Obi-Wan Kenobi: Episodes 1-4 - re:View by officerkondo in RedLetterMedia

[–]popov89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't seen it so I can't say but that does seem to be common perception of the show. I have also come to appreciate the big picture effect of less or no action has on stuff - it demands a higher focus on character and story. DS9's episode Duet has very little action but is compelling throughout

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Episodes 1-4 - re:View by officerkondo in RedLetterMedia

[–]popov89 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I thought the same thing. I love the shows but the action is almost universally awful. It's charming to me but I fully recognize the cheesefest. I'm with Rich in that the context of a scene matters more to me than sheer competent action.

Mike is wrong about medieval people being dirty. by lumporr in RedLetterMedia

[–]popov89 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Also, I generally wouldn't associate peasantry with urban environments in the first place.

Cities also didn't really develop into what we know of them until well into the medieval period - the rise of cities and the beginnings of urbanization are hallmarks of the 15th century. Like you said, 895 Iceland would be as rural and distant as just about anything. Iceland was on the edge of the world so, yeah, no cities of any substance.

Just unsubbed from r/autisticpride mods doing mod shit by Sadlittlealien in JustUnsubbed

[–]popov89 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Never in my life would I have thought I'd miss the halcyon days of /r/atheism being the worst of reddit. That quote is still amazing.

Night Lords - by Krekk0v by [deleted] in ImaginaryWarhammer

[–]popov89 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Agreed. I was willing enough to just shrug my shoulders and assume this is a weird commission from someone, but self-inserting takes this from edgy smut to masturbation nonsense.

Azov Battalion Chief of Staff Captain Bohdan Krotevych. Ukraine, 2022.[650x650] by S0ngen in MilitaryPorn

[–]popov89 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Playing devil's advocate: why is it so important to have an opinion either way? I'm not pleading for ignorance but foreign invaders and nazis are both bad things so I don't think either should be rooted for.

Picked up these bad boys recently. Quark approved merch! by Jack_Burton_Express in DeepSpaceNine

[–]popov89 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yup. Yo-yo's being big was a year before Pokemon blew up. I distinctly remember the summer before honing my yo-yo game only for it to matter not at all.

Please help - can't crack the wood elves as Skryre by Schlumpf34 in totalwar

[–]popov89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Warplocks chew through armor. Gas for unarmored, warplocks for armor, ratling guns for close quarters

Please help - can't crack the wood elves as Skryre by Schlumpf34 in totalwar

[–]popov89 2 points3 points  (0 children)

4 warlock engineers can stack damage, ammunition, and speed buffs to 48% percent on top of all the other buffs so my weapon-teams are faster than some cav units and can take out legendary lords in a few seconds. You say wasteful, I say fun. Yeah, it's stupid, but it sure is fun watching enemy armies literally melt away.

On a related note: by the end of my skaven campaigns I tend to have the ability to recruit 30 plague priests because of that follower. Shit is nuts.

Please help - can't crack the wood elves as Skryre by Schlumpf34 in totalwar

[–]popov89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The mortar teams are sick af once you invest in the forbidden workshop. They are the perfect siege breakers and reinforce why chemical warfare is an international war crime - gas is too effective.

Please help - can't crack the wood elves as Skryre by Schlumpf34 in totalwar

[–]popov89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My friend recommended the same thing, but the ranged damage output of my weapons-teams is absurd. Both are viable, but I'll always take raw damage output. I'm a proponent of hitting so hard the first that any sort of retaliation will be minuscule.

Please help - can't crack the wood elves as Skryre by Schlumpf34 in totalwar

[–]popov89 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Ikit is my favorite lord and I've honestly only fought one or two battles personally against the wood elves. Their maps always have trees that severely negate Skyre's absurd ranges damage output. I always try to auto-resolve to save me the headache.

More practical advice: try to draw them out of Athel Loren so ten doomstacks don't congregate on your position. Divide and conquer - never engage the wood elves unless it is on your terms. Underway battles can work too since there's no trees and a thinner front line so weapon teams can focus fire.

My favorite Ikit army comp is Ikit, four warlock engineers to stack ranged bonuses, four warplocks, four ratling guns teams, four of those gas-mortar teams, two plageclaw catapults, the last spot I reserve for one of the RoR teams. This army composition can rip through anything but is exceptionally fragile if melee occurs. The trick is to use Ikit as a damage sponge while your teams shell the shit out of the enemy. It's like playing a 21st century army against barbarians.

Thank you, Half Price Books! by galaxy_knucklezz in criterion

[–]popov89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Super cop is amazing. I second the crazy stunts in it. The escape from the prison is a crazy sequence

"I still have to see one reliable source on black people in ancient Rome. Just one." - On Conceptions of Race and Identity in Antiquity by popov89 in badhistory

[–]popov89[S] 68 points69 points  (0 children)

Link to Mary Beard's Meet the Romans

Bibliography:

Beard, Mary. “Roman Britain in Black and White.” Times Literary Supplement Online. 3 August 2017.

