Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

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Is this an adaptation of an OTL piece of pop-culture?

Not precisely.

The King in Yellow is a short story collection published around the turn of the 20th century by Robert Chambers.

Snippets of the book and the tone of the stories went on to influence Lovecraft (along with a healthy dose of racist panic about integration) and thus helped bring about the 'Cthulhu Mythos' which has been central to the genre of Cosmic Horror. In that way, it's had pop culture influence.

However the book itself is composed of four generally drab and poorly written stories which aren't actually very frightening and, ultimately, have no or very few connections to the titular King in Yellow play. The first one revolves around the play, which is rumored to cause people to go insane, but the three subsequent stories are basically really generic pulp horror stories that have like a single line apiece going "ayo I saw this crazy haunted play once it was super scary."


People love particular quotes from it ("No mask? No mask!") but they're ultimately of little substance since even the story that focuses on it is cheeky on details about the titular play. The other three stories suck. I wouldn't recommend reading it.
 
Recently I've seen a few videos about Bob's Game, and since the topic interested me because the initial concept for the game sounded like something I would love to have played, I figured I'd write an infobox and alternate scenario where Bob is less of an egomaniacal idiot about the whole thing.
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Buttonmash is a 2009 role-playing video game predominantly developed by independent video game developer Robert Pelloni. It was developed using open source software development tools with the intention that it would be playable on the Nintendo DS, and first rose to prominence online after Pelloni released a YouTube video showcasing the game in August 2008 which achieved 100,000 views within a month, a very high number particularly for the time.

Buttonmash’s story is centred around a character called Yuu, who lives in a contemporary suburban town and must make a living by doing a variety of tasks to make money and build up relationships with the people who live there. Instead of the battle systems of traditional RPGs, the ‘combat’ of Buttonmash is centred around playing minigames which are homages to classic video games such as Pong, Tetris and Super Mario Bros, though the process of improving Yuu’s relationships with other characters are very similar.

The game received a very positive response, though when speaking to fans Pelloni made it clear he hoped for Nintendo to license him the official SDK (Software development kit) to convert it to run on an official DS, something which is almost never done by major studios for unsolicited independent submissions. Eventually he heeded the advice of those he spoke to on forums to release it online instead, with Buttonmash’s first beta coming out in November 2008. Those who played it mostly praised the game, but it incurred some criticism for the difficulty of its minigames since they ran too fast for most players to be able to complete and for several bugs that were found.

After several months of bug fixing and fine-tuning by Pelloni, Buttonmash was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac on the 11th March 2009, being ported to Linux the following year, and received favourable coverage from numerous sources, including the Orlando Sentinel (who also interviewed Pelloni about the game), The Escapist and Kotaku. This version of the game received a 9 out of 10 rating when it was reviewed by IGN.

Having launched successfully and acquired a cult following, publishers began to show considerable interest in Buttonmash, with Pelloni making it clear he wished to partner with one only for the purposes of porting the game and not to make substantial changes to it or to relinquish his creative rights to the game. He eventually chose to partner with the independent game developer Nicalis in the summer of 2010 to port the game to the DS, since they had overseen the successful port of Cave Story to WiiWare and DSiWare earlier that year, and acquiesed to their encouragement to add new content with their support and funding.

The DS release of Buttonmash incorporated a few new minigames and characters parodying other popular DS games such as Nintendogs and WarioWare: Touched!, and became a cult hit for the system, receiving further positive reviews from publications such as Nintendo Power in the US and Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK; the latter publication awarded it 92% and regularly ranked it in the top 20 games for the system. In 2017, the game was ported to the Nintendo Switch.

(For those who don't know, Buttonmash was a working title for the game before Bob rammed his own name onto it, and it had a slightly different concept to Bob's Game which I've described here.)
 
