History Memes!

May 18, 2026 10:23 PM

Skullwriter

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19448

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388

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19

EDIT: Marvelous Monday Frontpage! Thank you Imgurians! I make reviews as a hobby, and this week I tackled one of the most famous movies of alternative cinema... "My Dinner with Andre" If you want me to... Tell you more, this is the link https://youtu.be/8Zs4p1C3wTE

#2 Guns were overtaking bows while bows were the better weapon. Only because of the short training time.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 2

#13 Otisburg? OTISburg??? OTISBURG ???!!! (rip christopher reeve and gene hackman and margot kidder and valerie perrine and ned beatty - oh, shit, im old!)

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#15 aaaand again....

1 month ago | Likes 37 Dislikes 1

#11 This is a good thing, it means they removed the coats of arms because they no longer had hereditary rulers.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#2 here's the thing, ease of training and use is a property of how good a weapon is. Logistics win wars and early firearms (really right upto the US Civil War period), where worse than a good bowman in nearly every metric except for logistics. But Logistics is just that powerful.

1 month ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

#8

1 month ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 0

#4 OG eat the rich

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#8 didn’t they recently determine he’d been murdered? Like, the discovery was an ancient crime scene? I’m too lazy to look it up but I feel like I found that out recently. In which case, going to assume it wasn’t the person who made the shoes. And maybe the shoes were common if his murderer didn’t steal them after? 😅

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

iirc there was evidence that he was wounded by some kind of weapon, which means he had enemies who hunted him, so he fled into the mountains trying to escape and then died there...something like that...but maybe that was just a theory that has been disproven in the meantime, im not up to date...

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#4 I'm not sure I get this reference, but it feels like it's still relevant

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#8 I recommend the latest video by Miniminuteman about the Bad Dürrenberg Skeleton. He rolls deep into what it means to study ancient humans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oh6bC4t7q8

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

A “gun” historically can be anything from a fire lance in the year 900 to a current day Glock. People forget that firearms have been around for 1100 years. They also tend to leave out the context of when plate armor became common to encounter on a battlefield. Guns didn’t overtake bows so much as armor overtook arrows. Also, “bows” are not one neat category either. Different bows were made to be used in different ways. Priorities could be range, power, economy, or being shot from horseback.

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

#9 3 civil wars? I know of the one between King Stephen & the Empress Mathilda, and the execution of Charles 1st and oliver Cromwell, but whats the 3rd civil war?

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#6 - Baldrick from Blackadder Goes Fourth put it like this: "Some bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich, and now there's war."

1 month ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

because he was Hungry..

1 month ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

#13

1 month ago | Likes 37 Dislikes 0

What is this from?

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Horrible Histories, a British history sketch comedy TV series. The clip is from S01E04

1 month ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

The books are amazing and the TV series also rocks. The troupe also did other shows, including the British (original) version of "Ghosts".

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

And then there is @Ngugi who posts a clip that better explains the picture than the picture did.

1 month ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

1 month ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Team 4 star makes a joke about this but with Frieza. "My lord we conquered another planet, what should we nam-" Frieza planet number 153

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Similar joke, but the DBZA joke is not a joke about Alexandria. It was a joke about the fact that the planet Vegeta retreats to after losing in his debut was named "Frieza Planet 79," implying that Frieza is just lazy and keeps renaming planets after himself & adding a number. DBS followed this up by introducing Frieza Planet 17 and 448.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Something can be 2 things lol. Have a another for fun.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

#1 northern Ireland ?

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#3 Knights and Samurai really had good pr agents considering how they treated pretty much anyone below them in status

1 month ago | Likes 88 Dislikes 0

I imagine a lot of it had to do with threat of decapitation and torture.

1 month ago | Likes 22 Dislikes 0

The rare good ones are where the stories come from, the bad ones were much more numerous. And I’m using “good” generously. It was a different time with different standards of what “good” really meant.

1 month ago | Likes 22 Dislikes 2

Also a whole bunch of stories that are just flagrantly made up about fictional characters. See also; Don Quixote.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

While you're looking that up, might I also suggest Dong Quixote? That story has a very heated and tragic ending.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

"See, Timmy, yes, his Lordship sir cumference might take more than is his fair share of grain, and we often go hungry, but he doesn't rape every single girl in the village like other nobles, so we should really count our blessings."

Just in case it were unclear, I'm agreeing with you^^

1 month ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 0

Reminds me of a swedish song about a girl who stabs a knight in self defense as he try to force himself on her, the girl ends up being stoned while the knights memory is celebrated every year.

1 month ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Unfortunately, that sounds about right.

1 month ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

#11 I don't know what this is on about. Portugal's still rips

1 month ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

Also, the blue and gold was not the French flag, but the king's flag. There was no such thing as a national unity back then.

1 month ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Hey, once sent this to a Bulgarian friend without checking what their coat of arms was first. He became very offended 😬

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The black and gold of Austria is for the empire and the Habsburgs.
The red white bands originated with the Babenberg Dynasty in the 10th century, and was the Austrian flag before it became the black and gold.

1 month ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

#12 who says it was given to a kid? maybe it was given to some 30yo collector who would keep it on a shelf in its original packaging so it keeps and maybe even increases its value? surely bronze age nerds existed...

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The older I get, the more I hate the word "better". Better for a proficient, veteran soldier fighting individual enemies? Better for mass-training a conscript army that needs to fight as much as they can in a season before the harvest needs to be taken in? Declare your fucking terms!

