The "Historical" Setting of Soul Calibur 

I refuse to write the comment... As I am very smart

The moment when you actually want to read the comments, in search of some historic discussion but George thought it would be funi to turn it into a cesspool of copypasta.

1:02 I've never seen a guy preemptively carpet-bomb his own comments section so thoroughly before. I don't know whether to be impressed or depressed at how many people took George's advice.

"Basically you had a world full of states whose leaders genuinely believed that it was their moral responsibility to take as much wealth as possible." And what exactly has changed in the past half millennium?

17:15 There's nothing wrong with Voldo having katars. Vercci was a collector of rare and exotic weapons, such as ones from India.

As a fan of both romantic, larger-than-life adventures and grounded historical fact, this appeals to me on two levels.

Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, did have a West Country ("pirate") accent as he was a Bristol resident. The pirate voice is actually accurate, even though it did ALSO come from the 1950 Treasure Island.

The War of Cyprus (1570-1573) is referred by many as one of the last crusades (particularly as a crusader faction was formed as the Holy League and the Pope declared it a holy war), so technically Siegfried's whole mugging returning crusaders isn't so erroneous.

"600 years before 1583" "Back to the time of Julius Caesar" *The History Channel and The Byzantine Empire wants to know your location*

*I’m so honored that you featured one of my videos about Talim! Thanks so much for linking it in the description! And great video as always! ♥️*

Obligatory "I really hope those noodles get included" comment.

TRANSCENDING HISTORY AND THE WORLD, A TALE OF SOULS AND SWORDS, ETERNALLY RETOLD.

What a great title for an amazing video. Of course it’s historically accurate, it’s a real life event in this universe with magic and death Vader. We definitely needed this completely necessary information taught to us! That’s just my personal opinion, though. I am very dumb.

"Women and children fetch the highest prices" - Cervantes SC5 Win quote. According to the artbook Pyrrha was also sold into slavery.

I can’t believe Voldo was a gay capoeira fighter this whole time

What a great title for a great video. It doesn't matter that it's not historically accurate, it's a fictional video game universe with magic and Darth Vader. That said, this video (which some may refer to as "unnecessary baggage") was a fun and unique perspective from which to examine the game. That's objective fact. I am dumb as fuck

*scrolls down to read the top comments* Oh god ... OH GOD, GEORGE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

I just watched a 26 minute video on a series I have no interest in. The power of Bunnyhop

"Nunchuku Pirate Elvis!" He screams manically, then runs off into the night, never to be heard from again.

6:08 Azuchi Momoyoma period (1573-1600) 8:10 Japanese Characters based on aspects of Japanese history. 13:10 European Characters 15:10 Inconsistency 16:19 Voldo 18:34 Nightmare and Sigfried 20:18 Inconsistency #2 21:33 Cervantes De Leon 23:12 Piracy 24:23 Blackbeard and Captain Morgan 25:26 Conclusion

And then out of nowhere 2B comes out of left field, what's next Negan?! Oh wait.

ITALIAN WARS [star wars theme starts playing but with italian instruments exclusively]

History and videogames together mixed with fantasy, its like this episode was made for me! Thanks a lot for making this one Bunnyhop!

