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| - In the parlance of Alternate History Fandom a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically at the expense of its contemporaries. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded into South America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or Those Wacky Nazis managed to win it all and now dominate the globe. Compare and contrast with Alternate History Screw, the inversion of this trope. Examples of Alternate History Wank include:
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| abstract
| - In the parlance of Alternate History Fandom a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically at the expense of its contemporaries. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded into South America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or Those Wacky Nazis managed to win it all and now dominate the globe. In short, the point of divergence that created the Alternate History has also created a Mary Sue or, one could say, "Republic of Mary Sue" of one sort or another. There is disagreement on what constitutes a Wank. Is a Greater Romania timeline where Romania controls all the regions it claimed in the early 20th century a Wank, or would Romania have to dominate the whole of the Balkans? But if Romania controls all Europe, the timeline probably is an Alternate History Wank. The disagreement on this is like the disagreement on what makes a Mary Sue. Some maintain that to be considered an Alternate History Wank, an alternate timeline must be by nature implausible or even invoke Alien Space Bats after the point of divergence. For others, it just has to show favoritism. One common result of this, however, is the fact that individual nations tend to be assimilated into large multinational single-state power blocs, with the end result in extreme cases being that the entire world is divided between two or three super-empires -- all of which tend to be dominated by one main national or cultural group (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is usually that which the author finds it easiest to identify with and / or write about). This tends to result in a situation where, as with the page image, the map of the world can essentially be shaded with two or three colours. Wanks tend to be characterised not solely by the success of a nation or other cause, but the fact that it is treated as Born Lucky: everything always goes its way, when an issue turning against it just once would have disastrous consequences. Using The Draka as an example, no-one seems to notice this vast evil empire growing in Africa and react to it until after it has already overrun the Ottoman Empire. The United States in particular is sometimes said to embody the closest thing to this in Real Life: Bismarck famously is believed to have said "there is a special providence that protects fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." Basically it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether the work in question is a wank or not, especially in light of the historical achievements of certain nations or individuals. If Alexander the Great had been a fictional character in an alternate history work then his rapid conquest and creation of a gigantic empire in a very short period of time would likely have been labeled a wank, however Alexander the Great did exist and did create a gigantic empire in a short period of time so wanks, unless they are clear-cut cases like the Drakaverse, are not always very easy to spot. Note that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a plausible timeline with a purposefully maximized British Empire can be informative and entertaining, or valuable for some artistic purpose. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing something fun and entertaining. It just may require a lot of Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Also a lot of Truth in Television here: the much of the 16th century was a time of "Hispanowank". The 17th century "Dutchwank". The 19th century "Britwank". The 20th century (and previous decades) and present day in the midst of "Ameriwank". Arguably also a "Democracywank" and "Capitalismwank", as those two political and economic ideologies have come to dominate most large and/or powerful nations. Compare and contrast with Alternate History Screw, the inversion of this trope. See also America Takes Over the World, Japan Takes Over the World and China Takes Over the World for country-specific examples. Examples of Alternate History Wank include:
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