Meta Monday : I don’t drink coffee, a post about AUs

[dhampyresa]

Hi! Welcome to Meta Monday, in which I go tl;dr about stuff.

I very nearly titled this "AUs are gold" but I figured no one wanted to deal with Periodic Table of Elements jokes at whatever time it is wherever you are.

So, way back when these were supposed to be a December Talking meme, wordsofastory asked "Favorite types of AUs! Or just your general thoughts on AUs."

Yeah. I have thoughts.

AUs! One Astronomical Unit is worth 149 597 871 kilometres, which is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. I like this kind of AU a lot better than the atomic unit kind.

Science jokes aside, in fandom, AU tends to stand for Alternate Universe.

I talked some about AUs when I talked about tropes. In that post, I outlined three different kinds of AUs, although I am not entirely sure one of them counts as an AU. (I'm going to use Star Wars as my example for this bit, because I can reasonably sure that everyone in fandom will know at least the basics, if only through osmosis.)

Canon: Leia Organa smuggles out the plans to the Death Star to a trusted ally, escapes Darth Vader and leads an assault that results in the destruction of said Death Star.

Setting-replacement AU is the kind of AU where the setting is completely different from the canon setting. For example, Leia is the daughter of the Ottoman ambassador to the Spanish court at the time of Suleiman the Magnificient. In this kind of AU, there can be a lot of worldbuilding and/or research involved, but it is very rarely canon-based. (Some common variations of this are coffeeshop AUs, high school/colleges AU and fusions with most canons*, such as Harry Potter – Hogwarts AUs.)

Canon-divergent AUs are the AUs that can be boiled down to "what if X had happened instead of Y?", such as "what if Leia had been a Jedi?". The worlbuilding for these AUs is based solidly in canon. (Very often this takes the form of fix-it fics – the most extreme form of this is the "AU where everybody lives" – and in sci-fi canons, this kind of AU can even be canonical: Doctor Who's "Turn Left", Stargate SG1's "Moebius"…)

Then there's the other kind of AU, that fall somewhere between the two. They're the Canon-plus AUs, where everything is like canon, except for this one trope that's been added to the mix. Maybe in this world bisexuals can breathe fire, lesbians can make the earth move, gay men can take your breath away and straight people can manipulate water (and if your sexuality changes over the course of your life, you can end up mastering more than one element), but to become a Jedi you must be asexual. (I literally just made this up, btw. It'll probably fall on its face if you poke it too hard.) There is worldbuilding involved, and some of it is based in canon, but not all of it. (Think of soulmate AUs or Daemon AUs. Often these start because the Starter Trope is introduced – via fic, via a canon – and fandom just starts running with it.)

That said, not all AUs fall neatly in those categories. What about the AU where Steve Rogers was defrosted in 2525? Is that a canon-divergent AU or a far-future (setting displacement) AU?

What if it's an Avengers fandom AU? Does that mean they're still superheroes in between getting into flamewars on the internet? It could go either way.

I'm probably on the margins of fandom in that I don't really read for ships. When I'm reading fic, I'm reading for characters and plot, with shipping being something I don't pay much attention too. Which means that when I'm reading an AU, I'm often more interested in the worldbuilding than the shipping. (Possibly I am Doing Fandom Wrong.)

It stands to reason then, that my favourite kind of AUs is the kind with worldbuilding.

I love IN SPACE AUs, historical AUs, canon-divergent AUs that take you to places canon never went. I LOVE WORLDBUILDING SO MUCH. Nothing makes me happier than opening a fic set in a version of the present day where the Roman Empire is still around and find out why that is. Maybe in this timeline Augustus and Livia had a child (or Agrippa became Princeps instead), which means Tiberius never became Emperor, which means that the Julio-Claudians never became the trainwreck they became and so *handwave* the Roman Empire is still around. Obviously I don't need a year-by-year breakdown of the timeline to accept the premise, but I do like a little something.

