TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

What would you miss?

Go To

HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#1: Mar 20th 2011 at 7:21:23 PM

The world more or less ended in a plague about 10 years ago. Mankind is only now barely beginning to rebuild. Lots of things were lost: The Internet, most air-travel, most governments. In a world like that what would you (or your characters) miss?

For example, my main character (a badass yet childlike young woman) misses chocolate, fireworks, and Disney World, partially because her “best memory” involved all three.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#2: Mar 20th 2011 at 7:42:31 PM

I'd definitely miss videogames and the internet, that's for sure.

  • film, animation, tv — all the great stories of which can be penned down on paper or retold in oral tradition.
    • Seriously though, just because we can't watch the Star Wars movies anymore doesn't mean we'd automatically forget about Luke Skywalker, we'd be retelling his adventures to our kids ourselves.
  • music recordings — learning an instrument and covering music has never been so important.

edited 20th Mar '11 7:50:02 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#3: Mar 20th 2011 at 8:04:32 PM

This may sound stupid, but the thing I would most miss in an After the End scenario? Air conditioning. I happen to really hate the weather where I live, and living without air conditioning would make my life utterly miserable.

I assume, by the way, that this is referring principally to things people would miss. I suspect, or at least hope, that most people would most miss any friends or relatives they lost during the plague.

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#4: Mar 20th 2011 at 8:17:25 PM

Power, clean water, pre-packaged food, doctors, etc.

LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#5: Mar 20th 2011 at 10:55:59 PM

Dental care. Feminine hygiene products. Chocolate. The ability to have hot food at any time you want it. Actually, having light at any time you want it too.

Be not afraid...
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#6: Mar 20th 2011 at 11:02:57 PM

@nrjxll yes things not people. My characters would give anything to have their lost friends/families back, but this is not about that. This is about the things you would miss. There are no stupid answers.

edited 21st Mar '11 2:49:58 PM by HistoryMaker

HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#7: Mar 20th 2011 at 11:11:55 PM

@ Loni I was so horrified at the idea of a world w/o FHP's I had to write a handwave for it which is now a plot point smile

@annebeeche you are almost quoting one of my charicrers about Star Wars in a worst case senario.

edited 21st Mar '11 2:50:52 PM by HistoryMaker

dontcallmewave Brony? Moi? surely you jest! from My home Since: Nov, 2013
Brony? Moi? surely you jest!
#8: Mar 20th 2011 at 11:13:00 PM

Tv Tropes

He who fights bronies should see to itthat he himself does not become a brony. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, Pinkie Pie gazes Also
HelveticaScenario Since: Dec, 2010
#9: Mar 21st 2011 at 3:56:01 AM

Mostly internet porn, it'd be really hard to go back to magazines and video tapes.

I JUST WANTED TO GO INTO SPAAACE!!!
LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#10: Mar 21st 2011 at 4:02:14 AM

[up][up][up] Well, women used to manage somehow.

How does a handwave involving FHP become a plot point?

Be not afraid...
annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#11: Mar 21st 2011 at 2:36:19 PM

If it helps, the Anglo-Saxon women used cloth pads and drawers on their periods. (They went commando when not on periods.)

But that's just my perspective.

See the history of menstrual pads

Disposable pads are a more recent invention. Before disposable pads, women used reusable ones.

edited 21st Mar '11 2:40:20 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#12: Mar 21st 2011 at 3:25:49 PM

“How does a handwave involving FHP become a plot point?”

Basically I justified No Periods, Period

My world didn’t completely end. I’d established that there are scattered tiny pockets of civilization. One of them is Pheonix (a research facility in Rhode Island). Pheonix provides drugs, food, occasional shelter, and access to electricity in exchange for servitude. All my characters either work for Pheonix or know someone who does.

When I realized that my world would have run out of FHP I just threw in that Pheonix also provides the type of birth control that stops your period.

This later provides evidence that a pregnancy was intentional.

edited 21st Mar '11 3:28:44 PM by HistoryMaker

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#13: Mar 21st 2011 at 3:55:20 PM

Never mind the fact that women have been getting by using cloth rags as menstrual pads for centuries.

