History YMMV / Victoria

* AuthorTract: This novel allows Lind to let his discredited military and political theories to actually work.

* MarySuetopia: The Confederation. They have the most advanced science of all nations in spite of being a mainly agrarian economy, the people enthusiastically embrace the leaders' neo-reactionary ideology which solves most social problems and makes life much better for everyone, and all their enemies are either corrupt, incompetent, AxCrazy or any two or three of these at once. Also, they are backed by a literal [[UsefulNotes/ImperialRussia crusading Czar]].

8 AuthorTract: This novel allows Lind to let his discredited military theory to actually work.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** He tries to paint the T-34 as a good, reliable tank, just what the Christian Marines need. However, said tank was known for frequent breakdowns (modern computerized systems such as fuel injection greatly improve reliability), among other problems. And that's not even getting into the fact that the newest T-34 rolled off the assembly line in 1958. The tanks are almost 60 years old, at best, at the time of the novel's publication. And the ones that Russia has are mostly literal museum pieces in the real world, disabled to the point they're fancy metal sculptures.
** At the end, he claims that the different branches of Christianity have joined together in order to launch a massive crusade... against a similarly united Islamic world. This is laughably impossible, for many reasons. Even setting aside the huge divides within each faith, both Christianity and Islam have spent as much, if not ''more'' of their histories warring between different branches and denominations of ''[[TeethClenchedTeamwork their]] [[WeAreStrugglingTogether own]]'' religions as they have with one another.
** He also argues that allowing women in the army was stupid because "all armies, everywhere, that had actually fought anyone had been made up solely of men". While militaries with female members have not been the rule in human history, they have existed since the Ancient World in some places, and one of the most successful militaries in human history, the Mongols, included women in both command and field positions.
** Speaking of T-34s, some of those were crewed by women, a famous one being [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariya_Oktyabrskaya Mariya Oktyabrskaya]]. The Soviets also fielded female snipers, pilots[[note]]Including the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches 588th/46th Bomber Regiment]], a.k.a. the Night Witches from Music/{{Sabaton}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7NSUFDHFgg song of same name]], a raider group that used low-tech biplanes that ought to fit right into Retroculture if they hadn't been flown by women[[/note]], political officers, and even command-level officers in a couple cases.
** A smaller little screw up also occurs early on, where Rumford complains that he can't use some nearby wetland for farming. Considering the types of crops he was growing, a wetland would've been a terrible place to farm, as it would've been a perfect breeding ground for his crops to be infected. And this is without getting into what would happen to his farm if it flooded. Doubly so in that more and more farmers are intentionally adding wetlands to their farms as they prevent flooding and soil erosion.
** At one point Rumsford, as Lind's mouthpiece, states that there are no women interested in military theory. Even a casual glance at military-theoretical literature shows that this is not the case, leading one to wonder if Lind has actually read any milsci journals since 1980.
** On international law: Rumsford writes that none of the federal government's globalist allies could (initially) send troops to help suppress the rebellions because Russia "exercised her veto in the Security Council." The United Nations has no authority over a bilateral agreement to deploy troops in another country at the host country's request. Indeed, less than one year after Victoria was published, Russia ''herself'' deployed troops in Syria to suppress rebels at the request of the Syrian government, a deployment which Lind apparently thinks the United States would have been able to veto.
** Lind also states that the U.S. was the "freest" nation in the world in until the 1960s, which is... very debatable, at best, considering this is the decade in which the non-white segments of the population gained many basic rights they'd previously been denied under openly racist and white-supremacist systems of segregation and disenfranchisement.
** The book treats women in the United States military as new and dangerous trend. In truth experiments with service women began during the first world war and all branches were forced to allow women with equal benefits to serve in non-combat roles in 1972. The Air Force, which had been doing the same since '48, decided to just let women serve in combat roles in '76. There's always been some grumblings about things like different fitness standards between the sexes, but it's hardly the sort of 21st century PoliticalOvercorrectness trendiness Lind thinks of it as. Part of this might have to deal with the fact that while the first parts of the book (or perhaps a preceding short story) were written in 1995 (see here https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/04/30/understanding-oklahoma/a03eb6e2-14df-434a-b6cb-d355aaf5f587/), the book itself wasn’t released until 2014.
** He also shows complete ignorance of Iwo Jima when he claims that there were no women there. Jane Kendeigh and her fellow flight nurses who landed on Iwo Jima during the heaviest fighting would disagree. Then there is the fact that 20,000 women actively served in the United States Marines by the end of the war, with over 85 percent of the staff in the Marine HQ being women.
** The drug cartels of Mexico join forces into a neo-Aztec Empire, reviving all the human sacrifice and cannibalism that characterized that society. While the drug cartels are indeed pretty horrible, to put it mildly, they're also (esoteric and heretical) Catholics, and they fight one another for market share as often as they fight their governments. They're also funded to a large extent by American demand and armed with American guns; the catastrophic collapse of United States society and infrastructure as depicted in the novel (and its replacement by multiple autarkic factions even more hostile to drug epidemics) would be pretty bad for them long-term and make pushing product harder short-term.
** One early scene has a judge tarred and feathered with ''road tar''. Tarring and feathering in RealLife was done with pine tar that was not nearly as hot as the asphalt now used to pave roads, and slathering someone in hot road tar would assuredly burn them to death rather than "just" painfully rough them up. Lind seems to portray the incident as painful and humiliating, but not fatal, indicating that he didn't know the difference between the two types of tar.

