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and of course there's *mom*?

So Tom is Isabella's son, warped forward by the timepiece? :p
 
RGB: ROFL . I couldn't help it !!

Incognitia: haha you should have told me ! I would have given you something especially special ! XD XD

Avernite: Dial M for Murder !!
 
Man, this Inspector Gray, what a character. Just what this story needs, a strong, mature, focused individual to keep these meddling kids in line. Even has a touch of the sinister with the eyepatch. Definately a keeper.

Not that I am biased or anything.:rolleyes:
 
Mettermrck: ROFL CSI: Timelines ; not a bad idea XD XD

grayghost: yes ! and he supposedly has a son too !

Looks like people keep forgetting that this bonus is also suppose to be a glimpse into the rest of the story too XD . Tom being killed off before the end and another cast member (by the name of Alexander Gray) etc etc . No impact at all ? XD XD
 
canonized said:
Tom being killed off before the end and another cast member (by the name of Alexander Gray) etc etc . No impact at all ? XD XD


Haha I got that bit, but I was just wondering whether I'd missed something while catching up! :D
 
I'm waiting for a certain character to return in the bonus chapters. When will that be?

:p
 
Hardstuff said:
I'm waiting for a certain character to return in the bonus chapters. When will that be?

:p


ROFL Your forum title is well deserved! :D :D
 
English Patriot said:
ROFL Your forum title is well deserved! :D :D


Haha, thanks. I am great, amn't I? :D





Aww, you ruined the 1,111 post count you had!


Oh well. :p
 
English Patriot: Glad to have you back again ! XD

Hardstuff: ROFL , maybe in the next installment !
 
Hooray folks ! Just got back to my forward command station in Ohio so we should see regular updates soon . We'll wrap up this little Christmas trek of ours in the next few days after the interview and Season II recommences thank you all for participating ! Part of the reason we're having the Christmas special is to help encourage you all to vote in the AARland Choice AwAARds and to keep us in mind for Favourite EU3 AAR and Favourite EU3 Narrative ; if we are able to win , we would have won the award for a whole year and certainly something to warrant such a special season for updates !

Also , I'll be retro-actively putting the pictures for those chapters i skipped photos for . So interview coming up tomorrow ! Hope to see you all then !
 
Here we'll be to check it. If you fail to your word, wait for the Spanish Inquisition...
 
Kurt_Steiner said:
Here we'll be to check it. If you fail to your word, wait for the Spanish Inquisition...

XD XD Interview is officially taken ! it'll go up within the next 12-18 hours
 
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! :D
 
ColossusCrusher said:
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! :D

No , they don't XD I should make an interview series out of that XD
 
canonized said:
No , they don't XD I should make an interview series out of that XD

If THAT's how the next interview will be, I'm really looking forward to it.

Will you use the Spanish Boot?
 
RGB said:
If THAT's how the next interview will be, I'm really looking forward to it.

Will you use the Spanish Boot?

Shh you ! :mad: Interview coming now XD
 
canonizedtrekaddict.png


You’ve Been Canonized!: trekaddict​

Welcome everyone to this week’s You’ve Been Canonized! our weekly interview segment here on Timelines that takes a patron author and gets to know more about them , what they think of Timelines , and their current AAR or project ! If you’re new to the programme , I’m canonized author of Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World? and today’s guest is one of our newest readers trekaddict author of Unity-Justice-Liberty an AH Germany AAR ! Let’s get to the questions !

Part I: To Seek Out New Life…
I ask trekaddict a little about himself !

canonized: First , thank you for joining up with us ! Could you perhaps introduce yourself first and tell the audience a little about yourself ?

trekaddict: Well, I am trekaddict, 22 years old, and I am living in southwestern Germany, Currently I am going to school again to get a higher degree, as I want to go to university someday. I am the 4th of five kids, and my older brothers have saved me from military service. I like history and when I stumbled across HOI2 by accident I was instantly hooked. Nothing much more to say there about me

canonized: You mentioned that you're from Deutschland and Germany has been on our wish list of interviewee countries for a while now . Could you share with us how your national identity has helped to shape you as an author in AARland ?

trekaddict: Hard to say, actually.... Well, after my second AAR attempt, "Second Round" which was to portray an alternate WW2 where Germany stayed an Empire with the Kaiser at the top after WW1 failed due to technical reasons I was thinking of making another Germany AAR, but then I realized that I would not be able to portray Nazi Germany without violating forum rules, so I concentrated on other nations. Mostly allied Nations, ( I admit that Winston Churchill is a childhood hero of mine ) and of course Japan. I read Germany AARs, as this is only a game, but I couldn't make one myself

canonized: Germany is a very popular country to play for many individuals ; what do you think is so romantic about Germany for so many people ?

