Okay, so the Raiordanverse, you've probably heard about it, it started off with Percy Jackson and the Olympians and since then it has expanded to include a couple of other series. There's Percy Jackson, which was the original, there's the Heroes of Olympus, the Trials of Apollo, which actually haven't read, I'll get to that in a sec, the Cain Chronicles and Magnus Chasing the Gods of Asgard. Those are all in one expanded universe and if you're at all familiar with them then well you were probably a fan of them as a kid or at least if you're my age and you're familiar with them you were probably a fan of them as a kid. They're basically just the same formula as Harry Potter where like you know normal kid suddenly gets swept up into this hidden magical world finds out he's an important part of it and then goes on adventures and stuff. Like same basic idea but I already did a video a while ago about how I feel that Percy Jackson really, let's say, refines the formula, makes it better. You could say perfected it. I don't know if I'd go quite that far. I know I did in the title of that video but that's beside the point. I only just recently finished reading the Magnus Chase books because I tried reading the first one years ago when it first came out and I just couldn't quite get into it you know it felt a little too formulaic at that point like it was just kind of more of the same stuff and while I didn't dislike it it was just kind of eh I'm I might just be too old for this now but I did finish the rest of the series and I will say it gets better. And people kind of wanted me to do a whole overview of the right Riordanverse, Riordanverse. I still I can never say that guy's name right but people wanted me to do a whole overview of that and luckily I was already planning on doing that and I don't really think there's an intellectual way of doing that really so this would probably be more of an informal discussion type thing. This is just how I feel like doing it but before we can do that I will do a quick review of Magnus Chase and just how I feel about those. I think it'll just be a good way to warm up. So first up we have Magnus Chase and the sort of summer which is the first book in the series and like I said I read it years ago and then I re-read it and I feel kind of the same way about it you know it's not bad and I did learn to appreciate a few aspects of it that I couldn't quite get into before but it is still just kind of the same stuff you know the only way it really mixes up the formula I think is that it does not waste any time getting to the magical stuff like with Harry Potter and most of its clones or at least the successful ones including Percy Jackson there is a pretty long time at the beginning of the story where you're just seeing the main characters regular life and how their regular life regular life kind of sucks and then so when the magical world stuff starts we have that contrast and we're like yay adventure whereas this one we have like one chapter of normal stuff and we see how Magnus's life does really suck and then we just get thrown straight into everything which I think is probably a good thing especially because this book is longer than it needs to be and not wasting time is good. Beyond that it's pretty much what you would expect. Magnus dies, goes to Valhalla, becomes an Einherje and also learns that he's a demigod from one of the Norse gods as one of his parents. He's a minor spoiler so I'm not going to get into that right now but it's kind of just the same after that you know they go on a quest they save the world and it's not bad by any means but I've said it a couple of times it's just yeah it's the same stuff before and honestly Magnus himself one of the main like problems I have with the book is Magnus himself because he's just too powerful like he has too many powers he has the ability to heal people by touching them which okay that's fine it it does tire him out a bit but that's not a huge cost and then he also has this ability to disarm whole armies of people like their their weapons will just fall on the ground when he yells and it'll take him a few minutes to get back into the swing of things which okay it's kind of neat but probably the most overpowered thing he has is that he gains the sword of summer which is a sentient talking sword and it can like fly around and do stuff and fight on its own and all Magnus has to do is give it instructions and it'll go off and do that and so he'll just be like hey kill that giant it'll go and kill it and it's pretty easy now the only real limitation to that is that it requires the same amount of energy that it would have doing it manually so like again he kills a 2,000 foot giant with it and as soon as it comes down returns to his hand he basically passes out because all of the energy was drained from him which yeah okay that that is a limitation but it's not enough of a limitation and i would say out of his powers they should have been cut down on a bit more because as it stands he's kind of like the movie version of Percy Jackson and i'll be talking about the movies at some point this month don't worry but basically in the books Percy is you know uh he has a lot of powers he's a good fighter all that but most of the situations he gets in he has to think his way out and he has to improvise a lot and so even though he could come across as a Mary Sue he doesn't whereas Magnus just has all these cool powers and movie Percy as well they just have all these cool powers and they blow through whatever opposition they face with brute force most of the time and so yeah it's it's it's not great so i would have recommended uh Magnus's powers being just pulled back a little like for example if his sword his name is jack by the way the sword called self jack but if his sword could still you know fly around and do stuff but it wasn't sentient and he had to manually control it and it still had all the other same limitations i think that could maybe work because then he would still have to be the one doing it it wouldn't feel like you know someone else doing it for him but he's still in control it's weird or maybe if his healing powers when he healed somebody a lesser version of that same wound