70) Braveheart (with Vicki)

[00:00:44] Good morning! Welcome back to The Digressor. I'm Trevor and today I'm actually here with an old friend of mine, Vicki, and we're going to discuss, well, the topic is Braveheart, but we're mostly going to talk about Scottish history. Hi, Vicki. Nice to see you here.

[00:01:05] Nice to see you too. I'm going to try not to copy your accent. I have that habit where I hear an accent, I copy it, and I've talked to you so much. We were talking last night and I was telling you, because of you, I can understand the Scottish accent and most people I know can't. Yeah, even the English sometimes struggle with the accent. So you're not alone. People aren't alone not understanding it.

[00:01:31] I'm really hoping, I didn't think about that until just now, I'm hoping that doesn't really affect, like, the audience. Like, I hope they understand you. If I start talking fast, just tell me to slow down. I won't be offended. Honestly, I probably won't even notice because I understand you. Maybe play the recordings at, like, slower speed or something.

[00:02:00] That's right. Podcast apps now have the ability to... Actually, yesterday, I was listening to a podcast and I had to leave for work in two hours. No, I had to leave for work in an hour. And I realised this episode I was third in was two hours. So I literally put it on two times speed. I think I was talking about this and it was really fast and I still don't know what everybody was talking about. So basically, you're a poet, the Scottish accent then.

[00:02:29] Yeah, I still... I was telling a co-worker earlier about what your... that video you sent me about the... the voice... the voice activator thing, the elevator. Eleven! Please state the number... the floor you're wanting to go to. Eleven! I remember that all these years later. Oh, anyway, the... well, this show is called The Negressor for a reason. We haven't even touched the subject yet. So, for starters, I'm... I'll just start myself.

[00:02:57] So, I grew up watching the movie Braveheart. And then, Vicky and I met in 2011. And I was like, oh yeah, I know Scotland because... Braveheart! I grew up watching Braveheart! And then she basically just gives a big eye roll. Like, oh, that movie. And, yeah, that movie is about as accurate as the movie 300 is. Because, um... Actually, I think 300 is actually more accurate than Braveheart is. There... I actually don't think anything in that movie is accurate.

[00:03:26] In fact, the guy they paint as Braveheart isn't even Braveheart. And... and speaking of the guy they painted, they didn't even do the face paint. So, like, that movie is completely inaccurate. Yeah. Um... So, there's, like, two main guys during the wars of Scottish independence. There's, like, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

[00:03:56] And I think the film kind of tried to merge them both into one. Yeah, they... The movie made William Wallace into Braveheart and made Robert the Bruce into some sort of, like, traitor that backstabbed William Wallace. But that's not true. William Wallace wasn't even Braveheart. So, basically, Robert the Bruce was Braveheart. Um... And... He did have a rival that... He murdered.

[00:04:27] Which was... Let me just make sure I get the name right. John... My writing's so bad on this. But... John Common? Is he the guy who cut in half? No, he stabbed him through the heart in a church, if my... Memory of... He was the guy who cut in half. He never actually cut him in half. If I remember right. From history.

[00:04:57] He stabbed him in a church. Yeah, I was watching something... Because I wanted to kind of refresh my memory. Because I... Everything I watched in this video earlier... It was a Weird History video. The name of the channel is Weird History. And it was like... Um... Was Robert the Bruce Braveheart or something like that? And it's talking... It's still a little brief history... Of, like... You know... How he became... He crowned himself king and all that. And then he said something about, like... He cut someone in half. Like... I remember that! But, like... I didn't remember who it was. Maybe he did.

[00:05:26] At some point or other. But... Because there was plenty of battles. But... Um... Like... His rival, John... I'm gonna make sure I've actually got the right name. John Common. Aye, John Common. Um... He... Was his rival for the claim to the Scottish throne. And they met up in a church. If my memory's right. And they...

