[ SECRET POST #2987 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2987 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 068 secrets from Secret Submission Post #427.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

15. http://i.imgur.com/9E9jv4S.png

[(Anonymous)]

I don't have much to say about the secret itself. I'm really here to say that that picture is terrifying. Clever, but terrifying.

[(Anonymous)]

:goes to look back at picture:

Oh, that's sort of clever. I guess I got interested in the secret and didn't finish looking at it before.

:totally fails to be creeped out like a normal person:

[(Anonymous)]

da

I didn't find it creepy or anything either, just funny

[(Anonymous)]

Especially the sad little ice-cream that lost the head off its child "cone"!

[wickedmyth]

I love that pic! He's rather brilliant when it comes to his macabre cartoons.

[praetorian_guard]

That picture reminds me of the cartoons where there are crawfish eating humans and one asks 'Do ya suck th' heads?'

In regards to the secret itself - it feels like this can apply to a lot of fanworks these days. Certainly not all, but there are definitely fics that you can find in every fandom that seem to be cookie cutter with no hint of the canon about them. One of the things I've always found interesting about AUs is seeing how characters stay the same and how they change, but a lot of the time they change so much they're unrecognizable.

Thanks a LOT , OP

[dani_phantasma]

How am I supposed to enjoy ice cream again?

Re: Thanks a LOT , OP

[(Anonymous)]

Same way ice cream will enjoy you!

Guilt-free! :D

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen a lot of complaints about AUs that are basically just original fic with familiar character/setting names recently, here and elsewhere online.

Is it some sort of trend in some fandoms, or has the definition of AU changed so that it doesn't really require any contextual link to the original canon anymore?

Not really.

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes writers just use characters because they like the way the characters look or because they like the popularity of the fandom, so any resemblance to actual characterization in their AUs is a coincidence. But that's been going on as long as there has been fic (and is not confined to AUs, actually).

But sometimes the readers just don't really like AUs (or just can't fathom a character in certain AU jobs/settings/roles/etc.) and so make that same complaint.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

AU has multiple meanings and attempts to institute different names for the various things that get labeled "AU" fail to take hold.

You have Canon Divergence AUs (one event goes different and the results play out), or Canon AUs that change one of the basic facts of the setting and play on how that changes the story, or you have the total transplant AUs like High School AUs, College AUs, Coffee Shop AUs, general Modern AUs, where the characters are totally removed from the canon setting and put in some form of stereotypical Modern Earth setting.

The "transplant AU" tends to result in the loss of a lot of context and background that makes the character who they are, and if a writer also fails to capture a character's personality, well you end up with unconvincing characters with familiar names pasted on them.

[(Anonymous)]

While your friend (?) may indeed be writing really terrible AU fic, "original fic with canon names and descriptions" is the complaint of nearly everyone who doesn't like AUs. Just because you can't imagine comparable situations that would create the characters we know and love doesn't mean other people can't imagine them.

[(Anonymous)]

There are AUs where the characters really do fit in that world while still being recognizably themselves. You can see how their canon personality and interest mesh well in this different setting, how some friendships and rivalries remain, etc.

Then there are others that do not resemble in any way themselves. Sometimes not even physically, but most of the time is that they simply do not think or behave in any way that resembles canon.

It's a sliding scale, and at one point you just have to wonder why even keep the pretense that it's not an original character dressed up like a canon one.

[(Anonymous)]

I understand and agree with this comment perfectly. However, I've seen more than a few people treat all AUs like they fit the second description, so I'm a little skeptical. I feel like I need examples.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, sort of embarrassing, but the clearest example I can think of right away was Kagura from Inuyasha.

Long story short, the Big Bad of the show, Naraku created Kagura to work for him, but the moment she wanted out, she realized she was trapped into working for him, on penalty of dying instantly if she disobeyed because DEMON MAGIC or something. She spends the rest of her life trying to break free.

ANYWAY. Some AUs I read had Kagura be trapped under Naraku in different ways: like him being an abusive father and she too young to figure out how to escape, or him being a criminal ring leader who ensnared her too well for she to get out, etc.

That's a way to transplant those characters and their relationship into a different setting and still remain sort of the same.

But then there was another AU called "Naraku's Angels" where she and two other female characters willingly worked for Naraku who was mysterious but not malicious.

It really could have been an "OCs play out Charlie's Angels", because the only way those characters (and the rest of the cast) resembled Inuyasha was that Sesshoumaru had adopted Rin. That was all. None of them were terribly similar in character or ability or relationships to the canon.

So, not a bad story, but it was a fanfiction of Inuyasha in name only.

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: anthropomorphic soft serve ice cream cones, with the text “Yum children!”

Text: I kept giving you the roundabout about betaing your fics, but the truth is that…

they’re not fanfiction! You claim they are AUs, but in truth they are just original fic with the character names and descriptions, and some location and items pasted on!!!

(And it’s not even good original fic. No one would read it if you didn’t publish it as fanfiction.)