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Challenge #3: In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
A little late because CMD is a bitch, but here it is:
So, by and large, AUs – excepting canon-divergence AUs – aren’t my thing. It’s no secret, since there’s a reason they go in my exchange DNWs. That’s not to say that I never read them at all, or that I think they have to suck, just that they’re one of the hardest fanfic genres to get right. So, I thought I’d write about my rules for judging what makes an AU or a fusion good. If a think a fic might meet all of these, I’ll click on it. If it doesn’t, well, you do you, but I’m not going to read it.
1. A good fusion isn’t a complete fusion.
A good fusion, my opinion doesn’t just take characters from Canon A and puts them into the plot from Canon B. The plot needs to be adapted for the characters, because otherwise, not only does it get kind of predictable for everyone who knows both canons, it’s also highly likely that at some point, the characters act OOC.
2. Choose your AU wisely.
There are canons where a Regency AU works, and there’s canons where it doesn’t. Putting Harry Potter into a mundane school AU is far easier than putting Harry Dresden into one. It all depends on what makes sense for what we know of the characters and the canon setting and plot. A WWII AU doesn’t work for me for most canons, the exception being Rogue One, since the plot there too is about fighting something that can be described as space nazis.
3. Don’t change the characters’ nationalities, unless that’s the point of the AU
Yes, I know, it’s easier to set everything in America, because that’s what most authors know. But it’s one thing to make a modern AU, and another to make a modern AU that removes the cultural context of the original as well. It annoyed me most with The Musketeers, a British production set in France, and I can’t tell you how many AUs I’ve noped out of because they were inexplicably set in the US for no discernable reason.
4. Translate the relationships
If you’re removing the original canon context, you have to be very careful to keep the characters intact, otherwise you’re might as well write an original fic, in my opinion. Sure, write a Jonsa Regency AU, but for the love of GRRM, have them still be cousins who have known each other for ages. Relationships – especially familial and long-lasting ones existing pre-plot – are an important part of what makes a character who they are, and if you’re removing that, you have to think very carefully how else they could have become who they are, but people rarely put in the effort.
So, fewer rules than you possibly anticipated. I’d also like to add that I’d love to see more modern AUs that aren’t set in the real world. Show me Middle Earth with cars and Westeros as a united kingdom that’s still recognizably Westeros, not the United Kingdom. I know it’s work, but I promise it’s worth it for the reader.
A little late because CMD is a bitch, but here it is:
So, by and large, AUs – excepting canon-divergence AUs – aren’t my thing. It’s no secret, since there’s a reason they go in my exchange DNWs. That’s not to say that I never read them at all, or that I think they have to suck, just that they’re one of the hardest fanfic genres to get right. So, I thought I’d write about my rules for judging what makes an AU or a fusion good. If a think a fic might meet all of these, I’ll click on it. If it doesn’t, well, you do you, but I’m not going to read it.
1. A good fusion isn’t a complete fusion.
A good fusion, my opinion doesn’t just take characters from Canon A and puts them into the plot from Canon B. The plot needs to be adapted for the characters, because otherwise, not only does it get kind of predictable for everyone who knows both canons, it’s also highly likely that at some point, the characters act OOC.
2. Choose your AU wisely.
There are canons where a Regency AU works, and there’s canons where it doesn’t. Putting Harry Potter into a mundane school AU is far easier than putting Harry Dresden into one. It all depends on what makes sense for what we know of the characters and the canon setting and plot. A WWII AU doesn’t work for me for most canons, the exception being Rogue One, since the plot there too is about fighting something that can be described as space nazis.
3. Don’t change the characters’ nationalities, unless that’s the point of the AU
Yes, I know, it’s easier to set everything in America, because that’s what most authors know. But it’s one thing to make a modern AU, and another to make a modern AU that removes the cultural context of the original as well. It annoyed me most with The Musketeers, a British production set in France, and I can’t tell you how many AUs I’ve noped out of because they were inexplicably set in the US for no discernable reason.
4. Translate the relationships
If you’re removing the original canon context, you have to be very careful to keep the characters intact, otherwise you’re might as well write an original fic, in my opinion. Sure, write a Jonsa Regency AU, but for the love of GRRM, have them still be cousins who have known each other for ages. Relationships – especially familial and long-lasting ones existing pre-plot – are an important part of what makes a character who they are, and if you’re removing that, you have to think very carefully how else they could have become who they are, but people rarely put in the effort.
So, fewer rules than you possibly anticipated. I’d also like to add that I’d love to see more modern AUs that aren’t set in the real world. Show me Middle Earth with cars and Westeros as a united kingdom that’s still recognizably Westeros, not the United Kingdom. I know it’s work, but I promise it’s worth it for the reader.
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