He then single handedly leads a successsful coup retaking Iran from the Ayatollah.

I’m Sara, 20, and I’m half Luri, half Kurdish Jew. My dad is from Iran, and my mom’s family comes from Zakho and Erbil. They actually met back in the 90s in Turkey, my dad was super into Luri music and poetry, and my mom was there recording traditional Kurdish folk songs.

Growing up, our house was just a constant mix of both cultures. You’d hear Luri kamancheh music one minute and Aramaic or Hebrew prayers the next. We’d have Kurdish kubba on the table right next to Iranian rice dishes, and we’d celebrate Nowruz and keep Shabbat in the same week.

Because of all this, Iran never felt like just a random country to me. It was basically the backdrop of my entire childhood through my dad’s stories and the food we ate. But because of where I live and how complicated my background and paperwork are, I can’t actually go there. It’s a strange feeling, feeling homesick for a place you’ve literally never stepped foot in, and wondering where you’re actually supposed to fit in.

Has anyone else dealt with feeling attached to a country you can’t visit? How do you usually handle it?

The most common criticism levied against these films is its nightmarish depiction of the Achaemenid Persians, which is claimed to tarnish the image of what was one of the most well-administered and organised Empires of the Classical world. Yet, the Persians we see in these films are actually highly sophisticated. Once you set aside the outrageous Orcish portrayal of the Achaemenids in this film and think about it, you can see the real vision this film had. Bottom line, this film portrays the Persian Empire as advanced. Extraordinarily advanced. Technologically, the Persians in this film are literal millennia ahead of their time.

We need only look at a the six following examples.

1 - Gunpowder

2 - Advanced Medical treatments

3 - Seaworthy Iron warships

4 - flamethrowers

As shown above, we also see in the sequel that the Achaemenids use Greek Persianfire in naval warfare. About 1,154 years before the Byzantine Navy deployed such weaponry.

5 - De-extinction

6 - Abstract Art

The Persians are shown to have achieved all the above, while the Greeks we see can't even manufacture a simple breastplate. Remind me again, how are these films anti-Iranian?

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