That stands for most rulers. Your description of the Queen could equally be applied to the President. I would rather be ruled by a Monarch than a politician.
I grew up with Tolkiens works. Read them back to back I dont even know how many times, and I own every book published by him and his sons.
Really cuts me deep to see his work treated this way. I can live with every other franchise destroyed but Tolkiens work is on another level and it really does make me depressed to see this. A real black pill...
Mayan Empire collapsed waaaay, way before the Spanish arrived in America. You're thinking of the Aztecs who were fighting constant flower wars with their neighbours for slaves, so when the Spanish arrived all the smaller tribes welcomed them with open arms to help fight against their oppressors
Lord Castallen Creed was a hero of the imperium, the planet fell before he did. Now GW has replaced him with his daughter and made point of saying it wasnt nepotism that got her that position but her own ruthlessness and her raw talent.... except her complete absence from the lore until now..m Dont know what, but I've given GW a lot of leeway but this announcement irritated me. I dont know how many years I've waited for new Inperial guard plastics and this is what they give us?!
Theres a lot of references to ritual dances in the Saga's and Christian sources. Old tribal culture was very musical. Harald Hadrada (Hard Ruler) who was the quintessential viking ruler, wrote tons of Poetry and the guy had been a warrior king his whole life and even died on the battlefield. Most northern germanic and Scandinavian sources we have are songs and poems meant to be sung in the mead halls which was the center of their life. So I can fully get behind the dancing in this movie.
Ex archaeologist with a speciality in Post Roman up to the Viking Age here. This movie blew me away. The attention to detail, the focus on slavery, the costumes, warfare, relation to their beliefs. All superb, a 10/10 as far as historical epics go. Absolutely zero political messaging that I could see. And it didnt shy away from how brutal life could be. Theres also a small moment where some vikings act horrified and terrified of Christian belief "they worship a corpse nailed to a tree!" Which was a breath of fresh air, usually pagans are depicted as having nothing but disdain for christianity which doesnt hold true considering they would all eventually convert. I would recommend anyone with even a passing interest in the vikings or good story telling.
The British Empire had been undergoing a decolonisation push for some time, it had only been put on hiatus because of the second world war. It had always intended to withdraw from India but on its terms, so Ghandi worked to their advantage for the most part.
Europa Universalis IV It's a grand strategy game by paradox and the graphics are very limited but the scale is Huge.
You can pick any country that existed from 1444 all the way through to late 1800s and control every aspect of that country from its politics, economy, expansion and warfare. And of course its colonies. You can pick one of the big four colonisers (Portugal, Spain, Britain and France) and colonise the New world either through sending colonists to unsettled lands, conquest or diplo annexing native tribes. You can even pick countries that never colonised like the Poland or even the Pope and ahistorically create a global Empire. Or if you want a challenge pick a native tribe like the Creek, Aztecs, Mohawk etc.. It's a game with immense replay ability and an incredibly amount of depth if you like those grand strategy country management kinda games.
I've not seen the latest season, and I've not read the books, but yes I have and I'd say it's very good. It gets the gist of the period quite well and is fairly accurate. Only area I'd say it lacks in is props, some of the battle sequences/ tactics/ gear could have been better. The biggest flaw is its portrayal of the native brita, welsh and scots. They are portrayed as barely Christian, almost pagan heathens living in huts where as reality they had been orthodox Christian's for nearly 700 years and styled themselves as the British successors to Rome. But honestly I like it and would recommend it, despite this
So I was a professional archaeologist many years ago and post Roman Britain is my area of expertise. What the media has done with Vikings hurts me to my soul. First few seasons of Vikings captured the feel well enough but they fell down the "shield maiden" myth pretty hard to the point I couldnt tolerate the show. Dont even get me started on Assassins Creed Valhalla...
So when I saw the trailer for Northmen on youtube I thought "Oh another garbage Vikings movies/series" but then I watched it... and now I'm excited. This is easily the best looking historical rendition of the period I've seen in a long time. And if the directors other works are anything to go by then I'm all In.
Just my 2 cents
Arwens romance is pretty integral to Aragorns character but in the books this is all relegated to an appendices, so the decision was made to replace a minor character (plot wise) with Arwen to flesh out hers and Aragorns relationship. That's not woke it's just sensible story telling. Jackson even cut scenes he was going to have her in because he realised it was too much and made no sense.