(no subject)

[skygiants]

kiarasayre asked me for the Top Five AUs I Think Every Fandom Should Have.

Now, I will be honest here, I don't actually read all that many AUs. Nonetheless, I found when I searched my heart that there were several AUs that I firmly believed should exist for all fandoms!

1. The High School AU



Understand, for a long time, I thought I did not have particularly strong feelings about high school AUs. I did not realize how strong a hold they had taken on my fannish consciousness until I was skimming the AO3 archive one day and found not one - not two - but three separate Valdemar High School AUs (all of them, if I remember right, Vanyel/Tylendel.)

And it's not that I needed or wanted to read Valdemar High School AUs, particularly, but that sense of hilarious joy I felt at the sheer inevitability of fandom has brought me around. Yes, every fandom should have a high school AU. All serious interpersonal drama can INDEED be displaced onto the question of who asked whom to the prom. I EMBRACE THIS FACT FULLY, BRING IT ON.

2. Character [X] Is A Secret Petrelli



("On the one hand," thinks Ned the Piemaker, "this explains a lot. On the other hand: SO UNCOMFORTABLE.")

Okay, so you guys remember Heroes, that now-obscure show from a few years back that ended after one season at the height of its glory? Me too!

And remember how that show had a hilarious habit of revealing that various of its characters were . . . SECRET PETRELLIS? (Well, okay, only two that I'm actually thinking of, but Hiro was at least a sort of step-Petrelli and I'm sure we would have had more if nonexistent later seasons allowed.)

Anyway, it is a hilarious trend and one that I fully feel fandom should capitalize on more. In any situation where parentage is in doubt: SECRET PETRELLI. This has the handy advantage of allowing for a superpowers AU, as well as for HILARITY as otherwise-logical people have to cope that they have suddenly inherited the most ridiculous family in sff.

3. The Regency AU



Yes, this is basically just an excuse to dress everyone up in costume porn and add excessive Austenian ostentatiousness to their language. NO, I DO NOT CARE. (Actually there is no real reason that BSG should not just had everyone dressed this way anyway. It makes about as much sense as them all wearng 20th century business suits. Way not to commit to awesomeness, BSG!)

4. The AU Where Everyone Is Kate Beaton Characters



It is just a fact that everything is amazing when its characters become Kate Beaton characters. Les Miserables! Batman! For versions not written by La Beaton herself or terribly photoshopped by me, see Oooh Mister Chretomanci that just went up the other day and cemented my belief that you can never go wrong with a Kate Beaton homage. IT SHOULD EXIST FOR EVERYTHING.

5. Look around you.

Just . . . look around you.

Have you worked out what we're looking for?

For 9/10 of you at least, the answer is probably 'no,' but that is easy to fix!



(In this case, the answer is Maths. But if you enjoyed that there is MUCH MORE awaiting you.)

"Look Around You" is an amazing science show from the UK full of WELL-KNOWN TRUE SCIENCE FACTS, like, for example, the fact that germs come from Germany, every piano includes nineteen forbidden keys, and the largest number is forty-five billion. (Scientists suspect, though, that there may be even LARGER numbers! Like . . . forty-five billion and one????)

And, I mean, I dunno, I just happen to believe in my heart that every fandom could use an AU set in a universe where people polish their iron every Sunday, scientists regularly conduct earnest experiments to show that sulfur and champagne mixed together gives you LASER VISION and the question "What are birds?" can only be answered with "We just don't know."

You guys should tell me your favorite kind of AU! . . . you do not need to commit to terrible Photoshop to do so.

Comments

[ashen_key]

I. Am. Trying to picture these AUs. Naturally, with Avatar, because that's where my fannish brain is going.

I.

Um.

*dies laughing*

[skygiants]

PROOF POSITIVE OF MY THESIS. >:D >:D >:D

[ashen_key]

INDEED! Oh, god, the high school AU would. Just. Oh man.

Sadly the Austen one would be too racially charged, given, uh, Trudy's Hispanic. And what WOULD you do with the Na'vi.

But.

Oh, man. High school. Secret super-powers!

[newredshoes]

DAEMON AU.

Also, clearly WWII AU! Uh.

I am super predictable.

Also, genderswaps, ageswaps and all the historical periods you can think of. Also, West Wing/We run the government! AUs.

[newredshoes]

(By the way, Kate Beaton AU = BRILLIANCE. As is Lee Pace's face!)

[ashen_key]

SECONDING DAEMON AU!

And genderswap.

[skygiants]

Hahaha, I thought about listing daemon AU! And then I was like "UNNECESSARY, Esther will totally list it for me."

The other one I wanted to put and didn't: REVOLUTION AU. Which revolution? I DON'T KNOW. ALL OF THEM.

