King-a-pult

October 5th, 2008

Before I came up with the Diamondback Battlesnake, I was thinking the mostÂ logical conclusion toÂ the battle-machines was battle-lista. But I didn’t think enough people would know what a ballista was. So I asked a bunch of my non D&D playing friends and no one knew. That forced me to come up with a funnier joke for that panel. A ballista, by the way, is a siege weapon of the Ancient Greeks that basically resembles a giant crossbow that could fire either arrow-like or spherical projectiles. It’s where we get the term “ballistic” from when referring to the inner workings of guns.

It’s also the first time I’ve had to think about what Christi’s dad spends his money on besides flag creation. I figure he’s a good guy but even the best leader is a little corrupt.

Of course the cowtapult is a nod of the hat to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a movie I saw too many times as a child and still can not rewatch again because it’s so ingrained into my memory.

Wm Tanksley
October 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am

BTW, “ballista” comes from the Greek /ballein/, which means to throw. So ballistics is the art of throwing things. It’s not derived from the name of the ballista; the ballista is simply using the same word.

Good one, though. 🙂