fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3590 ]

[ SECRET POST #3590 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3590 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #513.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Let's talk AUs. What fandoms do you like drastic AUs for? Which do you only like canon AUs? What are your favorite AUs? What AU would you like to see more of?

Feel free to rec stories you like.

I've said this before on here, but I intentionally seek out only the most outlandish and/or insipid modern day AUs for GoT/ASoIaF before I love the shit out of the headfuck.

By canon AUs, do you mean canon divergence stories where major events change but the setting is the same? I think those are always good when done well.

What would a "canon AU" be? That seems contradictory.

Personally, the more real-world, modern-day the canon setting, the more I can tolerate really extreme AUs, like a magical fantasy setting or a future space setting. I don't necessarily prefer that over more subtle alterations, but I can get into it easily.

If the canon is already a fantasy, future, or historical setting, I tend to dislike extreme AUs. I don't want to read about Tolkien characters in space or a modern high school or whatever. I don't want to read about Star Trek characters in a medieval fantasy setting (unless it's something involving Q or the holodeck or whatever, in which case it's not really an AU). It's not a deal-breaker, but the idea sounds boring to me.

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Canon_AU

I thought a "canon AU" was more like "what if this one canon event were different?" like "what if Cedric didn't die in Goblet of Fire?", so the vs a "what if the characters were coffee shop baristas?" kind of thing? I'm not the OP though, so I might be wrong.

That is the typical meaning.

Think like Marvel's Ultimate universe.

I will read any and all AUs. From the craziest not at all like canon to the "let's just change one tiny thing in canon". My favorite AU (and one I always want to see more of) are mobster/mafia ones. I just really love that kind (especially when romance is involved).

The only fandom that I sort of prefer AUs to canon fics is probably Game of Thrones. Mostly because canon is so depressing for the only people I am interested in (Jaime/Brienne).

I was going to rec you some mafia AUs and then I read the rest of your comment and realised you've probably already read them. I think the mafia and secret agent AUs are the only Jaime/Brienne fics on ao3 rated T and over that I haven't read. I've read everything else so many times though that I'll probably finally read those in the very near future.

Re: Inspired by #11

kaijinscendre - 2016-11-01 23:41 (UTC) - Expand

I'm all about AUs, except for high school AUs. I love Star Wars modern day AUs right now. I was in to Hunger Games modern day AUs for a while. And I'll forever love "what if" AUs for Harry Potter.

I like AUs a lot. My most frequent issue with them is that they don't go far enough - mostly they just get treated as set dressing, you know, and one of the things that's most interesting to me is really seeing the styles and plots collide at full force.

My favorite AUs are the ones that are closely grounded in specific literary genres. And I'd like to see more of that - Ruritanian Romance AUs! Haunted house AUs! But I also have a soft spot for AUs that are really domestic and tender. Just make me happy.

My most frequent issue with them is that they don't go far enough - mostly they just get treated as set dressing

An author really has to make the effects of the AU felt for the fic to be worth it, I think. I've come across a lot of AU fics where the premise is something like "Everything the same, but Character A is a vampire", and then they proceed to practically re-write the book/show/movie exactly the same, but in the back of our minds we're just supposed to remember that Character A is a vampire... and that's not entertaining. Even the slightest change can be interesting, but you have to do something with it. The fic doesn't have to be all about how this change alters the canon, but you do need a plot. Or at least some smut.

Re: Inspired by #11

(Anonymous) - 2016-11-01 23:41 (UTC) - Expand

I'm not a drastic AU fan. I'm a fan of AUs where one little event in canon is changed and then the story explores what might happen. I want the canon settings and characters and such, just different things happening. My favorite AUs are Harry Potter book 6 or 7 AUs (also some book 5 ones) or AUs where Harry is raised by someone besides the Dursleys. Also I'm a big fan of crossovers.

I love Peggy Sue stories, where a character goes back in time and tries to make things turn out better the second time around.

:O I've never heard those referred to as Peggy Sue stories!
I actually rather like them as well. The only fandom I've been in that has tons of them is FFVII, and I basically binged on all of them XD (and then started writing my own).

Re: Inspired by #11

sarillia - 2016-11-01 23:42 (UTC) - Expand

I know a lot of people around here kind of hate BBC Sherlock, but if you're amenable to reading Sherlock fanfic, there is a fic that fits this description and is utterly phenomenal, called A River Without Banks by Chryse. (Obviously YMMV, but for my money, it's one of the best fics I've read in any fandom, and I've read approximately a fuckton of fanfiction in my time.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3204689/chapters/6969521

Warning for graphic, violent rape though. The fic's tags don't really emphasize that bit enough, IMO.

