History Fridge / TheHandmaidsTale

* [[KickTheSonOfABitch Your mileage may ' 'definitely' ' vary on whether or not this is horror]], but the former Gilead will see the mother of all backlashes. The former Commanders, including Fred Waterford, are likely to be executed. Serena and the Aunts will most likely be unable to go in public for the rest of their lives. If Christianity isn't outright outlawed, churches are going to be watched very closely.

* [[KickTheSonOfABitch Your mileage may ''definitely'' vary on whether or not this is horror]], but the former Gilead will see the mother of all backlashes. The former Commanders, including Fred Waterford, are likely to be executed. Serena and the Aunts will most likely be unable to go in public for the rest of their lives. If Christianity isn't outright outlawed, churches are going to be watched very closely.

* It seems weird that both Janine and June happened to have girls. However, why wouldn't they? June is separated from her husband and child, her mother was executed, and she is under constant stress to produce a baby in a ritualized rape ceremony each month. When she has to conceive with Nick, it is first made under duress. Janine, meanwhile, is mentally broken, was Gaslighted, and has the mental maturity of a toddler. The body of a woman will reject male sperm when under stress, and both Janine and June were clearly under stress.

*** [[https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Geography_of_Gilead?file=Gilead_map_%281%29.jpg Promotional maps]] for the TV show seem to indicate a few things. California and the Pacific States, the Deep South (like, the Caribbean coastline and Florida), northern Michigan and its Upper Peninsula, and the Canadian border (barring Maine and New York) are in the hands of Loyalists. The Southwest, Rocky Mountains, and the central United States (Flyover Country) are the colonies or Disputed territories- implying widespread fighting and nuclear meltdowns/detonations. Gilead as we see it on the show is basically New England (minus New Hampshire and Vermont), the Rustbelt, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. Everything else is contested in one way or another. This also lacks the nuance of modern insurgency warfare. The United States "controlled" Iraq during the Second Gulf War if you ONLY looked at a map and didn't turn on the news. Basically we're seeing the state of the States from the most stable and secure part of Gilead. If the show branches out or continues, it will likely show more about the state of the States.

** The problem is that the aftermath is depicted as a ''little'' too clean cut. Truthfully America would be a constant warzone. like the InUniverse, example Chicago, but more wide spread. It's easy to buy an American Coup happening given the right circumstances. The problem is that it's hard to believe that Giliad would have been created so cleanly without turning into an Americanized version of the aforementioned Bosnia or Syria.

** Eden is so scarily naïve and her mother has engrained into her that her only purpose is to care for the home, her husband, and to bear children. Fun reminder that she is only ''fifteen''.

-->'''Condoleeza Rice''': "I believe [the memo] said 'Bin-Laden determined to attack the U.S.?'"

*** Still doesn't make since. At the very least there would be extreme pockets of resistance and fighting militarily. At best America would have turned into Bosnia, or ''worse''... Syria. There's no way a coup would be that clean. Gilead's government isn't all that steady, but its steadier than it has any reason to be realistically.

** June's mother is shown definitely pushin her daughter to do "the right thing" rather than "as she pleased". She's also not to enthusiastic about the latter's relationship with Luke ("waste of energy, better things to do") so it's hard to imagine that she'd approve of her daughter getting caught into an adultery-related drama.

* I viewed it as bad writing in Season 2 how Fred went from a somewhat complicated character in Season 1 to a one-dimensional monster and a plot device in Season 2. However, the Season 1 finale ended with his best friend being harshly punished for adultery, and only being saved from death because of the DoubleStandard of his position, compared to the woman he had an affair with. Fred himself has MANY hypocrisies that could probably lead to him losing more than just his left arm; Warren's amputation and the birth of his first child was a wake-up call that it was time to hide his sins. In Season 2 alone, his pregnant Handmaid started it off by refusing to stone said woman and escaped her position for 92 days, almost succeeding in getting out of Gilead. He became a [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask man wearing the mask of a Commander]] to [[NiceJobFixingItVillain avoid getting in trouble again]].