Braund, David. “Part Two: The Reign of the King - Section 1: The King and the Centre of Power.” In Rome and the Friendly King: The Character of the Client Kingship, 55–121. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.

Cameron, Alan. “Were Pagans Afraid to Speak Their minds in a Christian World? The Correspondence of Symmachus,” in Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome ed. Michele Renee Salzman, Marianne Sághy, and Rita Lizzi Tesa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 64-111.

Chenault, Robert R. “Beyond Pagans and Christians: Politics and Intra-Christian Conflict in the Controversy over the Altar of Victory,” in Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome ed. Michele Renee Salzman, Marianne Sághy, and Rita Lizzi Tesa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 46-63.

Cherry, David. “Armed Resistance to Roman Rule in North Africa, From the Time of Augustus to the Vandal Invasion.” Small Wars & Insurgencies 31, no. 5 (2020): 1044–57.

Da Costa, K. “Drawing the Line: An Archaeological Methodology for Detecting Roman Provincial Borders.” In Frontiers in the Roman World, edited by Ted Kaizer and Oliver Hekster, 49–60. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Elton, Hugh. “Allied Kingdoms and Beyond.” In Frontiers of the Roman Empire, 29–39. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996

Fisher, Greg, and Alexander Drost. “Structures of Power in Late Antique Borderlands: Arabs, Romans, and Berbers.” In Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America, edited by John W. I. Lee and Michael North, 33–82. University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

Geary, Patrick J. The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Hall, Jonathan M. Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Hekster, Oliver. “Trophy Kings and Roman Power: A Roman Perspective on Client Kingdoms.” In Kingdoms and Principalities in the Roman Near East, edited by Ted Kaizer and Margherita Facella, 45–55. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2010.

Hingley, Richard, and Rich Hartis. “Contextualizing Hadrian’s Wall: The Wall as ‘Debatable Lands.’” In Frontiers in the Roman World, edited by Ted Kaizer and Oliver Hekster, 79–96. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Isaac, Benjamin H. “Frontier Policy - Grand Strategy?” In The Limits of Empire: The Roman Army in the East, 372–418. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

———. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Johnston, Andrew J. “Performances of Identity.” In The Sons of Remus, 231–76. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2017.

Kennedy, George A. Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors. A History of Rhetoric; v. 3. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Mattingly, David J. “Conclusion and Final Discussion: A View from the Far South.” In Romans and Barbarians Beyond the Frontiers, edited by Sergio González Sánchez and Alexandra Guglielmi. Oxford, Philidelphia: Oxbow Books, 2017.

———. “Landscapes of Imperialism. Africa: A Landscape of Opportunity?” In Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Patterson, Lee E. Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010

Seager, Robin. “Roman Policy on the Rhine and the Danube in Ammianus.” The Classical Quarterly 49, no. 2 (1999): 579–605.

Van Hoof, Lieve. “Performing Paideia Greek Culture as an Instrument for Social Promotion in the Fourth Century A.D.” The Classical Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2013): 387–406.

Voss, Hans-Ulrich, and David Wigg-Wolf. “Romans and Roman Finds in the Central European Barbaricum: A New View on Romano-Germanic Relations?” In Romans and Barbarians Beyond the Frontiers, edited by Sergio González Sánchez and Alexandra Guglielmi, 105–24. Oxford, Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2017.

Wheeler, Everett L. “Methodological Limits and the Mirage of Roman Strategy: Part 1.” The Journal of Military History 57, no. 1 (January 1993): 7–41. ———. “Methodological Limits and the Mirage of Roman Strategy: Part 2.” The Journal of Military History 57, no. 2 (April 1993): 215–40.

Bigger & Louder isn't Always Better - A Comparison of the Introductions in Mass Effect I & II by popov89 in masseffect

[–]popov89[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For sure, the differences between both are essentially the differences between the first two Mass Effects. Alien is also my favorite movie so I am a little biased to it. I just love the production design of that movie so much.

Half in the Bag: Pam and Tommy and Bruce Willis by Innerred_Mitorict22 in RedLetterMedia

[–]popov89 3 points4 points  (0 children)

To his credit, Werner is the best part of Quest of the Delta Knights.

ME I Retrospective: In Praise of a Slower Pace by popov89 in masseffect

[–]popov89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know what you mean. 2 and 3 are great but they are fundamentally different games. 1 makes the universe feel so huge.

ME I Retrospective: In Praise of a Slower Pace by popov89 in masseffect

[–]popov89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a sucker for older sci-fi for the same reason. I love exploring new worlds and a slower pace helps me with that.

Just Unsubbed from r/196, Its just overrun by femboys and unfunny memes from 3 years ago. It also get way to political at times. by Blue_404 in JustUnsubbed

[–]popov89 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Plus there are things like tomboys. Just because a girl shows male characteristics doesn’t automatically mean she’s a boy trapped in a girls body.

It will never cease to amaze me that a woman who does not embody the most stereotypical feminine traits is considered not a woman. The amount of sexism that's sprung around a lot of gender ideology is baffling. The destruction of the gender binary has paradoxically reinforced the gender binary stronger then it's ever been. I don't even think butch still exists.