The New Order: Last Days of Europe - An Axis Victory Cold War Mod for HoIIV

[Matryoshka]

The issue with Novosibirsk is that it tries to be this "boring but stable" and "un-ideological" warlord state, but the existence of the megacorps and the huge corporate influence on the government/society as a whole will probably end up making Russia weaker and more dependent on other, more developed nations in the long term. There's a reason Novosibirsk is described as being "putinist" in nature. The idea that a state or society as a whole can simply ignore or reject the concept of ideological impetus or bias is simply absurd - even the framework of rejecting ideology is in of itself an ideology. If a nation is to reject adopting an ideological framework, it will merely have the hegemonic ideological framework thrusted upon it. Which, in Novosibirsk, is ruthless, oligarchical, and corporate capitalism.

 

[Gukpard]

National Bolshevik America.

Bottom text.

 

[Whiteshore]

National Bolshevik America.

Bottom text.

I wonder what unfortunate ethnic group would she blame for America's defeat much like how Serov blames Koreans for Russia losing WW2.

 

[xie323]

National Bolshevik America.

Bottom text.

The US rework changed things around. She's libsoc now but can go full Nazbol, even then she'd be more fash than natsoc. I think she's likely to end up as a uber nationalistic authsoc in most games with fash being a very rare circumstance.

I think the US natcoms are going to end up as more as the very common interpretation of Stalin on anti-tankie circles(specifically the faction of trots that subscribe to state capitalist theory and anarchists): As more nationalistic and culturally conservative to the point of crypto-fascism despite having red paint.

 

[brooklyn99]

With all this discussion on Novosibirsk, I will say that if it goes Conservative Democracy under Shukshin, it would be one of the top greatest unified Russias. Combining the fact that Novo has the advantage of being one of the most effectively modernizing and industrializing state, with the fact that Shukshin will then reform it, and break down the power of the oligarchs and megacorps. Condem Novo is the perfect synthesis of a powerful, highly developed nation and a just, ethical society, where one area doesn't dilute the other à la Bunyachenko or Men.

 

[the Imperium of Canada]

Well given TNO Community already has a strange overlap with Danganronpa, how about that other Japanese franchise that has hope and despair as central concepts.

Obviously her actual ideology would be Despotism, granted that category simultaneously includes both Alexander Men and Antikhrist.

 

[Impirius]

Obviously her actual ideology would be Despotism, granted that category simultaneously includes both Alexander Men and Antikhrist.

Pre-rebelion yes,post-rebelion.....

 

[the Imperium of Canada]

Pre-rebelion yes,post-rebelion.....

This is like the exact opposite of life under the Burgundian System.

 

[Impirius]

This is like the exact opposite of life under the Burgundian System.

It's her literally imposing a false happiness over all existence at the cost of everything for her impossible wish.
Sayaka's and Madoka's last scenes are literally them being brainwashed into fitting in.
It very melancholic but also insanely dark if you think about it.

 

[the Imperium of Canada]

It's her literally imposing a false happiness over all existence at the cost of everything for her impossible wish.
Sayaka's and Madoka's last scenes are literally them being brainwashed into fitting in.
It very melancholic but also insanely dark if you think about it.

Well to quote aincradian over on Reddit.

Respectfully, this take is full of very selectively worded takes often divorced from context or misunderstandings of the movie. Some things I will grant you - yes, Homura idolizes Madoka, is incapable of finding fault with her, and yes this something of a problem. Yes, Homura was socially awkward and rolled up to Madoka in the middle of class and announced she was a magical girl and Madoka rolled with it. Madoka did sacrifice herself to prevent anyone from ever having become a witch and in so doing erased herself from having existed in the universe. That, unfortunately, is really all the credit I can give you for accuracy.

Firstly - to the idea of Madoka is just find of faking it for this weirdo and doesn't really approve of her - every piece of evidence of evidence rejects this interpretation. Starting from the most blatant - Madoka gave her expressed approval at the end of episode 12 of Homura's actions from a position of nigh omniscience. Not to spoil Wraith Arc too badly, but Homura being able to remember her at all requires this to be genuine and the feelings are explicitly noted to be mutual.

