this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Or that they're holding the bow drawn for a long period of time, waiting for the order to "fire".
Long bows averaged a 200lb draw weight. Try holding that for 5 minutes.
Archers of the day:
Literally - you can pick out English longbowman bodies from the shape of their skeletons
Now I'm imagining a swole skeleton with buff bones
It's mostly their twisted spine, as far as I'm aware.
You just have to ruin everything, don't you?
I believe there are spurs to one side and right sided increases in density. But that article was a decade ago.
I "fire" traditional recurve bows and honestly it ends up being a lot of core, back, and your front side shoulder, but this image is funnier.
I guess also another thing that gets me is when they are fire from the hip, with no anchor point. You draw back the bow to the same spot every time, then move your bow hand to aim. Radically changing how you draw, while hitting precision shots at varying range is like John Whicking archery, but nearly everyone with a bow in movies can do it. And they almost never wear gloves on a bow that has to be hundreds of pounds of draw to go through armor. How are your fingers not worn to bone?
Also arrows are pretty custom depending on draw weight, tip weight, draw length, and there are various types. Where do these perfect arrows you need all come from, hrmmm Legolas?
I am now realizing I took this meme way too seriously, but I've already typed it up, so here we are.
Keep going I'm almost there.
I’m very into it
I never blamed the archer on the walls of Helms Deep. Waiting for the enemy to get all the way up to your walls was dumb enough, but waiting while having drawn your bow for what must've felt like ages for a human archer, is fucking rediculous. Terrible leadership.
You don't want your archers to be excausted before the battle even starts, just so you can look really unbothered on top of your wall.
I agree, but it’s obviously done for the tension in the movie. It wouldn’t be as exciting, if the archers were just chillin’ while the Uruk-hai were charging. 😄
I admire you for holding the archery in LOTR to a high standard of realism even when the films feature a giant flying and levitating eye.
It's a fantasy world, but archery there still works just like in real life.
Fiction only really works when it takes itself seriously. If they just don't follow any rules or logic then you know there's no reason to care about what's happening, because the author didn't. In LotR the archery follows the logic from out world. Yes, there's also magic and stuff, which all follows consistent rules in the universe. The magic does not effect the rules of archery. Maybe elves can be more agile with their bows, but it should still be grounded in the rules of their universe.
Versimilitude is important. Self consistency. Just because you introduce one unrealistic element doesn't mean everything else that is unrelated to it should be thrown out the window, too. The existence of a magical evil spirit entity doesn't change how nonmagical humans would interact with everyday physics.
I mean, this depends heavily on the type of bow used (which is also largely the source of confusion) it's common for archers who aren't medieval war longbow archers to draw then aim because it's a lot easier to do. And lower draw weight bows certainly did see use in war until plate armor became common enough to make them nearly useless in warfare.
I know that modern bows with the radial cam thing have different hold vs draw requirements.
Not being a bow-knower, do the other sorts (long, recurve, etc.) Not have a similar thing that can happen?
Short answer: no, they don't.
Modern compound bows use that cam to lessen the power needed to hold.
Older bows are like holding a spring extended, the further back, the greater the force needed.
By modern I take it you mean compound bows. No other types of bow have that. The force you need to pull back is at its maximum when at full draw. The exact scale of 0-100% through the draw varies with different bow designs, material and even age as it can permanently deform with repeated use.