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Is this an adaptation of an OTL piece of pop-culture?
It is not. It's inspired by a variety of pieces of popular culture tho. As @Assouf already pointed out, it takes heavy influence from the King in Yellow by Robert Chambers and some minor references to the SCP Foundation wiki. The actual text of the Cerulean Queen is meant to emulate tragedies of the Jacobean Era. Mostly by Shakespeare. Mostly Othello. The little snippet at the end is meant to be something akin to the Foundation (SCP Wiki), Warehouse 13, or the Federal Bureau of Control (Control). A governmental (or pseudo-governmental) organization that focuses on containing anomalous, strange, and supernatural objects and beings for containment or study.
I also just liked the idea of a series of plays written close to each other by unknown authors that were all based on colors. SCP-701, The Hanged King's Tragedy, is red based on its relation to the Scarlet King of the same mythos. The King in Yellow is self explanatory. The Cerulean Queen (Blue) and Emperor of Despair (Purple) are both fictional plays of my narrative to fit within the greater concept.
My original concept for this infobox was just to make one for The King in Yellow, but then I realized that its always more fun to create your own cursed play for some greater world building.

TDLR: It's not, but it pulls influence from various pop culture pieces. I would argue Othello is the closest thing, but that would still be a stretch.
 
Recently I've seen a few videos about Bob's Game, and since the topic interested me because the initial concept for the game sounded like something I would loved to have played, I figured I'd write an infobox and alternate scenario where Bob is less of an egomaniacal idiot about the whole thing.
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View attachment 763273
Buttonmash is a 2009 role-playing video game predominantly developed by independent video game developer Robert Pelloni. It was developed using open source software development tools with the intention that it would be playable on the Nintendo DS, and first rose to prominence online after Pelloni released a YouTube video showcasing the game in August 2008 which achieved 100,000 views within a month, a very high number particularly for the time.

Buttonmash’s story is centred around a character called Yuu, who lives in a contemporary suburban town and must make a living by doing a variety of tasks to make money and build up relationships with the people who live there. Instead of the battle systems of traditional RPGs, the ‘combat’ of Buttonmash is centred around playing minigames which are homages to classic video games such as Pong, Tetris and Super Mario Bros, though the process of improving Yuu’s relationships with other characters are very similar.

The game received a very positive response, though when speaking to fans Pelloni made it clear he hoped for Nintendo to license him the official SDK (Software development kit) to convert it to run on an official DS, something which is almost never done by major studios for unsolicited independent submissions. Eventually he heeded the advice of those he spoke to on forums to release it online instead, with Buttonmash’s first beta coming out in November 2008. Those who played it mostly praised the game, but it incurred some criticism for the difficulty of its minigames since they ran too fast for most players to be able to complete and for several bugs that were found.

After several months of bug fixing and fine-tuning by Pelloni, Buttonmash was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac on the 11th March 2009, being ported to Linux the following year, and received favourable coverage from numerous sources, including the Orlando Sentinel (who also interviewed Pelloni about the game), The Escapist and Kotaku. This version of the game received a 9 out of 10 rating when it was reviewed by IGN.

Having launched successfully and acquired a cult following, publishers began to show considerable interest in Buttonmash, with Pelloni making it clear he wished to partner with one only for the purposes of porting the game and not to make substantial changes to it or to relinquish his creative rights to the game. He eventually chose to partner with the independent game developer Nicalis in the summer of 2010 to port the game to the DS, since they had overseen the successful port of Cave Story to WiiWare and DSiWare earlier that year, and acquiesed to their encouragement to add new content with their support and funding.

The DS release of Buttonmash incorporated a few new minigames and characters parodying other popular DS games such as Nintendogs and WarioWare: Touched!, and became a cult hit for the system, receiving further positive reviews from publications such as Nintendo Power in the US and Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK; the latter publication awarded it 92% and regularly ranked it in the top 20 games for the system. In 2017, the game was ported to the Nintendo Switch.

(For those who don't know, Buttonmash was a working title for the game before Bob rammed his own name onto it, and it had a slightly different concept to Bob's Game which I've described here.)
Has Bob's Game ever come out in some form beyond some demos?
Also remember when he announced his own console called the nD that never saw the light of day other than a website and a trailer?
 