[00:05:55] He murdered him. Which caused the Pope to basically... Renounce William Wallace. Eh... Not William Wallace. Robert the Bruce. No, you're doing it. Uh... And... Um... Cause... But then he was... Like... Oh, what is the word? We're a... Where he's... We're a crime against...

[00:06:24] A person is taken away. Not renounced. Oh, well. He was... Absolved. That's it. He was absolved by... A Pope... In Glasgow, I think? So he was absolved of the crimes in Glasgow. By another... Like, more local Pope. Or... Priest.

[00:06:53] I am doing a very bad job at this. What? I will tell you this. Even though you're stammering, This is still more accurate than the movie. Okay. Um... Robert the Bruce and William Wallace do have some overlap. William Wallace was a leader of... Of... The Scottish Independent Wars. And Robert the Bruce... Took part in them.

[00:07:23] Even though Robert the Bruce was the one with the claim to the throne. He... Be... It was a year after William Wallace died that Robert the Bruce... Became king of Scotland. And when Wallace was humdrum and quartered. The films get that bit right. In that video I told you that I watched, I think they said it was in like 1306 or something like that.

[00:07:54] Which... The... Check. It felt like something that would happen in like the triple digit here is not the... Not like something... That feels too recent, but like... I don't know. 1305 when Wallace died. I was close. Hung, drawn and quartered in London. And 1306, Robert the Bruce became king of Scotland. Oh wait, no I was right.

[00:08:24] Until... 1329. So... Yeah. And... In the film, they had the Battle of Stirland Bridge, didn't they? I don't know. I haven't seen it in a long time. After... It was like... I used to like the movie until I met you. And after you told me like the truth about history, I'm like, I am never watching that movie again. I've ruined it for you. Yeah, it's fine.

[00:08:55] It's good for getting people interested in Scottish history. In fact, yeah. Speaking of which, I was telling some co-workers today about that we're going to have... We're going to do this. And I said, just to kind of prime them up, I said, what do you know about Scottish history? And they said, oh, Braveheart. Nope. I was telling them like, because like, everyone knows about, you know, English history and culture. They don't know much about Scottish history and culture.

[00:09:22] And they were like, I didn't think there was a difference. I'm like, oh my god. I told them about like, you know, like the war for like Scottish independence. And like, what do you mean Scottish independence? I'm like, I think because I know you, I know like a lot more than the average person. I just assume everyone knows this stuff. And like the Highlands and all that and Celtic. And you're like, you taught me all that.

[00:09:45] The amount of people who think that Scotland, England, UK is all the same thing, along with Wales, Northern Ireland and Britain. They think that all of them are just interchangeable. Yeah. UK and Britain are sort of interchangeable. Like, depending on where you're referring to.

[00:10:12] Because one includes Northern Ireland and one doesn't include Northern Ireland. So, they're sort of interchangeable if you're referring to like Scotland, England, Wales. I think somebody told me that one of the worst things you could say to someone who's British is saying that Ireland and Northern Ireland are the same thing. No, they're not.

[00:10:41] Oh, that's like, that's like a hate crime to say all those things. I think I might have whilst I was saying it. A wee thing in my head is going, it's not Northern Ireland, it's Southern Ireland, it's not part of the UK. Yeah, it'd be like saying North and South Korea are the same thing. No, they're very different. Though, now that I'm saying that out loud, like, I'm not saying Northern Ireland is North Korea.

[00:11:06] So, Northern Ireland is part of the UK. Southern Ireland isn't. It is its own independent thing. Yeah. I just want to fact check to make sure things are right. Yeah, I can tell.

[00:11:36] Yes, Southern Ireland is part of Britain. No, it's part of an independent country. Google is not helping very much. Google's even confused.

[00:12:00] So, Great Britain refers to the geographical island consisting of England, Scotland and Wales, whilst the United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland. So, I got that wrong. Bad Vicky. You've only lived there your whole life. I know! How do you expect all the rest of us to know that? In my defence, it's four o'clock in the morning here. That is true.

