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dhampyresaHi! 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.
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.
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Date: 2015-05-14 01:40 pm (UTC)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 ! >_>