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Alternate Universe Fic: Difference between revisions
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The standards for how much is fundamental to the series vary by fandom and by time of writing, but the fic types that are usually considered AU are the following:
* '''Contextual Reassignment''' - When the fundamental aspect that is changed is the world itself. Overt changes in the [[Magic
** '''Familiar Contextual Reassignment:''' When the characters are taken out of their world and placed in a setting that is fairly familiar to the author and readers - the [[High School AU]] is especially common, putting characters who would not have met or even existed for years in close proximity during teenage years.
** '''Unfamiliar Contextual Reassignment''' - When the characters are taken out of their world and placed in a setting much more unfamiliar to the author or the reader - for example prison, a Nazi Death Camp, Normandy 1066, or possibly Mars.
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** '''[[Alternate History]]''' - Where the author takes one point of time, one event in the universe and changes the outcome of it radically, such as an important decision, or who won an important fight, and continues from that point. Sometimes called a ''Divergence Fic''.
** '''Character Facets''' - The author speculates on what would happen if a single facet of a character's enviroment was different about them, or may blatantly ignore a [[Word of God]] statement, for example, what if a character was blind, or had a little brother in the show right from the start.
* '''[[Continuation]]''' - There are also the [[Continuation]] fics written before the series has finished, which are [[Jossed|rendered AU]] when new episodes in canon contradict the events of the fic. This is more of an [[Alternate Continuity]], as the opening paragraph mentions, but tends to be considered AU too. Retrospectively, these fics become the [[What If]] variaton mentioned above, but are written from a different stance. (''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' ficdom was particularly prone to these until after the publication of ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and
Full-blown AU fic is tricky, as it should require a fair notion of the original series itself, making it harder to read for some casual fans. There's also the major danger of the [[Transplanted Character Fic]], because if you change the plot too much the story's not so much a [[Fanfic]] as an original story with familiar names. On the plus side, rookie fans who might suffer from [[Continuity Lock Out]] in the canon series because they only found it after it became established may be able to enjoy AU fics, particularly if they actually explain a lot of the universe and don't [[Fan Myopia|assume that you know all the important things already]]. Trying to follow ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' when you first start watching in its fifth season, with all the [[Character Development]] that's taken place up to that point, is a lot harder than cutting your teeth on an AU fic that starts out with the Scoobies in high school and doesn't require any advance knowledge of the setting.
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