toldinstone
Published 10 Sep 2022In this episode, Dr. Bret Devereaux (the blogger behind “A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry”) discusses the relationships between fantasy and ancient history – and why historical accuracy matters, even in fiction.
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0:00 How far could a troll toss a soldier?
5:19 Thinking with the Siege of Gondor
17:05 Horses are not battering rams
28:14 Steppe horse archers were terrifying
33:40 Gondor isn’t Byzantium…
35:32 And Westeros isn’t Medieval Europe
48:31 Why historical accuracy matters in fiction
53:01 The past is a different country
These bad physics are common in modern war movies as well. You routinely see soldiers blown through the air by a simple fragmentation hand grenade or flying backwards after a single shot of a pistol. I was recently watching The Lost Battalion and if infantry weapons were truly as powerful as this movie portrayed there would have been no survivors of WW1.
Comment by WarEagle82 — September 12, 2022 @ 11:06
Quite true, but movie and TV folks are now the victims of their own success … showing more accurate portrayals of the effects of modern weapons will look unimpressive compared to what they’ve unconsciously trained their audiences to expect. Even the battle scene in Gladiator vastly over-powered the “napalm catapults”, but the audience never blinked. As a society we like our movies cartoonishly explosive.
Comment by Nicholas — September 12, 2022 @ 11:15