A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the third part of our three part (I, II, III) look at many of the smaller issues of historical realism in Amazon's Rings of Power, following up our mode the major worldbuilding problems the show experienced. Last time we discussed the tactics (or lack thereof) of the Southlanders and Orcs in the major … Continue reading Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part III: That Númenórean Charge
This is the second part of our look at many of the smaller issues of historical realism in Amazon's Rings of Power, following on our more substantive discussion of the major worldbuilding problems the show experienced. I had hoped to keep this at two parts (actually, I had hoped this would just be a one-off … Continue reading Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part II: Falling Towers
This week we're going to return to Amazon's Rings of Power, as promised in the first post there were a plethora of smaller believably and realism issues with in the show that I wanted to discuss but which didn't rise to the storytelling problems of those major issues. These are the sorts of small issues … Continue reading Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part I: Exploding Forges
This week we're going to take a look at the worldbuilding of Amazon Studio's Rings of Power from a historical realism perspective. I think it is no great secret that Rings of Power broadly failed to live up to expectations and left a lot of audiences disappointed. In the aftermath of that disappointment, once one … Continue reading Collections: Why Rings of Power’s Middle Earth Feels Flat
Hey folks! Fireside this week, as we're coming off of the end of what is now my longest post-series, the eight part series on Helm's Deep. It was a blast to write and I don't seem to have worn a hole through my DVDs in the process (though, it will surprise no one, but my … Continue reading Fireside Friday, June 26th, 2020
This is the eight and last part of a series taking a historian’s look at the Battle of Helm’s Deep (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII) from both J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers (1954) and Peter Jackson’s 2002 film of the same name. Last time we looked at the overall impact of morale and … Continue reading Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part VIII: The Mind of Saruman
This is the long-awaited first part of a series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. VIII) taking a historian's look at the Battle of Helm's Deep from both J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers (1954) and Peter Jackson's 2002 film of the same name. We're going to discuss how historically plausible each sequence of events … Continue reading Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part I: Bargaining for Goods at Helm’s Gate
This is actually a neat kit review to pick up with after the last one, since this is essentially a more successful effort to construct a fantasy panoply for a plate-armored common infantryman. Today we're looking at the Gondor Heavy Infantry from Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return of the King. Compared to the Lannister armor … Continue reading Collections: Gondor Heavy 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 sixth and final part of a six part series taking a military historian's look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Gondor: Part VI: Black Sails and Gleaming Banners
(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 fifth part of a six part series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) taking a military historian's look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part V: Just Flailing About Flails