Snowflake challenge #3 - AUs/Fusions (6/365)
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.
My feelings on AUs, fusions and cross-overs have changed so much in the 30 odd years I've been in and on the periphery of fandom.
When I first got into fandom (back in the mid 90s) in the days of Hercules and Xena and then Angel I was all about the actual universe of the fandom - I had zero interest in AUs or any kind of crossover. I branched out and started looking for fic for Xfiles, Highlander and SG1 but I was still all about stories within universe, missing scenes, expanding on a plot line - those were my jam and I read voraciously. The minute I hit AU/fusion or cross-over I backpedalled fast - possibly because quite a few of the ones I ever tried to look at back then seemed to take the characters so out-of-character that I just didn't get in.
I was a late comer to getting to see The Sentinel (which I picked up towards the end of the 90s early noughties) by which time I was also reading much more widely in Highlander, Sentinel, SG1 and SGA (as it began airing) as well as having a lingering affection for the Xfiles even though the show had stopped. And I'd really enjoyed Mag 7 fandom, which as anyone who has read there knows, spawned a modern day M7 ATF AU.
So by the noughties I'd really started to appreciate a well written crossover (and was starting to dip my toes into AUs) which kept characters in character. I'd also read a couple of really good Highlander AUs and also found a bunch of writers from various fandoms (first on mailing lists and then on LJ) who I've since more or less followed from fandom to fandom. *G*
But I do think there was something about the SG/HL/Sentinel universes that led to crossovers and some of the characters in those shows were very definitely "little black dress" types - you could yank them out of their universe drop them into another and presto - interesting things would happen.
But I still wasn't wholly convinced about AUs - though I did read a couple of crackingly good coffesshop ones.
I think what probably catapaulted me into a fully fledged appreciation of a good AU was the combination of Star Trek (2009) airing (hello canon AU!) and then the following year I fell down the rabbit hole of Inception. I'd more or less been drifting away from reading and writing from the early to mid noughties and then Star Trek aired and sucked me back into reading and writing and just as I was finding my footing again Inception hit me like a veritable freight train.
Inception aired mid-2010 and I...uh I'm not sure I remember much of 2010 or 2011 possible hazy about the early part of 2012 as I voraciously read whatever (and I mean WHATEVER) I could get my hands on.
Anything and everything that showed up on LJ comms or on A03 during that period? I read it.
And Inception fandom was...well put it this way it was the first fandom I knew of that had a dedicated anonymous kink prompt comm - there may have been prior ones - but Inception was really one of a kind.
I read AUs, I read fusions, I read crossovers, I had days where all I did was read for 24 or 48 hours. Inception swallowed me whole - it was the first and only big bang story I've written and I lived and breathed that universe for nearly two years. And if I ever needed a break from Inception - well there was Trek ready to take up the slack *G*
And then Teen Wolf started airing in 2011 by which time I was fully converted to a healthy appreciation for AUs/fusions and crossovers and the rest is history.
I've not written a huge amount of crossovers and to be honest the majority that appeal to me tend to be about shoving little black dress characters together and seeing what happens.
So for example - anything that crosses Leverage/SGA and puts Ronon and Eliot Spencer in the same story I am there for, similarly crossing or adding Superantural into that and throwing Dean and Sam into the mix will work for me.
Stargate Atlantis crossed over with Numb3rs? Lorne and Colby fic? I am so down for that.
As far as I'm concerned you could drop Alex Krycek and Methos into any other story and come up with something interesting.
A personal favourite of mine (for which I have huge numbers of stories in my head but only a few drabbles committed to paper) was either pulling Tyr from Andromeda and dropping him into the SGA universe or getting Ronon into the Andromeda universs. I'm sad that very few others seem to see the endless possibilities with Nietzscheans and Ronon coming face to face because that would be epic.
So now 30 years on - I'll pretty much read anything and everything - but I still do like my characters in character.
