39,327
edits
William Telling: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 8:
'''''Calvin:''' Ahhh! He flinched!''|[[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|Calvin and Hobbes]]}}
Shooting an [[How Do You Like Them Apples?|apple]] or some other item [[Absurdly High Stakes Game|off another character's head]], to show off one's [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]. Usually with a [[The Archer|bow and arrow]].
This is based entirely on the legend of [[William Tell]], though the same story has existed before his time in similar variations. In the legend, William Tell, who originally came from Bürglen, was known as an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri. Albrecht (or Hermann) Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village's central square, hung his hat on top of it, demanding that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. When Tell passed by the hat without bowing to it, he was arrested. As punishment, he was forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter. Otherwise, both would be executed. Tell was promised freedom if he successfully made the shot. On 18 November 1307, Tell split an apple on his son's head with a bolt from his crossbow. Gessler noticed that before the shot Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver, not one, and after the shot asked him why. Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself.
Line 21:
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' used this as a [[Kick the Dog]] moment in an early episode, with one of Diamond's men forcing a villager to try to shoot a can off the head of his son with a bow and arrow. When the father can't go through with it, the scumbag takes it upon himself to "help" him, taking hold of the bow and arrow in a [[Hands
== Comic Books ==
Line 70:
== Live Action TV ==
* One time on ''[[Bones]]'' when she and Booth were undercover at the circus doing a [[Knife
{{quote| '''Crowdmember:''' Be careful, she's only got one eye left!}}
* In ''[[Married With Children]]'', Kelly becomes a skilled archer and accepts her opponent's challenge to shoot an apple on Bud's head. She balks at going through with it, not wanting to hurt Bud, but when her opponent accuses her of cowardice, she shoots the apple without warning, causing Bud to pass out and, upon reviving, regress to toddlerhood.
Line 83:
* Actually subverted in the live-action series ''Crossbow'', which is a fictionalised version of Tell's legend. How so? {{spoiler|Tell (Will Lyman) faints after passing the test, thus in a [[Kick the Dog]] moment Gessler (Jeremy Clyde) makes him and everyone else believe that his son Walter (David Barry Gray, who is here renamed Matthew) is dead, via having the the kid taken away and slandering Tell to Hell and back. It'll takew a while to see that it's not true.}}
* In the 2000 ''[[Arabian Nights (TV)|Arabian Nights]]'' mini-series, one of Scheherazade's stories concerns a prince who sets out to obtain a great treasure. As he is justly proud of his archery skills, the guardians of the treasure tell him he must prove himself worthy of it by shooting a target balanced on a child's head. It turns out to be a [[Secret Test of Character]]: when he declines to take the shot, admitting he's not certain he won't hit the child, he passes the test.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': The monster of "Foul Play in the Sky" was the Snizzard, a Snake-Lizard monster whose weak spot/power artifact was a golden apple atop his head. This was a Kimberly-centered episode, and Kimberly's weapon is a bow. Cue [[Twang! "Hello."]] + [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]], and then an arrow to the apple.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. In "Superstar" Jonathan alters reality to change himself from a geek into a demon-fighting [[James Bond (Film)|James Bond]]-expy. One scene has him putting on a blindfold in preparation to shooting apples from the heads of several Initiative soldiers.
Line 101:
* Happens in ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'': the protagonist being the glutton that he is misses intentionally so that he can eat the apple afterwards.
* ''[[The Far Side]]'' did a strip depicting William Tell's less fortunate son Warren, balancing an apple atop his gigantic head and encouraging Dad to shoot it off. Gary Larson caught some flak for this one, as some assumed he was mocking people with [
* Chalie Brown does it to Snoopy in [http://gocomics.com/peanuts/1952/03/07/ this] early ''[[Peanuts]]'' strip.
* Used in a ''[[Mutt And Jeff]]'' strip:
Line 113:
* Done in ''[[FoxTrot]]''. Roger asks Jason what sport he has taken up and Jason tells him to put an apple on his head and he'll demonstrate. Roger, wisely, flees.
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|Calvin and Hobbes]]''. See the page quote.
* Part of Willie's [[Knife
== Theater ==
Line 167:
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:William Telling]]
| |||