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[Orange Wizard]

By the by Adventure Time and SpongeBob Square Pants both take place in the USA.

Uh-huh.

[GreatJustice]

Off the top of my head, Avatar and Korra aren't set in the US, most sci-fi isn't either (unless you somewhat stretch it and count the settings of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, etc as "USA in space!"), and pretty much all fantasy shows that aren't sitcoms also aren't set in anything approaching the US.

That's also ignoring the deluge of very bad Sci-Fi channel originals set in "generic FUTURE WORLD/SPACE" or "generic MYTHOLOGICAL TIMES" (eg. all the shows/movies about Hercules) and similar shows.

[Arcvasti]

By the by Adventure Time and SpongeBob Square Pants both take place in the USA.

Uh-huh.

IIRC, Adventure Time takes place in post-nuclear apocalypse U.S. or somesuch.

[Neonivek]

Off the top of my head, Avatar and Korra aren't set in the US, most sci-fi isn't either (unless you somewhat stretch it and count the settings of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, etc as "USA in space!"), and pretty much all fantasy shows that aren't sitcoms also aren't set in anything approaching the US.

That's also ignoring the deluge of very bad Sci-Fi channel originals set in "generic FUTURE WORLD/SPACE" or "generic MYTHOLOGICAL TIMES" (eg. all the shows/movies about Hercules) and similar shows.

Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek all take place in "Sci-fi USA" though (even right down to calling the leader of the humans the "President" and having cabinet ministers)... Firefly does have a sort of European vibe, so I am willing to concede to that... though there is a cowboy.

[majikero]

Dunno, felt that Korra seemed more set in Chicago when they were at Republic city and felt very Americanized. Actually, it felt very Americanized in every way from plot and story and setting.

[Culise]

Dunno, felt that Korra seemed more set in Chicago when they were at Republic city and felt very Americanized. Actually, it felt very Americanized in every way from plot and story and setting.

To be fair, Republic City was supposed to be Roaring Twenties Shanghai, which was arguably the most Western of the Chinese cities in that era due to not only the scale and multi-national nature of the International Settlement there, but also the growing "westernization" of the Chinese upper and middle classes ever since the fall of the Qing.  Though, I think Korra in general had an awful lot of missed opportunities, though I can sometimes see why. 

[Flying Dice]

No offense, but you can't claim that a show takes place in a specific combination of geographic location and nationality when it explicitly doesn't just because of some cultural similarities. Never mind that you're talking about SF series which aren't anywhere close to that, even something like ZnT couldn't reasonably be claimed to be set in Europe -- it's a fairly close approximation of Europe in both respects, but the religion, social order, history, geography, subsurface mineral deposits, &c. all have fairly radical differences.

Macross Frontier (whatever else you may think of it) isn't set in Japan just because a large portion of their culture resembles that of Japan. The first part of A New Hope isn't set in Tunisia just because that's where it was filmed. It's sort of related to the "one unicorn" principle in writing, except emphasizing setting rather than suspension of disbelief. James Bond operates out of Britain because Britain in the Bondverse is essentially the same except for minor deviations related to how MI-5 and certain other groups operate. Zombieland is set in the U.S. because it is still recognizably our U.S. with the one change of "after the zombie apocalypse". Likewise, High School of the Dead is set in Japan for pretty much the exact same reason.

[Frumple]

... it's an aside, but I just want to say I want to shake your hand for that beautiful ZnT spoiler in there, FD. Very smoothly done :V

[Flying Dice]

... it's an aside, but I just want to say I want to shake your hand for that beautiful ZnT spoiler in there, FD. Very smoothly done :V

Thanks, I do try. 

[UXLZ]

No, but you can argue that a setting is designed to heavily resemble, evoke images of and essentially be a close-but-not-direct parallel of a real country that exists in our world.

Sure, Westeros isn't set in Europe, or England, or *insert country here*, but its equivalent is Europe, or England, or *insert country here*.

[Flying Dice]

I'm not arguing against that. I'm arguing against them being literally the same thing. What I was parsing people saying would have been akin to claiming ASOIAF is set in Europe.

By the by, though, that example isn't even a good one, because there's at best a couple vague cultural similarities overshadowed by myriad diversions.

Take another (terrible) example. Battlefield Earth is set on Earth. It is set in North America. It is not set in the United States, because there is no extant sociopolitical construct recognizable as such in it. Same as how Fallout: New Vegas is set in "the Mojave" or "New Vegas" or "post-apoc Las Vegas" or "the former U.S.", but not "the United States". Understand?

[Putnam]

To be fair, though, culture-wise the Fallout games are some of the most American that exist. Even if they don't technically take place in America, you can very much feel it.

[Andres]

What? Since when doesn't Fallout take place in the USA? You even had that one war with China and the annexation of Canada.

[UXLZ]

I think he means it doesn't take place in contemporary USA, as in, the USA of today. It's Post-Apoc USA, yes, but it's not "USA USA", or whatever. I dunno. Maybe alternate histories has something to do with at as well, though that's taking it a bit far in my mind.   

[Flying Dice]

The first part. Fallout's a border case, but I'm trying to be as clear as possible. AH isn't what I'm talking about; Harry Turtledove's plethora of alternate-WWI/II novels are all set in the places where the viewpoint characters are at the time, because they're still recognizably those continents and countries with relatively superficial differences in leadership and allegiance. I dunno, maybe people are conflating "set in an area which would be X if it were our Earth" with "set in X area on our Earth", or maybe it's 6 AM and I'm stupid-tired.