An interesting point I'll have to look into

[estirose]

Someone dinged me, in a PM, for getting the info about Kivat and the Kiva armor wrong in "Boxed In". I'm a bit annoyed, because said fic is not only a AU (alternate universe), but was written very early on.

But this leads to a couple of interesting questions, especially regarding AUs.

1. How closely does a AU need to stick to canon facts? How much can it disregard? If canon gets expanded during/after the story is written, does the world one builds need to be adjusted? By how much?

2. When writing fics and posting them, does one need to state that one used or didn't use certain resources, like fandom ones? Do the readers have the right to complain if the work doesn't use popular fandom resources? And what if the author is of a semi-scholarly bent and prefers not to be writing based on something she/he can't trace back to a source?

3. If an author is revising a previously written/posted work for a series that's still airing, are they obligated to take into consideration canon that's come in since they wrote the story? If they're adding scenes? Or does the reader need to accept that the author wrote it a while ago, and things don't always match canon?


There are some things that came about after I started worldbuilding/writing. For example, yes, Nago had been introduced by episode 4, but he didn't fit in with the hunter group that's part of the story. Internally, I've got him as an extremist who once dated Megumi.

And there's a scene in the most recent that kills part of the "patterning" idea in the written storyline, that makes my fic definitely not canon. Admittedly, if I altered the fic, it would just change some description, but I'm lothe to, because that's how I visualize the fandiri of that world. (That comes back to the question of how much adjusting you need if your world works but violates canon/sources.)

Comments

[madkrazyghetto.livejournal.com]

I, out of an intense paranoia, always state if the fic was written 1, before certain elements of canon were established, or 2, if I'm working from a certain canon AU canon (as in, a canonical alternate universe, thank you, Stargate), or from a previously-established fic canon from the creation of 1 (as in, Sky's father in PRSPD).

I think in AUs, the most important thing is characterization, making sure that the essences of the characters are still in tact even if suddenly they're all circus clowns (of course, this is a bit of a bendy issue in the case of alternate universes stemmed from a different point in a canonical timeline, if that makes sense?). If you've established a fic canon that is later thrown out of whack by evolving source canon, you're pretty much allowed to play around with whatever works for the story. Obviously, if X from source canon happens later, and could not exist in fic canon because of Y, then X is disregarded altogether, as well as anything that happened because of X. Does that make sense? That made sense in my head.

I think my main point here was do whatever you want and throw up a disclaimer if you feel it's necessary (while I'm always obsessively paranoid that someone will be like "DUDE THAT IS WRONG," it has never actually happened to me). Just make sure it has a purpose, y'know?

[estirose.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense to me.

It's unfortunate that I had a person who didn't read the note that said when the story was written. But then again, I think a few people failed to read the author's note in part 1.

[shymagical.livejournal.com]

Right. The one thing you should always keep in an AU is the important parts of what makes the character unique. I mean, if you change them completely, then it's not really attached to the show. Unless you're just borrowing their faces for illustration, it's not really related to the original character.

Now, keeping that in mind. It's all right to change a little. A person's personality comes from their life experiences and choices. If, in the AU, they have different experiences, then it's understandable they wouldn't be exactly like their canon counterpart. It's like asking "If this character had never accidentally destroyed his home town, would he be..?" This can lead to a lot of things ^.^ It's just important to keep what makes them "them" Like they're honorable, fear cats or are actually kinder than they appear.

[cmar-wingnut.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can make hard and fast rules in the sense of your questions. The essentials (IMO) are to work from a unifying concept of what's different in the AU, something that can be explained to the reader in a sentence or two, rather than random "I don't like character X so I left him out" kind of things.

As for later canon Jossing you - IMO it's not necessary to go back and revise, just add an author's note explaining the situation. (Some people won't read said note, just as some people won't read ANY notes - not much you can do about that.)

To canon or not to canon...

[angel-negra.livejournal.com]

1. AUs are just that. Alternate Universes/Alternate Realities. The only thing they truly need to keep true to is the characterizations. Otoya will always love chasing women, Wataru will always be shy, etc. Even then, if you can explain how they got from that to the completely different characterization you have for them in the AU, it still works.

Now, how true AUs have to be to canon depends on the AU. If we're talking one like Boxed In, yes, I'd expect it to be true to the canon as you knew it while writing. It's like any Buffy fic written pre-Dawn. Up until then, Buffy was an only child.

2. Yes, it's best to state when an author is going by a specific source, (for example, only what's seen on screen.) though I think it's more for when you're reposting and canon has since been changed. Yes, the reader has the right to complain. That doesn't mean the author has to listen to them.

And sure, if you don't want to use sources that either may not be legit or that you don't have access to, you don't have to.

3. The reader just has to suck it up. This is an airing show, until the season's over, anyone's what ifs are subject to being knocked out of canon.