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Archery Feat

|< < Prev #3288 (August 21, 2026)

Title text: Update: I would not have embarked on this powerscaling venture if I'd known how thoroughly Mark Twain was going to roast me.

|< < Prev Random explanation

Explanation

It is a common trope in fiction, especially historical or fantasy genres, for protagonists to be skilled archers. Sometimes this is demonstrated by incredible feat of archery, which may be merely difficult or nearly impossible.

Here, Randall posits a new protagonist that he has created, and decides to create a super-feat of archery by combining three famous feats from fiction. This feat will evidently involve firing an arrow through twelve axes, through an apple on a someone's head, and then splitting an arrow that has already split another arrow.

• Shooting an arrow through twelve axes: This feat is from The Odyssey, in which the ability is unique to Odysseus, and so distinctive that he uses it to prove his identity. The 2026 film adaptation of The Odyssey was released in the month before this strip and may have inspired this instance of the concept.
• Shooting an apple off a person's head: In the story of William Tell, the protagonist is forced to shoot an apple off his own son's head as punishment for disrespecting the bailiff.
• Splitting an arrow already on the target: This is a popular trick in stories involving archery competitions, most famously in the legend of Robin Hood. Randall's protagonist apparently intends to split an arrow which has already split the original arrow.

The title text refers to power scaling (a trope in various fandoms where the powers or feats of characters are compared with each other), as well as Mark Twain's highly satirical essay Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. Twain roasts Cooper for having three marksmen shoot bullets though the same bullet hole in The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea.

Transcript

[Cueball aims a drawn bow-and-arrow through a line of 12 axes, over a boy with an apple on his head, and at a target where an arrow in the bullseye has been split by another, later-arriving arrow.]

[Caption below the panel:]

I want to prove that my new protagonist is a better shot than all those other protagonists.

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