If the author of The Salvation War knows anything incredibly well, it would be his military hardware and pop culture.
- There are several characters whose names reference members' screen names or actual names from the Stardestroyer.net forums (trolls and banned forumers "drafted" into the demonic ranks were commonplace as foot soldiers or lesser officers).
- Then there's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and pals assisting in the Sheffield evacuation...
- The most obvious Shout-Out is, of course, the dubbing of demons as Baldricks.
- There's also kitten, who aside from the telepathy is inspired by a real person, down to the lack of capitalization in her name; the original Armageddon??? thread actually has a post where one of the board members informed the author of kitten's existence and traits, which were mostly imported into the story.
- A Thai prostitute to Luga: “Now, I know what you’re thinking, can you kill me before I pull the trigger? Well, seeing as this is a .50AE Desert Eagle, the most powerful semi-automatic hand gun ever made, you have to ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky?” I’ve always wanted to say that.”
- Private Joanna Cassidy, owner of "ample" breasts which were, according to Aeanas, "unappealing things, the breasts of a peasant woman with a litter of babes to feed" just happens to have the same name as a buxom actress.
- The description of Memnon as he attacks a group of al-Qaeda members is a bit blatant...''Memnon's eyes rolled into the back of his head like a Great White Sharks' revealing black within black eyes, lifeless, like a doll's eyes, and he descended upon the children of Seth and ravaged them as only the never-born could with divine fury and hunger.
- Eventually, the Demons start referring to the Humans as "the Lords of War".
- While thinking about Humanity's need to prove things in life, Abigor remembers a phrase he saw somewhere, "Scifi, Science, and mockery of stupid people."
- Two of the B-52s that supports the Russians at the Phlegethon River are named the "Emma Peel" and the "Vengeance Is Mine
". - A B-1 bomber sent to Dis is named "Dragonslayer". Another one sent to bomb Tartarus is named "Shoo Shoo Baby".
- ...And Pantheocide has finally started paying off when it comes to puns about Thinking With Portals.
- "What we still don't know." Underlined and highlighted several times was "How to target another universe from the outside." Believe me, Aperture Science has their people in here a few times a day, hoping that we'll be able to come up with something.
- Dale Brown's Mclanahans are seen in chapter 3 of Pantheocide checking up on a dead relative.
- The People's Liberation Front of Hell might have been a coincidence. Then the introduction of the Hell's People's Liberation Front removed all doubt.
- Then there's a certain Banks who "writes science fiction and he's got a good notion of dimensional mechanics. Went to Stirling in the UK, never took any upper-level science."
- Chapter Forty-Two of Pantheocide has a reference to a certain TV show when Madeuce is passing between Earth and Hell: "You know what it's like when you have a word on the tip of your tongue? Well, its like that with every thought you never have."
- An author named Turtleshell starts writing alternate histories about the war against Hell going differently, starting from the little things (i.e. had Abigor not left his naga behind but instead used them to create tactical portals). In the same chapter, Robert E. Lee wonders what would have happened if he'd had access to modern command and control equipment... "Oddly, he thought, at least half of them would never have been fought at all."
- The two police officers who first find Lemuel and Maion are named after the main characters of Adam-12.
- Caesar paraphrases the St. Crispin's Day speech, though he's congratulating his men after a battle rather than getting them inspired before going into one.
- When asked if the Targeteer's name, finally revealed after 155 chapters of TSW, was one of the only two historical figures to be introduced in Pantheocide, the author replied, "No, this is just a tip-of-the-hat to an old friend who never quite got the recognition he deserved."
- The MythBusters show up in Chapter Seventy-Nine of Pantheocide. Jamie is very interested in the demolition involved in blowing up the gates to the Eternal City.
- There's a ship captain by the name of Reynolds who commands a destroyer. There are also pits reserved (in Hell) for "Some network television executives. The ones who cancelled Firefly." Stuart himself has admitted he's a Firefly fan.
- Obama says of Belial "That wretched Baldrick tasks us."
- In Armageddon???, General Petraeus asks some Russian engineers to build a literal highway to hell.
- Caesar's assistants in Hell when the readers first meet him are called Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. Hell, the PFLH manages to get the series on DVD sent down with a travel-size player, so they can see their own depictions.
- Aeanas also watches 300. He is not pleased.
- Julie was in the Arkham Asylum, a reference to the "ancient witch-cursed city" in the Lovecraft universe. Incidentially, there's also the Bedlam House "Arkham Asylum" in Batman.
- In chapter 60 of Pantheocide Michael-lan says: "I find your lack of respect... disturbing. ...I've been wanting to say that for years."
- Three of the SAS team that get into The Eternal City are named after the main characters of The Professionals.
- An Israeli officer is named R. Daniel Orlevaw.
- The SAS team assigned to guide the bombers to Belial's stronghold are named after characters from the British show Ultimate Force.
- After an airstrike on Baldrick formations, Lieutenant Hooshank Sedigh announces how much “I love it when a plan comes together.”
- The first Baldrick berserker strikes at the New Market Mall in Chicago. The attack also kills a salesman who worked at Gary's Shoes store, who is mentioned to be a former athlete.
- After The destruction of Sheffield, multiple overt references are made to the film "Threads", but one part in chapter 62 is an almost word for word recreation of a scene from the film.
- After Satan's death at human hands, the new ruler of Hell, Abigor is installed, with human backing. He says to the lords of hell that if they have any objections to him ruling, "Talk to them!"
- Two Chinese officers, Ti Jen-chieh and Tao Gan, have the names of Judge Dee characters, Judge Dee himself and his sidekick, the ex-swindler Tao Gan.
- In Pantheocide there's a radio exchange with multiple aircraft sequentially requesting air speed checks from ground control. It's a clear homage to this anecdote involving an SR-71 Blackbird and its crew listening to radio transmissions.
