Monday, March 28, 2011

12 Byzantine Rulers

I started listening to Lars Brownworth's 12 Byzantine Rulers today. I don't like it as much as The History of Rome so far. For one thing, Lars talks just faster enough than Mike that it feels like he's rushing through what he's reading, and that makes it harder for me to pay attention.

Another thing is that he's covering a lot of ground in a much fewer amount of episodes, so he's really blasting through a lot of years of history at a frenetic pace. Which makes the whole thing feel like it's just blipping by a whorl of ambition, destruction, warfare, bloodshed, ambition, backstabbing, etc. How are you supposed to keep it all straight, I don't know.

I'll keep going with it of course, because I'm dedicated. And because I'm all caught up on THoR anyway, except for the latest episode, which I have just downloaded (yay!).

Sunday, March 27, 2011

I think I'm turning into my father.

Who was a great, big, giant history buff. I blame The History of Rome podcast for leading me down the dark path of becoming obsessed with dedicated to learning more about Roman History. I've even started teaching myself Latin, which should tell you what a sad, sad creature with no life I am. :P

I've been watching Rome's first season lately as well, you can really tell on a second viewing which parts you didn't like by how hard they are to watch a second time. In general, I like the gritty take they took on it. In theory, I like that they concentrated on some "ordinary" characters instead of just focusing on the major historical figures, but in practice, this had mixed results at best. The problem is that the two guys they chose to focus on weren't all that sympathetic a lot of the time, for various reason (and I did have my "different time, different morality" hat on), plus they had to shoehorn them rather improbably at times into plot lines that did have major historical figures so that they could eat their cake and have it too and tell both stories at once. Which turned out to be a bit implausible at times. Like, a random nobody from one of Caesar's legions fathered Caesarion. Sure. And Caesar refuses to execute a soldier who let Pompey escape just because he happened to be a main character he had powerful gods on his side. *eyeroll* Really guys.

But it was enjoyable, in a trashy sort of way. Oh and there was way too much sex. I don't mind a sex scene, but if it's not outright porn that I'm watching, then I want it to be serving the plot in some way and not just feel like it was shoved in (heh) gratuitously. A lot of sex in this was pretty damn gratuitous. I mean, come on. Not every Roman emperor had sex with his sister. No, really. It's true!

I know it sounds like I'm bashing it, but I really did enjoy it in spite of its many flaws.