Baja California got nicked in The Grapple and is a state as of 2020. I always imagined it as being a cross between San Francisco, Las Vegas, and South Florida- a place where people come to gamble and have a good time, where there are lots of retirees, and where there's something of a reputation for loose living. Just my two cents, though.
TL-191: After the End
- Thread starter David bar Elias
- Start date
Baja California got nicked in The Grapple and is a state as of 2020. I always imagined it as being a cross between San Francisco, Las Vegas, and South Florida- a place where people come to gamble and have a good time, where there are lots of retirees, and where there's something of a reputation for loose living. Just my two cents, though.
Yeah when AC get's invented I could imagine Baja being really big because it offering snow free winters and lots of coastal real estate.
What? Is that like the TL-191 equivalent to the 2008 financial crisis?
Man, I guess the TL-191 version of the 2010s will be something with that, the Japanese Spring, and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Hopefully there will be no Chancellor Ronald Drumpf or a COVID-19 expy.
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I could see some sort of COVID-19 like event happening. Whether or not it becomes a pandemic would really depend on how the various nations would act, but since I doubt the Chinese government of TL-191 would attempt to hide it, there is a chance that there is a better response to whatever epidemic/pandemic the world would be facing.
As to "Chancellor Drumpf", that also depends if Frederick Trump immigrated to the United States, and I think it is a good possibility that he came to the US as OTL.
As to "Chancellor Drumpf", that also depends if Frederick Trump immigrated to the United States, and I think it is a good possibility that he came to the US as OTL.
Well, Fred wanted to return to Germany with his pregnant wife and couldn't. He lost his German citizenship upon naturalization into the US and couldn't get it back because he dodged the draft in Germany when he was young and was therefore deemed a traitor to the fatherland. So he and his wife returned to America and the future father of Donald was born as a natural American that he wasn't supposed to become. It shows that Donald was raised this way as Grampa Fred dogded the draft back home and it's possible that TTL still sees a similar descendant to be born and raised to become a Donald-expy... in an America with way better health care coverage.
More or less, though the details are different.
Donald Trump doesn’t exist in this world. And an analogue to COVID-19 doesn’t occur in TTL’s 2010s.
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Other factors exist in this world that would likely affect the global response to a COVID-19 analogue.
-There is an International Health Organization that has been active since the 1960s in this world in responding to major regional public health emergencies, such as the effects of Unit-731’s biological warfare in Manchuria, and the emergence of Fleischer’s Syndrome (HIV-AIDS) and different strains of Ebola.
-A long term effect of more militarized societies and strong social democratic parties is that various national governments have the legal authority to implement significant emergency measures, while everyone has access to basic healthcare.
-As of TTL’s 2020, there’s a high level of trust in most countries, including in the US, for medical science, and for scientists in general.
While Donald Trump doesn’t exist in this world, an analogue to the Trump family does.
I'm curious to know what comics (especially the superhero genre) are like in this TL by 2020?
Is there some equivalent to the MCU as well?
Since I recall that Superman was mentioned in the original series (along with a Confederate knockoff called Hyperman), I assume that some Golden Age superheroes exist in TTL as well, such as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America (I assume also that TTL version of Captain America Comics #1 cover has Cap punching Jake Featherston instead of Adolf Hitler).
Is there some equivalent to the MCU as well?
Since I recall that Superman was mentioned in the original series (along with a Confederate knockoff called Hyperman), I assume that some Golden Age superheroes exist in TTL as well, such as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America (I assume also that TTL version of Captain America Comics #1 cover has Cap punching Jake Featherston instead of Adolf Hitler).
Could be fun having butterflies work with parallelism so you have the Justice League form as OTL, with the six solo book founders (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman).... but Flash and GL are Jay Garrick and Alan Scott, and the other four are more or less their Golden Age versions, Aquaman in particular (a baby trained into superhuman feats protecting the environment, and Atlantis a long-ago society clearly not around by Aquaman's present).
There’s no real equivalent to the MCU as of TTL’s 2020s, both because the superhero genre is very different from our world, and because the trend from our world of bigger and bigger mega-franchises never occurred.
Superman does exist, but there are differences to the character to backstory and powers. For one, this version of Superman is somewhat overpowered compared to our world: imagine Kal-El from our world with Bruce Wayne’s level of strategic genius.
In this world, Superman as a popular character went through somewhat of a slump that lasted until the 1970s. The revival of the character’s popularity ironically occurred when the new writer for the character was able to secure rights to the Hyperman character from the US Bureau of Reconciliation and Reunion (which held the copyright for Hyperman following the character being banned by the US military authorities in 1944). Hyperman was reinvented as Superman’s (very Southern) arch nemesis, at a time when American Nihilism was approaching its cultural apogee.
As for other notable US superhero characters, the closest analogue to Wonder Woman in this world was actually inspired by Sylvia Enos taking revenge against Roger Kimball. Imagine a character with Wonder Woman’s super strength, Salina Kyle’s morality, and a Sweeney Todd-level obsession with revenge. This is how you get Scarlet Shrike.
There is also an equivalent to Captain America, down to the fictional character being an Irish-American from a New York working class background, but whose frail physical constitution is reversed by a super-soldier serum. However, imagine a version of Captain America in which the serum is not only not lost, but is applied to other “worthy” soldiers, and where Captain America never vanished, but went on to command the entire US military. That’s how you wind up with General Union, the unstoppable War Machine.
There never was an equivalent to our world’s Batman. There is a popular superhero who’s also also a lone, urban vigilante, but he’s closer to our world’s Rorschach (though without that character’s psychosis). Whatever else Bloodstain is, he is most certainly not a millionaire philanthropist by day.
The comics industry as a whole had a different history as a whole compared to our world. There was never an equivalent to OTL’s 1950s moral scare, which meant there was no real equivalent to the Comics Code Authority. This meant, for example, that there was a greater latitude for writers to include social themes in storylines, including the origins of many villains.
As of 2020, there are more superhero movies analogous to our world’s Joker, Brightburn, Hancock, and Chronicle instead of the MCU.
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Interesting, though I expected that Hyperman would eventually be reinvented as a villain by the Union.
I wonder if analogs to other superheroes exist, like the Flash, Spider-Man, Supergirl, and Iron Man?
Also here's list of Confederate "heroes" I found on Deviantart. https://www.deviantart.com/lord-fenwick/art/TL-191-Heroes-107991164
A financial crisis similar to 2008 crisis??
@David bar Elias , who are the top 10 largest economies in asia before the Great Housing Crash of 2019??
As of TTL’s 2019, China has the single largest economy in Asia, followed by Bharat.
The other countries in Asia in the “Top 10” of the region’s economies include, in no particular order, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bengal, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Poor Japan, suffering from a North Korea - esque regime. Almost of the largest economies are centered in S.E.Asia.
Of course, by TTL’s 2019, the Japanese Workers Republic is dissolved, as is its ruling Syndicalist Party.
Are there Neosyndicalist groups (in Japan or elsewhere)?
Yes, but outside of Japan, they’re fringe groups. Even in Japan itself, as of 2019, the major Syndicalist factions find themselves marginalized as the new Ecological Union consolidates power.
Is the quality of living in Japan is similar to the current status of living in North Korea?
Even by the end of the JWR, living conditions are not nearly as bad as OTL North Korea. As of TTL’s 2011, conditions in the JWR are analogous to the late Brezhnev-era USSR, but with far more blatant corruption at the highest governing levels. The JWR is also analogous to the retro-dystopian society shown in Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil, especially with regards to its sprawling, oppressive, and inefficient bureaucracy.