[00:12:33] It's probably darker in my video than it is on yours. It's just... Well, I'll not be able to show you the picture, but I will take a picture of outside to show you, because we're having a discussion about lightness. How light it is outside. So, you're at the time of year where it doesn't get fully dark, it just goes a little dim. So, yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:01] It's like the sun's setting right now, so we probably have the same sky right now. Well, I've sent you a picture on Facebook. I will check that out. My phone loads. Oh, wow. Your sky looks like... Wait. Your sky looks like this.

[00:13:30] Yeah. Basically. Basically. That's kind of cool. That's as dark as it gets right now? It gets darker. Like, at like two o'clock in the morning, it would be more dark. Oh, okay. But it starts to get lighter. About three, half three-ish. And that's obviously, like, just after four.

[00:14:00] So... Yeah, you were telling me last night about that. You were telling me last night about that. I was like, I don't know if I want to move there now. And you were like, well, in the winter, it's like... I was like, oh, okay. Maybe, maybe I'll have a winter home there. Yeah, the winter, it's a lot darker. I do have a random question. So, there's...

[00:14:26] Here in the US, there's a city there that I feel like everyone mispronounces. And I've heard it said two different ways. The people in Europe say it one way. The people here say it another way. And, of course, the people here are saying it wrong. But I just wanted you to clarify. If people here say Edinburgh, I said Edinburgh. And they were like, Edinburgh? No, no, what the heck? It's Edinburgh. It's Edinburgh. I knew it!

[00:14:53] Because I think because I have friends around the world. And especially, I have... Most of my friends, most of my international friends are in the UK. So, I know more about the UK and how to pronounce things over there than the average US citizen. In fact, I actually... I don't know if you've caught... You probably didn't notice because you're just so used to writing like that.

[00:15:21] But I actually use the British English when I type. All right. Like, I spell things like... That's the actual English. The US feels like it wants to be special by changing how to spell everything. They take the U out of everything. And it just... And that, like, color without the U is like... You spelled that wrong.

[00:15:44] I think that Americans condense their spellings or simplify it. They write things as they're pronounced. Whereas English has a lot more other languages that formed the development of the language. So, we've got some French. We've got some Scandinavian.

[00:16:12] We've got loads of other languages that contributed to making the language. So, some of the spellings are foreign or come from foreign backgrounds. So, it makes sense in the foreign language. But as the words have been kind of bashed together or changed over time,

[00:16:37] it doesn't make immediate sense unless you look back into how the word was formed. Yeah, makes sense. Plus, English is a living language, is what they say. And so, like... It's kind of like how... It's even here, like, in the US. Like, we don't all agree. Like, I've lived in Texas. I've lived in Ohio. And I've lived in California. And there's, like... It's, like, three completely separate cultures. With different words and phrases and spellings and stuff.

[00:17:06] So, like, it makes sense that, like... Other countries would have different ways, too. And it's really interesting. Like, remember, we had a Facebook group, like, 15... Like, oh, 15 years old. We had a Facebook group, like, 12 years ago about, like, accents and cultures of the world. And I don't know what happened to that. It just kind of puttered out. Yeah. Like, from 2011... But see, even... Uh-huh.

[00:17:35] See, even within the UK, there's different cultures from, like... Like, London has a completely different culture from Glasgow. Even though they're not all that different geographically. Like, there's not a lot of space between them. Compared to, like, the US. There is a lot of differences.

[00:18:01] Like, in Scotland, I can tell somebody that comes from our broth. Compared to Glasgow. Compared to the Ayrshire, where I come from. Like, it's just very clear in our accents and the words that we use. Whereabouts we come from. When Americans try to do a British accent, they just always sound like the Queen.

[00:18:32] Yeah. There's no such thing as a British accent. Exactly. There's accents in Britain. When someone says an American accent, I'm like, what does that mean? Is it New York? Is it Southern? Is it Boston? Is it Chicago? Chicago? So, like... But, like, I know those different accents, like there is here. And I work at where I work. You know where I work. I'm not going to say it on the podcast. There's a lot of tourists from around the world.

