Alternate Universe Fics

This is something that's been bugging me for a while.

At what point does something get considered an AU fic?

A friend of mine once claimed that an OC-centric fic I wrote was becoming alternate universe because it was diverging from canon, but I found that silly.

I always considered alternate universe to require you to change the setting, and drastically at that. The tropes page agrees with that but also mentions a couple options that sound more like For Want of a Nail than AU to me.

So I'm wondering what other people think about what makes AU AU.

To me, there are three kinds of AU: the one that changes a critical event in the story, the one that changes an important element of the setting/story set-up itself and the one that moves the story completely out of the original setting.

edited 1st Nov '14 7:22:28 PM by Mort08

Pretty much how I view A Us as well.

For me, all fan fiction that changes canon is AU. However there's three main types of A Us. Different setting A Us are when the characters are somewhere that's not the original setting (IE: High School AU). Then there's ones that are kind of in-between where the "rules" of the canon setting have been changed, but it's not in a different "universe". For Want Of A Nail A Us are when fan fics fallow canon to a certain point and then branch off. Personally I call these Alternate Timeline fics instead of AU fics as they don't really take place in an Alternate Universe.

The point of fanfiction is to change canon, the argument that changing canon makes it AU is saying all fanfic is AU.

The way I always saw it was that there are four main things that make a story. The Setting/Universe, where it all takes place, The History, the events that created the setting, The Characters and the Plot. History and Setting are linked,but you can change one without changing the other, and plot comes from all three.

Changing an element in the History or the Characters shouldn't necessarily change the setting, so much as it changes the plot. I don't understand why that would be enough to consider something AU.

Honestly, it's probably just a matter of labels. For example, my fics are very much a For Want Ofa Nail series. I changed a key part of the Kingdom Hearts story, and then it kinda snowballed from there.

I use the AU label because it follows its own sequence of events and has long since stopped being a simple role swap. If I didn't use the label, it would only confuse readers, and Alternate Timeline isn't used commonly enough in the fandom to get the point across.

I personally make the following distinction:

• If it's something that doesn't actively contradict the original work (like an Elsewhere Fic, or a fic that could feasibly happen at some point in the origninal without changing anything) I, ehm, don't have a specific name for that, but I don't consider those AU.
• If it deviates from the original story in a way that doesn't require changing the rules of the setting, basically the things that could happen (or could've happened) in the original, as is. I consider it a "divergence", this includes For Want Of A Nail and WhatIfs that have multiple changes, as long as those changes are plausible in the story without including elements that don't appear in the original (elements like aliens in a Harry Potter fic, or robots in Naruto)
• Then there is what I consider true A Us: fics that just don't work in the original setting, (by intentional author choice) or that retcon elements of the original. Inside this category, I divide between "weak" A Us (close-ish to the original with a few differences, I would put this fic as an example for the Naruto fandom) and "hard" A Us (so different from the original it only shares characters and sometimes setting rules, any Fusion Fic should count here).

I'm writing a fanfic where a canon event explicitly doesn't happen, but it really doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. I guess by Elder Scrolls standards, you don't mark that kind of thing as an AU, but what about fandoms where there's a fairly linear story?

I would never tell anyone that the "point" of fan fiction is to change canon (because some take that too far and assert that they can ignore canon events because it's a fan fic and fan fiction is all about changing things regardless of logic).

Sliders. Sliders is all about alternate histories/parallel Earths. It could be history that's changed, or it could be a small change in a person. Either way, that world still exists as an "alternate universe" where something changed. AU is not a degrading term. All fan fiction where the events of the original series are different is technically an AU; most prefer not to make the distinction by adding 'AU' to the summary.

A fan fic where Anakin kills Obi Wan instead of the other way round is an alternate universe, or timeline where Anakin doesn't become the iconic Darth Vader, suit and tie included. If he pulls a Face–Heel Turn and doesn't became Darth Vader, alternate universe.

But not all fan fiction is purely AU - some fan fics explore canon further, or from a different perspective. Not "all" fan fiction is AU".

Me, I would add AU if I was changing some core principle of the universe. Like, a Buffy fic where I change things so that vampires can survive in the sunlight if they wear thick clothing and sunblock - in canon, vampires straight-up COMBUST, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There's no ancient prophecy that changed the vampires, its purely a narrative convention I made up because I like the way vampires work in Blade more than Buffy, and I always thought the sunblock thing was kind of cool.

edited 3rd Nov '14 9:19:50 AM by FOFD

There are different ways to change the canon. In my view only stories that change it in such a way they are mutually exclusive with the source material count as A Us.

Adding an original character, setting the story in the near future (with appropriately aged up characters), fleshing out as-of-yet unknown backstories, playing "what if" with characters who were never on-screen together, filling in story gaps, continuing where the story left off—none of that would be AU, though it would be "changing" the canon.

AU would be reserved for things like "completely changing a key element of backstory" or "setting the story centuries apart" or "changing everyone's sex and/or species" or "making everyone the same age even if they're clearly of different generations".

edited 3rd Nov '14 11:10:47 AM by PPPSSC

i only consider something AU if it's a change to the mechanics of the universe itself, or any major statistical change to the background/setting.

Harry Potter with different magic (like summoning demons or something like that). Or if muggles were the minority.

I don't consider alternate possibilities to be alternate universes. A proper For Want Of A Nail fic is not AU. A single OC insertion isn't AU. If the fic *could* potentially have happened in the canon universe without further explanation, it's not AU. If you need to explain the universe in some way that canon hasn't already - it's AU.

edited 3rd Nov '14 11:10:53 AM by willyolio

Total Drama was originally a Survivor parody, so an extremely common Fandom-Specific Plot is to have new seasons where the contestants may be canonical, original, or both. Naturally, one of the most common AU premises is to remake a canon season with an author-preferred elimination order. These remakes are usually of either Season 1 or the latest canon season in existence when the the fic writer started work on the story. Contestant rosters are usually canonical or near-canonical, but may include an OC or two and may include players who debuted in later seasons. (Canon seasons 3, 4 and 6 introduced new players, with S4 and S6 having all new casts.) These remake seasons may or may not retain canonical challenges, and perforce retain the original setting. For Season 1 remakes, expect at least a touch of The Stations of the Canon.

My own well-troped Season 1 remake retains more of the original challenges than some, for the simple reason that my muse is better at refining than creating, but the elimination order is very different and my story is mostly played for drama, whereas the original was mostly played for laughs. So, is it AU or not? Personally, I think it is—same setting, different incidents, with no clear divergence point such as a What If? story would have. I'm guessing that willyolio (for example) thinks not, because his definition is different. Or perhaps we should distinguish "Alternate Universe" from "Alternate Reality?"

edited 7th Nov '14 9:13:10 PM by Gideoncrawle

My own definition is extremely simple, and I think it pretty much covers what people think of when they hear "AU".

At the time of original publication, does something in your story boldly contradict canon?

If yes, it's AU. If no, it's not.

edited 8th Nov '14 1:49:59 AM by Unknownlight