 Greetings, laddingtons! I am checking in from the Forest of Enlightenment. I want to share some thoughts on Vlad Dracula. Now, as most of you probably have seen already, I did post a longer podcast episode about a man and his times. One hour, 17 minutes. Available first link in the description box below. Now, I want to give you two reasons why Vlad Dracula, despite his fearsome reputation, he's still seen as a national hero in Romania, and during his time he was a hero to the common population of Wallachia. Now, first and foremost, a technicality. You might have noticed that I refer to him as Vlad Dracula, so the son of the dragon, instead of Vlad Zeppesh, which means Vlad the Impaler. Now, I'm not saying that he was a good boy who didn't do anything wrong. He did impale a lot of people, so I do believe that the name the Impaler is warranted, in my humble opinion at least, that there's more to his character and to his life than impaling people. And I want to highlight the heroic aspects of him instead of focusing on the negative sides, which is of course highlighted if you name him Vlad Zeppesh the Impaler. So that's why I say Vlad Dracula instead. Now, anyway, two reasons he was popular among the common population of Wallachia and later in Romania. Now, reason number one, when Vlad came to power, Wallachia was a place of chaos, criminality and corruption. He put an end to it in a brutal fashion, but he still put an end to it. He also put an end to the reign of terror of the boyars, so the nobility class, and that of course endeared him to the common population who had been prey to the boyars for a long time. So law and order for those who obeyed the law, not as fun for those who didn't obey the law. So classical strong leader. Second reason was that he put an end to a certain tribute to the Ottoman Empire. So the Ottoman Empire, they demanded tribute from their conquered territories in the Balkans, a tribute of young boys who would become Janissaries, so the elite troops of the Ottomans. Vlad said enough is enough, and you can imagine if you have families in Wallachia who no longer need to send their young boys as slave soldiers to foreign power, that will of course endear him to the common population. This would eventually provoke a counter-reaction from the Ottomans, along with some raiding on the part of Vlad, but that's a contributing factor and his long struggle against the Ottomans can also be seen as a reason why he's a national hero in Romania to this day and why he was popular among the Wallachians of the day. Then of course he had many detractors back then as well, because again he was a brutal leader. But anyway, those are the two reasons why he was popular and is popular today, that he brought law and order to a country in chaos and he stood up against a foreign aggressor and oppressor. So anyway, thank you for watching, check out all the links in the description box below. If you want to hear more about Vlad, check out the latest podcast episode. Now, XOXO, BOOM!