Every Me Loves Every You.

[redbrunja]

"The point of fics set in alternate universes are to show that no matter what setting or circumstance, these two people will always find each other. I will find you. Every me loves every you."

I came across this great quote on tumblr and it reminded me of that fantastic scene between Derek and Jesse in TSCC, where they realize that they came from different futures where they were both in a relationship with slightly different versions of the other person, where Derek says basically the above. To me, I felt like it was clear he wasn't telling the literal truth, but what he wanted to be true (that in all possible futures, they were with each other) which is just so fucking romantic.

And thinking about AUs reminded me of a conversation I had with backtothesea where I was talking about how the thing that really frustrated me with AUs, is when people didn't bother to translate pivotal characterization details into the new universe and how often it would be so. easy. My example was Artemis Crock, and how if her father wasn't a bad dude in whatever new universe we're in, it pings me the wrong way. Same with Natasha Romanoff. A childhood trained/used as a weapon is a requirement, imho.

How picky I am about this stuff is why I'm not a big AU person, really.

Comments

[wolfgenes.livejournal.com]

(casually sighs because the quote is so beautiful.)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

It's such a beautiful quote.

[wolfgenes.livejournal.com]

what you wrote made me think about my likes for AUs, too. i guess we have a pretty similar idea about it. except, like, i have this original which is half-written, and one of the main reasons why i want to publish it is so i can write a side thing in which the main events happen as well, but all the main girls are ~~supernatural beings~ because why the fuck not.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Hee! That sounds fun!

[deathmallow.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I love dabbling in AU land, but if a lot of the character influences and/or themes aren't present, no dice. I easily can write a massive UA (universe alteration) of all the ripple effects of Haymitch being in the Second Quarter Quell because that's just altering an in-universe event.

But by the same token I can write a crossover/AU of THG/Batman, because "The Dark Knight Rises" really made me say Haymitch is pretty much a drunk Bruce Wayne--rich but totally isolated, wrapped up in his deep grief and guilt to the point where his impulse to help is stifled, a story with a tyrannical dictatorship, social inequality, and corruption, etc. There's a lot of common threads there.

Then you have people who just write Peeta as an asshole juvenile delinquent sent to Amish country, and Katniss as "Amish", and it's like...not only are they extremely OOC and the depiction of Amish culture is ridiculous, none of the base char influences are there at all. Or they'll write them as baristas. Or people who meet in a spin class. It's just like..JFC. They're writing the characters as tropes ("perfect" blond boy falls madly in love with reluctant dark haired girl) rather than as Katniss and Peeta. The move to OOC, often smut-based AUs with nothing in common with the source material is a big reason I'm getting away from the supposed "Hunger Games" fandom.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Then you have people who just write Peeta as an asshole juvenile delinquent sent to Amish country, and Katniss as "Amish", and it's like...not only are they extremely OOC and the depiction of Amish culture is ridiculous, none of the base char influences are there at all.

Everything about this hurts my soul.

[deathmallow.livejournal.com]

And yet this is considered one of the "best" and "classic" THG fics. Barf.

[sharkflip.livejournal.com]

This is a placeholder comment so that I can come back and write about my feels about AUs, because I think you nailed a big part of why I enjoy writing them and reading them when they're well done.

But right now I'm hungover and unable to write more than "let me tell you about my Zutara."

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you had a better Sunday night than I did.

Zutara>everything else ever.

[sharkflip.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm pretty sure my favorite-but-worn-out bra is on a moose trophy at The Five Point...

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I actually sort of disagree with that statement? When I first read it, I thought it was going to say the opposite, kind of like that quote about "what's the point about making futuristic sci-fi worlds that look exactly like our own?" I love the thought of my OTP meeting up in all kinds of universes, but the idea that they would always be together kind of bugs me, especially especially ESPECIALLY i they aren't "actually" the same people, e.g. if they'e in a dream world this wouldn't bug me. Same goes for the Terminator verse, and when watching LOST S6 I was pushing hard for Sawyer/Kate because they were the same people. But if it's truly an alternate universe - if you threw Lizzie and Darcy into the Old West, for example - I would want to see independent character development and plot set up before I'd accept that they'd just "end up" together. I'd even be interested in AUs where they didn't end up together, as much as I love the characters together, because it might tell us something more about why they do end up together in "our" universe. I guess the quote also smacks of the soulmate syndrome a bit, which I just cannot stomach, so I've got a bias anyway there.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

You make some really great points. Now I kind of want to read/write a 5 times fic for some of my OTPs, which is about ways/times they DIDN’T get together, because I think that would be pretty revealing. And honestly, most of my ships are dynamic enough that there are reasons why they wouldn’t work.