I would say spoilers for "Desert Warrior," but that would be like saying "the roadkill has gone a bit bad." So if our heroes' plan was to poison the oasis and let the ill-disciplined and thirsty Persian army break down and drink it, killing them, why did they bother to defend the oasis at all?

🫶

it’s kind of crazy that YouTube, which might as well be the biggest television station in the world, is just nonstop scammy ads—and it’s gotten worse since the advent of generative AI

Well that was another bad movie. Was it as bad as Last Legion? I don't know. My knowledge of pre-Islamic Arabia is lacking, certainly compared to my knowledge of Late Antique Rome. But the bits of history I do know are badly represented here. And just as a movie, this one is atrocious.

RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪@roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 14h ago

Time for another trip through the hell of Late Antiquity in bad movies. This time not set in Rome, but in Arabia, with Sassanid Persia as a backdrop, because variety is the spice of life. Now watching:

the median midwestern voter loves two things: electing republicans and thwarting republican policy goals via ballot referendum

Time for another trip through the hell of Late Antiquity in bad movies. This time not set in Rome, but in Arabia, with Sassanid Persia as a backdrop, because variety is the spice of life. Now watching:

bluesky.txt

3 2 2

B_Rye989@brye989.bsky.social · 2d ago

3 5 4

I've taken a background interest in not just popular historical approaches to Rome and Byzantium, but young historical approaches, the books that I would have read, aimed at children with an interest in history. Luckily I re-discovered this on an old bookshelf, so I can evaluate this myself.

I am fully in the camp, by the way, with the idea that the Dutch Revolt, English Civil Wars, and Glorious Revolution constitute an early part of the process that includes the American Revolution and French Revolution. I think it’s useful to take this long view on the origins of Atlantic liberalism.

And that was The Last Legion! What a dogshit movie! Can't wait to see what else is in store for me.

RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪@roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 2d ago

I am giving a joke lecture to members of my former MA cohort on bad use of Late Antiquity in bad movies, so it is time to rewatch one of the "best" of that bunch, a movie so bad that my friend said "it made me clean my room" after I tricked them into watching it for class. Now re-watching:

I am giving a joke lecture to members of my former MA cohort on bad use of Late Antiquity in bad movies, so it is time to rewatch one of the "best" of that bunch, a movie so bad that my friend said "it made me clean my room" after I tricked them into watching it for class. Now re-watching:

good news! the baby i ran over while drunk driving my cybertruck had underlying health issues

Finally saw The Odyssey, which is the consummate Christopher Nolan film in that it has moments of near-sublime spectacle that make you believe in Big Movies again mixed together with dialogue like, "Our Age of Bronze is ending."

Well, this is going to be a death knell for the arts and humanities, not to mention social workers and clergy.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d ago

President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v

This meme definitely feels like a relic considering that the common meme perception of Ysgramor is that he's a mass murderer, Pelinal is a gay mass murderer, and Tiber is a pedophilic mass murderer. The modern perception of Almalexia is Rule 34 art now.

The Elder Memes@theeldermemes.bsky.social · last yr.

thinking about almalexia again

I feel like I'm going crazy. (Well, even crazier.) Discourse seems divorced from reality. We talk about market vibes instead of the actual physical tankers stuck in the strait. We talk about MAHA polling and not the actual polio disease. We talk about gender ideology and not my actual fucking tits.

Belle Tur@jasoncheathawks.bsky.social · 2d ago

there's definitely a bunch of polling going around for democrats that basically says "you can do a little slopulism, as a treat." see also: markey and pressley trying to end fees for public transit instead of just increasing service.

There are very few better reminders that BlueSky is a bubble than by noting that Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a box office failure and Spider-Man Brand New Day is one of the most ridiculously successful movies in recent memory.

Median UK voter in 2026, as predicted by Hugh Laurie some decades ago:

as somebody who has been doing anti-ICE work in the presence of armed federal agents for the last 8 months, I'd ask any of you that, if I was caught in a situation like this, you'd wait to find out all the facts before condemning me and my comrades to a cautionary tale.

Honestly, Alicent really is just...the fucking worst. She's the fucking worst. Literally nothing since Season 2 began has disabused me of my belief that she's ultimately a coward who tries to cut and run from the disaster she helped create once she finds she doesn't get to run the show.

RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪@roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 3d ago

I will also say that Alicent attempting to poison Aemond has not exactly improved my opinion of her.

For the record, if anyone from TV Tropes is reading this: I fucking told you so.

RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪@roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 3d ago

YES! YEEEEEEEEES! MAH BOI! I NEVER LOST FAITH!

Settling in for some House of the Dragon now. I do like the title because it's a reference to one of my favorite movies. Hopefully it actually lives up to its namesake.

This is the most brutal damnatio memoriae America, in my lifetime, has meted out to anyone who wasn't a literal rapist, and even then this still might hit the top. Dude gets brutally assassinated and basically becomes a poop joke for elementary kids.

Sky Marchini@sky.skymarchini.net · 3d ago

sister tells me that the kids these days don't say "low key" they say "lowkirk" or "lowkirkuinely" and I don’t know how to handle this information

I still can't fucking get over the twist that not only was Jon Snow Rhaegar and Lyanna's kid, but that he was their legitimate son and his real name is "Aegon Targaryen." Dear gods, I mean I enjoy some good ol' Rhaegar Slander but the implications of this twist really make him a piece of shit.

My brother has been sending me Tiktoks of a Rancher getting progressively more pissed off that his cows keep getting into the water tank for drinking and he sent me this edited version like 5 mins ago and I nearly died laughing.

The Moroccan monarchy engages in so much evil nonsense that I completely missed the fact that Mohammed VI named the new highway in occupied Western Sahara after Trump. Everyone needs to devote slightly more energy to becoming a hater.

Ain’t nobody ever clean a pallet base, I’ve worked in logistics for 23 years, we just put them out by the loading dock until some truck driver wants the credit for that fucked up full of rusty nails piece of splinters!

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 4d ago

It's a small thing, I know, but there really is a difference between "palate cleanser" and "palette cleanser," and also, while we are on the subject, "pallet cleanser," and it is worth making the distinction

Forgot it was the 30th anniversary of A Song of Ice and Fire (A Game of Thrones was released 30 years ago, on this day)

He fled the Taliban 4 years ago. He’s been working and learning German. He made the mistake of trying to go on holiday in Rome for a few days, and for that crime Germany is deporting him straight to the Taliban

Refugees@refugees.skyfleet.blue · 5d ago

Germany widens deportations to Afghanistan #Refugees