The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime

Just finished the last episode, as with others I didn't care for (understand?) the ending, but honestly clip off the last two minutes and i was fine with it. I honestly never cared for the parallel universe part of the story, but at the same time I liked the way it was done this season. It looks like with Smith's #2 taking off his Nazi choker you've got a situation where you've got may different factions filling the void/possibly battling it out in the former JPS while perhaps the Nazi Reich tries for a controlled landing/return to America. I'd love to see a 5th season, even if it was just a story on here, of what happens to the American Reich with John Smith dead and it looks like Germany giving up control and the former JPS states sorting everything out. All of that said I was really skeptical when I began this ride but now that it's over I'm glad i took it. Great last season.
 
Ok finished it. The last scene confused me, and it seems I'm not alone. Truth be told, the alternate universe aspect never really interested me that much, though it was nice to cross over and meet a John Smith who's a decent human being. Overall, I liked it, but a number of things baffle me. Why did the Japanese withdraw? I liked the BCR and their leading lady, but in the greater scheme of things, what they actually did was limited, since the entire story had to be crammed into one season. They teamed up with Wyatt to kill a few generals and then blew up infrastructure. Those are accomplishments, but hardly sufficient to compel an imperialist, totalitarian dictatorship to suddenly pack up and leave - without even leaving a compliant puppet government in power (like the Soviets tried to do in Afghanistan when they left). Hell, it could have been interesting if more pragmatic Japanese point out 'you know that if we leave, the Nazis will come and they'll want to exterminate you. So let's make a deal'. Personally, I think the BCR should have been set up in an earlier season, because as it is they appear out of the blue. Until season 3, the resistance in general does not really do much of anything, after all. Come to think of it, while the Japanese Empire is depicted as crumbling due to internal unrest in its colonies, why doesn't this apply to the Third Reich, too? Especially since it's bitten off even more than it can chew...like all of Africa plus Russia to the Urals. Also why did the general who took over after Smith abort the attack? I mean, if I recall correctly, it's the same fellow who gloated about how killing rebels gave him a hard-on.
 
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'Black Communist Rebellion', okay this is pet peeve I have with 'mainstream Alternate history' the trope of the generic, yet unambiguous, god guy name'. No one calls themselves 'Black Communists' in OTL, so why in ATL, wouldn't 'Black American Liberation front' or 'American Revolutionary Party' sound better?
 
Huh, it looks like the weeabos and wehraboos are melting down on Reddit, so we'll have some kind of silver lining at least.

EDIT: Speaking of communism, I wonder if there's a large Japanese component that's fighting an urban insurgency in the Home Islands?

Nearly thirty five years of continuous war is going to turn Japanese living standards to just a little above that of North Korea, and a lot of Japanese in OTL defected to the Chinese (whether CCP or KMT), and a lot of Japanese intellectuals were involved in Communism before the Tokko cracked heads in the early 1930s.
 
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I'm thinking about making a small continuation. Sort of an "After the end" thing exploring the ramifications of the finale. Like, what would realistically happen after all of the stuff we saw in the finale (I know this show isn't really about realism, But I'm sure you know what I mean). Anyone want to offer up ideas. We could make it a collab.
 
'Black Communist Rebellion', okay this is pet peeve I have with 'mainstream Alternate history' the trope of the generic, yet unambiguous, god guy name'. No one calls themselves 'Black Communists' in OTL, so why in ATL, wouldn't 'Black American Liberation front' or 'American Revolutionary Party' sound better?
I like "African Liberation Front'' as an official name, But I can see the Japanese labelling them as the "Black Communist Rebellion."
 
I like "African Liberation Front'' as an official name, But I can see the Japanese labelling them as the "Black Communist Rebellion."

I agree. BCR doesn't work as a name the rebels would use...no more than Greater Nazi Reich makes sense as a name the Nazis would use. Both are labels the opponents of the respective groups would use.

Huh, it looks like the weeabos and wehraboos are melting down on Reddit, so we'll have some kind of silver lining at least.

Excellent.
 
Huh, it looks like the weeabos and wehraboos are melting down on Reddit, so we'll have some kind of silver lining at least.

EDIT: Speaking of communism, I wonder if there's a large Japanese component that's fighting an urban insurgency in the Home Islands?

Nearly thirty five years of continuous war is going to turn Japanese living standards to just a little above that of North Korea, and a lot of Japanese in OTL defected to the Chinese (whether CCP or KMT), and a lot of Japanese intellectuals were involved in Communism before the Tokko cracked heads in the early 1930s.

