the queen had also wished to forbid the follies , comic combats where cripples , dwarfs , and crones had at one another with cleavers , torches , and hammers ( the more inept the fighters , the funnier the folly , it was thought ) , but hizdahr said his people would love her more if she laughed with them , and argued that without such frolics , the cripples , dwarfs , and crones would starve .