Why I don't like AU fanficton, or wank, wank, wank.

[naanima]

I don't like AU fanfiction. When I say AU I mean fanfiction where the author place the characters in another time/place/fantasy/different Universe with new pasts, new names, new identities. For example, the GW fandom seems to be the most prominent in the production of this type of AU, the boys lives in Medieval/fantasy setting where they are priests, magicians, warriors, blah, blah, or they are your normal average teenagers with normal average problems set in present day, etc., etc.

I don't like these fanfiction because the author ultimately changes the characters' past and everything that made them who they are. I'm a sole believer that the only thing separating one person from another is their experience (okay, their biological predisposition also plays a part, but these predispositions will mostly occur when people are living in an environment where it allows these predispositions to develop), thus, by changing a characters' experience, or what has happened in CANON, you are in effect making a completely different person, where the only thing that is recognizable is the characters names. Thus, you might as well be writing original fiction.

When I read fanfiction I want to read about the CANON characters involved in adventures with ALL of the CANON experience and memories that made them who they are. I don't want to read fanfiction where the only thing that is similar to my loved characters is the way they look and their names. For example, I like reading post-series fanfiction, which I know is classified as AU by some, these fanfiction I like because the characters are still themselves with all the memories of what has happened to them in the past (i.e. during the series), they act accordingly to what happened to them, or at least act in a way that is similar to ways similar to past actions.

In conclusion, no, this is not an attack on people who write this type of AU or people who like reading them; it is just a statement on my own personal taste. Okies, I think that's enough ranting on my part.

Comments

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

By an amazing coincidence, I was making that very rant just the other day. Although I also made mention of the fact that it seems to me that authors seem to write AU "fanfiction" like that because they know if it's fanfic, people will read it. I don't think they consciously think like that, but that's the way I feel when I read a fic that has the GW boys as dragonriders of Pern or whatnot.

[lacewood]

... *looks sheepish* Though in my half-hearted defense, I am TRYING to keep everyone's pasts only er, transposed to a modern context...?

What about AUs of the what-if variety? Where you change key events in the series/past? A lot of them do have pretty interesting ideas...

[baka-neko.livejournal.com]

I'm biased, but there's an AU Smallville fic that I quite adore, and I must, must hunt down so that I can pimp the fic at you.

Simply, what if Lionel Luthor went into the cornfield looking for his son and not only discovered Lex suffering from meteor radiation, but also found an alien toddler dragging his space-pod after him like a favorite blankie?

I think AUs need to do be defined better, really. I think there's a difference between 'what-if' AUs and transplanting characters from a universe to another. Like the above example, the what-if fic wonders how 'differently' a character would have grown/matured if something else had/had not happened.

But the transplantation, (I keep thinking of it as a crossover for some reason), the characters REMAIN THE SAME regardless of background or current occupation. There are suitable changes to fit the new universe they're occupying in, but essentially, the character itself is supposed to be, somehow, the quintessential Heero or Duo or Sailormoon regardless of the actual universe they occupy. They may grow slightly differently, but it's like Sliders where you meet AU versions of yourself and discover that your AU version may be a beefy fearless barbarian warrior, but he still has the really horrible habit of picking his nose and scratching his ass when bored.

We won't consider those where only the character names are the same. Hopefully, the above was coherent...

[ayatsujik.livejournal.com]

AMEN.

It _is_ a matter of pesonal taste, but I sparkle at finding people who share the same opinion. It's especially bad for series like sports ones, I think - when a large part of who the characters *are* is built around their love of a game, or a specific ideal, or *something* anyway, you remove the setting in which they use that thing and you don't have the same character(s). End of story. It becomes the transplantation-AU person's orichara(s), more or less, and the quality of the AU itself aside, as you said, that wouldn't interest me. Like, Ryoma-tachi without tennis are *not* Ryoma-tachi, however engagingly you change their environments and them, and just - period. ^^; (I know, I know, Bowling no Oujisama eps and the like, but those were *funny* fillers.)

[morinotokei.livejournal.com]

While I have read a couple AUs that I've enjoyed in the past, I think those are rare exceptions for me. It's not that the concept of altering the setting doesn't interest me, because it can be interesting. I don't mind discussions among fans involving these concepts. It just doesn't interest me when applied to fanfiction. It all has to do with my motivation for reading fic, which is (as you mentioned above), the desire to read about the very same characters I know and love within a series/game/etc, along with the same setting that comes with the characters. Perhaps if someone were to rec me a wonderfully written AU in a fandom I know absolutely nothing about, I wouldn't have as much of a problem reading it. I think this is an extension of my rigid canon whore tendencies. Generally, unless an AU has been written by someone whose writing I just cannot resist reading, or has been recc'ed by all the people whose opinions I trust, I won't read it. But even then, I've been disappointed far too many times.

Ok, I'm done saying my "me too" now. ^_~

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

You know, I think that that idea of personality comes the closest with me, as well as the caveat that people might not have one True Personality, but behave situationally and can almost become different people based on what situation and environment they're in.

So I agree with you that I don't like at all stories where backstory is arbitrarily changed or added to, especially if the writer is going to introduce a Major Traumatic incident which is secretly the golden key to the entirety of the character's actions.

As for AUs, well, I just don't like them because I have a love-hate relationship with worldbuilding, and a lot of the times the world is like a character, and I think you gotta include it.

But somethings just beg to be written!!!!

[amei.livejournal.com]

Simon McDohl is a 16 year old-transfer student in Toran Senior High, where he Meets the beatufiul but queit student Prefect Kasumi!!!1 and Who is that other pretty but angry boy who has mysterious powers who also seems to be interested in the lovely Kasumi? All is well until Moonshine, the reincarnation of Windy turned up at the school TO WREAK HAVOC!!!! Will thiS new terror tear McDohl and Kasumi apart or will therlove pull them trhough and save the day?!?!! Suikoden/AU

Notes from the author; Yes, I am aware that your wank rant didn't include bad spelling, but I couldn't resist. I understand that you would want to tear me to little bits right now. If I don't get Soul Eater'd first. I always wanted to write one of these. Oy. Vey.