appeared on himself like if someone had a broken ankle and he healed them then he would get a sprained ankle for example like you know these are just things i came up with after a few minutes of brainstorming and i really think they would have made not only the book better but the character of Magnus a lot better uh beyond that it does mix up the formula a little bit in that it changes the party dynamic because like in harry potter you know we had the three person main cast there's the hero his male best friend and the really smart girl who tags along and does a lot of the leg work but doesn't actually get to save the day in the end and uh the Percy Jackson books did kind of the same thing with Percy Grover and Annabeth this one mixes it up a bit because it has four people we have Magnus his friends Hearthstone and Blitzen and then a new person named Samira joins in and none of them really quite fit the same archetypes as old characters we've seen before and they do have different specialties and they all help out in their own way they all have their own unique personalities and backstories and everything so that does uh mix it up a little that does go off formula and does break the mold somewhat which i didn't quite appreciate as much when i was younger but now looking at like yeah i think that's i think that's a very good way of moving away from it while still holding true to what made it successful and you probably already understand the format that this takes they have this one big quest to save the world and they go off to do that and along the way they have to go and do a whole bunch of smaller side quests which get them in trouble and those are all fun but you know how it's going to go from the beginning and another minor issue i would say is that the final battle while it is fine it involves a lot of side characters who didn't get much screen time before this and so they just kind of pop up and like yeah we're gonna fight bad guys with you and help save the day and then like we're supposed to be frightened for them and scared and hope oh man i hope they don't die and we're supposed to be sad when bad things happen to them but we didn't really get the chance to do that and later on some of the side characters who are mostly other Ein Herjar who are in Valhalla with Magnus and them as the books go on they do get a little bit more development i'll talk about that more in the third one but as it is here i just couldn't care that much about them and so at the end of the day i can still say that yeah sort of summer is just sort of alright and it should have been shaved down a bit like maybe combined one or two of the side quests but it's really not bad and then we get to book two the hammer of Thor now this one is an improvement over the last one this one i would say is still above average you know not mind-blowing or anything but had i read it when i was younger it might have been it's hard to tell and it's also a bit shorter than the sort of summer i think it's like 10 percent shorter so that is a good thing it it helps keep the storyline focused even though it does still go off on various tangents like i i finished reading this one in like three days once i finally got around to starting it which is pretty fast even from my standards and basically this one is like the last one you have to get the item to save the world which in this case means stopping Ragnarok because Norse mythology if you're unfamiliar has this big prophecy that one day Ragnarok will come destroy the entire world and most of the gods and humans and everyone will all die and it kind of sucks and basically all they can do is delay Ragnarok which is depressing actually it's really depressing in this instance their goal is to get me all near and return it to Thor because his hammer's been missing for a while and then well hopefully he can use it to stop the bad guys from doing bad things but also meanwhile Loki because obviously the Loki is the villain here i feel like it would have been better if someone else had done it but whatever whatever Loki's the villain here he's being kind of manipulative it it's the same as before it's pretty similar to what you've seen before this the positives of this other than you know trimming the fat to make it go faster are that the characters are better for the most part like Magnus doesn't get much development at this point i don't think but Samira or Sam she's usually called uh does not immediately have a romance with Magnus in fact she never does it's made pretty clear even from the first book that she is in love with someone else and they're already kind of sort of engaged it's a long story but uh she doesn't just fall into that archetype of okay she's the female friend who has to fall in love with him why because she's the female friend that's just what happens and even despite that she's still she still kind of feels the anabeth slash Hermione role where she is more knowledgeable about the mythological world than uh Magnus is but overall like she is her own thing which is pretty great and then we also get introduced it to a new character named Alex now Alex is a child of Loki and she is gender fluid she's usually referred to as she so i'll be doing that throughout most of this but yes she is referred to as a he at a couple of points and i mean that's that's kind of neat like i don't i can't totally wrap my head around that whole thing but like i don't i don't need to understand it i just need to like be supportive like all right y'all y'all have fun i think that alex's back story is kind of weak like the way she winds up getting to Valhalla and her life before that and her kind of sob story about oh my dad didn't like me very much because she's a child of Loki but Loki is actually her mother because Loki is a god and he can do things like that that's kind of weak but other than that i think she's a great character like again she becomes friends with Magnus and you can kind of tell okay there's something there but they don't immediately jump into anything like that and she is a useful party member feels weird to call a party member like this is an rpg but she you know she's a very useful party member she's knowledgeable about important stuff she