Alexander the Great vs Ivan the Terrible. Epic Rap Battles of History (Reaction)
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2020
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“Ivan’s solution was ‘I got wrecked in the rap battle so I’ll just kill him’”
Honestly that sounds like a very Ivan thing to do 😂
Alexander was sent to Greece to be tutored by Aristotle, they actually did interact, it was in Aristotle's later years if I remember correctly. Also the period of time the Diogenes story could have happened during (probs didn't tho).
Yup. SPAA is the mnemonic I used for it in high school - Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle who taught Alexander.
Yeah when he said that they didnt interact my disappointment is immeasurable
@@normalguyhere9158
To be fair, the life of Alexander doesn't appear to be part of pre-college curriculum. Then again, I'm only familiar with Canadian education; Maybe the US is different, IDK...
I grew up reading the adolescent history books I recieved as a child. I don't recall Aristotle ever being mentioned during Alexander's history.
Because he's part of my country's history Greece Alexander had for teacher Aristotle. One of his teachings was about the Trojan War and Alexander sed that he wanted glory and fame like his hero Achiles
What do you mean send to Greece? I agree with the rest of the comment but ancient Macedonian is one of the kingdoms or city states if you will that are considered a part of Greece
23:30
"This is not a rap battle, this is just dudes killing each other."
Game of Thrones spinoff looking good.
I LOLed at that!
Better than the last season
oh nononononononnono😂😂😂
Game of thrones is the spin-off of history xD
I thought your were joking saying "taxes are why my camera cut out", but after you explained it, I learned about stupid laws.
Yep. It's not all "Butt Stuff!"
Yup
Same
And to go back to the rumor that Ivan died in the middle of chess which is why Catherines last line is so good
I feel like Alexander using the line, kinda takes away from it
@@tristansutton2956 it kinda don’t take that away
The "It takes a Russian to take down a Russian" was about Russian strength. The only way Russia gets defeated is by it's own people
Which is funny, because Catherine wasn't even Russian.
@@Crazael
Indeed! She was born in the Holy Roman Empire, or, what would soon be Germany.
@thomasqwerty101 ya don't fuck with the finns on their turf.... still one of my favorite wikipedia pages. who knew you could laugh so much at a list of numbers?
@@TheJinx1441 She still considered herself Russian though. The notion of ethnicity, nationality and state all being linked came much later in European history and as one might suspect, had a lot to do with a certain two Afro-Asiatic communities increasingly migrating,assimilating and becoming financially successful in European culture.
Also the Crimean war.
lush = a drunkard
expanion pack = a trading card game, you'd acquire "expansion packs" or "booster packs" which contain like 5 to 10 cards of varying rarities.
Alexander asked for a drink to stay refreshed = he's a lush. Note all the alcohol references in his own verse
The beauty of Catherine's final line about Chess, if you'll recall, Alexander told us that Ivan died during a game of chess.
Fredrick won this one for me though. I have the most fun listening to that verse.
In the oughts there was a strategy video game called Alexander, and it had an expansion, what today would be called a DLC, with the mentioned campaigns in it.
@@AlexanderAzarov yeah, in the days before DLC they were called Expansion Packs
@@dsfsd50 they weren't quite known as that, they were simply called "Expansions" or "Mission Packs", however if I'm not mistaken the term "Expansion Pack" predates video games, and if not the term definitely predates video game expansions
@@KyleHarrisonRedacted Expansion packs and Expansions were both used even Expansion is used in certain Video Games like WoW, but Expansions Packs is also it's definition, now for card games that's nothing but Booster Packs, it hasn't been named anything else.
@@dsfsd50 Or Add-On in the case of The Elder Scrolls with Morrowind (Tribunal and Bloodmoon) and Oblivion (Shivering Isles)
Knowing the history of Old Fritz is pretty crucial to understanding basically every single one of his references but at same time he easily won compared to every single other person because you dont even need to understand the historical references on his part to know he killed it.
