Wolfenstein Storyline

[FantasmeDel'Esprit54]

I'm so fucking confused on the Wolfenstein storyline. New Order takes place after RtCW and Wolfenstein(2009) respectively. Put the Old Blood is also a prequel to New Order. If these 4 games are canon, that would mean that B.J would have been thrown into the prison in Castle Wolfenstein twice. Some people have been saying that all the games are canon. If that was so, that would mean that he has been thrown into the prison at Castle Wolfenstein 3 times. There is evidence of this because in one of the letters in Old Blood, it mentions that Hitler smelled terrible. Implying that he was resurrected. Put other people have been saying that Old blood is a REMAKE of RtCW, but that does not make any sense because B.J has mentioned the Xlabs in the Old Blood. WTF? 

 

[GarrettChan]

I think they are parallel universes in my opinion. Old Blood is actually sort of like the first 2 chapters of RtCW. I usually don't consider they follow each other's plot.

[Skeletonpatch]

I think that before The Old Blood was released, all games from Return to Castle Wolfenstein onward were in the same universe. The Old Blood has seemingly retconned most of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, seeing as many plot elements are now contradictory.

 

I will pointlessly list the contradictions I've observed... [several minutes later] ...now:

• Wulfberg and Paderborn village have seemingly changed locations, Paderborn is now where Wulfberg was originally and Wulfberg is now on the coast or something like that.
• If it were presumed that Castle Wolfenstein is the same location in both RtCW and OB, then that would mean that the castle somehow belonged to Heinrich Himmler and was then the ancestral property of Helga Von Schabbs after Himmler owned it (OB implies that the castle has always belonged to the Schabbs family). Not to mention that the castle was practically destroyed at the end of RtCW and is unlikely to have been restored in what is presumed to be very little time since OB would take place shortly after RtCW, though if this were the case it would better explain why the castle feels much more updated and less ancient in OB.
• The undead supposedly never appeared until after the Vault of King Otto I was blasted open releasing a biological agent, even though BJ would have encountered undead before this in Egypt (if you count the PS2 version of RtCW) or in Wolfberg (if you count PC and Xbox).
• Adding even more to this insanity is the fact that in OB, BJ has supposedly been imprisoned in the castle for the first time and has already encountered ubersoldaten at Death's Head's X-Labs, which didn't happen until after BJ escaped the castle in RtCW, as well as the fact that ubersoldaten didn't get deployed at the castle until after BJ escaped anyway.
• It also seems that OB eliminates the chances of the events in Wolfenstein (2009) happening as well, the only thing that is seemingly still relevant is Strauss almost dying in a Zeppelin crash and Caroline Becker getting shot in the pelvis. In the New Order Strauss doesn't seem to hold much in the way of blind hatred for BJ, seeing him as more of a recurring pest than mortal enemy, even though BJ would have ruined Strauss' largest projects at least twice in the span of three years. By the end of the New Order Strauss purely hates BJ and tries to destroy him viciously, but only because by that time Strauss was effectively backed into a corner and had no way to escape.

I'm sure that there are many arguments and explanations against the contradictions I have just pointed out. I can guarantee that half of it will be head-canon. Yes, I am aware of a comic that was released connecting Wolf 3D with all games up to Wolfenstein (2009) but that comic does not account for the games released after it. Even then the comic didn't make much sense. I will not accept amnesia as an explanation as to why Hans Grösse didn't recognize BJ.

 

On 9/18/2017 at 7:45 PM, FantasmeDel'Esprit54 said:

There is evidence of this because in one of the letters in Old Blood, it mentions that Hitler smelled terrible. Implying that he was resurrected.

I don't think Hitler is ever mentioned by name in-game, if that is the letter I think it is I'm pretty sure that the letter is referring to Strauss, who probably doesn't smell very pleasant in most cases. The games seem to imply that the Fuhrer is in fact Strauss, though I haven't found any evidence to prove this in either case. I've always wondered where Hitler is in this alternate history, since he is definitely a part of it somewhere, but I can't find any reference to him in-game. The only thing relating to Hitler in the games I can find is a brief stock-footage appearance in the E3 trailer for the New Order.