** The Confederation can be seen as an incredibly hardline authoritarian regime rather than a "paragon" of Americanism and Western Civilization. The same applies to the individual characters, such as Kraft and Rumford himself. It is also common for some to believe they are actually a vassal state of Russia, given what a huge role it played in granting it independence.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Neo-reactionary fundamentalists smash all the forces of liberalism, multiculturalism and progressivism one-by-one, setting up a perfect agrarian-regressive state where everyone is a good Christian, or else. It's not for everyone.

** The book treats women in the United States military as new and dangerous trend. In truth experiments with service women began during the first world war and all branches were forced to allow women with equal benefits to serve in non-combat roles in 1972. The Air Force, which had been doing the same since '48, decided to just let women serve in combat roles in '76. There's always been some grumblings about things like different fitness standards between the sexes, but it's hardly the sort of 21st century PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad trendiness Lind thinks of it as. Part of this might have to deal with the fact that while the first parts of the book (or perhaps a preceding short story) were written in 1995 (see here https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/04/30/understanding-oklahoma/a03eb6e2-14df-434a-b6cb-d355aaf5f587/), the book itself wasn’t released until 2014.

* EightDeadlyWords: [[AmazonBrigade Azania]] [[DoesNotLikeMen is]] [[{{Gendercide}} genocidal]], [[AnimalWrongsGroup Paleopitus]] [[AGodAmI is crazy]], [[EvilLuddite Cascadia]] [[HorrorHippies is murderous]], the [[DirtyCommies Marxists]] are cruel, [[TotalitarianGangsterism the Aztecs]] ''[[IAmAHumanitarian eat people]]'', the [[GodwinsLaw Nazis]], are, well, ''[[VillainByDefault Nazis]]'', and the [[TheTheocracy Christian]] [[ChurchMilitant Marines]] -- the ''good guys'' -- are violently racist, [[StayInTheKitchen sexist]], anti-intellectual and [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic]] {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s whose literal first action in the book is [[BurnTheWitch burning a woman alive for refusing to renounce her faith.]] It's a bit difficult to get emotionally invested when the ''nicest'' faction other than the protagonists are the Nazis, who the Christian Marines find themselves to [[NotSoDifferentRemark have many similarities with]] when representatives of both meet to talk.

** The main storyline begins when Rumford blows up his career in the Marines and becomes a far-right militant ''solely'' because he was outraged that [[FelonyMisdemeanor a female Marine said the words "Iwo Jima" in a memorial service for those who fell in that battle]] - he felt a woman giving such a speech was disrespectful because women did not then (and [[StayInTheKitchen should not now]] according to him) serve in the Marines, an objection he voiced by [[{{Hypocrite}} interrupting the memorial service]]. It comes off as a massive, incredibly disproportionate hissy fit over a minor dispute in which he was clearly in the wrong, making him look like a clown rather than a brave man standing up for his beliefs. The sheer weirdness of the whole thing led to a MemeticMutation on ''Website/SpacebattlesDotCom'' about how Rumford believes that women are ''physically unable'' to say the words "Iwo Jima."

** The main storyline begins when Rumford blows up his career in the Marines and becomes a far-right militant ''solely'' because he was outraged that [[FelonyMisdemeanor a female Marine said the words "Iwo Jima" in a memorial service for those who fell in that battle]] - he felt a woman giving such a speech was disrespectful because women did not then (and [[StayInTheKitchen should not now]] according to him) serve in the Marines, an objection he voiced by [[{{Hypocrite}} interrupting the memorial service]]. It comes off as a massive, incredibly disproportionate hissy fit over a minor dispute in which he was clearly in the wrong, making him look like a clown rather than a brave man standing up for his beliefs. The sheer weirdness of the whole thing led to a MemeticMutation on ''Website/{{Spacebattles}}'' about how Rumford believes that women are ''physically unable'' to say the words "Iwo Jima."