But easily the best reference is “Fought a 7 Years War, ain’t scared of a Tsar” because despite his feats Prussia was pretty devastated by the seven years war and Russia was poised to attack Prussia right after it. However there was a succession and the new Tsar was a MASSIVE fanboy of Old Fritz and had the russian forces halted. Frederick then not only had his hide saved in regards to a Russian threat, but used the halted forces to his advantage by using their position to trick his remaining enemies into thinking Prussia had engaged Russia, only to circle around the Russians and flank said ACTUAL enemies of Prussia while the Russians just watched in bewilderment.
I didn't know about that last part, but knowing the guy, I'm like "Yup, that's totally an Old Fritz move"
Power move
@@Mercure250 The real question is, who had the best unbelievable sounding moves that worked out perfectly and are the norm for that person, Bismarck or old Fritz?
old Fritz importing Potatoes to save Prussia from a famine, and placing guards along the potato fields to make people think that potatoes are valuable so everyone started planting potatoes and thus potatoes became a big part of German cuisine and the famine was defeated.
or Bismark getting shot 5 times by an assassin, defeating him in in close combat, detained him until the police arrived and walked away with minor injuries that healed quickly 2 bullets grazing him and 3 bullets being repelled by his ribcage.
@@harz632 my grandfather grew up in 1930s America in a German family and still had potatoes in his regular meals so I can attest that it was a very lasting legacy.
Red Square is just a place in Russia, but the "pay a guy to tear out my eyes" I think refers to when Ivan had that architect build the um... I don't know what the building is called, but that beautiful church or whatever in Moscow and then he had the guy's eyes torn out so he could never create something that beautiful again (6th grade actually taught me something) also SAINT BASIL'S CATHEDRAL!! (had to look that up)
Damn, I studied in Russia and still had no idea about eyes gouging. (the building is Kremlin)
@@vampire_slay6509 funny thing is, Ivan in the rap mentions Kremlin
@@vampire_slay6509 the eye thing seems like it probably is a myth and not true.
This was probably one of my favorite ERBs
Same
Samsies!!!
Same Dual
Everyone in the battle all died like their real counterparts. I think that's a nice touch.
I agree Mr. Kratos
And Catherine the great Russian to take down a Russian line was probably a reference to that no one has successfully invaded Russia but whenever it did collapse Russians were the ones doing it.
Also you couldn't spin "in my chamber" she literally had a sex chamber. But the official way she died is I believe at her desk, her maid reportedly found her in her room resting on her table and well... the rest is history.
"The rest is history"
Russia has been invaded and lost a few times. The countries I can think of at the moment would be Poland, Japan and to an extent Finland.
@@SneakySkitz0 I'll take your word for it, not exactly rushing to confirm that. But from memory I'd say I guess. I think in most of those cases it would be more like reclamation than invasion. I think Germany came the closest to a successful invasion.
As it is Russia's historical border had been from eastern Latvia south in an almost straight line Ukraine. Then east to Kazakhstan following the Volga roughly and then back north. Everything else is expansion... since they still retain that land within their present border I'd challenge the "lost" part of your comment. They might have lost a battle but not the territory apparently.
@@SneakySkitz0 I I definally believe the japan one. You would think such a small country would easily get tooken over. Hell even China tried like 3 times and all three they couldn't even get their cause the waves crashed their ships.
@@dibaterman Japan did a lot though.
Pretty sure they're chanting "old Fritz".
EDIT - yeah, according to the wiki he was known as "old Fritz" by his men - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
Nice!! Thanks I always wondered.
I thought they were saying Lopez lmao
I always thought they were chanting "Ahlquist," EpicLloyd's last name.
@@tripleoo0 why not both? Double meaning
Alexander actually destroyed the hole Persian Empire and is regarded as one of the biggest conquerors of all time. Even Caesar was impressed by him and admired him. And Napoleon admired and studied both Alexander and Caesar.
Also, important, Alexander was schooled by Aristotle himself
I love how the advertisement is self aware, nice touch
I wish more commercials were self aware
"Why is there so much murder in this battle?!"
Because it's history. And battle.
Imagine an actual rap battle like this.
Dudes coming in to rap against another dude, only to be shot by some other dude who then starts to rap in their place.
Aristotle was Alexander's tutor. I never see anyone catch that bar. Speaking of bar, a lush is a drunk, which is something Alexander was famous for.
