5 Ridiculous Archery Tropes (that actually work!)

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Alright, props -- that's the first time somebody integrated an ad well enough into the video that I didn't feel the desire to skip it. I'm not even mad; if I could still run, I'd be downloading that app right now.

As a Brazilian, I appreciate that you at least tried to play the berimbau. Hopefully you bring it back in the future, too.

What's interesting about the berimbau being alin to a bow and arrow is that it is intrinsically associated with capoeira. One does not exist without the other. And Capoeira was intended to be a martial art disguised as a dance. To allow slaves to train fighting without being found out and punished. Fitting that the berimbau is a weapon disguised as an instrument.

The berimbau is a really cool instrument and I recommend people to look up videos of it being played, specially in capoeira circles

Love all of these tropes! But the curving arrow is always fun to see in reality as it’s such a party trick!

I think that the "DEX is the archery stat" being common is probably at least as much for the fine motor control of aiming accurately as it is for the acrobatics of shield surfing.

Archers shown at 00:56 Clockwise from top left: Mihai Cozmei, Freedomandfeathers, Segredalreal (archer unnamed), Lars Anderson, Byron Ferguson

Another option where shooting two arrows might be advantageous: you have a very heavy bow (say a 200 pound draw weight) but your only option is to shoot arrows that are designed for half that draw weight (you ran out of arrows, haven't ditched your bow for your sidearm, and you happen to come across somebody else's quiver of lighter arrows designed for a 100 pound bow). Since these are lighter and weaker, they might actually break with the force your heavy bow is trying to put into them. Shooting two arrows would allow you to still shoot, in this very unlikely scenario.

That's the interesting thing about horse archery, a horse is not only a means of fast transportation, but it's also much better at melee fighting than the average person. I was going to suggest in the first bit that the real good way to have a backup melee option as an archer was to get real good at kicking, but honestly a mediocre horse is better at kicking than you will ever be.

I have to wonder if, designed properly so as not to interfere with the firing of the bow, a better solution to the bladed bow concept might be something more akin to a punching dagger integrated into the middle/handle area of the bow. It certainly wouldn't have the range of the bow/spear concept, but I feel like that placement might be less likely to damage the bow since more of the force of striking with it could be absorbed by your hand and arm, in addition to possibly being less detrimental to the firing of the bow by keeping the added weight in the center rather than at the ends where the bending happens. I could be completely wrong about all of this, I'm no expert, and I'm not sure it'd be much more effective than just using an arrow as an improvised dagger, but it's a thought. If nothing else, it'd probably be another fun fantasy weapon concept.

Interesting to note on the music archery connection: The mythological origin of the Yamatogoto instrument comes from the tale of Amaterasu and the Cave. The party goddess Ame-no-Uzume needed music to dance to to draw out Amaterasu from the cave, so six hunters brought their bows and used them to play a melody for everyone to party to. When Amaterasu came out of the cave one of the celebrations was the act of taking the six strings and weaving them into the first ever Yamatogoto

It's great how enthusiastically you've applied yourself to the history and science of archery. These videos are very educational.

As a guy who likes guns, the shotgun analogy is perfect. Same as with a shotgun blasting multiple pellets, the energy between all of them is reduced compared to a single slug. 00 buckshot is basically sending 8 9mm pistol rounds at once while a slug is like a cannon ball. Same thing also with multiple targets. As far as as rate of fire too, a rifle would be much faster to shoot one at a time accurately. Great video!

The musical bows trope reminds me of Sir Tristian in the Fate series. His bow works by magic as you might assume, but it functions more like a harp that can fire sonic projectiles than a bow that can make music. As a result, he can actually attack with only one arm. Somehow, he's got the best of both worlds, where it simultaneously works as an instrument and a weapon.

I have learned you can do a lot with archery, but you need to be creative with it.

I have a coment on the 2 arrow thjing: Yes, the arrows are slower, less powerfull and less acurate than a single arrow. BUT: If you are in a situation, where you have basically a sniper position, and time to aim, and know, you have to be on the run the moment you are discoverd, AND you have multiple targets that you want to hit: Shooting 2 arrows may be viable. It may be even more viable if combined with poison tipped arrpws, because then you don't have to rely on perfect acuracy and the full power of the bow. Again not a battlefield tactic, but in poltical fantsy scenario, this may still be ones best option

While the 69k is a NICE joke, its likely not real out of the 3 actually worthwhile analytical studies, the main Lombard one only managed to actually prove that the chipped stones had fractures as fitting to someone pushing on the top/edge side with the opposite end down into something, but lack any trace evidence of flexible wood (you know as would be needed for archery, be it on its own or with either sinew or wound plant strings) compared to explanations given and reproduced that show it could have as easily been from use as a peeling razors of animal skin and tendons from bones or simpler spears or even as darts (as do most sites with sharpened flint, bone, quartz or other stone materials older than 19-20k BC), much how the few "less research paper more book" ala Lyn Wadleys doorstop effectively concludes "its a cool possibility but i could just be bullshitting myself by reading implications into implications". Edit for bit of context: i noted 19-20k BC because thats when pretty much when cave paintings of of people using something that is even vaguely resembling bow and arrow start appearing across the world, while darts, spears, javelins and other forms of "sharp stick" go back as far as relatively advanced hominids could put their hands in the closest pigmented liquid and press it against nearby surfaces.

Really appreciate how much effort you put into making the more impractical tropes work, gives a very mythbusters kinda vibe to the video structure

I used to START LARP fights with a two-arrow shot (already nocked and ready to go) but yeah, the power loss isn't a huge deal when you're not often full drawing anyway (close shots) and the effect is the same (damage is damage). They do have less power (less than half, but not by much, half the energy but with the mass factored in as well).