December 4, 2023 • 26 mins
Once more, it's time for a weekly dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail...
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
My name is Robert and I am Joe McCormick, and
it's Monday, the day of each week that we read
back messages from the Stuff to Blow your Mind mail bag.
If you've never gotten in touch before and you want
to give it a try, you can email us at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever
you want to send us fair game. But we especially
(00:32):
like if you want to respond to a topic we've
talked about on the show recently and add something interesting
of your own. Let's see, rob We've got a bunch
of messages in response to our invention series on crossbows.
I think I'm going to kick things off with this
message from Ahmed If that's cool with.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You, Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Ahmed, who has written many great emails to us in
the past. By the way, Ahmed says, hey guys, I'm
ed again here. I loved your recent episodes on the crossbow,
especially the discussions of its association with evil that seems
sort of unfair and out of proportion with the technology
(01:12):
itself and as a refresher on the side. This is
from the episode where we talked about how if you
watch movies from the modern period where some kind of
medieval fantasy is depicted or there's a medieval technology context,
the crossbows are always used by the bad guys, almost
always exclusively a villain weapon, and how this wasn't a
(01:34):
It hasn't always exactly been seen like this, but there
are threads of that going back to the medieval period itself.
There are some writings from the period that characterize the
crossbow as a uniquely wicked or barbaric weapon, and we
were wondering, like, why that, why the crossbow compared to
any other weapon. Ahmed's message continues. One important example in
(01:56):
literature that came to mind for me was the Rhyme
of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge. For those not acquainted,
this is a Romantic Movement English poem that tells a
story within a story of a sailor who shoots an
albatross with a crossbow and is cursed for it before
ultimate redemption. It's had a big culture impact, with famous
(02:16):
imagery like an albatross hanging around someone's neck and lines
like water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. I
always thought it weird that this poem, published in seventeen
ninety eight, so centuries into the gunpowder age, had the
crossbow as the weapon the unnamed narrator uses to shoot
the albatross. After listening to your episodes, this seems to
(02:38):
fit into a broader cultural association of the crossbow with
evil and wickedness, and in this case, a wicked act,
as the poem itself says. Quote by him who died
on cross with his cruel bow, he laid full low
the harmless albatross, Ahmed goes on. I wonder if part
(02:58):
of this association comes from the fact that the crossbow
made it easy for the first time to accidentally or
unthinkingly kill or hurt someone. After all, the energy is
already stored up, and all it would take is an
accidental or impulsive pulling of the trigger. Besides dropping something
on somebody from high up. This was probably the first
(03:21):
time a regular person without a catapult or ballista could
get a ton of kinetic energy into something all of
a sudden without much work. You certainly get the idea
that the mariner shoots the bird on a whim and
I wonder if countless such unsung instances or half baked
or accidental maiming and killing with crossbows were the reason
(03:43):
for its bad rap that stuck around even centuries after
gunpowder made even higher energies deployable with the push of
a trigger. I couldn't find any actual scholarship on this,
but the speculation was too juicy not to share. Anyways,
keep up the great work and happy Thanksgiving, Ahmed uh
on it. Yeah, I don't know if that had occurred
to me. I don't think it had. And that's a
(04:05):
really interesting idea that the crossbow makes it easier to
do to cause a lot of harm accidentally or with
very little immediate physical effort. I mean, it does take
physical effort to cock it back, but that's something you
can do in advance, and you know, the release of
the mechanism to to unleash the violence is quite simple.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a great point on top
of the fact that just like the basic technological metaphor
is so irresistible, you know, and we touched on that
a little bit Louis. It's referenced in sun Zoo and
so forth. But yeah, here is this this lethal the
lethal force has already even applied, and then it may
be the device may be set aside, and virtually anyone
(04:49):
could then pick it up and fire it or misfire it,
or whatever the case may be, and and could commit
heinous crimes with it, such as in the case of
the rhyme of the ancient marrin are shooting that blessed
albatross out of the sky exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So thanks for the email, Ahmed, I think that is
a really interesting idea. Okay, Now, we invited listeners to
chime in on a couple of topics related to crossbows
in Dungeons and Dragons and rob There are several emails
of this genre that you might need to help explicate
and interpret for those not as deeply familiar with the game.
(05:26):
Do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
This?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
One from Emily Sure.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Emily writes it and says, Hi, guys, I'm listening to
your episode about crossbows and wanted to chime in since
you asked for comments relating to crossbows in tabletop RPGs.
A few years ago, I DMed a game of Pathfinder,
playing a published adventure path called Second Darkness. Mild spoilers
follow for this fifteen year old AP. The central plot
(05:54):
revolves around the Drow rhymes with brow not crow, okay
for anyone out there, or dark Elves, which at the
time the AP was written, were an explicitly and exclusively
evil race. Yeah, this is true. Nowadays in Duns and Dragons,
you're finding a lot more needed nuance with specific races
(06:16):
or species. So I think there were exceptions to the
rule in the Older Lord, but nowadays it's less a
matter of like, oh, yeah, the Drow are all evil,
They're all awful evil. Now we're opening it up and
realizing you, no, no, it's okay that some of the
Drow are evil and some are not evil. It's like
they're just like people, right, And I think that's a
(06:37):
much healthier place to land everything. Anyway, Emily continues. I
believe the recently released second edition of Pathfinder has been
updated such that this is no longer the case, but
I'm not sure. The big twist of second Darkness in
Universe is that normal elves turn into Drow if they
are sufficiently wicked. There's an important scene where this happens
(06:58):
to an NPC picture below for your amusement. Kicking off
the back half of the adventure rob.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Maybe we should go ahead and look down to this
ps of this character, who is I don't even know
how to begin to describe this a V neck shirt
so deep it goes down to his belly button, and
he's got like about six swords hanging off of his belt.
