It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Mary Queen of Scots was killed by Elizabeth I for being Catholic. She was killed because she hopelessly misread just about every situation she found herself in after she left France, and played the game of thrones like Joffrey but with less self awareness. 

Elizabeth spent 20 years…

It doesn’t surprise me. Even the parts that Martin got right are probably coming from an outdated view of the Middle Ages, from back when he was first writing it (in the 1990s). It’s also heavily colored by historical fiction about the middle ages, especially the Cursed Kings series (for which Martin wrote a…

Olga was 'fierce but fair'.

I think this places a bit too much blame on the Victorians.  Much of our (mis)understanding of the Middle Ages dates to Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century who made up a bunch of things about how stupid and uncivilized the Middle Ages were to make themselves look better by comparison (for instance, the whole…

And you’d be as wrong as the rest, in that both GRRM and the showrunners have explicitly defended the series as reflecting medieval realities whenever issues of gender, diversity, etc. are brought up.

He says it, and his fans believe it in enough numbers that many pieces like this have been written by historians trying, futilely as usual, to hold back the tide of misinformation that separates us from the public on historical topics.

There’s also a huge tendency to think of Medieval England and France and project that into other regions with distinct political cultures and sometimes wildly different social orders. Medieval Spain undergoes a period of French influence that brings them more into line with what people think of as “Medieval Society”,…

I had no idea he said that. I also don’t buy it (his statement, not your pointing it out).  I knew he is trying to subvert the conventions of fantasy, which is hardly new given what Howard, Moorcock and Vance (to name a few) were writing ages ago. The idea that the books are a realistic portrait of Medieval life seems …

I’m not going to continue to argue with you in two separate threads, but I do accept that you are not a sock puppet.

Oh, now we’re coming in with the fallacies! But, I mean, all you have to do is look at my post history to realize that’s preposterous.

I’m not sure what else there was to say initially. The thesis was right there. It literally contextualized what the article was about.

Poorly framed? Sure. But her argument is literally “People use this to justify misogyny in Game of Thrones. This is why that argument doesn’t hold water”. Seriously, that’s the text, and it largely exists as the ability to convey a history lesson.

Maybe you think the point that she’s refuting is silly (she clearly does…

This isn’t a “gotcha” article about what Game of Thrones “got wrong”. It’s literally just “Let’s use this pop cultural thing as a springboard to talk about history!”.

No. You didn’t point out why her argument is bullshit.

You turned an exercise in historical learning, one contextualized around the Game of Thrones universe, into an excuse to call the writer wrong. There is no “wrong” here unless she gets the facts about life in the Middle Ages wrong, because her arguments were

1) This…

No. My point is that the author’s argument is “This is a popular conception. Here’s why it’s wrong”.

That is a perfectly valid transition into what’s essentially an “Isn’t that neat” historical discussion that uses a pop culture phenomenon to draw readers in.

As for the general sexism of the Game Of Thrones world, criticism on that front has been met with a standard response when critiquing mistreatment of women: a shrug and a “Well, it’s historically accurate for the Middle Ages.” Game Of Thrones, as the most popular pop culture offering drawing heavily from Middle Age…

George RR Martin has gone on the record (to no end) about how his books are based on an “accurate” reflection of Medieval society, rather than cherry-picking elements of it.

Men are taught that women are supposed to conform to their fantasies above all else, and get very angry when women demonstrate that they believe otherwise.

Too bad multiple people have been using the claim that it’s base on medieval history as an excuse for its misogyny then.

To be fair St. Olga of Kiev did set an entire city on fire by tying flammable material to the feet of pigeons and releasing them back to their nests (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev).

“...and not once did any of them burn an enemy city to the ground, literally or metaphorically.”

Olga of Kiev?