116
I seem to recall a particular line in Fellowship of the Ring (and, after some Googling, perhaps in some of the other movies) which may give us a good reason:
ARAGORN: Legolas! What do your elf-eyes see?
This recurs in several other places, such as in the first half of The Two Towers, where Legolas and Gimli are in Fangorn forest:
'Yet here we are-...
108
Out-of-universe, I agree with Schroedingers Cat's answer: the bow is a graceful weapon.
In-universe, I think Elves can probably master whatever weapon they choose, it's just that Legolas is the Elf we are most familiar with, and he uses a bow.
Elves are extremely long-lived, and have great agility and senses. So of course an Elf could become a great archer,...
69
Out-of-universe, archery is very fitting for the elegance of the elves, it is an elegant skill. It also matches with their desire to stay largely hidden - it is a distance weapon. And, unlike many other weapons, it is not so much an impulse weapon, which fits with their image.
More in-universe, the stealthy nature of the weapon fits with their stealthy ...
69
They attach it during Serenity, when they go into Reaver space.
During the final act of the Serenity film, the crew disguises Serenity as a Reaver ship, including attaching corpses to the hull and painting it in fake blood.
As part of this effort, they take a cannon from the colony Shepherd Book was staying. Presumably it's for defense in Reaver space, ...
65
There's a nice description of how the turbolaser works in the Star Wars: Official Fact File #45. In essence, the technology uses lasers to energise the plasma which is then ejected at high speed toward the intended target.
Imperial turbolaser technology uses intensely focused lasers to
energize compact pockets of Tibanna gas until the weak molecular ...
63
1) Thundercats (Lion-O's Sword of Omens)
2) Zelda (Link's Master Sword)
3) Final Fantasy (Buster Sword)
4) Star Wars (Jedi lightsaber)
5) He-Man (He-Man's sword from Hasbro toys / Filmation animated series)
6) Necropolis (The Third Sword — thanks @Catija!; see image below)
7) Star Trek (Klingon bat'leth)
8) Adventure Time (One of Finn's swords, "...
61
The Focus on Highborns/Higher Social class
A Lord or an anointed knight would find looting corpses below them. They normally own a fortune so they do not need to sell swords from corpses.
Common soldiers do loot corpses or whatever they fancy in posessions of their victims.
GoT focuses on Knights, Lords, Kings, Theocrats etc. None of them are exactly the ...
58
There's an old philosophical problem called the Ship of Theseus, or Theseus's Paradox. It talks about a ship that was preserved by the people of Athens as a cultural relic; over time, they took away the planks that decayed and replaced them with new, identical planks, until every part of the ship had been replaced. The question then rose: Was it still the ...
54
Yes. In this passage from The Hobbit, chapter IV, the goblins can clearly see Orcrist and Glamdring. Sting was of the same make, so there is no reason to believe that its light would be any different.
At this point Gandalf fell behind, and Thorin with him. They turned a sharp corner. “About turn!” he shouted. “Draw your sword Thorin!”
There was ...
53
They did.
In the very first pilot episode, The Gathering, Sinclair and Garibaldi suit up in black padded vests when going after the changeling net assassin. Garibaldi takes a PPG hit directly to the chest during the fight, which throws him backwards harshly, but otherwise he's unhurt. He hurriedly sheds the vest, because it's now on fire from the blast, ...
52
Having been paid to shoot and teach shooting for several years...
As Tritium21 points out, very much about the way we handle projectile weapons is based on two things:
The stability and intuitive position required to aim the weapon
The stability required to recover from firing (whether that means maneuver to acquire a second, cover oneself from harm after ...
50
Blaster bolts are made of plasma, not light. See here.
Blasters are a considerable improvement over the archaic laser design. Instead of a coherent beam of light, the blaster fired a compressed, focused, high-energy particle-beam that is very destructive, commonly referred to as a "bolt".
My best reference I can find is: Star Wars: The Complete Visual ...
answered Mar 25 '12 at 17:39
47
Dragonglass, if it is like our obsidian, would be too brittle to make classical swords. But that does not mean that they are limited to arrowheads, spears (by the way, the first picture seems to show spear head and not arrow head) or daggers. The lack of good metallurgy gave a good incentive for mesoamericans civilizations to use obsidian
They used, for ...
