History Film / ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire

** Artemisia curses the Greek weather as the navy approaches the shore. In Film/ThreeHundred, this same weather sunk a good portion of the ships approaching the Hot Gates.

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: If someone is leading people, expect that someone to be a total badass in combat. Themistocles is the leader of the Athenian soldiers and their best warrior. Artemisia is the finest warrior in all of Persia. Even one of Artemisia's commanders is shown felling multiple Greeks by himself when his back's to the wall.

* YourSizeMayVary: Xerxes' height varies quite a bit in the series. In the original ''300'' he was unusually tall, but his height was still reasonable for, say, a Harlem Globetrotter. In ''Rise of an Empire'', he sometimes seems to be a good 10-12 feet tall, which is much taller than humanly possible and seems to be a hint that he really is a god-like being.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: If someone is leading people, expect that someone to be a total badass in combat. Themistocles is the leader of the Athenian soldiers and their best warrior. Artemisia is the finest warrior in all of Persia. Even one of Artemisia's commanders is shown felling multiple Greeks by himself when his back's to the wall.

It covers the Second [[UsefulNotes/GrecoPersianWars Greco-Persian War]] in the aftermath of the battle of Thermopylae, with particular focus on Xerxes, his ally [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_I_of_Caria Queen Artemisia]] (Creator/EvaGreen), [[LadyOfWar the female commander]] of the Persian fleet, and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Salamis naval battle of Salamis]]. It also introduces [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themistocles Themistocles]] (Creator/SullivanStapleton) and the Athenians, and Callisto (Creator/JackOConnell). Creator/RodrigoSantoro, Creator/LenaHeadey and Creator/DavidWenham all reprise their roles from the first film.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300-naissance-dun-empire-poster_3548.jpeg]]

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Artemisia spends much of the film searching for "someone to stand at my side". She offers this to Themistocles, but he denies her. [[CoitusEnsues After sex, of course.]]

* CoitusEnsues: Artemisia seduces Themistocles at one point, leading to some [[DestructoNookie particularly violent sex]].

* DoubleEntendre: Themistocles and Artemesia's one-on-one conversation started as this until CoitusEnsues.

* AnAxeToGrind: Xerxes uses a big fancy one to behead the corpse of Leonidas. He ordered this done in real life, and the corpse was also crucified.

* TookALevelInBadass: In the first movie, Queen Gorgo was mostly a passive observer who literally whored herself out to a politician in an attempt to gain senate support for Leonidas. Now she's shown as an elite warrior queen who personally leads a charge into battle.

* TheQuisling: Aside from being rescued and raised by Persians, Artemesia's misfortune at Greece courtesy of her own countrymen is what drives her to side with the Persians.

* BelligerentSexualTension: The FoeYay between Themistocles and Artemesia is very, ''very'' evident.

* MarriedToTheJob: Both Themistocles and Artemesia are too devoted to their duties to find time for romance, which probably adds more to their [[FoeYay sexual tension]].

* AbsenteeActor: Even though Leonidas appears in archive footage and is mentioned as being an important figure in the story, no new footage is shown of the character. In spite of this, most of the characters from the first movie end up reappearing in flashbacks of their own. Creator/GerardButler was actually offered to come back and reprise the role of Leonidas but he declined.

* BelatedBackstory: The Persian messenger that Leonidas kicked at the beginning of the first film is revealed to be the man who rescued Artemesia and the one who taught her to fight.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Greeks and Spartans again.
** In particular Themistocles, who, in real life, defected to the Persians a few years after the war.

* SlaveGalley: Averted with the Greeks; though they don't seem to fare well in such conditions, it is historical fact that Greeks especially Athenians preferred Free Men to row the triremes because of their greater loyalty and lesser chances of causing mutiny. In contrast, the Persian rowers are slaves, chained to their posts and whipped to continue.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Persian empire is on the receiving end of this again. Also It's doubtful that Queen Artemisia was this psychotic in real life where she just happened to be the queen of one of Xerxes's satraps who took his side in the Greco-Persian wars. Another mention must be made of King Darius I, who invades because of his hatred of Athenian freedoms, not because he was getting a mite sick of Athenian-sponsored revolts in his home town as per reality.

* FreudianExcuse: The movie gives Xerxes one, having witnessed the death of his father by the hands of the Greek.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Her misfortune at Greece courtesy of her own countrymen is what drives Artemesia to side with the Persians and be hell bent on destroying Greece.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Xerxes really built a bridge out of ships to cross into Greece. As a curiosity, after his first attempt collapsed, he ordered the ocean to be ''whipped'' in a symbolic act.

** You may have a hard believing that the Persian Empire had a female as commander of its navy, but Artemisia was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_I_of_Caria a real person]]. It could be said the film actually downplays this aspect, as she is the only female shown in the palace scenes, while in real life Achaemenid kings employed an entire 300-women AmazonBrigade to guard them and their harems.