* I thought it was weird that June had a female baby. I thought it would've been a boy. But then I realized how rebellious it was on June's end! If Gilead is anything like societies a couple centuries ago, they probably assume that it's the woman who determines the gender of the baby, not the man. Aunt Lydia has openly talked about the baby as a boy. June basically rebelled against the system by having a daughter.

*** Given how every politician in America has to wear their religion on their sleeve, how many might secretly be members of the Gilead ideology.

*** See above. As difficult as it is to take a cabinet position as a member of a pseudo-Christian Conspiracy, ''nobody'' in America pays attention to local elections. State Legislatures and Governors could easily fall under the sway of Gilead or be part of the conspiracy from the beginning.

*** Oaths are one thing, but soldiers are human beings too. They vote, have religious beliefs, and have human needs. If the chain of command is destroyed, the State Governor declares support for Gilead's interim government (especially if it starts with members of the original government as the leadership), or if society just descends into anarchy- what would ''you'' do? Honor a promise to a scrap of paper that is probably on fire right now, or run for the hills and protect your family?

*** See FBI/CIA/NSA muck-up of Al-Qaeda pre-9/11. All the signs were there that extremists were planning to hijack planes and use them as cruise missiles. Interservice rivalry, bureaucratic red tape, and good-old-fashioned Washington Policy combined to prevent anyone from doing anything to stop the attack.
-->'''Condoleeza Rice''': "I believe [the memo] said 'Bin-Laden determined to attack the U.S.?"

*** All this might lead to more Fridge Horror- Given how modern American politicians have to wear their religion on their sleeve while campaigning for office, how many State Governors, Members of Congress, Intelligence Agents, Generals, Soldiers, and Federal Officials might have publicly or privately been part of Gilead's denomination and thus played a part in the coup? Not to mention that in the modern United States there are something like 300 million firearms in circulation and it takes less logistical work for a Fundamentalist Militia send a text, grab their AR-15s, and hop in a van to D.C. than it takes for someone to transport, fuel, and crew an M1-Abrams battle tank when the chain of command has been shot to hell.

*** All this might lead to more Fridge Horror- Given how modern politicians have to wear their religion on their sleeve while campaigning for office, how many State Governors, Members of Congress, Intelligence Agents, Generals, Soldiers, and Federal Officials might have been part of Gilead's denomination and played a part in the coup? Not to mention that in the modern United States there are something like 300 million firearms in circulation and it takes less logistical work for a Fundamentalist Militia to grab their AR-15s than it does for a General to transport, fuel, and crew an M1-Abrams battle tank when the chain of command has been shot to hell.

** Seemingly confirmed in Season 2 when Serena has her chat with the American Agent, and he talks about the progress the Government-in-Exile has been making.

*** All this might lead to the Fridge Horror- how many State Governors, Members of Congress, Intelligence Agents, Generals, Soldiers, and Federal Officials might have played a part in the coup? Not to mention that, in the modern United States there are something like 300 million firearms in circulation and it takes less logistical work for a Fundamentalist Militia to grab an AR-15 than it does for a General to transport, fuel, and load an M1-Abrams battle tank when the chain of command has been shot to hell.

** And all this is ''before'' you consider how such a requisitely massive plot could avoid the notice of several ''dozen'' state, federal and foreign intelligence agencies (indeed, one of the flashbacks to before the coup mentions the FBI sniffing around the cult).
*** All this might lead to the Fridge Horror- how many State Governors, Members of Congress, Generals, Soldiers, and Federal Officials played a part in the coup?

** And all this is ''before'' you consider how such a requisitely massive plot could avoid the notice of several ''dozen'' state, federal and foreign intelligence agencies (indeed, one of the flashbacks to before the coup mentions the FBI sniffing around the cult).