Who Is LEONIDAS? | The Spartan King EXPLAINED - Fate/Grand Order - 300 vs. An Empire

if there's one serpent in all of fate whose legend you're most likely already familiar with it had probably have to be Leonidas I'm sure many of you instantly recognize this iconic line from the movie that depicts the most epic moments from his legend yes if that doesn't immediately remind you of how 300 Spartans held off a Persian army of 100,000 then you probably missed out on one of the most epic retellings of Greek history since Troy now given what had happened till the unite us in faith grant order we didn't really get too much screen time with him lucky for us we do have an entire 120 minute film to use this reference footage for his story so let's take a look at who exactly was this famed and feared warrior king of Sparta we begin our story in the year 540 BC as fate would otherwise make it seem the Unitas wasn't born the original heir to the throne of Sparta he was the third son in the Royal line of succession fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it Leonidas has two older brothers didn't live long enough to hold the throne for very long his eldest brother Cleomenes was exiled than imprisoned for attempting to overthrow his Co ruler you see Sparta was ruled by two kings simultaneously one from each of the bloodlines of the twins interests the knees and broke Lee's these were direct descendants of Heracles himself which meant that Leonidas had the blood of the demigod flowing through his veins anyway Cleomenes attempted to overthrow his second half but instead to pay to the ultimate price it should have been the United second brother to take over after but he also died while on a campaign to colonize Sicily this left Leonidas has the only living heir from the US than his money leaving him as the only one fit to sit on the throne now just like every other male within Spartan society the unitas had taken part in the cultural tradition known as a going this was a mandatory education and training program that every Spartan male had to enroll in it ensured that only the strongest and most capable warriors would serve in the Spartan army all while fostering this strong sense of loyalty towards the state of Sparta the course consisted of teachings within the fields of things like hunting and sing and communication but what it was most renowned for was its military training it truly was a grueling program but those who made it through proved their worth they would go on to become known as some of the most fearsome warriors throughout all of Greece Leonidas did it just to simply pass this program he also proved to be superior to the other Spartans that trained alongside him GUI was a very competitive environment Spartan boys were often encouraged to fight amongst themselves in order to determine who was the strongest and it was here that Leonidas often excelled this is what made him worthy to hold the title of king of Sparta he was a model soldier that embodied the core values and beliefs of the Spartan people now at the time that he became King Sparta was one of ancient Greece's most powerful city-states you see Greece didn't exactly exist as one single united country it was split into hundreds of different city-states that often competed with each other for land and resources they did however make a pact to defend each other in times of foreign invasion the first of which came when the Persian King Darius instigated the first Persian war an invasion attempt of Greece that was easily fended off by a combined Greek force of mainly Athenian soldiers but the Persians didn't let that defeat stray them from the goal that they had in sight a mere 10 years later Darius his son Xerxes would launch a second invasion on Greece leading us into the second Persian war it began with Xerxes sending out his envoys to all the city states of Greece they declared his demands of what was pretty much complete surrender many obeyed and let the Persian army marched right through their cities but Athens and Sparta didn't follow suit they wouldn't give up control of their cities so easily the thing is the timing of Persia's advance was a little bit poor Persia was moving their forces towards Sparta at the same time of the sacred festival of Carnall it was a period of time during which any warfare would be considered sacrilegious what that meant was that until the festival was over Sparta couldn't go to war with Persia it also didn't help that the festival of Zeus sir what we know as the Olympic Games was also taking place this made it so that no other large Greek army could come support the Spartans either it really was the worst time for Sparta I mean had it not been carnea then sparta could have very easily put together an army of 8,000 elite soldiers surely that would have been enough to halt the Persian advance it's just that that would be against the rules of their culture so given this precarious situation Leonidas decides to consult the Oracle I don't you it's here that a prophecy which would soon be proven right was given the Oracle predicted one of two outcomes either a king of Sparta had to die or Sparta itself would fall this presented Leonidas with a choice he could choose to abandon Sparta and save his own life or sacrifice it and save his people obviously as a proud Spartan soldier the choice was simple so in the August of 480 BC Leonidas marched with a force totaling approximately 7,000 Greeks it consisted of 300 Spartans 900 Hallett's and a few thousand other members of different city-states the place he chose to hold to their defense was the pass of Thermopylae or what many liked to refer to as the hot gates for these sulfur hot springs that could be found nearby it was a very narrow coastal section of mountain about a hundred and fifty kilometers north of Athens the passage had steep impassable walls on one side and the sea on the other it made for the optimal defensive position for warriors who had perfected the Phalanx formation you see the narrow passage that this mountain provided ensured that the tight-knit unit a Spartans could hold a defensive front line without worry of being flanked that was the only weakness that this formation had it was susceptible to being flanked from the rear and sides but that's where the pass of Thermopylae comes into play it completely mitigated the risk of being flanked unless you were completely familiar with the mountain there really was no way that you were getting around the Spartans because of this the pass also served as a makeshift funnel that limited to the number of Persian soldiers these Spartans would have to deal with at any given time but anyway let's shift back to when things first started when Xerxes had just arrived in Thermopylae he first waited a few days before attempting passed through the hot gates he knew that Spartans were holding the area and he was more than well aware of how capable they were in battle so rather than sending countless Persians to their death he instead sent emissaries to negotiate if Leonidas gave up and laid down his arms then all his soldiers would be allowed to resettle on better land and to be known as Friends of the Persian Empire so when based yet again with the choice between himself or the Spartan people Leonidas knew what his only answer was all that he had to