This will be a short summing up of the movie '300 Rise of An Empire', my observations and the words spoken by some of the characters.
-Xerxes: He was a human, a man taking the place of his father as king; he got baptized, he was described as he came out of the pool, as a non-human - cleansed from his being, from his hair, from his past, from the earthly: now a God king.
-The plot is about a united Greece, as a free people, living in a democracy.
-Propaganda, East vs. West; a tiran who wants to take away the freedom from the Greeks; the West vs. Iran. To fight for Greece and the just introduced governmental ideology: ''Democracy'', ''an experiment'' as the voice described, ''worth fighting for?'' Implanting an idea in the minds, is it worth it? Let the audience make an unjust connection with the battle of Greece vs. Persia and today's West vs. Iran / Islam. The voice said ''from the past we will know our future.''
-Fight for our freedom, vs. the 'offered freedom' by a Greek woman (Artemisia) who commands the Persian fleet; as she said while being fucked by the enemy commander Themistocles - while he was at his most sexual influenceable state of mind; ''join me'' she purposed, on which he replied with a simple ''no''.
Think rational, do not betray your own people for lust, kill the woman whose power is mere sexual.
-She offered, a female; in her words; ''freedom without consequences or responsibility''. Such delusional freedom is an feminine one, wanting to live as irresponsible children, or slaves.
-At the near end of the movie, Themistocles and Artemisia met again, this time fighting each other. After the fight, he offered her to surrender and not to pick up her sword again after she got disarmed; she did the opposit and he stabbed her through her bodily armour:
Do not let the innocence of a face, or the memories of an sexual union, or the seemingly vulnerable appearance let your mind be numbed by.
-During the movie i heard the meme ''freedom'' the most, it was obvious for even an ape to notice in trade for reward; the word which also stood out was ''martyr(s)/ martyred'' in regards with the 300 Spartans who fell, which was not a defeat according to Themistocles but the foundation of the union of Greece.
After this word (Martyrs) had been used multiple times; i thought by myself: This is a Christian (Martyr = tortured) definition of a man's ideal, heroic ending; the Islamic one is ''Shaheed'' which means ''witness''.
''A Martyr is actually a bad translation of the Islamic concept of a Shaheed. Because 'a Shaheed' literally means 'a Witness'. Why is a Martyr called a Witness in Islam? Because you testify with deeds, with your own soul and life, that the purpose for which you fight so noble and exalted is that it is worth even your beloved life. Life is the most precious and beloved what man possesses, and you testified that it even exceeds this value. And not with words, but thus with the actual sacrifice of this beloved precious life.'' ( [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )
This thought was about restructuring language. More later, at the near end of the movie (the scene in which she was stabbed to death by Themistocles), Artemisia said while watching her men fight on the ships, ''i will not be a witness'', and participated in the fighting.
Now i wonder, in the different languages all over the world, throughout history - how did and do they define what we today call 'Martyr(s) / Martyrdom / Martyred' or in the Islamic concept; 'Shaheed / Shahada'?
The origins, its influence, the meaning of such words.
And if you could define such person(s), what word would you use, other than today's?