Secondly, I hate to break it to you, but Kyubey's plot was not foiled. Kyubey organized this trap to observe Madoka, and in his own words, once observed she could be interfered with, and, once interfered with she could be controlled to the end of bringing back witches. Kyubey succeeded - the local bodies were blown up but the hivemind remained. Director Shinbo confirmed in an interview had Kyubey not been brought to heel by Homura, he would have repeated the experiment with other girls and would have eventually succeeded.

Also - it is worth noting - Madoka was suffering intensely in her role as Madokami as all available evidence shows. Her arms when she reaches through the windows are covered in cuts. She flat out says leaving behind her family and friends - including people who will never be Magical Girls - would hurt her, as would hurting Homura. The movie goes out of its way to reemphasize at the beginning of the Kyubey infodump that it is the real Madoka. Madoka's character's song speaks to her feeling lonely and lying about being okay leaving. Twice in episode 12 what she is doing is described as a fate worth than death - the time Mami says it she doesn't even deny it. Mechanically the way Madoka's wish works is to take everyone else's curses into her own soul gem and we saw what just one of them did to Sayaka. Word of God was the ending was made how it was in part because the fate Madoka was given by the series was too heavy a thing to ask of a 14 year old.

You also seem to have a excessively hostile perception of Homura's actions upon rebuilding the world. Firstly - the idea Homura wishes to possess Madoka is demonstrably wrong with even a little thought applied to it. Consider, Homura can rewrite the laws of physics and memories to her whim on a seemingly universal scale. That being the case, why does Madoka not give Homura the answer she clearly wanted in the hall? Why is Sayaka permitted on the same continent? Why is Madoka not already her friend - as we established above Madokas declaration that she was her best friend was genuine so the feelings are already there? Why does she give back the ribbon and declare she is okay with Madoka being her enemy, essentially hating her, if she was still happy? None of this makes any sense unless her actual goal is to make Madoka happy.

More than that, the movie is quite clear about what Homura wants, and how Homura views the other girls. On top of explicitly declaring how broken up Homura was about the hearts she trampled on, the purpose of the Labyrinth segment in the beginning is to demonstrate just what is in Homura's soul. Her deepest wish is for everyone else, especially Madoka, sure, but all of them to have happy lives. As above, so below, this is exactly how the movie ends, by the way, if you take a look at the closing montage. They can fight without danger living happy lives - with one notable omission. Homura herself wasn't in the opening with them fighting the nightmare, being a newcomer, just as she isn't happy in the end. She isn't, and hever has been concerned with her own happiness.

In terms of her being murderous - Homura didn't even have the heart to watch what she believed to be a non-fatal bullet wound land on Mami - flinching and turning away. Yes, she had to stop herself from delivering a fatal wound on Mami - because Mami is a threat, one, who when pushed, will kill you. You talk about how Homura would kill, Mami did kill. Remember when she shot Kyoko's soul gem and tried to execute Homura? Homura remembers. Even knowing Mami might come back and kill her for trying to dispatch a witch, Homura chose to err on the side of risking her own safety by avoid killing Mami who stands the best chance of stopping her from destroying the labyrinth. She may or may not have been willing to kill Sayaka, she may have been bluffing, no way to know. Either way, however, Sayaka at that point, when refusing to accept a grief seed was going to turn into a witch. This was guaranteed. Homura had, per Urobuchi, completed approaching 100 of these time loops. She had almost certainly seen Madoka rush into her labyrinth before to try to save Sayaka. Had seen Kyoko fall in combat with her. Sayaka, as she was, was a threat to Madoka, to Kyoko, and by threatening those two by extension a threat to every living human in Mitakihara by risking the lives of people who could assist against Walpurgisnacht. Killing her before she turns into a witch is brutal, but at the same time if she is going to die anyway and risks taking the entire city with her - is it immoral to do so?

