Snowflake Challenge 2022 #3: What If...?
Jan. 5th, 2022 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptChallenge #3 asks us to cast our imagination from things that are into things that might have been.
Alternate universes, in fandom, tend to mean stories where there is some part of the plot, setting, or characterization that is clearly out of sync with the established canon ("canon-divergent" rather than "canon-compliant"). In canons with a multiverse, where alternate universes are explicitly included in the canon in contrast to the prime universe, it gets a little trickier, and Alternate Universe tends to mean "the places where the canon has not yet established a canonical branch of the multiverse."
Plot AUs tend to hinge around consequential events and decisions made during the canon. If a character canonically goes to a prestigious university in their setting, a plot AU might instead divert them to a different postsecondary institution or have them forced to join the workforce immediately. Having changed that single decision, plot AUs usually then focus on how the ripple effects of that changed decision have created an entirely different story for the characters involved. (If you like the 2005 Doctor Who series, s04e11 "Turn Left" is an excellent example of the plot AU.)
Characterization AUs are change some aspect about the character themselves, usually about their upbringing or general outlook on life, but then see how this new character goes with the events of the plot (or a different plot) with the new circumstances and attitudes they are in. They're a good vehicle if you want to make your Always Chaotic Evil villain a little more relatable or to give some understandable motivations for their conquering the world attitudes. Or if you want to roughen up the impeccably pure pureness of the hero and explore what kinds of compromises they might be making in service of keeping the rest of the people safe.
A Setting AU leaves the characterization alone, for the most part, but changes the setting of the story so that the characters have different results from their actions. What might be a high-stakes world-saving affair in the original is instead swapped out for a cozy coffee shop or all of the high-stakes drama is instead applied to grades and social lives at a (usually U.S.-modeled) postsecondary institution.
Setting AUs are different than crossover works and fusion works, although both crossovers and fusions are setting changes. Crossover works generally place the canonical characters of one property into the canonical setting of another (sometimes interacting with the canonical characters of that setting) and see what happens from there, or there's a team up between the two settings' heroes to defeat the combined efforts of each settings' villains. Fusions take the "grab someone else's characters" part from the crossover work, but them try to fit those characters seamlessly into the setting of the target property without losing their characterization. (Magical Schools or other settings where a character could develop as themselves, possibly even with the same theming of their abilities, inside the structure or system of how the magic works in the destination, are usually popular targets for fusions.) Because fusions are aiming for fit in the destination setting, some aspects of characterization might shift for characters, and it's often up to the creator to figure out which aspects of a character are their core, the things that will show up regardless of what setting or system is at work, and which parts are malleable to help with the fit into the setting.
Or:
(Not bad, eh?)
So, to get to the actual prompt, one of my annual exchange circuit stops is![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crossworks, an exchange devoted to crossovers and fandom fusions. The idea behind Crossworks is that properties get nominated in groupings rather than characters (although people can, in their signups, indicate which characters they're more and less partial to), with the idea that any given grouping should be a situation where a nominator will be happy with any number of the grouped properties in any combination that can be made in the group. Which really helps me clarify what it is about the combination that's the core similarity between all of the nominated properties. So one bucket will be all the "transforming heroes" section, regardless of which country those particular properties are created in. Another might be "The Fourth Wall Is A Lie," for properties that are either explicitly self aware or who use enough metafictional jokes that they're close enough to it. There's "The Christian Kane Extended Universe" for properties that Christian Kane has played characters in and those properties that are similar enough in vibe to those properties that they wouldn't have trouble coexisting. "Magic, Bending, Whatever" might put together properties with compatible supernatural systems, and so forth.