Fantastic video George, but I've some caveats for you (hopefully you'll do a follow up video?) as you only touched like half the cast! With regards to the Japanese cast, I was really hoping you'd bring up Mitsurugi's sometimes-replacement sometimes-guest clone character, Arthur, who is a White European who nonetheless became a samurai, which was an actual thing that happened in real life (Arthur's inclusion in the games is to sell them in Korea where samurai imagery was outlawed until recently). Setsuka is another white European that's integrated into Japanese culture as well. With regards to the Chinese history, the treasure fleet was indeed impressive, but it was not economically sound. It was more of a flaunting of Ming China's wealth and power than anything else, because Chinese history has a reputation for that lol. I also kinda wished you spoke a bit about Killik, Li Long, Edgemaster or Hwang (wait I think Hwang is Korean?) as they all embody this Ming-era Chinese romanticism best seen in books like Water Margin. They're every bit as "historically inspired and fantastically cool" for Chinese identity as the Japanese characters are for Japanese identity. With regards to Voldo, you should've shouted out how his alt-costumes tend to reference his specifically Venetian heritage, as he often wears outrageous carnival masks and circus performer costumes. I think his SC3 alt costume is one of the best in the entire series. With regards to Siegfried, the "crusades" the manual might have been referring to could have been the Hussite Wars, which were an East-vs-West Christian crusade against the Eastern Europeans. This is still about 100 years off, but it's a lot closer than the Levantine Crusades. The Schwarzwind mercenaries are also pretty on point as far as standard mercenary German armies go for the time.... and yeah probably more Berserk references too, Band of the Hawk and all. With regards to Cervantes, while he aesthetically is aping off Caribbean 18th century piracy, it is worthwhile to note that his stages are almost always set in SPAIN, so it can be very easily inferred that Cervantes is in fact a Barbary pirate, as piracy in that region was strong between both the Europeans and the Ottomans. Now for some stuff I wished to see you cover but you didn't, but maybe it'll show up in a follow up: Raphael is very era-appropriate romanticism as he's got this "pop culture" swashbuckler image (mixed in with vampire stuff in later games), but the games do to him what they do with Sophitia and mix up the eras some (a lot). The opening CG video for SC2 shows him on the run and hiding from NAPOLEONIC SOLDIERS in what is clearly supposed to be a Les Mis inspired French Revolution (which in itself is a common pop culture mixup of different French Revolutions), and his backstory blurb says he's from the French Empire, which was simply not a thing yet in the 1580s (France wouldn't get colonial holdings until the 1680s when they took San Domingo for themselves from the Spanish.... by telling the English they'd do it for them and then betraying them). That always amused me. Then there's Rock, who is an Englishman born in the Americas, but has lived in the wilderness among the Native Americans and associated more with them than his own ancestral countrymen and even adopted a child as his own in the oddly named Bangoo. Bangoo of course reeks of Japanese writers probably not knowing how the hell to name a Native American character at all, which is especially obvious when you see in PS1 Soul Blade that Bangoo is supposedly APACHE and he and Rock are clearly living in the Rocky Mountains somewhere, which Europeans wouldn't even touch for centuries, but there is a truth in European settlers integrating and living with Natives and being raised among them culturally. And for some 20th century yucks, Rock certainly embodies the most Charles Atlas of the Soul cast, being he can SWIM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN by power of PURE WILDERNESS LIVING RUGGEDNESS. Just my thoughts, thanks for the video George o7

8:09 "Charachetrs"? saw it for second and it still singed my brain.

I love you so much. I'm always appreciative when you bring yourself around to making videos. This window into your beautiful mind where you come up with such outlandish yet understandable concepts is one of the top things keeping me going personally.

I've actually learned a lot about real history by seeing references to actual historical events in these games and then researching them online. Thanks Soulcalibur!

This is the most intelligence comment section I have seen yet. All of you deserve something for uniting together and making this milestone.

5:12 It was actually the other way around. The inflation of paper money led to the reliance on silver as an important aspect of the economy (though they returned to copper coins first before silver dominated the economy). The paper money issue was something that began with the first Ming emperor, the Hongwu emperor, who had a poor understanding of paper currency and printed it whenever he could, either as a reward for those in the bureaucracy or to add to the empire's coffers. When the Spanish began to exploit the silver mines of the Americas, it flowed to China as the West lacked exports that the Chinese market wanted. This flow of silver was disrupted when major fighting between the Spanish and other European powers occurred and that spiked the value of silver.

Wow, great video, now I really want to see a Māori warrior in the Soul Calibur series. Maybe he could be wielding a pounamu (Māori word for greenstone or jade) fishing hook with magic powers and be named "Ngati-Māui" or "Descendant of Māui" for some excellent theming.

Really love it when my dad explains history to me

THANK YOU GEORGE I LOVE YOU. A topic that never came into my mind was just presented to me and it's been my favorite thing I've seen all day. YOU MAKE ATLANTA PROUD

To be fair, a wooden staff can withstand several axe swings, but only if it's not stationary. In other words, if a person is holding it, it would be difficult to chop in half.

Just a normal comment passing through

What a great title for a great video. I wasn't aware as to how historically inaccurate the games were, despite being a fictional video game universe with magic and Yoda. We need this necessary lesson graciously taught to us! That's objectively true, in fact. I am very dumb.