As for the rest, it is speculation. Did Homura know she could take only the piece of the law of cycles that was who Madoka used to be? Unclear. Wishes work on intent and that was a wish - so presumably she could infer much like Madoka was able to rewrite the universe, so could she. Homura never willingly murdered anyone, the only one she killed was Madoka when Madoka asked her to to avoid becoming a witch. Mami killed people. Madoka killed Mami. Sayaka may or may not have murdered two people on a train and tried to murder Kyoko - Kyoko in turn tried to murder Sayaka. For all your "Oh- Homura is murderous" nonsense - she is the one person who didn't kill or try to kill a Magical girl who didn't explicitly ask to be killed.

To be clear, this is not a slight against any other character - I love all the girls in the series, no exceptions and circumstances and fate conspired against them - put them in situations where awful decisions were required, awful sacrificed demanded. In Urobuchi's own words, every single one of the girls did the best they could with a terrible hand, a terrible fate. Condemning any of them as evil, malicious, deliberately hurtful, etc. is to have missed the point of the work completely

This is a modified, expanded version of a post I have made elsewhere in an attempt to explain the end of Rebellion, in particular Homura's part in it, her motivations, her attitudes, and so on. It is complicated so this will be long.

Before we dive into this, one thing that must be understood is the use of the ballet version, specifically (as evidenced by Homulilly's Clara dolls) of "The Nutcracker" for symbolism in Rebellion. It features a girl, Clara, who takes pity on the nutcracker with a broken jaw, a tool that can no longer fulfill its function, but she still loves it. She takes it to her room where it comes alive in time to fight to protect her from an army of mice that arrives. On the verge of losing she rescues it from the Mouse King long enough for the nutcracker to defeat him. The nutcracker then transforms into a prince and takes Clara away to his magical world where they can live happily.

On to the movie. Homura was on the verge of death due to overtaxing her soul gem. Kyubey put her soul gem in an isolation field to keep the law of cycles from reaching her, but allowed her to invite things in. Since she claimed to know the law of cycles personally, they presumed she could invite it in so they could observe it and control it.

Three scenes stand out as important in what happens next. The first is the conversation between Homura and Sayaka after the Mami battle where Sayaka forces Homura to question if she is okay with destroying that version of Mitakihara city where everyone is having a good time working together, fighting nightmares, not in any real danger, etc. The next is the flower field scene, wherein Madoka indicates, perhaps through lack of specifics in Homura's questioning, leaving behind everyone would hurt her and that she could never leave everyone behind. Finally, the conversation between Homura and Kyubey after she learns the truth, wherein he reveals his intent to observe the law of cycles, thus interfere, thus control it, thus forcing magical girls to become witches again. She stands by her wish to protect Madoka even now, and would choose death and exile into permanent despair over letting the Incubators have her. Rage and coobie annihilation ensue, Madoka and crew free Homura, and come to finish the job.

So, Homura has a choice - she can either go with Madoka or she can do something else. Based on conversation 2, the flower field, she believes Madoka is suffering where she is, that being unable to reach or interact with her family and friends (magical girl or otherwise) is causing Madoka to suffer, something Homura cannot abide. Based on conversation 3, Incubator, she knows that the Incubators believe that once they observed her, they could completely negate her wish and the Incubators have now observed her, something that would move Madoka suffering for all magical girls to Madoka suffering for no reason at all. She knows she created a world where Madoka was happy for a while and she is aware she has the power to do it again, this time on a much grander scale, not through illusions but through bending the fabric of the universe to the cause of Madoka's happiness, and, per the conversation with Sayaka, creates a version of Mitakihara City (and everything else) where all of them can have fun times together, hell, even the familiars seemed to be having a pleasant coexistence with humans. She also now has the power to bring the Incubators to heel, ensuring they can do nothing to Madoka ever again by making them deal with the curses personally.

