memery!

[vaznetti]

As seen on yahtzee63's lj --

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write AND give me another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc.). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would AU in that era.

It looks like fun, and I am here all afternoon -- meme me!

Comments

[vaznetti]

Well, the obvious choice would be to pull a reverse-Syme, with Octavian as a would-be Mussolini in the years just after the war.

But instead, let's say: France. Caesar as the marechal, Octavian still his grand-nephew, taken on as part of his staff at 18. Vorenus and Pullo are, as before, soldiers, and as before, Vorenus has been promoted up through the ranks due to the loss of too many officers. (Was this an issue in France as it was in England? I am too lazy to explain to my husband why I would want to know.) Octavian, I think, is assigned to Vorenus -- on the one hand he looks down on Vorenus, because the Octavians are provincial aristocracy and Vorenus comes from a fairly low bourgeois family. But also, at the academy, Octavian had become devoted to socialism -- call it adolescent rebelion! -- so he bonds much more easily with Pullo. (Pullo, of course, could care less about politics -- all he wants is to kill some more Germans and go home with all his limbs intact -- but Vorenus is vehemently anti-communist.)

The plot, I think, revolves around the plans for peace, rather than the war itself -- what kind of country will France become? Will there be a revolution there, as well? Caesar, I think, is a conservative, and it's possible that (if he survives the war) he might end up opposed to his firebrand grand-nephew.