Who else saw what Cat was holding when she killed Pompey?
Yes! Love those details lol
Was hoping he would have caught it
Remember, Alexander The Great was a conqueror as a teenager. So the line "in my expansion pack", I think, is a reference to him being a kid playing a video game and maybe also that the empire he created was easy work...its a game...he never lost.
Saying ivan three times might be reference for Julius Ceasar's "Veni Vidi Vici"
And Ivan's russian transaltes to "for health". Basicly a drinking cheer.
Nobody uses "На здоровье" as a drinking cheer.
@@vicblack8233 Polish people use it. Polish and russian are phonetically similar. "На здоровье" sounds exactly like "Na zdrowie". If it's not drinking cheer in russian ERB must have mistook polish for russian then,. based on context.
@@OKIGorgon They probably mistook "На здоровье" instead of "За здоровье". They differ by only 1 letter, but 1st means "You're welcome" and 2nd means "For health". "За здоровье" is a drinking cheer, tho. But I personally have never heard it. It's mostly used in western visions of Russian parties.
Pre Marrow
Lewis and Clark vs Bill and Ted??
@@ssjdeadpool yes
But what if cheese
Btw, lush is just another moniker for drunk, so ivan is just calling him an overrated drunk. Everyone that died were based on how they actually died; you were right about fred, there's debate as to whether Alexander died from being poisoned or drinking himself to death, Pompey was a part of the triumvirate of Rome with ceaser till their falling out, and was eventually assassinated and decapitated.
Too Marrow
Aristotle was Alexander's teacher, hence "I'll school you like Aristotle"
Skeem: this is long like joker battle
Me: ( looks back at the Jim H vs Stan Lee battle) huh
Ivan has his son impaled cause he thought he was plotting against him. I mean, he was but still, not cool dude:
Dude, uncool
Lol ivan was one step ahead
He killed one of his other son's and his grandson as well, his son's wife had gotten into a fight with him and when his son saw the two arguing he got involved. I don't remember the full details but supposedly Ivan had actually felt remorseful for what he did to that son and his grandson.
1. Catherine KILLED THIS melodically and lyrically! She can SANG!
2. Indy 500 Skeem getting smashed in the face with the Coldest Cold keeper of the beverages containment unit was THE BEST PLUG! (and there's the other plug!)
The translation of the cyrillic is "Na Zdorovie", which is not QUITE right for "To your health" (which would be ZA Zdorovie). But yes, they were going for "Cheers" or "Bottom's up!" there.
It's basically "for health", like a lot of other drinking cheers.
Actually the direct translation would be “not health” which doesn’t make sense, but Russian is a very contextual and emotional language with many language rules often being ignored, so based off the fact he poisoned the drink, I’d imagine it would be like “not for your health” or “not so healthy”
Especially since it’s a rap battle, it’s most likely a play off of whatever typical cheer you’d imagine
@@emptychamber544 that would be the case if he said не здоровье, but he didn't. На здоровье is a common toast "for (your) health"
@@AlexanderAzarov ah I see, I caught what he said wrong then, my bad. Thanks for the calm correction without any hostility 👋
My favorite part of these is seeing Skeem's mind melt
Speed comment for algorithms.
This is a great ERB, ready for this
They were chanting “Old Fritz”, a common nickname for Frederick the Great
Leaving my algorithm love Skeem !!
This has got to be my favourite ERB reaction you've done, I'm crying at your reactions
"Why is there so much murder in this battle?!"
Me: *Cause it's Russia*
Yes, expansion pack is a game thing.
Specifically, Rome: Total War, Alexander expansion pack
I always thought it was a Civilization reference. It corresponds to the context of when Alexander brought it up (this type of game is an Explore/Expand/Exploit/Exterminate type game) and to the characters (I think all except Pompey were leaders in the Civilization video games).
Your ads are legit entertaining, nobody does that like you do man. What a god
alexander was poisoned infact everyone died in this vid the way they did in history. and the fact pompey died before he could do anything well.
HAHA! Thats awsome to know! 😂
Pompey did a lot though? (I’m history not the rap battle of course) am I missing something?
