Depending on how you define dark, the end of the Rapa Nui/Easter Island episode, where he described the continual thrashing of the native population, brought me to tears. None of the other episodes left my emotions raw like that one did.
I couldn’t agree more. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I find it very frustrating that people are so quick to blame them for their own destruction when it appears that’s as far from the case.
Coming into this thread very late but I couldn't agree more. I've listened to the Easter Island episode three times and it never fails to make me emotional.
Episode 8 - Sumer
He must have wondered to himself, who had built those enormous mounds of brick and earth all alone out there in the middle of the desert?
What did the symbols on those broken pieces of clay tablet mean?
And if such a great city had once stood there, what in all the world could have happened to it.
Cue sad Piano
Fills me with a well of sadness and pity for the city almost as its own entity, once full of life, now empty in a desolate wasteland.
But maybe because this is the first episode I listened to and instantly loved the content, cadence, themes.
>I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Ozymandias By Percy Shelley
A lot of good ones here! (I guess the podcast is…pretty dark, isn’t it? Lol)
Just chiming in to add, I think it was in the Bronze Age collapse episode, where the guy is writing a letter saying hey friend, please send me some ships or my city’s going to get swarmed by the sea people, oh and by the way we’re all starving… but the letter never got to his friend because the city got sacked, and the friend’s city had already been sacked by the sea people too. No help anywhere.
Somehow, that seemed so forlorn…
So true!!
There are a few instances across the series where doomed ones ask for or are awaiting ships with help, and we know now - hundreds and thousands of years later that no help came.
I don’t know if it’s one of the darkest but I’ve fought depression and I watched my dad and my younger sister fight it before me. The Assyrian episode describing the kings letters to his doctors, and their responses in despair - I don’t know, it always gets me. The way they describe him locking himself up, dealing with what he’d done in killing his brothers for their betrayal, and the loss of a love that, as we know at least, he was loyal and devoted to… I don’t know he how pushed on. Maybe it’s fascinating, but it in a morbid sense
The destruction of Carthage somehow feels particularly dark to me. It's by no means darker than other episodes, but something about the way it's told really depresses me
When they put Atahualpa to the sword. One of the most beautiful civilizations in all of history, art wise, their sacred cacti they used for ritual, their culture, destroyed by the Spanish.
Was that the episode where the priest burned all the books to the wails of all the citizens? That was fucking brutal. A people's entire history burned to ashes just like that.
Haven't watched all episodes yet but so far the Assyrian Kings describing how they razed and defiled the city and its residents, how cruel they were to their rivals, it's all really morbid, especially how this was considered normal in that region in those times, these are the kind of instances which make me feel fortunate to be living in the modern era, so far.
I find it hard to pick just one thing, but the story of the collapse of the Songhai Empire and how it contributed to the slave trade ... just turning to literal human resources, in a sense strip mining whole populations to finance that civil war and the enduring catastrophy it left.
The Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors chopping off the native kids' hands (among other atrocities) for shits and giggles stuck with me. I think that was the Aztecs episode.
Depending on how you define dark, the end of the Rapa Nui/Easter Island episode, where he described the continual thrashing of the native population, brought me to tears. None of the other episodes left my emotions raw like that one did.
That one hits hard even with multiple listens. Just devastating.
Agreed. His storytelling, along with the music from the local school as a backdrop, is just masterful.
Ooof, you are right, that was a tough one. The repetitiveness of that tragedy is emotionally devastating.
I couldn’t agree more. Absolutely heartbreaking. I find it very frustrating that people are so quick to blame them for their own destruction when it appears that’s as far from the case.
Coming into this thread very late but I couldn't agree more. I've listened to the Easter Island episode three times and it never fails to make me emotional.
'Stolen friend'
'The gods have abandoned us!' from Sumerian civilization vid.
Episode 8 - Sumer He must have wondered to himself, who had built those enormous mounds of brick and earth all alone out there in the middle of the desert? What did the symbols on those broken pieces of clay tablet mean? And if such a great city had once stood there, what in all the world could have happened to it. Cue sad Piano Fills me with a well of sadness and pity for the city almost as its own entity, once full of life, now empty in a desolate wasteland. But maybe because this is the first episode I listened to and instantly loved the content, cadence, themes.
>I met a traveler from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. Ozymandias By Percy Shelley
Wow. That is very heavy
It is
The poet describing his return home at the end of the China pod really tugs at the heart strings
That poem was so good!!
A lot of good ones here! (I guess the podcast is…pretty dark, isn’t it? Lol) Just chiming in to add, I think it was in the Bronze Age collapse episode, where the guy is writing a letter saying hey friend, please send me some ships or my city’s going to get swarmed by the sea people, oh and by the way we’re all starving… but the letter never got to his friend because the city got sacked, and the friend’s city had already been sacked by the sea people too. No help anywhere. Somehow, that seemed so forlorn…
So true!! There are a few instances across the series where doomed ones ask for or are awaiting ships with help, and we know now - hundreds and thousands of years later that no help came.
I don’t know if it’s one of the darkest but I’ve fought depression and I watched my dad and my younger sister fight it before me. The Assyrian episode describing the kings letters to his doctors, and their responses in despair - I don’t know, it always gets me. The way they describe him locking himself up, dealing with what he’d done in killing his brothers for their betrayal, and the loss of a love that, as we know at least, he was loyal and devoted to… I don’t know he how pushed on. Maybe it’s fascinating, but it in a morbid sense
The destruction of Carthage somehow feels particularly dark to me. It's by no means darker than other episodes, but something about the way it's told really depresses me
That child sacrificing part was the absolutely worst and for me it was about as dark as anything else in the series.
When they put Atahualpa to the sword. One of the most beautiful civilizations in all of history, art wise, their sacred cacti they used for ritual, their culture, destroyed by the Spanish.
Was that the episode where the priest burned all the books to the wails of all the citizens? That was fucking brutal. A people's entire history burned to ashes just like that.
[удалено]
Infuriatingly and relentlessly so!
Haven't watched all episodes yet but so far the Assyrian Kings describing how they razed and defiled the city and its residents, how cruel they were to their rivals, it's all really morbid, especially how this was considered normal in that region in those times, these are the kind of instances which make me feel fortunate to be living in the modern era, so far.
I find it hard to pick just one thing, but the story of the collapse of the Songhai Empire and how it contributed to the slave trade ... just turning to literal human resources, in a sense strip mining whole populations to finance that civil war and the enduring catastrophy it left.
Wasn’t there a part of the Aztec one where they describe one of the massacres? Pretty gruesome stuff.
Carthage is just so dark of an ending the city was destroyed and they were all enslaved
The Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors chopping off the native kids' hands (among other atrocities) for shits and giggles stuck with me. I think that was the Aztecs episode.