say was mole or lava this was a classic ancient Greek expression that pretty much translated to come and take it now given what had happened to the last envoy it's unlikely that Circe's was actually able to receive that message but after four days of waiting the response was clear Leonidas wasn't going to let his armies pass so Xerxes started to send his armies forward in waves of 10,000 the first wave came across the Spartans standing shoulder to shoulder while their shields overlapped and their spears stuck forward it was a formation that spanned the entire width of the passage and it went to establish a nearly unbreakable lock especially considering the weaker shields and shorter swords that the Persian infantry possessed they were absolutely no match for Leonidas his defensive hold I mean he even had soldiers to spare rotating them in and out of formation to diminish any sort of extreme fatigue now by the time that the first wave had been completely wiped out only two or three Spartans had to be killed in return it was honestly more like a massacre than it was a battle so as Xerxes watched his men get cut down by the thousands he prepped a second wave to begin their advance this time consisting of 10,000 elite soldiers known as the Immortals that name was simply just a title though as the 10,000 immortals fell as easily as the 10,000 infantry did all of which were annihilated in a single day Xerxes decided to send yet another wave on the second day he assumed that the Spartans would be tired and wounded so perhaps bombarding them with sheer force and numbers would eventually work to his dismay the outcome always stayed the same zero headway was made on the past scent minimal damage was done to the Spartan life Xerxes was completely perplexed he had no idea how he would overcome the seemingly a movable boulder that stood in his path and that could have very well stayed to the case had a local Shepherd Anat approached him with a solution in exchange for a reward the Shepherd identified a mountain path that went around the narrow passage that Leonidas was holding it was a route that Leonidas was aware of so on the off chance that the Persians did find it he stationed a small contingent there to block the path it didn't do much though as the force of 20,000 that was sent it to flank the Spartans was simply too much for that contingent to handle they were completely wiped out by Persian archers but before that happened a runner was sent to notify Leonidas of the oncoming attack their position had been encircled and there was very little time to make a retreat unless they left now they would soon find themselves completely surrounded by Persian infantry a situation that would pretty much mean certain death so Leonidas told all his allies that they could leave if they wanted to many of the Greeks from different city-states did take him up on his offer but the Spartans thespians and Thebans all stayed leaving behind the remaining force of approximately 1400 now it's unclear as to while the Unitas decided to stay when he could have easily fled and fought again a common suspicion is that he was following the Spartan law of never retreating but some people believe that it was this very battle that produced the idea of Spartans never retreating in the first place another reason could have been that Leonidas was just following the prophecy of the Oracle choosing to commit his life to the cause so that Sparta may live the most likely reason though is that he saw that someone needed to act as the rearguard 3,000 Greek soldiers had retreated and if someone wasn't there to delay the Persians then their cavalry would have been able to easily run them down having a rare guard served to cover the retreat of 3,000 soldiers who may one day fight again so Leonidas marched his remaining soldiers into an open field where they would face the Persians head-on they fiercely fought ten thousand more infantry cavalry and immortals but what would inevitably do Leonidas in was the downpour of Persian arrows it wasn't even the foot soldiers that posed a it was the constant barrage of arrows that rained until every last Greek was dead finally bringing an end to the Battle of Thermopylae now although the outcome was defeat Leonidas had done more for Greece than any single soldier could have done in their entire lifetime him and his companions displayed such a legendary act of heroism that their story remains known to this day the story of a doomed rearguard that when faced with certain death what tooth then mailed for the freedom of their country that's the legacy of Leonidas left behind he would soon become a martyr that would serve to boost the morale of the Greeks who would later take back the land lost to the Persians and a monument to him now stands in Demopoulos reads the phrase mole on lava so that was the story of Leonidas a true hero of the Greek people and someone who was most definitely worthy of moving to the throne of Heroes let's talk about his abilities and noble phantasms now the first of which is his skill rear-guards pride this is the essence of his final moments at the famed Battle of Thermopylae turned into a technical skill what it does is granted Leonidas more power the more disadvantageous the situation is so this means that Leonidas is true power will only ever surface when the odds are stacked against him his second skill is warriors war crime something that's more attributed to his ability to lead it's a skill that boosts the morale of those around him allowing them to align their actions closely with Leonidas ease Leonidas may not be the most intelligent but he definitely knows his way around a battlefield I'm sure Gilgamesh didn't pick him to lead the Mesopotamian soldiers for no reason finally we have his noble phantasm Thermopylae and a motya guardian of the hot gates this is basically a reenactment of the battle that we just discussed an ability that begins as a defensive hold then ends as a counter-attack just as it did in history it initiates with the summoning of 300 Spartans their purpose to dependably Unitas and his master from the enemy's attack then after the initial assault the united state act that scales and power with the number of spartans left over it's a noble phantasm that's mainly used for defense but the counter-attack can actually be rather strong as well especially when the Unitas combines it with rear guards pride to successfully defend against even anti armie noble phantasms so he uses his iconic shield and spear to persevere through the strongest of offenses and retaliate with even greater force truly embodying the essence of his legend in the process but yeah that's pretty much everything you need to know about Leonidas now before I go be sure to let me know in the comments which servant you'd like to see next instead of doing a poll I think I'll switch it up and let the most uploaded comment get its own servant profile the condition being that the servant has to have been in a fate anime with say like more than 13 episodes anyway as always thank you so much for watching and if you enjoyed this type of anime content then you already know what to do so until next time ciao

Channel: AniNews

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Id: KCHAS4itRFY

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020