Keep someone alive...

[SckizoBoy]

Random thought from Fatso's mind #3498725:

If only Scharnhorst didn't die after Dresden...

Anyway, pick a historical figure who you believe died before their time... then postulate how the world would be a different place if they lived an extra... however long you'd want them to live after their date of death.

I'ma gonna go for Frederick III & 12+ years... Europe would be a better place for it, with the possible exception of a lack of a Poland (no disrespect). No WWI/WWII, France/Germany would bury the hatchet quicker, Britain wouldn't have so many 'don't mention the war' jokes and the US/Russia wouldn't be lording it so much. *shrug*

 

[Zeema]

Rasputin, sure he was a bit of a brute but what if he turned out good later on and used his influence to help people

 

[Imthatguy]

Rasputin, sure he was a bit of a brute but what if he turned out good later on and used his influence to help people

Yeah right...

If Lenin had survived long I doubt we would have seen Stalin rise to power and all the bad shit that entailed.

 

[Nietzschen]

... Princess Diana, I don't know this is verging in to alternate history who knows what would have happened if Genghis Khan completed his world spanning empire.

srsly tho start thinking in time travel and changes and it just goes round in circles.

 

[Chased]

Buddy Holly or really any musician that died too young, like Hendrix, Jim Morrison and so forth.

 

[chadachada123]

Tesla, an additional hundred years so that the rest of the world can catch up to him.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Lincoln. I've always wondered how he would have handled reconstruction. There are solid debates both for him possibly making it better and worse, so I just think it would have been neat if he had lived so we would have seen how things turned out.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

Alexander the Great

Not only am I an extreme narcissist who wants his namesake to be alive, but I wonder what would have happened to his empire if he had still been alive?

 

[silver wolf009]

I've got a few I can think of:

Hitler.

Look, I said I wanted him alive, that doesn't mean I want him unpunished. In fact, I want him alive, so he CAN be punished. Keep the bullet in the chamber until after the public trial/humiliation of the Fuhrer.

Tupac, The Final Incan Emperor.

Now, I've always liked to imagine the way the world would change if the Incan empire had risen to the challenge of the Spanish, and beaten them back, going on to become a world super power, as I feel would be inevitable at that point. So I'd like to see how the soup would be stirred so to speak if the last Emperor of the Incan Empire had managed to live, and led his people to war with the Spanish. They might have still lost, but it'd be an interested possibility.

The Kaiser.

It'd be fun to see how WW2 would have played out, if it would have played out at all, if the Kaiser had not fallen from power. Perhaps his defeat in The Great War would lead to Germany never becoming involved in the fight.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Rasputin, sure he was a bit of a brute but what if he turned out good later on and used his influence to help people

Yeah right...

If Lenin had survived long I doubt we would have seen Stalin rise to power and all the bad shit that entailed.

Your joking... Right?. You do know Lenin was on board with Stalin with the Red Terror and mass executions right?

I'd like to keep Tesla around, or Alan Turning.

 

[Imthatguy]

Rasputin, sure he was a bit of a brute but what if he turned out good later on and used his influence to help people

Yeah right...

If Lenin had survived long I doubt we would have seen Stalin rise to power and all the bad shit that entailed.

Your joking... Right?. You do know Lenin was on board with Stalin with the Red Terror and mass executions right?

I'd like to keep Tesla around, or Alan Turning.

The Red Terror was one thing. The succession of Stalin and the constant terror of the NKVD/GPU and the Gulag system[footnote]all merely extension of the Red Terror, I know[/footnote] that I would hope to stop is something else.

 

[StormShaun]

King Arthur...

...can't I believe? I think the world be great! Except I'll be trying to befriend them/him/her all the time.

...been reading the Fate/Stay Night series too much. >.<

On the flip side, I would have to say Abe Lincoln. Don't know why, I'm not American.

 

[Irridium]

I think it'd be fun to keep Jesus alive.

Would be interesting to see how things would have evolved if he was never crucified and killed.

 

[Evil Smurf]

... Princess Diana, I don't know this is verging in to alternate history who knows what would have happened if Genghis Khan completed his world spanning empire.

srsly tho start thinking in time travel and changes and it just goes round in circles.

Yeah, Maybe she would have sorted out Camilla the slut

 

[BytByte]

Henry VIII just so he could bone more wives and create an even bigger clusterfuck of who got to inherit the English throne.

 

[JeffBergGold]

My bro Abe Lincoln poor dude got killed in a messed up way. I would've at least made him have a peaceful death

That boy Alexander the Great was a beast, I would've had him make a few more conquest before he kicked the bucket.

Julius Caesar another boss who got wrongfully murdered by jealous haters.

Shaka I would've love to see him and England go at it!

 

[Imthatguy]

Reagan, probably the greatest president since Lincoln.

Gotta be shitting me

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Alexander the Great

Not only am I an extreme narcissist who wants his namesake to be alive, but I wonder what would have happened to his empire if he had still been alive?

His empire would probably have crumbled; Alexander was a great general, but a shitty ruler and empire-builder. He cut a narrow path across Asia to defeat the Persians and then on to India, and only turned back when his troops forced him to. This meant that most of the land was conquered in only the barest of name, with rebellion running rife and the governors of the satrapies lacking the imperial authority they had under Darius, operating mostly autonomously.

However, at the time of his death, Alexander was not trying to consolidate his rule in the east or Greece. Instead, he was planning a new campaign to the west, hoping to conquer North Africa, Spain and southern Italy. He might have done so, but his far-flung eastern territories would have slipped away. While he had plenty of generals capable of consolidating his gains (although they would require precious Macedonian infantry to do so), Alexander was a jealous man, and he was killing off many of those he perceived as rivals or insufficient in their worship of the god-king, including Cleitus the Black (who had saved his life before) and Parmenion, one of his father's best lieutenants. He also made plans to kill Antipater, another member of the old guard and the only one who kept Greece from revolting during Alexander's absence, but was foiled by his own death. The only reason people can ascribe an empire to Alexander is because his Successors wanted to emphasize their own links to the beloved commander to reinforce their bids for power, so they blanketed their new kingdoms and small empires with trophies and statues of the Macedonian.

So yeah: if Alexander had survived, his empire would have crumbled, or might have even been forcefully broken up by his talented generals who could no longer live in fear for their lives. If you want to learn more, I recommend Dividing the Spoils by Robin Waterfield, which is about what actually happened after Alexander died.
http://www.amazon.com/Dividing-Spoils-Alexander-Ancient-Civilization/dp/0195395239

Apologies if the message is too long, but I'm a history student and this is the kind of "what if" stuff I live for.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Reagan, probably the greatest president since Lincoln.

I... no, no, I know why you say that, and i dont agree. the greatest president I personally think since Lincoln was FDR and the greatest "modern" president thus far has been Clinton.

that being said, Id pick FDR. The man led the nation through the roughest financial crisis a nation ever felt, turned them into a global superpower by turning the nation to an industrial one, gave women the definitive opportunity to work in the work place, and got the nation through its toughest and possibly the world's toughest in the modern age, and then he died just before the war's end. while i cant say he would have made the same decision, I feel he should have at least had the honor to finish the war he had led the nation through.