fic whine

[timepiececlock]

A 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?

Comments

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Yeah there are exceptions to the triangular bladed arrrow. To be fair however these exceptions are not rare, in fact MOST european nations for much of there histroy used non-triangluar headed arrows. The reason? Armour..

A triangluar headed of barbed arrow has a lower armour penetraion than one with a smaller surface area, The dreaded english longbow, perhaps the single most effective missle weapon in europe until the invention of the rifle, fired an arrow called a "bodkin". It had no tip per se, because it was designed to be fired like an artillery volly, using gravity to add force. It could penetrate Plate armour at 500 hundred ketres, thanksto the slim, non triangluar tip.
Lots of surgen in medevail europe DID pull out arrows, although this was in part from ignorance. In theory though, pulling out most european arrows would cause an exit wound no bigger than the wound it made in entry.

Of across Native American's never meet armoured opponent and therefor never developed the need for armour piercing arrows. Then pushing the arrow through might be a good idea (unless it was close to major arteries etc), Incidentlly many Perisan and Islamic surgen did not push arrows trhough, even triangular ones. They developed a special tool for removing arrow heads, ike a smooth spoon designed to cover the barbs, to prevent extra damage...

So in the right circumstances, pulling the arrow out is a good idea.

Excuse any grammatical incoherence, I just got up

[elfgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not 100% correct, and I'm sure there's exceptions

Actually, you're mostly incorrect, at least in relation to fanfic. Most fic stories have the characters shot by crossbow bolts, not arrows. Crossbow bolts usually have small cylindrical heads that will not cause any more damage coming out than going in. Here's (http://therionarms.com/reenact/czh_bl020.html) an example of the kinds of heads used on modern day crossbow bolts. If, for whatever reason, they happened to be using the original medieval type of crossbow bolt heads, they weren't much different (http://www.jthep-antiquities.co.uk/Medieval/GB2-16%20Crossbow%20bolt/GB2-16%20Crossbow%20head.html).

I've never paid much attention on BTVS when they show them with crossbows, but I'm assuming they're using standard heads, not broadheads. However, if they are using broadheads on-screen, then you're correct. Hmmm. I'll have to dig out screencaps from "Graduation Day I" and see if I can tell.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

I'm with you girlfriend.

As someone who works in the medical field, I can tell you it's never a good plan to undo the plug on a penetrating wound. Leads to things like bleeding to death, which is never good.

Moral of the story? If you're ever shot by an arrow of any kind, seek professional medical attention, kids!

:}