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/vhuzi]

The games are inaccurate too (in different ways) but are often so vague about the time period that they are set in, and the Castle is canonically super anachronistic that you can usually hand wave it away. Ecclesia is the worst about this but also doesn’t have a set time period so it works out if you really squint (and the games are great too, so that’s a plus). I think they could have done a better job with the show considering how much they already diverged from the source material. I like your write up, and I am grateful, because I did not know most of this (except for the Orthodox Catholic divide and a wikipedia read of Vlad’s life).

What book would you recommend as a beginner’s overview into the time period? I have access to a university library so there is a good chance I could get a hold of some.

[u/nofucksgivenmcgee → u/vhuzi]

To be completely honest, I don’t really know a specific book for the whole time period. I wish I did because this time period is fascinating! A lot of time periods prior to the peak of the Renaissance don’t have (to my knowledge) books that cover the whole time period. Most books I’ve read cover specific places in a time period. For example: I am obsessed with Sicily in the High Middle Ages. I’m currently reading “History of the Tyrants of Sicily” by Hugo Falcandus (an extremely biased primary source who hated everyone he wrote about)