If you could travel back in time.... And be someone....?

Soldato
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Probably wouldn't help in practice.

At the end of the day, the choices you make are as a result of your circumstances rather than your knowledge.

But you'll be repeating your circumstances hence make small different decisions. The biggest regreat was when i was 19 and didn't take a certain offer and had a great cpuple of months with someone. Most of the changes would be with girls and not be so uptight and have more fun. Also choose different subjects in my A-Levels and get better grades

And foreknowledge might even make things worse for you.

Anybody remember the TNG episode where Q does just this to Picard and it turns out to be a poison chalice?

I don't believe that
 
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Wow - what a great question.

Joan of Arc. I can pretty much single that out as my definite answer above all others. Though no doubt there'll be some great ideas in this thread that would tempt me.

EDIT: Her whole life, start to finish, every moment.
 
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I'm not religious but I think it would have to be Jesus. I'd just have to see what that was all about.

There's a commonality between our picks which is that they were both seemingly ordinary people who seem to have just one day said: "I can change the world" and then did so. The historical evidence around Jesus is a bit more uncertain than Joan of Arc but he likely existed and some of the events are likely true.

I find Joan of Arc fascinating. A 17 year old peasant girl took it upon herself to travel to the King of France and announce that God had sent her to deliver France from the English.

There was a great film with Mia Jovovich and Dustin Hoffman about her which has always remained with me, especially the harrowing end scenes in prison exploring the lines between madness and the divine.
 
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As a man, Enoch Powell, one of the finest orators of modern times. As a woman ex Queen Noor of Jordan, good looking, wealthy, and as sharp as a pin and a lovely person to boot. But as she's very much alive perhaps she doesn't count? In that case Lady Thatcher in her prime and see what it's like to be both feted and hated whilst in the centre of UK government.
 
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Genghis Khan, so I can be the most alpha man that has ever lived.
My dude, I don't think you've met robgmun :mad:

No but real talk for a second. I'd be Justin Timberlake. Boy got it going on. Articulate, well versed on socio-economic policies as they apply to nation states, valued member of many think tanks, master craftsman, top-tier hunter-gatherer, and now married to Hailey Baldwin.

That, right over there, is the place on which my hat is put on the head of him.
 
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I think it would be a choice between Alexander the Great, Hannibal Barca or Leonidas, great military minds and leaders of men would be interesting to be part of those historical events as the central figures.

Oh, Hannibal Barca's a good one. If I could be him with some of my current knowledge, I'd make sure to have proper reinforcements from Carthage right after Cannae...and then I'd try an attack/siege on Rome. I'd probably fail miserably but I'd try. If successful, that'd surely be a massive change to world history and modern times.
 
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:eek:
being burnt alive?

Yes. If I can choose it in the abstract and then lose the option to back out, might as well go out experiencing something you've never experienced before. Obviously if it were voluntary in the moment, I wouldn't have the fortitude to do it. The courage Joan showed is almost unimaginable. Her trial was one of the most egregiously biased courts in history. They burned her three times, by the way. After burning her to death tied to a pillar, they raked back the coals to expose the charred body so that nobody could claim she escaped. Then they burned her a second time and when that wasn't enough to have completely obliterated her remains, they burned her a third time and swept her ashes into the Seine. She asked two priests to hold up crucifixes before her as she was set light to and the executioner said afterwards he feared he was damned.

People tend to think anyone back past a certain point in history is semi-myth and that we can't be certain of the facts. But an incredible amount was written about Joan of Arc at the time and still survives. She was probably the most documented person of her day. There are testimonials from generals about what she was like in battle and her command over the troops.
 
Man of Honour
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Yes. If I can choose it in the abstract and then lose the option to back out, might as well go out experiencing something you've never experienced before. Obviously if it were voluntary in the moment, I wouldn't have the fortitude to do it. The courage Joan showed is almost unimaginable. Her trial was one of the most egregiously biased courts in history. They burned her three times, by the way. After burning her to death tied to a pillar, they raked back the coals to expose the charred body so that nobody could claim she escaped. Then they burned her a second time and when that wasn't enough to have completely obliterated her remains, they burned her a third time and swept her ashes into the Seine. She asked two priests to hold up crucifixes before her as she was set light to and the executioner said afterwards he feared he was damned.

People tend to think anyone back past a certain point in history is semi-myth and that we can't be certain of the facts. But an incredible amount was written about Joan of Arc at the time and still survives. She was probably the most documented person of her day. There are testimonials from generals about what she was like in battle and her command over the troops.

Nearly at the end of The Messenger where she's on trial with the English
 
Soldato
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Nearly at the end of The Messenger where she's on trial with the English

The Messenger is a great film that I enjoyed a lot. Dustin Hoffman as Jesus / Satan / Her Madness (whatever he is) is great and it's tortuous seeing her faith vivisected like that. I guess I find the film powerful because I never forget that this is a real person it's about. That said, the film takes a LOT of liberties with historical fact. In particular (because the film focuses on it so much), the finding of the sword in a field wasn't what was documented. It was found buried under a church altar.

Regardless of one's religious faith or not, her story is staggering and oddly one of the more well-documented series of historical events we have before the modern era

Ooh, you send me... driving in the rush hour!
Leelee Sobieski was still hotter in the same role, though.

This person?
her-next-batch-of-movies-were-very-low-key-1508436263.jpg


I'd never heard of her. Apparently Helen Hunt's daughter. Seems she started off fine and then her career was tanked by a few bombing movies. According to IMDB she's appearing in such blockbusters as "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege tale", these days. Fame is a fickle mistress for someone with such a pedigree. :( Is the mini-series any good? I really should watch it.
 
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