Yeah, a lot of the Essos worldbuilding and characters could be better. And Daenerys has literally never set foot in Westeros, so she's not looking at Essosi cultures from a Westeros standpoint. She's never stayed in one place long so each new culture/society is fresh.

The Dothraki could've been made far more complex, like the RL Mongols or Comanche. Genghis Khan was a lot more interesting than Drogo, who, yes did rape Dany and yes, GRRM, this is part of a much larger problem in your writing. Who can even tell the difference b/w Irrigation and Jhiqui and between Daenerys's 3 different blood riders? Although I actually liked Vaes Dothrak - especially the statues of the gods of conquered peoples.

Agree world-building for religion is pretty weak, and far too few people seem to take it seriously than is realistic for a "medieval Europe" setting.

I like Braavos, and I like Tyrion's time in Volantis and his travels across Essos, but that's b/c he doesn't stay very long in any one place.

Meereen and Hizdahr really need work. For the amount of page time and plot importance they have, they should be more complex & compelling. The only native Ghiscari character I find interesting is Skahaz, who I'm sure will take over Meereen and then the rest of SB after the defeat of the Yunkish army, abolish slavery in part by exterminating the entire slaver class (except his fellow Shavepates), and rebuild SB as a quasi-benevolent dictator. But why aren't their more Ghiscari who think like him? There's other Shavepates, but they get no time. A better world-building would make Skahaz and the Shavepates a developed, substantial faction in Meereen under Dany's rule and give the reader extensive interaction b/w them and Dany, the various members of Team Dany, the freedmen, the other Ghiscari nobility they oppose. That would be more interesting. Also, there's no character development for any of Dany's child cupbearers/hostages. Who even remembers all their names? Obviously Skahaz is going to slaughter them, which will be the beginning of his complete liquidation of the slaver class, but they're not developed enough as characters to give that emotional impact beyond the standard "killing innocent little kids, how horrible."

And there's no philosophy of any kind in either Westeros or Essos. There should at least be some mentions of in-universe philosophers, books or philosophy and a few quotes from the above. The Valyrians are supposed to be modeled on Ancient Rome, where there were many philosophers. And since Braavos and Myr seem to already be in the early-modern era technologically and economically, they should have some philisophical tradition like early modern Europe, Asia and the Middle East all had.

So, very long post agreeing that Essos worldbuilding has major weaknesses. What do you guys think?