Fire!

[pnorthcott]

I will expose myself as the big ol' history geek I am :smallredface: and say:

Why do the characters keep saying 'Fire' to instruct people to shoot catapults and arrows? Surely 'loose' or 'shoot' would make more sense. 'Fire' is what you apply to a firearm to make it go bang. In contrast, firing a catapult means to set it on fire!

Of course it's extremely important to have strict, uh, historical accuracy in this, er, fantasy comic oh never mind....

[magnar]

I had never thought of this, but it seems to make perfect logical sense (although I would say 'burn' the catapults). Fire is just so ingrained in my brain...
"Hold your loose!"

[clarkvalentine]

"Hold your loose!"


That's where "hold" came from in that context, I'd venture. "Loose your arrows!" vs. "Hold your arrows!"

[Demented]

In contrast, firing a catapult means to set it on fire!

"Fire your catapults!"

I sense a skit.


'Loose' doesn't appeal all that much to me.
You could always just ask an archer for the proper term...
"Knock! Ready! Spadoinkle!"
*thwip* *thwip* *thwip* *thwip* *thwip*

[Tolkien_Freak]

'Fire the catapults!'

FOOM!!

'What the **** are you DOING?'


LOTR reference, this is why the elves say 'release the arrows (Hado i phillin), not 'fire the arrows'.

[Haruki-kun]

Nowadays we say "fire" to shoot because we're used to it. The dwarf in the hotel story arch had a cannon, so firearms have already been invented in the story right? There's the source.

I mean, now we say "fire" to refer to arrows in archery, right?

Wow...... I'm actually lookin into it............. Yay for logic.

[JetTheOne]

I will expose myself as the big ol' history geek I am :smallredface: and say:

Why do the characters keep saying 'Fire' to instruct people to shoot catapults and arrows? Surely 'loose' or 'shoot' would make more sense. 'Fire' is what you apply to a firearm to make it go bang. In contrast, firing a catapult means to set it on fire!

Of course it's extremely important to have strict, uh, historical accuracy in this, er, fantasy comic oh never mind....

This made me laugh, but if you apply the same direct logic to the words "loose" or "shoot" in terms of catapults...

"Loose the catapults" * clank clank saw saw THUD *

"Shoot the catapults" * arrows wizzing by followed by various THWACKS "

Well so much for our heavy artillery... :smallfrown:

[Teh_Jakester]

Answer to question: Fire is pretty.

[BisectedBrioche]

This made me laugh, but if you apply the same direct logic to the words "loose" or "shoot" in terms of catapults...

"Loose the catapults" * clank clank saw saw THUD *

"Shoot the catapults" * arrows wizzing by followed by various THWACKS "

Well so much for our heavy artillery... :smallfrown:

I now have the urge to open macromedia Flash....

[Copacetic]

Yeh I guess it makes Sense. " Loose the Titunium elementals!" Doesn't excatly roll off the tongue though does it?

[Joran]

Hmm... Never thought of that actually. It really is ingrained in my mind too as to "shoot" something.

This reminds me of something else from military history.

A British historian was watching an artillery drill. One of the officers, before the cannon was fired would move to the side and hold up his arm in a fist. When asked, the officer had no idea why he did so, only that it was part of the drill. With some investigation, the historian found a still living World War I soldier and asked him about it. Apparently, he found that the reason why the officer was supposed to do so, was to hold the reins of a horse, so it wouldn't bolt at the sound of the cannon.

[chibibar]

Interesting, I never put much thought into "fire" to me "fire" = shoot,release, loose ;)

[R.O.A.]

Nowadays we say "fire" to shoot because we're used to it. The dwarf in the hotel story arch had a cannon, so firearms have already been invented in the story right? There's the source.
Or, in a fantasy setting, 'fire' is a useful command for telling your spellcasters to cast fireballs...or even flaming arrows come to think of it.
There's multiple possiblities for the word's root in this world without the use of guns :smallsmile:

[atteSmythe]

It may just be me, but I don't foresee the troops suddenly being confused and setting their siege engines alight.

[Wolfman42666]

:smallsmile: where/whenever the phrase origenated (cannons?) fire also means "shoot" as oppose to a "reactional" that burns things, which is why the techinal term for a gun is a "firearm" and since their is a prototype gun in the dwarf asissins hands, its reasonably to guess that dwarfs have cannons too its just that magic is too common to develop the tech into like pistols, that and archers and mages are ranged and most of my mages are found of fireball:smalltongue: so it make sense to connense "mages fireball, and archers shoot" to "fire":smallwink:

[Black_Light83]

well i suppose i should correct more of the wrongs in theese many comics. for one magic , dragons, goblins, orcs, dark eles, and thor are not real.:smallfurious: because you know if a comic isnt compleatly accruate then it ruins the entire thing.

( i dont care about what you have to say about the accuracy of the word "fire" and i dont like that you are nit picking on a great thing):smallyuk:

[TARINunit9]

Nowadays we say "fire" to shoot because we're used to it. The dwarf in the hotel story arch had a cannon, so firearms have already been invented in the story right? There's the source.


Good point! But even if they weren't, "fire the catapults (or arrows or whatever)" wouldn't have ANY response because it wouldn't be grammatically correct (today it would be, but it wasn't before guns). To have them set fire to the catapults, you would say just that, "set fire [to] the catapults! oh crap, NO DON'T!" :smallbiggrin:

[JetTheOne]

I now have the urge to open macromedia Flash....

I'd imagine you could make a decent Flash of "When war orders go wrong"

[JetTheOne]

This made me laugh, but if you apply the same direct logic to the words "loose" or "shoot" in terms of catapults...

"Loose the catapults" * clank clank saw saw THUD *

"Shoot the catapults" * arrows wizzing by followed by various THWACKS "

Well so much for our heavy artillery... :smallfrown:

Another one, a soldiers response to when his commander tells him to fire the catapults...

"But sir, we do not have catapults that can fire our catapults"

Imagine that, catapulting a catapult which would then catapult a boulder in it's own mid flight, that's some massive seige range!

[Tolkien_Freak]

"Loose the catapults" * clank clank saw saw THUD *

"Shoot the catapults" * arrows wizzing by followed by various THWACKS "

So what DO you say?

'Make the stones which have been loaded into the catapults fly through the air at high velocity towards the walls which stand in the way of our conquest!'?

That just doesn't work. It's funny though.

Any thoughts?

[chrono]

I'd imagine you could make a decent Flash of "When war orders go wrong"

In that context 'fire at will' has always been my favorite quote. Sucks if you're Will though.

[Black_Light83]

In that context 'fire at will' has always been my favorite quote. Sucks if you're Will though.

ya, wether you are set on fir or they shoot you with whatever they currently are holding. :smalltongue:

[Adlan]

You could always just ask an archer for the proper term...


As an Archer, I can tell you, that at least at my club, we always see Loose, or shoot. Saying fire gets fround upon most harshly.

[FujinAkari]

As an Archer, I can tell you, that at least at my club, we always see Loose, or shoot. Saying fire gets fround upon most harshly.

Yes, loose is the correct term, although I have heard release as well. fire is frowned on, but not ignite :P

(Ok, so I've never actually been able to ignite. Shush!)