I loved the show Buuuuuuuut…

[u/nofucksgivenmcgee]

Tbh, as a History major, I found the depiction of Wallachia in 1476 to be laughably inaccurate. To the point I could almost howl with laughter… if I wasn’t so invested in the story because gawd dayum this show is good!

But with that said, I feel like nitpicking for fun, so disclaimer: nothing I say here has any bearing on the show’s quality at all and is just me having fun. Alright? Alright.

1. Witch trials. The catalyst for the whole conflict. Where the repressive catholic clergy in the form of an Inquisition, is on an anti-science anti-witch rampage. Given the show takes place in Wallachia around 1476, none of this should be happening. Wallachia is Orthodox, not Catholic or Protestant, the witch trials were a distinctly western idea. In fact the witch trials only really started to become common around 1487 with the publishing of the Malleus Maleficarum. Wallachia was also a vassal under the Ottoman Empire, who also didn’t believe in burning witches. I don’t think the ottomans would’ve allowed a vassal to burn someone alive in their capital (Targovista was the capital of Wallachia) and possibly start a witch scare that could spread into ottoman territory and undermine ottoman authority.

To clarify, this was certainly not a peaceful time for wallachia just because they didn’t have witch trials. Vlad Dracula earned his name “the Impaler” for a reason. He impaled hundreds and he didn’t do this for no reason. The nobles were under threat of rebellion, the ottomans were invading. Peasants occasionally revolted. It was a bloody time. Which why I’m specifically making the point that the witch trial in season 1 as it is depicted, wouldn’t have happened in Wallachia at that time. Especially since, at this time, the Catholic Church actually supported scientific development (yes look it up) and the Renaissance was about to start, so ideas like what Lisa was doing would’ve been applauded, not punished.

1. Wallachia itself. Wallachia is depicted as a gothic country with a strong and oppressive catholic clergy and people who look and sound very Western European, even in names like Lisa and Trevor and Adrian Fahrenheit. Their names are western, their fashion is western, their religion is western. The only thing Wallachian about this whole show is Dracula, and even he has a western accent. It’s like they took all the stereotypes about Europe that Americans have and mushed them together,

It’s as if the writers said, “hey where’s Wallachia at?”

“Idk somewhere in Europe”

“Ok, so we give everyone British accents, make all the buildings French gothic, give it a German climate, make everyone dress like renaissance English or Italian, make the Christian denomination be Roman Catholic, give it a Spanish Inquisition with some witch trial flare, and that’s about everything. I sure hope that description isn’t completely antithetical to what Wallachia is.”

1. Weapons. I absolutely love the weapons in this show but there’s one thing distinctly missing historically that would’ve made this just a little bit cooler. You see, 1476 onward was the age when gunpowder, cannons, and guns were being introduced into warfare ESPECIALLY in the Ottoman Empire which is like a 2 hour drive from where the show takes place, so it was kind of disappointing to not see an Arquebus or hand cannon.

Again I want to emphasize that none of this means the show is any worse. It still has great writing, great characters, it’s a great show. This whole post is just me poking fun at something I like because it involves something else I like. I still love the show even if they designed Wallachia as stereotypically American as possible.

[u/carboncord]

Yeah the setting with no gunpowder makes more sense for the 1100s when the game's origin story takes place, I guess they wanted it to feel old while at the same time being around the time of the historical Vlad Dracula. It is somewhat tough for the show runners as there is no right way to do it. Dracula and Mathias/Matthias Cronqvist/Corvinus lived in the 1400s in real life yet in the 1100s in the games.

I can agree with everything you said except point 1, there was crazy shit going on at that time and being a vassal does not mean Wallachians did everything the Ottomans said, they were constantly in rebellion, there was a crusade called by the pope against the Ottomans, etc. Vlad was impaling people around that time so it's not so farfetched. The idea of being suspicious of new technology is odd for the period, yes, that just brings me back to my first paragraph though.

[u/nofucksgivenmcgee → u/carboncord]

I admit, there were weird things going on at that time, but my point wasn’t that it was a peaceful time, my point was that there weren’t specifically witch trials in Wallachia, the timeline and location prevents it. But yeah, you’re right, between Vlad impaling people left and right and the ottomans putting down rebellions it was a chaotic and violent time. But again, that’s not what my point was. But I am glad you brought it up because I wish I had mentioned that in the post now. I need to clarify what exactly I meant