So, summed up, the choices in Homura’s mind are either leave Madoka suffering, soon without purpose if the incubators have their way but honor her wish as she once tried to do, or sully Madoka's wish, but save her from despair and protect her from the Incubators. This to her is a terrible choice, a no win situation, because either way she feels like she is betraying Madoka. She chooses the latter and hates herself for it, more on that later.

Madoka arrives, Homura grabs her hands and uses her power to divide the law of cycles, specifically, she took "the records of who Madoka used to be before she became the law of cycles" and split it off from the rest. She then rewrote the universe to create one in which Madoka could like a happy human life. We know this is not merely a witch barrier because of her discussion with Kyubey - that this was the second time she had seen a new principle born into the universe. Likewise, through her conversation with Sayaka we know Wraiths are the enemy of choice rather than witches, "(M)aybe when all the Wraiths are destroyed I will" which indicates the Law of Cycles continues to function even without Madoka guiding it.

One of the key symbolic purposes of this universe from a storytelling perspective is that it is, in theory, the first time everyone got what they wanted. Madoka lives happily with her family and goes to school with people she can see every day and be friends with. Mami is no longer alone, having Nagisa with her. Kyoko and Sayaka are together, Sayaka both not being dead and able to hear Kyosuke playing the violin again. Nagisa has cheese. Homura finally seems to have succeeded in protecting Madoka and Madoka's happiness. So why does she want to die?

Homura has always considered herself useless baggage. Going back to the first timeline, she labeled herself a burden, unable to do anything right, always embarrassing herself. She was alone and friendless until Madoka and never had a sense of self-worth. Rebellion isn't even remotely subtle in depicting Homura's depression as having reached suicidal levels. Everything about a witch in some way reflects her feelings, the labyrinth, the shape, the familiars, etc. So, what can we learn about Homura?

To begin with, Homura is the nutcracker witch - a broken tool that can no longer fulfill its purpose, in a word, useless but for the love a girl has for it. Homura made her wish to fight for Madoka - something no longer possible because Madoka does not, and never did, exist in this universe, rather on a higher plane. Recall Homura's remarks in episode 11, "protecting Madoka was the only thing she had left to guide her" and "I lost myself a long time ago." We see this reflected in the form of her witch, a creature missing half its jaw, whose teeth fall out, who is condemned to death by its own mind for terrible crimes, crimes we will get to in a bit. The final form of her labyrinth itself was marching to her own execution by guillotine, led by her own familiars.

Speaking of, her most powerful familiars, the Clara Dolls (incidentally, how we know which version of the Nutcracker we are dealing with) are reflections of her feelings about herself. Their names are Inferiority, Cowardice, Coldheartedness, Laziness, Vanity, Pride, Pessimism, Liar, Selfishness, Slander, Blockhead, Jealousy, Stupid-Looking, and Stubbornness. Each is as powerful individually as a magical girl. There is a place reserved for a 15th, Love, but it is suspiciously absent. So, what do they do other than fight mice? Well, to begin with, we see repeated uses of them associated with empty shoes and jumping off cliffs, cultural touchstones for suicide. They attempt to get the attention of Kyoko who tosses them an apple, which Homura forces them not to accept, a pattern also seen with Homura and Mami, an action to get attention and then denying herself the interaction because she believes she is unworthy of it. Likewise, the repeated utterances of "Fort Da", an element from Freudian psychology dealing with, in part, a child who repeatedly destroyed themself by hiding from their reflection, denial of pleasure, and masochism. The Clara Dolls throw tomatoes at her as she proclaims herself to be evil, throwing tomatoes at someone generally being associated with giving a low quality performance. They fake tears for her supposed execution. In short, her familiars harass Homura at every turn because her feelings for herself are hatred.