But hey, if it works for your story, go for it.

edited 21st Mar '11 3:55:29 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#14: Mar 21st 2011 at 8:13:02 PM

[up]It does work for my story. It reinforces the hold Phoenix has on these people.

However there are definitely groups who have and/or want nothing to do w/ Phoenix or their drugs, and they would definitely be going the old fashioned way.

I know FHP’s aren’t a “can’t live with out it” thing like clean water. Just something we’d miss like chocolate and air-conditioning.

Which brings me back to the original question: what would you miss?

I thought of some: clean clothes every day, regular showers, and the Olympic Games

edited 21st Mar '11 8:13:17 PM by HistoryMaker

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#15: Mar 21st 2011 at 9:26:07 PM

[up] Soft inner clothes that you wash regularly (if you can afford soft inner clothes to begin with), rough outer clothes that is probably washed less often.

Scandinavians and the people of Ancient Japan both did this.

  • Oh man, people would miss spectator sports like hell.
  • Many people would miss living in a nuclear family unit. A rebuilding world that requires a lot of manual labor, and the cost of a place to live, requires that people live together in larger units.
  • Miss having their own bedrooms, and bedframes. You are sleeping in a pile of blankets wherever there is room on the floor.
  • Lots of furniture. You'll have to cut it down for firewood, and also make floorspace for your fellow family members and roommates.
  • shampoo, body washes, and all that fine crap—learn to figure out how to use soap for everything, and to make the stuff yourself
  • having everything ready-made for you.

edited 21st Mar '11 9:27:37 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Gvzbgul from Middle Earth Since: Jul, 2010
#16: Mar 22nd 2011 at 1:35:14 AM

Growing my own food would be a pain. It's insane how much of our food is reliant on our transport system.

cityofmist turning and turning from Meanwhile City Since: Dec, 2010
turning and turning
#17: Mar 22nd 2011 at 12:42:43 PM

Toiletries in general. Makeup, moisturiser, hair products.

Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow
Kaxen Since: Jan, 2010
#18: Mar 22nd 2011 at 3:50:42 PM

Toiletries, air conditioning, and cheap paper ...... and probably my mindless idleness.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#19: Mar 22nd 2011 at 3:55:12 PM

  • toilet paper.

Now I don't know how you make up for that without wasting precious materials.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#20: Mar 22nd 2011 at 5:35:01 PM

Naptime. Electricity. Air conditioning and central heating. A nice bed. This website.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Zolnier The Odd Lad from A suspiciously dull shop Since: Apr, 2009
The Odd Lad
#21: Mar 22nd 2011 at 6:54:44 PM

Typing programs, I hate actaully writing on paper with my hands.

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.
RTaco Since: Jul, 2009
#22: Mar 22nd 2011 at 7:08:55 PM

Running water. If there's one thing I could hold onto, it'd be that.

Garbeld I see what? Since: Jul, 2009
I see what?
#23: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:39:11 AM

Toiletrooms (rather, the associated comforts thereof - toilet paper, running water); Physical idleness (I have bad joints and so moving around much is painful - otherwise I would love to be out and about more, anyways, however); The freedom to be picky about my food; ... I'm not actually certain that there is much that I'd miss beyond a "eh, well, that's inconvenient" level. I tend to just get by all the same whenever circumstances change, given a bit of time to adjust.

Pyroninja42 Forum Villain from the War Room Since: Jan, 2011
Forum Villain
#24: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:43:57 AM

TV Tropes, meaning I wouldn't be able to compare the real post-apocalypse to fictional post apocalypses sad

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#25: Mar 24th 2011 at 7:12:01 PM

[up]That would be hilarious. I bet there are hard core tropers who have all the After the End tropes memorized, that would comment on the actual apocalypse in trope-speak: “this is turning into such Scavenger World” “no it’s more of just a Crapsack World” “well I guess Our Zombies Are Different!”


Total posts: 35
Top