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Saturday, October 12th, 2013 11:26 pm
"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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.
Monday, October 21st, 2013 02:37 pm (UTC)
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.
Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 07:17 am (UTC)
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.