21 replies to this topic

[mike_]

Vote and discuss. Only choosing figures from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Gunpowder Revolution.

Personally, I'm not sure who to pick

[Rafv Nin IV]

I'm afraid, for this period of time, I'm going with Niccolo Machiavelli.

But really, you can't get more BA than Nathan Rothschild, even though he's anachronistic. Kudos to those who know who he was.

Edited by Rafv Nin IV, 17 February 2010 - 05:12 AM.

[Mathijs]

Either the Viking at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, or Vlad Tepes. You know, the man who scared away a vasty outnumbering force by raising a forest of piked corpses?

[Vortigern]

Fighting Jack Churchill, the man who stormed a Nazi fort with a claymore and a longbow.

[partyzanPaulZy]

If that time line was extended to 20th century, and you mean badass in evil meaning, then I would go for Stalin... since he caused dea,d of 60 milions (only Mao Ce Tung could be worse), but also industrialized USSR (if those n00bs choosed Trotsky like Lenin told, but he seemed too radical, in the end Stalin brought most radical form of left totality) and turned it into superpower.

If I have to choose from those eras... well even Otokar IInd Bohemian called Iron and Golden King was badass since he almost conquered Austria, conquered lands between two seas (from Poland to Slovenia), however he was murdered by Habsburg imperial plot.

Vlad II Dracula was also badass, Romanian national hero (he was popular by ordinary people in Wallachia), turned remaining live of Turkish armies into schorched hell (they could roast kebab on their armours on those schorched plains where there impaled dead comrades could be seen and Vlad's army defeated them in hit n' run guerilla war), if I am right he was also betrayed.

However biggest badass from these guys was Genghis Khan, most successful man from genetic view... around 13% of Asian population are his descendants,
it wasn't just big empire, but also plenty of women he "met".

[Romanul]

Vlad Tepes was a badass 'cause he was so damn anti-ottoman,that he took 6000 turks,and spike 'em all(yes,its true - there have been some stuff found underground) and,'cause he was a badass - there were RULES on how to make the spikes - so that they can have a death in which they suffered for a looooong time(so that the internal organs won't be touched.There were even specific types of spikes used.).

So,badass IMO.

Edited by Romanul, 17 February 2010 - 01:18 PM.

[Vortigern]

Guys, i think you're mistaking 'badass' for 'sadistic'. The two are not the same. Badass means generally awesome, usually in a violent way. Murdering 60 million Russians is not badass. It is just bad.

[Allathar]

Can’t we vote for climate change? The theory goes that climate change caused the collapse of the Roman Empire… after everything became colder, the nomadic tribes from Central Asia were forced to migrate westward. One of those tribes were the Huns, who were so pro they owned anyone opposing them, causing the German tribes whose lands they were entering to flee south and west, into the Roman Empire. The Romans couldn’t really defend themselves either, since the Danube and Rhine rivers were frozen because of the cold, so they had no idea where to expect any attack. The rest of the story is known, the German tribes and Huns were free to do whatever they wanted. So yeah, basically climate change altered world history.

Anyway, my vote goes to Genghis Khan. I respect any man who managed to go from a leader of a nomadic tribe to ruler of the largest empire the world has ever seen.

[partyzanPaulZy]

Guys, i think you're mistaking 'badass' for 'sadistic'. The two are not the same. Badass means generally awesome, usually in a violent way. Murdering 60 million Russians is not badass. It is just bad.

Well he turned USSR into Industrial superpower from agriculture country, his steamrolling tactic was also victorious (after he let Nazis massacre several millions Soviets), that's why I mentioned him.

[mike_]

Vort, Mad Jack is outside of the time bracket And he used a longsword, not a claymore. Or so I'm told.

Nice to see some kind of discussion, even if people are missing the point.

[Devon]

Genghis Khan. Isn't like a quarter of the world descended from him?

[Puppeteer]

Neville Chamberlain - secret Nazi, he planned it all along
He's old enough to fit in that time bracket, right?

[Pasidon]

Chamberlane was cool. He even got himself out of a big prison sentence too.

Put Rasputen on that list... he's got a journey that would out Frodo to shame and he was harder to kill than a Krogan.

[Vortigern]

Oh, I totally didn't notice there was a necessary time bracket. My bad. In that case I'd have to go for Teddy Roosevelt, or if he's not within the bracket either, Andrew Jackson. In the old days America had some damn fine Presidents. These two make Obama look like such a whiny little bitch.

[Rafv Nin IV]

TR was kickass. Jackson, however, was just a charismatic crackpot. I still find it ironic that he's featured on our twenty dollar bill, while his most consuming fight was to take down centralized banking.

[Elvenlord]

Agreed. I have no fondness for Jackson, but Teddy was awesome.

[Vortigern]

I beg to differ. Andrew Jackson was known as 'Old Hickory' because he was as tough as a baseball bat with nails in it, and proved it by fighting and winning 103 duels over the course of his life. In one of them Charles Dickinson, a notorious gunslinger, shot AJ in the chest, missing his heart by less than an inch, so AJ did the manly thing, ignored it completely and shot Dickinson in the throat.

In 1815 Jackson defended New Orleans against an invading force of 14'000 Redcoats with a mismatched band of ragtag heroes, which is always badass. He got Injuns, freed black slaves, sailors, farmers and a big crew of pirates. He made pirates fight for him against the British. And, while I as a Briton am disappointed that we were defeated, I must concede that this was a badass victory. What makes it even more so is that on the first day of fighting the British lost over two thousand men, taking down a whole 13 of AJ's in the process.

Furthermore, he was a big proponent of keeping the President in touch with the people, so frequently opened up the White House to the public, and on one occasion some dude sent him a 1400lb wheel of cheese. Now if that isn't the most badass present ever I just don't know what is. Two years later he opened the White House again and let a bunch of hungry poor people eat the massive cheese.

Jackson was the first President to undergo an assassination attempt. Some dude shoved a pistol in his face which then misfired, then a second, which also misfired. I can only assume the guns were terrified of him. So Jackson, in true badass style, smacked the guy in the face with his cane and proceeded to beat the shit out of him, at 67 years old. He then built a statue of himself on the site. Admire this motherfucker.

Oh, and one last thing: his pet parrot was forcibly removed from his funeral because he only taught it how to swear and it wouldn't stop.

[Florisz]

Vlad Tepes --- Forest of Spikes. Ahuh.

[Vortigern]

My argument was better.

I would also like to nominate Polish king Jan Sobieski, who, accompanied by three thousand Winged Hussars, turned back a 200'000-strong Ottoman army at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the furthest west the Turks ever got. Then again, the Hussars in general were totally batshit berserker insane, so maybe all of the credit can't be given to one man, though I'm pretty sure he would have done his fair share of the fighting. In any case, King Jan led the charge and saved Christendom from the marauding Muzzies, and the Pope called him the "saviour of Vienna and Western European civilization." So yeah, pretty badass dude.

[Rafv Nin IV]

To accompany Jackson's persona are also his multiple fits of rage that amounted to nothing more than temper tantrums, his Native American policies (sadism is, as you said, not equal to badassness), and his unattractive drooling over obtaining Texas.

I'm still voting Nathan Rothschild. Grew up in a Jewish ghetto, smuggled gold to fund England's armies in the Napoleonic Wars, and rose to become richer than any of Europe's monarchs. He then proceeded to control all of Europe's armies with his pocketbook, because nobody could go to war without funding, and Rothschild just happened to control pretty much all the money in Europe.