your stan rogers post reminded me of how whenever i read terror modern AUs i think WAY too hard about the alternate history aspect of things. like especially academia AUs where they're all polar experts? it's a real Then Who Was Northwest Passage situation. i'm waiting for someone to fully commit and have them all studying the lost expedition of Frohn Janklin or something
TO FIND THE HAND OF JANKLIN REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT SEA…..listen i KNOW, like it’s an event that MOSTLY doesn’t matter grand scheme of things, but it DID have a big impact on the history of what is now northern canada, and pretty much everything related to polar exploration can be linked back to the franklin and/or ross expeditions somehow. i have vague ideas about a modern au where everyone is living at mcmurdo station, but mcmurdo station is named after archibald mcmurdo who was a lieutenant on hms terror, so if francis rawdon moira crozier is a scientist living in antarctica NOW who was captain of the ship THEN???
like it’s absolutely not a requirement for me to enjoy modern aus but it IS fun to think about the alternate history possibilities!! i know at least a couple of people have considered how the northwest passage situation might have gone if the franklin expedition hadn’t happened, and i love seeing what people come up with
Fitzjames: Have you thought how weird it is that we keep being surrounded by landmarks that have our name?
Crozier (Who I’m picturing in a comfy sweater and fingerless gloves monching on a can of beans, maybe around a fire pit): I Try not to think of it.
Fitzjames: Yeah but it’s not one or two or ten instances it’s…all of them. How is that??
Crozier: Their naming and origins are lost to time itself…
Goodsir, popping from a nearby tent holding a large book: No it isn’t, it says right here it was named after….
Franklin: Shut it, nerd!