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timepiececlockA technical mistake that always irritates me in fanfic:
Arrow wounds.
Specifically, where one character is shot, and another character pulls or yanks or rips the arrow out of the first character to save them.
Do any of these people ever think about the arrows they're writing about? Arrow tips are specifically designed wiht a triangular head so that pulling them out is the worst possible thing you could do. Unless it's so shallow that the whole arrow tip isn't even in, pulling it out is going to rip your insides to shreds.
Doesn't anybody watch westerns anymore? I've seen less than ten old westerns in my whole almost-19-year-old-life, and even I picked up that much. Heck, I picked up that much about arrows from reading about Native American life in 4th grade Social Studies.
In a fight or battle where there's no expert surgeons and fancy hospital instruments available for surgery, arrows should be pushed through the body to exit out the other side, and the wound should then be cauterized (sp?). The only time you wouldn't want to do that would be if it meant pushing the arrow through heart or lung-- but I think if it hit any of those, you'd already be dead, honestly.
I'm probably not 100% correct, and I'm sure there's exceptions, but this is a general-knowledge thing that I see so many people mess up in fanfiction battle scenes. And I find that annoying, because my brain sees it and goes "That's so unrealistic," and it pulls me completely out of the story.
Also, it's such a self-explanatory common sense thing.
Imagine an arrowhead. Imagine it slicing through you cleanly the right direction, and then imagine pulling it backward through your guts, hooks and all. Like a serrated knife.
Now tell me how that's going to help save the hero or hero's soulmate from a already life-threatening wound, hm?
Specifically, where one character is shot, and another character pulls or yanks or rips the arrow out of the first character to save them.
Do any of these people ever think about the arrows they're writing about? Arrow tips are specifically designed wiht a triangular head so that pulling them out is the worst possible thing you could do. Unless it's so shallow that the whole arrow tip isn't even in, pulling it out is going to rip your insides to shreds.
Doesn't anybody watch westerns anymore? I've seen less than ten old westerns in my whole almost-19-year-old-life, and even I picked up that much. Heck, I picked up that much about arrows from reading about Native American life in 4th grade Social Studies.
In a fight or battle where there's no expert surgeons and fancy hospital instruments available for surgery, arrows should be pushed through the body to exit out the other side, and the wound should then be cauterized (sp?). The only time you wouldn't want to do that would be if it meant pushing the arrow through heart or lung-- but I think if it hit any of those, you'd already be dead, honestly.
I'm probably not 100% correct, and I'm sure there's exceptions, but this is a general-knowledge thing that I see so many people mess up in fanfiction battle scenes. And I find that annoying, because my brain sees it and goes "That's so unrealistic," and it pulls me completely out of the story.
Also, it's such a self-explanatory common sense thing.
Imagine an arrowhead. Imagine it slicing through you cleanly the right direction, and then imagine pulling it backward through your guts, hooks and all. Like a serrated knife.
Now tell me how that's going to help save the hero or hero's soulmate from a already life-threatening wound, hm?
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Date: 2003-03-12 01:44 am (UTC)You know, I knew as soon as I posted this that someone was going to reply and tell me I'm totally wrong. But I thought I'd leave it up anyway to be sure.
And the irony here is that I wasn't reading Buffyfic when I thought about it. :g:
Thanks for the pics!