* WhatAnIdiot: The feds consider a planned blockade, bombing and ground campaign that would almost certainly work. Then they reject that plan because Kateesha Mowukuu, the Secretary of Defense, wants to send in an 'elite' division of half-trained, undisciplined gangbangers to handle the job alone. Everyone else concedes the point on grounds of racial sensitivity, to predictable results.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: The protagonist destroys his own career and takes a stand in the culture war to preserve the honor of the Marines...from having a female officer say the name "Iwo Jima" in a memorial service.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Several times, Lind gets a even the most basic facts wrong.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Neo-reactionary fundamentalists smash all the forces of liberalism, multiculturalism and progress one-by-one, setting up a perfect agrarian-regressive state where everyone is a good Christian, or else. [[CaptainObvious It's not for everyone]].

** Some also believe that the term "orcs" is used by the protagonists as a racial slur against blacks and Hispanics. In fact, it refers specifically to violent criminals and other persons of similarly worthless moral character; there's even a bit in one chapter that discusses in so many words how the local blacks are at war with the local orcs.
*** In-story, Father Dmitri is the first to use the term and defines it as "soldiers of the Evil One." In practice, the term is usually used to refer to criminals belonging to ethnic minorities, since these generally play a larger role in the book than WhiteGangbangers (who make only occasional appearances).

*** He also shows complete ignorance of Iwo Jima when he claims that there were no women there. Jane Kendeigh and her fellow flight nurses who landed on Iwo Jima during the heaviest fighting would disagree. Then there is the fact that 20,000 women actively served in the United States Marines by the end of the war, with over 85 percent of the staff in the Marine HQ being women.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Several times, Lind gets a even the most basic facts wrong. For example, he tries to paint the T-34 as a good, reliable tank, just what the Christian Marines need. However, said tank was known for frequent breakdowns (modern computerized systems such as fuel injection greatly improve reliability), among other problems. [[note]] And that's not even getting into the fact that the newest T-34 rolled off the assembly line in 1958. The tanks are almost 60 years old, at best, at the time of the novel's publication. And the ones that Russia has are mostly literal museum pieces in the real world, disabled to the point they're fancy metal sculptures.[[/note]] Furthermore, at the end, he claims that the different branches of Christianity have joined together in order to launch a massive crusade... against a similarly united Islamic world. This is laughably impossible, for many reasons. [[note]]Even setting aside the huge divides within each faith, both Christianity and Islam have spent as much, if not ''more'' of their histories warring between different branches and denominations of ''[[TeethClenchedTeamwork their]] [[WeAreStrugglingTogether own]]'' religions as they have with one another.[[/note]] Finally, he argues that allowing women in the army was stupid because "all armies, everywhere, that had actually fought anyone had been made up solely of men". While militaries with female members have not been the rule in human history, they have existed since the Ancient World in some places, and one of the most successful militaries in human history, the Mongols, included women in both command and field positions.

* EightDeadlyWords: It's a bit [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy difficult to get emotionally invested]] when the ''nicest'' faction other than the protagonists are literal Nazis, and the protagonists themselves are [[ChurchMilitant aggressively]] [[TheFundamentalist theocratic]], anti-intellectual, racist, [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic]] and [[EvilReactionary overall backwards]] [[StayInTheKitchen chauvinists]] whose literal first action in the book is [[BurnTheWitch burning a woman alive for refusing to renounce her faith.]] Note that Lind quite clearly intends for the executioners to be seen as [[DesignatedHero the good guys.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: By the 2050s, Victoria has vanquished all of its foes, that means [[spoiler: rampant racism, sexism and homophobia are left to rule the day in Victoria. Non-Christians are actively persecuted, and the Christian world is planning a globe-spanning war with Islam as a whole. Liberal America's values of equality, respect and acceptance are regarded as anathema by the new regime, ensuring that the last century of human progress was AllForNothing.]]