Through all of these ideas, when I'm looking for properties that might pair up into a crossover or fusion, the thing I'm looking for is compatibility between the settings and the characters. Why smash together Kingdom Hearts and Miraculous Ladybug? Well, they're both stories with teenaged heroes who are granted a great power of Light, not really given any kind of training on how to use it, and have to fight off the forces of Darkness, which can sometimes take on monstrous forms and sometimes might be the person that you've known all your life. The heroes of Light have to be careful not to allow themselves to be corrupted by the Darkness, or they will fail and doom all the rest of us with them. (And because the pun on Sancoeur was too good not to use.) If I want to focus more on the action capabilities and the magical girl aspects of Miraculous Ladybug, it shifts toward being more compatible with RWBY, which is also a magical girl anime, despite neither of them having their country of origin in Japan. Themed powers with scopes that can be combined with lateral thinking to make them more applicable to a wider range of possibilities whole fighting a seemingly endless number of enemies controlled by a figure that's pretty good at keeping themselves out of direct confrontation.
Seeing where the through lines and the similarities are allows for establishing the points of contact and overlap, which then allows the differences to shine through so that the characters remain recognizably themselves, even in a completely different context. Fusion and AU are a specific kind of challenge to a creator to find the essence of something it someone and use that core to build that same character in the environment they are going to be in. It's a tricky challenge, keeping all the elements of similarity and difference working in harmony toward the goal of creating an enjoyable fanwork for someone.
And sometimes, there's a break. A character performs an action completely inconsistent with the characterization they have been given up to that point, so far that the Suspension of Disbelief snaps. A creator, after half-hearted, after the fact attempts to provide more representation than was in the text, decides instead to lean fully into the exclusionary attitudes rife throughout the book. Someone gets accused of interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, or made fun of for interrogating the text at all. Whether for spite, salt, or two middle fingers to the canon or its creator, there are some pretty glorious fix-it fics out there, where the fandom states their disagreements and proceeds in their own direction, regardless of what canon or creator has to say on the matter. This generally means making things way more queer than they are in the originals, because corporate entities and properties are still more afraid of losing conservative and reactionary sponsorship dollars than they are gaining the fans and their dollars that wasn't to see greater and better representation in the media available to them. The author is dead, long live the author's properties.
So I guess the reason I'm intrigued about AU prompts and fusions and the like is the challenge they dangle in front of me. Can I keep these characters recognizable and true to themselves while transplanting them into an entirely new setting? What parts of their backstory change? How do they channel the energy and activity they would be doing in their original setting into the new setting, where conflicts have to be resolved with words and cutting remarks instead of shields and cutting swords? How well can I hide the seams of what's been created, so the experience looks smooth and reasonable to the intended audience? Those things remain fascinating to me, and they apparently always have been. I have evidence of some of my earliest writing, and I can see how I learned to stitch in them. Like first craft projects, I can see where there were difficulties and mistakes and where things didn't quite align just right, but I can also see what I was learning there, what I was trying to emphasize, and what gets better and smoother with time and practice. Even then, I was doing a lot of my learning by trying to fit different worlds together.
Here's to crossovers and fusions, and AUs cozy and strange. And for descriptive enough tags that someone who wants only to engage with the canon-compliant can find what they want.
In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, or tell us why AU/fusions aren't your cup of tea.Before I get too far into this, I should probably define some terms, so that way you can look at me strange about where I'm getting my ideas from. These are my own thoughts, so if I contradict Fanlore or something, it's probably because I'm not well read.
Alternate universes, in fandom, tend to mean stories where there is some part of the plot, setting, or characterization that is clearly out of sync with the established canon ("canon-divergent" rather than "canon-compliant"). In canons with a multiverse, where alternate universes are explicitly included in the canon in contrast to the prime universe, it gets a little trickier, and Alternate Universe tends to mean "the places where the canon has not yet established a canonical branch of the multiverse."
Plot AUs tend to hinge around consequential events and decisions made during the canon. If a character canonically goes to a prestigious university in their setting, a plot AU might instead divert them to a different postsecondary institution or have them forced to join the workforce immediately. Having changed that single decision, plot AUs usually then focus on how the ripple effects of that changed decision have created an entirely different story for the characters involved. (If you like the 2005 Doctor Who series, s04e11 "Turn Left" is an excellent example of the plot AU.)
