You swordy type people know, don't you, that the History Channel is starting a four part series on "barbarians" tonight. Tonight is Vikings and Goths - promises to have lots of swords and gore. The next two parts are on the Huns and the Mongols.

A sane person would wonder why they still do this stuff.

Do we have any of those?

You swordy type people know, don't you, that the History Channel is starting a four part series on "barbarians" tonight. Tonight is Vikings and Goths - promises to have lots of swords and gore. The next two parts are on the Huns and the Mongols.

Caught a bit of it last night, co-watching with Stargate. Thought that what I saw was really good and definitely worth watching, need to pay closer attention when they rebroadcast the show and the rest.

You swordy type people know, don't you, that the History Channel is starting a four part series on "barbarians" tonight

You mean that show that now has a tape of its very own? National Geographic's "Secrets of the Viking Warriors" was better. All four eps were broadcast last night, and Hubby and I started heckling the people they were using in the reinactments. Some of the fight scenes were fairly bad, with fatal sword blows not coming anywhere near bodies. At one moment, I said, "Oh, for heaven sakes--look at that guy! That's a 12th century chaperon he's wearing, and he's supposed to be a 9th century Goth!" Hubby replied with, "Well, what can you expect? Look at the helmets, they're all over the map, geographically and timewise." Me: "I know, wasn't that a barbut on that one guy? Those came in, when, 1300s somewhere?"

And we stared at each other and started to giggle. Then we began critiquing the choices of color for the costumes, then Hubby pointed out this one female extra who takes an arrow to the chest in every single "Barbarians sack the helpless town" scene. "Hey, look, there she is! She survived--no, wait, there she goes." Hubby: "Stupid woman, you'd think she'd learn to duck by now."

You mean that show that now has a tape of its very own? National Geographic's "Secrets of the Viking Warriors" was better. All four eps were broadcast last night, and Hubby and I started heckling the people they were using in the reinactments. Some of the fight scenes were fairly bad, with fatal sword blows not coming anywhere near bodies. At one moment, I said, "Oh, for heaven sakes--look at that guy! That's a 12th century chaperon he's wearing, and he's supposed to be a 9th century Goth!" Hubby replied with, "Well, what can you expect? Look at the helmets, they're all over the map, geographically and timewise." Me: "I know, wasn't that a barbut on that one guy? Those came in, when, 1300s somewhere?"

words cannot express how much I now love you and your husband.

words cannot express how much I now love you and your husband.

Hee. Having an armourcritique: ON!brain like that makes it hard to enjoy "historical" Hollywood movies like Braveheart, 13th Warrior, First Knight, etc., or at least, enjoy them in the matter they were intended. Rolling on the floor at the terrible armour/costuming choices can be fun, but the immersion factor? NSM. Movies like A Knight's Tale that make bad choices intentionally are even more annoying (speaking just for me) considering the stuff they get just right, like the brilliant jousting reports on campaign.

And how did you feel about Monty Pythonic efforts?

And how did you feel about Monty Pythonic efforts?

It's been a long time since I've seen "Holy Grail," but from what I remember, the garb and armor are actually fairly close to the same period, at least--though nothing like 4th century England. I think Artos is supposed to be 4th century, he's post Roman Empire breakup.

Oh, gosh, "13th Warrior"... we own a copy because it was cheap and there aren't that many retellings of Beowulf out there and at least it wasn't too badly done, but I always laugh at our hero having a workable scimitar hacked out of a broadsword. Yeah, right, that would work without reforging the whole thing. But Banderas is cute, which makes it OK for me, and Hubby gets to revel in the whole "Big tough Norse types kicking butt" thing.

And how did you feel about Monty Pythonic efforts?

Python is intentional farce, so in essence they did a better job than some of the later films.

The re-grinding of the sword in 13th Warrior makes me cringe like they were grinding my teeth in that scene. There's also a lovely 15th c spanish morion (helmet) which is a little de-immersifying when it appears.

Yeah, the grinding of the broadsword into a scimitar is dumb, (they should have just had him have a sword already. It probably wasn't in character for him to have one, but it could have easily belonged to one of the guards in their little group and when he's been chosen as a "warrior" it would make sense for him to take it with.) but other than that I enjoy the movie. It's not historically accurate, but it's fun. I love the scene where's listening to them talk and slowly figuring out their language.