Re: Inspired by #11

sarillia - 2016-11-02 02:17 (UTC) - Expand

Especially for sprawling, complicated works, like the MCU or, yes, Harry Potter. *heart eyes motherfucker*

Favorite AU of all time: This amazing MCU late 60s SoCal new age cult AU. It's......way better than I just made it sound.

A million years ago (or six), I read an HP no-magic AU set around WWI. I don't remember anything but that, and that I loved it.

For my mundane procedural shows, I like fantastical AUs. Super heroes, urban magic, fairytales, sci-fi. I generally prefer that the characters are still somehow connected to their jobs and lives, but I'll read more out-there ones. I read a CSI NY Sheik AU that I liked, so Medieval or Roman AUs are fun for modern-day canons too. I also like worldbuilding AUs, so A/B/O and Soulmarks that actually give a thought to how the world would change in these situations.

For my supernatural/sci-fi/fantasy canons, I tend to stick to more canon AUs. I don't like modern AUs, except for reincarnation AUs in Tolkien, but only if they actually conform to canon (so Elves didn't die, etc.). I like canon divergence because I like what-if stories and it allows for characters who might otherwise never interact to meet each other. I've recently become interested in reversal AUs like where Poe and Rey were always part of the First Order. But, the idea of Luke working in a coffee shop doesn't appeal to me.

However, I am much more lenient when it comes to visual media. Seeing characters like Thranduil being portrayed in a business suit, or watching a LOTR 50 Shades of Grey fanvid AU are fun for me. It's easier to see them as a sort of Elsewhere of the canon, which I can't look at them like that in fic.

Generally, I don't care for apocalypse or dystopian AUs unless there's excellent worldbuilding and the tone is generally more positive.

My main fandom right now is Sherlock, which has a nearly infinite amount of AUs of all varieties. And I love them all. Well, not really, but there are very few AUs I don't like the concept of. Just sometimes the execution doesn't work for me.

On the flip side, I was intensely into the X-Files fandom for ages, and despite there being a pretty huge (if old) X-Files fandom, there weren't many drastic AUs for that fandom. In fact, there were so few drastic AUs in TXF fandom that canon AUs (where something happened differently, but the basic universe/plot was still the same) were usually just referred to as AUs. Like, in TXF fandom it would have been completely appropriate to describe a fic as "An AU of The Hallway scene, where the bee doesn't sting Scully and things progress from there." Whereas, in the fandoms I've been in since then, something like that wouldn't even be referred to as an AU at all.

Drastic AUs: Star Trek, Hannibal, Teen Wolf, Glee (don't mock me, I'm a garbage can).

Canon-centric: Supernatural (which is apparently sort of unusual in the fandom), House, anything Marvel.

I really wish there were more canon-centric AUs for Supernatural. "What if X did Y instead of Z" is generally more interesting than the umpteenth variation of "Destiel AU where they're baristas/veterinarians/high-schoolers."

(That being said, I'd also love more canon-centric DESTIEL.)

I have a soft spot for meta AUs where the story is represented as an RPG the characters are playing in-universe.

I would really like to see Belle Epoque / fin de siecle / Late Victorian-Edwardian AUs

especially ones that aren't concerned mostly with some hand-me-down idea of decadence, or, like, Moulin Rouge

Most of the time I like canon AUs, Peggy Sue fit-its, and crossovers. Drastic transplant AUs are really a fic-by-fic basis, not a fandom basis, because a lot of the time removing the characters from the canon world removes a lot of what makes them good, and a lot of context about who they are.

For me a lot of AUs need to keep what appeals to me about the canon. Like with Hobbit fic I like the contrast between Hobbits and Dwarves, physically and culturally, but it's the sort of thing I'd probably find it a little squicky if I read something where the author was trying to apply real life group stereotypes. (Yes, I know the fantasy stereotypes were born from RL ones. But fantasy =/= reality and fanfiction of fiction that was inspired by RL things is much more removed than potentially reading fic about how WASPyHuman!Tauriel finds JewishHuman!Killi's culture soooo weird compared to her own)

Same with Star Wars. I don't want an AU where everyone's humans and there's no spacemagic. But I'd be up for a more fantasy AU.

Harry Potter I like the magic, but it's not as central for me.

So yeah, basically it heavily depends on if what I like about the world is kept intact which is slightly more likely to happen with 'What if this one tiny thing changed' than 'Tony is a history professor who runs a coffee shop and Steve Rogers is the art professor who comes in every Thursday before class'

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[ SECRET POST #3590 ]

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yawl i really really love AUs

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