46
No. According to Star Wars Insider #154, you need to disengage the blade in order for the battery pack to power the blaster. Your lightsaber duel would last about four seconds and then you'd get your hands cut off.
If anything, Ezra's revolutionary design would make it more likely that you'd get killed in record time which is why this style of fighting is ...
44
They would survive with very little damage. Especially if the sheilds were up, but they could probably take it even without that.
Though I'm having trouble finding the numbers on how much force ship phasers deliver, a single Photon Torpedo delivers an explosive force of 690 Gigatons.
By comparison, the Tsar Bomba only manages 50 Megatons (Or .05 ...
43
This is from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. In the video of this scene (0:14), we can clearly see this particular stormtrooper (circled in red) aim down the sight and fire at Han:
42
Since you've asked for any medium, the most unambiguous way to confirm that stormtroopers used their sights is using a video game.
Here's a gif (taken from 2:14 of this Youtube video) of a cold weather assault stormtrooper (snowtrooper) using the sight on his E-11 to get headshots on Rebel soldiers at the Battle of Hoth (from Star Wars: Battlefront II):
...
42
During the Battle of Endor:
And of course, this guy shot Artoo.
I originally did not include this shot that hit Leia, because I feel it is ambiguous whether the scope is in use or not.
40
The Jedi did not carry shields because of their use of the Force. Simply put, they don't need them.
Besides a shield's obvious bulk, they also signify a more militaristic appearance and mindset. The Jedi make every attempt to appear as defenders of the peace, not promoters of war.
Their use of lightsabers as defensive weapons, enhance their appearance as ...
40
He did (kinda)
According to the film's official novelisation (written in consultation with Joss Whedon and with access to the original screenplay), Vera ran out of bullets. Jayne tossed her aside and switched to a different gun:
While Simon did his medical magic on Zoe, Jayne kept shooting, since
the Reavers kept coming. He was down to his last grenade....
39
Having fired a weapon is not a prerequisite to answer this question. Shooting stance (with real firearms) aids in aiming and compensating for recoil. Phasers, on the other hand, have no recoil, and in some incarnations of the show, have targeting computers. But this is easy to test yourself, with a laser pointer.
If you hold a laser pointer in the same ...
39
PPGs aren't common, which is why people don't wear body armor that often.
As the audience, we often see them, but that's because our perspective follows the staff and crew of Babylon 5 around. They are military, who have access to and are permitted to carry PPGs in the line of duty. Security carries sidearms on duty as a matter of course. Otherwise, ...
38
This is addressed in the film's official novelisation. In short, they sold it and used the funds to upgrade the Serenity.
This [The Serenity] was Mal's pride and joy. A while back, they got their hands on
one of the few remaining Lassiters, one of the early laser pistols.
Expensive as hell, they'd lifted it from right under the nose of a
rich gent ...
35
This seems to be most closely based on Gabriel Van Helsing from the 2004 movie Van Helsing who was a hunter who was also a werewolf (he hunted Vampires and other monsters generally, tho)
35
From Elongated Triangle to Kite-shape shield
I cannot find any in-universe reason as to why this occurred, but out-of-universe I can.
Apparently the original sketch of Captain America came to the attention of Archie Comics (then MLJ Magazines) - they noticed there was a similarity between Captain America's shield and the chest detail of their own ...
34
They aren't as rare as they seem.
Proton torpedos and concussion missiles both were nuclear.
Thermal detonators (like the one Leia threatened Jabba with are nuclear fusion devices.
Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders used nukes.
Please note that the first 2 bullet points listed are from Wookiepedia but aren't properly sourced, so I'm slightly skeptical of both.
The ...
33
There is no definitive answer to this question in the show itself; there have not been 5 distinct beings that were shot by the gun and did not die. In particular, the gun has never been used to shoot anyone since Lucifer, so we don't know if it would kill, for example, a Leviathan. All we know for sure is that it can kill demons, vampires, hellhounds, and ...
33
They do.
In season 4 (when they're in the prison), spears (or at least long(ish) pointy things) are used to spike walkers through the fence.
Remember, a spear doesn't need to be thrown to be an effective weapon.
32
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Earth-19999, Yondu Udonta uses a sidearm called the Yaka Arrow. Partially cybernetically controlled, partially guided by a series of whistles. A formidable weapon, it's able to alter its speed and direction, and capable of dispatching a dozen foes in a matter of seconds.
While the weapon bears the same name as the Earth-691 ...
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