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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 8h

OK yeah this is pretty fun. Box office: $126 million (break even) Critic score: 61/100 Also Ava DuVernay out of her comfort zone.

Fake movie poster

Tagline: She Counts The Dead

A young archivist (Emily Baldoni) is summoned to a decaying sugar estate by its dying baron (Ben Kingsley), whose family ledgers record every enslaved person worked to death there as an unpaid debt. Reading a name aloud raises its ghost, and the house is filling with them. The baron's dissolute heir (Nicolas Cage) wants the books burned; the maid (Inde Navarrette) demands every name be spoken. As the walls bleed and the dead grow solid, the archivist realizes the estate will not fall until its arithmetic is finished.

Rated R

“Cage slurring 'the ink never dried, it just waited' was worth the ticket alone, honestly. Rest was fine.”
r/flicks user
“Baldoni reads a ledger like it's a séance, and the movie nearly earns it.”
Critic Review

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Fuck it, if we're going "the Arabs were the real colonialists" then I'm breaking out this wonderful brainrot my friend showed me. Truly Heraclius was the first anti-colonial hero.

An image made by some Syrian Greek nationalist LARPer calling for the decolonization of Palestine back to Greek toponyms.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

President Biden returns the piece of the True Chud to the United States (c. 2022, colorized)

Heraclius returning the True Cross to Jerusalem.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Inside Job, whose spiritual successor was a perfectly fine Rick and Morty spin-off.

Poster for the Netflix animated comedy "Inside Job."

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My condolences, Jacob. I don't have a lot of rock pictures but here's a picture I took of the Bear Flag Rebellion monument once.

A plaque with some illegible words but a cool bear on it

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Kris after finding the person who took away his free airport wifi

Khan Krum holding the skull of Nikephoros I the Logothete

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Speaking of those chronicles, it's great how often they keep going "and then the Jews tried to burn down all the churches" or call them "sons of the crucifiers." Yeah, great, can early Christian prelates just ever...not?

Patrick Bateman "just...cool it with the anti-Semitic remarks."

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Mr. Macbeth, would you care to explain this image to the committee, and perhaps plead for mercy from Almighty God?"

An image of people holding up an image in a Congressional committee, with the image being an edited Coomerjak to look like Heraclius with text on the meme saying (in small font) "Aww look Martina! Your incle Heraclius is here to visit! He's been so sad since Aunt Eudokia passed, why don't you say hi to him and see what he wants?"

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This Edelgard person better watch out when the Big J finds out someone's with Theodora No I don't know what a "Fire Emblem" is, why do you ask?

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Absolutely fucking embarrassing that this is what Bidenists are cheering, especially considering that Biden was, in fact, Israel's Santa, and he and his advisors repeatedly broke the law to continue arming the Israelis. But no I guess he aura farmed on a phone call so he's all good!

Tweet from Jonathan Lemire: "The Situation Room connected the call. Biden jumped in. 'Bibi, man, what the fuck are you doing?' He gripped the phone tight. 'You think I'm Santa Claus? No Santa in Israel, pal.'"

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Is it just me or does Matt Horner in this StarCraft cinematic look a bit like...

Matt Horner talking to Jim Raynor but his face is looking a bit...Kirky

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It cannot be overstated just how much having two friendly players in a game of The Long Night playing as the Romans and the Sassanids utterly breaks the balance of the game scenario. Just completely throws everything out of whack. It's basically this image.

The billions must smile meme image with a soyjak (with a T-shirt saying "I love friends") and a chudjak (with a T-shirt saying "billions must smile") embracing in front of a happy background.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Now of course the real question is: in the grand tradition of Star Wars flunkies with cool armor, how is Enoch going to job in Season 2 and to whom?

Captain Enoch aura farming presumably before getting war crimed by Chopper.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Hang on I have a meme for this somewhere...here we are!

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

As promised: "What your favorite Byzantine emperor says about you," part 1 in a series, REMASTERED.

Picture of Constantine I (left) and Justinian I (right):

-Basic af
-Your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla
-You can only enjoy heterosexual sex in the missionary position within the bounds of wedlock (try not to kill your wife)
-Or you are Pater Sarris

Picture of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (left) and Manuel II Palaiologos (right):

-You enjoy scholar-emperors.
-Your favorite classical emperor is Marcus Aurelius.
-You'd like Julian if not for...y'know.
-You are very fond of politically active Slavic princesses.
-Nerd.

Picture of Heraclius (left) and Nikephoros II Phokas (right)

-LARPer
-Greek nationalist
-Either an Orthodox convert, a Crusader fanboy, or both (somehow).
-Your opinion on Arabs would make William of Adam blush.
-Martial lifestyle main in CK3.
-Did I mention the LARPing?

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In this framing, Philip is simply responding to a broken oath and an outrage by his former best friend. And his concerns are borne out; Ivan certainly by the end of the film is a new Nebuchadnezzar, and deserves reproach.

Phillip saying "I do not recognize the Orthodox Tsar in his pagan actions!"

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

...would be very different. For my part, rather than seeing him as another conspiring boyar, I see Metropolitan Philip/Fyodor Kolychev as in the right in his conflict with Ivan; a man dealt with in bad faith by his former friend who acts completely within his right.

Metropolitan Philip of Moscow from Ivan the Terrible Part II

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Last four characters you saved on your phone are your D&D party.