-Bill Wurtz'- George Weidman's history of the entire world, i guess

"That's just my personal opinion, though. I am very smart." Words I live by.

What a ridiculous title for a ridiculous video. Of course it's not historically accurate, it's a fictional video game universe with magic and Darth Vader. We don't need this unnecessary baggage shoved down out throats! That's just my personal opinion, though. I am very smart.

this was my favorite of your videos yet, thank you for posting! i hope you make more like this in the future, it was awesome.

17:30 "Half a century earlier the Roman Empire would be marrying men" Talking about figure from 1500, even if you meant half a millennium the Roman Empire would still be dead in the west and heavily Orthodox Christian in the east, even if we're talk a full millennia earlier the Romans would still have largely adopted Christianity.

I just hope the comment spam doesn't bleed into other videos... But it would be funny to see the spam comment on the MGS3 retrospective.

Also, I can’t believe that Yoshimitsu was Weeb Starscream the entire time

Congrats on 400k and thanks for the awesome content 🤘🏽

I'm just happy to finally see a new video.

*Oh my god* they really did spam the comment section.

This coment section is madness

Fun fact, a small german town called "Worms" is still doing a yearly stage play about Siegfrieds Legend (The Nibelungen Saga). They really blow it up with German A-List Actors.

Fantastic video. I must say, you have a knack for historical documentation and perspective, I love when you dip into it. Thanks for this one.

I'd like to see more videos describing the inspirations behind fighting game characters.

Bunny hopped again. Great work as always George.

Very in depth analysis you present here. Thank you for you hard work!

I REEE a little when I hear you say the "Dark Ages" Why does everyone forgets about the 12th century Rennassaince?

Hey is it just me or is the music kinda overpoweringly loud?

Wow! You really did your homework. I learned a lot watching this and I'm excited for more of these well researched videos.

This is such a cool video. You always surprise me George. Your content is so amazing, keep up the good work!

Historical corrections for you George. From a historian and fan 4:12 - Don't be confused into thinking the Islamic golden age invented the Astrolabe. The Astrolabe was invented as early as 3rd Century in the Hellenic world. You can probably deduce that "Astrolabe" is Greek in origin and not Arabic. 4:16 - The Islamic golden age did not begin the renaissance. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks and the subsequent exodus of of its best and brightest to Italy with all the relevant books and wisdom preserved by the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire helped begin the renaissance. 4:20 - It is not entirely eurocentric to label this age as the age of discovery. Did African or Asian civilizations know about the Americas? No. So the discovery of the "new world" was news to literally everyone in Europe and asia and africa. So in a way, yes it the age of discovery/exploration. 15:18 - Strictly speaking yes, the good women of Athens stayed at home until they were in their 40s by which point they could go out. But if you were a courtesan you could wander the streets freely, so you could imagine that sophitia is an Athenian.....escort girl. 16:02 - Sophitia's tits would definitely be attractive to ancient greeks. The reasons breasts and penises are small in sculptures and statues is for aesthetic reasons. Same reason you don't see pubic hair or body hair on male statues. Greek statues were made to show off beauty in a moderate sense. Large penises for example were faux pars because they showed aggression and barbarity. Smaller dicks are more sophisticated and so with breasts. 17:29 - This is wrong. The only roman emperors to marry men (in reality teenage boys) were Nero and Elagabalus, in both cases, the emperors were young, bisexual, bad at ruling, and duly assassinated. Marrying men was not a thing in ancient greece or rome. Marriage was a different institution than it is today.

>600 years before 1583 >Julius Caesar Peak brainlet

This was an amazingly well researched and brilliantly presented article. Bravo.

fabulous video! never played these games but I really love indulging in history in games like this. Reminds me of how I'll look at paintings and other pieces of art, architecture, and design in game worlds and try to guess how accurate/informed they are to their actual time period.

This is the real comment you've been looking for

I can't believe how in-depth you go. I love it

Oh sheeeeit! Dad was actually serious when he said he recently got into historical stuff on D&S lmao

20:20 it's weird how Siegfried and Guts shared the same backstory in 1, but it has never been bought up again EVER.