This entry was originally posted at https://ruric.dreamwidth.org/803729.html.
My feelings on AUs, fusions and cross-overs have changed so much in the 30 odd years I've been in and on the periphery of fandom.
When I first got into fandom (back in the mid 90s) in the days of Hercules and Xena and then Angel I was all about the actual universe of the fandom - I had zero interest in AUs or any kind of crossover. I branched out and started looking for fic for Xfiles, Highlander and SG1 but I was still all about stories within universe, missing scenes, expanding on a plot line - those were my jam and I read voraciously. The minute I hit AU/fusion or cross-over I backpedalled fast - possibly because quite a few of the ones I ever tried to look at back then seemed to take the characters so out-of-character that I just didn't get in.
I was a late comer to getting to see The Sentinel (which I picked up towards the end of the 90s early noughties) by which time I was also reading much more widely in Highlander, Sentinel, SG1 and SGA (as it began airing) as well as having a lingering affection for the Xfiles even though the show had stopped. And I'd really enjoyed Mag 7 fandom, which as anyone who has read there knows, spawned a modern day M7 ATF AU.
So by the noughties I'd really started to appreciate a well written crossover (and was starting to dip my toes into AUs) which kept characters in character. I'd also read a couple of really good Highlander AUs and also found a bunch of writers from various fandoms (first on mailing lists and then on LJ) who I've since more or less followed from fandom to fandom. *G*
But I do think there was something about the SG/HL/Sentinel universes that led to crossovers and some of the characters in those shows were very definitely "little black dress" types - you could yank them out of their universe drop them into another and presto - interesting things would happen.
But I still wasn't wholly convinced about AUs - though I did read a couple of crackingly good coffesshop ones.
I think what probably catapaulted me into a fully fledged appreciation of a good AU was the combination of Star Trek (2009) airing (hello canon AU!) and then the following year I fell down the rabbit hole of Inception. I'd more or less been drifting away from reading and writing from the early to mid noughties and then Star Trek aired and sucked me back into reading and writing and just as I was finding my footing again Inception hit me like a veritable freight train.
Inception aired mid-2010 and I...uh I'm not sure I remember much of 2010 or 2011 possible hazy about the early part of 2012 as I voraciously read whatever (and I mean WHATEVER) I could get my hands on.
Anything and everything that showed up on LJ comms or on A03 during that period? I read it.
And Inception fandom was...well put it this way it was the first fandom I knew of that had a dedicated anonymous kink prompt comm - there may have been prior ones - but Inception was really one of a kind.
I read AUs, I read fusions, I read crossovers, I had days where all I did was read for 24 or 48 hours. Inception swallowed me whole - it was the first and only big bang story I've written and I lived and breathed that universe for nearly two years. And if I ever needed a break from Inception - well there was Trek ready to take up the slack *G*
And then Teen Wolf started airing in 2011 by which time I was fully converted to a healthy appreciation for AUs/fusions and crossovers and the rest is history.
I've not written a huge amount of crossovers and to be honest the majority that appeal to me tend to be about shoving little black dress characters together and seeing what happens.
So for example - anything that crosses Leverage/SGA and puts Ronon and Eliot Spencer in the same story I am there for, similarly crossing or adding Superantural into that and throwing Dean and Sam into the mix will work for me.
Stargate Atlantis crossed over with Numb3rs? Lorne and Colby fic? I am so down for that.
As far as I'm concerned you could drop Alex Krycek and Methos into any other story and come up with something interesting.
A personal favourite of mine (for which I have huge numbers of stories in my head but only a few drabbles committed to paper) was either pulling Tyr from Andromeda and dropping him into the SGA universe or getting Ronon into the Andromeda universs. I'm sad that very few others seem to see the endless possibilities with Nietzscheans and Ronon coming face to face because that would be epic.
So now 30 years on - I'll pretty much read anything and everything - but I still do like my characters in character.
This entry was originally posted at https://ruric.dreamwidth.org/803729.html.