Divided States Of America Discussion - Television Tropes & Idioms

Working Title: Shattered States: From YKTTW

Adam850: "The US is small, ..." <- Huh? It's pretty big, population and land-mass wise.

Sci Vo: Fixed. It doesn't look so big from a cross-country flight, but driving from Portland to Austin and back sure put things into perspective for me!

Shire Nomad: Sorry, that was a Martian Successor Nadesico joke. Guess not enough people got it.

Sci Vo: Ah, not familiar with that one. It went Whoosh! right over my head.

Ununnilium: Also: Wasn't there a kids' book series called "Trio" which took place in the same Turtalia/Dorado universe? I picked one up once, marveled at how it randomly seemed to be in the same universe as Beyond Escape!, and have never seen another one.

Zeta: You're looking for Trio : Rebels in the New World, but I'm not sure exactly how it connects to CYOA.

Master TMO: a friend of mine once created a game using this trope. The President declared the United States of America bankrupt and shut down the government. Naturally, every single state declared that he didn't have the right to do that and that the capital of the *real* USA was now in their state. The players each played two states (we had a Midwest and a West campaign going at the same time). I played the Free State of Kansas, whose main rival was Nebraska (which had turned Communist due to random dieroll) and Southern California. Southern California's first act was going to be the invasion of Northern California, as they had all the food, but we had all the people. ;) I had a nice little invasion scenario built up, too. I found out later though that Arizona was planning on attacking me over the Colorado River water rights, so that may have messed things up a bit.

Ununnilium: Awesome! How'd you play a whole state?

MurderMunkey: Changed the caption on the flag pic: The "Stars and Bars" is actually the name for the first flag that the Confederate States of America used, not another name for the US' flag.

mmgood: "This setting was one step in RAH's future history leading up to an oppressive theocracy." Ummm, actually, Friday was writte 'way after Heinlein developed his future history, and the connection if any is heavily blurred by his late-period multiverse & world-as-myth stuff. I don't recommend that this sentence be retained unless pre-Number of the Beast (pre-1980 of the Heinlein ouvre) substantiation is provided for this claim.

Janitor: The Balkanized America of "Friday" is in the same timeline as "If This Goes On...". Scudder's theocracy was either forming then or was formed but not in the story's focus. The fact that the novels were written out of timeline order doesn't really matter.

mmgood: Janitor — Don't mean to be a weenie, but bear in mind that post-"Number of the Beast", "the same timeline" does not mean what it would have meant before that. E.G., retcon identification of the Martians in "Red Planet" and the ones in "Stranger" is possible, but neither book is in the Future History, and neither, AFAICT, is "Friday". I think there's plenty of counter-evidence that they're parallel worlds, sharing some elements, not "the same timeline", just as "Kettle Belly Baldwin" is kindred but not of the same universe as the one found in H's earlier work. John Lyle's ramcraft in "If This Goes On..." doesn't use Shipstones, and I don't think the teamster's truck does, either.

Janitor: Hmm. Well, it is a small enough change to the article. No reason — beyond the fun of it — to get into a detailed dissection of which/what timeline(s) are involved. I'll make the change.

mmgood: Thank'ee! "Blimey, this redistribution of continuity is trickier than I thought!" —-

Deadpool Fan: A few questions...

In Aaron Mc Gruder and Reginald Hudlin's "Birth of a Nation," after election fraud causes a George Bush look-alike to be elected president, the city of East St. Louis declares its independence from the United States to become Black Land.

Nothing wrong with this, I just have a question. Black Land, is it because its made up of African Americans? Just wondering considering the source material. I only know so far as that the movie purports that crap "THE COLOURS TAKE OVER AMERICA!" racist junk. I was unaware of the succession part of the story, both book and movie.

Also, could someone tell me why Jericho's flag still has 21 stars? Did the other states just get obliterated?

Oh and does anyone know where I can find cutscenes for Shattered Union? I can only find the trailer. Help is appreciated

Ununnilium: So, wait, does the theocracy in "If This Goes On..." control only part of the US or all except Hawaii?

Also:
Firm precedent demonstrates the Texan "opt-out" clause is, in practice, void.

Well, maybe not. At the end of the day, no matter what legal justifications exist to prevent it, the only predicates for a rebellion are force of arms and the will of the people. Many Texans feel more allegiance towards their state than to the federal government; a massive number of US military personnel are from Texas; there are several major military bases (with Dallas-Ft. Worth practically built around one); and on its own Texas would comprise the 8th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP. If Texas did up and say "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" it would be very Serious Business.

Conversation In The Main Page.

Fast Eddie: All except Hawaii, and one presumes, Alaska. Odd point: Neither was a State when the story was written. The in-story assumption is that Hawaii would become a state and be removed from the mainline well enough that it could be rallying-point for the insurrection against the theocracy. Nearly nineteen years before actually becoming a state.

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