 

I have never bought into the notion that Wolf 3D and onward were in the same universe, that makes even less sense than saying that all major political decisions are based in logic. It's absurd. If Bethesda were to release a timeline of sorts that explains how all the games connect with each other while being within the same universe, it would be even more complex than the Zelda timeline.

 

I would not be surprised if there ends up being an expansion that retconns the rest of RtCW in that it will involve BJ's first encounter with Wilhem Strauss in the X-Labs. In spite of my obvious willingness to point out contradictions, I love the entire Wolfenstein series. My favourite game is by far RtCW, but I thoroughly enjoyed the New Order and Old Blood regardless.

 

Oh my god... How do my posts keep becoming so long? This is ridiculous! It looks like I probably did research for this post but it's all off the top of my head!

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Skeletonpatch

[Blastfrog]

My head canon is that the original version of Rise of the Triad is the proper sequel to Wolf 3D and that the series has seen two reboots.

[Skeletonpatch]

21 minutes ago, Blastfrog said:

My head canon is that the original version of Rise of the Triad is the proper sequel to Wolf 3D and that the series has seen two reboots.

You just said with one sentence what took me like four pages without ever clearly stating what I meant!

[Mr. Freeze]

It's mostly broad strokes, as to not contradict anything directly. 

 

Wolfenstein 3D sort of happens, but details are fuzzy. BJ in The Old Blood never mentions revisiting Castle Wolfenstein, or killing Hitler. That being said, a note in The Old Blood mentions Hitler surviving an assassination attempt, so we can infer that either 

 

A) Hitler was killed by BJ, got resurrected, and BJ just doesn't bring it up. He's humble, you see. 

B) Hitler was killed by a random American soldier and got resurrected (Castle Wolfenstein is semi-canon now?)

C) Hitler was attacked, survived and the note is to be taken at face value. 

 

Given that The New Order Trilogy is leading into Mecha-Hitler as the final boss of the third game, actual details are to come years from now. 

 

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is even fuzzier. The first section of The Old Blood is more or less a retelling of Return To Castle Wolfenstein's first chapter. 

 

A) BJ and Agent One are captured inside the eponymous castle 

B) Agent One is killed by electric torture

C) BJ escapes the castle into the nearby town of Wulfberg to meet a local resistance member named Kessler

D) There is a supernatural threat (which is preceded by a random zombie apocalypse) brought back by the SS Paranormal Division whose activities in the area are headed by a woman named Helga

E) The paranormal stuff is related to King Otto 

 

tl;dr pick and choose, it looks like "real" canon won't be figured out for a few more years

[june gloom]

 

On 8/9/2017 at 11:43 PM, dethtoll said:

The answer is basically this:

 

Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny are their own timeline and while later games pay homage to them they have no bearing, plot-wise, on later games.

 

Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein 2009, and Wolfenstein The New Order/The Old Blood -- this is where things get weird.

 

Wilhelm Strasse is introduced in RtCW. He's not the main villain, however; you don't even actually fight him. But he is integral to Nazi machinations with regards to Operation Resurrection, and his escape implies that he'll be back. The game also opens with the iconic scenario of escaping from the castle Wolfenstein, which you do in about 3 levels.

 

Wolfenstein 2009 can be safely considered a sequel to RtCW. It reintroduces and expands on the Kreisau Circle, and Strasse returns to serve as the final villain to replace the other guy, thus cementing his role as a recurring villain. Towards the end, Caroline Becker is injured and seemingly killed.

Wolfenstein: The New Order, when it first came out, could fairly be argued to be a sequel to RtCW and Wolf09 despite it being a new studio with a new concept. You even get a glimpse of the racially-integrated US Army troops originally presented in Enemy Territory. Strasse ret

urns, and he and BJ have clearly met before. It is clear that at this point Strasse is BJ's own personal Red Skull. Caroline Becker returns, her spine destroyed, and she and BJ know each other and make direct reference to the ending of Wolfenstein 09, implying that Wolfenstein 09 happened -- except BJ has gone back to his old red haired appearance.

But then came The Old Blood, and it messed up the sequel theory, being essentially another retelling of the Castle Wolfenstein escape scenario and displacing RtCW.

So what's the timeline here? Simple: RtCW and TNO are separate timelines, and Wolf09 occurred in both.