Convenient deaths of public figures as the PODs for timelines...

Thande

Donor
This is more of a general discussion, but I just wanted to put this out there. A lot of timelines are based on a public figure (such as the President of the United States) dropping dead, often of a heart attack, at a convenient (for the writer, not the president) chronological point. Now it's not that a lot of public figures don't have heart attacks, fatal or otherwise, but I just want to suggest that I think there are better ways to achieve this. Ditto for assassination--there are lots of assassination attempts, but few that are competently executed enough to succeed.

Why are transport accidents so underused as PODs of this type? There are plenty of leaders and non-political celebrities who have died in plane crashes. The very first railway accident killed a British government minister. Churchill was nearly killed in New York in the 1930s by a car accident. I'm just saying that if you want to start a TL based on the POD of a public figure dying, this might be a better option than a conveniently timed heart attack. Especially if your TL is based on them dying at a politically volatile time--you can argue that would make a heart attack more likely, perhaps, but it's also much more likely to make them not take care when rushing to an urgent appointment and end up being run over or something.

Thoughts?
 
Yeah, see, that would be a perfectly reasonable POD.

this POD should make you smile, Princess Di wears her seat belt, she gets banged up badly but lives, with Dodi Al-Fayed dead she gets back together with Hasnat Khan her near death brings them close, they are married in 1999 after her conversion to Islam, Di was soon alienating former fans by making seemingly sexist and homophobic statements based on her new traditionalist Islam, by 2001 she'd largely stepped out of public life and when seen lacked the style for which she'd been much loved, she had had two children with Hasnat and the British press hinted that she was much closer to her second set of children than her first (and Royal) children, post 9/11 the last of the Di love from the 1980s and 90s faded, over the last few years Di has made statements seemingly sympathetic to Islamic extremism, by 2011 it was unclear if she wasn't invited or chose not to go to her First Child's wedding, her lack of popularity and relevance has lead to many in the British public to change their view and come to see Prince Charles as the wronged party in the marriage, leading to royal wedding (a small royal wedding, but full royal all the same) at St. George's Chapel between Prince Charles and the Second Princess of Wales, Camilla in 2008


:D:p
 

Thande

Donor
That's frighteningly plausible. I dread to think what the tabloids would be able to do with it though.
 
I'll have you know that for my Timeline (see sig- it was last updated in March) the POD is Andrew Murray does not die at Stirling Bridge, which is really not that unlikely as the Scots suffered from very little casualties that day so it was very unlucky that he recieved enough wounds causing him to die three weeks later.

Of course, I'm still trying to work out all the butterflies... there are so many that if the timeline does get continued Europe will be almost unrecognisable by about 1330.
 
I think it's also partly because it's nicely self contained, and once they've got the underlying condition you as the author can just flick the switch as it were and they're gone. Now that's not to say falling down a flight or stairs or getting hit by the Clapham omnibus isn't just as easy but in the ATL it simply requires a bit more organisation.
 
For myself I wonder why more timelines don't begin with small, simple, PODs. My own has a Swiss General remaining agitated over remarks made about his inability to speak German instead of OTL's reconciliation. That's a very mundane, very human, very realistic change. I don't understand why so many TLs even have to resort to starting off with 'And then historical figure X suddenly died.' Really its simply the deus ex machina in another form.
 
Harold Wilson falls down the stairs (possibly because he's had one too many - I left that deliberately vague) and dies almost immediately afterwards in my Ted Short TL. Not quite a heart attack but not quite falling under a train either.
 
I had a TL idea in which an OTL 2000 near-accident becomes a real accident, injuring or killing Mark McKinnon, thus ensuring a crucial Bush ad does not air...and the spotlight focusing on Bush instead of McCain. Bush loses or wins a pyhrric victory in SC, McCain wins the nomination and trounces Gore. Then major changes occur...(I lent the idea to RogueBeaver.)
 
The POD for my timeline is where the Earl of Dartmouth slips on a wet stone and hits his head, causing an aneurism to burst, killing him.

