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My view on AUs
May. 3rd, 2012 02:53 pmI do not like AUs.
I especially do not like AUs where the sole purpose of the AU is to permit a world in which the author's chosen non-canon couple is capable of existing. If you have to alter the very world in which a series exists for your couple to have a shot, then you're doing it wrong.
If a series has had its own OVA of a "high school" alternate universe, and you're still writing high school alternate universes of your own, you're doing it wrong.
That's not to say all AUs are inherently bad. When they are a retelling of the story with a different perspective and different results, the thing can be fabulous. Consider the series of Revolutionary Girl Utena and the Utena movie. Same story, same characters, same basic plot, radically different outcome. Or the difference between FMA and FMA Brotherhood.
It has to be done by a skilled author to work, and it still has to make sense within the logic of the universe the series was originally created in.
I especially do not like AUs where the sole purpose of the AU is to permit a world in which the author's chosen non-canon couple is capable of existing. If you have to alter the very world in which a series exists for your couple to have a shot, then you're doing it wrong.
If a series has had its own OVA of a "high school" alternate universe, and you're still writing high school alternate universes of your own, you're doing it wrong.
That's not to say all AUs are inherently bad. When they are a retelling of the story with a different perspective and different results, the thing can be fabulous. Consider the series of Revolutionary Girl Utena and the Utena movie. Same story, same characters, same basic plot, radically different outcome. Or the difference between FMA and FMA Brotherhood.
It has to be done by a skilled author to work, and it still has to make sense within the logic of the universe the series was originally created in.
