History Main / SufferTheSlings

When a sling is used in fiction, the slinger will always whirl it round and round several times before loosing the bullet. This is [[RuleOfCool just for]] [[RuleOfPerception show]]-- in reality, the more (and faster) it's swung, the less accurate the aim. The most attractive part, of course, is that a piece of hide or rope and a handful of stones make the ''simplest'' long-range weapon possible, compact, yet efficient enough to serve shepherds before [[SawedOffShotgun lupara]] and even military needs.

* TheBible has David's famous defeat of Goliath with a sling.

Despite the fact that slings require considerable training to use effectively and are quite lethal (just ask [[TheBible Goliath]]), in fiction slings are generally perceived as being a weak weapon. They are usually given to kids, beginning adventurers, angry peasants, or idiot {{Mook}}s, and are very rarely treated as the lethal weapons they are.

** Though they actually could punch through armor at a close ranged when used with a lot of force, provided that the armor was the stuff the greeks would be wearing and not something like 16th century plate. As for becoming superheated in the air, not so much.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' had an episode about DavidAndGoliath. What makes this one strange is that the writers [[DidNotDoTheResearch apparently didn't believe]] (or thought the [[ViewersAreMorons viewers]] wouldn't believe) that a sling was a lethal weapon in its own right, so they had Xena give some exposition about how giants have a weak spot in the middle of their forehead.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' had an episode about DavidAndGoliath. What makes this one strange is that the writers [[DidNotDoTheResearch apparently didn't believe]] that a sling was a lethal weapon in its own right, so they had Xena give some exposition about how giants have a weak spot in the middle of their forehead.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' had an episode about David and Goliath. What makes this one strange is that the writers [[DidNotDoTheResearch apparently didn't believe]] that a sling was a lethal weapon in its own right, so they had Xena give some exposition about how giants have a weak spot in the middle of their forehead.

* In the ''Videssos Cycle'' by HarryTurtledove, the displaced Roman legion includes some slingers from Iberia. (A case of ShownTheirWork - Iberians were indeed noted by the Romans for their skill with the sling, remembered in the name of the Balearics ('Isles of the Slingers')).

* In [[LunarSilverStarHarmony]], one of the early weapons in the game is a sling.

[[caption-width-right:350:Goliath bites the big one, courtesy of a kid with a sling.]]

** They liked it so much they invented and used Cestrosphendone (a sling-propelled dart) and fustibulus (staff-sling).

** The reason they're effective against armor is the Ewoks aren't using slings, they're using weighted lengths of cord designed to be thrown and wrap around the stormtrooper's throats.

* A ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' game had slings as the weapon for halflings.

* Tested in the first episode of ''{{Deadliest Warrior}}'' - although the bullet can do enough damage when thrown hard and accurately, a normal human being wielding it wouldn't be able to kill with it most of the times. Out of 1000 battles, the sling scored only one kill.