Views on AU(s)

[mesotablar]

Challenge #3: Talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes

I love a good Canon Divergent Alternate Universe. Tweak some minor details in canon and you get a whole new story growing. It always makes me think about Multiverse Theory, and the infinity of possible outcomes from differing actions and timings. I think staying close to canon at the start also allows you more freedom in the representation of the characters

because

I do like wildly different Alternate Universes, but I feel the characters have to be instantly recognisable. They have to be tight to their canon character representations, but if that is done then I'll read any AU you throw at me. Historical! Futuristic! Mundane! Soulmates! A/B/O! Magical! I'll even read Fourth-wall Breaking Anthropomorphic Objects AU! (does that even exist? well, it is AO3 so it probably does!) 

Comments

[perspi]

OH, man, if you build it they will come, hey? I feel like if it's not around anywhere, soon it will be!

[mesotablar]

Even if I have to write it myself!
I hope I've started the thing that will take over from Suez Canal/Ever Given (Anthropomorphic)!

[jedi_of_urth]

I do like wildly different Alternate Universes, but I feel the characters have to be instantly recognisable

I was linked something a while ago that discussed how this is basically what defines fanfic as a genre. That character is the key to fic and good fic is first and foremost judged by how in character people are. That whatever situation you're writing in, no matter how far from canon it is, people have to feel like they know the characters.

And that this is how fanfic people can hold dozens of 'canons' in their head. That the central point it all orbits is the characters.

Let's see...Found it

[mesotablar]

Thanks so much for the link!
It is blowing my mind right now
Fanfic as a character-driven genre makes so much sense!

For things without much substance/content, like drabbles, PWP and crack, they can be crazy AU with barely any characterisation yet still be interesting, because at that point I think it comes down to the writing style and personal obsessions (A legit addiction, like obsessing so strong for a character you read anything with their name to get a 'fix', even if they are just renamed OCs with no dialogue that stand pining under a tree in the rain for their love) Yeah, 'character as friends' point is going into parasocial relationship territory.

[dylan_mx]

Interesting, thanks for the link!

[dreamersdare]

I'll even read Fourth-wall Breaking Anthropomorphic Objects AU! (does that even exist? well, it is AO3 so it probably does!)

In fandom, the answer to the question "does it exist?" is always yes :)

(Actually, it does. I've read it. I read one fic where the characters were all socks and lived in a laundry basket. And another one where they were all cleaning implements - there was definitely a mop, and a hoover, but I forget the rest. Sadly, or not depending on your perspective, I did not save the links to those fics...)

[mesotablar]

hahahaha, can you remember if they were Original Works or if it was set in a fandom?

Now all I can think of is all those action and spy movies where they burst into a janitor closet (all the cleaning implements gasp "He's not meant to be here!") and the hero/bad guy/spy starts making a bomb using everyday objects ("Wha..what is he doing?" "Ahh, I'm drowning! I can feel my plastic corroding!") then runs off just in time (while all the things in the closet scream) for the explosion and fire to cause a distraction so the hero/bad guy/spy can get away.

Omg, I think I just accidently wrote a RED/Salt/Mission Impossible fusion

[dreamersdare]

Fanfic for sure. This was back in the LJ days of old, before AO3 was nary but a dream.

Look, it is a bum deal to be any form of janitor closet content in any form of spy movie. You'll either get splimtered in two across some scowling dudes head, duct taped into an unwanted liaison with a bottle of indeterminate contents for a brief, uncomfortable moment before you're blown to smithereens, or kicked into the path of a hoarde of henchmen as the world's most ineffective trip hazard. It's a mug's game!

...you know, I thin kmaybe you did :D

[fred_mouse]

There was definitely a Girl Scout Cookies SGA story. As in, the pair were each different types of Girl Scout Cookies.

[mesotablar]

Characters as an edible foodstuff? I feel a high potential for a tragic end!

[fred_mouse]

Indeed. If you wish to experience this (warnings apply*) then I found a remix at https://archiveofourown.org/works/10592556 - The Epic Tale of Rodney & John, Two Girl Scout Cookies in Love [The Pix or it Didn't Happen Remix] by bitter_crimson (Krim)

* there are pictures. of cookies. representing porn. Also, a cookie gets eaten.

[mesotablar]

Not the best thing to read. at 11. at night.
My laughing woke others up.

You did warn me! It was very well done. I can't believe the author then kept the biscuits for 9 years!

[fred_mouse]

oops (unrepentant)

It is such a weird bit of fannish history!

[mekare]

Haha your stance on AUs is exactly my own.