History YMMV / ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire

* MagnificentBitch: [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Artemisia]] is the brutal female commander of Persia's mighty navy. Desiring [[{{Revenge}} vengeance]] on the Greeks for her past as a sex slave, Artemisia manipulates the Persian King Xerxes into becoming a God-king and declaring war on Greece while murdering all of his closest allies so that she would be the only he would trust. Winning many battles on sea and [[BadBoss killing her own men]] when they fail her, Artemisia comes to [[VillainRespect admire Athenian commander Themistocles]] and offers him a position as her lieutenant before the two have passionate sex. When Themistocles refuses, the next day Artemisia orders her men to pour oil in the sea while she shoots a fire toward Themistocles' armada, decimating his forces and nearly killing him. Learning of Themistocles' survival and battling him once more, Artemisia only loses to him due to the sudden reinforcements from Sparta and Xerxes' cowardly decision to abandon her, while she [[DefiantToTheEnd rejects Themistocles' mercy and charges at him declaring that she's ready to face death]].

* EvilIsSexy: Artemisia. She's played by Creator/EvaGreen, so it's a given.

** Scylias's skills as TheSpymaster, and his AuthorityEqualsAssKicking introduction scene n particular, arguably make him the most popular Athenian in the movie.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: For those who didn't like Dilios [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade whitewashing the Spartans' brutal training regimes]] in the last film, we get to see such a regime from a non-Spartan perspective, and there's nothing glorious about it in Themistocles' eyes: just four grown men showing that they WouldHurtAChild.
** Additionally, the Persian Immortals are shown to be normal, regular humans instead of literal monsters, and the Persians are depicted with more sympathetic qualities- Xerxes declared war on Greece to avenge his father Darius' death and due to the manipulations of Artemisia, the Persian generals are clearly disturbed by Artemisia's insanity, and the Persian ambassador basically adopted Artemisia and trained her to fight, instead of just being a rude, haughty jerk who merited being kicked down a well.

** This [[https://youtu.be/MT9a1kbXbt0 remix]] of Music/BlackSabbath's song "[[Music/{{Paranoid}} War Pigs]]," used in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pfUTwig1Yo TV ad]] for the movie and the end credits.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** Artemisia has a ton of reasons to hate the Greeks... but the movie doesn't really cover one of the biggest: King Leonidas killed the one man in Artemisia's life who ever showed her kindness in a fit of cartoonish pique. This should be a ''huge'' reason behind her need for vengeance, but it is never shown or even hinted. It's possible that the writers thought that emphasizing that reason would make her altogether too sympathetic for the antagonist.
** Also the fact that it is astounding that the producers didn't use the historical fact that the Athenians defiantly killed their own Persian messengers in the same way the Spartans did. The writers probably left this detail out to profile Athenians as more civilized than Spartans (which they really were, but in this case they were NotSoAboveItAll).
* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://time.com/17578/300-greece-persians-xerxes/ Same as the first movie]], considering all the heroes are a group of blue-eyed supermodels speaking in [[TheQueensLatin British accents]], all the villains dark-skinned Persians speaking in Middle Eastern accents, and this time the only [[TragicVillain sympathetic]] or [[VillainousValor competent]] Persian so happens to be the only Greek (i.e [[MightyWhitey White]]) woman within their ranks.

** This [[https://youtu.be/MT9a1kbXbt0 remix]] of Music/BlackSabbath's song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPD0ZBiMs0 War Pigs]]," used in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pfUTwig1Yo TV ad]] for the movie and the end credits.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The movie seems more than a bit inspired by Javier Negrete's 2008 historical novel ''Salamina'', down to specifical plot points like Xerxes participating in Marathon and acquiring a personal grudge by Themistocles' hand, Artemisia being an OnlySaneWoman who seeks a true man to stand by her side, and Themistocles and Artemisia being DatingCatwoman and having a violent nookie during an embassy at night (with her becoming a WomanScorned as a consequence).

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Many who disliked the film cited Eva Green's go-for-broke performance as one of the few legitimate bright spots.

* FoeYay: Themistocles and Artemisia have this going on between them in the film, despite having met only once.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Themistocles. Depending on who you ask he's either CrazyAwesome in his own right, a poor boring substitute for Leonidas (the protagonist of the previous film) or a decent protagonist by himself whose only crime is that he had the rotten luck of having to fill in for Leonidas.

* ContestedSequel: ''300'' was a ToughActToFollow if there was ever one, so critics were not charitable with this film. In fact, ''Rise of an Empire'' was unsurprisingly being criticized even before its release, with some voices claiming it came out too long after the first one and others claiming it simply could not be the same hit due to the status of the previous installment. Upon release, the film received certainly mixed-to-negative reviews, with many criticizing it as largely hollow, although some people did appreciate it due to its increased character depth and broader historical focus (and Eva Green's performance).

