Assassin's Creed: Valhalla cosplayer resurrects ancient meme

A hunky viking getting ready to wig out.
(Image credit: Maul Cosplay)

One of the classic early-ish internet memes is the Technoviking, a video featuring an extremely buff man at Berlin’s quaintly-named Fuckparade in 2000. It’s hard to describe, because the appeal of this particular moment in time is wondering whether it’s real or staged - at certain times the ‘choreography’ is almost too perfect. But judging by the fact the Technoviking himself later sued the video’s creator, I’m guessing it wasn’t fake. Here’s the original (re-uploaded because of that court case). 

An equally hunky individual is the cosplayer Maul, who has been working on some sort of live-action Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla advert. Yes he’s being paid by Ubisoft to promote the game in some respect, so I’m a sucker, but if you’re going to assemble a medieval village and all these fine costumes then, well, doing a Technoviking tribute just seems like making the most of it.

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What makes this is the attention to detail, whether that’s replacing a water bottle with a mead flagon or the iconic ‘point’ that warns his fellow man away. Whatever its origins (geddit), this is a fine tribute to one of the primordial memes.  

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."