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a 1990 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by David Marmet. Michael J. Fox returns as Peter Parker who has been Spider-Man for 5 years fighting crime and selling photos of his crime fighting to the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson (Robert Redford), and competing with new hire Eddie Brock (Josh Brolin). One day Peter saves a space shuttle recently returning from a mission on the dark side of the moon which they discover a new black, ooze-like creature, on the rocks which they bring back with them. The ooze attaches itself to Peter and gives him new powers as well as a new look, however it's soon revealed that the creature is a symbiote and trying to take over Peter. He has to literally fight it off of him, unbeknown to him, the symbiote attaches itself to Eddie Brock and becomes Venom. The film ends with the two battling on the World Trade Center before Spider-Man defeats him and separates Brock from the symbiote which is sent off to NASA to research and contain it.

The film was a box office smash, it quickly became the second highest grossing film of 1990. Unlike the first movie, the second one was only nominated and won one academy award (for Best Costume Design). The film did better with the Golden Globes and BAFTA, with Michael J. Fox winning best actor (BAFTA), Josh Brolin winning best supporting actor (Golden Globes), and best original score (BAFTA).
 
Half-Life, the 2022 movie, is one of the most expensive and most successful films of all time. An adaptation of the original 1998 video game of the same name, it also features the appearances of characters from Half Life 2. The masterful portrayal of Gordon Freeman by Edward Norton, all without saying a word, is strongly compounded by performances from Kevin McNally and Keith David, as well as minor appearances from Black Mesa Administrator Dr. Breen, as played fantastically by Mark Harmon. Nihilanth, portrayed by Andy Serkis through MOCAP and voiced by Tim Curry, in his first major voice role since his stroke in 2012, is a terrifying villain that was seared into the hearts of the next generation of film watchers. Topping this all off is the masterful performance of Giancarlo Esposito as the mysterious G-Man, a role that was kept tightly secret and remained unleaked until the moment he first appears at the end of the movie. In one of the most exquisite and brilliant performances of his career, Esposito steals the stage for the rest of the film until the credits roll, ending a film well worth its run time. Following the incredible success of Half Life, the film will be followed by three films following the story of the video game Half Life 2 and its episodes, a spinoff film focusing on Alyx Vance (unrelated to the video game Half Life Alyx), and finally a film concluding the story, Half Life 3, with release coinciding with the finally-confirmed video game of the same name. We are very excited to see how these films turn out.

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Poster by Sean Keenan.
 
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Half-Life, the 2022 movie, is one of the most expensive and most successful films of all time. An adaptation of the original 1998 video game of the same name, it also features the appearances of characters from Half Life 2. The masterful portrayal of Gordon Freeman by Edward Norton, all without saying a word, is strongly compounded by performances from Kevin McNally and Keith David, as well as minor appearances from Black Mesa Administrator Dr. Breen, as played fantastically by Mark Harmon. Nihilanth, portrayed by Andy Serkis through MOCAP and voiced by Tim Curry, in his first major voice role since his stroke in 2012, is a terrifying villain that was seared into the hearts of the next generation of film watchers. Topping this all off is the masterful performance of Giancarlo Esposito as the mysterious G-Man, a role that was kept tightly secret and remained unleaked until the moment he first appears at the end of the movie. In one of the most exquisite and brilliant performances of his career, Esposito steals the stage for the rest of the film until the credits roll, ending a film well worth its run time. Following the incredible success of Half Life, the film will be followed by three films following the story of the video game Half Life 2 and its episodes, a spinoff film focusing on Alyx Vance (unrelated to the video game Half Life Alyx), and finally a film concluding the story, Half Life 3, with release coinciding with the finally-confirmed video game of the same name. We are very excited to see how these films turn out.

Poster by Sean Keenan.

This is awesome! Fantastic, even! I love the classic "game turned movie" infobox, and you did it excellently — especially with that write-up! Good job, you! Good job!
 
TWILIGHT
A New Dawn for German Cinema?


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For years, intense mass propaganda in Germany took the form of music, literature, and film which nursed a sense of racial superiority which was buttressed by national successes in technological development, exploration of outer space, and most especially victories in war. Film quite prominently was at the forefront of the methods of social manipulation and propaganda embraced by the National Socialist Movement, and between the 1950s and mid-1970s had grown into a Europe-wide extravaganza of repeated tropes, bloated budgets, and overt propaganda. Movies like Eine Nacht in Paris (One Night in Paris, 1959), Wüstenfuchs (Desert Fox, 1962), and Adler des Ostens (Eagles of the East, 1965) were some of the most popular and well-received pro-war products of this 'golden age' of German war film; all featuring the hallmarks of the myriad movies of its type - German triumphalism, the onscreen inhumanity of the enemy, and the invincibility of the German 'folk community'.

