Ok so was prepared to be disappointed - being as I often see my culture coopted for simple story telling or modern rehashes of moral dilemmas - and while the text starts with waffling on about...
Ok so was prepared to be disappointed - being as I often see my culture coopted for simple story telling or modern rehashes of moral dilemmas - and while the text starts with waffling on about weapons and armor in a fictional setting (because lets be honest diving from a spire in to a haybale will kill you no matter what you do) it really lands in some solid points.
I haven't played the game yet, my husband will get it for christmas because that's the games he love, and beyond sniggering at the main character being called Eivor (Which is like calling the main character Fanny or Gladys - a grandma kind of name) I kind of just expect to be another Euro-fictionalized version of another groups past (in this case Nordics). Which btw is A-ok in our case (no one is getting hurt by "Thor" in the Marvel series no matter how make belief and changed he is).
The core point about thralls is brilliant. And the fact that we DID do colonization in a grand old scale. I mean it wasn't all we did, but it does serve in to a narrative of not just white-washing colonialism but also what thralls (in my language there is a difference between the word slave and thrall) was. At the same time it can be dangerous to go the opposite route since the colonization of us also happened a few hundred years later and justified its presence by the past. It was more insidious and not focused on weaponry and armies but it happened.
Either way either way - what I wanted to say was good text, if you're like me: bored about weaponry and armour, stick in there and read on it really takes off as a text after that!
Ok so was prepared to be disappointed - being as I often see my culture coopted for simple story telling or modern rehashes of moral dilemmas - and while the text starts with waffling on about weapons and armor in a fictional setting (because lets be honest diving from a spire in to a haybale will kill you no matter what you do) it really lands in some solid points.
I haven't played the game yet, my husband will get it for christmas because that's the games he love, and beyond sniggering at the main character being called Eivor (Which is like calling the main character Fanny or Gladys - a grandma kind of name) I kind of just expect to be another Euro-fictionalized version of another groups past (in this case Nordics). Which btw is A-ok in our case (no one is getting hurt by "Thor" in the Marvel series no matter how make belief and changed he is).
The core point about thralls is brilliant. And the fact that we DID do colonization in a grand old scale. I mean it wasn't all we did, but it does serve in to a narrative of not just white-washing colonialism but also what thralls (in my language there is a difference between the word slave and thrall) was. At the same time it can be dangerous to go the opposite route since the colonization of us also happened a few hundred years later and justified its presence by the past. It was more insidious and not focused on weaponry and armies but it happened.
Either way either way - what I wanted to say was good text, if you're like me: bored about weaponry and armour, stick in there and read on it really takes off as a text after that!
This was such a great article!