Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Clarifying the policy
Changed line(s) 2 (click to see context) from:
%% NOTE - Victoria and its subpages are currently under review, and it has its own cleanup thread. Please check there before making significant changes.
to:
%% NOTE - Victoria and its subpages are currently under review, and it has its own cleanup thread. Please check there before making significant changes. Please check if if the example you are adding was deleted during cleanup. Do not add examples before checking in the thread.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ClarkKenting: When he travels in the South, Rumford counts on local-style clothes, glasses and suppressing his Maine accent to avoid being recognized.
Added DiffLines:
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: While many of the villains are simply greedy and corrupt hypocrites, the Landwehr and the Azanians both have reasonably coherent ideologies, though they still look alien and "evil" to Rumford and his allies. The former follow a version of [[{{Ubermensch}} Nietzschean philosophy]] that idealizes strength, will, heroism and racial purity (in opposition to borgeouis, Christian values), whereas the latter are transhumanist separatist feminists trying to build a [[ComicBook/WonderWoman Themyscira]]-like society.
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: When the secessionist commandos attack the Federal air force base early in the story, one of the devices they use is a beer truck with faked credentials to get some operatives past the outer security grid.
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: When the secessionist commandos attack the Federal air force base early in the story, one of the devices they use is a beer truck with faked credentials to get some operatives past the outer security grid.
Added DiffLines:
* EnemyMine: The patriarchal Mexicans ally with the LadyLand Azania, because both states hate and fear their common enemy, the Confederation, more than each other.
Added DiffLines:
* FullCircleRevolution: Averted in Victoria itself, but present in the New Confederacy, where the transition to independence is less of a clean sweep. The same old politicians, officials and generals by and large manage to retain power under the new flag, with the result that the Confederacy remains almost as corrupt as the United States used to be. So it needs ''another'' revolution, assisted by Rumford, before it can finally shake off the remnants of the old regime.
Added DiffLines:
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: After capturing the Numero Uno Division with the promise of sparing their lives, Rumford [[LoopholeAbuse sidesteps]] this promise by turning the soldiers over to the communities they brutalized marching North, and they are all hanged to a man. Later, after lynchings become codified, Rumford muses that the examples of a few hangings and a few gallows in each town guarantee their use will be relatively rare.
Added DiffLines:
* MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack:
** As America declines and the regime comes to depend more on minorities to support its corrupt rule, President Warner eventually agrees with Mexican nationalist leaders to establish a condominium over Texas, Arizona and Newmex. This backfires, however, as the locals strike back, and end up destroying most of the Mexican army in the ensuing war. The resultant power vacuum then allows the [[ReligionOfEvil Aztecs]] to seize power in Mexico itself.
** The civil war in California sees that state split. The Hispanic-dominated southern part is apparently annexed by the Mexicans, whereas the north becomes Azania.
** As America declines and the regime comes to depend more on minorities to support its corrupt rule, President Warner eventually agrees with Mexican nationalist leaders to establish a condominium over Texas, Arizona and Newmex. This backfires, however, as the locals strike back, and end up destroying most of the Mexican army in the ensuing war. The resultant power vacuum then allows the [[ReligionOfEvil Aztecs]] to seize power in Mexico itself.
** The civil war in California sees that state split. The Hispanic-dominated southern part is apparently annexed by the Mexicans, whereas the north becomes Azania.
Added DiffLines:
* {{Nepotism}}: A rare benevolent example. When Colonel McMoster [=McMoster=] disobeys orders and attempts to intervene against the gangster armies ravaging New Orleans, the politically correct masterminds want him cashiered. But he is allowed to remain in command of his unit because his wife is related to the First Lady.
Added DiffLines:
* NoNonsenseNemesis: General Wesley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who, unlike most of the Federal Government leaders, does not seem to care very much about political correctness, and more about crushing the rebels. When the regime begins falling to pieces after its botched final offensive, the President and Cabinet are killed in a supposed lone-wolf terrorist strike, whereupon Wesley proclaims a [[RepressiveButEfficient no-holds-barred]] military dictatorship and attempts to salvage the situation. By then it is too little, too late, however.
Added DiffLines:
* VoiceOfTheResistance: During the Civil War, the regime and its corrupt backers control the mainstream media, but the Christian Marines are able to get their side of the story out through the Internet and (sometimes) [[ReverseMole undercover sympathizers]] inside the PropagandaMachine who slip news past the censors.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* BlatantLies: Played straight by the villains, who lie endlessly in their propaganda. Averted by the heroes; they have their own spin doctors, but make sure to tell the people the truth. Rumford points out that this is really the ''smart'' as well as the honorable thing to do: Lies backfire when they are found out, whereas a ''true'' propaganda is invulnerable.
-->The first rule of good propaganda is to make sure the facts are accurate.
-->The first rule of good propaganda is to make sure the facts are accurate.
Added DiffLines:
* RageAgainstTheLegalSystem: Rumford, who comes to recognize the corrupt legal ''apparat'' in the dystopian future United States as the literal enemy of the people. Realizing this is a major turning point in his life.
