YMMV / What Madness is This?

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Unsurprisingly, has the same one as Joe Steele: “Don’t complain so much about your leaders if you live in a democratic society, because it could be much worse.” Instead, try to make your country better.
  • Has another one in “don’t let your hatred of your political enemies consume you, no matter how big the differences, lest you become far worse than those you are fighting.” The Republican Union is actually reasonably democratic for its first two decades and only after the War of 1812 does it go off the deep end into pure revanchist hate. Moreover, its anti-Columbia sentiment is relatively mild before Goodyear comes to power, the complaints being similar to Real Life complaints about the antebellum Slave Power. That soon changes.
• Complete Monster:
  • Prince Viktor is a violent, unhinged lunatic who becomes the leader of Russia and England once his parents die. Before becoming a world leader, Viktor murders three prostitutes for no reason, and kills his two brothers when he learns that he will be skipped in the line of succession due to his belligerent behavior. Once he obtains power, Viktor immediately sets out on a war of aggression with Persia and China with the intent of expanding his territory and power. Viktor organizes genocides in Afghanistan and Baluchistan, partly out of a desire to keep them in line and partly to fuel his own sadism. Viktor also organizes massive pogroms across Russia, killing many thousands of Jews. When England rebels against him due to his actions, Viktor orders his troops to raze London and kill every man, woman and child. When France and Sweden blockade Russia's ports to stop his depravity, Viktor seriously considers starting a global war with them, prompting the armed forces to launch a coup and have him killed.
  • Charles Oswald, aka John F. Kennedy, is the "Beast of America" and the Republican Union's most hated and feared leader. Murdering his own family to take a new identity, Oswald takes to having people deemed inferior rounded up for mass execution and massacres southern civilians on whims to terrify them into obedience. Taking power with his predecessor's death, Oswald engages in false-flag terrorist operations to excuse giving himself emergency power and eventually orders Rio nuked, killing over three million people. Using his military to conquer and oppress other nations, Oswald also turns his bigoted eyes on his own black population and puts many millions to death. When faced with open rebellion Oswald begins having his own cities nuked, eventually trying to destroy his own capital out of spite.
• Spiritual Successor: To Decades of Darkness. Both stories have the same basic plot: The United States of America splinters early on in its history, and the rump US evolves into a racist, militaristic empire.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: By the time the 21st Century rolls around in the reboot ending, the evil NUSA is the only world power still intact, with Europe and Russia existing solely as a nuclear wasteland. By this point, it's pretty obvious that even if NUSA falls humanity is screwed six ways to Sunday.

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