[00:18:58] And a few months ago, there was somebody, I was like, you're from Liverpool. And they're like, how did you know? I'm like, I can just tell. Yeah. Sound like the Beatles. I didn't say that. There is around 56 distinct regional variations of accents in the UK. So, someone saying British accent is as confusing as someone saying American accent.

[00:19:28] Which one? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Like, even London itself, there's like three or four different accents in London, depending on which part of London you're in. Wow. This sort of stuff, like, really fascinates me. Like, you get, like, you're so used to, like, your whole regional area. And then you learn about other things.

[00:19:57] And it's like, oh, this is more complex than I thought. Yeah, it's... It's amazing what, like, even, like, other countries, like, going across to, like, Europe. People refer... People refer... Like, I've heard, like, a lot of Americans refer to Europe as a country. And it's like, well...

[00:20:26] It's a country in the sense that America is, like, a state. Yeah, I... Because, like, I know a lot of Americans that see that Europe is, like, the US is a big country comprised of a bunch of states. And so people here think of Europe as a big country with states. And I know they don't see themselves that way. And you shouldn't tell them that.

[00:20:56] No. No. Like, Europe is definitely different countries. With their own governments. That's got a notification. The meeting will end in 10 minutes. So we have 9 minutes and 40 seconds. So I just want to say this real quick. Kind of going back to the whole, like, regional thing. And I'm fascinated learning all that stuff.

[00:21:26] I was watching a video. It was, like, somebody had recorded an episode of Doctor Who off of BBC in the UK. And, like, they got the commercials and everything. And to them, they're just, like... They just did, like, a full dump. And they're thinking, oh, this is just a Doctor Who episode. I got some annoying commercials in the way. But, like, everybody else in the world, it's like, oh, this is what their regional commercials look like. And, like, you know, the station bumpers and stuff. And to them, they're like, oh, I see this every day. This doesn't mean anything.

[00:21:56] But to everyone else, like, oh, this is cool. Like, I never see this. Like, the BBC, like, the local BBC affiliate or whatever. And it's, like... It was, like, really fascinating. And, like, their local... Their local stores. And, like, their adverts. Like, I don't know. Like, stuff like that's, like, really interesting to me. Yeah. I mean, like, well, I don't really watch TV. Neither do I. So I don't see any adverts. Because ever since streaming, it's like, who watches cable anymore?

[00:22:26] Like, there's only, like... There's only, like, four million people that have cable. Like, there's even that much? My partner, he told me that... We've got two TVs in the house that we've got over the past year. And he told me that, like, it was, like, the TV, you only ever put reading ambience on it. It's him that really watches the TV. And I'm like, well, yeah, kind of true. So... Yeah.

[00:22:56] I have a PS5 and I stream everything on that. So, like, I don't need cable. Yeah. So, yeah, we don't... We don't have tertiary TV. Which is, like, just the basic TV that... In the UK, there's a TV license that you need to buy to actually watch TV. See, that's the kind of thing that I was talking about. Like, we don't have that here. And so, like, that's probably an annoyance to you.

[00:23:25] But that's fascinating to me. Like, you do really go on. You're like, oh, it's this whole thing. So, basically, it's just, like, the government asks you to pay a license fee. Of, I think it's, like, £120 for the year. And that helps contribute towards, like, the BBC. Oh. Because the BBC doesn't have adverts. So, they don't get funding from adverts.

[00:23:55] So, it's, like, that money goes into making stuff for the BBC. So, anybody who watches... What did they record that then? Because, like, they recorded an episode of Doctor Who and it did commercial breaks. So, like, that must have been on, like... Is there, like, a spinoff? They have adverts. They have adverts. But, like, that's... For the BBC adverts, it's, like, other BBC programmes.

[00:24:22] It's not actually, like, funded advertisements. It's not, like, Rice Krispies or Coco Pops or toy adverts or stuff like that. It's... The one I saw had, like, local businesses and stuff. So, that's probably the... It's not STV in England. STV is, like, kind of the Scottish version of...