I mean the Wehraboos have always been melting down over this show but I'm surprised at the weeabos.
 
Okay the opening scene of Episode 2

Having the names of family member lost to Reich brutally said out loud is a genuinely powerful moment, I really do like the attempt to give the BCR (still a stupid name) more pathos and some real, if superficial links to broader communist movements. Where it falls apart though is when Equiano Hampton draws a direct line between African American enslavement and the Nazi invasion, in this world that makes sense because Nazism in the US is seen as an extension of the White Supremacist movement, not so in that world. In MITHC Nazism is a foreign conquering ideology, that tore apart the USA and remade it in its image, but remains distinct from American culture, or at least what has not yet been repressed. If Hampton had said something to the effect of 'Look how quickly the masks came off after the Germans landed' that would feel a bit more real.
 
What I think happens after the end:

The Chinese defeat Japan and liberated Korea, and form a new Cominterm with the CBR-controlled Pacific States.

America west of the rockies splits into smaller nation's, with one or two around New England remaining Reich puppets.

The Japanese Empire undergoes decolonization following their defeat in China. The Reich survives a few decades then collapses Soviet style.
 
Finished it. Somewhat inspired to do a sequel in my style.


All those people at the end are the multiverse's tourists and are looking at the newest universe integrated into the multiversal community. They aren't some great hope, they're just sightseers interested in yet another "Nazis win" timeline. No accounting for good taste. As a pragmatic concern, there's a policy of non-intervention among the major states which interest themselves in human affairs, and while that is sometimes violated, there's already numerous temporal cold wars going on already.

The American Reich conquers the defenseless Western States. Did you really think that an entire empire is going to disappear because you got rid of the top guys? There's an entire machine of death in place there, one that's already killed millions of people. It's going to continue on, even if some top brass are dead. They'll also conquer as a means of asserting themselves as the third superpower in the world, capable of speaking to the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire as an equal. Plenty of whites in the former Pacific States join the American Reich. The BCR and Azatlan are wiped off the map.

Dissidents and would-be resistance are enticed by the opportunity to escape to other universes, some of which are not tethered to the local year. Why eat mice in a basement hiding from the SS, when you can find a universe of nothing but endless beaches? This incidentally acts as a release valve for the three superpowers, who offer permanent exile as a carrot/stick for resistance movements. The American Reich even offers "National Socialism with a human face" by forcibly deporting "undesirables" to "interdimensional homelands." The idealists who stick to it and try to fight are now even more outnumbered, and are brushed aside.

Japan lets go of China, save for Manchukuo and the treaty ports. They then realize that the rest of their empire is easier to control now that they don't have to deploy troops across the Pacific or against an endless sea of people. There are negotiated home rule agreements with India and Australia, with Australia immediately leaving and entering the Reich's orbit as a virulently white supremacist state.

The multiversal community sees the nature of the three superpowers and collectively rolls its eyes. You see, when there are infinite copies of everyone, any individual incarnation isn't worth very much. Everyone who's in the know in the multiverse is very blase about the value of life. They've seen countless worlds ruled by murderous regimes, they've seen entire species scoured from one universe but thrive in the next. Many of the major multiversal powers are just as bad, if not worse, than the Axis successors.

After a few decades, High Castle world becomes a bit of a cheap tourist trap. The three superpowers have grown to integrate their economies into the greater multiverse, and have become "blackboxed": their whole economy is dependent on technology that they can barely comprehend, manufactured by factory-world several universes away. Major cities become space age, while the rural areas stay "frozen" in the 1960s. This is deliberate, as the major source of income there is tourists looking for a "quaint" Axis victory timeline to spend a few days before going back to manufacturing plumbuses.

The three superpowers have integrated themselves into the web of intrigue that is the multiverse. It turns out there's an existing group of interdimensional Nazis, and given their infamy among some other powerful timelines, they seek other Nazis and band together. To them, the multiverse is like prison, and they have a gang. The American Reich tried to join other Americas, but got rebuffed, and aligned itself with a more authoritarian Anglophone club dominated by South Africans. The Japanese found other Japans, all of whom are rather insular.
 
Finished it. Somewhat inspired to do a sequel in my style.


All those people at the end are the multiverse's tourists and are looking at the newest universe integrated into the multiversal community. They aren't some great hope, they're just sightseers interested in yet another "Nazis win" timeline. No accounting for good taste. As a pragmatic concern, there's a policy of non-intervention among the major states which interest themselves in human affairs, and while that is sometimes violated, there's already numerous temporal cold wars going on already.

