History Main / RoyalMess

* [[TheChiefsDaughter Native "princesses"]]. You've probably encountered someone who refers to their ancestor as a "Cherokee princess". Such things didn't exist, but marrying a princess of any nationality was a mark of superiority, even if that princess came from people the government was trying to exterminate.

* In 'And I Darken', Mehmed's mother Huma, upon his ascension to the throne, calls herself the 'valide Sultan', the mother of the sultan, which, in the 1450's, was a title that did not exist yet, since it was created several generations later and first used for the mother of Sulyeman the Magnifcent, Hafsa Sultan. Another point is when Halil Pasha is made vizier and his title is changed to Halil Vizier when it should have stayed Halil Pasha.

You have to be careful, of course, before criticising (if you criticise at all). Titles can shift greatly in meaning and usage across time and between countries, and so things which appear wrong might actually be okay. And for imaginary countries, of course, there's often a justification: "It just works differently here," is perfectly fine, especially if it's followed by "There are complicated historical reasons which are AllThereInTheManual." It's not as though the real world hasn't produced odd situations from time to time. Plus, of course, a large dose of "[[MST3KMantra Who the hell actually cares?]]" should be kept handy. This shouldn't be a list of criticisms so much as a list of oddities: things which are interesting in that they diverge from the expected, but which are not necessarily wrong.