And yeah, he looks like he's no good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He looks like he should be fronting a really ridiculous
I don't know, in late eighties, early nineties kind of
satanic heavy metal band, I'm not sure, a little bit
glam rock.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
In there, Yeah, like the kind of bands that have
song titles that translate to I dislike Christians.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Also, the Drow and this image has pale skin, which,
of course in dungeons and dragons they're generally depicted as
having a dark skin, which of course plays into some
of the problematic aspects of having the Drow the evil.
And then also always threw me for a curve because
(08:02):
it's like, Okay, there's subterranean creatures. Shouldn't they be pale?
Like subterranean creatures, shouldn'y have like translucent skin or something?
But clearly I am and was overthinking that that aspect
of the scenario.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Oh, and we should say Emily has a ps regarding
this image. It reads who in the world would have
suspected this guy of being evil? He has so many swords, Yeah,
like six swords. Going back to in the same discussion
we talked about, for some reason, in movies the sword
is identified as like an honest and virtuous weapon, which
is pretty equally silly to the crossbow being more evil
(08:37):
than other weapons.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, all right. Anyways, she continues on to I guess
the main point here, given your discussion in the second
episode about crossbows being evil coded weaponry in fiction, it
should come as no surprise that every single Drow the
PC's encountered was packing a master work hand crossbow as
part of their load out, even the castlers and folks
with other weapons, including swords. I suppose it makes sense
(09:00):
for the Drow to favor the crossbow for the same
reason Rob said dwarfs would favor them, good for low light,
close quarters underground combat. Also, for the record, according to
d twenty pfsrd dot com, an online pathfinder reference document,
loading a hand crossbow is technically a move action that
provokes attacks of opportunity. Why they have conveniently forgotten this
(09:21):
while I was running the ap but my players still
manage to defeat the Drow and avert the titular second
darkness all the same.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Oh wait, so in your campaign the Drow we're getting
double the amount of attacks they should have.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
No, if I'm understanding what she's saying correctly, it's like
by engaging in reloading of the crossbow, you would be
provoking an attack of opportunity, meaning that the enemy would
get to make like an out of turn attack on me.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something. But anyway, again, that sounds like
one of those rules that suddenly makes using a crossbow
(09:54):
in the game less fun, and maybe isn't a great rule,
but that's just me.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think we got another email this coming up.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay. Emily closes with this was a really interesting series
of episodes. I liked Invention a lot when it was
its own separate thing, and it's been a while since
you guys have done a proper Invention episode, so this
was a pleasant surprise to see when I opened my
podcast app this week. Thank you as always for the
excellent podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, thank you, Emily.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, I enjoyed dipping back into the Invention content from
time to time. You know, a splash of something different
from time to time, so we'll definitely keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Okay, here's more about crossbows and fictional worlds. Andrew says, Howdy,
regarding your recent crossbow episode, you failed to mention Chewy's
crossbow from Star Wars. I've always been confused on the
physics of a laser crossbow. Did he have to reload it?
(10:50):
How is a laser propelled forward with stored energy in
the way? The traditional one is how is his weapon
any different from any other Star Wars blaster? Thanks Andrew, Andrew,
I have the same question growing up. I had no idea.
Why would you need a blaster to be a crossbow blaster?
I don't know what advantage it provides.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean it never made sense to me either.
I'm sure it has been explained. Someone in the Star
Wars fan world has explained this. I just haven't looked
it up, but I guess I always tended to lean
towards two possible sort of headcanon explanations. One, it's not
really a crossbow. It doesn't have a string. Maybe it
(11:30):
does have a string, but in my mind I just
remember it has the like the bow shape, and then
they are like these balls on the end. So maybe
those are for some sort of like electromagnetic rail gun scenario.
I don't know, so something other than aiding in the
drawing back of a bow, or is there is a
(11:50):
string there and it's not so much about propelling something
but as facilitating some sort of a fast function mechanical
aspect of the device that plays into its launching of
a laser boult.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Or what have you.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I'll have to go on Wikipedia to find out.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Wikipedia. Yeah, I think there's gonna have to be your answer,
but it never made sense to me either.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
All Right, Well, I'm just gonna go and read from Wikipedia.
