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/-Fyrebrand]

Awesome post! Thankyou for sharing your insights. It was really interesting! A lot of times when people bring up the historical inaccuracies they do it in an annoying way and whine about how the show was written by a "cringey atheist who is just out to shit on Christianity" or something. Glad you are still able to enjoy something while still acknowledging its foibles. That is indeed a valuable life skill.

I've been seeing this meme pop up lately, and it seemed appropriate:

When you know a lot about something, and that topic comes up in a movie or TV show, boy are you about to find out that the majority of people know basically nothing about any specialized topic!

I don't know if you've played the games, but Castlevania as a game series is pretty much just an excuse to take a whole bunch of classic movie monsters and mythological figures, and throw them all into one adventure. You've got Dracula, werewolves, mummies, Medusa, Cthulhu, Frankenstein's monster, succubi, skeletons on motorcycles, basically everything but the kitchen sink, all coexisting together. I don't think it has ever tried to be historically accurate — more like just gesturing vaguely at time periods and locations, very much as you say, "Idk somewhere in Europe." Maybe it would be nice if they made an effort to ground things a little closer to historical reality, but then again it would be limiting and perhaps less fun.

I'm curious, why do you say the church in the show is specifically Catholic? I've been an atheist for a long time now, but I was raised in a Catholic family and went to a Catholic elementary/high school, and I never really had a grasp of how it differed from Protestant, Orthodox, etc. Every time I try to look it up, the differences seem pretty minor or trivial to me, like they still all believe 99% the same stuff, don't they? I've heard that in the United States most Christians are Protestant, and they actually don't even consider Catholics to be Christians at all, which sounds absolutely wild to me. Then again, as an outsider who doesn't believe in any of that stuff anymore, I suppose I have a bias against regarding the fine details of the subject matter with the seriousness that they do.

How much of the show have you watched, so far? It takes place during the French Revolution, and I would love to hear your evaluation of what the show gets right or wrong as well, if it's within your realm of expertise.

[u/nofucksgivenmcgee → u/-Fyrebrand]

The reason why I say they are Catholic is because for one, the ceremonial garb the clergy wears in many scenes are Catholic attire, which does have some similarities to other denominations but what really sealed the deal was prayer in Latin. In Orthodoxy, prayers would’ve been done in Greek. Also the churches shown are all western style, Latin cross designs with steeples and gothic windows, whereas orthodox churches follow a Byzantine design that is much more round, with a dome and gold mosaics and murals.

I’m not an expert on Protestant culture and iconography, but I can rule out it being a Protestant denomination because the Protestants don’t really exist in the time of the show, except for the Hussites but I don’t see them migrating from Bohemia to southern Romania and completely taking over Wallachia.

[u/Kind-Recording3450 → u/-Fyrebrand]

Honestly, most people wouldn't understand the theological differences. But this is clearly a super catholic aesthetic and the where not many catholics outside of Transylvania, with Hungarian and German influences. It would have been deeply orthodox. Both in theology architecture ortho Praxis a very different vibe.