I like this battle because Frederick and Catherine BOTH have lines basically saying "I may be a freak but even I wouldn't sleep with your ugly ass".
it is funny how they could fit in the deaths of the rulers, Pompey was killed before he could make a speech, which is why he was killed before he could get any bars off xD
Zach Sherwin really is the best lyricist they have do these videos.
I know he writes a lot even when he’s not in the battles. I’m convinced that the Musk/Zuckerberg line “incomplete/income pleat” was his.
@@davidmartin5145 I would absolutely not be surprised by that. As far as I'm aware, he's been a part of their writing crew since the very beginning and has written lyrics for a large portion of the battles, even if he wasn't performing. My personal favorites out of his performances are his Stephen King on top with Voltaire a really close second.
At times I really like history and can be a history nerd which is why this one is one of my favorites. I love learning the ins and outs and the meanings or double meanings behind the lyrics that correlate to REAL LIFE!
Anywho loved the reaction and breakdown skeem, your comedic timing and proper explanations help me understand things that i havent seen and HAVE seen...because.... HOORAY FOR MEMORY LOSS!!!
Skeem does the best reactions to ERB, I end up learning shit I wouldn't even know otherwise. I thought I caught most of the bars in this battle and I did on surface level but thank god we got skeem here, to go into them deep cuts.
About the expantion pack line, I'm pretty sure that is a reference to Rome Total War because it had an Alaxander in Rome expantion/DLC.
Damn, he called out his own reuse of the sponsorship and I can do nothing but give him props. I think I now am legally required to by a Coldest Water mug.
Regarding Frederick the Great and bits missed by Skeem:
1. To say Frederick the Great inspired the Nazis would be doing the guy a disservice. Prussia was one of the major states in the HRE and Frederick was one of the Electors. Through his actions (which I'll point out later) he caused the empire to weaken enough that Napoleon was able to fracture it if memory serves, then his descendants would go on to unite Germany, making Prussian ideals Frederick embodied a core part of the German mentality for quite some time.
2. The announcer was chanting "Old Fritz" which was Frederick's nickname. Not much else there.
3. The "First Servant of State" comes from the fact that Old Fritz was famous for his rejection of the divinity of monarchs. He viewed himself less as the state and more the person responsible for its stability and well-being. Most notably, he wore military uniforms rather than the regal clothes of kings and viewed a crown as just a hat that lets the rain in. This made him pretty beloved by his troops.
4. Oblique attack tactics: Basically, the general premise is that a commander positions the bulk of their forces on one flank and uses the remainder to hold the enemy line in place. This, naturally, went against the more balanced military formations of the time. The heavily-reinforced flank (which outnumbers the opposing troops in the same general area in spite of potentially being outnumbered overall) would then hit and push back, if not shatter, the opposing enemy flank. Once this was done, Frederick's troops would either encircle the remaining enemies or, if the enemy flank still existed, reposition the bulk to the opposite flank and push there, effectively "walking" the line of battle towards the enemy by pivoting it around the weaker flank using the stronger one.
5. Everything from "creative talents" to "gentile in the palace": based off what I've heard, Frederick the Great earned the moniker by being a genius at basically everything he did. He was a military genius, an artist/musician (as his intro should indicate, his favorite instrument was the flute), shrewd administrator, and maybe skilled diplomat. Napoleon considered him the greatest military genius to ever live and I'd genuinely argue he was the Sun-Tzu of the West.