Here's what that Wikipedia says. Okay, quote the weapon used
metal quarrels developed with plasma energy as ammunition. Two polarizing
orbs placed on each end of the bow, creating a
magnetic field that boosted the corals momentum. Once the cocking
spring was pulled back, the trigger fired the coral, which
(12:31):
was enveloped in plasma energy. So if I'm understanding that correctly,
it's still kind of a traditional crossbow, but with some
sci fi stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It's shooting bolts, like hard metal bolts that are surrounded
by plasma energy. Like it's like a metal bolt with
a blaster casing. It's like an eminem h that's kind
of vicious, Like I can only imagine that blasting through
your stormtrooper armor.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
All right, what else do we have?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Let's see, well we got we got another one from
Matthew about tabletop RPG rules with crossbows. Do you want
to do this one around?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, sure, Matthew says, good morning. I just
caught up with the two part an crossbows, and I
have to admit I was stumped for a moment because
I thought i'd seen statistics for the repeating crossbow in
the wild. Instead, what I remembered was the esthetic choice
Wizards meaning Wizards of the Coast made when they went
MMO on fourth edition and purged a lot of the
three point five materials to make it play more like
(13:36):
a video game. However, I did see the pathfinder blocks
from the original version aka D and D three point
seventy five, so I'm sure with a little conversion and whatnot,
it can apply to the game since it still had
roots in the three point five edition.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Okay, so this is a response to you saying you
thought that there were repeating crossbows somewhere in the D
and D universe at some point.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, I think in five E some enemies have them.
But and it just and also it just makes sense
that certainly someone's home brewed it, and it may be
in a book that I just haven't seen. Anyway, Matthew
serves a link with us and says, of course, I
remember the two E versions having some more realistic rules
on maintenance and upkeep, which made sure it was never
used around the table. Kids these days and they're plug
(14:20):
and play D and D. Thanks for everything, Nephew.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
You know, making things in a game more like real
life is not always an improvement. I don't know if
Matthew would disagree with me there, but like, yeah, you
have to use a turn to like load your crossbow.
Is that as much fun? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah, there has to be a balance there, but
I guess it's just always a struggle to figure out
what the balance is. Because a certain amount of pdium
in a game can be fun. I mean, there doesn't
need it doesn't need to be too much like a
video game, but you don't want it to be so
complex that you know, only rocket scientists can play it
(15:01):
part of the struggle.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
All right. This next message is from Heraldo and it
goes back to our episodes called from Before You Could Remember,
our episodes about infant amnesia. Basically, Heraldo says, Hello, Robert
and Joe, hope you're well. I live in Brazil and
(15:24):
I've been a regular listener to the Stuff to Blow
Your Mind podcast since twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen. Actually,
I try to keep up with every episode in sequence
and with the daily routine. I am currently still listening
to episodes from April. Yesterday, I finished the third part
of the Before You Could Remember series, and I think
I have something to share about it. You referred to
(15:45):
a proposal which states that quote, it's not until we
have mastered the concept of a self different from others
that we're able to organize our memories into a sensical
form that can be retrieved across time. That idea immediately
reminded me of a common phrase that I've listened since
my childhood from my parents and other older members of
(16:06):
my family, and which I've incorporated in my own verbal expressions.
They used to say something like and I guess this
is in Spanish or Portuguese, so I apologize if I'm
not saying this right, say disso des de qu au
maintendo poorhente, which could be translated as I've known this
(16:27):
since I've known myself as a person, as a way
to say that the point when you identify yourself as
a person is as far as your memory can reach backwards.
I'm not a native English speaker, as you have probably
already noticed, so I can't say if there is a
correlate expression in English. Anyway, I find it really interesting
that such an idea is concealed in rather daily expression,
(16:50):
and I thought it would be a shaable thing. Thank
you for the delightful hours listening to the ever interesting
and thought provoking subjects that you bring weekly to our appreciation.
Please doing this brilliant work you do. Best regards, Heraldo. Oh,
thank you so much, Heraldo. I did not know that expression,
and yeah, that is interesting. Yeah, I wonder where something
(17:11):
like that would come from since I've known myself as
a person, But.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It makes sense. It makes sense within the context of
what we were talking about. I like it, all right,
Shall we dive into some weird house cinema listener mail?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, Kick this off with whichever of these you want
to read, Rob.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
All right, This one comes to us from Adam. Adam
says after listening to the most recent Weird House episode,
The Butterfly Murders and watching, I found the look of
the leader of the ten Flags ten thing reminded me
of the main character in the graphic novel Fin Shing
g wou Jing, though it's mostly the hair and cloak.
(17:52):
I haven't thought about Fein Shinji in years, but recall
really enjoying it. It's said in a mythical world, thematically
reminiscent of ancient China, where people and god's are fighting
for supremacy. It's gorgeously illustrated and a fun read. I
got hooked on Joe's recommendation and asterix by this will
come back to this kill six billion demons years back,
and thought I would return the favor. I enjoyed the
(18:13):
main show quite a bit, but Weird House definitely quote
unquote rubs the fur and I am always excited to
hear what film will be discussed next. Thanks for your
hard work, best Adam.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Now I think I know what your asterisk is, Rob.
I don't personally recall recommending kill six billion demons. That's
not anything against it. I'm just not really familiar with this,
So was that you or maybe Christian years ago?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I honestly don't remember. I know that I had a
copy of it of one of the books of it
and really loved the artwork and ended up passing it
on to a friend, but I cannot recall if it's
something that I learned about through someone else, or if
Christian recommended it and I picked it up because Christian
liked it. But at any rate, I recommend checking it out.
(18:55):
It's pretty fun. As for this series that Adam is recommending,
I'll have to check it out. I'm really not familiar
with it, but it sounds intriguing.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I mean, if the main character is like Bosston Funngro
from Butterfly Murders, that's already in the plus column for me. Yeah,
all right. This next message comes from Alan. Alan says,
I've been catching up on past podcasts that I missed,
and just listen to the Weird House episode about the
(19:24):
movie Conquest. This is the Luccio Fulci Sword and Sorcery movies,
kind of a Conan ripoff, starring the guy from Werewolf.