The American Reich conquers the defenseless Western States. Did you really think that an entire empire is going to disappear because you got rid of the top guys? There's an entire machine of death in place there, one that's already killed millions of people. It's going to continue on, even if some top brass are dead. They'll also conquer as a means of asserting themselves as the third superpower in the world, capable of speaking to the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire as an equal. Plenty of whites in the former Pacific States join the American Reich. The BCR and Azatlan are wiped off the map.

Dissidents and would-be resistance are enticed by the opportunity to escape to other universes, some of which are not tethered to the local year. Why eat mice in a basement hiding from the SS, when you can find a universe of nothing but endless beaches? This incidentally acts as a release valve for the three superpowers, who offer permanent exile as a carrot/stick for resistance movements. The American Reich even offers "National Socialism with a human face" by forcibly deporting "undesirables" to "interdimensional homelands." The idealists who stick to it and try to fight are now even more outnumbered, and are brushed aside.

Japan lets go of China, save for Manchukuo and the treaty ports. They then realize that the rest of their empire is easier to control now that they don't have to deploy troops across the Pacific or against an endless sea of people. There are negotiated home rule agreements with India and Australia, with Australia immediately leaving and entering the Reich's orbit as a virulently white supremacist state.

The multiversal community sees the nature of the three superpowers and collectively rolls its eyes. You see, when there are infinite copies of everyone, any individual incarnation isn't worth very much. Everyone who's in the know in the multiverse is very blase about the value of life. They've seen countless worlds ruled by murderous regimes, they've seen entire species scoured from one universe but thrive in the next. Many of the major multiversal powers are just as bad, if not worse, than the Axis successors.

After a few decades, High Castle world becomes a bit of a cheap tourist trap. The three superpowers have grown to integrate their economies into the greater multiverse, and have become "blackboxed": their whole economy is dependent on technology that they can barely comprehend, manufactured by factory-world several universes away. Major cities become space age, while the rural areas stay "frozen" in the 1960s. This is deliberate, as the major source of income there is tourists looking for a "quaint" Axis victory timeline to spend a few days before going back to manufacturing plumbuses.

The three superpowers have integrated themselves into the web of intrigue that is the multiverse. It turns out there's an existing group of interdimensional Nazis, and given their infamy among some other powerful timelines, they seek other Nazis and band together. To them, the multiverse is like prison, and they have a gang. The American Reich tried to join other Americas, but got rebuffed, and aligned itself with a more authoritarian Anglophone club dominated by South Africans. The Japanese found other Japans, all of whom are rather insular.
Begs the question of who the more evil multiversal powers are? The Draka?
 
Am I the only one who found the BCR incredibly short-sighted? It seemed blatantly obvious that if the Japanese pulled out of the Pacific States, the Reich would just come rolling in, wiping out anyone who isn't an Aryan, and they'd probably start by clearing out the black neighborhoods that the Japanese oddly did not try to genocide. After all, they did carry out mass reprisal killings for the bombing on the Nippon Building at the beginning of Season 3.

The Germans would not give a damn about an exclusively black communist state, they'd just invade it and torture/enslave/execute every single person involved. They were Nazis, its clear what they'd do to blacks, let alone black communists.

On another note, good for Childan for getting married to someone he fantasized over for many seasons. I am surprised that the marriage was allowed, however.
 
Am I the only one who found the BCR incredibly short-sighted? It seemed blatantly obvious that if the Japanese pulled out of the Pacific States, the Reich would just come rolling in, wiping out anyone who isn't an Aryan, and they'd probably start by clearing out the black neighborhoods that the Japanese oddly did not try to genocide. After all, they did carry out mass reprisal killings for the bombing on the Nippon Building at the beginning of Season 3.
I don't really think the Japanese really cared about the West Coast at this point. By then, they probably had to deal with alot of shit from the locals while simultaneously fighting a war in China, And most of the resources they could get from the West Coast they could either get from their own colonies or from trading with the Reich, and the fact that the Oil Embargo hit Japan as hard as it did shows that they probably didn't survey their lands for oil, because Alaska would have rendered the Oil Crisis nonexistent. The Japanese most likely figured that they should just focus on what matters (After all, they did view the Chinese front as more important during the War, so it makes sense that they would view it similarly post-war, even if there is tension in the Space Cold War playing out in the Americas).
 
Aaaaand MITHC ends by teasing an idea for another, even better show: Multiverse Tourists but instead of it being more abstract like Rick and Morty it's more allohistorical.
 
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