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

No, no, wait wait. HIRO WAS A PETRELLI??????

[skygiants]

(I had an EVEN BETTER horrified face, but it was too small to fit properly into the photoshop. I will forever mourn what could have been.)

[newredshoes]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

♥

[skygiants]

Well, he was never actually confirmed to be one . . . but on the other hand, we DO know that his dad had sex with Angela, and we never saw his mom! IN MY BOOK, THAT COUNTS.

[moonyazu9.livejournal.com]

OMG "Look Around You"!!!!! Love it!

I'm not a huge fan of AUs, but I do like when you take the traditional characters from a fandom and just put them in modern time. So I guess High School AU is alright by me.

[batyatoon]

Every fandom needs a DARK MIRROR UNIVERSE AU!



... maybe that's just me.

[skygiants]

I'm often not a huge fan of modernizations, but there is something just so classically hilarious about the High School AU! (Also, I mean, She's The Man! Ten Things I Hate About You! IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR SHAKESPEARE, man.)

[skygiants]

As we have previously discussed, my opinion is that that is just you being a horrible person. *giggling* At least when it comes to things that are already THEIR OWN Dark Mirror Universe AU!

. . . here is where I need and don't have a Drosselmeyer icon.

[skygiants]

Hey, it probably wouldn't be that much more problematic than Avatar itself . . . .


You know, actually, I'm pretty sure Jane Austen With Aliens is about the only mashup they haven't done yet. MAYBE IT'S DUE.

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

Although most fandom AUs are kind of hit or miss for me, one of my most beloved fandoms, X-Men: Evolution, is essentially the Canon High School AU That Works.

Speaking of which, I have always wanted to try the Mutant Powers AU, which is... pretty much what it says on the tin. Take an established fictional universe and give a certain percentage of the population X-Men-style super-powers. Extra bonus points if you integrate the issues of anti-mutant prejudice and so forth.

I've always wanted to try it with Death Note.

(Obviously, one must choose one's focus fandom carefully. This doesn't really work with high-magic fantasy worlds where some people can already light fires with their minds and so forth.)

[ashen_key]

*snorts* Well, at least in the movie at they are at least non!native americans. Which reminds me, in my Inception!AU I started, I made Neytiri Egyptian (it. made sense at the time - Neytiri, Nefertiri, and in the dreamscape she can do whatever she wants. Um).

...Jane Austen With Aliens would be HILARIOUS.

[skygiants]

I totally love it best when canons do their own high school AUs! It is like a secret fandom injoke FOR THE WORLD.

(Yeah, one sort of has to take it as a given that these AUs only work for places where it's not already the case. Like, you can't really do a high school AU of Utena . . .)

[vivien]

I never saw the appeal of high school AUs... until I was devoured by them.

Now I think they are peachy damn keen. The Valdemar ones sound heee-larious.

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

Oh, if you gave me time, I could think of all kinds of weird AU ideas involving Utena.

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA PRINCESS TUTU/KATE BEATON. I HAVE NO MORE NEED OF LIFE; IT CANNOT GET BETTER THAN THIS. My love of wacky AUs cannot be measured by mortal man, I tell you what. (Actually, my favorite manga--Wild Adapter--has a canonical high school AU, in that the main characters originally appeared as high schoolers in a completely different setting until the creator decided to reuse them in a more serious story. In my head, that is an actual alternate universe, and no one can tell me different.)

And I remember the joys of Secret Petrellis! As I recall there was actually a comm about it called whackapetrelli or something, it will never stop amusing me. There might even have been one with Ned, or maybe I am just making things up, I don't know. I have vague memories of such a thing.

Also: Pokemon AUs. THE BEST AUS OF ALL. Can you imagine Tenma with a Chansey? I can imagine Tenma with a Chansey. In fact--

...give me a bit, I'm about to commit heresy with Photoshop.

[skygiants]

I love their existence so! Tylendel got KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL and he and Vanyel will NEVER SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN, it is everything a high school AU should be.

[skygiants]

(Hahahaha I remembered hearing you talk about it, and EVEN THOUGH I don't know anything about Wild Adapter, it nonetheless filled me with joy to learn about the canonical high school AU!)

It is a joy that will never leave me, even though my days of being a proper Heroes fan are long over. I would be so unsurprised if there really was one with Ned - I mean, it's just too perfect! Ned keeps acquiring surpries family members, the Petrellis keep acquiring surpries family members, QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRATUM.

. . . .

You can't see me, but I'm making SHINY EYES OF DELIGHT AND HILARITY at the screen right now. *______*

[blacksheep91.livejournal.com]

I'd have to select High School AU, if only because one of my favorite fanfic series in progress is a very interesting one. And you can't beat Gurren Lagann's cannon OVA AU.