Talk:Alternative universe (fan fiction)

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While I understand wanting the section regarding controversies to be properly cited, but the fact there are no citations does not mean said section should be removed. Instead, proper citations should have been found. Even more problematic was the fact part of the section did contain proper citations, but even that part got deleted. Add to this, the common mistake noted is considered common knowledge among those of us who critique fanfiction, but also common sense among writers. There are writers out there who misuse the term AU to include their stories which they don't make an effort to "explore the possibilities" with those which do in an attempt to deflect legit criticism regarding believably and plausibility. That section actually helps prevent such misuse, but every year or two that section gets deleted and put back. And yes, there are plenty of articles that can be cited for that section out there. I'd put them in, but there is a reason I am not an user. I've no clue how to edit the wiki. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.180.49.78 (talk) 04:48, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How about a little something on 'Divergence Fics' -- i.e., canon happens exactly up to a specific point, and changes. Melodia Chaconne 14:50, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Haven't seen the term used, but I recall a while back when I was trying to start a fiction archive and I did in fact differentiate between what you call "divergence fics" and that "completely alternate universe" fics, though I used the terms "alternate timeline or event" (ATE) and "alternate world" (AW), respectively. I have not seen "divergence fic" used much, though I can definitely see the use of such a term. Where did you see it used? Runa27 21:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stories written when the author was unhappy with the direction taken by the original source. This seemed to me to be pretty much identical to the Alternate Timelines section, and just an excuse to advertise another story.

I added Unfamiliar Contextual Reassignment. Not so much that it's common, but I thought maybe it would inspire other people to move away from High School Fics. Also, I felt that prison isn't a familiar setting for most people, and also, if you moved the cast of Naruto into New York and yet you'd never been there it wouldn't be a familiar setting. Unlike the 1066 Normandy thing, which is unfamiliar for anybody and pretty random. Harley Quinn hyenaholic 13:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I just did a major reorg of this; moved a lot of information around, collected the types together, found a pile of citations, marked where i think more citations are needed. I wikified the reference section (there were ref tags, but they weren't doing anything because there was no ref section set up).

The article is weak on the section on 'Changing Canon', IMHO. Other examples and discussion of methods in which AU authors change canon would be welcome.

Also, because I am NOT a fanfic reader or writer I am unfamiliar with the genre (I am an SF reader and writer, but I found the page by looking for 'this page needs help' requests). AU Controversies needs citations of a good Mary Sue story and of an 'alt-characters in beloved story' story.

I think it might be a good idea to just ditch the AU in Original Fiction, or instead, to concentrate on things where Original Fiction has incorporated AU, such as the creators of lonelygirl15 liking the alternative story thread a fan came up with so much they wrote it into continuity. Also, the use of some of the things that were originally fanfic AU oriented now being used in mainstream works (notably, Joss Whedon's forthcoming 'Buffy: Season 8' graphic novel series).Thespian 09:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is worth adding that this specific type of AU is known as Jossed fiction or having been Jossed, in most fan fiction communities. Originally it only referred to the Buffy fandom, but now seems to be an accepted generic term. ^{[1] [2]} TadPlume (talk) 19:13, 18 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, fixed a problem of repetition in the lead and substantially modified the third paragraph so as to make it more comprehensible, only problem is that this 3rd para. seems to me to be WP:OR unless someone can source some stuff to back these claims up? Captain Screebo (talk) 21:26, 1 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am worried that this article has some tone, format and quality issues. I just removed a bad self-reference that could have been somewhat promotional. Raymie (t • c) 00:15, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have quality references for this, but I'd always operated under the assumption that AU and AR actually meant different things. Specifically, "AR" is when some details of Canon are different, but it takes place in the same Canon 'universe'. To use the Harry Potter universe as an example, if Harry Potter's parents had lived, or if Snape had been his father, or if Harry had been sorted into Slytherin, that would be "AR". An alternate reality within Canon.

"AU", alternate universe, is where parts of Canon were picked up and planted somewhere completely different. Such as, using HP again, if Potter had been born a Squib in California and never went to Hogwarts, or if Snape were a nobleman in Regency England.

Not citeable, but possibly educational, are the links below:

http://gatefic.com/faqs/3-awards-faqs/20-au-vs-ar http://fandom-grammar.livejournal.com/59739.html

154.20.234.155 (talk) 09:50, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've rarely seen this concept referred to as Alternative universe, and not by fans; Alternate universe is far more common. Is there a citation for this usage, or can we move the page? --Duesouthfan (talk) 03:00, 3 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

• Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the title of this page. "Alternate universe" is definitely the more common phrasing in my experience; I've only ever seen "alternative universe" used once in a fandom/fanfiction context, other than the title of this page of course, and I assumed it was just a typo or mis-wording of some sort rather than the way some people actually say it. Also, if you search for "alternative universe" on Google the only results on the first page that actually uses that phrasing are this very Wikipedia article and an astrology/tarot/etc. page which seems to have titled its page that way as a sort of pun... the rest are all results for the two more common terms "alternate universe" and "parallel universe." FnrrfYgmSchnish (talk) 05:06, 28 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
• I agree with this. I don't know how Usurping a Page is handled but I think it should be done. Alternative implies more something like "Alternative Rock", or a universe where everyone is "alt". "Alternate Universe" should most definitely be used. Flowers4machines (talk) 21:44, 20 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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I have removed the excessive non-notable and unsourced examples from the page.★Trekker (talk) 06:47, 12 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

أعتقد أننا بعضنا قبل أن يولد كانت لديه روئية مشوشة عن الكون كونه محاط بالسواد ونقاط بيضاء كلنجوم يجري دون هدف أو لربما كان مجرد خيالي لكني اتصور أنه شيئ فعلي قد حدث لي خلال مدة من الزمن قد تكون بعيدة جدا ولدي اعتقاد كبير أنها لربما تكون حقيقية 🤕🤯لا يمكنني قول المزيد لانها تسبب الم الراس ......................كلاوات 185.117.8.234 (talk) 17:23, 13 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]