone and allways trying to erase a dark past.
The spaceman also seeks to explore new places. However, he's doing that for another reason. He is part of the world and he seeks new worlds not for himself, not to escape a "dark past", but to expand the reach of the whole humanity. He is part of an unit, a soldier in a way. He has a commander, a home and a crew. His ship is a representation of all human kind. The spaceman belongs in a group and he is the best of the best.
Spacemen are just too loyal, clean and idealistic for my taste. So I'd give my vote to the wild and rebelous nature of the cowboy. Plus I really love train robberies. You know, with the chasing on horseback and jumping on the train and running and shooting on top of the cars... Just epic!
As they should. As they should.:D
Seriously, when I think of cowboys vs. spacemen I just think of little kids in the late fifties arguing over which game to play. Considering real cowboys were broken, worn-out men who spent most of their time in near isolation with small groups and spent what little money they had on liquor whenever they got the infrequent chance to visit a saloon, I'd say the "spaceman" would win since he presumably got to eat right and not have his body worn down by grueling, manual labor.
Also, fun fact! It's estimated that 25% of all the cowboys in the "Old West" were black, mostly former slaves who couldn't find work after they had been freed.
Space Cowboys are people with no decisions on what they want to be, and therefore must be hated. Just like Cow-Space-Men.
Also, note that Space Men will have more technological-dependency than Cowboys. Once their weapons are sabotaged, their chances will gradually change.
Of course, now there's the matter of sabotaging the Space Men's weapons.
Also, I wasn't thinking of Toy Story when I posted this. I was thinking of Doug TenNapel's comic Iron West.
In a one-on-one fight, a Cowboy would probably win. Especially in the west of his own era, he would be able to survive longer through good ol' outdoormanship. Considering spacemen would most likely have to travel through time to meet cowboys, and cowboys don't have time machines, they'd end up being fought on their turf. Spacemen don't have immune systems or a lifetime of building the skillsets necessary to simply survive in the old west.
All-out war is another matter entirely, though. Do you know what happens when spacemen go to war? This.
Any.