One of the last times I talked about pirates, I referenced a couple videos with pirate experts. Truth be told, I love these sorts of videos where historians review films and explain how accurate or, frequently, how wildly inaccurate the films are. It’s especially fun when the historians are clearly having fun with it.
Historian Roel Konijnendijk clearly has fun talking about ancient and medieval warfare, even though he’s clearly pained by certain cinematic tropes. And don’t take my word for it. Insider has had him on four times, starting in 2021:
This is the beginning of the please to just let your archer do their thing… as well as to start digging ditches. Plus, he’s very practical about how Ice Zombies should influence how you deploy forces.
Insider brought him back before the year was out for 10 more films and TV series:
Continuing critiquing Hollywood’s love of fire in battles, in this case, “flaming corndogs.”
Before 2022 was out, they brought him back again:
Here he covers some of familiar tropes with some new works, lobbing some truth bombs that I feel are especially true for Robin Hood and that one fortification in The Wheel of Time.
They’ve brought him back one more time (so far) just earlier this year, including some recent works:
Here you’ll find he’s actually quite complimentary about several elements, but there’s the old tropes that refuse to die.
Oh, and if all this seems like too much, someone has created a one minute summary:
I promise that, if writing a fantasy series, I will have a scene where tired defenders complete a ditch only for a leader to say, “Great! Now start digging another ditch.”