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@seekjustice

Glad to see that you’re back! I really missed the discussions on this thread. 🙂

Hoo boy. Since I am definitely not a purist regarding historical fiction, I do not mind most ‘small’ inaccuracies (e.g. whether this type of fabric would have been available in this place at this time). What I am more interested in is how the people of that time lived and how they think (mindsets, beliefs, characterization) so inconsistencies in that regard bother me much more. There is a common temptation to romanticise some historical figures/societies and vilify others in order to have a nice, simple Good vs Evil conflict (refer to every historical Hollywood movie ever) so you have silly things like characters having weirdly modern, democratic and liberal mindsets that, to me, are far more jarring than whether X was invented yet.

Some of the common inaccuracies that bother me are:

#1: Natives are all peaceful, nature-loving tribal people – Um. No.

#2: Pirates are cool and they only steal from greedy and rich merchants and trading companies – Nope (waves my “Merchants are people too” flag). Also, life at sea, pirate or not, is more about ‘survival’ than ‘freedom and fun’.

#3: The West brought civilization to the rest of the world which have been living in ignorance and backwardness – What.

#4: Men being perfectly content with only having one heir (even and especially if the heir is a girl) and refusing to remarry if their wife is dead in order to remain ‘faithful’ – This ignores many traditions, rules of succession and the very practical need for more hands to work the farmland (which, granted, may not always apply to all places at all times) but more gratingly, it also ignores the higher infant mortality rate and lower life expectancy (there are lots of diseases that cannot be cured without modern medicine) in historical times.

#5: Maternal deaths – Back in the day, giving birth to a child could be as dangerous as going to war. So when the hero says that he wants to have dozens of children with the heroine it’s… not really that romantic of a notion. While I note that it is a common trope for drama/angst to have the main character be labelled as either ‘precious’ or ‘unlucky’ because their mother died giving birth to them (This provides the added benefit of the writer not needing to create another parent character!), it always seems as though their situation is so unique and everyone else’s mothers are fine.