Most irritating post-1900 cliches?

Hrvatskiwi

Hrvatskiwi

Hey AHers,

Would love to hear what y'all think are the most frustrating, irritating, dare I say it, infuriating cliches that are overused in post-1900 timelines?
 

rcduggan

This is more of a meta-cliche than one regarding events in TLs - but any time I see a timeline with excessive usage of stock photos / Google Image results and NEWSPAPER HEADLINES my eyes tend to glaze over until I've closed the page...
 

Not Henry G.

The United States always taking more land from Mexico in the 1910s. It always happens, and it's always shown to be "for the better".
 

Herman Gigglethorpe

rcduggan said:
This is more of a meta-cliche than one regarding events in TLs - but any time I see a timeline with excessive usage of stock photos / Google Image results and NEWSPAPER HEADLINES my eyes tend to glaze over until I've closed the page...
Click to expand...

This annoys me too, but I see that more often in Future History American political timelines rather than After 1900.

(If you think stock photos are bad here, check out a NationStates roleplay thread. I've seen Thor as a king of a random country complete with armor and hammer, and at least two different people using a photo of the same Swedish princess for their fictional characters in the same topic :rolleyes:)
 

LeX

- Nazis conveniently taking out the Soviets, so that the Allies can come in and liberate the whole of Europe without those pesky Russians ruining our impeccable victory.

- Japan doing anything in mainland Asia or so much as breathing on Western colonies in the Pacific will invariably lead to Japan getting utterly defeated and occupied.

- Alternate demise of USSR leads to the same 15 republics gaining independence if not more of them.

- Japan attacking USSR in 1941 or 1942 actually hurts the USSR enough for Nazis to win.
 

Orko

Somehow the Bolsheviks are really unpopular over here and they usually end up losing the civil war with most pre-WW1 PODs. It's not even the SRs or even liberals that replace them, but the Tzar. That effing Tzar all the time. This site is filled with pro-monarchy reactionaries.
 

LeX

Orko said:
Somehow the Bolsheviks are really unpopular over here and they usually end up losing the civil war with most pre-WW1 PODs. It's not even the SRs or even liberals that replace them, but the Tzar. That effing Tzar all the time. This site is filled with pro-monarchy reactionaries.
Click to expand...
The use of the term "reactionary" to describe anything the poster doesn't like while pretending to sound enlightened and progressive.
 

History_Pintobean

Orko said:
Somehow the Bolsheviks are really unpopular over here and they usually end up losing the civil war with most pre-WW1 PODs. It's not even the SRs or even liberals that replace them, but the Tzar. That effing Tzar all the time. This site is filled with pro-monarchy reactionaries.
Click to expand...

When in reality, IMHO, a White victory in the Russian Civil War probably would have produced a conservative military dictatorship - Either reinstalling Czar Nicholas II or another Romanov on the throne would've been too much for people to handle given the immense unpopularity of Czarist rule following the February Revolution.

Personally, though, what gets me is a TL having the Red Army after conquering Poland in 1921 invade Germany as to spread revolution abroad - forgetting all about logistical problems and the excellent relations between the Wiemar Republic and Soviet Russia.

The Red Army of 1921 isn't the Red Army of 1945 - I can't stress that enough.
 

Herman Gigglethorpe

Orko said:
Somehow the Bolsheviks are really unpopular over here and they usually end up losing the civil war with most pre-WW1 PODs. It's not even the SRs or even liberals that replace them, but the Tzar. That effing Tzar all the time. This site is filled with pro-monarchy reactionaries.
Click to expand...

Pro-monarchy reactionaries? That's not what I see in Chat. You must be thinking of some members of the NationStates General crowd who want to give the Swedish king more power to restore moral values somehow. :p

Just because a scenario is popular doesn't mean that they wish it to occur in real life (see Confederate and Axis victory topics).

(Of course, some of the NS General posters are apologists for any historical leader who calls himself communist, so it evens out in the end)

Some people (including Russia Today at one point, if I remember correctly) are under the mistaken impression that the October Revolution overthrew the Czar, so that may be part of the reason for the "Czar always wins" cliche.

There is at least one timeline where Michael takes the throne after Nicholas II abdicates, so it isn't always the same Czar. :)

There was also a Brian Aldiss story about a man from a timeline where Russia became a constitutional monarchy accidentally is sent to OTL's Soviet Union.
 

Herman Gigglethorpe

Maeglin said:
I thought everyone always went with Michael, on the grounds that a competent Nicholas II is too damn unlikely.
Click to expand...

As I tend to read the What If or Alternate History Challenge threads more than timelines, you may be correct. I thought judging by Orko's post that it was Nicholas that won in the TLs.

Granted, this one applies to pre-1900 as well, but I think the "nothing happens in South America" cliche has mostly died out by now thanks to several popular Brazilian timelines, speculations about British Argentina, and even my random WI/AHC threads about Salvador Allende, the Paraguayan War, or Hugo Chávez. (I have an interest in Latin American history)
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Just about any WW2 timeline tacitly treats everything up to the Fall of France as inevitable, or as a starting point from which to diverge - like scripted events in a computer game. The Allies won't declare war until Danzig, the French won't attack in 1939, the Allies will use their OTL plan exactly, the Germans will adopt their own OTL plan exactly, and it will all play out as if it was the tutorial level.
 

Tom_B

rcduggan said:
This is more of a meta-cliche than one regarding events in TLs - but any time I see a timeline with excessive usage of stock photos / Google Image results and NEWSPAPER HEADLINES my eyes tend to glaze over until I've closed the page...
Click to expand...

I totally concur
 

Snaut

Central Powers victory leads to utopia. Bonus irritation points: CP victory leads to utopia for the express reason that no Hitler. Just because OTL's WWII is butterflied away does not mean something unexpected (I am now imagining an alternate AH.com where people foam at the mouth whenever someone mentions the timeline which resulted from somebody researching the ramblings of that German corporal who got asassinated, and imagining a scenario in which he gets the opportunity to try and put them into practice. Germany randomly ending the detente with Poland and invading it? France defeated in a month, even though Germany attacked through Belgium again? The massive idiot ball Britain, France and Poland have in general? The attempted extermination of half of Europe, cartoonish and in very bad taste? American intervention AGAIN? Totally ASB!) but equally unpleasant can't crop up with equal probability.

Saphroneth said:
Just about any WW2 timeline tacitly treats everything up to the Fall of France as inevitable, or as a starting point from which to diverge - like scripted events in a computer game. The Allies won't declare war until Danzig, the French won't attack in 1939, the Allies will use their OTL plan exactly, the Germans will adopt their own OTL plan exactly, and it will all play out as if it was the tutorial level.
Click to expand...

I was about to complain when I noticed your post.
 
Last edited:

Saphroneth

Banned
Related to the one mentioned by the honourable gentleman just above me is the idea that it's ALL Hitler's fault. Everything wrong with Germany in the 1933-45 period is blamed on him, to the point that if he's assassinated then Germany instantly makes peace with the west on good terms and successfully defeats the USSR or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top