So napo, what was your inspiration for WMIT?
End of page curse and I missed this one!
I have mentioned before things that have inspired me to write WMIT, but it's been ages and I probably have new stuff to add to the lst. lol
Star Wars. The cyberfunk aesthetic I have long-planned for NUSA is quite similar to the set decor of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, crossed with 2001. The concept of larger than life villains with wildly different characteristics is definitely playing into WMIT too. Crippled Patton is essentially Yankee Grievous.
Warhammer 40k. Obvious. Eternal war and glory to the emperor. Beyond the Yankee legions being similar to the Imperial Guard, the Europan, New Holy Roman, and the Tsar have all hearkened to 40k's insane aesthetic.
Starship Troopers (book and movie). No explanation needed. One of the biggest fiction influences on me ever.
Dr. Strangelove. My favorite movie of all time. It's absurd. It's depressing. And it's hilarious.
Kubrick in general. The Shining, of course. And DEFINITELY
2001. 2001 comes closest to the style I want for the Pinnacle Future.
Lovecraft, King, Hitchcock, Bloch, and Tolkien. World building, terrific villains, eerie flavor that is instantly recognizable (Tolkien isn't really eerie, but you get the picture). Also, the bizarre or extremely catchy place names. Fairvale is on the canon map in Pacifica ITTL, and that's also the fictional Californian town that Psycho was set in.
1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 (DUH)
Fallout (my love of world building brands and companies directly spawns from my many hours spent pouring over the terminals, trying to figure out what happened at this office or that factory. John Henry Eden was a big inspiration as well for how I write some of my speeches. Caesar as well.
Mafia II also influenced my branding.
The Men Who Built America (I LOVED that show. HIGHLY rec it if you haven't seen it. I've said I picture WMIT being a documentary in my head. Well, the narrator of TMWBA is my inner monologue.
A childhood full of T
urner Classic Movies and AMC on constantly, playing mostly westerns and war films.
G.I. Joe. My childhood obsession. I am beyond excited about the new six inch line. Don't tell me "Chuck Oswald" couldn't be replaced with "Cobra Commander" and the character would still feel the same.
"Y O U S N I V E L I N G N I N N Y!" Also, the file cards that came on the back of the package for the 3 3/4 inch figures. My gosh, I still have those. I used to memorize them. Once again, that really impacted me and the Fallout terminals give me the same creative vibe. Also, the many different Cobra troopers and regiments. Ugh. The best part of my childhood, was flying my Cobra Crimson Command Copter around my living room and lining up all my minions on parade to greet Cobra Commander as he touched down, and I would voice and act out all sorts of batshit insanity based on my cobbled-together understanding of war. lol I also inherited all my much older cousins' plastic army men, and I still have notebooks somewhere from when I was ten and writing down crazy "campaigns" that would last weeks between the Greens and Tans. I always was a Tan boy.
Glory to General Plastro and the Revolution, the Green fascists will be destroyed. I also had a huge tan tank from the 80s, which I used as my own Schwerer Gustav, lmao. Yeah, I was a weird kid. I told everyone I was gonna grow up to be a general like Patton and Rommel. I don't think that dream is gonna happen, but give 2020 some time. lol
Indiana Jones (also obvious). The concept of 1930s villains tracking down obscure or impossible relics always intrigued me.
The Age of Napoleon, by Will and Ariel Durant. I always loved the Napoleonic era, and I spent a whole summer taking in this massive tome when I was 13 after picking it out at the used bookstore. Around this same time I found TL191 in my local library. I was hooked on Turtledove for the longest time.
The Book of Mormon. No offense to actual Mormons out there, they've all been nice to me. But the concept of the one true religion originating in 19th century America after thousands of years of human history has always amused me. I'm not even saying they are wrong (I don't have the answers and I'm happy for you if Mormonism fills the void you had), but I am amused by the thought. The same thing for Christian Science and the Millerites, etc. 19th century religions have this weird flavor I like, even if I don't believe them. Thus, Fundamentalism was born.
Late night
History Channel, circa 2002. lol
Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film by Thames Television. Best documentary I have ever watched.
The Disunited States of America, by Harry Turtledove. WMIT first popped into my head as glorified fan fiction of DSA.
*deep breath*
My own religiously insane childhood as the youngest son of a literal cult leader in the foothills of West Virginia, which I've mentioned a lot before. "Israel is God's Kingdom reborn. They'll all be saved in the Last Days so they don't have to be Christian or baptized and I don't care if you think that's not fair. Catholics, though, are dirty sinners and idol-worshippers. We are fundamentalist Christian soldiers and we need to be ready to die for our faith because George fucking Bush is going to persecute us." Turned out my dad was just worried the church would get busted for tax fraud, incest, and rape. FUN.
My dad is the literal inspiration for AFC and 2.0's MadnessBilly Graham's personality and attitude of "I am great and will only become greater". Almost all of AFC's teachings are directly lifted from my childhood, which is hilarious as he used to read WMIT and he never put two and two together. lol We might not have handled snakes, but Jolo was just down the road, and we knew tons of people who did. The volunteer fire department also ran the town like a mafia/secret police, as there were no police. They would assassinate people in broad daylight (including a family member while they were dressed in stolen EMT clothes and a stolen ambulance; they threw him off Sandstone Mountain). My childhood was basically me getting homeschooled at Eden's Gate. Lmao In addition to a radio show, my dad also
ran for President in 1992, three years before I was born. I shit you not, he created something called the (WAIT FOR IT)
The Christian Freedom Party, and he would go out and walk the streets trying to convince people to join him. Fun fact: my original notes for WMIT had the MDP being called the Chrisitan Freedom Party, but people would have just thought I was copying Turtledove instead of my dad. lol
He made my sister and mother work hours and hours packaging up fliers for his lunacy until their fingers blistered. He also would talk all through my childhood of how I was his heir and he was going to form a new Freedomite Baptist Convention. He said he never expected to win the Presidency, which makes him sound
slightly more rational, until he said,
"I wanted to become well-known and start a nationwide movement." I even began saying
I was going to be a pastor and take over the movement one day. It was surreal and absurd, and it gave me a real insight into how people can be brainwashed into total horseshit from a young age, and how others (my older family members) played along out of a sense of respect/duty to Father. Sadly most of his pamphlets got ruined in a leaky storage building. He also had
at least 5,000 cassette tapes of his own voice talking about politics and religion. He even wanted to make the jump to tv during the late 90s/9/11 era. My dad is now financially destroyed, divorced, living off government money in subsidized housing, and drives a rusted out shell of a 2003 Pontiac he bought for 500 bucks, and none of his family speaks to him. Something tells me Jesus wasn't impressed. lol To make it even WEIRDER, he grew up best friends with
Lt. General Douglas Lute, and his best friend in later life, a crazy Vietnam veteran, started a neo Confederate movement and
would attend church service in a modern Confederate cosplay uniform that literally looked like something from Jake Featherston's wardrobe. Fun fact, the organization that he branched off of and supported was the one that
organized the Charlottesville Torch March. This good old boy is currently campaigning in local politics for a "Sovereign, Godly, and Traditionally Southern Floridian Nation."
Lmao
There's wayyyyyy more influences and inspirations, but that's a good start. Feels good to rant about my bizarre upbringing again, lol. Aside from that
last entry, all the others are positive/neutral influences. No one has to tell me "sorry bud" about the childhood bit. It's what it is. lol I'm fine now. At least I got some crazy stories out of it.
