History Fridge / CommandAndConquer

* Through much of the campaign of Red Alert, the civilian faction is neutral to the Allies and a target to the Soviets. With most of the campaigns taking place in central (Allied) or occupied east Europe, it can be readily accepted the Allies consider the civilians 'their' peoples or victims of Soviet domination, with the Soviet Union simply acting callous towards non-combatants. But from the outset of the Allied invasion of the Soviet Union, civilians become targetable. [[WhatTheHellHero The 'good guys' are now targeting innocents]] whose only crime might be defending themselves from an invading army, while the Soviets seem to act more as [[PetTheDog defenders of the population]]. In a universe where the lessons of the Holocaust and World War 2 were never learned, where ethnic prejudice could still be alive and popular in a Europe ruled by a [[AllThereInTheManual military junta]]. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does This Remind You Of Anything]]?

* It's a minor gripe for some ''Red Alert 2'' players that Soviet conscripts are armed with PPSh-41 even though they had access to AK-47 in the last war. However, given that the nation was disarmed following its defeat in that war, it makes sense for something as outdated as the PPSh-41 to be the only small arms they have left in abundance. The Allied might have considered it to be more of a police weapon due to its inferior range and small calibers, and thus allowed the new Soviet regime to keep all of it. Also, nobody expects the Soviets to use a 30-year-old SMG as the new standard issue in the event of another war, so they can mass-produce it without anybody batting an eye.

* According to WordOfGod, when Einstein [[RedGone erased Hitler from history]] to prevent the original World War 2, all he did was create an alternate timeline which became ''Red Alert 1'', with the original Einstein from "our" history (kinda) returning to his laboratory in Trinity. By contrast, Einstein's [[HoistByHisOwnPetard own erasure from reality]] thanks to a Soviet-made time machine results in Premier Cherdenko, General Krukov, and Dr. Zelinsky coming back to an altered Moscow instead of the one they left. Which wouldn't make much sense, except that Zelinsky's reverse-engineered time travel wasn't derived from Einstein's research, but Nikola Tesla's, which would lead to somewhat differing results.

* The tutorial mission for ''Tiberium Wars'' gives a glimpse into what's apparently standard operating procedure for GDI just before the Third Tiberium War: If a Nod threat is detected, send in a small task force or two, and if the enemy is deemed too large for them to handle, [[KillSat just use an Ion Cannon instead]]. Not only does this rationalize the cost-cutting done since ''Tiberian Sun'', but it also reinforces just how powerful GDI's become that it could ''afford'' to do that. Knocking the Ion Cannon network out is, coincidentally, a major reason why the Brotherhood is able to make any significant headway at all. And once said network is back online, all those breakthroughs are rendered moot.
* GDI doing away with some of their fancier gear in ''Tiberium Wars'' isn't just due to cost-cutting measures. Advances in railgun and sonic technology, as well as PoweredArmor (resulting in Zone Troopers and a sizable chunk of ZOCOM's arsenal) have rendered walkers like the Titan and Wolverine seemingly redundant. Meanwhile, the fact that there hadn't been any major large-scale Nod offensives between the Firestorm Crisis and Tib War Three likely fostered the idea that anything more sophisticated than a conventional tank would be seen as too overkill and wasteful.

* The tutorial mission for Tiberium Wars gives a glimpse into what's apparently standard operating procedure for GDI just before the Third Tiberium War: If a Nod threat is detected, send in a small task force, and if the enemy is deemed too large for them to handle, [[KillSat just use an Ion Cannon instead]]. Not only does this rationalize the cost-cutting done since Tiberian Sun, but it also reinforces just how powerful GDI's become that it could ''afford'' to do that. Knocking the Ion Cannon network out is, coincidentally, a major reason why the Brotherhood is able to make any significant headway at all.

** Expanding of this, this would mean that the only two remaining primary colors are either Yellow or Green (depending). Green was used as your co-commander in [=RA3=], so why doesn't the Empire use the color yellow? [[spoiler: Red Alert is many things - racist isn't one of them.]]

* Command and Conquer Red Alert brilliance- Nadia poisons General Gradenko and Stalin in the same manner; a cup of tea, laced with poison, "made by herself." Russians [[SpotOfTea love their tea]] the way Stalin loves indiscriminate murder.

* In the Tiberium Wars Nod Campaign, when Kane orders the player to [[spoiler: capture Killian Quatar]], he mentions "and [her sins] are legion. Cut to Kane's Wrath, where you learn that [[spoiler: the assualt on Temple Prime, the reinforcements ''supposedly'' sent by Killian were actually commanded by LEGION.]]

