Dear General-You Fanthing,

So, you're writing Alternate Universe fiction? That's fine, but could you please explain why it is that your fic is set in the exact same location as the series was? Why does it contain the exact same characters and why are they doing the exact same things? Why in the Hell have you labeled it AU except for - oh, I see. The central character's really OOC and you've chosen to write out his love interest entirely and replace her with your own speshullyspeshul!OC. I'm with you now. Wish I wasn't, but I'm with you.

Fanbrat, since when did an AU fic come to mean a fic which is set in the canon world, using canon locations and a cast of canon characters taking their canon roles, only with the addition of, say, a brazen Mary Sue and-stroke-or the removal of various canon characters or plot elements you personally didn't happen to like much?

And when did an AU come to mean a fic which had canon settings right the way down the line, but which contained obvious OOC behavior from one or more of the regulars which you simply didn't feel like taking the time to going back to correct?

Since when, in fact, did saying 'it's an AU' become an excuse for failing to try?

"This story is AU. Meaning, I get to choose what happens disregarding all things in the series (but I'm not straying far)... this is an AU story so if the characters seem OOC I'm sorry... it’s an AU fic, it’s bound to happen at times."

You see?

No matter what the problem with a ficcer's story is, any and all queries and complaints can be waved away simply by typing the letters A and U. The AU tag becomes the perfect excuse for everything. It deflects all criticism before it can start, justifies the most egregious slips and screw-ups - even turning aggressive young males into weepy wet rags so they can become 'proper' ukes, or scene-stealing Sues and their Auras of Smooth™ become perfectly logical.

It's an AU! There's absolutely nothing about a ficcer's inability to keep the characters in-character and the plot even remotely resembling that of the series she's supposed to be writing about that can't be explained away by pointing out that appearances be damned, she's working outside canon here so where do we get off saying she's raping it by suggesting her Sue killed the main villain and not the guy the story used to be about before she got her hands on it? Criticism about anything short of Text Blocks Of Doom and punctuation that would shame a fourth-grader can be ignored out of hand because get this, it's an AU. My world, my rules, so STFU.

Cast OOC? It's okay, it's an AU. Of course they'll be OOC from time to time. Mary Sue taking over? It's okay, it's an AU. It doesn't matter if the fic imports a new central character and dotes on her to the extent that the regulars are reduced to set dressing. The canon's been raped? It's okay, it's an AU. The canon doesn't matter in the slightest. Never mind that, AU tag aside, that's the canon universe we've got there, so it wouldn't seem all that unreasonable to ask for something approaching canon behavior.

All of which strikes me as very unfair for the people who actually get bitten with the worldbuilding bug.

Fanbrats, this is pathetic. The AU tag does not excuse everything.

You're not even writing an AU in the truest sense of the word. Can't we leave that tag for the people who genuinely are working outside the canon, who've created worlds of their own and are working twice as hard to keep the cast recognizable in spite of the fact they're now living in Saxony in the eighteenth century and there are monsters attacking? They need that tag, and they'd probably appreciate not sharing it with stories which are AUs only because their authors can't keep a characterization straight to save their lives.

AU means Alternate Universe. It does not mean the exact same universe but without that story arc I didn't like, and-stroke-or the canonically funny and friendly female lead acting like a conniving bitch, and-stroke-or some speshullyspeshul!OC stealing the hero's lines and saving the day, and-stroke-or any or all the cast suddenly acting like their own canon-raped clones.

Now, would it really be asking too much for us to keep it that way?

No love at all,
laila. And her demanding AU plotbunny.

Hey, why do I keep posting to fanficrants?