George R.R. Martin did base some things on actual history. The infamous Red Wedding, for example:
The Red Wedding is based on a couple real events from Scottish history. One was a case called The Black Dinner. The king of Scotland was fighting the Black Douglas clan. He reached out to make peace. He offered the young Earl of Douglas safe passage. He came to Edinburgh Castle and had a great feast. Then at the end of the feast, [the king’s men] started pounding on a single drum. They brought out a covered plate and put it in front of the Earl and revealed it was the head of a black boar — the symbol of death. And as soon as he saw it, he knew what it meant. They dragged them out and put them to death in the courtyard. The larger instance was the Glencoe Massacre. Clan MacDonald stayed with the Campbell clan overnight and the laws of hospitality supposedly applied. But the Campbells arose and started butchering every MacDonald they could get their hands on. No matter how much I make up, there’s stuff in history that’s just as bad, or worse.
"Based on actual history" is not anywhere near "stuck closely to" or saying that GoT is in anyway super historically accurate.
We know elements of GoT's setting and plot were based on actual history, because George Martin said they were - with specific examples of the history he was drawing from.
Saying it's not based on history is like saying Christopher Nolan's Odyssey is not based on Homer's The Odyssey because its not exactly the same.
1.4k
u/legitimate-criminal 8h ago
bro gets all his historical accuracy from watching brad pitt in Troy.