Everybody knows that if you want to be extra badass in a full-scale medieval TV or film battle, you have to hurl some kind of projectile at an enemy toward the beginning of the fight, not only to swiftly take somebody out (and thusly demonstrate your prowess at a distance), but also to gain that sweet, subsequent moment of pulling out the secondary weapon before charging into battle. But what do you throw? A javelin? Some Greek fire? A Bob Ross mug? How about a sword. Or, if you’re YouTuber Joerg Sprave, you build a sword launcher that is somehow equally — even more?! — awesome.
The video of Sprave‘s “trusted sword launcher,” which comes via Digg, was made in response to YouTuber ThegnThrand‘s (very cordial) challenge to see how his hand-thrown sword would do versus Sprave’s launched sword against chain mail. ThregnThrand’s video, below, demonstrates how he was able to not only penetrate the chainmail armor, but also a couple of inches of ballistic gel and even a bit of the wooden shield behind it. Which would of course be an immediate death blow in battle.
Sprave’s sword launcher manages to absolutely annihilate his chain mail, gel, and cloth, as well, although his sword goes through his wood shield rather than bouncing off of it. Plus, his launcher was loaded with a relatively cheap sword.
Oddly enough, a YouTuber comment posted beneath the video by Cullen Taylor brings up the subtly philosophical question of this whole exercise. When you’re totally annihilated by the sword launcher, “Would you say I’ve been shot? Or would you say I’ve been stabbed???”
What do you think about this sword launcher? Would whoever found themselves on the business end of this bad boy say they’d been shot or stabbed? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!
Need More Sword Stuff?
- Check out the crazy process behind creating this Thermite sword.
- Watch someone make Thor’s Ragnarok swords.
- And finally: AN ICE CREAM KATANA!
Images: JoergSprave
