In all honesty: if vaguely historical elements get you excited to learn the actual history that your favorite video game/show/novel/comic book/etc draws from, then I am glad for it.
It’s not about what “gets you into” history, it’s about what you learn once you’re there. I think the danger of the modern (mostly US in my experience) school system is that we belittle people for choosing the “wrong” ways to find their passions, interests, and subjects for learning. You’d be amazed to find out what you can approach or be introduced to in less traditional means.
Children who hate “reading books” but like comic books? Should be exposed to comic books with quality narratives, comics written after classics, etc, not just told to “suck it up and read”. Folks who watch Avatar the Last Airbender, and want to know more about the writing they see the characters reading would do well to learn about Chinese calligraphy in history, or to look up asian art, or to go further and view the way buddhist ideals are referenced. People who are passionate about Bollywood films might find they’re passionate about Indian culture as a whole, might want to know the historical precedent for ideas or attitudes they’re exposed to.
Put it another way (with a western focus): approximately how many people went to see Les Miz and then thought, “Well, I might want to know a little bit about French History to really grasp what that was based on.”?
So one of my favorite films is Red Cliff, and many of my Chinese friends told me it was historically inaccurate and was thus displeasing. Well, true, the accuracy isn’t fantastic, but on the whole, I enjoyed the films anyways, and then went and learned about the actual battle at Red Cliff. You can separate fact and fiction, and you can recognize games/shows/movies/etc aren’t historically accurate but still want to know what the truth behind all that was.
Academic snobbery has an unfortunate habit of stifling intellectual curiosity if it comes from “low culture” first. But we’re all exposed to popular culture all the time, in many ways. If you choose to use your pop culture interests as a springboard for your intellectual curiosity because you know those aren’t historically accurate - that is, you seek out real sources, academics, books, scholarly works, etc - then I see nothing wrong with it at all.
In fact, by doing so, you’ve chosen to make yourself a critical, intelligent, analytical, and curious human being, which I would argue is the basis of all learning.
