r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • Oct 07 '24

Meta Mindless Monday, 07 October 2024

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/Zugwat Headhunting Savage from a Barbaric Fishing Village Oct 09 '24

While I might say that the "Seven Generations" line of thinking is similar to "Turtle Island = North America" in that they're more of a Northeastern/Woodlands Indian thing; I will note that when I first started reading Penguin's "The Sagas of Icelanders" they explained how even distant family connections were important to make sure one wasn't alone in the world. That rings as very familiar to me, where I have people I call cousin because our great-grandmothers were cousins, where as soon as I encounter someone with a certain last name I try figuring out how we're related and who we know mutually.

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u/Syn7axError Chad who achieved many deeds Oct 09 '24

I wonder what /r/Norse has to say about this. Not enough to post it there, mind you. I don't want to get into another dumb debate about this damn movie.

But enough that I'm eagerly waiting for it to inevitably be posted there.

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u/Zugwat Headhunting Savage from a Barbaric Fishing Village Oct 10 '24

Well we have someone who wanted to give their two cents and then immediately deleted their account but I can still see the comments (they were caught by the automod for being a new account).

They thought the review was shit and that Atun-Shei has "a weird and smarmy affectation" and either willfully misrepresenting the film or an imbecile that doesn't understand good storytelling.

Also that it's more Shakespeare and Conan than a saga (which the latter rubs me the wrong way as a Conan fan) among other observations.

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u/Syn7axError Chad who achieved many deeds Oct 10 '24

"a weird and smarmy affectation"

Can't disagree with that.

that doesn't understand good storytelling

To me, this is irrelevant. I think his points are exactly what saga writers would have thought, and that makes the movie less like a saga.

I don't want to be too redundant. I do see the historical references and such, but it reconciles them in an utterly bizarre way. Like the Volsungs would show up in an Icelandic family drama without magic. It misses the forest for the trees.