History Headscratchers / TheWorldsEnd

*** A bit of AlternateCharacterInterpretation / UnreliableNarrator is present here, however, since we're essentially seeing Gary reflecting back on his own life, where he's positioning himself as the cooler-than-thou white knight who everyone looked up to. There are some implications that Gary's reflections and testimony on their shared past is not entirely to be trusted, since his friends appear to have plenty of fairly valid reasons to hold grudges against him (although it is likely he wasn't ''entirely'' uncaring towards them either). At very least, then AND now he appears to have been rather self-centred.

*** It's stated the Network didn't arrive until 1990, the night of the pub crawl [shooting star]. We got to space in 1961, almost 30 years before the Network arrived.
*** It didn't arrive in Newton Haven until 1990. The Network has other colonies on Earth, as they said when confronted by Gary. It's anyone's guess how long they'd been here.
*** Getting into space =/= getting to other habitable planets.
*** It destroyed all technology, not just post-90s technology.
**** The chances of humans reaching any extrasolar world were slim--the destruction of the world's industrial infrastructure would probably make it outright impossible, or close to it.

*** Human tech will probably get back up to speed within a few hundred years, because a lot of people would remember basics of how stuff worked, but the lack of resources and mass communication would be a hindrance.
*** I may sound outdated, but what about about books? Handbooks, designs, specs, manuals. Surely all that still exists on paper? Also, if it was an EMP blast, then how could it have destroyed ''all'' the technology? Sure, it would've regressed quite a bit, but Middle Ages? That seems quite a stretch.
*** Bear in mind that the pace of technology has been extremely quick during the 20th and 21st centuries. In the early part of the 1900s, we hadn't even developed flight. Over the course of a single war, we went from biplanes to jet planes. Middle ages might have been an exaggeration, sure, but it's as much about losing those stepping stones as it is the technology itself - knowing how to make concrete doesn't mean you necessarily have the resources to get the materials to make it. And some places would be entirely dependent on continual modern maintenance (Las Vegas for instance has no natural water) on a scale unavailable post-Network.
*** There's a bit about exactly this in ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', where one of the survivors points out that pre-zombie-war root beer had ingredients coming from all over the world, so even something as simple and ubiquitous as ''soda'' became impossible to manufacture. So, sure, someone might have schematics and notes to make computers, but without planes, trains, automobiles, and a phone, he's not going to be able to get the materials to make it.

*** They've all agreed at this point that blanks have blue blood and cannot replicate scars or remove birthmarks.
*** See the 'drunk and paranoid' bit below, then. It's not exactly conductive to coherent or logical reasoning.

*** They instantly remove the previous group members from suspicion for showing off a scar, and then accept Gary for simply doing something stupid, so they're not that paranoid.
*** I said "a ''bit'' drunk and paranoid", not "hopelessly and insanely consumed with paranoia". They're paranoid enough to demand proof from Gary that he's still human, so clearly any existing evidence isn't convincing, and then when he furnishes proof they're willing to accept, they drop it. Simple.

*** My guess would be that when a Blank grabs someone's mouth, [[spoiler:they're uploading their consciousness to the Network, where it is then stripped of anything that makes it human and downloaded to a genetically identical body. It's the same mind, it's just altered - if that weren't the case, the Network's offer of being made physically perfect and "retaining chosen memories" would be meaningless.]] So whether or not they are "turned into" Blanks is a matter of perspective - they are consciously, but their new bodies are completely separate from the originals. [[spoiler:This would also explain why Gary, Andy, and Steven's duplicates are kept in storage, as they don't yet have a mind to fill them.]] But to answer the Headscratcher, [[spoiler:the hand-to-mouth action probably forcibly obtains DNA as well as brain information for when more subtle tactics fail or simply aren't necessary.]] As for [[spoiler:Oliver, his birthmark doesn't come back until he returns from the Gents, and he starts acting happier and a lot more comfortable with the peril he's in - he no longer objects to being called O-Man, or the other four's advances towards his sister. He also gains uncharacteristically strong drinking stamina from that point and is the only character of the five who never gets drunk. It's pretty obvious he changed in the toilets.]]