I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention Wagner's Ring cycle when talking about Seigfried. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that would've been a pretty good name drop.

20:24 "... Siegfried, where have you been for the last three years?" _"Time travel"_ LOL

Really liking the extra effort put into making custom characters just for this video topic.

You are the only person on RU-vid who could make a 26 minute video on the historical inaccuracies of soul caliber that I’d, not only watch, but watch multiple times. 👍

I am currently mobile. Thus I am not typing out any silly comments! (I am super duper smart.)

Fantastic work, Hop

Appreciate the knowledge of both SC lore and history. Depreciates the all to dry, self-aware tone. If i wanted a bored, pedantic lecture, i would talk to some of my uni professors.

Thanks for patronizing me, of course it's not historically accurate. Its a vidja game.

DAMN THE DESCRIPTION. Didn't expect so many academic resources for Soul Calibur.

This video is amazing George

I always assumed that Siegfried did rob knights returning from the last crusade, and the reason for his longevity was his transformation into Nightmare. Eternal life is one of the things it explicitly claims is one of the powers granted by soul edge.

Music too loud?

Wow, you know as much about history as Soul Caliber does.

this was a very enjoyable video, thank you.

George continues to make the best video game content on youtube.

Great video, very insightfull.

This is such a dope video bunnyhop!

Can I report all these repeated comments for spam? As cruel as it'd be, it's awfully tempting...

23:02 I mean Griffith is just The Phantom from Phantom of the Paradise

Nice vidoe game reference with "nobunaga's ambition", which most people won't get. Also, this video was really amazing. Fantastic work.

I LOVE this!!! Thank you

I'm happy that you have found interest in this time period George, but I would have recommended doing some research before making this whole video on it.

A topic I never knew I wanted. Can't wait to hear about Voldo :D

I'd love to see you cover even more of the roster in relation to their historical contexts in the future, to be honest. Kilik, Zasalamel, Seong Mi-na, and so on.

It´s nice to know that George knows his Berserk. A true man of culture.

I don't think this is a video that people actively wanted to see, but Im really glad you made this. Fantastic write up as usual and I even learned a few things! I love that you point out Berserk inspirations too.

I always wanted to this myself (comparing soulcalbiurs Time period to the events happening during the the time in reallife) but I'm glad you did this Video and it showed up in my recommendations! thank you very much, really nice video!

Such a ludicrous title for frankly a nonsensical video. By it’s very nature as a fictional story involving magic and it’s use by imposing and terrifying antagonists it can’t be historically accurate. I find the notion that someone actually believed that I would interpret it as a historical enactment rather offensive. Certainly this is just my opinion, although all artistic analysis is essentially just opinions. [ I A M V E R Y S M A R T ]

To give you a real comment: Is the audio mixing in this video just really bad? I can barely hear you under the blaring soundtrack and had to rewind several times already to understand what you were even saying.

This video made me feel like I am smart because I watched this video for smart people which is a smart thing to do.

I knew yoda came down to earth in the 1500s thanks for clearing that up

Um título ridículo para um vídeo ridículo. É claro que não é acurado historicamente, é um mundo fictício de vídeo game com mágica e Darth Vader. Nós não precisamos desse blablabla empurrado em nossas gargantas! Essa é só a minha opinião pessoal, na verdade. Eu sou muito inteligente.

Loved the video, as a fan of history and of Soul Calibur, I hope you make another video to cover the rest of the cast...A version of Soul Calibur more grounded in history and reality (with only the Soul Edge as fantasy element) would be my favorite game, and it will probably make the characters more interesting, I hate how generic and animesque SC got (I'm looking at you ZWEI,Viola and Gróh, you bunch of SAO rejects)...Also I'm the guy that started the "historically accurate" meme on the soul calibur subreddit

George, you forgot that time when Yoda, Darth Vader and Starkiller appeared outta nowhere in SoulCal4.

This was so entertaining! I would love your to cover the entire cast! For instance, a character like Zasalamel is obviously very high fantasy, but I would love someone more competent than me to look into what inspired his design.

hate to be that guy but THE JAPANESE CHARACHETRS which made me chuckle while reading 😆

I didnt come here to learn, gorg. I came here for the goddamn NOODLES! WHERE ARE THEY?