Another POD I have for another TL has Stanislav Petrov being hit by a car driven by a drunk driver as he leaves his Moscow apartment on his way to his missile defense bunker where he was supposed to be on duty that night.
 
this POD should make you smile, Princess Di wears her seat belt, she gets banged up badly but lives, with Dodi Al-Fayed dead she gets back together with Hasnat Khan her near death brings them close, they are married in 1999 after her conversion to Islam, Di was soon alienating former fans by making seemingly sexist and homophobic statements based on her new traditionalist Islam, by 2001 she'd largely stepped out of public life and when seen lacked the style for which she'd been much loved, she had had two children with Hasnat and the British press hinted that she was much closer to her second set of children than her first (and Royal) children, post 9/11 the last of the Di love from the 1980s and 90s faded, over the last few years Di has made statements seemingly sympathetic to Islamic extremism, by 2011 it was unclear if she wasn't invited or chose not to go to her First Child's wedding, her lack of popularity and relevance has lead to many in the British public to change their view and come to see Prince Charles as the wronged party in the marriage, leading to royal wedding (a small royal wedding, but full royal all the same) at St. George's Chapel between Prince Charles and the Second Princess of Wales, Camilla in 2008


:D:p
Very cool. I don't see her going off the deep end like that into islam, but it really works a lot better than having her choke on a snail at dinner or something
 
I have a scene written where at the Inaugural Ball, President Robert F. Kennedy slips on a piece of toilet paper in the bathroom, hits his head on the toilet, and dies.
 
One big thing that might have changed British Political style a lot is the fact that Gladstone was a very good friend of Mrs. Disraeli from back when her first husband was in government with Gladstone. Mrs Gladstone hated Disraeli with a purple passion and poured poison in her husband's ears on a continual basis.

Now Mrs Disraeli dies of Ovarian cancer in 1872 and the two men get more and more cold and more and more distant, which means that British Politics get a lot more divisive and cold blooded.

What if you give Mrs Gladstone the Ovarian cancer instead, and kill her off in 1872. Mrs Disraeli is a comfort to Gladstone and provides a nice bridge to keep politics in the UK a lot more civil.
 
Interesting thought about the wife dying.

WI the first Mrs Woodrow Wilson (Ellen) dies in 1912, shortly before the Democratic Convention (OTL she died Oct 1914).Wilson is prostrated and loses the will to fight. It's probably too late for him to just withdraw, but when Champ Clark gains a majority of the delegates (about the 9th ballot iirc) he insists on following precedent and releasing his delegates. A Champ Clark Administration duly follows.

Alternatively, in 1916 Charles E Hughes' daughter dies during the election campaign (OTL it happened early 1920 and Hughes declined to run again that year). The resulting sympathy is just enough to switch CA and NH to him, and so the election.
 
Politicians or other figures having nervous breakdowns would be an interesting variation on the trope.
Also Asquith's son not dying in 1916 is a fascinating related case, as (I believe) that was the final trigger for his resigning so Lloyd George could head up a coalition.
If his son survived, Asquith might have hung on longer as PM. Even if that doesn't force a motion of no-confidence or election, it would have strategic implications.
 
I have a scene written where at the Inaugural Ball, President Robert F. Kennedy slips on a piece of toilet paper in the bathroom, hits his head on the toilet, and invents a time machine.

Fixed that for yah. You know you want to see RFK in a Fusion-powered Delorian...

I've actually started two TLs around avoiding/mitigating air crashes; one preventing Howard Hugues from going nutso, and one mostly survivable Shuttle crash saving the crew of STS-51L.
 

The Vulture

Banned
An alternate method, one I used as the POD for my TL, is to kill off a person who facilitates the rise of said public figure, thus dooming them to obscurity.
 
An alternate method, one I used as the POD for my TL, is to kill off a person who facilitates the rise of said public figure, thus dooming them to obscurity.

Leon Brittan dies in a train crash in 1993, mere months before a bright young thing named Nick Clegg would have been fast-tracked to his office in Brussels. 17 years later, Britain has a minority Labour government kept alive only by confidence and supply from Simon Hughes' 38 seat Liberal Democrats...
 
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