Alternate History versions of World War I and II thread

[MithrandirOlorin]

I'm going to by mentioning two relevant Animes that fit this description. But feel free to recommend examples form any Medium yo think are cool.

Below is copied from a Recent Blog post of mine.

http://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.c ... story.html

I hope a Fantastical Alternate History version of WWI or WWII is a staple of every Anime season now.

Last season we had Izetta The Last Witch, which gave us basically WWII, but with a lot of cosmetic influence from WWI.

This season we have Tanya The Evil. People have had a lot fun calling it a show about a Loli Nazi, but really the War we're currently watching is more of a delayed WWI.

But.... a theory I've seen presented in the comments section of the site I've been streaming the Dub on is that basically Tanya will be the Hitler of this alternate history.

Imagine it, this season ends with the Empire being defeated, lots of climatic stuff happens. Then the final after credits scene is a jump several years in the future, an teen Tanya gives a rousing speech to disillusioned veterans. Ad it ends with them raising their hands saying "Hail Tanya".

That would be chilling.

[Rasp]

I'm hoping for something else honestly - I'd considered this ending too but it doesn't feel like a proper ending to her battle against god. Plus she knows full well where the road ends and she's been trying to steer the ship away from that as vigorously as she can. It flies in the face of all her character development too.

[MithrandirOlorin]

I want to respond to what you said, but I suspect it may be base don some stuff i haven't seen yet since I'm following the Dub putting me a couple episodes behind.

Did you also watch Izetta?

[SlackerinDeNile]

*Sees thread, interested, clicks thread, oh.*

Regarding alternate versions of WW1 and WW2, almost any alternate history project has my interest as long as it doesn't get too silly
or self-indulgent. However I feel alternate history versions of the world wars have been done to death, I'm more interested to see alternate history versions of the Cold War, the development of Communist nations or even internal national situations such as any British election between and including 1979 to 1997, or the creation and evolution of Las Vegas.

That last suggestion is a bit weird, I know, but I'm very interested in how places like Las Vegas came to be thanks to the movie Casino and the real inspirations behind it.

[MithrandirOlorin]

I think Alternate History Cold Wars will be more viable once the present is another Generation or so removed. People who lived through WWII are still around, but are dying off. It's difficult to be comfortable with an fantastical alternate version of something you lived through.

Perhaps the very beginning of the Cold War, the immediate post war occupations of Germany and Japan, and Israel being formed at the same time. ANd how the tension between America and Russia was already starting during all of that.

I rmember that I'd also on my Blog suggested doing Arthurian Legend as an Alternate WWII. Some of the identifcations I threw out would also easilly play into the post war period.

[Durandal_1707]

I think Alternate History Cold Wars will be more viable once the present is another Generation or so removed. People who lived through WWII are still around, but are dying off. It's difficult to be comfortable with an fantastical alternate version of something you lived through.

Perhaps the very beginning of the Cold War, the immediate post war occupations of Germany and Japan, and Israel being formed at the same time. ANd how the tension between America and Russia was already starting during all of that.

I rmember that I'd also on my Blog suggested doing Arthurian Legend as an Alternate WWII. Some of the identifcations I threw out would also easilly play into the post war period.

Alt-history Napoleonic Wars? What happens if Napoleon doesn't head into Russia in the winter?

Alt-history Middle Ages? The Crusaders are dealt a crippling defeat, allowing the Ottoman Empire to push unchecked north all the way to the Baltic!

Or: alt-history Punic Wars? Carthage conquers the Roman Empire!

[FaxModem1]

Well, there's currently an Amazon series about it based on Phillip K Dick's book. The Man in the High Castle. I rather like it. If you want to dip your toe, they have Resistance Radio, in which the Resistance in the Rocky Mountain Neutral Zone broadcast about how this world came to be.

[MithrandirOlorin]

On the subject of Napoleon, BlackCoatPress recently published an English Translation of possibly one of the first Alternate Histories ever written, called the Apocryphal Napoleon.

TMitHC is something I still need to check out.

[Durandal_1707]

Actually, speaking of revolutionary France, now that I think about it, a friend and I were just talking about a rather interesting scenario in that era the other week. What if Louis XVI had stayed out of the American Revolutionary War, and used the resources to actually feed his starving people instead?

- The American colonists almost certainly lose the war, leaving North America still largely in British hands.

- The French are not angry enough to revolt, and anyway certain rabble-rousers like Thomas Paine don't show up, having been captured by the British during the failed American Revolution.

- The Second Partition of Poland maybe doesn't happen, since Russia has no reason to fear that the French Revolution might be spreading to Poland. Poland therefore doesn't become the wholesale exporter of revolutionaries that it was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in our timeline.

- With Poland as a large buffer state between the three great empires of central/eastern Europe, and with no French Revolution or Napoleonic wars for the autocrats there to be skittish over, tensions are much lower between the various powers. Perhaps World War I never happens.

- Constitutional democracy is completely prevented unless Britain eventually manages to evolve it on its own. Monarchies remain the norm.

The entire Western world would be nigh unrecognizable.

[MithrandirOlorin]

I feel like the French Revolution was inevitable before Louise XVI even took the throne.