(You know what would make me even happier? Present day AUs in which it's the Roman Republic that is still around. As for why, it's simple: neither of the Gracchi get murdered by a mob and their land reform stabilise the Republic.)

My personal rule for AUs is to consider if it makes the characters' lives as or more interesting as canon. If the answer is yes, I'm interested and if no, I'm not. Other people might feel differently or disagree with what I find interesting.

A lot of people clearly like coffeeshop AUs, given how popular they are. I don't drink coffee. I can't relate to coffeeshop AUs. Fandom AUs, on the other hand? Yeah, those I can relate to.

On the other hand, you can have too much going on in a fic. There are two fics I'm currently not writing. One is a Daredevil magical realism AU, which a perfectly congruent idea. The other idea is: 1) a buddy cop AU, 2) one of them's a ghost, 3) there are flying cars 4) and also togas, 5) the mob's involved, 6) there's a West Side Story-esque subplot involving neither of the buddy cops and 7) familial relationships between characters are changed. And before you think that's all, it is also 8) a murder mystery. That's a bit much for one story, isn't it? At that point I might as well be writing original fiction.

Which brings me to my last point! Some characters are easier to adapt to a setting-displacement AU. Steve Rogers, for example, is essentially the same archetype as King Arthur or Emperor Barbarossa (or Rip van Winkle or Brân the Blessed or Väinämöinen or... Well. It's a popular archetype). To stay within Marvel, Magneto is a lot harder to adapt. The presence of genocide in his backstory is central to his character. According to comics canon established in Magneto Testament (a truly excellent comic, by the way), he literally is not Erik Lehnsherr before (and therefore without) Auschwitz. I'm not saying it's impossible to write a setting displacement AU with a Magneto that feels like Magneto, I'm just saying it'll take some thoughts. In a fusion with Fullmetal Alchemist, it makes more sense for Magneto to be Ishvalan than a Sate Alchemist, for example.

Do fusions even count as AUs? I can never remember. I tend to think they do.


*His Dark Material fusions are often mislabelled and only use one element of the HDM worldbuilding, which is the daemons. Those should be tagged "Deamons AU" or similar instead.

Hey, you know what would be amazing? Eurovision AUs! Any canon, no explanation needed. Eurovison needs no explanation. (Don't tell me you don't want to know what a Doctor Doom approved Eurovision entry would look like.)


Next time, I'll be looking at feedback, especially as it pertains to me.

Comments

[minutia_r]

I do want to know what a Doctor-Doom-approved Eurovision entry would look like! But that doesn't even have to be an AU. I mean, I don't think it's ever been established that there is no Eurovision contest in 616, for instance. And if there is, there would naturally be an entry from Latveria (as well as from other fictional European and vaguely-close-to-Europe countries). And it would naturally be performed by an all-singing all-dancing troupe of Doombots.

[dhampyresa]

You're right that it doesn't have to be an AU! I was just thinking of Eurovision fics in general, but they would have to be AUs for the vast majority of fandoms. I wonder if Eurovision banned Doombots from competing? And how Doom reacts to winning/losing... It could be a very interesting fic, for sure!

[ashen_key]

I like your personal rule for AUs! I think that's where my interest is, too, which is also why I never read Coffeeshop AUs because too many years in retail and it bores me.

But ohhhh, canon-divergent AUs. I have SO MANY for Hunger Games, it's ABSURD. All around Annie, because she's unexpectedly become my baby, but I want to write EVERYTHING. Ooooooops. (One reason why I have Finnick permanently injured in the 'Finnick doesn't die' AUs is...that's interesting. It's a narrative cost he's paid to be alive, yes, but dealing with the aftermath of that, even in little domestic asides, is interesting.)

At that point I might as well be writing original fiction.

I've done that myself with some concepts - which is also why I don't tend to write AUs like that. I like READING them, mind, but actually writing them, nope. Might as well just go with original.

And, reuighkljfd Roman Republic in the present YES.

