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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   1753 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 28, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Well sure, I do get that Dothraki are based on the Mongols while Braavos is based on Venice. But the way its portrayed in the books and especially the show is... not great. ACOUP has a whole series about the Dothraki: https://acoup.blog/2020/12/04/collections-that-dothraki-horde-part-i-barbarian-couture/ saying that "The complex patterns of a war-shirt becomes a simple vest (which then becomes a collection of crude leather belly-straps that have more in common with bondage gear than with clothing." I can't recall a single scene from the shows of them using a bow. They certainly never use gunpowder or siege engines like the mongols did. mostly they use whips which just... LOL.

Venice seems cool but, like you said they were limited in their power. Braavos seems to have unlimited weath and mercenary manpower in addition to technology and actual magic.

90% sure they use bows in the loot train attack

You're right, they do use bows occasionally. But so what, everyone else has bows too.

Yeah obviously they are flanderized version of the real life cultures, but I don't think that authentic clothing matters that much. They do commonly use bows in the books. And while ACOUP has pedantic in its name it's still too nitpicky, not to mention ideologically captured to be a good source of critique. Like can you imagine there is no description of Dothraki art and music, that means that Martin is racist and/or ignorant, not that it just isn't very interesting thing to focus on.

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