Solid video overall, as always from GeorgGreat, but I heavily disagree with his interpretation of the game's themes. He states at one point that the tyranny of U5 is a direct result of the Avatar setting too high a standard in U4. I believe you've commented on this yourself before, Bruma Hobo, and I recall reading a post from you claiming that U5's plot was Garriott trying to tear down U4's spirituality in favor of a more cynical worldview (apologies if I'm mixing you up with someone else). So, you might agree with Georg's take, just that you think it was a poor direction while Georg thinks it was a good one. I entirely disagree with this view of U5's story, though. I think it's just reading too much into it. It was a completely foreign influence (The Shadowlords) that caused the events of U5. It's literally evil demons from the depths of hell corrupting the "religion" of Britannia - it's not the ideas of U4 themselves which caused the problem. Georg would have you believe that U5 would have happened as a natural consequence of the Avatar's quest rather than being caused by this outside influence (perhaps he should have waited until U6 to make this point). The Avatar's journey in U4 is never criticized, and the virtue of the Avatar himself is not questioned - that is, unless you follow the Oppression path, which is entirely optional (Georg seemed to believe that joining the Oppression was mandatory, which perhaps painted his view of the game's events) - it's possible for the Avatar to maintain his virtue completely throughout the game.
The fact that such options are available is indicative of U5's more dire tone, though. Georg says once that while U4 was a bunch of high-minded philosophy in a time of peace, while U5 focuses less on that philosophy due to a more pressing and more physical concern. I agree with this, but it doesn't mean that virtue is thrown out altogether in favor of complete amoral pragmatism. If I recall correctly, you can't even complete U5 without your karma level above a certain threshold. Even in the time of Blackthorn's tyranny, the Avatar doesn't just throw away the ideals he held in U4 - even in U6, where the quest of the Avatar itself actually is questioned and looked at from another perspective, the virtues themselves are not discarded.
Georg also makes too much of U5's dark tone, in my opinion. He's right that the music does somewhat change the tone, and I played U5 with the music my first time, so that's definitely painting what I think of the game. But it's also true that the music was intentionally put into the game by the developers - it's even the first appearance of "Stones". So if the music paints a certain tone, then that means that it's the tone that was intended by Origin. U5 isn't nearly as dreary as Georg makes out, and he all but admits that you need to completely discard this element of the game in order to support his perspective of the tone.
My least favorite line in the video goes something like "Ultima 4 is like reading the Bible, while Ultima 5 is like reading the history of the medieval inquisition." It shows that he's never read the Bible (as expected of a Frenchman) - the Bible probably records more bloodshed than anything that happened in any inquisition.