Why? It goes without saying, Homura idolizes Madoka. She refers to her as “as sacred as a goddess” and has an actual shrine to Madoka in her labyrinth. She defied Madoka's wish, the wish she swore to keep fighting for because it was a world Madoka wanted to protect, and she turned her back on it, first by letting her ascend to Madokami, then becoming a witch and creating a happy dream in her soul gem, and finally by pulling Madoka from Magical Girl heaven. Regardless of cause, regardless of benefit (and by every measure from what we see of Homuworld is better for all involved than the previous one (so far as after all the cracks in Madokaworld were not evident until Rebellion so there may be deep flaws here too we just haven't seen)), she still turned her back on the wish and world Madoka swore to protect and that, to Homura, is unforgivable which is why she looks so miserable all the time. This is not helped by the final exchange with Madoka where Madoka affirms she holds the world precious and that breaking the rules because you want to is wrong, leading Homura to conclude, in true Homu fashion, that some day Madoka will hate her (you will be my enemy etc.)

Final concluding notes.

Question. What about Kyubey? We see Kyubey has become a lightning rod of some kind for the despair of the world. Whether Homu is sending them out as Magical Coobies to punch Wraiths or just funneling despair directly into them is unclear. Either way, he got fucked up. Homura very likely always had the power to do this in the original series but had no way to tap into it until she transformed through the power of love (ai yo). In episode 11 when Kyubey explains what determines Magical girl power level, threads of fate are used as a visual representation of how much power is held, Madoka having a bunch of them from Homu's time jumping. Later in the same episode, Kyubey describes Homura's predicament and we get the same visual, exactly as many threads in exactly the same places.

Question. Was Madoka actually suffering as Madokami? Pretty assuredly yes. While it is true Homura's 'dream' speech in the flower field lacked vital context, being separated from her family and friends was still traumatic for her. It was referred to repeatedly in episode 12 as a fate worse than death. When Madoka's arm reaches through the window to reach Homura, it is covered in cuts, the same kind people who engage in self cutting are often seen to have. Keep in mind, Madoka displayed many of the same depressive behaviors as Homura, if not to the same degree, speaking on multiple occasions as being good for nothing, bumbling through life, being a burden on people (Episodes 2, Episode 3, and Episode 8 IIRC). Further, if you allow the Concept Movie as evidence the transcript is explicit on this point. Quote:

"Do you know what happiness is? It's bright May sunshine. It's the warmth of family. It's fried eggs for breakfast. But there's nothing like that in Heaven. Do you know what happiness is? It's having your name called by someone. It's calling someone's name. It's when someone is thinking of you. But God alone cannot have any of this. A lizard girl took pity on God… …so the lizard girl tore God in two, and kidnapped one of her halves to Earth from Heaven. That an act even that cruel can seem like a ray of light in the middle of darkness… it's beautiful." So, yeah, evidence says that Madoka was suffering intensely in her new existence, but she was willing to for the benefit of all magical girls, something neither Homura nor Kyubey could abide, for wholly opposite reasons.

Question. Wasn't Homura just selfish? Didn't she just want Madoka all to herself? First, let's define selfishness. Dictionary says: "lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure." So, Homura, given phenomenal cosmic powers to rebuild the universe as she saw fit, did she make it for her profit and pleasure? Clearly not. Literally everyone in the movie got a happy ending except her and Kyubey judging by the expressions in the closing montage. By contrast, Homura's last shots were looking devastated, crying, dancing alone with sad eyes, and then leaping off a cliff. Yeah. Did she want Madoka all to herself? Clearly she was capable of performing vast, complex, memory rewrites. Why is Madoka not her BFF? Her lover? Why is Sayaka permitted on the same continent?

The key to all this is that this isn't what Homura actually wants. We already know what Homura wants, we saw it in the construction of her labyrinth. The only thing that changed between the start of the movie and the end is Homura came to terms with the fact that the answer to Sayaka's challenge, "make sure you are okay destroying this version of Mitakihara so you won't have any regrets later" is in fact she was not okay with it. That world, where the girls interacted happily, fought nightmares which posed no real threat, went to school, ate lunch together, laughed, loved, lived. She wants everyone to be happy with one notable exception. Note at the beginning of the movie they did it all without her - because she does not believe herself worthy to be among them and does not believe she can be forgiven for sullying Madoka's wish. In short, she does not believe she deserves happiness. Far from selfish, I would argue Homura exhibits a form of toxic selflessness, a dedication to an another so extreme as to deny one's self any value or worth apart from serving them - why she doesn't care if she becomes Madoka's enemy so long as Madoka is happy because giving up being friends with Madoka, giving up being with her at all, giving up her joy, her self worth, her value on her own life, Madoka's love for her, she will sacrifice all of it as long as Madoka can be happy. Just as Madoka did before her for all other Magical Girls, she gives herself for Madoka.