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#1 Maryland, my Maryland.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#14 The US has never used the Imperial System of measurement. We were an independent country before it was put in place. Our pints are about 473 mL instead of about 568 mL. A pity if you enjoy beer pints

1 month ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

We would have had the metric system, but the ship carrying a weight standard from France requested by Thomas Jefferson got hijacked by a British privateer. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232/how-pirates-of-the-caribbean-hijacked-americas-metric-system

1 month ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Part of that, of course, is Americans somewhat rationalized the imperial system by making the gallon fit the powers of 2 pattern... 128oz = 1 gal = 4 quart = 8 pint = 16 cups = 32 gill = 256tbsp.

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

But you made up for it by making everything else bigger.

1 month ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Hence the 40oz. (1182ml)

1 month ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

#2 Longbow training took 10 years, resulted in almost universal back and shoulder deformities due to poor nutrition and training practices. Early Muskets, 1-2 weeks of training and nearly no permanent injuries from training. Not hard to see why even with the bows long service record that guns ended up being the better weapon.

1 month ago | Likes 65 Dislikes 0

Now, it's an expense to train soliders.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yeah, guns are superior. I say that as someone who thinks guns are super fucking lame.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The thing that gets me about the argument of "Bows were better, guns were only used due to being faster to train/more logistically sound" argument is that for an ARMY, the faster to train, and more sound logistics are exactly what makes something a better weapon. Any discussion that ignores that is only looking at the use by a specific individual for a single instance.

1 month ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

There are other characteristics that weigh in. Crossbows are much easier to learn than conventional bows, but their rate of fire (and range compared to English longbows) is inferior. In the end, crossbows were relegated to hunting before being superseded even there by firearms.

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

In England, at least, the training was somewhat offloaded - every man was required to train with a bow for a few hours each week, so the army didn't need to train them on it. Building societal-wide systems is better than having the army have to do it themselves on demand.

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

"Amateurs talk about tactics, professionals study logistics"

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I'd rather appoint those properties to the crossbow, which started to compete with bows in the middle ages and were successful for the exact reasons you pointed out.
As for gunpowder weapons I'd point at morale effects (noise and smoke) and, at a later stage, armor piercing capabilities.
Oh, and in siege warfare, cannons changed the playing field forever. Sometimes literally.

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Crossbows of one kind or another have been around since classical Greek times - see gastraphetes. They had advantages but were always hampered by rate of fire and always coexisted with some kind of conventional bow. As far as training is concerned, it's easier to learn to shoot a bow if you're not spending time watching TV and playing computer games and military archer units had plenty of time to practice.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

I'm sure there were *some* permanent injuries from training. I mean, when you add convicts, pressed men and general ne'er-do-wells to explosives, you're bound to have the occasional "mishap"...

1 month ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

You can overcharge early muskets and essentially turn them into pipe bombs in the operator’s hands.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Hearing loss.
The permanent injury you're looking for is hearing loss.

1 month ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

WHAT?!

1 month ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Historical warbows required 85-150+ lbs (38-68kg) of drawforce. Now imagine an officer telling you to draw and "HOLD!" that much weight for more than a few seconds. If one isnt getting enough protein the repetitive strain of these massive forces are going to create microtears that will lead to ripped tendons, torn rotator cuffs etc. Archeological evidence shows that the ribs and spines of archers have been altered to compensate for the twisting stabilizing needed.

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I bet it was avoidable and in spite of best practices at the time, not as a direct result of the training itself

1 month ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Historical warbows required 85-150+ lbs (38-68kg) of drawforce. Now imagine an officer telling you to draw and "HOLD!" that much weight for more than a few seconds. If one isnt getting enough protein the repetitive strain of these massive forces are going to create microtears that will lead to ripped tendons, torn rotator cuffs etc. Archeological evidence shows that the ribs and spines of archers have been altered to compensate for the twisting stabilizing needed.

1 month ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

#2 Guns overtook bows way before they became actually better weapons.

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

Yup, ego driven rich assholes have historically been unwilling to admit their expensive new tech is shit...like Ai

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 6

Wtf are the downvotes for? Gun fetishists unable to admit that guns were, at one point in time, shitty tech deployed on the battlefield? Or is it the comparison to Ai, bc lets not pretend the implementation of Grok in the US military is better than traditional human analytics.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 2

Guns don't need nearly as much skill or training as bows. If you are equipping an entire army, they are clearly better.

1 month ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Sorry, I got the notification you replied but can't respond bc I del my comment to fix a typo (no edit function). That said...

Guns are def more effective than bows, but the "Pike and Shot" era (15-17ᵗʰce) was a crossover period in which armies insisted on fielding guns despite their battlefield shortcomings (slow rate of fire, low accuracy, weather failure, melee weakness, etc.) and cossbows boasting a better rate of fire and equally less training than longbows.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Ahh, I hadn't thought of crossbows. I guess I thought thise were a lot more rare rha. D&D would suggest. But they require less technology than guns.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

All good, you're not alone in thinking this, as I thought the same!! In fact, crossbows were produced in greater volumes than longbows given that they required less skill to both craft and wield efficiently.

Who would've guessed that Hollywood wouldn't be accurate in their characterization of historical warfare‽ /s

Learned a WHOLE lot ab them from the MET Arms & Armor conservation lab (I know ppl feel different ab Adam Savage but the Conservator's info is A1)
https://youtu.be/zretcxDkU1I

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Thx gonna have to check this out. Need some source of historical content that fits in between LindyBeige and Forgotten Weapons. :)

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#4 That was 1 time! (But we should have brought it back some 10-15 ya.)

1 month ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

...did you eat a PM?

1 month ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Great. I spend 2 hours reading about Dutch politics.

1 month ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Only parts of him...

1 month ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Do we want to ask which?

1 month ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

According to this: his liver: https://dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-history-crowds-ate-prime-minister/ But other parts where missing too.

1 month ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

The good parts only

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I duno if this reassures or scares me.

1 month ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0