** Anyone with the skill to re-build generators etc in a world like that would be valuable, as would actual re-built generators. In a world where an axe wielding maniac can walk into a pub and kill it's occupants with seeming impunity, you'd think people would be a little cagey about that sort of knowledge or tech falling into the wrong (or right) hands.

** Yeah i'm American pretty much.
** To put things a little in perspective, I live on the outskirts of a English town called Barnsley. In just over a mile we have:
* The rose and crown (1), The Victoria(2) The white bear (3) The Worsbrough Common Working Mens club (4), The Prince (5), The Warren Hotel (6) The Silkstone (7), Park Road Club (8) The Ship Inn (9) The Mogul Room (10) The Outpost (11) The Button Mill inn (12) The Rising Sun (13) The Tykes Sports bar, Chicago Rock (14) The Silverstone pub (15) Escapade (16) Wild Cats (17) The Soviet (18) Joseph Brahammers (19) The Corner Pool (20) The Ice Bar (21) Shakespears (22) Che bar (23) The Londoner (24) Esmeraldas (24) Voodoo (25) Walkabout (26) and many many more. These are just the ones I can remember off of the top of my head. I've missed at least 10 other pubs that I can't recall the names of. Basically, we Brits like to our pints and our pubs. I'm rather surprised that a small town actually only has as much as 12...

** There could be several access points throughout town for the local base of operations, one of which just happens to be under the World's End. Alternately, there could be several bases that would normally be more or less empty - all of the Blanks apparently being in that one could just be because the Network knew Gary planned to wind up there before leaving town.

* Why is the Network headquarters in the World's End? It makes sense from a character arc point of view, but not so much logistically. Depending on its level of control, wouldn't the Network have set up either somewhere more remote, like a random house, or somewhere more central, like town hall?

** Yeah i'm American pretty much.

** yeah i'm American pretty much.

** I'm guessing you're not from a small town in England then.

** You'd be surprised.

* Just why does a small town have that many pubs to begin with?

** It's about the amount of people having access to them. There will be some people who can make generators, but those people will be few and they cannot travel to other places to make others with the parts needed as easily. So when they are saying it is a complete end to electronics, its pretty much true since that statement effects the vast majority of the population.

*** Bare in mind that the pace of technology has been extremely quick during the 20th and 21st centuries. In the early part of the 1900s, we hadn't even developed flight. Over the course of a single war, we went from biplanes to jet planes. Middle ages might have been an exaggeration, sure, but it's as much about losing those stepping stones as it is the technology itself - knowing how to make concrete doesn't mean you necessarily have the resources to get the materials to make it. And some places would be entirely dependent on continual modern maintenance (Las Vegas for instance has no natural water) on a scale unavailable post-Network.

** First off, they don't "turn into" Blanks - As evidenced by the scene [[spoiler:in the bunker underneath the World's End]] and [[WeHaveReserves the same Blanks that had been destroyed turning up again]], the Blanks are duplicates. Secondly, at around the fourth pub, [[spoiler:Oliver heads into the Gents on his own - He was replaced when he was away from the rest of the group]].

* He was moving on and finding his own new glory days, albeit in a childish manner and with [[spoiler: the blanks of his old friends as teens]]. He was making his own happiness rather than trying to revive good times that were long gone

* Finally, as for the electronics themselves, what exactly did happen to them? It's been referred to in many places as an "EMP," but any electrician could get the generators and simpler machines up and running after that. Batteries being drained by shorts would do a number on nonrenewable resources, but that wouldn't mean a complete end to electronics.

*** It's stated the Network didn't arrive until 1990, the night of the pub crawl [shooting star]. We got to space in 1969, 20 years before the Network arrived.

** As soon as he is introduced, Steve says "They must have had his DNA on file".

* How did the Network get the DNA of the boy that Sam liked? At first I figured that they already had him as a blank, but if that was the case then they should have known that he was already dead. The fact that his actions (and fate) were insofar unknown to the network means that he couldn't have still been in Newton Haven in the months surrounding his death (in which case it's also unlikely he was a collaborator like the Reverend Green, or else they wouldn't have let him leave).