This type of movie died with end of the Iran War (1973-81).

In light of the numerous economic issues plaguing the country and a tiring of the constant barrage of war propaganda during the late-70s, German filmgoers moved away from the 'heroics' of their on-screen soldiers, and sought out escapism in the form of comedies, musicals, and light dramas. This exodus away from what had once again become quite real to German civilians (war) only increased after the withdrawal of the German Army from Iran in December 1980, and the collapse of the Shah's fascist regime in October 1981. These events, coupled with the ongoing economic crisis in Europe (which saw unemployment rates in the Reich reached an estimated 20%) only deepened the resentment many Germans held towards the NS regime and its never ending barrage of intellectually lacking and spiritually demoralizing propaganda.

To combat the social crisis and renew 'big' cinema releases (an industry which had been stagnant since 1975), the incoming German Leader Adolf Koch (1940-1991) commissioned in 1982 the largest and most expensive film project seen until this date; a project which would move away from the dramatic fascist retellings of ancient and recent history, and instead posit a different kind of war movie - one which would play into the inbuilt fears of the German population, remind them of their victories (and failures), and perhaps renew a sense of nationalist pride. The project was Dämmerung (Twilight), a name which immediately recalled the epic musical dramas of Richard Wagner and conjured images of gods, war, flames and chaos, and the end of things; and all these themes must - by order of the Leader himself - be found in this film.

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Alwin Eichinger (1932-2004) on the set of Dämmerung
The director sought to renew German cinema in his own image

Hiring the renowned Alwin Eichinger - famed for his Östliche Ritter (Eastern Knights, 1966-73) trilogy - to direct, Dämmerung would depict Germany in the near future, surrounded and weakened by external forces and internal degeneration. This Germany would come under direct invasion by a 'Confederation of People's Republics', and with much of the nation destroyed, its capital burnt to the ground, and its people reduced under the boot of the a fictional UN/USA/USSR stand-in, it would be up to two young German teachers (played by the unknown Lutz Diettrich and Karolina Peltzer) and their students to rally the remaining resistance in Hannover to defeat the invaders.

Dämmerung was to the domestic audience the perfect balance of escapism and acceptable propaganda; it did what no other German release had until 1983 by depicting a fictional war, fought by a Germany which was clearly on the back foot, and revelled in the intrigues and drama of its main cast as they fought valiantly against the multiracial band of invaders. Director Alwin Eichinger, his complete vision hamstrung by government interreference, nevertheless managed to include elements of comedy and commentary (largely directed at the Iran War) which were staples of his earlier works and resonated with an audience that had only recently seen 120,000 of their national comrades die in battle. The hitherto unseen promotion of the everyday characters (in 'lowly' teaching positions) to the prestige of onscreen soldiers only furthering this sense of closeness, as the director insisted on reframing large German film productions around normal, everyday civilians. Further, the frank depictions of war deaths, destruction, and general misery broke away from the 'polish' of the Reich's earlier war films (including Östliche Ritter), with the near-heretical portrayal of German in ruins only enhancing the filmgoing public's fascination with Dämmerung.

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Karolina Peltzer (b. 1961)
The star of 80s German cinema received her first major role in Dämmerung

To foreign audiences, Dämmerung was just another in a long line of blatant, mind-numbing German propaganda films.

From the outset, the film - produced by the state-owned UFA and commissioned by the Leader himself - did not shirk away from its soldierly worship or disdain for 'weak, degenerate, and foreign' characters. Whilst Eichinger had sought to tone-down the most overt and familiar displays of nationalism and xenophobia, his 'masterpiece' nevertheless included old tropes found in all the other war films of the 'golden age', including a good selection of 'inspiring monologues' and Jewish villains (who now commanded battalions of multiracial marauders). The fictional flag of the film's clear UN-USA-USSR amalgam featured prominently the world in grasp of a red Star of David, and whilst the politics and history of the 'Confederation of People's Republics' is not discussed at length in the movie (let alone how and why the invasion occurred), the unnamed characters from the CPR had characteristics of both American and Soviet peoples.