trekaddict: Pfff, that is hard to say......... I think that it is both the "they lost in RL so lets turn this around" possibility that the game offers and also the rather cool technology that you have later in the game, even more so when you have certain mods installed. I like HOI2 because it offers players possibilities that would have never been even remotely possible in real life; I mean Japan could never have actually invaded CONUS

canonized: I know that many people who play HOI2 are also big history buffs of that particular period . Would you count yourself as one of these ?

trekaddict: Yes, definitely. History was always my favourite subject in school, and I accidentally found HOI2 on gamespot when i was googling for new and decent WW2 games, after being so fully disappointed by Rush for Berlin and Warfront - turning point. Some years back my greatest and only birthday wish was to go to Normandy to have a look at the historical sites there. I am a bit of a nerd in that respect.

canonized: So tell us then specifically about writing AARs . What motivates you and what brings energy to your research and exposition of your games ?

trekaddict: Two main things I suppose, first that I always wanted to write a full-blown Alternate History on one of the internet sites that are out there, but I do not have the time and the stamina to do all the research such a project brings, and the second is that when I play the games I always like to formulate some "background story" for my current game. That started way back in the days when Red Alert 2 and the Yuri’s revenge expansion were brand new. I used to play the bay of pigs map for whole days, and I always thought: "Okay, this time a Soviet Commander refuses to acknowledge orders to surrender, and the allies have dispatched me to get rid of him. That might sound childish, but I was much younger back then. *grins*

canonized: Haha well certainly I think all of us at one point did similar things ! Our imaginations took the games we had and filled out what was missing . Although the HOI2 AAR forum has definitely helped to give form to your work , did AARland as a whole perhaps surprise you at its vastness and scope ?

trekaddict: Yes, definitely. I have been reading TV and Movie fan fictions for as long as I have internet access, but I had never seen anything like that on this scale, at first I was like :"wow, fan fiction for a computer game with no visible story?" but after a while and reading some AARs, including Kamis "Kapitulieren? Niemals" and Rembles "Creek without a paddle" I was hooked hand have been ever since

Part II: And New Civilizations…
Some words from trekaddict about Timelines .

canonized: You're a new reader to Timelines and one of the things I've remarked about was how fast you were able to read ; do you have initial impressions now that you've caught up ?

trekaddict: I say that this is by far the vastest AAR project I have ever seen. The different plotlines make it sometimes a bit hard to follow, especially when English is not your native language, but it is nonetheless very entertaining, especially when in the first part it goes "He was framing the borders of something called Russia", that made me laugh a few times. I love it when AH characters dismiss our world as totally unbelievable. For example there is this dystopian AH called "The big One" where the UK surrenders in 1940 after an anti-Churchill coup and Germany is far more successful in invading Russia. They capture Moscow, the SU collapses and is replaced by a military led Russian republic under Zhukov, the USA dows Germany and sends 80 something divisions to Russia, and in 1947 the nuke Germany out of existence.

canonized: Although Timelines is mostly about the time period in the EU3 frame , there are also references to the Great War and of several participants ; how did that affect your experience to have the scope encompass all the way up to the present day ?

trekaddict: Well, when I read about the campaign in England I knew that the wars as we knew them were not going to happen, and I was amused to see that even a Spanish dominated world could not stop certain things from happening, and I quite liked the references in the present day part of the story, it adds something that most other AARs lack....

canonized: As someone who writes mostly in historical and objective terms , how did you feel reading a narrative such as this one ?

trekaddict: Pretty much like reading a book. Most of my knowledge of English comes from books and movies, and I know I'd never have the stamina to write something on that scale

canonized: Hidden throughout the work are also tidbits of references and jokes and each time I interview someone they always seem to pick out those that definitely pertain to them - did you find any of these references during your reading ?

trekaddict: Yeah, but what cracked me up was that "Battlestar Galactica" sequence. I read that right after having watched an episode of the actual show, and I admit that this really made me laugh loud. The sequence in the fist chapter where the Spanish fight that French fleet strongly reminds me of certain sequences in Star Trek..... *laughs*

canonized: Naturally , because you're German , I can't help but ask what you thought of our resident Man from Meissen , the Panzerkardinal

trekaddict: He is a bit stereotypical, and I was not really surprised to see a German with that nickname... the word Panzer is forever connected with Germany although everyone else says "Tank" the also know the word Panzer. To sum it up: I quite like that guy despite his faults

canonized: You mentioned earlier how Timelines has a unique play on Alternate History . Aside from that , what other things about the narrative did you find unique to the experience ?

trekaddict: That the two main plotlines were converging, and more so with every chapter. In the current parts of season two and the later parts you can really see that IMHO. Both groups of people were effectively after the same thing all within their own timeframes

canonized: And lastly , what ideas might you have as to the nature of the Timepieces and the Keys ?

trekaddict: Either asteroid fragments with unknown compounds that have certain capabilities or tidbits of Alien technology that somehow made it to earth... hell, they might even be parts of the Cube *laughs* I just love that movie

canonized: Haha now there's a great theory !