The bad guy from Werewolf as a conan type guy.
I recall this movie having some well speaking of were wolves,
doesn't have to like some wolf men that serve a
sorceress and oh yeah yeah, and I recall a lot
(19:47):
of good stuff. But it's been a while. Oh I
remember this is one where they like, they like journey
through a poison swamp that just ends up with Folci
giving us like a three minute close up of the
heroes Pustula wounds.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yes, it is, I can say, without a shred of irony,
is a great movie. I absolutely love Conquest. Yeah, I
love it more every time that I watch it that
I'll have more to say on this in a second
once the email is finished.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Well, so Alan says. After listening, I immediately watched the movie.
It sounded intriguing and visually I was not disappointed. Otherwise,
I still haven't decided if I liked it or not. However,
that did want to share a moment from the movie
that made me laugh out loud. At the end, the
wolves run to the forest, the hero walks to the shore,
both somehow into the sunset. Good observation, and the credits
(20:40):
start to roll. The first thing you read is quote,
any reference to persons or events is purely coincidental. Alan says, huh,
I realized this could be something the studio just does
regardless of the movie. But the idea of someone making
the decision to add that disclaimer after making that movie
is hilarious. Maybe they added it ironically, which I can appreciate,
(21:03):
but it's more amusing to imagine a group of people
sitting around a table agreeing that, you know, boys, we
cut this one pretty close to reality, and we better
cover our butts so nobody thinks the movie was about them.
That's all. Keep up the great work. Happy holidays, Alan,
Thank you Alan.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Well. Now on the comment about not being sure if
you liked it or not after watching it, as someone
who loves Conquest, I will say this is the correct
response to the first viewing of Conquest. It takes a
while to figure out how you feel about it and
to grow in your relationship with this particular film. But yeah,
(21:41):
it's a bonker's one, especially bonkers, so the idea of
anything in this movie matching up closely with reality is
a bit ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Imagine someone suing Fulchy for the way they were depicted
in Conquest.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, this Yea. It's like you've totally stole my life story.
I a topless, gold headed, uh sorceress with an army
of were wolves, and uh, you're you're using my story
without without my permission, without giving me a cut of
the pot.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
How could they? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, I probably need to revisit some other full Chie films.
At some point. We may do another full Chy film
on Weird House. But uh, I have to say it's
my favorite right now. It's Uh, it's it's my It's
my favorite ful Chief film without a doubt. That's that's
where I stand at the moment. They're not all they're
not all winners. There's there's some real dogs in that filmography.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know, he made a lot of films. This one, though,
I think, is something special to say.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
The thing about putting together all the full Chi movies
I've seen, they're all gross, and so the question is
are they gross and also brilliant or just gross? Or
are they gross and also brilliant and funny? That that's
like the the triple combination is conquest all three. It's
hard to say, but maybe.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
You know, I got excited about about a Fulshy film
earlier this year, and I thought, well, this, this might
be the one. I got a copy of Murder Rock
Dancing Death from nineteen eighty four, I think I rented
it from a video drum, and I was like, this,
this sounds great. It's a rock musical about you know,
some sort of like a dance studio murder scenario, and
(23:19):
there are a lot of dance numbers, you know, kind
of like an elongated music video by Fulci. This this
has to be a winner.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It sounds but it sounds great.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It sounds good. It sounds so much better on paper.
Maybe some people love this. Maybe it's like Conquests, you
have to see it multiple times and you appreciate it.
But I just didn't like the music. And I felt
like if the music had been good. It felt like
if it had really good, solid disco numbers, I could
have gotten into it more. But I just couldn't. House
by the Cemetery is another great one. We did a
weird house episode on the House by the Cemetery. That's
(23:50):
still one of my favorites. That's like close second to
Conquest from Me. But you know, and maybe in the
future we'll come back and watch something else.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
There's of course the Beyond, there's Zombie, and then I've
also heard interesting things about like his non horror work.
You know, he did some westerns as well that are
supposed to be gory and gross, but also more or
less westerns.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I just had a thought, which is that I bet
Luccio Fulci is the filmmaker who has made the films
that the most people have years later wondered if they
dreamed them or if it was a movie they saw.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah. Yeah, Like we said, there's often a dream like quality,
especially in Conquest, and I think that's one of the
reasons I loved it so much, is that it really
has this feeling of an unreality that you're cinematically engaging with. However,
you know, Fulchi never made a Christmas movie really, or
did he? I don't know, Maybe it was a dream.
(24:49):
All right, we're gonna gohead and cap it there, but
we'll be back with you know. The regular schedule of
episodes this week, Core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Short
form Artifactor Monster on Wednesday, and on Friday, another Weird
House Cinema selection. You can, of course email us. Joe
will throw up that email address in just a minute
but other ways to engage with us on the show.
There's a discord server. Email us and we'll send you
(25:11):
the link for that. There's a Facebook group it is
the Stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module. Just if
you're on Facebook, apply there. All you have to do
is answer a very simple question about the show and
you'll be admitted. And yeah, if you follow social media
at all, our social media accounts are currently active. And
if you are on Instagram, go to STBYM podcast. That
(25:31):
is our handle there and that's a great way to
keep up with the show at the moment. There's some
cool videos on there as well that line up with
our weird House cinema selections.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.