* C&C 4 is the black sheep of the series, and Kane seems to be doing some very stupid things, such as seeming to leave the implants in the open. Then you realize; he left the implants relatively open because ''most of them are living 'normal' lives!'' That's right, he's putting his plan's keys in the least likely of places, people (such as Dr. Pascal) who are either going to be high on GDI's protect list, or can defend themselves (in this case, the player). Then you realize in the Nod campaign (whose events are generally canonical, as it ties into the GDI campaign), that [[spoiler: Colonel James is with Gideon to take down Nod; and James]] had Pascal tied up and gagged when she met him. That means that Gideon didn't get Pascal or the other implant holders at random or by idiocy on Kane's part; they were betrayed from the inside. It's dual layered, and it failed, but the fact that Kane learned not to put things in heavy Nod bases that are screaming "Kane's Big Scheme!" helps. To list; Tib Dawn: Temple Prime got ionized. Tib Sun: He aimed to fire a giant world-killing missile, expecting to be able to stop GDI. He can't stop GDI. Tiberium Wars: He tricks GDI into 'winning' the war to get his goals. Tiberian Twilight: He does his best to avoid putting his keys in places that you'd expect the [[DarkMessiah]] to keep it. Further brilliance occurs with the Motion Comic; Kane mentions that the device he wants [[spoiler: Peirce]] to recover is "protected against [his] kind", and it's a key to "Ascension." The implants were the key. The basic design of the implants was basically taken from something that isn't supposed to be used by people like Kane, so that's why he couldn't use it. Doesn't excuse everything, but it makes a lot more sense than just it was a bunch of flukes. - @/LukeDanger

* While Red Alert plays most everything for laughs, when looks at how the USSR and Imperialist Japan treated people they conquered, and how [[AllInTheManual background material for Soviet units]] in Red Alert 3 indicates them crossing the MoralEventHorizon more than once, them wining in their campaigns would plunge the world into a cruel age of oppression and death, especially if the Empire of the Rising Sun won.

* In Tiberian sun, plagued by heavy tiberian pollution, GDI started to rely on bipedal vehicule too, probably for the same reason.

** which is actually supported in the Intel database from Tiberium Wars, the Scrin forces seen in it were only rated for defending the towers.
* Halfway through Nod's Africa campaign, neutral Zaire is suddenly the site of GDI expansion in the mission select progress map. It's bad enough to think that GDI is [[BlackAndGrayMorality violating the sovereignty of a neutral country]], exactly what Nod's propaganda efforts want in order to sow conspiracy theories in the West. But then you remember that GDI's mandate extends not only to fighting Nod, but to combating global terror and maintaining world peace. Zaire in the 1990's was collapsing into a civil war after years of corrupt rule under a tin pot dictator. The Rwandan Genocide eventually spilled over into Zaire and resulted in [[CongoWars two bloody conflicts]]. Suddenly, GDI's disregard for Zaire's independence makes sense; they are intervening to stop regional genocide, and the government of Zaire is behaving like an obstacle to peace. Nod's subsequent victory, in light of their previous meddling in African civil wars only a few missions ago, means GDI's peacekeeping mission has failed because of Nod interference, and both Zaire and Nod have [[FromBadToWorse brutally crushed an entire people in joint cooperation]].

** Expanding of this, this would mean that the only two remaining primary colors are either Yellow or Green (depending). Green was used as your co-commander in RA3, so why doesn't the Empire use the color yellow? [[spoiler: Red Alert is many things - racist isn't one of them.]]

* This troper felt that the US President in ''RedAlert 3'' [[spoiler:being an Imperial cyborg spy]] was incredibly stupid and out of the blue, even for a series as camp as this one. However, playing through the Ally and Soviet campaigns a second time made me realise just how brilliant a development it was: [[spoiler:the Empire infiltrated the HIGHEST LEVELS OF AMERICAN OFFICE, giving themselves an incredible means to deflect attention away from Japan, and onto the Soviet Union]]. It suddenly became a pretty slick twist. - poptart_fairy

* In ''CommandAndConquer: Tiberium Wars'', the Scrin's "vehicles" are all either hovercraft or legged walkers. They don't use any treaded or wheeled vehicles. At first this just seemed like a design decision to emphasize their alien design and advanced technology. It wasn't until later that I realized that they were designed to operate on planets heavily converted by tiberium - worlds that were naturally going to have nightmarish terrain of jagged crystalline structures that would be impossible to drive wheeled or tracked vehicles through, but that hovering or legged vehicles would much more easily navigate. Suddenly, the Scrin's weapons design isn't just alien, its exceptionally practical for the environments they work in. --@/UnknownTroper

* In the map from the first Allied mission in Red Alert 3, it is shown that the Netherlands is the only Allied country in mainland Europe. In the final mission of the Imperial campaign it is explained why: Amsterdam is the HQ of FutureTech.

** They do eventually, they try and deploy them from Cuba late in the allied campaign,

* In the Tiberium Wars Nod Campaign, when Kane orders the player to [[spoiler: capture Killian Quatar]], he mentions "and [her sins] are legion. Cut to Kane's Wrath, where you learn that [[spoiler: the assualt on Temple Prime, Killian's most obvious "crime" really was being commanded by LEGION.]]