Further, what was a clear breath of fresh air for German filmgoers was just a continuation of the Reich's unrefined toxic exhaust for those foreigners who saw Dämmerung. Germans found nuanced takes and interesting twists on old tropes when the film was released (a leading female military hero, non-soldiers in starring roles, a weakened Germany, etc), whereas non-Europeans largely saw the same-old propaganda carrot. And despite the mix of a flashy budget with a grit-and-grunge hitherto unseen in a UFA production, most have largely waved away Eichinger's most prominent work as just another in the endless catalogue of German war film 'where the valiant Aryan defeated the endless hordes of foreign subhumans'.

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Fictional Flag of the 'Confederation of People's Republics'
Featuring blatant Jewish and United Nations imagery

Ultimately, Dämmerung would serve the purpose it was made for; it was the highest grossing German film of 1983 (and the third highest of the decade), and saw millions of Germans return to the cinemas to watch what was - to an outsider at least - a transparent piece of National Socialist propaganda. The new methods of filming and integration of special effects (borrowed, some say, from recent American productions) introduced a more modern style of visual storytelling, with the set-piece battle scenes (culminating in the massacre and rescue in Hannover at the climax of the film) reinvigorating the war genre in the Reich, with less scripted, naturalistic dialogue seeing the small-time leads Diettrich and Peltzer going on to become some of Europe's biggest and most well recognized stars by the end of the decade. Whilst now seen as old fashioned and much more overt than modern German films (of the blatant propaganda type), the work of Alwin Eichinger still remains a nostalgic crowd pleaser, especially for those of a more 'National Socialist outlook'.

Outside of Europe, you don't typically hear about Dämmerung unless you're a part of some film interest group and surf the web in search of fascist propaganda films; however, despite what we largely view as hammy acting and typical German racism can nevertheless be seen through the lens of a historic work of fiction. Following the through-line of extremely hammy and racist German products of the 50s and 60s, to the far-less but still-noticeably hammy and racist productions of today, we find Dämmerung; a movie which connected these two eras, renewed a near-dead industry and, for its intended audience, made war acceptable again.

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Author of this article: Andrew L. Joyce
Date of this article: January 18, 2014
Copywrite Hanlon Film Review Online, 2022
Huh, a Nazi Red Dawn.
 
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Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.
 
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If Napoleon I was Caesar, then Napoleon II was Augustus. Along with Queen Victoria and Emperor Franz Joseph, Napoleon II proved to be one of the most influential monarchs of the 19th century. Coming to the French imperial throne at the mere age of 10, the first few years of his reign would be under the regency of Talleyrand and his mother Marie Louise, but upon his coronation in 1829 he would refuse to be controlled by anyone. It would not only be the French throne that Napoleon would sit upon, however, as upon the death of his grandfather Francis II, the French Emperor would make a play for the Holy Roman Empire. With many of the Electors still under the French sphere of influence, as well as Napoleon stressing his Habsburg connections via his mother, he was able to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor, travelling to Frankfurt to be crowned in 1836. With both France and Germany under the control of Napoleon II, the Emperor would be touted as the new Charlemagne, and this would impact the culture of Europe greatly as stories of Charlemagne and his Paladins would be adapted into several popular novels, operas, and plays during this era.

Outside of culture, Napoleon II would be remembered chiefly as the man who represented a synthesis between reaction and revolution. On the one hand, Napoleon as Holy Roman Emperor was largely responsible for modernizing the Empire into the elective monarchy we see today rather than the personal fiefdom of the Habsburgs (although that family naturally retained a great deal of influence in imperial politics) as well as expanding the influence of the Napoleonic Code to Central Europe at the expense of the old feudal order. On the other hand, Napoleon as Emperor of the French would endeavor to bring together the supporters of the Revolution and the Ancien Regime in an effort to create a united French identity. To this end the Emperor oversaw the return of much of the Church's property, the return of various royalist emigre families, and most prominently would marry Louise of Orleans, the daughter of the head of the Orleanists, in an effort to truly cement himself as the legitimate monarch of France, legitimized both through the bloodline connections of the past and the will of the people in the present.