helps people out it overall pretty great character and then we get to the climax and i think that's pretty strong it's not the greatest ever you know it is the second part in a trilogy so the idea is like oh shit we kind of sort of failed and the bad guys are getting ready to bring about Ragnarok what next and i mean i've seen it before but it's strong and then we get to book three the ship of the dead this is basically just them going off to re-emprison Loki to prevent him from bringing Ragnarok about and it's again it's just they go off to do things go on side quests and then eventually they do save the day that's not really a spoiler what kind of book did you think this was uh the main positive thing i will say is that the side characters do get more development like one of their fellow Einherrige is a guy named Thomas Jefferson jr he was a half black soldier from the american civil war as a brief aside it feels kind of odd to name a half black person Thomas Jefferson jr considering Thomas Jefferson's relationship with some of his slaves but we're just going to move on past that one like he gets basically an entire site one of their side quests is mostly focused on him and his attitude towards things and his way of looking at the world and yeah that's kind of neat and then there's another one which is kind of similar for another character named Mallory and things like that so while i do wish that some of this development had been brought in in earlier books they do at least throw it in here and in the end they do re-emprison Loki but i found myself wondering why didn't the gods help this time like like like for real like in the Percy Jackson books or i mean the original Percy Jackson books not the heroes of Olympus ones but in the Percy Jackson books in the final battle all of the gods of Olympus were busy fighting typhon because typhon is just this unfathomably powerful monster that they had to work together to defeat and if they didn't do that then he would have just steamrolled everything so the heroes were pretty much on their own when it came to stopping the forces of chronos from getting to Olympus which works really well you know it's like oh hey how come the super powerful guys can't just come in and save the day with a snap of their fingers well it's because they're off doing other stuff whereas in Magnus Chase why didn't the gods help they don't really give any reason for it like sure the gods are kind of silly for the most part but that's that's a lame excuse and for that matter most of the gods in this don't really feel godlike and i know that that's kind of a staple of Ryordan's work at this point like the gods and monsters and stuff will show up and they'll be kind of silly and kind of fitting with the modern world but at the same time sometimes they can be intimidating and some of them can be scary even but i don't know just like most of them just sort of pop up and even if they don't feel silly they don't really do that much to contribute to the story like for example Odin comes across as an idiot like why do you let this guy be in charge and he doesn't really do anything throughout the whole story whereas Frey who is Magnus's dad Magnus really only gets one scene with him and near the end of the first book that's the only time he ever meets he's ever met him before in his life and he's just kind of like i love you dad and dad's like i love you too son and then he leaves and he barely even thinks about him after that which is i don't know i feel like they could have done something with that like maybe he's resentful towards him or he doesn't quite understand his dad and there's kind of a distance there i mean granted that was basically Percy and Poseidon but you know the point is there could have been something more there and then there's other gods like hell who just pop up for like one scene and doesn't really even do anything and then she's gone and you never see her again so the magic of seeing these gods kind of wears off after a while the only one that i will say really feels godlike and really feels powerful and intimidating is Loki which works because you know he's the main villain he's supposed to be all that but still i do wish that this had maybe gone through but i mean like the series as a whole had maybe gone through one more revision uh to help with things like that but overall honestly solid ending and madness chasing the gods of asgard solid series like if you think you're too old for like Percy Jackson and stuff then this isn't going to change your mind but it is still an enjoyable couple of books all right so now let's get into the expanded reward and burst stuff and i didn't really talk about a lot of stuff that i wanted to in the magnus chase review because a lot of it was the ways that it compares to other series and i know i did still compare it to other series a fair bit but you know work with me here and also this is going to be full of spoilers from here on out so just you know be aware of that but basically in this expanded universe all myths slash religions are all real and they kind of bring it up in one of the magnus chase books uh him and anabeth were talking about it and they basically came to the conclusion that as long as humans remember the stories then those stories still have life so that would mean like greek norse egyptian and roman are all confirmed in this series and it's also kind of implied that the jesus is around too but even beyond that you it would also seem other mythologies would still be included in there which is kind of neat uh i know a few other series have done things like that but none of them have really taken full advantage of that i don't think now like i said i have not read the trials of apollo and i don't really feel like doing it i read part of the first book years ago and i just i just didn't get into it it was around the same time i read magnus chase so you know i was just kind of getting tired of the formula and this one i will say it from everything i found out at least and if i'm wrong feel free to yell at me but this one is basically the one book in the series that doesn't really follow that harry potter formula you know it's a god that was cast down to earth and he's still going on adventures in this magical world sure but he's not a regular kid that gets pulled into all this so it is different i'm gonna say and i admit that's kind of arbitrary but you know i don't feel like putting it in here so i'm not putting it in here beyond that all the others they all follow that formula but they all break away at least a little bit in in some small ways at the very least like in terms of main characters persi is basically the prototype of that you know he is the subject of a prophecy he's really powerful but he's not too overpowered you know he's the son of pasidon who's still a powerful god but he's not the son of zeus who is like you know the king the best one yada yada and then we get to heroes of olympus which i still have all of mine right here look at these these are much longer than the persi jackson ones but it's okay because well they're following seven characters and each of those seven characters is pretty well defined none could really be called the protagonist though like you could maybe argue that jason is the protagonist of the lost hero and that persi is the protagonist of the son of neptune but after that they all get a pretty even amount of focus which i'm okay with like i think doing that is a different way of doing it and then we get to the cane chronicles which is all about egyptian myth and i don't have my copies anymore i had some years ago that i got rid of because i used to not like the cane chronicles that much like thinking all this over for this video has given me a new appreciation for them but i didn't used to like them that much but anyways that has two main characters who switched back and forth and it's still all in first person but their povs are distinct so they don't get confused and uh they are siblings as well you know they have a pre-existing relationship that goes back to before the books start and it might be strained at times it might be difficult at times but it is a a relationship that's been around before and we get to see them develop and become a little bit closer as a family and learn to understand and work with each other a little better so again that's different from just having one guy who's subject of prophecy and then we run into magnus who is basically just a weaker version of persi because he's not a subject of a prophecy but beyond that he's like okay son of a powerful god has all these cool powers and then just kind of uses them to save the day you know and i was disappointed by that because he has a different setup is the thing like persi starts off the first book persi's around 12 years old i believe and he's only 16 by the last one and like so we see him grow up and when he reaches 16 that's almost like okay this is adulthood i have to put quotes around it because 16 year olds are really not adults but uh in the context of this series like this is his most mature form whereas magnus starts off as being 16 years old and more than that he's had a lot more life experience than persi has like in in the regular world i should say because when he was 14 his mom died he spent years mourning her and kind of getting over that and he's also spent years being homeless on the streets of boston and so i i was thinking like okay this might uh affect his attitude towards things it might make him more cynical more jaded more angry at the world something like that but they really don't do anything with it and like i said before his relationship with fray is pretty much the same as persi's relationship with uh uh persidon so there's not that much different here like the main the one thing i can point to and say yeah i think that was done about as well as persi maybe slightly better is his relationship with alex i think is slightly better than persis with anabeth but what i'm getting at here is that while most of these characters are you know regular kids who are thrust into this magic world they are still somewhat distinct from one another and so i i think it's only fair to if i'm going to complain about the formula i should point out where that formula was diverged from and how in some ways that worked in some ways it worked really well like i i think it worked great in the king chronicles and heroes of olympus but it didn't always work out perfect either and then we go to the storyline which you may have guessed by now is pretty much the same in all of these you know bad guys want to destroy slash rule the world and the good guys have to stop them however i will say that in the original persi jackson series they kind of forgot to mention why chronos taking over would be so bad like at least for a couple of books like i think it's not even until like the fourth book that they just sort of slap on they're like oh um chronos when he was in charge it was uh he was things that were bad for humans ooh and it it really feels like they just threw it in there at last minute because they just sort of assumed well chronos wants to take over and the heroes or and the readers they love Zeus and how he runs things and even though we really don't and that in fact that's a pretty big part of the series is how a lot of demigods don't like how things are run and they kind of have a point and like i said the gods really should help more in these in these stories like particularly in magnus chase the north gods like what we all do and but you know at least in heroes of olympus they had an excuse for it and persi jackson like i said typhon but in heroes of olympus they were also split between their greek and roman haves because they were at war with each other and it wasn't until the very end that they were able to stop the conflict and then the gods just came in and helped everything so that was that was actually a very cool way of ending things in my opinion and then the cane chronicles their relationship with the gods is a little bit weirder so they really couldn't just swoop in and save the day the way the others could but still overall the story for all these is more or less the same there's really not much deviation from it other than cane chronicles and magnus chase start off a little quicker than the others if we talk about the side characters like besides the protagonists they're mostly really strong like i remember a lot of the side characters from persi jackson you know i remember clareese i remember selena bullregard i remember luke and beckendorf and kairon and all them i remember a bunch of the side characters from heroes of olympus because i mean they have like seven main characters but even beyond that they have like their coach and stuff and i i remember those guys they they did some stuff they had distinct personalities and magnus chase for all the other faults that i've pointed out the side characters do eventually get to be they all get their moment to shine and they all get to stand out a little bit i remember zero side characters from the cane chronicles i remember the two leads and that's it and granted it has been a long time since i read it but lord it's been a long time since i read persie jackson too like i think i've read this whole series like three times through and the last time i did it i was like 16 maybe which was about eight years ago and i still remember it pretty well so the fact that i can't really remember cane chronicles when i read that i think around time i was 15 that says a lot and this next bit doesn't really make that big of a difference to me personally but i know it's important to a lot of other people especially because a lot of people commented it on my last video and that's that these cast are super diverse in terms of like race and religion and uh some of them have disabilities and uh like i was mentioning before alex's gender fluid and wow that hurts a lot wow i was just clearing my throat that felt like nails were being jammed in me uh but there's that uh they have a gay character in heroes of olympus and they never actually say the word gay i don't believe though which is a little interesting i i guess that's how he got it past the sensors i don't know and madness himself well they don't dwell on it a lot he like i said gets into a relationship with a gender fluid person and he seems perfectly fine being intimate with them even when they are male when they're on like a male day or however that's described i'm sorry if i don't do that right but you know so he might be like bisexual or something it's hard to say but basically all of that there while it's not important to me personally to other people it is you know other people like seeing people that are like them be represented in here and if that's the case then great awesome for you and then we go to the worlds that all these books take place in and that's a little i don't know that's a little weird like basically we have the greek roman egyptian and norse worlds however the greek and roman are kind of sort of the same but they're also kind of sort of different and that conflict between those is basically the whole plot of heroes of olympus but even beyond that the norse and greek worlds are basically just the same you know they have demigods they fight using swords and spears and shit the gods are kind of silly but at the same time they're kind of powerful and stuff and evil ones want to do evil things and the heroes have to save the day and in all of these situations it's teenagers saving the world like over the course of maybe three or four years they're going around and stopping all of these disasters from happening which is making me really wonder what's happening in other mythologies out there oh but that's that that's not fun to think about i don't trust teenagers to do anything yeah those worlds really don't stand apart that much and the greek one at least has a little bit more depth because it has that conflict between the greek and roman sides whereas the norse one is just kind of off on its own the most distinct one would have to be the egyptian world and that's because you know it doesn't really have demigods i mean the gods will like possess people as and they'll be avatars for them but it is different at the very least like that's a much different way of them interacting with humans and magic is also playing a much bigger role here so as opposed to just my dad's beside and i control water and stuff like that it's you have to like learn how to do certain spells and stuff and i don't know i just like that you know it's not super complex or anything but it does at least stand out a little bit and i really do wish that this whole franchise as it were would have just embraced the different cosmology and different theologies and stuff and really tried to set them apart and make them stand out as much as they could from one another because like for imagine imagine for a moment like how the aztec world would work and how like well we have to sacrifice all these humans otherwise the world will will end and how maybe the main characters have to be like okay we don't want to kill people so maybe we should find some sort of substitute that they can use or find a way that they wouldn't have to do this anymore like i don't know that that just could have been really interesting but uh that said rick rariden does an amazing job at capturing the uh the feeling of real places that the characters visit like you know when you're in new york it really does feel like new york uh in magnus chase a lot of the action is in boston because boston is like the link between midgard and the other worlds which you'd think it'd be like stockholm or something but i don't know whatever and uh the most notable one notable one for me is in battle of the labyrinth persian company go to garden of the gods and colorado springs and they're not even there for that long but like even just that little bit they caught the feeling of it like i could just read a little ways in there and go yep this is this is colorado springs i know this place this is this is where i'm from that's kind of neat obviously i can't speak for a lot of other places like in some of the books they go to like rome and york and greece and stuff and i can't really comment on how accurate that is but i can say like you know colorado new york and the parts where they're in southern california those all do a really good job of capturing the feeling of it and still making them feel kind of distinct so that they aren't just in like okay here's one blank room with this one type of monster and we defeat it and then we go off to continue on our quest for a while and then we hit another blank room which is also defined by its monster like no it's a it's like the environments themselves change and the events that transpire in those environments also change which is really neat and not that easy to do so overall i will say that this whole franchise this whole expanded universe is almost perfect kids adventures like persie jackson books are some of my favorite of all time like they just are they're they're amazing books maybe that's the nostalgia talking i don't really care they're still pretty great and even the other series while they do have their weak points are not bad by any means like i don't think they are and yeah they don't really take advantage of the expanded universe which is kind of a shame but it is still neat that it's there you know like how in the marvel cinematic universe for example a lot of stuff builds towards a bigger conflict you know they have all these individual stories which just started off kind of referencing each other now and again but then they kept building up until we finally reached like infinity war and end game and it was this huge ordeal which took like more than 20 movies to build towards and then we had this whole huge final battle and it was huge i keep repeating myself a whole huge final battle and it was amazing and i don't know it would have been kind of neat if there was something like that here like maybe all of the other pantheons team up to take down jesus or something that'd be kind of neat but you know it doesn't have to be that way you know having to like read all these different series would be super time consuming and so it might be great for people to just be able to pick up the king chronicles and read through it and pick up hey they're kind of referencing some greek stuff here that's kind of weird and then later read persie jackson or something go oh i see what they're doing but you know it it is still a bit of a missed opportunity and i don't think i've really seen any franchise that's used this similar idea like god of war for instance you know they started off in greek stuff and now it's doing north stuff and i've heard american yods is similar but everything i've seen about that show is extremely boring so i don't want to look more into it but you know that you could have all this conflict between them be explored a lot more and that that would be really interesting because a lot of these are kind of mutually exclusive ideas and i'm not sure how they would exist parallel to one another but they they do sometimes the world doesn't have to make sense and we're coming to the end of this so i'm just gonna rank all the series from best to worst best is persie jackson and the olympians kind of goes without saying it's like like i said one of my favorite book series of all time it's basically perfect in most ways it's it perfects the harry potter formula nothing else quite comes to that level uh then we have heroes of olympus which is you know basically just a continuation of the same story so we have a bunch of the same characters that we know and love along with a bunch of new ones that we get to know and also love uh we have a whole new threat which is even bigger than before because we have like the giants who are perfectly created to oppose the olympians and all that it's it's really cool and i think that it has some amazing cliffhanger endings in some of the books and the finale of the last one is also fantastic so yeah that one's a solid second place and then we go to the cane chronicles now cane chronicles i it used to just be something i didn't like that much but honestly looking back at this it did break the mold in a lot of ways that the other series didn't you know it's it's still not great i still think the last book is pretty weak because it's basically just here's our plan to defeat the bad guy and then they go through the steps to complete that plan and then it kind of goes off without a hitch so it's just it is not nearly as interesting as it could have been but you know it did break away from the formula in some ways and i always want to give points for originality and then i kind of feel bad for doing this but i have to put magnus chase and the gods of asgard in last place because well i've said before i'll say it again it's not a bad book series by any stretch it's it's just not there's a lot of fun stuff in there there's a lot of depth or not a lot of depth but there is some depth to like characters and the world and stuff but overall it's just kind of a weaker version of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians formula you know it doesn't break away as much as i would like it to and it doesn't do as good a job as following it as the Percy Jackson was in stew so yeah it's uh not not bad but it is in last place and that's about it you know i just uh this what didn't really have a central thesis or anything because well i don't i don't think it really needs one in this case i obviously i like doing video essays and stuff and being a little more analytical and intellectual about it but you know sometimes i just want to point out that yeah these are these are fun books they're really good there's some depth to them there's some stuff you can analyze about it but overall they're just really fun books with a few missteps and i don't know it's one of the things that got me to love reading so much and kind of helped inspire me with various other things in my life and hopefully it did the same for you and it's basically just a better version of harry potter overall so that's about it all right you know how this works by now all the names on here are people that gave me money and the people that gave me ten dollars and more are you guys are the best if you want stuff like early access to my videos or just voting on future video topics then consider sending me money and if you don't want to do that then become a youtube channel member or just like this video share it around and stuff it really does help and uh that's about everything i'm supposed to say here so i'll see you later bye


picture. An official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now to show you part of the big picture here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. This is Camp Buckner, West Point summer training site where each year cadets of the United States Military Academy who have just finished their plebe year engage in a program of planned military activities. Big picture cameras will show you a typical summer training period at Camp Buckner, where amid the waters and woodlands of New York state men of West Point gain valuable field experience which will help make them better officers. To become an officer in the U.S. Army takes the kind of training that really puts a man to the test. Comes July the third classman, that's us, hits summer camp at Buckner with everything we've got. Ahead of us are eight weeks of field training. That'll get us better acquainted with the weapons, the tactics, and the missions of the different branches of the service. Top physical condition is a must to keep up with the schedule that includes a wide program of physical fitness. After two semesters of classroom work and the strict discipline of plebe year, we find the outdoor activities a stimulating change. Object of the summer training program is to help turn out a close-knit, well-trained, spirited West Point class. Field instruction begins with the basic weapon of the soldier, the rifle. Once we've mastered the mechanics of the weapon on a known distance range, we move on to a transition range. Here the firing is under more natural conditions using whatever cover is available. Under the careful supervision of officers and enlisted specialists, many of whom are combat veterans, we get acquainted with all of the small arms and crew-served weapons found in an infantry battle group. Neek of fire range, a new element is added, the use of terrain type target. Each squad leader is given a mission and assigns specific targets to a squad, a farmhouse, part of a stone wall. The entire program is under the supervision of the superintendent of the military academy and members of the first or senior class. Using combat-tested techniques, field problems and day and night patrolling are carried out. Here too, we get a chance to try out squad and platoon tactics in offensive and defensive situations. A reconnaissance patrol prepares to move through terrain controlled by a team of enemy soldiers. Unlike a combat patrol, the reconnaissance patrol is under orders to avoid a fight unless one is necessary to accomplish their mission. The exercise puts to use previous instruction and map reading, use of the compass, squad coordination and proper methods of movement while in enemy territory. Small-scale problems like these pave the way for larger problems which follow. Squad exercises give way to platoon exercises. Here we get a rundown on platoon tactics from a first class. Now a platoon prepares an attack against an enemy held hilltop. Some of us will be assigned to command positions, some will provide a base of fire, and others will operate as a maneuver element. This type of training gives us a first-hand picture of many of the problems encountered by commanders and their men during combat. Plated artillery preparation opens the attack. This kind of exercise offers practical training in the employment of infantry weapons and in the coordination of widely scattered groups of men on a smoke-covered battlefield. Weapons and tactics are only part of summer training at Buckner. This tower supports a platform standing 65 feet above the surface of Lake Popol Open. Called Buckner Slide, it is one of several confidence courses, and it sure takes plenty of confidence to take that first step. This is not our favorite water site at Buckner. We prefer this one. The strenuous training program makes the breathing spaces in between more welcome, and as a relief from field exercises, Camp Buckner offers plenty of recreational opportunities. Drags or fems, as the girls are known, are welcome any weekday, after training, and on weekends. Since there are no academic studies during these periods, you've got time for recreation. These off-duty hours go a long way to our building morale. Play is hard as we work, and in addition to the water sports, there are many other recreational facilities. Importance in our training program at Buckner is the course in signal communications. Because any successful army operation depends on good communications, we receive extensive signal instruction. We learn how to handle field wire, switchboards, telephone equipment, and field radio. Signal Corps experts cover communication techniques and operating methods. This training completed, we run a field problem, setting up and operating the communication devices of an infantry unit. In this problem, a variety of communication techniques are employed. When switchboards are working, and a radio net is successfully established, all of the equipment available to an infantry company is being used, including of course the faithful foot messenger. This is the site of the field artillery trainer. The trainer is used to instruct in methods of adjusting artillery fire against enemy targets, and even includes a simulated atomic warhead. The intensive course in the missions and capabilities of artillery includes instruction in the principles of fire control. Next, we practice loading and firing artillery weapons.  From an observation post, cadet forward observers send fire missions to batteries several miles to the rear. Having called for artillery fire, the observers stand by. A second mission is requested. Four batteries to fire proximity fuses. In addition to instruction in field artillery weapons, we learn about the latest guided missiles. Experts discuss air defense missiles, how they are made, what they can do, and how they are used. This model represents a typical Nike site. We learn how to operate the radar used with a Nike. Planes arriving and departing from New York City airports 70 miles away are easily detected. A display of the Nike Hercules, first of the Nike series capable of mounting an atomic warhead, winds up the course in artillery. By the middle of the summer, we begin to understand what a spree decor means. Guess the best way to explain it is pride in a job well done. Pride that helps us live up to the motto of West Point. Duty, honor, country. The summer program at Camp Buckner includes engineer training. Getting an armed force across a river can be a pretty complicated affair. As part of our engineering course, we learn how to put together a light aluminum footbridge. Through the eyes of construction experts and crew chiefs, each bay is assembled and the bridge quickly takes shape. These raft and bridge problems demonstrate the careful planning necessary to any successful military operation. Like all of the summer training, the course in armor relies heavily on practical work. Armor instruction covers the missions, tactics, and operating principles of both tanks and armored personnel carriers. This includes tank driving under the supervision of experienced and listed instructors. Personnel carrier playing a growing part in today's army. Practice driving includes an amphibious operation to demonstrate what this unusual equipment can do. The personnel carrier tips the scales at 21 tons, but floats easily. This demonstration, like the earlier armor training, serves as an introduction for an elaborate field problem to follow. A realistic combat exercise, we will make up the crews of a reinforced tank company. An attack will be made against an enemy strong point under the guidance of a cadet tank commander. The tactical situation is clearly explained, but after this briefing the whole operation will be up to us. In preparing to make the attack, the first movement is toward an assembly area. Hopefully concealed positions, final preparations are made to request an aerial reconnaissance of his attack positions. On the basis of the tactical situation, it is up to him to prepare a detailed plan of action, issue orders to his tank platoons, and then lead them against the enemy positions. Is a two-day field problem, testing important phases of the instruction given in the preceding seven weeks. This final tactical exercise includes the use of infantry, armor, artillery, engineer, and signal equipment. Helicopters, too, are used in the maneuver. In the opening phases of the two-day problem, we are given a lift by H-21 Flying Bananas. Our mission is to seize two separate objectives. This operation stresses modern military concepts. The battlefield of tomorrow will call for the use of small, mobile tactical units tied together by flexible signal communications. As one of our assault teams lands on a sheltered ridge below a hilltop and storms out to capture a guided missile launching site, another smaller unit moves in to secure a nearby dam, object to capture the dam and all approaches leading to it, including the principal road. Also, a nearby hill which overlooks the dam must be seized. Objective taken, preparations must be made for a possible enemy counterattack. It's established with mines and carefully placed automatic weapons. At the same time, one squad moves to take up positions on the far side of the dam. When the dam is completely secured, the smoke grenade is fired. Mission accomplished, we reassemble, and by dusk are digging in for the night. After the long day, we look forward to a quiet evening and a good night's sleep. But the enemy has other ideas. Enemy forces withdraw. By sunrise, we have to be ready for the second day of the field exercise. There's only a short time to eat or get a few minutes' rest. All of us wait for the simulated atomic explosion, which will signal the beginning of the day's advance. Out rises, the order is given to move out. The mission? To reestablish contact with the enemy, close with, and destroy it. Firing fire, a maneuver element works its way to the rear of the enemy blockhouse. Air support is requested. The final scene belongs to the infantry. This is the last assault of the two-day exercise. Up of the eight weeks at Camp Buckner. The Buckner stakes. Here, accent is on individual performance as we compete in a 12-station course covering the training presented during the summer. A specific problem has to be solved at each of the 12 stations. The manner of performance at each station, plus the total time taken to complete the course, decides who wins the stakes. This course and the other competitive activities help to build the intangibles required of every officer. Initiative, resourcefulness, leadership. The stakes also provide a good test of physical condition. The individual winners will be presented with awards at a ceremony that marks the end of the eight-week training program. We've reached that finish line. We've had all the running will need for some time to come. It's been a long, hard summer and the scoreboard tallies up the final scores. Entertaining families and friends is another high spot of the calendar of events. Civilian guests always enjoy seeing and inspecting military equipment on display. Even though we've gotten pretty well acquainted with this equipment by now, we enjoy showing it off, especially to our dates. The Saturday night dances are the real bright spots on our social agenda. A small but formal receiving line reminds us of the social standards that will be expected of us as officers. But in most ways, these dances are no different from the many other dances held all over America on Saturday night. Music, soft lights, and pretty girls. This point's summer training is an official ceremony at which outstanding cadets receive awards for events won on the Buckner stakes or in other training competition. High-ranking career officers present the awards. This ceremony makes all that hard work worthwhile. Families and friends share in the pride we feel. Moments such as these make us keenly aware of the high tradition in which we train. We follow in the footsteps of the many great men who have preceded us at the academy. Perhaps in our ranks there may be a future Ulysses S. Grant, a Robert E. Lee, a Patton, a MacArthur, or an Eisenhower. But whatever the future has in store for us, we know that upon our shoulders will rest heavy responsibility for the defense of this great nation. There's a responsibility we can face now with greater confidence because of what we have accomplished here at summer training camp. Picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center. Presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.