Roderick Dustin wearing sunglasses next to Oscar Tully

Me reacting to my unruly admiral obliterating a planet with a gif of Otto Hightower looking disappointed.

Me using a picture of Stilgar to explain what California is like to Kris.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

How it feels driving on a dump run with my co-worker.

Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) driving in a car.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

TFW some little Southron twerp lightly smacks the back of your leg with a stick so you fucking obliterate his skull with an axe.

Roderick "Roddy the Ruin" Dustin wearing sunglasses

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Average CK3 player explaining his run to his friends.

Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells gripping Blackadder by the shoulder, with white impact font text: "You see, I am a colossal pervert."

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

What Your Favorite Byzantine Emperor(s) says about you: third part in a series. I am a man of my word.

Roman solidus, Leo III on one end and Constantine V on another.

-Second Commandment purist
-Military emperor enjoyer
-Almost certainly not an actual Christian
-Extremely jealous of Charles Martel

Coin of Julian the Apostate:

-You are a neopagan
-While some love horses, others birds, and still others wild beasts, from childhood you have had a passion for books.
-You hate Constantine I
-You are Jeremy Swist

Modern picture of Justinian II (left) and a hyperpyron of Andronikos I Komnenos (right)

-You judge emperors based on aura farming
-You think murder is funny
-"well if you read this one source they had a good policy" that's not why you like them and you know it.
-Literally killer one-liners

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

>reads book about emperor known to be an asshole >looks inside >emperor is an asshole

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

"I'm escaping to the ONE PLACE that hasn't been corrupted by Lindsay Clancy discourse...LATE ANTIQUE LARP!!!"

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

>racist Scottish peer >defends using the n-word >name is literally N. Biggar I refuse to believe this is real.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"all biopics are terrible" well in one sense yes, but in another sense absolutely not.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

What Your Favorite Byzantine Emperor(s) says about you: second part in a series.

Anastasius I Dicorus (left) and Constantine IX Monomachos (right)

-Your favorite classical emperor is Antoninus Pius
-You're not hot shit, and you're cool with that
-You're probably correct but no one wants to admit it

Coin of Irene of Athens

-Your favorite Ancient Greek play is "Medea"
-"Fuck them kids"
-You complain that Heraclius gets good press for the same thing.
-Charlemagne's Strongest Hater

Constans II Pogonatos (left) and Manuel I Komnenos (right)

-You think "A for Effort" is the highest possible compliment.
-"Well, at least he tried."
-You are really interested in going back to Italy.
-You have a bone to pick with the Papacy

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

What Your Favorite Byzantine Emperor(s) says about you: first part in a potential series.

Picture of Constantine and Justinian in background:
- Basic af
- Your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla
- You can only enjoy heterosexual sex in the missionary position within the bounds of wedlock (try not to kill your wife)
- Or you are Peter Sarris

Picture of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Manuel II Palaiologos

- You're a big fucking nerd
- I bet you like writing books a lot too
- You have a huge crush on politically active Slavic princesses.
- Give me your lunch money, nerd!

Picture of Heraclius and Basil II

- LARPer
- Greek or Armenian nationalist
- Probably also think "we shall crusade for Constantinople!" makes sense
- You roleplay in live-action.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The Heraclians be like "hey where the blonde women at" (from *Justinian* by H.N. Turteltaub)

Little Goldentop, Brother Elpidios? Yes, Justinian was blond. So was his father, come to that. The house of Herakleios sprang from Armenia, that's true, but as soon as they got out of Armenianand found there were yellow-haired women in the world they started swinging them. Why, Constantine once told me old Herakleios himself had a bastard boy by a Visigoth from Spain, and let her name him Athalaric after her own father. She must have been a beauty, or good between the sheets, to get away with that.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 8 "The Treasons of Tumbleton" No-Context Spoilers

Paul from Dune Part 2 saying "I am Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis!"

Scene on the beach from "Saving Private Ryan," Tom Hanks watching a landing craft explode.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If I were Ludlam, I would simply have had to assume that either I or the entire country had gone bugfuck insane, because this sounds like someone trying to parse a psychotic break.

Fans became aware of the plans after Ludlam pointed out where the 125-mile (200km) cable to County Wexford would go underground at Freshwater West during a BBC interview. “We did the shot, we finished, I went back to London, and they then aired it a couple of weeks later. And we got hundreds of calls, I mean, hundreds of calls.”

Ludlam said he did not know who Dobby was, and became confused by the calls the company received, saying a colleague told him: “Apparently we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave”.

“I said: ‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’ I said: ‘He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?’”

He said the colleague told him: “No it’s very, very serious.”

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Another one of the Bloberals with another Blob take. Name removed because, well, I may be drama-mongering but I do not want a pile-on. Suffice it to say, what is and what is not an acceptable view in these circles is a strange thing.

What you have the right to do and what is in your interest are not necessarily aligned.

If, for example, Trump ordered a thunder-run to Ottawa in the lame duck period with his Democrat successor unequivocally denouncing it, armed resistance would serve no purpose.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Apparently it is Skircle Friday, so here is mine.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

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:

Desert Warrior, starring Anthony Mackie.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

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.

"Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome." By Chris Scarre, published by Thames and Hudson in 1995.

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

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:

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This Halloween, let your child serve the God-Emperor with our new Imperial Commissar kids costume!

A picture of a costume that I guess is supposed to be a pirate but really looks like an Imperial Commissar uniform from 40k. Next to it is a ninja costume.

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