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What are banderillas and why are they placed in the bull’s shoulders?

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Julian Lopez El Juli, dressed in a blue and gold bullfighter costume, faces a charging bull while holding a pink and yellow cape in a sandy bullring in Barcelona. — bullfighting Spanish matador El Juli engaging a bull, June 6, 2010, Barcelona.

Banderillas are 28-inch (72-cm) dartlike sticks decorated with colored paper, featuring a 1.2-inch (3-cm) barb at one end. During the second act of a bullfight, known as the tercio de banderillas, these darts are planted in the bull’s shoulders at the junction with the neck.1

The primary purpose of placing these barbs in the bull's shoulders is to weaken the animal's great neck muscle. By inducing this physical fatigue, the bull’s head is lowered, which is essential for the matador to successfully perform the final kill with a sword at the end of the spectacle.1