If you would like to get in touch with us
with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Stuffed Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
My name is Robert and I am Joe McCormick, and
it's Monday, the day of each week that we read
back messages from the Stuff to Blow your Mind mail bag.
If you've never gotten in touch before and you want
to give it a try, you can email us at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever
you want to send us fair game. But we especially
(00:32):
like if you want to respond to a topic we've
talked about on the show recently and add something interesting
of your own. Let's see, rob We've got a bunch
of messages in response to our invention series on crossbows.
I think I'm going to kick things off with this
message from Ahmed If that's cool with.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You, Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Ahmed, who has written many great emails to us in
the past. By the way, Ahmed says, hey guys, I'm
ed again here. I loved your recent episodes on the crossbow,
especially the discussions of its association with evil that seems
sort of unfair and out of proportion with the technology
(01:12):
itself and as a refresher on the side. This is
from the episode where we talked about how if you
watch movies from the modern period where some kind of
medieval fantasy is depicted or there's a medieval technology context,
the crossbows are always used by the bad guys, almost
always exclusively a villain weapon, and how this wasn't a
(01:34):
It hasn't always exactly been seen like this, but there
are threads of that going back to the medieval period itself.
There are some writings from the period that characterize the
crossbow as a uniquely wicked or barbaric weapon, and we
were wondering, like, why that, why the crossbow compared to
any other weapon. Ahmed's message continues. One important example in
(01:56):
literature that came to mind for me was the Rhyme
of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge. For those not acquainted,
this is a Romantic Movement English poem that tells a
story within a story of a sailor who shoots an
albatross with a crossbow and is cursed for it before
ultimate redemption. It's had a big culture impact, with famous
(02:16):
imagery like an albatross hanging around someone's neck and lines
like water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. I
always thought it weird that this poem, published in seventeen
ninety eight, so centuries into the gunpowder age, had the
crossbow as the weapon the unnamed narrator uses to shoot
the albatross. After listening to your episodes, this seems to
(02:38):
fit into a broader cultural association of the crossbow with
evil and wickedness, and in this case, a wicked act,
as the poem itself says. Quote by him who died
on cross with his cruel bow, he laid full low
the harmless albatross, Ahmed goes on. I wonder if part
(02:58):
of this association comes from the fact that the crossbow
made it easy for the first time to accidentally or
unthinkingly kill or hurt someone. After all, the energy is
already stored up, and all it would take is an
accidental or impulsive pulling of the trigger. Besides dropping something
on somebody from high up. This was probably the first
(03:21):
time a regular person without a catapult or ballista could
get a ton of kinetic energy into something all of
a sudden without much work. You certainly get the idea
that the mariner shoots the bird on a whim and
I wonder if countless such unsung instances or half baked
or accidental maiming and killing with crossbows were the reason
(03:43):
for its bad rap that stuck around even centuries after
gunpowder made even higher energies deployable with the push of
a trigger. I couldn't find any actual scholarship on this,
but the speculation was too juicy not to share. Anyways,
keep up the great work and happy Thanksgiving, Ahmed uh
on it. Yeah, I don't know if that had occurred
to me. I don't think it had. And that's a
(04:05):
really interesting idea that the crossbow makes it easier to
do to cause a lot of harm accidentally or with
very little immediate physical effort. I mean, it does take
physical effort to cock it back, but that's something you
can do in advance, and you know, the release of
the mechanism to to unleash the violence is quite simple.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a great point on top
of the fact that just like the basic technological metaphor
is so irresistible, you know, and we touched on that
a little bit Louis. It's referenced in sun Zoo and
so forth. But yeah, here is this this lethal the
lethal force has already even applied, and then it may
be the device may be set aside, and virtually anyone
(04:49):
could then pick it up and fire it or misfire it,
or whatever the case may be, and and could commit
heinous crimes with it, such as in the case of
the rhyme of the ancient marrin are shooting that blessed
albatross out of the sky exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So thanks for the email, Ahmed, I think that is
a really interesting idea. Okay, Now, we invited listeners to
chime in on a couple of topics related to crossbows
in Dungeons and Dragons and rob There are several emails
of this genre that you might need to help explicate
and interpret for those not as deeply familiar with the game.
(05:26):
Do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
This?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
One from Emily Sure.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Emily writes it and says, Hi, guys, I'm listening to
your episode about crossbows and wanted to chime in since
you asked for comments relating to crossbows in tabletop RPGs.
A few years ago, I DMed a game of Pathfinder,
playing a published adventure path called Second Darkness. Mild spoilers
follow for this fifteen year old AP. The central plot
(05:54):
revolves around the Drow rhymes with brow not crow, okay
for anyone out there, or dark Elves, which at the
time the AP was written, were an explicitly and exclusively
evil race. Yeah, this is true. Nowadays in Duns and Dragons,
you're finding a lot more needed nuance with specific races
(06:16):
or species. So I think there were exceptions to the
rule in the Older Lord, but nowadays it's less a
matter of like, oh, yeah, the Drow are all evil,
They're all awful evil. Now we're opening it up and
realizing you, no, no, it's okay that some of the
Drow are evil and some are not evil. It's like
they're just like people, right, And I think that's a
(06:37):
much healthier place to land everything. Anyway, Emily continues. I
believe the recently released second edition of Pathfinder has been
updated such that this is no longer the case, but
I'm not sure. The big twist of second Darkness in
Universe is that normal elves turn into Drow if they
are sufficiently wicked. There's an important scene where this happens
(06:58):
to an NPC picture below for your amusement. Kicking off
the back half of the adventure rob.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Maybe we should go ahead and look down to this
ps of this character, who is I don't even know
how to begin to describe this a V neck shirt
so deep it goes down to his belly button, and
he's got like about six swords hanging off of his belt.
