What fantasy gets WRONG about medieval weapons

When the main character is on the ground, always remember to lift your weapon high above your head before you swing down, giving him the chance to roll out of the way

To quote the stuntman who played the witch King in LOTR: Some would call it a flail. Some would call it a morning star. I called it what it was, which was damned heavy

We always forget about Odysseus, who's bow required so much strength to just string that no other man could manage to even do that.

Talking about Bows being used as a weapon to represent great strength I have a few examples. Heracles and Odysseus of Greek Mythology were known for using a bow. In fact Heracles used a bow more frequently than any other weapon. I would also like to point to Lord of the Rings with the Uruk-hai who killed Boromir. He uses an absolutely MASSIVE bow that clearly required great strength to weild.

"If you actually made Mjolnir, it would be unliftable" So a success then?

I've learned a lot from watching movies set in the middle ages: swords are incredibly heavy, war hammers are gigantic, armor is just shiny clothes, arrows don't do any real damage, shields are made of thick sheets of solid steel, helmets are optional, bows can be held indefinitely, studded leather is a real thing, knights are always wearing armor all the time, pirouettes make sense in duels, everyone is covered in mud, fabric has no color and torches are used for in-door lighting.

I know in Thor's hammer's case, it isn't lifted because he's worthy in the actual mythology He can lift it because he's just that strong. The mythology is basically, "Our god Thor is so strong he can pick up a hammer with a head bigger than your head, made of solid metal, and swing it around with one hand like it was a twig"

Purely conjecture with absolutely 0 evidence to back this up: I feel like the "Bows For The Weak" misconception rose as what the average person sees when someone draws a bow, they see them as pulling a string, rather than using that string as leverage to bend the bow itself, and the bow bending back into place driving the projectile forward

Thanks man! You're the best. And as always, fantastic video. ~ Tim

Used to be part of a longbow club. I was a young teen and so they gave me one of the smallest bows which was only a little shorter than I was and was a 20 lb draw. I remember being so pleased when I got bigger and stronger and was able to upgrade to the 30lb so I could start practicing on the 60 to 80 yard targets 😂 to this day I get pissed off when I see films and tv shows holding drawn bows for minutes or other such nonsense. "For every second you hold that draw the bow loses 2 lbs of strength" I remember being told. Reality is not convenient

18:23 in fact, you can actually discern a medieval skeleton as an archer by the deformation of the shoulders

19:50 Bow-for-strong-man trope: Odysseus It actually becomes a significant plot-point in the story.

I think spears are often misrepresented. By way of being under-represented

One could say, arming sword was broadly used..... I'll see myself out.

The misrepresentation that daggers stand any honest chance against the big guy with the sword Not misrepresenting a weapon, but making big burly guys do everything slower. If he's that strong, his muscles, which are used for *movement*, are that strong as well. Bringing me to my final point, the biggest heaviest sword is always the strongest. If you're strong enough to use a massive hunk of steel, you'd be much more quick and devastating with a proper sword.

I really wanted to know about the maces, morningstars and flails.

The Odyssey taught us that bows are for powerfull people... 2700 years ago...

SPEEEEAAAARS!!!! Spears are hardly ever present in fanatasy battles while being the most prevelant weapon of the era.

The god of war axe is also being used by a dude who can lift mountains. So for him thats pretty small

From what I've seen, George R.R. Martin is way more accurate than most fantasy writers when it comes to certain medieval/high middle ages/Renaissance political concepts, but leans really hard on the standard fantasy tropes when it comes to weapons & armor.