[dhampyresa]

It's a good rule, I feel.

I am totally unsurprised by this development. Your love for Annie warms my heart, tbh.

In this case, it's slightly different in that I was basiclly mashing-up two of someone requests and everything else was sort of my brain going bananas, but I think I'll manage to have it down as something decent soon. And hopefully I will write it and they will like it. (It's thankfully not an exchange fic.)

And, reuighkljfd Roman Republic in the present YES.
I KNOW, RIGHT? The Republic is so much more interesting than the Empire!

[ashen_key]

She has so much potential and complications, it's great! Particularly if people remember she's more than likely a Career. A Career who went mad on TV - or did she, to the extent everyone thinks? Was it a moment of losing it and then she played the part like she'd been trained because at least it'd be entertaining and maybe she'd survive if she was entertainingly off the dial. A Career whom the ruthless as heck President Coin views as too frail to be a threat (which to me implies Annie's never killed anyone, an interesting issue of itself). And she's the one who, despite her own mental illness, holds the suicidally depressed Finnick together, and when he is killed (and after she's been captured and tortured), she goes no, no more killing, stop and don't you fucking dare do this in his name, either in this crowning moment of conscientious objector awesome which if they don't include in the movie I will stab someone one. And. Yes.

She's so much fun :D I have my Quarter Quell AU, obviously, but am also toying with an AU where Annie was part of the revolution for yeeeeears which is so much fun. And another, as a quicker idea, of one where she's the Capitol Darling and Finnick's the mad boy back home and ALL THE AUS. Allll of them.

*coughs*

ROMAN REPUBLIC YES. Waaaaay more interesting.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm not the biggest fan of AUs (it probably comes from being in HDM fandom and finding it overrun with daemon AUs, rather than actual HDM fanfic), but this jumped out at me in your post:

Nothing makes me happier than opening a fic set in a version of the present day where the Roman Empire is still around and find out why that is.

Have you read the Romanitas trilogy by Sophia McDougall? She has an ingenious explanation for why the Roman Empire continues to exist, although the focus of the series is on power, empire, privilege and resistance more generally. It's one of my favourite series of books ever, one of its three main characters is my favourite fictional female character (she's on my default icon), nobody ever seems to have read the series, and I'm always on the lookout for new fans.

[dhampyresa]

I suspect that might be it. I dislike when people tag this kind of AU with the canon the one element of worldbuilding is borrowed from.

I have not read thos books! Thank you for the rec. They sound interesting, but I have to admit I'm leery of "falsely accused of rape" plotlines: how is it handled and how prevalent is it?

[dolorosa_12]

I can see why you might be slightly put off by such a plotline. I'll try to explain it without any major spoilers, although as most of it happens in the first three or four chapters of the first book, it's not spoiling much.

So, two of the three focal characters in the series are a brother and sister who are British slaves originally from London. They get separated as children, and the boy winds up as the slave of a doctor, and for various reasons, makes him an incredible amount of money. As a result of this, the boy, Sulien, is treated with a great degree of leniency, and he and the doctor almost seem to forget that he is a slave. The doctor's daughter, Tancorix, is very resentful about this, but is sent away to boarding school for several years. When she returns, she's grown up considerably, and she and Sulien fall into a spectacularly ill-advised relationship - keeping this secret from her parents, of course. It's a consensual relationship, as much as such a relationship can be, but lurking at the back of it are all these years of unpleasantness and awkwardness: Tancorix's jealousy, Sulien inability to properly understand his position as a slave, and so on.

Tancorix's mother catches them, and before either of them can do anything, Tancorix is bundled from the room, whisked away and given no further opportunity to speak to Sulien or the authorities on her own behalf. The accusation comes from the mother, and it's depicted as an attempt to protect Tancorix's reputation. It doesn't play a great role beyond that, apart from getting Sulien in the right place, plotwise, to be a part of the main story of the series. The fact that he didn't quite understand what it meant to be a slave and owned by others is a major aspect of his characterisation, but the false accusation isn't central to this in the story.

