A look at history and popular culture
Our last kit review was a barely concealed fanboy rave. This one is going to be more...mixed. Today, we're looking at the infantry of the army of House Lannister, from Game of Thrones. I find this design very interesting, because the concept has some clever historical precedents, but much of the context and content is … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Lannister Infantry Kit Review
(Note: Thanks to the effort of a kind reader, this post is now available in audio format! The playlist for the entire series may be found here.) This is the first part of a six-part (II, III, IV, V, VI) series I expect to roll out taking a historian’s look at the Siege of Gondor … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics
Welcome to the first “Kit Review” post. In a ‘kit review’ post, rather than looking at a scene or sequence, we’re going to look at a character (or type of background character) and all of their ‘kit.’ We’ll try to figure out if the kit has a historical model and how well it manages to … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Unsullied Kit Review
This post is now available in audio format. Quick Note: New Acquisitions is the category for more off-the-cuff or one-off posts. Whereas the Collections posts will come every Friday, New Acquisitions will show up irregularly. Warning: Spoilers for Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 3. You have been warned. I’m sure I’ll do a complete … Continue reading New Acquisitions: That Dothraki Charge
In the last post, here, we talked about some basic rules for what parts of the body are likely to be more armored - either armored first, or exclusively, or more intensely. Now comes the fun part: being excessively judgemental about some examples from popular culture! Lets start with the most obvious one: Viggo Mortensen's … Continue reading Collections: Armor in Order, Part II
Evaluating armor designs, especially in works of fantasy or speculative fiction, can be a tricky business. Often times, we can see a design and know something is off about it, but not quite what. Or alternatively, fans and internet commentators will blast this or that design in TV or a movie simply because it does … Continue reading Collections: Armor in Order, Part I
Hello Dear Reader, welcome to my collection! What I aim to present here are a historian’s thoughts (more on me and my interests below) on depictions of historical and quasi-historical societies and militaries in popular culture. Mostly this has been prompted by my response to how pre-modern battles are generally presented, but I hope to … Continue reading Blog Overview: A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry