How much do the leaders look like their RL counterparts?

[nukehumvee]

I know I'm a bit Slowpoke this time around, but it's time to review the GnK leaders. Except Izzy, we've seen her before.

Billy: He's back, but hasn't changed since his last outing. Nice garb though.
Boudica: She's not really a redhead, but her outfit looks like standard issue Celtic armour. If looking at her thighs are a crime, we're all doing time.
Pakal: His looks this time fits more of a Mayan king, compared to the Epic Random Indigenous Man hairdo of Civ4.
Dido: No comment. Looks like they took her looks from the Guerin painting.
Theodora: Meeeow. She looks sexy. Again, taken from a painting of her at the Coliseum.
Attila: Wait. What is a barbarian tribe doing in a game about civilisations? Anyway, he looks too Eastern to raid Europe.
Mary: When I heard her voice, I thought I was high. No way a plump woman can have such high-pitched voice. But she looks just like the real one.
Haile: It's the Rhasta Man! Every inch like the original.
Gus: Also quite the look-a-like. But the beard and stache are kinda inaccurate.

 

[nukehumvee]

Well Only leader I thinx is really bad done is catherine she didn't had so big breast and looked olso differently in general but hey thats marketing i Guess

Yep. Her looks strayed far away from the original. But nobody else but us care. They just wanna see bewbs.

 

[nukehumvee]

I've always been confused about Augustus' representation. This guy was a brilliant and hugely energetic man, and the only adjective that comes to mind when I see his leader screen is "lethargic."

To quote earlier me:
"I'm surprised the guys picked him instead of Julius. But then again they did a fine job making a lazy-looking emperor out of him. No offence."
I know, right? He looks too lazy for world domination and stuff.

 

[AiTenshi1]

Regardless of the claims about Catherine, people need to recall that we do not know exactly how she looked. It's not like there were cameras. Same for many of the leaders from older eras.

Regarding the comment about "plump women not having high voices" it might be good to recall that there have been various stout women opera singers with very high voices.

 

[PhilBowles]

Alex: As always, leaders without real pictures of them are a pain to build. At least Alex now looks like a general going to war (which he really was meant to be) than the democratic leader look-a-like in Civ4.

There's at least one sculpted bust of Alex - I think the image is fairly close to the sculpture.

Ram Khamhaeng: I've seen the statue, and the King of Siam ingame really looks like the statue.

He really looks like Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai Prime Minister who was ousted in 2006. I haven't seen the statue though.

To me the only ones I can't really buy are Boudicca, from the look of the woman to the sword-juggling and Braveheart warpaint, and Theodora.

 

[nukehumvee]

To me the only ones I can't really buy are Boudicca, from the look of the woman to the sword-juggling and Braveheart warpaint, and Theodora.

Yeah, Boudi isn't a redhead actually, may have been influenced by public perception (you know, they say redheads get angry easily...) But Theo's looks were taken from a painting.

 

[nukehumvee]

Regardless of the claims about Catherine, people need to recall that we do not know exactly how she looked. It's not like there were cameras. Same for many of the leaders from older eras.

Regarding the comment about "plump women not having high voices" it might be good to recall that there have been various stout women opera singers with very high voices.

Ah, but we're looking at a new level of absurdity. Plump old women with the voice of a 13-year-old.

 

[PhilBowles]

Yeah, Boudi isn't a redhead actually, may have been influenced by public perception (you know, they say redheads get angry easily...) But Theo's looks were taken from a painting.

It's Theodora's setting rather than the character's appearance that seems off.

There is a statue they could have based Boudicca on - granted it's Victorian and far from authentic, but then the Ramkhamhaeng statue is similarly anachronistic.

 

[smallfish]

To quote earlier me:
"I'm surprised the guys picked him instead of Julius. But then again they did a fine job making a lazy-looking emperor out of him. No offence."
I know, right? He looks too lazy for world domination and stuff.

Someone once told me he was a world-weary man near the end of his life, having fought through dozens of wars and stuff that would make you... well, weary of everything in general.

His ingame expression does look that for the most part, even when he gets pissed off at you for DOWing (or DOWing you).

 

[ArchyDarky]

Attila: Wait. What is a barbarian tribe doing in a game about civilisations? Anyway, he looks too Eastern to raid Europe.

The Huns did originally come from eastern asia (mongolia). So, I think eastern fits them fine.

 

[PhilBowles]

The Huns did originally come from eastern asia (mongolia). So, I think eastern fits them fine.

Further west than Mongolia - Central rather than East Asia. But yes, the look is appropriate - he's got one of my favourite leader animations/drawings.

 

[nukehumvee]

It's Theodora's setting rather than the character's appearance that seems off.

There is a statue they could have based Boudicca on - granted it's Victorian and far from authentic, but then the Ramkhamhaeng statue is similarly anachronistic.

It's been mentioned here for quite a few times that Ram looks like former Thai PM Thaksin.

About Boudi's looks, I'm actually cool with it. Just hoping that no one ever makes her look like Merida from Brave when Civ6 comes out.

 

[blackcatatonic]

According to Roman writers, Boudicca was supposed to have 'tawny' or red hair, so making her flame-haired might not be as far from the truth as you might think. They say she wore it loose and it hung below her waist, so she might even have looked a bit like Merida!

The outfit is way off - the same writers recorded her as wearing a 'many coloured tunic and large cloak'. Instead she looks like Keira Knightley in the King Arthur movie

Elizabeth as far as I can tell is bang on the money, though it would have been nice if they'd recreated the Armada portrait:

Spoiler :

 

[nukehumvee]

According to Roman writers, Boudicca was supposed to have 'tawny' or red hair, so making her flame-haired might not be as far from the truth as you might think. They say she wore it loose and it hung below her waist, so she might even have looked a bit like Merida!

The outfit is way off - the same writers recorded her as wearing a 'many coloured tunic and large cloak'. Instead she looks like Keira Knightley in the King Arthur movie

Elizabeth as far as I can tell is bang on the money, though it would have been nice if they'd recreated the Armada portrait:

Spoiler :

Lizzie's Armada outfit is a bit too flashy, but I wished they actually modelled her on that portrait instead trying to make her look like the Red Queen.

 

[blackcatatonic]

She was flashy, though. Maybe the bows are a bit much, but the way they've dressed her in the game reminds me more of the young Elizabeth before she became Queen, except with the distinctive hairstyle and collar that everyone remembers.

 

[Elgalad]

I was fortunate enough to visit Mt. Vernon last spring and in the museum there, they have recreations of a young and middle aged George Washington based on modern forensic technology (skeletal mapping). He really Was a handsome man, especially in his youth.

I'm glad the designers chose This representation (rather than one closer to the classic Gilbert Stuart portrait) though I wish they had chosen to depict him as a younger man instead, perhaps as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

Aside from a few of his mannerisms that bother me (he seems more petulant than decisive) I like what they did.


-Elgalad

 

[Louis XXIV]

Yeah, Boudi isn't a redhead actually

Do we actually have any reliable descriptions of her (i.e., one from Tacitus because Cassius Dio was essentially trying to imply she was a dude in drag).

ETA: Yeah, it's Cassius Dio who said she had Tawny hair and a large gold necklace. He also referred to her as "kingly" and "large" because he was trying to downplay the fact that Rome lost to a woman. Because he needed to do this, a physical description was important. However, since he was born long after she died, the veracity of this description is questionable.

 

[_elf_planator]

Paper lanterns?

 

[iamO]

i have an ex looks like theodora, cant play against her very well cos of that.

 

[PhilBowles]

Paper lanterns?

That's evidently the intent, but they aren't done very well - once you've been told they look like electric lights, it becomes hard to see them as anything but oversized bulbs with an old-fashioned lampshade.