For what it's worth, his sister, Una, has a way of knowing without a doubt that he didn't do what he was accused of (I don't mean she just doesn't believe her brother capable of such a thing, I mean she really knows without a shadow of doubt that he was falsely accused). She actually tells him that if she had found out he had raped Tancorix, she's not sure she would have rescued him.

I don't know if that helps make things clearer.

[dhampyresa]

It does help making things clearer, although I'm not sure if it makes things better. I'm just really unsure how I feel about the whole thing. I suspect I may have to read the book(s? please tell me this only plays a part in the first one) to make sure.

While we're on the subject, can I ask what you like about the books? Convince me to read, them, basically.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh, I would never push you to read a book/series in which an element was a trope which you found offputting or distasteful. My personal feeling is that this particular plot point is only dealt with in detail in the first few chapters of the first book, although it's merely one manifestation (albeit an extreme one) of a crucial part of Sulien's characterisation. That is, his personality is shaped by his peculiar experiences of slavery: he never perceived himself as a slave, and he has trouble adjusting to a world which views him as not quite human. He's also only one of four point-of-view characters.

While we're on the subject, can I ask what you like about the books? Convince me to read, them, basically.

I was going to write a comment, and somehow it turned into a whole blog post. [Content note: non-detailed discussion of slavery, empire and colonialsim.]

[dhampyresa]

You're not pushing, don't worry! It sounds like the books are right up my alley except for this one thing, so I think I'll try reading them (at some point) and see what happens.

[dolorosa_12]

Excellent!

As I say, don't keep going with the series if it feels like a chore. I hate it when people try to push their favourite books on me and insist that I have to like them, and I don't want to do that to you!

[metanewsmods]

May we link this on metanews? We also post on LJ and Tumblr.

[dhampyresa]

You certainly may.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I very nearly titled this "AUs are gold" but I figured no one wanted to deal with Periodic Table of Elements jokes at whatever time it is wherever you are.
What are you talking about, science jokes are always excellent at any time of the day! :P (Lol, now I am having fond memories of the Chemistry Cat meme.)

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

There's another science joke under the cut just for you. (I don't think I've ever seen the Chemistry Cat meme, clearly my life has been sadly deprived.)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

There are a bunch of Chemistry Cat posts here! :)

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

OMg, that's amazing like Oxygen and Magnesium.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

This was a great post! Your division of types of AUs is pretty much the same way I think about things. It's also interesting how some characters are so much harder to adapt than others. I generally love AUs, but I've had fandoms where I just couldn't come up with believable scenarios for an AU that kept enough of the essential features of the characters, no matter how hard I tried.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I think the closer a character's backstory is tied to their setting the harder it is to adapt them to another.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Je crois que j'aurais râté le jeu de mots si tu ne l'avais pas mentionné. Honte à moi ! XD

AU where everybody lives
J'approuve. Pour tout fandom. Même ceux dont je ne fais pas partie.

Une fois, j'ai discuté du concept "coffeeshop AU" avec une autre Française et du fait que sa popularité nous passait au-dessus. Culturellement parlant, c'est très américain, même si on a des Starbucks en France.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Tu veux un bonnet d’âne?

J'approuve. Pour tout fandom. Même ceux dont je ne fais pas partie.
La même. J'aime bien aussi "tous les morts vivent ensemble", mais c'est plus rare (et pas tout à fait pareil).

Culturellement parlant, c'est très américain
Bon sang, mais c'est bien sur! Dit comme ça je comprend mieux.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

"tous les morts vivent ensemble"

J'ai lu des fics comme ça pour Pacific Rim. Même en dehors des fics, je pars toujours un peu de ce principe-là. Ca vient de ma jeunesse traumatisée par les CLAMP qui ne tuaient jamais qu'une personne par pairing. Les sadiques ! >_>