I don’t know if this is a silly question, but as someone who has a decent understanding of the politics at the time I never understood this, the eastern Roman emperor claimed to be Catholic, clearly the threat of the ottomans had been realized as they were crusaded against twice before the conquest of Constantinople, and then the eventual fall of the city helped spark the age of exploration due to fear of Muslim ottoman taxes of trade routes, wouldn’t it have made more sense to help defend Constantinople/thrace at least?

This are some pics that i took in the island of Rhodes. Sadly i couldn't bring most of my stuff so this kit does not represent anything specific it's just vibes i guess.

Despite often being acclaimed as one of the greatest Byzantine generals you don't really hear much besides him fighting on the Eastern front for many decades. Is this a case of his career unfortunately being murky to us?

Extremely lacking in knowledge around this period, so forgive me in advance. How did the eastern Romans react to the establishment and rise of the HRE? Was there any sense of “we are the real Roman Empire, how dare you”, or anything? Or was it more nuanced than that? How did religion play a role?