It still amazes me how freaking big Gough is. It's probably because dexterity/speed is always associated with archers, so I always imagined him as a speedy looking fella. Making him a giant was unexpected, but welcome.

I think that the strength to use such massive arrows makes up for his lack of speed....then again, he might be faster than we give him credit due to him being stuck in that small space.

RoyalGuard128 said:
It still amazes me how freaking big Gough is. It's probably because dexterity/speed is always associated with archers, so I always imagined him as a speedy looking fella. Making him a giant was unexpected, but welcome.

When you think about it, it's brilliant. Normal arrows wouldn't do squat to a decent-sized dragon, assuming you could even hit the thing when its flying really high, but for a giant, a ballista might as well be an ordinary crossbow! You don't need speed when you have the strength to send giant arrows flying at speeds no human archer could ever hope to match. I'm surprised the concept of giant archers isn't an idea used more often in fantasy settings; you'd think they'd make for an indomitable fighting force.

well, the cliche in fantasy settings is that archers are fragile things that don't use armor and rely on agil and having a meatshield in front of them

But archers need a LOT of strength, especially in times when you don't have ultra light and elastic materials to make your bows and arrows.

^One of my favorite depictions of archers is from Bernard Cornwell's Grail series, where the main character wielded a yew bow with something close to a 190 pound draw weight.