[00:24:52] Is it ITV for England? I think it might. I kind of like TV. Um... So, there's, like, other channels that do have the, like, adverts. But the BBC channels don't have business adverts and stuff. It's just, like, kind of BBC and government adverts.

[00:25:22] See, that's, like... That's kind of mind-blowing. Like, oh, it's the biggest TV channel. They don't have ads. Yeah, they've got breaks. But it's, like... Mostly, it's, like, far... Like, in between the programmes. I mean, it could be completely different since I last watched TV. Probably. It was... It wasn't in recent Doctor Who.

[00:25:51] It was, like, a Capaldi episode from, like... I don't know if you watch Doctor Who. Capaldi is... So... Capaldi was, like, three Doctors ago. Maybe four Doctors ago. So, it was a while ago. Mm-hmm. He... His family actually comes from the local area that I'm from. Really? That does make sense. He has... He has... I remember they were making a big deal because I was a Scottish doctor. Mm-hmm. One of my friends.

[00:26:20] She had... She's actually met him because he showed up. Like, her family had a party. And his cousin came and brought him along with him. Nice. He's like, I met the Doctor. But this is before he became the Doctor. Oh, okay. I don't think he'd probably show up at random house parties now.

[00:26:50] No, probably not. Four minutes left. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do you have any wrap-up stuff that you want to talk about? Or want me to talk about? I don't know. See, like, I... I don't know. Like, see, I was thinking, like, oh, we'll start talking about Braveheart and then, like, go on to, like, Scottish history. And then, like, we end up talking about, like, the culture and, like, modern stuff.

[00:27:19] And I'm like, okay, this is actually more interesting than what I was anticipating. Just having a conversation. Like, um... That's why this show's called The Digressor. Well, for the most part. Um... Because it's not as structured as other podcasts. And I like that we could just kind of... Talk. At least we stayed relatively on topic. Yeah. It's so Scottish-related. I'm probably still going to call the episode Braveheart.

[00:27:49] Even though we only touched on Braveheart. Which, I have done that on other episodes where I named it something. And then, like, I, like, touched on the subject. Um, like, the Aliens and Area 51 episode. I don't think I even mentioned Area 51. Yeah. I mean, like... Yeah. I can imagine that.

[00:28:18] Like, dude. You need to go with the more clickbait-y, like, captions and stuff, don't you? Yeah. I try not to clickbait, but, you know, sometimes it helps. If I do... No. I've only done it a couple times. But, like, not, like, an extreme amount. Like, I'll reference something that's mentioned in it. And I'll say, oh, we also talk about this.

[00:28:47] I don't say, oh, the whole episode is about this. Yeah. I mean, like, you're a podcaster, so you need to try and get views. So... I don't put ads on my podcast. So, I don't monetize. Yeah, but you still want to get views. Oh, yeah. You do it to the podcast and have zero people listen to it. I mean, I've been doing this since 2020, and I only recently started getting people watching and listening.

[00:29:17] So, like... For me, it's more fun than, like... I'm not trying to become famous off of this. It's just, like, this is some fun I do. I put a lot of effort into it for something I just do for fun. And don't have a whole lot of... It's a hobby. It's a hobby. Hobbies are usually money sinks. Yeah. I have put a lot of money into this. It's like this mic I showed you. As you can see, it's not a cheap mic. It's very sexy. It is very...

[00:29:49] Yeah. One minute left. Any... Okay, I was gonna... That's gonna sound like a thread. Any last words? Not really. I don't know. I don't do that sort of thing. I've got all red now. Yeah. This is the Vicky I remember.

[00:30:23] Anyway, now it just says less than a minute, so I have no idea the exact time. So just say some final words, and then I'll just, like, add... I'll, like, tack on some... epilogue thing. Okay, I'm Vicky from Scotland, the most random person ever. I don't know. I don't know. I just phase out. I don't say goodbyes.

[00:31:24] The Rambler Network.