Characterization AUs are change some aspect about the character themselves, usually about their upbringing or general outlook on life, but then see how this new character goes with the events of the plot (or a different plot) with the new circumstances and attitudes they are in. They're a good vehicle if you want to make your Always Chaotic Evil villain a little more relatable or to give some understandable motivations for their conquering the world attitudes. Or if you want to roughen up the impeccably pure pureness of the hero and explore what kinds of compromises they might be making in service of keeping the rest of the people safe.
A Setting AU leaves the characterization alone, for the most part, but changes the setting of the story so that the characters have different results from their actions. What might be a high-stakes world-saving affair in the original is instead swapped out for a cozy coffee shop or all of the high-stakes drama is instead applied to grades and social lives at a (usually U.S.-modeled) postsecondary institution.
Setting AUs are different than crossover works and fusion works, although both crossovers and fusions are setting changes. Crossover works generally place the canonical characters of one property into the canonical setting of another (sometimes interacting with the canonical characters of that setting) and see what happens from there, or there's a team up between the two settings' heroes to defeat the combined efforts of each settings' villains. Fusions take the "grab someone else's characters" part from the crossover work, but them try to fit those characters seamlessly into the setting of the target property without losing their characterization. (Magical Schools or other settings where a character could develop as themselves, possibly even with the same theming of their abilities, inside the structure or system of how the magic works in the destination, are usually popular targets for fusions.) Because fusions are aiming for fit in the destination setting, some aspects of characterization might shift for characters, and it's often up to the creator to figure out which aspects of a character are their core, the things that will show up regardless of what setting or system is at work, and which parts are malleable to help with the fit into the setting.
Or:
- We Won't Be Beaten By The Past is a Plot AU,
- Two Swords is a Characterization AU (at least, at the moment),
- Liberté, Solidarité, Accessibilité is a Setting AU,
- Little Sunny Dragon Superhero (Or So They Think) is a crossover,
- and The Heart of the Miraculous is a fusion.
(Not bad, eh?)
So, to get to the actual prompt, one of my annual exchange circuit stops is
crossworks, an exchange devoted to crossovers and fandom fusions. The idea behind Crossworks is that properties get nominated in groupings rather than characters (although people can, in their signups, indicate which characters they're more and less partial to), with the idea that any given grouping should be a situation where a nominator will be happy with any number of the grouped properties in any combination that can be made in the group. Which really helps me clarify what it is about the combination that's the core similarity between all of the nominated properties. So one bucket will be all the "transforming heroes" section, regardless of which country those particular properties are created in. Another might be "The Fourth Wall Is A Lie," for properties that are either explicitly self aware or who use enough metafictional jokes that they're close enough to it. There's "The Christian Kane Extended Universe" for properties that Christian Kane has played characters in and those properties that are similar enough in vibe to those properties that they wouldn't have trouble coexisting. "Magic, Bending, Whatever" might put together properties with compatible supernatural systems, and so forth.Through all of these ideas, when I'm looking for properties that might pair up into a crossover or fusion, the thing I'm looking for is compatibility between the settings and the characters. Why smash together Kingdom Hearts and Miraculous Ladybug? Well, they're both stories with teenaged heroes who are granted a great power of Light, not really given any kind of training on how to use it, and have to fight off the forces of Darkness, which can sometimes take on monstrous forms and sometimes might be the person that you've known all your life. The heroes of Light have to be careful not to allow themselves to be corrupted by the Darkness, or they will fail and doom all the rest of us with them. (And because the pun on Sancoeur was too good not to use.) If I want to focus more on the action capabilities and the magical girl aspects of Miraculous Ladybug, it shifts toward being more compatible with RWBY, which is also a magical girl anime, despite neither of them having their country of origin in Japan. Themed powers with scopes that can be combined with lateral thinking to make them more applicable to a wider range of possibilities whole fighting a seemingly endless number of enemies controlled by a figure that's pretty good at keeping themselves out of direct confrontation.
Seeing where the through lines and the similarities are allows for establishing the points of contact and overlap, which then allows the differences to shine through so that the characters remain recognizably themselves, even in a completely different context. Fusion and AU are a specific kind of challenge to a creator to find the essence of something it someone and use that core to build that same character in the environment they are going to be in. It's a tricky challenge, keeping all the elements of similarity and difference working in harmony toward the goal of creating an enjoyable fanwork for someone.
