The national rugby union team of New Zealand, the All Blacks, traditionally perform a haka before their international rugby matches. War hakas were traditionally performed by Maori warriors before battle, in order to intimidate their opposition and show their strength and prowess. Amazingly enough the All Blacks started performing hakas all the way back to 1884, when they first toured overseas.
Here are the All Blacks before a match against England:
Here are two more amusing videos of the All Blacks performing a haka, though both are against the national team of Tonga, another country with tribal roots. And the Tonga team responds with a war dance of their very own!
The white All Blacks player at the head of this haka below totally cracks me up:
PvP has been on my mind a lot lately because I am grinding towards the 50,000 HK achievement. I have about 2,500 kills to go. I think if you get 50k HKs as an alliance toon, you should get some sort of extra credit for the achievement compared to getting it as Horde. Seriously.
But can't you just imagine performing a haka before your next AB or WSG or Strands match? =) Heck, the alliance could use anything to help us in our bgs... /sigh.
Awesome videos, Ker!!! The first Haka I ever saw was on the Lord of the Rings extended dvd, the behind-the-scenes stuff. A bunch of cast members performed one for Bernard Shaw and Vigo Mortensen, saying they were "Kings and Warriors" and gave them Maori spears as gifts, too. It was just amazing.
ReplyDeleteYou know, if Blizz ever did the dance studio they've talked about in the past, hakas could be designed!
Hahahah...I returned Friday from 18 days in New Zealand. The country has Rugby fever: Not only is it the national sport, but NZ is hosting the Rugby World Cup in November.
ReplyDeleteEvery single gift and souvenir shop we visited had mementos of the All Blacks.
And yes, we saw hakas!
@Kayeri: Oh I bet a huge cast doing one would look pretty awesome!
ReplyDelete@Kestrel: What a coincidence! Unfortunately I don't know too much about rugby other than they crouch in formations and push each other... sometimes some guy lifts up a guy to catch a ball... and they throw the ball sideways or backwards... and rugby players look like guys you wouldn't want to mess with.
It must have been amazing to see a haka in person!
I really loved the videos. I was completely ignorant of the hakas and was delighted to learn about them.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't huge... 20, maybe 30 at the most, they had played orcs/urik'hai (sp?) and many were of Maori descent. One, in particular, he played Gothmog and the Witch King of Angmar both. Peter Jackson liked him because he could get facial expression to show through Gothmog's heavy facial prosthetics and makeup.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, Bernard HILL (not Shaw, sorry) and Viggo drove this huge RV that had never moved around the set on one of the last production days, then this guy called them out for the Haka and it was SO cool! You should rent the dvd, it was the extended version of the Return of the King. You'll have to dig through the behind the scenes stuff to find it, though. I do remember him telling them that Hakas (at that time) were only performed for visiting dignitaries, royalty and such. I guess the King of Gondor and the King of Rohan qualified... ::chuckle::