-->This wasn't law, I realized, this was war. The Legal Services lawyers, the liberal judges who gave them the rulings they wanted, their buddies in the ACLU, they were just enemy units of different types.
-->This wasn't law, I realized, this was war. The Legal Services lawyers, the liberal judges who gave them the rulings they wanted, their buddies in the ACLU, they were just enemy units of different types.
Added DiffLines:
* RisingEmpire: Several of the American successor states, after the downfall of the old regime, as everyone scrambles to first secure their own borders and then take up the mantle of the United States as dominant power on the continent. Though most are weeded out before long in the ensuing struggles. Toward the end of the story, the only two real challengers remaining are the Confederation and Azania, with other, more minor powers appearing to align with either.
Added DiffLines:
* SlutShaming: ''Heroic'' example, since the Confederation believes in strict morals. They actively champion pre-1950s social values (some hardliners prefer pre-''[[EvilReactionary 1850s]]''), and have very strict policies in place against prostitutes, wanton women and other sexual deviants.
Added DiffLines:
* VelvetRevolution: While the Civil War itself is often extremely brutal, it ends with a whimper rather than a bang, as the Federal Government largely ceases to work after being forced to abandon Washington. General Wesley and his hard-core cadre excepted, most of their remaining loyalists either desert or flee to the New Confederacy, rather than making a last stand.
Added DiffLines:
* WhiteGuilt: President Warner, who feels that he can't stand up to Ms. Mowukuu's plan of action against the Confederation because doing so would be racist.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ThePardon: When the Deep Green militants rebel and their uprising is put down, Kraft reprieves the captives from execution and instead just exiles them from the Confederation. In order to justify this, he argues that while they are traitors, they are less malicious than merely misguided.
-->"Because they erred, they had to pay a price, and they did. The price was banishment. Had we set their lives as the price, we would have gone too far. It is useful to remind ourselves that we are all fools on occasion."
-->"Because they erred, they had to pay a price, and they did. The price was banishment. Had we set their lives as the price, we would have gone too far. It is useful to remind ourselves that we are all fools on occasion."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* BigShutUp: Rumford gives one to the woman representing the Resistance Council in the Cascadia Arc for wasting his time.
* BreadAndCircuses: America in the years before the collapse. As long as the food stamps continue to flow and TV keeps running, the ApatheticCitizens remain somnolent. When the government runs out of borrowed money to pay for the show, however, chaos ensues. Rumford and Kraft ensure that this can never happen again by eliminating all welfare handouts in the Confederation.
* BreadAndCircuses: America in the years before the collapse. As long as the food stamps continue to flow and TV keeps running, the ApatheticCitizens remain somnolent. When the government runs out of borrowed money to pay for the show, however, chaos ensues. Rumford and Kraft ensure that this can never happen again by eliminating all welfare handouts in the Confederation.
Added DiffLines:
* EnigmaticMinion: General Wesley. Was he responsible for the death of almost the whole Administration in a very [[FalseFlagOperation weird-looking]] terrorist attack, or was he really its last major loyal supporter? Is he a mere power-hungry tyrant, or just a [[MyCountryRightOrWrong stolid patriot]] who blindly keeps fighting for national unity long after everyone else realizes it is dead and buried for good?
Added DiffLines:
* HeadInTheSandManagement: President Yancey and the other Neo-Confederate leaders, who refuse to accept the seriousness of the situation and deal forcefully with the Commune when they launch their bid for power. Luckily, Rumford and his allies in the Confederate military have the moral courage "moral courage" to [[NukeEm do "do what needs to be done]].done"]].
** Also the Federal Government, which deals with armed revolt by passing harsh anti-smoking laws and condemning the rebels for their racial insensitivity.
** Also the Federal Government, which deals with armed revolt by passing harsh anti-smoking laws and condemning the rebels for their racial insensitivity.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* EasyEvangelism: To an almost mad absurd degree. Police are easily converted by the Christian Marines and feed them intelligence. All good and right-thinking people embrace Retroculture without hesitation. The mass votes for Kraft or military intervention never ever go the wrong way. May be partially justified by the groundswell of discontent with the Federal Government and its ridiculous ''politically correct'' laws.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* OminousLatinChanting: When purging slaughtering the liberal intellectuals at Dartmouth, a choir is brought in to chant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY Dies Irae]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 120,121 (click to see context) from:
* UrbanRuins: The ultimate fates of Washington DC, New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta (the center at least) are to be reduced to rubble as a result of CivilWar.
to:
* UrbanRuins: The ultimate fates of Washington DC, New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta (the center at least) are to be reduced to rubble as a result of CivilWar.
CivilWar and following conflicts.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Removing redundant entry
Deleted line(s) 75 (click to see context) :
* HumbleHero: Rumford lets President Yancey and General Laclede take the public credit for the crushing of the Commune, even though he planned and prompted it.