Foreign policy under Napoleon II largely focused on colonial expansion, with French holdings in Africa and Asia greatly increasing under his reign and various allied governments being established throughout Latin America. On the continent Napoleon II would focus on maintaining good relations with the Habsburgs despite having deprived them of the HRE (with this event causing the establishment of the Austrian Empire), focusing their attention eastward against the Russians and Ottomans instead. These two powers would greatly reduce in power as French, Austrian, and Prussian forces expanded at their expense. In the west the status quo established at Strasbourg in 1805 would mostly hold, with the biggest exception being the French occupation and integration of Catalonia. Napoleon II would also pursue reconciliation with the British, going as far as meeting Queen Victoria herself, and while a formal alliance was never established between the two empires, diplomatic relations warmed very considerably under the two monarchs.

Upon the death of Napoleon II in 1893, the European continent looked radically different from how it did a hundred years ago. Like Charles V, Napoleon II's empire would ultimately split up - the French Empire remained under the Bonapartes, while the HRE would return to the Habsburgs with the election of Franz Joseph of Austria as Francis III - but none would dispute that the two Napoleons managed to reshape Europe in their image.
~~
The main idea for TTL is that peace is accomplished in 1805 at Strasbourg, with Austria being given territories further east in compensation for losses in Germany and Italy and Francis II never abandoning the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Napoleon and Marie Louise still marry and have Napoleon II, and he ultimately inherits the French Empire and is elected to be Emperor of the surviving Holy Roman Empire, which he manages to modernize.
 
Half-Life, the 2022 movie, is one of the most expensive and most successful films of all time. An adaptation of the original 1998 video game of the same name, it also features the appearances of characters from Half Life 2. The masterful portrayal of Gordon Freeman by Edward Norton, all without saying a word, is strongly compounded by performances from Kevin McNally and Keith David, as well as minor appearances from Black Mesa Administrator Dr. Breen, as played fantastically by Mark Harmon. Nihilanth, portrayed by Andy Serkis through MOCAP and voiced by Tim Curry, in his first major voice role since his stroke in 2012, is a terrifying villain that was seared into the hearts of the next generation of film watchers. Topping this all off is the masterful performance of Giancarlo Esposito as the mysterious G-Man, a role that was kept tightly secret and remained unleaked until the moment he first appears at the end of the movie. In one of the most exquisite and brilliant performances of his career, Esposito steals the stage for the rest of the film until the credits roll, ending a film well worth its run time. Following the incredible success of Half Life, the film will be followed by three films following the story of the video game Half Life 2 and its episodes, a spinoff film focusing on Alyx Vance (unrelated to the video game Half Life Alyx), and finally a film concluding the story, Half Life 3, with release coinciding with the finally-confirmed video game of the same name. We are very excited to see how these films turn out.

View attachment 763547
Poster by Sean Keenan.
Half-Life 3 confirmed?
 
Napoléon at the head of the HRE is a very good idea, it is the first time I see such a scenario
IIRC one of the reasons Francis II dissolved the HRE was because he was worried that the Electors may support Napoleon as Emperor. I figured that after Francis II died, this support for France combined with their Emperor being the grandson of the previous Holy Roman Emperor could be enough for him to make a successful bid for the throne.
 
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If Napoleon I was Caesar, then Napoleon II was Augustus. Along with Queen Victoria and Emperor Franz Joseph, Napoleon II proved to be one of the most influential monarchs of the 19th century. Coming to the French imperial throne at the mere age of 10, the first few years of his reign would be under the regency of Talleyrand and his mother Marie Louise, but upon his coronation in 1829 he would refuse to be controlled by anyone. It would not only be the French throne that Napoleon would sit upon, however, as upon the death of his grandfather Francis II, the French Emperor would make a play for the Holy Roman Empire. With many of the Electors still under the French sphere of influence, as well as Napoleon stressing his Habsburg connections via his mother, he was able to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor, travelling to Frankfurt to be crowned in 1836. With both France and Germany under the control of Napoleon II, the Emperor would be touted as the new Charlemagne, and this would impact the culture of Europe greatly as stories of Charlemagne and his Paladins would be adapted into several popular novels, operas, and plays during this era.