Part III: Where no Germany has gone before…
An Alternate Germany with an Alternate world… trekaddict’s comments on his current work !

canonized: Obviously , one of the things that's so attractive about your AAR is the fact that you've created an alternate history of a democratic Germany . Tell us how you came upon this idea and how you implemented it ?

trekaddict: My primary inspirations for this were "The last tattered flag of democracy" and my idea "Hey, I wanna do something like that too." I though about it and tried to decide which country to use. UK? naa. Too obvious. US? Too easy, SU? no too many SUs AAR around, and so it hit me. Why not use the least likely candidate and decided upon Germany. I then went on to mod the necessary files, the events, the graphics and the like, and started it

canonized: One of the side effects of such a setup is that we can root for Germany without feeling bad about it ! Did you intend this from the beginning as a way to have your audience connect with your work ?

trekaddict: Not really, I mainly intended it as a way to make a Germany AAR without feeling bad myself. That it has the same effect on the audience is a mere side effect to be honest. I am a bit selfish in that respect

canonized: Haha , well ; part of what made the whole democratic experiment was manipulation of such big names as Churchill coming to Germany as well as Hitler not being around . Why did you choose to take these paths for making your AAR realistic ?

trekaddict: Mainly because It hurt me to see such a leader as Churchill wasted on a fascist Britain ( as I said, he is my great hero ) and because I think that he would have done that had he really been in that situation. It also gave me something to report in my posts until the war started.

canonized: Aside from Churchill we also see another feel good German character come to the fore in many an epic situation : Rommel . Why did you choose to have him on the forefront of so many of your great campaigns and updates ?

trekaddict: Haha... well, mainly because he is one of the few "relatively untainted" RL Generals in the Wehrmacht, because he is a gifted leader when faced with overwhelming odds, but mainly because he is from a town mere kilometers from where I was born, he is "one of us" so to speak. I kind of like him because of all that

canonized: As you mentioned before , it was not just Germany you changed but many of the other countries were altered too . What was the motivation behind these changes ?

trekaddict: Mainly to add some diversity and plausibility. I said in my AAR that the Federal Republic in the AAR is essentially modern day Germany transplanted into the 1930's, at least policy and morality wise, and I seriously couldn't think of a plausible way to have the allied powers, and mainly the US and the UK going to war against a democratic Germany without completely shattering the concept. The change of France was made simply to have something to report about while i built up my own army

canonized: One of the biggest draws aside from all of these changes is your prowess on the field as well as showcasing the technologies and units of the time in the context of the alternate history . What kind of background research and alterations did you have to do for those ?

trekaddict: I didn't have to do much background research on those weapons. I've been into WW2 technology from when I was 13 or so.. The alterations were easy. I took the real life history of the weapon, and rewrote it so that the essentials would stay the same but would still fit into the AH. The best example is the intermission piece on the aircraft

canonized: And lastly , do you have any future AAR plans ? I know that you're close to the end of this one , what might we see you doing next ?

trekaddict: Currently I am thinking about a AH SU where the Trotzkists prevailed, Stalin never came to power and the SU reformed itself to a left wing democracy during the early 1930's, but that might be too repetitive considering I just did something like that with Germany. The other Idea I have is about a WW2 where the US stayed out of the War and the UK has to do everything on its own. I am also toying with a few other ideas, but these are still to early to be talked about.

canonized: Well we thank you again for being in the programme and it was a great pleasure ! I hope everyone tunes in next week when we interview the rising star and out of work monarch, DerKaiser ! Please tune in for that and don’t forget to cast your votes now in the AARland Choice AwAARds and keep all of us in mind when you vote ! Good fight , good night !
 
Great interview, strangely enough I'd love to see a Trotskyist Russia, I always liked him more than the other two :D
 
English Patriot said:
Great interview, strangely enough I'd love to see a Trotskyist Russia, I always liked him more than the other two :D

I like the German thing more.

If only Germany had been democratic and the English the bad guys... Fits much better with older Dutch history. ;)