Personally, and it's the way I defined it in SoGA, Alternate Universe has to deviate in some major way from the canon world, not canon events. Like say, in Buffy fic, all human fic would be AU, or Willow, not Buffy being the Slayer would be AU. In say House fic, a story with vampires would be AU. Or if House was a lawyer not a doctor it would be AU.
The definition of anything that deviates from canon events at all is AU means EVERY SINGLE FIC out there is AU. Because if they aren't deviated from canon events then they're just plagiarizing the scripts. Every fanfic deviates to some extent from the show. It has to.
Exactly. by this comm's narrow definition, anything and everything that is not an aired episode is an AU, and that's kind of ridiculous. - there's no point in writing, if not to explore things that the series didn't in canon, or to flesh out things canon just barely touched on, for two examples. Otherwise, you should be a member of the Screenwriters Guild and getting paid for writing aired episodes.
Hm. I have a MUCH looser definition of AU. To me, AU for SGA means several finite things: 1. They never went back after the Ancients took over the city in The Return. That would be AU fic.
2. One of the characters never went to Atlantis at all. (ie. John may be a pilot, but he was never in Antarctica, never sat in the chair, never heard of Atlantis, but maybe Rodney worked for SGC; or vice versa) That's AU.
3. SGC and Atlantis just don't exist and the characters know each other a different way.
The rest-slash, het, gen, whatevs-as long as they were on Atlantis, is NOT an AU. If it has anything remotely to do with the show as it aired, with all the characters going, AND returning after The Return, then yeah, that's canon based fic.
But then, I'm fairly easy and like my fic pretty plain panties.
ETA: apparently, I like my typos as well. Sorry. Edited to fix. >:[
I don't write fanfiction for most of my shows to simply expand on what's there, I write it to EXPAND on what's NOT there.
You hit the nail on the head, and I think that's what most fic writers who love and respect the characters do.
To me, AU deviates drastically from who the characters are at a very basic level, as well as situating them in completely different circumstances not even hinted at on the show.
People can argue that John and Rodney as a couple is not canon, but not if they read "between the lines" and see the "subtext" that, by the way, was created by the actors. Hasn't Joe been quoted as saying Rodney was basically John's "girlfriend?" It's there for people who choose to see it.
The only fics that I consider AUs are the ones happening in a completely different universe (John is a baker and Rodney mathematician...).
We saw very little of actual relationships in both SG1 and SGA, we saw very little of the characters' feelings in fact... because that's not what these shows were about.
So yeah, for me a Sam/Jack fic where they get married (especially post-canon) is NOT an AU, because it's a possible follow up of canon. Same for John and Rodney getting together after Rodney breaks up with Keller, same as having Atlantis return to the Pegasus Galaxy and having Teyla create a new Athosian settlement...
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The definition of anything that deviates from canon events at all is AU means EVERY SINGLE FIC out there is AU. Because if they aren't deviated from canon events then they're just plagiarizing the scripts. Every fanfic deviates to some extent from the show. It has to.
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In the 10 years of SoGA though, I've seen many people try to argue that definition.
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1. They never went back after the Ancients took over the city in The Return. That would be AU fic.
2. One of the characters never went to Atlantis at all. (ie. John may be a pilot, but he was never in Antarctica, never sat in the chair, never heard of Atlantis, but maybe Rodney worked for SGC; or vice versa) That's AU.
3. SGC and Atlantis just don't exist and the characters know each other a different way.
The rest-slash, het, gen, whatevs-as long as they were on Atlantis, is NOT an AU. If it has anything remotely to do with the show as it aired, with all the characters going, AND returning after The Return, then yeah, that's canon based fic.
But then, I'm fairly easy and like my fic pretty plain panties.
ETA: apparently, I like my typos as well. Sorry. Edited to fix. >:[
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You hit the nail on the head, and I think that's what most fic writers who love and respect the characters do.
To me, AU deviates drastically from who the characters are at a very basic level, as well as situating them in completely different circumstances not even hinted at on the show.
People can argue that John and Rodney as a couple is not canon, but not if they read "between the lines" and see the "subtext" that, by the way, was created by the actors. Hasn't Joe been quoted as saying Rodney was basically John's "girlfriend?" It's there for people who choose to see it.
Reply
We saw very little of actual relationships in both SG1 and SGA, we saw very little of the characters' feelings in fact... because that's not what these shows were about.
So yeah, for me a Sam/Jack fic where they get married (especially post-canon) is NOT an AU, because it's a possible follow up of canon. Same for John and Rodney getting together after Rodney breaks up with Keller, same as having Atlantis return to the Pegasus Galaxy and having Teyla create a new Athosian settlement...
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