Question. Were the Incubators still a threat? Did Homura have other options to deal with them? Absolutely, and maybe. In the words of Kyubey, "if we can observe it, we can interfere with it, if we can interfere with it, we can control it... You should all conclude your existence by becoming witches." By this point it is too late. Even supposing the inquisitive little shit didn't devise an experiment that wouldn't require Homura, (he stated in Episode 12 he had not YET been able to determine why soul gems vanish when they can no longer be cleaned, so even Homura having kept her silence might not have helped in the long run) by the beginning of Rebellion that ship had already sailed. We know, though it is unclear if Homura did, that Kyubey can project images, memories, and thoughts into the heads of Magical Girls and now that they had seen Madoka they could pass on her image to any number of magical girls in the future, convey she is the only thing that can end their suffering, and wait for her to fall into their honey trap - probably starting with Mami and Kyoko since those two would let them skip a step. Likewise, the odds of anyone else ever being equipped to deal with the Incubator threat besides Homura going full demon were astronomically low.

As for other options, maybe. The thing is that Kyubey as a threat is one you should never take lightly and the possible, probable, outcome of Rebellion is for whenever the next movie comes, some loophole, some oversight, some error will allow Kyubey to regain the upper hand a third time putting Madoka and the law of cycles at risk again, such as Homura missing the Incubator homeworld or whatever. Hypothetical until more content comes and not that important. One of the defenses against that is as long as Madoka does not regain her memories, the girl she knew as Madoka is not identifiable with the Law of Cycles and so the observational data the Incubators gathered is no longer useful in summoning her into their traps. As long as it is moving on autopilot, it, and Madoka, are both safer from interference. Just conquering the Incubators without splitting the LoC may have been adequate, but to Homura, no step is too far in protecting Madoka. Likewise, other, lesser steps, would have done nothing about Madoka’s suffering.

Question. Is she actually evil? Debatable. I lean towards no, personally, that she is still the same sad, scared, lonely girl who wants good things for everyone she ever was who only labels herself evil because she went against Madoka's wishes and to her Madoka is a supreme good. She gave everyone a happy ending and chose like a Homura to take all the world's problems onto her own shoulders (I won't rely on anyone anymore). Some people hold that denying Madoka the self actualization to kill Witches with her own hand is a problem or that this is about possessing Madoka rather than making her happy, (I explore my disagreement with this above) but I don't agree with those reads, but I will say this is subjective material and there is not necessarily a right answer.

Question. Did Homura do anything wrong? No. But seriously, that is a matter of debate, discussion, subjective analysis, and that it is deliberately unclear is part of the reason I love the movie enough to have spent, <goes to word counter>, 2992 words preemptively passionately pleading the good nature and reputation of a fictional character. Different people are going to take different things from this and I find it unlikely this will be my final draft of this document as objections are raised, new evidence considered, or, hopefully, new content is released. If you stuck it out to the end, thank you. You make the PMMM community worthwhile.

PM me if you want to continue, probably not the best place to have this debate.

 

[Twiggierjet]

The US rework changed things around. She's libsoc now but can go full Nazbol, even then she'd be more fash than natsoc. I think she's likely to end up as a uber nationalistic authsoc in most games with fash being a very rare circumstance.

I think the US natcoms are going to end up as more as the very common interpretation of Stalin on anti-tankie circles(specifically the faction of trots that subscribe to state capitalist theory and anarchists): As more nationalistic and culturally conservative to the point of crypto-fascism despite having red paint.