Outside of culture, Napoleon II would be remembered chiefly as the man who represented a synthesis between reaction and revolution. On the one hand, Napoleon as Holy Roman Emperor was largely responsible for modernizing the Empire into the elective monarchy we see today rather than the personal fiefdom of the Habsburgs (although that family naturally retained a great deal of influence in imperial politics) as well as expanding the influence of the Napoleonic Code to Central Europe at the expense of the old feudal order. On the other hand, Napoleon as Emperor of the French would endeavor to bring together the supporters of the Revolution and the Ancien Regime in an effort to create a united French identity. To this end the Emperor oversaw the return of much of the Church's property, the return of various royalist emigre families, and most prominently would marry Louise of Orleans, the daughter of the head of the Orleanists, in an effort to truly cement himself as the legitimate monarch of France, legitimized both through the bloodline connections of the past and the will of the people in the present.

Foreign policy under Napoleon II largely focused on colonial expansion, with French holdings in Africa and Asia greatly increasing under his reign and various allied governments being established throughout Latin America. On the continent Napoleon II would focus on maintaining good relations with the Habsburgs despite having deprived them of the HRE (with this event causing the establishment of the Austrian Empire), focusing their attention eastward against the Russians and Ottomans instead. These two powers would greatly reduce in power as French, Austrian, and Prussian forces expanded at their expense. In the west the status quo established at Strasbourg in 1805 would mostly hold, with the biggest exception being the French occupation and integration of Catalonia. Napoleon II would also pursue reconciliation with the British, going as far as meeting Queen Victoria herself, and while a formal alliance was never established between the two empires, diplomatic relations warmed very considerably under the two monarchs.

Upon the death of Napoleon II in 1893, the European continent looked radically different from how it did a hundred years ago. Like Charles V, Napoleon II's empire would ultimately split up - the French Empire remained under the Bonapartes, while the HRE would return to the Habsburgs with the election of Franz Joseph of Austria as Francis III - but none would dispute that the two Napoleons managed to reshape Europe in their image.
~~
The main idea for TTL is that peace is accomplished in 1805 at Strasbourg, with Austria being given territories further east in compensation for losses in Germany and Italy and Francis II never abandoning the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Napoleon and Marie Louise still marry and have Napoleon II, and he ultimately inherits the French Empire and is elected to be Emperor of the surviving Holy Roman Empire, which he manages to modernize.
This is great stuff. Do you plan on continuing this?
 
This is great stuff. Do you plan on continuing this?
I wasn't originally planning to but maybe if there's interest. I've been trying to work on another project (that I've posted a couple of infoboxes for here as well as some maps in the WIP thread), but I've struggled a lot to maintain interest in working on it even though I still think it would be an interesting scenario. As for this, it was really only the initial idea that made me create the map - a general interest in Napoleon II as well as the idea of a surviving HRE and a negotiated peace ending the Napoleonic Wars - but there's also enough material for there to hypothetically continue the project. On the other hand, I'm also going back to school in a couple weeks so I'll be a lot more limited in my ability to create graphics (maps or infoboxes).

So maybe, maybe not.
 
I wasn't originally planning to but maybe if there's interest. I've been trying to work on another project (that I've posted a couple of infoboxes for here as well as some maps in the WIP thread), but I've struggled a lot to maintain interest in working on it even though I still think it would be an interesting scenario. As for this, it was really only the initial idea that made me create the map - a general interest in Napoleon II as well as the idea of a surviving HRE and a negotiated peace ending the Napoleonic Wars - but there's also enough material for there to hypothetically continue the project. On the other hand, I'm also going back to school in a couple weeks so I'll be a lot more limited in my ability to create graphics (maps or infoboxes).

So maybe, maybe not.
Whatever works best for you.
 
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