* {{Padding}}: The film makes extensive, almost excessive use of slow motion in battle scenes and [[MundaneMadeAwesome some non-battle scenes]]. It gets annoying when it happens almost constantly.

** Music/JunkieXL's soundtrack is no slouch either, making great use of a Greek lyra-like instruments in [[https://youtu.be/Xp1hRS-tH50 Artemisia's leitmotif]] and similar battle themes, accompanied by a droning sound.

* MagnificentBitch: [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Artemisia]] is the brutal female commander of Persia's mighty navy. Desiring [[{{Revenge}} vengeance]] on the Greeks for her hardship she would manipulate the Persian King Xerxes into becoming a God-king and declare war on Greece while she would murder all of his closest allies so that she'll be the only he would trust. Winning many battles on sea and [[BadBoss killing her own men]] when they fail her, she would come to [[VillainRespect admire Athenian commander Themistocles]] and offer a position as her lieutenant before the two have passionate sex. When Themistocles refuses, the next day Artemisia orders her men to pour oil in the sea while she shoots a fire toward Themistocles's way, decimating his forces and nearly killing him. Learning of Themistocles' survival and battling him once more, she only loses to him due to the sudden reinforcements from Sparta and Xerxes' decision to abandon her, where she [[DefiantToTheEnd rejects Themistocles' mercy and charges at him declaring that she's ready to face death]].

** Ephialtes. Did he remain loyal to Xerxes despite his remorse? Was he resolved to his fate as a pawn of the Emperor? Or did he return to deliver news that Themistocles was alive, [[BatmanGambit knowing it would goad Artemesia into acting rashly, thus hurting the Persian war effort.]]

* ContestedSequel: ''300'' was a ToughActToFollow if there was ever one, so critics were not charitable with this film. In fact, ''Rise of an Empire'' was unsurprisingly being criticized even before its release, with some voices claiming it came out too long after the first one and others claiming it simply could not be the same hit. Upon release, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews, with many criticizing it as largely hollow (aside from Eva Green's performance). That said, some people consider it a worthy sequel, considering it to have increased character depth and broader historical focus.

* MagnificentBitch: [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Artemesia]] is the brutal female commander of Persia's mighty navy. Desiring [[{{Revenge}} vengeance]] on the Greeks for her hardship she would manipulate the Persian King Xerxes into becoming a God-king and declare war on Greece while she would murder all of his closest allies so that she'll be the only he would trust. Winning many battles on sea and [[BadBoss killing her own men]] when they fail her, she would come to [[VillainRespect admire Athenian commander Themistocles]] and offer a position as her lieutenant before the two have passionate sex. When Themistocles refuses, the next day Artemesia orders her men to pour oil in the sea while she shoots a fire toward Themistocles's way, decimating his forces and nearly killing him. Learning of Themistocles' survival and battling him once more, she only loses to him due to the sudden reinforcements from Sparta and Xerxes' decision to abandon her, where she [[DefiantToTheEnd rejects Themistocles' mercy and charges at him declaring that she's ready to face death]].

** Artemisia has a ton of reasons to hate the Greeks... but the movie doesn't really cover one of the biggest: King Leonidas killed the one man in Artemisia's life who ever showed her kindness in a fit of cartoonish pique. This should be a ''huge'' reason behind her need for vengeance, but it is never shown or even hinted. It's possible that the writers thought that emphasizing another reason would make her altogether too sympathetic for the antagonist.

* ContestedSequel[=/=]ToughActToFollow: ''300'' was too much to try to match, so critics were not charitable with this film. In fact, ''Rise of an Empire'' was unsurprisingly being criticized even before its release, with some voices claiming it came out too long after the first one and others claiming it simply could not be the same hit. Upon release, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews, with many criticizing it as largely hollow (aside from Eva Green's performance). That said, some people consider it a worthy sequel, considering it to have increased character depth and broader historic focus.

* FoeYay: Themistocles and Artemisia had this going on between them in the film, despite having met only once.

* JerkassWoobie: You can't help but feel sorry for Artemesia after her very tragic backstory is revealed.

** This film upgrades Dilios's "against mysticism and tyranny" expression almost to official creed level, with characters quoting it verbatim. Okay, tyranny is a scary thing, but mysticism? (Even if it is probably referring to theocracy/religious intolerance, it is still ambiguous in its phrasing.)

** There was also a nightmare that Themistocles had after he suffered a major defeat at sea at Artemisium. He dreamt that he was in the water with several of his men when two... for lack of a better word, sea-monsters emerged from the depths and began eating them. One of them notices Themistocles and decides to eat him. All in ''first person perspective?''

* RootingForTheEmpire: Thanks to Artemisia and Xerxes's expanded backgrounds, this movie does a lot to show that not only the Spartans are beloved, as there are quite a bunch of people who may or may not directly root for Persia, but at least for the two characters.