(no subject)
It was snowing this morning! Thick, white flakes. I'd already resigned myself to the only snow this year being that which I could see on tv. Yay snow! Sadly it's all gone again already but I did have the chance to make a snowball.
I constantly need to remind myself that the final bid on a camera that I wanted being just one Euro higher than mine does not mean that I would've gotten it for bidding just two Euros more. The person might just as well have bid 30 Euros more than me.
pensnest posted about AUs in thinky_pop ( here) and I commented with my five cents. I'd like to have that here, too, for the record, so to speak.
No, as far as I know there aren't a lot of AUs in Supernatural, and of the ones there are most are the kind where something in their past went differently than in canon and caused them to live different lives and have different jobs. I'm not sure how much those count for real AUs. And even the stories thate are completely AU are mostly about the same thing: family and sticking together. There are only very few where Sam and Dean are not related (and I haven't read any of those).
I think there are indeed more AUs in RPS than media fandoms. From my experience as a reader of both Supernatural and the Supernatural RPS I'd say that if I read Supernatural, then I want to read about Sam and Dean, and if an author puts them in the middle ages or as coworkers in a coffee shop, it just wouldn't be them anymore. If I read Supernatural RPS, I want to read about Jared and Jensen, and they work in every setting.
As a writer, I think the reason people write more AUs in RPS than in media fandoms is pretty much the same: In media fandoms we know the characters in and out. Of course we do, it's the point of a series or book or movie to get us familiar with its characters, up to the point that there are metas written about every little gesture. It's all those little things we see that make a character, and I, for one, don't have the urge at all to try and transfer that to another setting. With "real" characters that problem's not so big. We don't know all, or even a lot, about them to begin with, and it's easier to make them into something else entirely.
I say this often, but it's still true, so: For me, writing (and reading) RPS is like making a movie; it's not the real Jared and Jensen, or JC and Lance that I'm writing about, I know they're not really doing it (although sometimes I do have my doubts ;) ). It's rather like I'm writing a movie script and casting them in the appropriate roles. Therefore it's easy to write an AU about them; and many people literally do rewrite movies with an RPS cast. If I write about Sam and Dean it feels more like I'm truly writing about them, because they're not real in the first place. If that makes sense.
I didn't like AUs, neither when I started in Popslash, nor in the SPN RPS, but both times I've grown to love them after a while. I like seeing the canon things an author keeps, the things they leave out, the side characters they create, mostly from other "real world" people. I guess it's also because I love stories where characters meet for the first time and fall in love, and there's only so many possibilities to write a canon story about that before it gets repetitive. On the other hand you can have the same thing happen in a hundred AUs and it'll be different every time. I love if they keep close to canon despite the AU theme! If someone writes about teacher!Lance having a best friend I want that to be Joey or Chris and not some random guy. Setting-wise there's not much I wouldn't read (I have much love for the NSnyc being fish AU). However, I think high school AUs are a bit overdone. I still read them, but I approach with caution.
(This part is new)
As much as I love AUs for the J², I don't really like those magical stories, you know, the one where a real witch is on set and curses someone, people get turned into animals etc. Just a few days ago there was one where Jensen gets turned into a dog, from an author whose stories I'd usually jump on, but I just couldn't read it. I used to love them in Popslash. Lance the llama, c'mon! I don't know why or what has changed. Maybe it's because I got into Popslash during what was still officially a hiatus back then, and the NSync boys were never as "real" to me. I didn't get to see as much real time interaction (except for Challenge) as I do with Jensen and Jared.
I constantly need to remind myself that the final bid on a camera that I wanted being just one Euro higher than mine does not mean that I would've gotten it for bidding just two Euros more. The person might just as well have bid 30 Euros more than me.
pensnest posted about AUs in thinky_pop ( here) and I commented with my five cents. I'd like to have that here, too, for the record, so to speak.
No, as far as I know there aren't a lot of AUs in Supernatural, and of the ones there are most are the kind where something in their past went differently than in canon and caused them to live different lives and have different jobs. I'm not sure how much those count for real AUs. And even the stories thate are completely AU are mostly about the same thing: family and sticking together. There are only very few where Sam and Dean are not related (and I haven't read any of those).
I think there are indeed more AUs in RPS than media fandoms. From my experience as a reader of both Supernatural and the Supernatural RPS I'd say that if I read Supernatural, then I want to read about Sam and Dean, and if an author puts them in the middle ages or as coworkers in a coffee shop, it just wouldn't be them anymore. If I read Supernatural RPS, I want to read about Jared and Jensen, and they work in every setting.
As a writer, I think the reason people write more AUs in RPS than in media fandoms is pretty much the same: In media fandoms we know the characters in and out. Of course we do, it's the point of a series or book or movie to get us familiar with its characters, up to the point that there are metas written about every little gesture. It's all those little things we see that make a character, and I, for one, don't have the urge at all to try and transfer that to another setting. With "real" characters that problem's not so big. We don't know all, or even a lot, about them to begin with, and it's easier to make them into something else entirely.
I say this often, but it's still true, so: For me, writing (and reading) RPS is like making a movie; it's not the real Jared and Jensen, or JC and Lance that I'm writing about, I know they're not really doing it (although sometimes I do have my doubts ;) ). It's rather like I'm writing a movie script and casting them in the appropriate roles. Therefore it's easy to write an AU about them; and many people literally do rewrite movies with an RPS cast. If I write about Sam and Dean it feels more like I'm truly writing about them, because they're not real in the first place. If that makes sense.
I didn't like AUs, neither when I started in Popslash, nor in the SPN RPS, but both times I've grown to love them after a while. I like seeing the canon things an author keeps, the things they leave out, the side characters they create, mostly from other "real world" people. I guess it's also because I love stories where characters meet for the first time and fall in love, and there's only so many possibilities to write a canon story about that before it gets repetitive. On the other hand you can have the same thing happen in a hundred AUs and it'll be different every time. I love if they keep close to canon despite the AU theme! If someone writes about teacher!Lance having a best friend I want that to be Joey or Chris and not some random guy. Setting-wise there's not much I wouldn't read (I have much love for the NSnyc being fish AU). However, I think high school AUs are a bit overdone. I still read them, but I approach with caution.
(This part is new)
As much as I love AUs for the J², I don't really like those magical stories, you know, the one where a real witch is on set and curses someone, people get turned into animals etc. Just a few days ago there was one where Jensen gets turned into a dog, from an author whose stories I'd usually jump on, but I just couldn't read it. I used to love them in Popslash. Lance the llama, c'mon! I don't know why or what has changed. Maybe it's because I got into Popslash during what was still officially a hiatus back then, and the NSync boys were never as "real" to me. I didn't get to see as much real time interaction (except for Challenge) as I do with Jensen and Jared.