Medieval bows were RIGID AS FUCK. Not at all like the current carbon bows, which can be drawn and held by anyone of average strength. No, the medieval bows, which I'm going to assume LotR bows are mirrored from, were no joke to draw. It's a misconception that in any army, the frontline footmen were the muscle and the bows were given to the weaklings. In reality, if you wanted to find the real UNITS, you went looking in the ranks of the bowmen, who often were real powerhouses. Imagine some tall, shredded men with arms the size of logs, dressed in too small Robin Hood tunics, and your imagination might come close to reality.
Nevertheless, no matter how strapping this old lad was under all that hot Rohan plebeian padding, asking your bowmen to draw way before when you've decided to fire a volley is just asking for disaster. These bows had an average draw weight of 100 pounds (often more!). Every second you need to keep that bow drawn, you're lifting 100 pounds. Do you know how much that weighs? Quite a lot. Also, you need to aim those 100 pounds at a very precise target. Hot damn, are you already sweating? Because I am. Now, your king is asking you to do all that, for no discernible reason other than that he wants to appears really epic in front of his elven friends, while in fact he could be sparing you this physical torment and just let you rain hell on your enemy who is perfectly within range of your dope yet heavy bows. So, because you're an old veteran and not some elven ubermensch, you accidentally let your bow fly and still, you fuckin bullseye one of these bastards! Straight in his weak point, even before the elven pansy prince had deigned to inform anyone of it. And you're supposed to feel bad about it? Fuck that.
23runsofaraway on June 22nd, 2020 at 23:16 UTC »
HOLD!
96744 on June 22nd, 2020 at 23:56 UTC »
Wait, you guys are watching The Two Towers in theaters?!
That_one_drunk_dude on June 23rd, 2020 at 01:06 UTC »
Which really was none of his fault.
Medieval bows were RIGID AS FUCK. Not at all like the current carbon bows, which can be drawn and held by anyone of average strength. No, the medieval bows, which I'm going to assume LotR bows are mirrored from, were no joke to draw. It's a misconception that in any army, the frontline footmen were the muscle and the bows were given to the weaklings. In reality, if you wanted to find the real UNITS, you went looking in the ranks of the bowmen, who often were real powerhouses. Imagine some tall, shredded men with arms the size of logs, dressed in too small Robin Hood tunics, and your imagination might come close to reality.
Nevertheless, no matter how strapping this old lad was under all that hot Rohan plebeian padding, asking your bowmen to draw way before when you've decided to fire a volley is just asking for disaster. These bows had an average draw weight of 100 pounds (often more!). Every second you need to keep that bow drawn, you're lifting 100 pounds. Do you know how much that weighs? Quite a lot. Also, you need to aim those 100 pounds at a very precise target. Hot damn, are you already sweating? Because I am. Now, your king is asking you to do all that, for no discernible reason other than that he wants to appears really epic in front of his elven friends, while in fact he could be sparing you this physical torment and just let you rain hell on your enemy who is perfectly within range of your dope yet heavy bows. So, because you're an old veteran and not some elven ubermensch, you accidentally let your bow fly and still, you fuckin bullseye one of these bastards! Straight in his weak point, even before the elven pansy prince had deigned to inform anyone of it. And you're supposed to feel bad about it? Fuck that.
This post was made by the Rohan archery gang