And yeah, he looks like he's no good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He looks like he should be fronting a really ridiculous
I don't know, in late eighties, early nineties kind of
satanic heavy metal band, I'm not sure, a little bit
glam rock.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
In there, Yeah, like the kind of bands that have
song titles that translate to I dislike Christians.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Also, the Drow and this image has pale skin, which,
of course in dungeons and dragons they're generally depicted as
having a dark skin, which of course plays into some
of the problematic aspects of having the Drow the evil.
And then also always threw me for a curve because
(08:02):
it's like, Okay, there's subterranean creatures. Shouldn't they be pale?
Like subterranean creatures, shouldn'y have like translucent skin or something?
But clearly I am and was overthinking that that aspect
of the scenario.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Oh, and we should say Emily has a ps regarding
this image. It reads who in the world would have
suspected this guy of being evil? He has so many swords, Yeah,
like six swords. Going back to in the same discussion
we talked about, for some reason, in movies the sword
is identified as like an honest and virtuous weapon, which
is pretty equally silly to the crossbow being more evil
(08:37):
than other weapons.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, all right. Anyways, she continues on to I guess
the main point here, given your discussion in the second
episode about crossbows being evil coded weaponry in fiction, it
should come as no surprise that every single Drow the
PC's encountered was packing a master work hand crossbow as
part of their load out, even the castlers and folks
with other weapons, including swords. I suppose it makes sense
(09:00):
for the Drow to favor the crossbow for the same
reason Rob said dwarfs would favor them, good for low light,
close quarters underground combat. Also, for the record, according to
d twenty pfsrd dot com, an online pathfinder reference document,
loading a hand crossbow is technically a move action that
provokes attacks of opportunity. Why they have conveniently forgotten this
(09:21):
while I was running the ap but my players still
manage to defeat the Drow and avert the titular second
darkness all the same.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Oh wait, so in your campaign the Drow we're getting
double the amount of attacks they should have.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
No, if I'm understanding what she's saying correctly, it's like
by engaging in reloading of the crossbow, you would be
provoking an attack of opportunity, meaning that the enemy would
get to make like an out of turn attack on me.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something. But anyway, again, that sounds like
one of those rules that suddenly makes using a crossbow
(09:54):
in the game less fun, and maybe isn't a great rule,
but that's just me.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think we got another email this coming up.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay. Emily closes with this was a really interesting series
of episodes. I liked Invention a lot when it was
its own separate thing, and it's been a while since
you guys have done a proper Invention episode, so this
was a pleasant surprise to see when I opened my
podcast app this week. Thank you as always for the
excellent podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, thank you, Emily.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, I enjoyed dipping back into the Invention content from
time to time. You know, a splash of something different
from time to time, so we'll definitely keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Okay, here's more about crossbows and fictional worlds. Andrew says, Howdy,
regarding your recent crossbow episode, you failed to mention Chewy's
crossbow from Star Wars. I've always been confused on the
physics of a laser crossbow. Did he have to reload it?
(10:50):
How is a laser propelled forward with stored energy in
the way? The traditional one is how is his weapon
any different from any other Star Wars blaster? Thanks Andrew, Andrew,
I have the same question growing up. I had no idea.
Why would you need a blaster to be a crossbow blaster?
I don't know what advantage it provides.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean it never made sense to me either.
I'm sure it has been explained. Someone in the Star
Wars fan world has explained this. I just haven't looked
it up, but I guess I always tended to lean
towards two possible sort of headcanon explanations. One, it's not
really a crossbow. It doesn't have a string. Maybe it
(11:30):
does have a string, but in my mind I just
remember it has the like the bow shape, and then
they are like these balls on the end. So maybe
those are for some sort of like electromagnetic rail gun scenario.
I don't know, so something other than aiding in the
drawing back of a bow, or is there is a
(11:50):
string there and it's not so much about propelling something
but as facilitating some sort of a fast function mechanical
aspect of the device that plays into its launching of
a laser boult.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Or what have you.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I'll have to go on Wikipedia to find out.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Wikipedia. Yeah, I think there's gonna have to be your answer,
but it never made sense to me either.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
All Right, Well, I'm just gonna go and read from Wikipedia.
Here's what that Wikipedia says. Okay, quote the weapon used
metal quarrels developed with plasma energy as ammunition. Two polarizing
orbs placed on each end of the bow, creating a
magnetic field that boosted the corals momentum. Once the cocking
spring was pulled back, the trigger fired the coral, which
(12:31):
was enveloped in plasma energy. So if I'm understanding that correctly,
it's still kind of a traditional crossbow, but with some
sci fi stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It's shooting bolts, like hard metal bolts that are surrounded
by plasma energy. Like it's like a metal bolt with
a blaster casing. It's like an eminem h that's kind
of vicious, Like I can only imagine that blasting through
your stormtrooper armor.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
All right, what else do we have?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Let's see, well we got we got another one from
Matthew about tabletop RPG rules with crossbows. Do you want
to do this one around?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, sure, Matthew says, good morning. I just
caught up with the two part an crossbows, and I
have to admit I was stumped for a moment because
I thought i'd seen statistics for the repeating crossbow in
the wild. Instead, what I remembered was the esthetic choice
Wizards meaning Wizards of the Coast made when they went
MMO on fourth edition and purged a lot of the
three point five materials to make it play more like
(13:36):
a video game. However, I did see the pathfinder blocks
from the original version aka D and D three point
seventy five, so I'm sure with a little conversion and whatnot,
it can apply to the game since it still had
roots in the three point five edition.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Okay, so this is a response to you saying you
thought that there were repeating crossbows somewhere in the D
and D universe at some point.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, I think in five E some enemies have them.