...why is she a natsoc at all though?

 

[xie323]

...why is she a natsoc at all though?

Mistake made by the devs of that submod.

 

[HerbertVonKarajan]

Mistake made by the devs of that submod.

She is NATSOC because "Ordosocialism" is basically NazBol.

 

[Twiggierjet]

She is NATSOC because "Ordosocialism" is basically NazBol.

Ok and why is she nazbol?

 

[AK47Productions]

Ok and why is she nazbol?

Because its funni of course.

 

[Workable Goblin]

Ok and why is she nazbol?

Because historically she was a socialist as a university student before steadily moving rightwards on foreign policy (she remained somewhat leftist on domestic policy, in terms of supporting unions and such) and ultimately becoming, well, Jeane Kirkpatrick. However, representing her as a NazBol is really the wrong way to go about this--if you wanted to produce a version of Jeane that is socialist, it would make more sense to make her a social democrat or AuthSoc with a muscular foreign policy around spreading socialism globally, or at least opposing fascism. But really, this just makes her a member of the NPP-C instead of the NPP-FR, which is less funni.

 

[akoslows]

National Bolshevik America.

Bottom text.

Everything about this map is awful and I hate it so much.

 

[theclerk]

Because its funni of course.

Le epic may-may guis.

EDIT: Oh this is just fan content, nvm. Still cringe, though.

 

[Whiteshore]

Anyways, this reddit post is fairly interesting when it comes to "how long do Russian leaders in TNO have":

https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/l4pfil

 

[chankljp]

The idea that a state or society as a whole can simply ignore or reject the concept of ideological impetus or bias is simply absurd - even the framework of rejecting ideology is in of itself an ideology.

I absolutely agree. The fact that Novosibirsk's foreign policy tree once you reached the regional stage is totally dictated by the profitability and interests of one megacorp or another should raise some MASSIVE red flags for anyone, since a non-state actor clearly have no business (Pun intended) in influencing governmental policies so openly and to such a degree. Heck, in one of the last events playing as Novosibirsk if you managed to democratize by getting Shukshin into power, he even notes in private when talking to Pokryshkin over drinks that they might have 'lost their ways', and that SOME form of idealism and principles will be needed for their state.

Instead, I was more challenging the idea that Novosibirsk as a state 'Stands for nothing, when even the AB stands for something greater'.

While I am at it, I will say that I do think the devs might have gone a bit too overboard when showing Novosibirsk's depressing cynicism via the events, to the point of it almost feeling like the anti-LibSoc Sablin, with the latter's overwhelming wholesomeness. Take, for example, the event about a group of former devoted anarchist from the SBA feeling all broken and dejected when they now have to fill in a job application form for one of the megacorps, breaking down in tears while waiting in line at the thought of them now being forced to be part of the capitalist machinery, with former comrades who sang songs praising Makhno now not even talking to each other as they compete for the same position in the company... I do have to question if this is something that is unique to Novosibirsk and its system, or if said anarchist would have been any LESS depressed at having to now work for a private company under Tomsk's bourgeois democracy, a crown factory under Kemerovo's neo-monarch, or the military operated industry of the statist PRC.

Or the event after Novosibirsk conquers Tomsk, with them outlawing all the salons, and the now deposed CSR president thinking to himself about how the public parks and cafes of the city that was once filled with passionate discussions were now silent, as people all keep their heads down averting each other's gaze... Again, would the fear in the streets really be that different when Tomsk gets conquered by the SBA? With the so-called wholesome anarchists of the SBA spraying anarchist slogans over were works of art-deco paintings were once displayed, and small business owners guilty of owning a bakery or general store getting expropriated by their conquerors for the 'crimes' of 'profiteering'?

It just feels like when it comes to Novosibirsk, the writers went out of the way to go all 'This is a bad option, and you should feel bad for taking it', more then they deserve. Even if, at the end of the day, Novosibirsk is not really a good option overall.