And sometimes, there's a break. A character performs an action completely inconsistent with the characterization they have been given up to that point, so far that the Suspension of Disbelief snaps. A creator, after half-hearted, after the fact attempts to provide more representation than was in the text, decides instead to lean fully into the exclusionary attitudes rife throughout the book. Someone gets accused of interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, or made fun of for interrogating the text at all. Whether for spite, salt, or two middle fingers to the canon or its creator, there are some pretty glorious fix-it fics out there, where the fandom states their disagreements and proceeds in their own direction, regardless of what canon or creator has to say on the matter. This generally means making things way more queer than they are in the originals, because corporate entities and properties are still more afraid of losing conservative and reactionary sponsorship dollars than they are gaining the fans and their dollars that wasn't to see greater and better representation in the media available to them. The author is dead, long live the author's properties.
So I guess the reason I'm intrigued about AU prompts and fusions and the like is the challenge they dangle in front of me. Can I keep these characters recognizable and true to themselves while transplanting them into an entirely new setting? What parts of their backstory change? How do they channel the energy and activity they would be doing in their original setting into the new setting, where conflicts have to be resolved with words and cutting remarks instead of shields and cutting swords? How well can I hide the seams of what's been created, so the experience looks smooth and reasonable to the intended audience? Those things remain fascinating to me, and they apparently always have been. I have evidence of some of my earliest writing, and I can see how I learned to stitch in them. Like first craft projects, I can see where there were difficulties and mistakes and where things didn't quite align just right, but I can also see what I was learning there, what I was trying to emphasize, and what gets better and smoother with time and practice. Even then, I was doing a lot of my learning by trying to fit different worlds together.
Here's to crossovers and fusions, and AUs cozy and strange. And for descriptive enough tags that someone who wants only to engage with the canon-compliant can find what they want.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-05 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 02:07 pm (UTC)* Ernie and Bert as ‘The Gift of the Magi’ are allowed.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-05 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-05 11:12 pm (UTC)Your thoughts about the overlaps writers have to find are really interesting too. I came here after you commented on my response to this prompt where I said I'm not interested in crossovers & fusions, but now I'm mulling some over myself. I don't think I'll go anywhere with them, but it's interesting even just to think about :)
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 01:57 am (UTC)There's no pressure or obligation to go any farther than you want on things. For some people, there's squishy spots or connectors between different properties, and for some people, there absolutely are not. And sometimes you go "huh. That actor's playing a similar character to the one in this property. I wonder if the two of them could be related to each other?"
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 01:20 am (UTC)And for descriptive enough tags that someone who wants only to engage with the canon-compliant can find what they want.
Oh, seconded. Appropriately descriptive tagging makes my heart sing!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 02:00 am (UTC)I'm glad the thought process made sense. Finding good similarities is item the secret for me to making everything else work, but I also tend to be more of a "character reacts to their setting" writer than a "setting shapes their character" writer, so it's a little easier for me to transplant characters around when needed.
(Yes, please, descriptive tagging.)
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 01:30 am (UTC)I can definitely see how the different AU types are distinct, and also how they could blend and overlap within a fic.
I originally got into fanfic for the fix-its. There was a point where you could tell the original content creators weren't brave enough, or were threatened or simply decided to viciously haul the plot away from where it was growing naturally.
Yeah, the author is dead, long live the author's properties!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 02:06 am (UTC)Fix-its are interesting creatures, along with salt and spite, because they often appear meant to highlight the problems, rather than to quietly try to smooth them over or pretend away some part of the canon. When people get shouty, it's often really good stuff that comes with it.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 04:22 am (UTC)I'll make a more substantive comment on this excellent description of AU varieties later, when I'm not falling asleep and running the risk of toppling off the rocking chair.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 12:26 am (UTC)Heartless as a name *is* fantastic for a KH AU, you're not wrong. :)
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 12:27 am (UTC)