lego

First attempt at a trebuchet. Really hard to get the counterweight heavy enough with plastic. I put a bunch of magnets in there. Haven’t yet figured out how to do the sling release type mechanism. There’s not really enough energy to swing much.

In LOTR, the Orc army uses primitive strain-based catapults while Gondor uses counterweight trebuchets. Roughly same range but Gondor launches much bigger pieces of masonry. This was one of the more inspired bits of production that I don’t recall being in the books. Gondor is more technologically advanced but in decline so literally uses broken bits of itself as ammo.

Also, the depiction conflicts with one popular contrarian reading of LOTR — that the good guys were wizards and artisans and the bad guys were techbro engineers. I’m not enough of a fan to judge but the movie depiction feels more satisfying.

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

Interesting contrast in weaponry in LOTR, with Gondor's trebuchets symbolizing their decline and use of their own structures as ammo. Conflicts with the good wizard vs. bad engineer trope, but satisfying in the movie