Is Historical Accuracy Good or Bad?

[RobinStarwing]

Originally Posted by phil_

I don't think I'm saying anything new here, but actual historical accuracy which is actually historically accurate can add a lot of depth to a work, in that it gives fans who want to engage deeply in a work a limitless amount of background to delve into/armchair general about. Part of what makes things like Girls und Panzer so engaging is the potential for discussion on where they based things on historical reality and where they threw history out the window.

Historical accuracy as an excuse to throw in a bunch of gore, rape, and racism would fall under "bad," though. If you want gore, rape, and racism, go ahead and write that, but falling back to repeating "But it's Historically Accurate™" when any push-back happens is a weaker argument than a loud fart. See, because the historical presence of gore, rape, and racism doesn't make The Past any more of a 24/7 rape, gore, and racism-athon than The Present (where all those things are still present), so it kinda falls apart as an argument for there being any special requirement on historical works to contain or emphasize those elements. I mention this because this is what is being discussed most of the time in historical accuracy internet fights, and I'm pretty sure it's what Robin wanted to talk about when making this thread.

As far as this applies to boats... eh, we glorify every aspect of WWII enough that, even if some people don't like heroic Nazi boats, there will be an audience there willing to embrace them.

Part of it has me thinking back to World of Warships and the reason the German Vessels do not fly the flag used in WW2 for the German Navy. Thank you for the insights though. Also...they're Shipgirls.