Fandom Snowflake Challenge #9: "Favorite Trope/Theme/Motif/Cliche/Whatever"

[switchbladeeyes]

From snowflake_challenge:

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

I love me a canon divergent alternate universe (AU) fic. I'm not big on AUs where the setting changes (though, like anything else, there are exceptions), but I love it when a story tweaks canon and then spins off the story from there. It's such an interesting way to explore the characters and their thoughts and feelings as things unfold differently than they did in canon.

I'm particularly fond of the "# things that never happened" format (I think it's usually five things, but the number of things doesn't really matter), probably because it just gives me more fic to read in one little bundle.

I'm sure how popular that format is these days (maybe it varies across fandoms), but it had a heyday in the early to mid-2000s, a peak fannish time for me.

I've written a couple canon divergent AUs in the past couple of years for "Forever Knight" (FK) fandom, both relating to the series finale "Last Knight" (because of course they do; I think every FK fan fic writer has probably dealt with that absolute gut punch of a series finale in their own way). Specifically:

Five Ways "Last Knight" Didn't End. Exactly what it says. Five ficlets set during "Last Knight" that tweak events to lead to different outcomes.

Dust to Dust. Completely sidesteps "Last Knight" and replaces it with this instead, picking up right after the penultimate episode, "Ashes to Ashes."

I certainly hope to write more canon divergent AUs because I love them. Because my current fannish writing obsession is "Grantchester," I have a WIP for "things that never happened on a weekend in Brighton" that explores what might have happened if poor, sweet, confused, closeted, and scared Leonard Finch hadn't turned down Daniel Marlowe's invitation to go to the seaside town of Brighton (a queer hot spot) during season 2.

In another fandom, Oz, I have a canon divergent AU rec that, in my mind at least, is legendary in the fandom:

My Wife and My Dead Wife. A completely AU season 3 (written before season 3 aired) that incisively and brutally tackles the whole Thing (with a capital T for sure) with Vern Schillinger, Tobias Beecher, and Chris Keller. (If you're unfamiliar with Oz, be forewarned, nothing in Oz is for the faint of heart.)

Have you ever written a canon divergent AU to tweak a piece of canon and replace it with what might have happened instead?

Comments

[sarajayechan]

YES I love canon divergent AUs so much. <3 Admittedly a lot of mine stem from me wanting favorite dead characters to live, but there's always a gold mine to explore in how things would change.

When I was in the Avatar fandom I was also into "what if Zuko found Aang" or "what if he didn't choose Azula in Ba Sing Se" or "what if Mai went with him in the beginning or when he finally did his Heel Face Turn in S3".

[switchbladeeyes]

Admittedly a lot of mine stem from me wanting favorite dead characters to live

Oh yeah, letting the characters live is a big one for me too.

[brumeier]

Canon divergent AUs were my doorway to full AUs. They're also excellent for fix-it fics when canon really lets you down. Which sounds like what happened with Forever Knight. A bad ending to a series is the worst!

Thanks for sharing your fics and your rec!

[yarnofariadne]

I love it when a story tweaks canon and then spins off the story from there. It's such an interesting way to explore the characters and their thoughts and feelings as things unfold differently than they did in canon.
Yes, I love this too!

[thefruitbat]

Yes, I did. I think canon divergent AU is a "must" for the KF fandom, because it ends the way it ends. I'm also not adverse to the occasional "different setting" AU, depending on the setting.

Some time ago I, read a Star Trek Deep Space 9 AU, where the crew was running a pizza place. It was called "Deep Dish 9" or something like that. What I really don't care for much are the 821642359 version of coffee shop AU or "main character gets bullied in high school" AU.

[switchbladeeyes]

I feel like canon divergence is how many of us FK fans cope lol

[dustbunny105]

I'm particularly fond of the "# things that never happened" format (I think it's usually five things, but the number of things doesn't really matter), probably because it just gives me more fic to read in one little bundle.

Whoa, I completely forgot about this trope. Which is wild to me because I feel like it used to be everywhere-- and for good reason, what with all the potential. The five things/five things plus one format deserves a renaissance.

[silveradept]

Canon divergence is a lot of fun to work with, especially when it lets you have a good go at something in the canon itself that you flatly disagree with and then let it all spin out from there about what changes when that thing goes a different way. I've run more than a few of those out in my works, often for that specific reason of throwing spite in the face of a canon that did the fans dirty.