6. "I fought a Seven Years War, ain't scared of a Tsar": this is probably the most interesting thing about the verse since I decided to look it up. Frederick actually started what might just be the first world war in history (if you accept WWI and WWII weren't the first/only ones). Austria and France, two traditional rivals, allied in 1756 after the collapse of the Anglo-Austrian alliance, which caused Prussia and Great Britain to join forces. At this time, Prussian relations with Russia and Sweden weren't good and the Hapsburg Empress of the HRE (in Austria) hated his guts. Frederick heard that the nearby states in the HRE were conspiring against him and, seeing himself surrounded by enemies, he just said "fuck it" and attacked Saxony. Let me just reiterate. Frederick the Great saw the French, the Austrians, the Germans, the Swedish, and the Russians all getting ready to start a fight, and he struck first. Not only did he strike first, but he managed to maneuver in such a way that, when Peter III became Emperor of Russia, Frederick managed to buy a peace treaty by giving Peter a Prussian title in spite of Russia occupying half the country. This quickly caused Sweden to back out due to fear of being invaded by the Prussian-Russian alliance, France to fold due to losses to the British, and Austria to eventually surrender. Probably most noteworthy about this is, if you believe the stories, he actually maneuvered events that led to Catherine the Great (who, fun fact, was actually born in Prussia if memory serves and became beloved by everyone in Russia for embracing their culture *way* more than her husband did) ending up in the court of the Empress of Russia as part of an arranged marriage with Peter III in an attempt to break up the Russian alliance with Austria. Hilariously enough, this makes him one of a handful of rulers in history that managed to survive a fight with Russia in spite of the general futility of fighting a land war with them.
I enjoy your commentary
The expansion pack comment is a throw back to Total War Rome 1, it's expansion was Alexander's campaigns.
Skeem is the only person to react to this and hit on the fact that Catherine wasnt a Russian, actually a Prussian, so she self owned herself
This reaction is either going to be great or terrible. You decide!
Awesome video
There was also an expansion pack for the first Rome Total War for the Alexander conquest.
I was hoping he would react to this ... Glad he did
The comedic timing was great on the advertisement
Awesome reaction... you are hilarious... keep up the great work!
That skit/ad actually made me laugh 😂
1. Lush is a drunkard
2. The end of Alex's verse is meant to be overwhelming like his military tactics. Fairly clever.
3. Great job knowing the gay Fred thing.
4. Red Square is Moscow's city square.
Out of all the ppl I've seen push those water bottles on youtube your the only one that put any effort in it
Well done good sir!
They're actually great. But I also use TONS of bottles since I used to be a nationally competing runner. So, I probably have more enjoyment/attachment to it than the average youtuber.
Oh, not sure if you noticed, all of Ivan's opponents were 'the Great', only Ivan was 'the Terrible'. Also, Pompey the Great was part of the First Triumvirate with Caesar, and eventually was assassinated while fighting with him over Rome.
As I understand it, Ivan's moniker "Grozny" actually translates much closer to "the Great" than "the Terrible." Which isn't to say that he didn't incite terror (as did all of the "Greats," especially to their enemies), but I've also seen "formidable" and "feared" as translations.
You missed the Alexander part, where he said "I weep". This is based on a quote from Plutarch, "When Alexander heard from Anaxarchus of the infinite number of worlds, he wept, and when his friends asked him what was the matter, he replied, 'Is it not a matter for tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, I have not conquered one?'" This is famously misquoted in Die Hard as "And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer."
Eastern European history and murder/assassination went hand in hand back in the day .-.
Just helping the algorithm. I once again enjoyed the ad btw.
Yeah Frederick should be the winner. Also please do Babe ruth vs Lance Armstrong
“I win, Ivan, I vanquish” is probably a reference to Caesar’s “veni vidi vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered)
this is one of the best ERBs
"I don't know what the fuck their chanting" Best thing i heard from you yet mate
Either Fredrick or Alexander.
Because fredrick was cool to listen to but Alexander's "I win Ivan I vanquish!" Climax somewhat makes me favor him.
It was a big triumphant explosion.
Dude good shit calling Fredrick ahead of time
Rome: Total War has an expansion pack about Alexander’s conquests
Aristotle directly tutored Alexander the Great.
The background singing to Frederick The Great (in German: Friedrich der Große or Friedrich der 2.), it says old Fritz( in German: alter Fritz) this is his nickname
Fritz is the nickname to Friedrich in german
I’d forgotten about Billy with the coldest water promo 😂
За здоровье! Literally it means: "To your health!"
На здоровье, не за
@@AlexanderAzarov Ты когда-нибудь слышал, чтобы за столом выпивая говорили "На здоровье", а не "За здоровье"?
@@vicblack8233 всегда
Fun fact, Alexander had several cities named Alexandria as he expanded his empire.