* HeartwarmingMoments: The Azanians desperate defense against Rumlind's invaders, even as they fail to make a dent in the invincible plot armor.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: [[AmazonBrigade Azania]] [[DoesNotLikeMen is]] [[{{Gendercide}} genocidal]], [[AnimalWrongsGroup Paleopitus]] [[AGodAmI is crazy]], [[EvilLuddite Cascadia]] [[HorrorHippies is murderous]], the [[DirtyCommies Marxists]] are cruel, [[TotalitarianGangsterism the Aztecs]] ''[[IAmAHumanitarian eat people]]'', the [[GodwinsLaw Nazis]], are, well, ''[[VillainByDefault Nazis]]'', and the [[TheTheocracy Christian]] [[ChurchMilitant Marines]] -- the ''good guys'' -- are [[AngryWhiteMan violently racist]], [[StayInTheKitchen sexist]] and [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic]] {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s -- oh, and they find themselves to be [[NotSoDifferentRemark not so different from the Nazis]] when representatives of both meet to talk. Eventually the Christian Marines win and bring about in much of North America a new Retroculture regime -- that resembles [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid-times South Africa]] more than anything, with a particular emphasis on "voluntary" exile of African-Americans to the countryside settlements (with the exception of a hand-picked few "useful professionals"), -- and other analogous movements do the same throughout most of the world. So... [[SarcasmMode Yaaaaaaaaay?]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: [[AmazonBrigade Azania]] [[DoesNotLikeMen is]] [[{{Gendercide}} genocidal]], [[AnimalWrongsGroup Paleopitus]] [[AGodAmI is crazy]], [[EvilLuddite Cascadia]] [[HorrorHippies is murderous]], the [[DirtyCommies Marxists]] are cruel, [[TotalitarianGangsterism the Aztecs]] ''[[IAmAHumanitarian eat people]]'', the [[GodwinsLaw Nazis]], are, well, ''Nazis'', and the [[TheTheocracy Christian]] [[ChurchMilitant Marines]] -- the ''good guys'' -- are [[AngryWhiteMan violently racist]], [[StayInTheKitchen sexist]] and [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic]] {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s whose solution to black gangs rioting in Atlanta is to [[NukeEm nuke]] [[DisproportionateRetribution the]] [[MoralEventHorizon city]] -- oh, and they find themselves to be [[NotSoDifferentRemark not so different from the Nazis]] when representatives of both meet to talk. Eventually the Christian Marines win and bring about in much of North America a new Retroculture regime -- that resembles [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid-times South Africa]] more than anything, with a particular emphasis on "voluntary" exile of African-Americans to the countryside settlements (with the exception of a hand-picked few "useful professionals"), -- and other analogous movements do the same throughout most of the world. So... [[SarcasmMode Yaaaaaaaaay?]]

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Somewhat surprisingly, the Nazis. After being treated to a CharacterFilibuster by Kraft on the matter of why not only Nazism, but any and all ideologies ever invented are always evil and dysfunctional and will cause the states that believe in them to fail, Hauptsturmfuehrer Halsing [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asks]] him whether this also applies to his own ideology of Retroculture. Kraft then argues that [[InsistentTerminology Retroculture of course is not an ideology, merely the practical application of basic common sense]], but proves unable to convince Halsing of this view. While the author evidently expects the audience to agree with Kraft, his argument can easily come across as the weaker one.

* MomentOfAwesome:

* MomentOfAwesome:
** After providing an heir to the throne, Victoria utters the following sentence: "Did you really think I'd let ''Cumberland'' be King?" Cumberland is her disgustingly horrible uncle who does, indeed, want the throne. He can't get it now.
** Sir Robert Peel getting the other Tories to agree to name Albert regent for his child in case Victoria dies in childbirth. Why? Because Robert Mother-courting Peel says so! Yeah!
** In the Series 3 finale, Abigail Turner gives Penge a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech over his constantly looking down on Brodie and believing him to be incapable of true feelings.

* HilariousInHindsight: This was published in 2014. A quote of the narrator: "the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party was the difference between Madonna and ''Donald Trump''".

* OnceAcceptableTargets: Subverted. Under Retroculture, political correctness is dead and everyone laughs along with ethnic and sexist jokes. Rumford throws around casual slurs to all and sundry (and he is not the only one to do so), and pokes fun not only at the usual targets, but ''every'' ethnicity and minority, even making Know Nothing-ish cracks about the hard-drinking FightingIrish and other ''completely obsolete'' 19th-century stereotypes. Played under RuleOfFunny, but this aspect of the book probably does not appeal to everyone.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Thoroughly [[AvertedTrope averted]] as the narrative, the protagonist, and the author all categorically deny the idea of societal progress. Rumford is as happy to crack dated jokes about the Irish as he is to sneer at dark-skinned "orcs." The phrase "high yellow" appears multiple times in this book; it is an archaic, and now offensive, term for a very light-skinned black or mixed-race person.

* HilariousInHindsight: This was published in 2014. A quote of the narrator: "the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party was the difference between Madonna and *Donald Trump*".

** The book treats women in the United States military as new and dangerous trend. In truth experiments with service women began during the first world war and all branches were forced to allow women with equal benefits to serve in non-combat roles in 1972. The Air Force, which had been doing the same since '48, decided to just let women serve in combat roles in '76. There's always been some grumblings about things like different fitness standards between the sexes, but it's hardly the sort of 21st century PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad trendiness Lind thinks of it as. Part of this might have to deal with the fact that while the first parts of the book were written in 1995 (see here https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/04/30/understanding-oklahoma/a03eb6e2-14df-434a-b6cb-d355aaf5f587/), the book itself wasn’t released until 2014.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Neo-reactionary fundamentalists smash all the forces of liberalism, multiculturalism and progress one-by-one, setting up a perfect agrarian-regressive state where everyone is a good Christian, or else. It's not for everyone.