alternatehistory.com

hey, all. to try and keep things simple from now on, i'm gonna try just having one all-encompassing thread for popular culture in my ASB ATL, both to share my ideas in general and, hopefully, to promote discussion so that i can make them more defined

for starters, here's some of what i'm thinking of including:

  • one of the most popular alternate history scenarios ITTL is the Francewank, as opposed to, for example, an Axis Victory since World War II doesn't take place and the Nazis never come to power; these settings almost always have a more successful Napoleon (even considering Napoleon's legitimate greater success ITTL) with not only most of Europe but also the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, Russia, and Brazil as part of the French Empire; Britannia [1] is usually the independent power and opponent of France ITTL, though in much worse sorts, because most Francewanks are written by Britannians and Americans; the United States is usually present as a third-party which swings towards either Britannia or France depending on the writer's personal preference
  • Dial M for Monkey from Dexter's Laboratory (though probably with a different name in the final version) is its own series ITTL, in the vein of shows like He-Man or ThunderCats, still created by Genndy Tartakovsky but produced and funded by Marvel (so OTL's Marvel characters who got expys as the Justice Friends appear at times); the series follows the unintelligible Monkey as he defends Earth from various alien threats, up to and including Galactus; in terms of writing, some reference to other Tartakovsky series will be present, namely that the Monkey villain Huntor is an Imakandi, a race of lion-like aliens that appeared in Samurai Jack. some further mention of this at later times in the TL will probably include an offhand scene where someone brings up Monkey appearing in a new Avengers movie :p
  • i've developed an entire fictional Cuban film studio and a number of films for them (i'll go into more detail in a later post). the studio, Campo de Tiro, is most famous ITTL for a series focusing on an expy of OTL's Godzilla, collectively known as "gran bestia" films; their most famous one is a fire-breathing ape-like monster called Monarder, which wakes up deep beneath the Cuban countryside after its disturbed by chemical runoff (in part because Cuba is an expy of WW2 Japan and is subjected to a massive chemical attack on Havana in place of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
  • Godzilla himself has different origins ITTL, and is not an analogy for nuclear weapons because Japan isn't nuked ITTL. one possibility is that the film originates in the same way that King Kong did IOTL, inspired by real and/or extinct animals and it goes from there, with possibly the only major difference being that Godzilla has electric breath based on a misunderstanding of a further change to the TL where tyrannosaurs are commonly called dynamosaurs (meant as "dynamic," but dynamo also refers to electricity
  • Pulgasari is still created ITTL as Korea's answer to kaiju films, but the film is explicitly not propaganda ITTL because there's no North Korea; eventually, there's a crossover between Godzilla and Pulgasari where the metal-eating Korean monster is summoned to help fight Mehcagodzilla, after which he becomes a regular addition to Toho lineup
  • an expy of Roland Emmerich's Godzilla is created, but is more of an ersatz than an actual remake, more like Nosferatu to Bram Stoker's Dracula: the featured monster is called either Cebudel or Zebudel (based on the word origin for "gojira") and is still a marine iguana mutated by radiation that attacks New York. as an unlicensed foreign adaptation, it's decently well-received but Toho sues over copyright infringement and gets the rights to Cebudel/Zebudel as a character, becoming a semi-regular addition to their films (especially those which take place at least partly in or near the United States) though he's used as a joke character/butt monkey because of his origins
  • i'll go into greater detail on this later, but another idea of mine is that Star Wars is produced as a singular hexalogy starting with the Prequels and i don't fucking care what anyone thinks of the Prequels, they are intended to be received as middle-ground at the worst ITTL, and the story of each film will be changed accordingly given changes to the rest of the TL, given that Star Wars IOTL draws heavily from our history, and effects technology available at the time each one is filmed (since TTLs version of the Prequels will be available with less-advanced technology than they had IOTL). it's also possible that a Sequel Trilogy will be made ITTL which will be TTL's Prequels in terms of their reception and reputation among the fandom. an overarching theme of the Star Wars hexalogy ITTL will be passing the torch to the next generation.
[1] the British Empire, simply put; the name choice is inspired by Code Geass but it has few similarities to the Holy Britannian Empire
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