Catherine was indeed not born in Russia. She was born in Szczecin, a now polish city which once was prussian so you were right I think.
That’s how they all died in real life
I like to think that in this battle, Frederick decided to die in the chair just to rob Ivan of the opportunity to kill him
I love we skeem deep voice!
The chant was "Old Fritz", a nickname for Frederick the Great.
What... In the hell was that at beginning with billy.😂🤣 Gee willikers!
Can't wait 😊
The "overrated lush" line is referring again to his alcoholism. Lush meaning someone who drinks quite a lot. I could be wrong, but anastole is a type of hat I believe. It's actually Novogrod, they misspelled it in the subtitles. If I recall correctly Ivan's name was Valisye, and using the "-vich" ending is kinda calling him a child, it's kind of a pet name thing. Russian language is weird. Also as others have said, yeah, they all died as they actually died.
This was less a rap battle, more a history lesson.
24:57 dude had a tragic backstory for the son line, but forgot to bring us along for the trip.
I don’t know if this has been said or not, but I’m pretty certain the the “I win Ivan I vanquish” bar is a play on Julius Caesar’s “Veni Vedi Vici”, meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
I just realised, could alexanders line "youve got vodka bars, flavorless" also be an insult directed at Ivans opening verse? Saying that his actual bars were flavorless and just...bad?
Bucephalus was Alexander's horse
Described as, dark colored, tall and extremelly strong!
The horse was presented to his father, Phillip II!
When they realised that the beast was uncontrolable they were ready to decline the offer, but young Alexander stepped in and manage to tame it!
He figured that the horse was afraid of the shadows so he grabbed the bridles and turn its face towards the sun!
Since the horse couldnt see any more shadows, it calmed down and let Alexander to ride it!
Filled with joy, Phillip told Alexander, "Son, search for a kingdom worthy of you. Macedonia is a small kingdom for you"
The first time i watched this i thought that Alexander did not know when to stop. Then i realized that was the point.
He spent 20 years campaigning constantly and his soldiers just wanted to go home and basically went on strike and he was forced to.
The “I’d pay a guy to tear out of my eyes line” is in reference to the fact that that’s what Ivan’s wife had done to her allegedly.
Frederick The Great, was found dead on his throne at the age of 74. Mind you this was during the 1700s so he was old for back then, which is why he got the nickname old Fritz. As Fritz is a nickname given to the Germans.
Hey skeem I wont lie ive alsways cringed at points in your vids but honestly you've become my favorite for scritcly being yourself 🙏 big respect
There has to be some kind of merch with just "You get it!" on it
There is
The Russian (Cyrillic) words За здоровье! of Ivan while handing the cup is just like the expression "Cheers" or more specific "on your good health" when bringing out a toast.
Like "Gesundheit" in German.
It's maybe the most popular Russian word to use in media besides yes/ no and comrade. Often inserted in movies and games involving Russians.
5:54 Alexander the great while in Macedonia was taught by Aristotle directly similarly to Plato.
Frederick didn't hit hard, but his flow was exquisite. Favourite bar " I'd pay a guy to tear up my eyes if I had to watch you troll face every night" saying like: you're so ugly even I wouldn't sleep with you
Little thing you may or may not have missed about frederick "hard as steel on the field" line
He was gay, surrounded by strong man, so it would have been easy to "be hard" on the field and not in the palace, where there are mostly females
Also, the "tzar 8 bitch" is also a play in words on "tsarevich" which, if I remember correctly, means like little tzar, or an insult anyway
Hooray for memory non-loss!
Don't mind me, just here to add my like and comment for the algorithm gods, praise the masked man of We Skeem!
Edit: Also gonna watch for the umpteenth time cause I can.
Ivan died in a game of chess which is correct, Alexander was poisoned, Fredrick died in his chair, Pompey was beheaded and as for catherines "horse" story, u might wanna look that one up lol
Or water drank from that river.
Think it was unclear with Alexander wether it was poisoning or malaria. But it works a lot better with battle hook for poison.
No pause button today
Dang, can't believe I missed the premiere
Btw, this is one of my favorite ERBs