But and it just and also it just makes sense
that certainly someone's home brewed it, and it may be
in a book that I just haven't seen. Anyway, Matthew
serves a link with us and says, of course, I
remember the two E versions having some more realistic rules
on maintenance and upkeep, which made sure it was never
used around the table. Kids these days and they're plug
(14:20):
and play D and D. Thanks for everything, Nephew.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
You know, making things in a game more like real
life is not always an improvement. I don't know if
Matthew would disagree with me there, but like, yeah, you
have to use a turn to like load your crossbow.
Is that as much fun? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah, there has to be a balance there, but
I guess it's just always a struggle to figure out
what the balance is. Because a certain amount of pdium
in a game can be fun. I mean, there doesn't
need it doesn't need to be too much like a
video game, but you don't want it to be so
complex that you know, only rocket scientists can play it
(15:01):
part of the struggle.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
All right. This next message is from Heraldo and it
goes back to our episodes called from Before You Could Remember,
our episodes about infant amnesia. Basically, Heraldo says, Hello, Robert
and Joe, hope you're well. I live in Brazil and
(15:24):
I've been a regular listener to the Stuff to Blow
Your Mind podcast since twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen. Actually,
I try to keep up with every episode in sequence
and with the daily routine. I am currently still listening
to episodes from April. Yesterday, I finished the third part
of the Before You Could Remember series, and I think
I have something to share about it. You referred to
(15:45):
a proposal which states that quote, it's not until we
have mastered the concept of a self different from others
that we're able to organize our memories into a sensical
form that can be retrieved across time. That idea immediately
reminded me of a common phrase that I've listened since
my childhood from my parents and other older members of
(16:06):
my family, and which I've incorporated in my own verbal expressions.
They used to say something like and I guess this
is in Spanish or Portuguese, so I apologize if I'm
not saying this right, say disso des de qu au
maintendo poorhente, which could be translated as I've known this
(16:27):
since I've known myself as a person, as a way
to say that the point when you identify yourself as
a person is as far as your memory can reach backwards.
I'm not a native English speaker, as you have probably
already noticed, so I can't say if there is a
correlate expression in English. Anyway, I find it really interesting
that such an idea is concealed in rather daily expression,
(16:50):
and I thought it would be a shaable thing. Thank
you for the delightful hours listening to the ever interesting
and thought provoking subjects that you bring weekly to our appreciation.
Please doing this brilliant work you do. Best regards, Heraldo. Oh,
thank you so much, Heraldo. I did not know that expression,
and yeah, that is interesting. Yeah, I wonder where something
(17:11):
like that would come from since I've known myself as
a person, But.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It makes sense. It makes sense within the context of
what we were talking about. I like it, all right,
Shall we dive into some weird house cinema listener mail?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, Kick this off with whichever of these you want
to read, Rob.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
All right, This one comes to us from Adam. Adam
says after listening to the most recent Weird House episode,
The Butterfly Murders and watching, I found the look of
the leader of the ten Flags ten thing reminded me
of the main character in the graphic novel Fin Shing
g wou Jing, though it's mostly the hair and cloak.
(17:52):
I haven't thought about Fein Shinji in years, but recall
really enjoying it. It's said in a mythical world, thematically
reminiscent of ancient China, where people and god's are fighting
for supremacy. It's gorgeously illustrated and a fun read. I
got hooked on Joe's recommendation and asterix by this will
come back to this kill six billion demons years back,
and thought I would return the favor. I enjoyed the
(18:13):
main show quite a bit, but Weird House definitely quote
unquote rubs the fur and I am always excited to
hear what film will be discussed next. Thanks for your
hard work, best Adam.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Now I think I know what your asterisk is, Rob.
I don't personally recall recommending kill six billion demons. That's
not anything against it. I'm just not really familiar with this,
So was that you or maybe Christian years ago?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I honestly don't remember. I know that I had a
copy of it of one of the books of it
and really loved the artwork and ended up passing it
on to a friend, but I cannot recall if it's
something that I learned about through someone else, or if
Christian recommended it and I picked it up because Christian
liked it. But at any rate, I recommend checking it out.
(18:55):
It's pretty fun. As for this series that Adam is recommending,
I'll have to check it out. I'm really not familiar
with it, but it sounds intriguing.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I mean, if the main character is like Bosston Funngro
from Butterfly Murders, that's already in the plus column for me. Yeah,
all right. This next message comes from Alan. Alan says,
I've been catching up on past podcasts that I missed,
and just listen to the Weird House episode about the
(19:24):
movie Conquest. This is the Luccio Fulci Sword and Sorcery movies,
kind of a Conan ripoff, starring the guy from Werewolf.
