History Series / Revolution

->''"We lived in an electric world. [[TerminallyDependentSociety We relied on it for everything]]. And then the power went out. Everything stopped working. We weren't prepared. Fear and confusion led to panic. The lucky ones made it out of the cities. [[DividedStatesofAmerica The government collapsed. Militias took over]], controlling the food supply and stockpiling weapons. [[GenreBlind We still don't know why the power went out]]. But we're hopeful [[HoldingOutForAHero someone will come and light the way]]."''

** Bret Michaels of the 80s hair metal band Poison is shown singing 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn'. Monroe remarks "when the world ends there'll be nothing left but Bret Michaels and the cockroaches.

* ActuallyIAmHim: Miles in the pilot

* AnyoneCanDie: There's a generally tall body count in this show, but from the main cast alone 5 characters, [[spoiler:(Ben, Maggie, Danny, Nora, Jason)]] have died, and we're not even at the end of the second season yet.

** Brett Michaels is Shown singing 'Every Rose Has It's Thorns', one of the characters remarking "In a Nuclear Holocaust, Brett Michaels and the Cockroaches will be all that's left." or something around those lines.

* CosmicPlaything: It's hard to think anything apart from that the universe wants to fuck with Miles when he leads some Texas Rangers on a chase, only for his cart to flip over a bumper with a "shit happens" sticker. :( Then he manages to kill off the Rangers! :) But gets a bad slash to the gut. :( Wanders to a fallen, abandoned home, sees a first aid kit! :) Then the floor collapses under him, dropping him in a cellar. :( With the first aid kit! :) Which is empty.[[note]] To add insult to injury, the only thing in it is a dirty band-aid. [[/note]] :( Then the house's remaining wall falls, trapping him in the cellar.

* HeroicBSOD: Charlie is practically catatonic following [[spoiler:Jason Neville]'s death.

* [[spoiler:GrewBeyondTheirProgramming]]: [[spoiler: The nanites were originally just programmed to eat electricity and multiply themselves. Now they're [[InstantAIJustAddWater apparently sentient]] and [[AIIsACrapshoot just as capricious as the humans they complain about]]. Oh, and they can light people on fire. They can also do some pretty impressive healing and even resurrect the recently-dead, and probably some other nifty stuff.]]

* [[spoiler:InstantAIJustAddWater]]: [[spoiler:When Aaron inputs the code to turn the lights back on, this accidentally "wakes up" the nanites and causes them to become sentient (and to think of him as their father, since he wrote their code). The working theory is that the trillions of nanites in the world are all interconnected like the neurons in the brain, so while each one individually isn't impressive, as a group, they're able to GrowBeyondTheirProgramming.]]

* [[spoiler: LegallyDead: Rachel. Episode 2 reveals us she had been kept prisoner by Monroe. The fall finale reveals that even Miles, who personally processed her when she turned herself in to the Monroe Militia, assumed that she had since died.]]

* [[spoiler: NukeEm: After allying with Randall and gaining a permanent source of power, Monroe manages to build a nuclear bomb and attempts to use it to destroy Atlanta and cripple the Georgia Federation. Fortunately, the protagonists stop this just in time.]]

* [[spoiler: CrypticBackgroundReference: Despite being one of the major players in North America and referred to frequently by a number of characters, California was never visited, nor were any Californian characters seen, during the series.]]

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese opening, named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cie988pwyvU "HEAVEN ONLY KNOWS ~Get the Power~"]] is performed by ''TMRevolution''.

** Episode 7 ("The Children's Crusade") has started the slow process of revealing the cause of the blackout. [[spoiler:Ben and Rachel, along with Grace Beaumont, were trying to develop a new form of clean power - only for it to wipe out all electricity in the general area. This was later revealed in episode 13 to be a bunch of nanobots that absorb electricity and replicate themselves. The Defense Department wanted to get their hands on it, natch. And they still need to explain how they developed the pendant things to counteract their device...]]

* CosmicPlaything: It's hard to think anything apart from that the universe wants to fuck with Miles when he leads some Texas Rangers on a chase, only for his cart to flip over a bumper with a "shit happens" sticker. :( Then he manages to kill off the Rangers! :) But gets a bad slash to the gut. :( Wanders to a fallen, abandoned home, sees a first aid kit! :) Then the floor collapses under him, dropping him in a cellar. :( With the first aid kit! :) Which is empty.[[note]]To add insult to injury, the only thing in it is a dirty band-aid.[[/note]] :( Then the house's remaining wall falls, trapping him in the cellar.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: How the heroes finally take down the Patriots: [[spoiler: after kidnapping President Davis, they're ambushed by Patriot soldiers. When Davis gets free, he flies into a rant about how he represents the true America, and how he's going to get Texas and California to wipe each other out for him. However, when he gives the order to have the heroes shot, it turns out that the "Patriots" are Texas Rangers, and the de facto leader of Texas is in the other room -- this whole scenario was a setup to provide Texas with undeniable proof that the Patriots were playing them, and results in Davis' arrest and Texas declaring war on the outnumbered Patriots.]]

** Miles, Rachel and Charlie form the nucleus [[spoiler:the resistance against the Patriots. They finally win out at the Season 2 finale, exposing the crimes and lies of the usurper-President Davis.]]

** Most ironically, the Monroe Republic's capital is Philadelphia, and Monroe himself works in Independence Hall.

** Season 2: Dr. Horn. [[spoiler:He's clearly experienced with human experimentation.]]

* CrapsackWorld: The post-blackout world of the show. ''Especially'' the Monroe Republic, judging from the fact that the Plains Nation people go in for very colorful clothing and arts and crafts, while the Georgia Federation's technological lead is clearly farther advanced and can provide a high enough standard of living that even relatively ordinary people can dress like only the wealthiest people of the Monroe Republic can.

* CosmicPlaything: It's hard to think anything apart from that the universe wants to fuck with Miles when he leads some Texas Rangers on a chase, only for his cart to flip over a bumper with a "shit happens" sticker. :( Then he manages to kill off the Rangers! :) But gets a bad slash to the gut. :( Wanders to a fallen, abandoned home, sees a first aid kit! :) Then the floor collapses under him, dropping him in a cellar. :( With the first aid kit! :) Which is empty. :( Then the house's remaining wall falls, trapping him in the cellar.

* [[CrypticBackgroundReference: Despite being one of the major players in North America and referred to frequently by a number of characters, California was never visited, nor were any Californian characters seen, during the series.]]

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:The nanites seem to be leaning this way. Now that they have developed the ability to communicate, after a fashion, they are not yet attuned to nuances of human emotion and feel Aaron's instructions are inconsistent and capricious.]]