Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: Difference between revisions
Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility (view source)
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While the line between "plausible" and not is [[Your Mileage May Vary|subjective]], the following five levels tend to encompass the general consensus in the online AH Fandom:
* '''Type I - Hard Alternate History:''' These are works that adhere to very strict, even scientific standards in their plausibility. Research is often detailed and intensive, Butterflies are followed logically, and with attention to details, such as the economic or logistical feasibility of an invasion. At their best they set aside the personal "wants" and "if only's" of the author and try to accurately determine the most likely [[What If]] result of a PoD. In some cases they are arguably [[Reality Is Unrealistic|more "plausible" than actual history]]! A majority of historical counter-factuals fall into this category. [[Alternate History Wank
* '''Type II - Hard/Soft Alternate History:''' These are works that incorporate both Hard and Soft elements. Perhaps it is well researched and incorporates historical methodology, but leaves room for adventurous outcomes or Rule of Drama/Cool/Comedy. The author may take some liberties in following butterflies, such as allowing some post-PoD births or a measure of parallelism. Perhaps they've accelerated a certain technology in a way that's rather "convenient", but doesn't strain the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] too much. Or perhaps the butterflies and methodology are sound, but obviously "steered" with a predetermined outcome ("I need a setting where an independent Confederate States faces off against the Union in a Great War analog, what PoD can I choose to get there realistically?"). Some counter-factuals may fall into this Type, such as those by historians with an obvious political bias or pet theory or ones that allow an improbable outcome to look at the ramifications in order to study a tangential area (for example allow for an "improbable" Japanese WWII victory scenario in order to study the cultural implications of such an event). A well-done [[Alternate History Wank]] can qualify here.
* '''Type III - Soft Alternate History:''' These are works where the plausibility of the setting's alt-history is less important than setting up a world that fits the creator's artistic objectives. Research is often minimal to moderate and used simply to give some verisimilitude to the setting. [[In Spite of a Nail|Butterflies may be utterly ignored]], [[Politically-Correct History]] may make an appearance, and plausibility will take a back seat to Rule of Drama/Cool/Comedy. Perhaps [[Mirror Universe|parallelism has run to ridiculous levels]] or the author uses Historical Domain characters born way after the PoD ("I don't care if he was born centuries after the historical Fall of Rome, I want General Patton fighting the Modern Romans in Gaul!"). Perhaps the rate of technology growth is just too high. Perhaps the [[Writer on Board|author's politics and desires]] so totally tint the work that it breaks any [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] and turns it into an AH-themed [[Author Tract]]. Many [[Alternate History Wank
* '''Type IV - Utterly Implausible AH:''' These are works that are so Soft that they melt. Works that are so implausible as to be effectively impossible and so Soft as to prove impossible to take seriously. Works where research was so poor or ill-considered, [[Author Filibuster|author politics so prevalent]], Butterflies so ignored, details (logistics, politics, etc.) so overlooked, often purposefully, that there's no way anyone with even a passing familiarity with the history can take it seriously. Infamously implausible scenarios like Operation Sealion <ref>[[Nazi Germany]]'s plan to invade Britain during [[World War II]], which has been shown by the members of [[Alternatehistory.com]] (where it's become a [[Memetic Mutation]] because of this) to be one of the worst military plans ever conceived -- it would have been a catastrophic defeat for Germany that would have effectively destroyed the Wehrmacht and allowed the Allies to win up to a year earlier.</ref> are often placed here, as are utterly implausible technology jumps, such as Aztecs developing breech loading rifles in 1420. Over-the-top totally ludicrous [[Alternate History Wank
* '''Type X - [[Alien Space Bats]] and Fantastical AH:''' In contrast with Type IV, these works are '''deliberately''' designed as pure fantasy, typically following the [[Rule of Cool]]. Some sort of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] or [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] or [[Negative Space Wedgie]] or [[A Wizard Did It|blatant magic]] causes a PoD that completely changes everything. [[What If]] [[Worldwar|aliens invade Earth during World War II]]? What if time traveling modern Cherokee give assault rifles to their distant ancestors in 1820? What if the modern island of Manhattan was [[Mass Teleportation|time-ported]] to the Mediterranean in Roman times? A sub-type of this rewrites actual history in fantastic terms: what if George Washington's army used nature magic to fight necromantic redcoats? Ironically, many Type X works can become very "Hard" following an initial fantastical PoD, diligently using historical research and Butterflies to see what would logically happen if the Cherokees really did have Kalashnikov assault rifles in 1820. Type X works can be "steered" or "unsteered". '''Note to Tropers:''' when posting examples please make a note on how "Hard" the work is after the initial PoD if the PoD is the ASB element; for example "after the [[Negative Space Wedgie]] moves Manhattan, the rest of the work follows a more Type II or even Type I level of plausibility".
Needless to say, the line between the different Types is [[Your Mileage May Vary|highly subjective]], often depending on an individual's personal interpretations or what historical theory he/she believes. Where history is vague (such as Prehistory) pure creative writing or blatant [[Ass Pull
Also, technology can be a source of debate: is [[Steampunk]] a Type III or IV or even X? How realistic is [[Zeppelins from Another World|Airship passenger travel]] in the year 2001 anyway? Politics enters in as well, with steered AH used to create a [[Mary Suetopia|Utopia]] based on the creator's personal political/economic views or conversely a [[Strawman Political|Dystopia]] based on opposing views.
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* ''[[Temeraire]]'' is the Napoleonic Wars... {{smallcaps|with dragons}}! Otherwise a Type II: The society is still reminiscent of the equivalent time period and technologies are much the same, though there are some significant political deviations. (The Incas were never conquered because they ''also'' had dragons, for instance).
* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] postulates that Boonville, Indiana is overtaken by aliens who are obsessed with [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|engineering]] [[Hybrid Monster|monsters]] [[Bio Punk|for political gain]]. It is attacked by the National Guard and the town of Gerosha is built in its place - so-named after [[Reality Subtext|a seashell with a letter "G" carved into it that was found on a beach in Florida]]. After that, the [[Feuding Families|growing feud]] between Gerosha's founding Flippo family and the Hebbleskin Crime Family results in more [[Biological Mashup|monsters]], more explosions, and even a radioactive [[MacGuffin]] or two. Since it aims to become a comic book film, it's very steered and [[They Just Didn't Care|doesn't seem to care]] about how hard or soft the AH is.
* ''[[Command & Conquer|Red Alert]]'' seems to be Type X-IV. It ''starts'' with [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]] building a [[Time Machine]] [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|and going back to kill Hitler]]. [[Dirty Communists]] led by [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]] invade Europe with [[Shock and Awe|Tesla coils]] and [[Tank Goodness|superheavy tanks]]. [[America Wins the War]] - but some thirty years later, we have a second Soviet invasion of USA... ''with [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods|giant battlesquids]], [[Weather Control Machine
* The ''[[West of Eden]]'' trilogy is probably an X-III, with the fantastic element being that the dinosaurs were never wiped out. Realistically speaking, the extinction of the dinosaurs is probably what allowed mammals to gain dominance and thus humans to come to be, but of course in that case the humans versus lizard-women plot couldn't happen.
* In John Birmingham's novel ''Without Warning'', a [[Colony Drop]] of a mysterious energy field called the Wave wipes out all human life in most of the continental United States and much of Canada, Mexico and Cuba in 2003 just before the invasion of Iraq but after that it's pretty much a Type I including Sadaam Hussein's reaction to "the Great Satan" gettiing it's legs chopped out from under it and what springs from that.
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