Historic Realism - shoutout to ACOUP

[Cthulhu.Science]

This is a shoutout to a great blog about historic realism in fantasy settings
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry_ A look at history and popular culture

Dr. Bret C. Devereaux is an ancient and military historian who currently teaches as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Anyway. He looks a movies, books, video games and other popular culture and comments.
I got my entry through his discussion of the

The Siege of Gondor​

Frankly I was hooked after that. His discussion is witty and thoughtful. His criticisms are fair and he tries to understand the motivations behind choices made. With his various LOTR essays, he discusses the what Tolkien wrote, what Peter Jackson changes, and how it all relates to historic pre-gunpowder military. As a note, Tolkien holds up pretty well and Jackson's changes can be understood in terms of the change in medium from book to movie. Some things are easier, or impossible, to depict on film. And you might ask whether ACOUP had an essay on logistics and the necessary supply trains for the Siege of Gondor. Why, that's where he starts, naturally.

He's been at it a couple years so anyone creating a world might enjoy his essays on how certain approaches seen to work, or not work, in major fiction franchises. Enjoy!