Posts by Lace Sabatons

  • My new Youtube/Vidme series!

    There's a seed of real quality here. Kaynil's bits, in particular, are great.

    If I can be so bold, I think a couple editing tweaks could really make the video feel punchier. Most of the scenes went on too long, IMHO. You could have gotten the video down to 7 or even 5 minutes just by compressing the various talking head bits. I don't know about most folks, but I'm much more likely to give a video a chance if I can think "aw, it won't take any of my time."

    Also, I think hard cuts would work better than fade in and outs.

  • First handheld you ever played on

    I'm sure I played an Original Gameboy for a few minutes after school, when a classmate was showing off theirs. I think I played some Bubble Bobble.

    I'm also certain I played plenty of those old Tiger Electronics games. Those were shit, but it was all we had, yo.

    The first handheld I spent any time with was probably the Gameboy Pocket or the Gameboy Color. My cousin let me play quite a bit of Dragon Warrior Monsters and Tactics Ogre on those.

  • Learn stuff + share it

    Part of the issue with the vikings is that we're talking about a _very_ poorly documented period of history. Part of the reason Roman history is so popular and fun to read is because it's simultaneously ancient AND well documented. We pretty much know what happened in Rome, whereas with the Vikingers? The answer to most questions tends to sound like "Well Z and Y are both distinct possibilities. However, there is X piece of evidence that makes them seem implausible. This has led some to believe W is the case, but it seems unlikely given what we know about their culture at the time. We do know that V was true before ### A.D., and that U was true after #### A.D. that time, but how that transformation came about we don't truly know"

    It is undeniable that Scandanavians eventually stopped going aviking. But I would tend to credit that to the fact that they took over huge swaths of fertile farming land where they could settle, rather than to their eventual conversions.

  • Learn stuff + share it

    Christianity has never really had a pacifying influence. It has in some cases had a unifying influence, but only when there's a common enemy to focus on. (Moors, Pagans, etc.) In fact, one of the first things Constantine learned after allying himself with Christianity was just how fractured Christians were. Before Constantine the Empire was roughly divided into 4 chunks, but Constantine rode into town on a "One God, One Empire, One Emperor" model. It was a major source of frustration for him that as soon as Christians were the "in" group, they started fighting with each other. Nicenes vs. Arians (from which we get the Nicene creed), catholics (small 'c') vs. whatever the opposites of catholics were. Et. Al.

    I would not say it was the "peaceful resignation" of Christian martyrs that impressed Romans. It was the stoicism in the face of death that impressed many Romans. These are different things. Honoring stoicism in the face of death is pretty much the hallmark of a militaristic society. And while we're on the subject, it's worth noting that Christians were not persecuted for the vast majority of Roman history. There was Nero (who tried to use them as a scapegoat when the people turned on him. This lasted a matter of months). There was Domitian (whose name was banned after his death), and there was Diocletian, whose situation was kinda complicated. To my recollection, those are the only times that Christians were hardcore persecuted.

    For the rest of the time, you have to understand the nature of Roman religion. It was less of a religion, and more of a very complicated series of superstitions. In the vein of "if you spill salt, throw some over your shoulder, or THE GODS WILL DOOM ROME." People were generally given freedom of religion to worship however they liked SO LONG AS they also participated in the state superstitions when ordered to. Christians refused to do that, and so were sometimes punished for it. The same way we would be punished for not paying our taxes. Compare that with when the Christians took over, and they started carrying out some of the most ruthless religious persecutions in human history.

    Anyway, back on point. It would be arrogant of me to claim any insight into Constantine's heart of hearts, but consider these facts:

    • Constantine wanted to rule over the whole of the Empire by overthrowing the state.
    • The Christians were currently in the middle of some hardcore persecutions.
    • The Christian faith was actually very common among soldiers and other members of the lower classes. (When your life is shit, the lie that "there's something WAY BETTER after you die" is an easy sell).
    • After the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (the one where Constantine claims to have seen the Chi-Rho in the sky, and heard the words "In this sign, conquer"), Constantine built a victory column. On the column he tells the story of the battle, and of his rise to power. Nowhere on this column is even the slightest indication of any Christian influences.


    That's a lot of evidence supporting the idea that Constantine's conversion was absolutely a cynical political move.

    Regarding Irish and Vikings, I'm much less educated. However, I can say this: after the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire, pretty much the only thing resembling organization was the Catholic Church. So while the secrets of architecture, literacy, road maintenance, etc all disappeared, the Church still knew a little about it. So they offered a pretty straightforward deal: if you worship Jesus, we'll send you priests who can write letters for you, and we'll teach you how to maintain all those super neat roads that the Romans left in your territory. In these cases it was an exchange, not a religious revelation.

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