[oisdk]

> extremely elastic view of “like medieval Europe”.

No. Westeros is based on medieval Europe, culturally, politically, and historically. Obviously it's fiction, well done on spotting that, but it's a fictionalised version of medieval Europe.

> Undeniably? Based on...what evidence?

I'm sorry, do I have to provide you with evidence that media impacts people's perception of things?

[dragonwriter]

> Westeros is based on medieval Europe

Inspired rather loosely by remixing elements of that with other historical sources (e.g., Palestine—modern Palestine, specifically, IIRC—is explicitly identified by GRRM as part of the inspiration for Dorne.) Then leavened with a hefty dose of fantasy (part of the “realism” reputation the series has is that the fantasy elements aren’t bolt-ons that don’t fundamentally effect the rest of the setting.)

> I’m sorry, do I have to provide you with evidence that media impacts people’s perception of things?

There’s a pretty big difference between these claims:

(1) media impacts people’s perception of things

vs.

(2) AGoT undeniably has a massive impact on people’s perception of medieval Europe

[oisdk]

Game of Thrones is medieval fantasy, and as the second-biggest medieval fantasy series of all time it will have a significant impact on people's perception of the medieval time period.

I think that claim is pretty uncontroversial, which is why I didn't provide "evidence" for it, and also I get the sense that I'd be wasting my time in arguing with you about it when you throw out silly pedantries like "oh well dorne is based on palestine".

[dragonwriter]

> Game of Thrones is medieval fantasy, and as the second-biggest medieval fantasy series of all time it will have a significant impact on people's perception of the medieval time period.

I'm sure that, of relatively modern fantasy series, it will have one of the largest impacts while it remains popular. What I don't see is evidence that it (or even the #1 modern medieval fantasy series) has much impact (I would accept, without specific evidence, that it has non-zero impact) on perceptions of the medieval period on an absolute scale, rather than relative to other modern overtly fantastic literature not specifically tied to history which also may not have much absolute impact.

Now, clearly fantasy has some impact; things like post-medieval Arthurian stories have been a vehicle for transmitting a lot of misconceptions about the medieval period. But those presented themselves as history and tied to specific times and places in history, they weren’t overt fantasy set in an obviously-invented setting that was merely inspired by a mix of history and historical mythology.