The bad guy from Werewolf as a conan type guy.
I recall this movie having some well speaking of were wolves,
doesn't have to like some wolf men that serve a
sorceress and oh yeah yeah, and I recall a lot
(19:47):
of good stuff. But it's been a while. Oh I
remember this is one where they like, they like journey
through a poison swamp that just ends up with Folci
giving us like a three minute close up of the
heroes Pustula wounds.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yes, it is, I can say, without a shred of irony,
is a great movie. I absolutely love Conquest. Yeah, I
love it more every time that I watch it that
I'll have more to say on this in a second
once the email is finished.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Well, so Alan says. After listening, I immediately watched the movie.
It sounded intriguing and visually I was not disappointed. Otherwise,
I still haven't decided if I liked it or not. However,
that did want to share a moment from the movie
that made me laugh out loud. At the end, the
wolves run to the forest, the hero walks to the shore,
both somehow into the sunset. Good observation, and the credits
(20:40):
start to roll. The first thing you read is quote,
any reference to persons or events is purely coincidental. Alan says, huh,
I realized this could be something the studio just does
regardless of the movie. But the idea of someone making
the decision to add that disclaimer after making that movie
is hilarious. Maybe they added it ironically, which I can appreciate,
(21:03):
but it's more amusing to imagine a group of people
sitting around a table agreeing that, you know, boys, we
cut this one pretty close to reality, and we better
cover our butts so nobody thinks the movie was about them.
That's all. Keep up the great work. Happy holidays, Alan,
Thank you Alan.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Well. Now on the comment about not being sure if
you liked it or not after watching it, as someone
who loves Conquest, I will say this is the correct
response to the first viewing of Conquest. It takes a
while to figure out how you feel about it and
to grow in your relationship with this particular film. But yeah,
(21:41):
it's a bonker's one, especially bonkers, so the idea of
anything in this movie matching up closely with reality is
a bit ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Imagine someone suing Fulchy for the way they were depicted
in Conquest.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, this Yea. It's like you've totally stole my life story.
I a topless, gold headed, uh sorceress with an army
of were wolves, and uh, you're you're using my story
without without my permission, without giving me a cut of
the pot.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
How could they? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, I probably need to revisit some other full Chie films.
At some point. We may do another full Chy film
on Weird House. But uh, I have to say it's
my favorite right now. It's Uh, it's it's my It's
my favorite ful Chief film without a doubt. That's that's
where I stand at the moment. They're not all they're
not all winners. There's there's some real dogs in that filmography.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know, he made a lot of films. This one, though,
I think, is something special to say.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
The thing about putting together all the full Chi movies
I've seen, they're all gross, and so the question is
are they gross and also brilliant or just gross? Or
are they gross and also brilliant and funny? That that's
like the the triple combination is conquest all three. It's
hard to say, but maybe.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
You know, I got excited about about a Fulshy film
earlier this year, and I thought, well, this, this might
be the one. I got a copy of Murder Rock
Dancing Death from nineteen eighty four, I think I rented
it from a video drum, and I was like, this,
this sounds great. It's a rock musical about you know,
some sort of like a dance studio murder scenario, and
(23:19):
there are a lot of dance numbers, you know, kind
of like an elongated music video by Fulci. This this
has to be a winner.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It sounds but it sounds great.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It sounds good. It sounds so much better on paper.
Maybe some people love this. Maybe it's like Conquests, you
have to see it multiple times and you appreciate it.
But I just didn't like the music. And I felt
like if the music had been good. It felt like
if it had really good, solid disco numbers, I could
have gotten into it more. But I just couldn't. House
by the Cemetery is another great one. We did a
weird house episode on the House by the Cemetery. That's
(23:50):
still one of my favorites. That's like close second to
Conquest from Me. But you know, and maybe in the
future we'll come back and watch something else.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
There's of course the Beyond, there's Zombie, and then I've
also heard interesting things about like his non horror work.
You know, he did some westerns as well that are
supposed to be gory and gross, but also more or
less westerns.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I just had a thought, which is that I bet
Luccio Fulci is the filmmaker who has made the films
that the most people have years later wondered if they
dreamed them or if it was a movie they saw.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah. Yeah, Like we said, there's often a dream like quality,
especially in Conquest, and I think that's one of the
reasons I loved it so much, is that it really
has this feeling of an unreality that you're cinematically engaging with. However,
you know, Fulchi never made a Christmas movie really, or
did he? I don't know, Maybe it was a dream.
(24:49):
All right, we're gonna gohead and cap it there, but
we'll be back with you know. The regular schedule of
episodes this week, Core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Short
form Artifactor Monster on Wednesday, and on Friday, another Weird
House Cinema selection. You can, of course email us. Joe
will throw up that email address in just a minute
but other ways to engage with us on the show.
There's a discord server. Email us and we'll send you
(25:11):
the link for that. There's a Facebook group it is
the Stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module. Just if
you're on Facebook, apply there. All you have to do
is answer a very simple question about the show and
you'll be admitted. And yeah, if you follow social media
at all, our social media accounts are currently active. And
if you are on Instagram, go to STBYM podcast. That
(25:31):
is our handle there and that's a great way to
keep up with the show at the moment. There's some
cool videos on there as well that line up with
our weird House cinema selections.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.
If you would like to get in touch with us
with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Stuffed Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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