Star Wars: Visions – Episode Ranking

There were many elements that inspired George Lucas in Star Wars, from westerns to gangster flicks to Flash Gordon. Of course, what truly inspired Lucas was Japanese cinema, most notably citing Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo as influences. Jedi, essentially being Samurai with lasers, his universe was built for anime. Independent animators have delved into this possibility before but never had any major backing from any studio, until now. What amazes me about this series is that is does a great job treading the line from canon and non canon, as many of their stories cleverly tie into the overall history

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The Czars Must Be Wasted – A Historical Analysis

This article is a summary analysis of the book Vodka Politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad by Mark Lawrence Shrad, professor of political science at Villanova University. Schrad wrote this book with the goal of addressing how Russian diplomacy often includes the deployment of a large amount of alcohol, particularly as his title implies, vodka. He explores vodka’s evolution under the czars and how it was employed by the soviets to control their internal enemies and allies alike. It is a problematic tradition that continues to this day, according Schrad’s thesis: “Putin and every Russian autocrat who follows will continue the

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Best Epic Battle Sequences in Film

Here is my 1st list of battle sequences caught in film. As usual, I have based these purely on personal preference, but with some care given to on characters, tactics and how well they are filmed. #5: The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe What struck me about this battle is that there are so many creatures both real and fantasy battling it out. We see cheetahs attacking werewolves, centaur’s clashing with minotaur’s, even a gorilla throwing a dwarf off a cliff. It also has one of my favorite battle charges ever. I also love

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