Well, I'm always happy to see Czech names and words mangled in videogames but the names are pretty good so far - except the Slovakian coachman whose pronounciation of Czech* is a loving miracle - I think that "NERRRRRRROZUMÍM" (|I don't underrrrrrrrrstand") is going to keep me awake at night for quite a bit. Also whoever subtitled "Czech" as "Tchek" is in dire need of defenestration. Anyway... What a weird game? I don't think I ever heard of it. *Czechs and Slovaks generally understand each other but they definitely use different languages.
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2025 02:51 |
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:In this episode, Mozart visits the Nostitz Theatre (was it ever called this?) anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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That is most likely the same building. One possible reason for this is that it didn't stay the Nostitz theatre for long - it was built in 1783 and renamed in 1799. The name it went by afterwards (and now, with a brief intermission during the Communist times) translates to Estates Theatre.
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Oh boy, the "battle" of Caransebes. Joseph II might have been wounded there, but what he definitely brought home from that campaign was the illness that eventually killed him. The war was an attempt by Russia and Austria-Hungary to stop the expansion of Ottoman Empire and seize control of the Balkans. On the A-H side, it was also a total military disaster complete with lack of communication, logistical mishaps and setting up the field HQ in a bloody swamp. Anyhow, Caransebes was where the Austro-Hungarian army intended to stop Turkish reinforcements. The army got there and set about scouting the countryside; they found no Turks but they managed to come upon some locals who were willing to sell their booze. This is where things get a bit muddy, but the most likely explanation is that the scouting hussars were there first and started drinking before an infantry unit got wind of it and demanded to join in. The hussars refused and set up an improvised barricade that held until nightfall, when someone on the infantry side had the brilliant idea to scare the cavalrymen off by firing a few shots into the air and shouting "Turks! Turks!". The result was a complete clusterfuck with drunken hussars, panicking horses and confused infantrymen giving enough of an impression of a battle that logistics train decided to run for it; to top it off the artillery opened fire. Death toll estimates differ wildly - between 150 and 10 000 - but it was enough for the A-H army to retreat and leave the strategic position to the Turks who showed up a couple of days later and took it without any resistance, with the Austro-Hungarians already on their merry way home. What Joseph II himself was doing in the middle of the mess is a bit less clear - we know he had a dream of proving himself a brave military commander who leads from the front and there are accounts of his carriage being pushed from a bridge into the river in the panic, making it quite possible he sustained a wound that way. That'd be the least of his worries, though - staying at the aforementioned swamp HQ has already ruined his health. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Not much for me to dig into in this update - I'm fairly sure all the Freemasons presented here are fictional (or just didn't make a sufficiently large mark on history). As for the names, I'm fairly sure Epoch is not a surname in Czech, Slovak or German. Ilan Havel is an odd duck - Ilan is not a name (Milan, however, is one, so someone might have misheard something), but Havel is a Czech surname (possibly the most famous bearer of which having been Václav Havel) but at the time of the game's setting it was more likely to be a first name. There were actually three masonic lodges in Prague at the time the game takes place, but their time was nearing an end - Joseph II's father was a freemason himself and while the Emperor simply sought to bring them into the Imperial fold (and under his control), his nephew Franz II outright banned them in 1795. It's generally difficult to find much reliable information on secret societies thanks to their tendency to uncritically assimilate legends or outright bullshit into their "history" - we had a good demonstration of that with the argument about origins of Freemansonry in the previous video. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Isn't it awfully convenient that all of those Masonic ciphers can be solved with The Awesome Power of Music. Anyhow, some more nitpicks: *Mishka is a very diminuitive form of the name Michal or Micha(e)la - I have a hard time believing anyone over the age of twelve would use it to refer to themselves. *While "house close by the bridge of stone" sounds like a supremely unhelpful address in a city built on a river, it would have actually worked at the time the game takes place. He can only be referring to (king) Charles' Bridge which was the only way to cross the Vltava/Moldau until 1841. I was actually pretty impressed by their research until- *The statue of Atlas - ARRRRGH. I wish popular media stopped doing that. Depictions of Atlas holding the world are based on misinterpretation - in Greek myth he's holding up the sky. *So, yeah, the whole racism question. I think Mozart's assertion that she would not be invited into society would be reasonable at the time - we've got a long history of systemic racism towards the Romani that, I am sad to report, continues to this day. What I don't get is why the woman apparently turns into a parrot at the end of their little exchange. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Way to double down on the racism, game. The Romani being criminals is the oldest and most persistant prejudice of them all. Anyhow, I guess "Vana" could be shorthand for "Ivana" - it's not one that would be used around Czech speakers, though, since it's also a word that means "bath". I have no idea what Mozart means by "a bohemian" here. The guard doesn't seem to be much of an artist.On the other hand, big props for statues on the bridge being the real ones. The ancient Egyptian/modern watch discrepancy could probably be explained easily - secret societies tended to jump on anything even slightly magical-looking and happily incorporated it into their mythologies, and the Freemansons frequently used pyramids in their imagery.
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Not much to add from me, but hey, the story is getting genuinely compelling. Here I thought mechanical mind-control bugs were the height of it. Anyhow, the astronomical clock is real and quite a popular tourist destination so it makes sense they'd do something with it. No secret passages as far as I'm aware, sorry. The lightning arcs are probably a reference to many, many conspiracy theories about ancient peoples knowing how to use electricity ("but how did they build the pyramids?") mostly based on questionable interepretation of archaeological finds finds like the Baghdad Battery. Mozart calling the parrot "Papageno" is a bit cute; the word is close to Papagei (German for "parrot") but it's also the name of a character in his final opera, The Magic Flute - not written yet by the time the game is taking place. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Jul 8, 2023 |
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2025 02:51 |
What a strangely disjointed finale. I'm actually kind of disappointed that all the insanity with mind control bugs, electricity generators and reverse pyramids ended in just a bomb plot. Still, this was one hell of a game to see. Thanks for the LP!
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