[Dragaera] javelin shooters (no spoilers)

[Casey Rousseau]

Mark A. Mandel wrote:
> What follows is all my own opinion.
>
> These ARE bows and arrows, but Vlad has never seen them before, and to the
> Dragaerans they are less familiar than javelins. A (comparatively) recent
> invention, in fact, so they are still called by a name reflecting their
> derivation.
>
> Maybe the Easterners use them and have independent names for them in at
> least some of their languages. But these experienced and learned Dragon
> soldiers know them as a way to shoot (little) javelins.
>
> IMHO (he said redundantly) this "mistranslation" is a clever way for SKZB
> to tell us all this.
>   
I agree completely with this analysis.  One of the older tricks in the 
writer's BoT is to hint at what's different about the world through word 
choice.  Falls under the heading of show, don't tell.