Meta Month, Day 28: More thoughts on AUs

[mark_asphodel]

This is kind of a follow-up to some musings on AUs over at amielleon’s journal (locked post).  AUs are great fun, after all... and greatly frustrating.  To keep it simple, we'll just look at AU adaptations of individual games or gameverses, not mash-ups/crossovers.

 

Ammie was talking about world-transposing AUs-- the different kinds and the pitfalls thereof.  On the other hand, how about AUs that instead extract a key theme or concept from the canon and run with that, tailoring everything to fit the theme?  I guess this sort of AU might run into the “fridge magnet poetry” kind of world-transposition AU that Ammie identified, except the amount of game material that gets shaved away in the course of the adaptation makes it something other than world transposition, IMO.

For example, take my failed NaNo project from last year:  the FE3/12 War of Heroes storyline recast as a modern day corporate takeover drama, focusing on the themes of loyalty and betrayal, and cutting all the religious elements out entirely.  No magic.  No dragons.  No endgame with Gharnef and the captive women.  Just a straight-out political struggle for dominance, with no room for two winners.  It follows the plot, or at least the initial, surface plotline.  The bulk of the characters have their roles to play.  But without the spiritual dimension to Marth’s victory over Hardin (and Gharnef, Medeus, etc), the meaning of the whole piece shifts.  Hardin putting a revolver to his own temple in the CEO suite of ARC Industries sort of captures the idea of the Dark Emperor standing at the throne in his ruined palace, daring Marth to come and kill him... but not quite.

 

Or, you could take a facet of the spiritual aspect to the War of Heroes and run that.  Strip it down to that confrontation between Marth and Hardin, with Hardin as a hard-driving political reformer, and Marth as the charismatic preacher-boy (think Eli Sunday without the malice) who first bolsters and then frustrates Hardin's ambitions. You could set it in an early 20th century milieu of city bosses, Prohibition advocates, and radio... or a 1980s atmosphere of Wall Street, Iran-Contra, and televangelists.  Or Renaissance Florence.  Or 1750s England.  Or...  

A core component of FE3/12, the affection and trust and shared sense of purpose gone horribly wrong, would be there, and the “magic” might even be there too, in a way, but maybe some other things wouldn’t.  Like pilgrimages to the Ice Temple to retrieve sleeping princesses.  Or massive armies sacking entire countries.  Instead of a full-scale war, you would end up with a more intimate kind of struggle-- There Will Be Blood, with or without the bowling alley brawl as its denouement.

[Ten to one, the bulk of the readers would end up sympathizing with Hardin.  Especially if his actual wartime atrocities don’t end up so atrocious in translation.  Then again, often a single murder can alienate readers more than the wrecking of an entire nation.]

Or focus on something else and make that the core of the AU: the human plight of the Grust kiddies and the inner conflict of their supporters.  The “failed state” theme that surfaces again and again in the War of Shadows.  Or the deeper thread running under it all, the folly and corruptible nature of humanity-- which arguably gets as close as you can to the genuine core of the storyline (especially wrt FE12).  All of these are true to the source material.  None of these are the exact story we get in the games.  But why do we want that exact story when we already have the games (in some fashion)?

And you can do the same for any of the other games, too-- the “obsession” angle in FE8, or the “failed heroes” motif in FE4.  Grounding an AU in one aspect of a game and doing it successfully may well make for a better story than trying to transpose the entire game, lock-stock-and-barrel, and making a partial success of it.  And someone may squawk because you omitted their favorite character or prevented their OTP from happening, but hey-- there’s always another AU to write.  Right?  Write.

Comments

and to think this is the short version LAWL

[hooves.livejournal.com]

Anyway, maybe for other characters, loss isn't death of parents, but rather, divorce. Maybe even a really bitter one. Or they're taken away (Serra would be a good candidate for this imo) because they were deep into drugs or were abusive in some way (neglect?) or whatever.

But anyway, even more tiresome than the same-old-same-old transplantation of FE casts to a modern society is

1. everything staying the same, and I mean everything
2. failtastic transplantations that make NO SENSE.

Regarding #1, I mean Lyn's grandfather always being rich, him always having chased his daughter off because he refused to consent to marriage, him always being head of some kind of something important, Hector and Eliwood always being wealthy, and Prissy, too. That kind of thing. Of course, such things MAKE SENSE to us and we like to see familiar themes in our AUs most of the time, I reckon, but most of the time it's not done well or believably.

I still want to write that AU fic that follows Lyn's Story in a modern setting. BTW. But only because Mark and Lyn bumping into Kent and Sain in the grocery store with the carts blocking the aisle is just too great to ever forget. (IMO and I'm feeling egotistical atm.)

Regarding #2, I'm talking about high school AUs that don't explain a damn thing. Story takes place in Bern, so why the HELL are Hector and Eliwood there attending high school? Stuff like that. Xirysa and I discussed this on AIM I think it was last night.

I guess IMO it depends on what kind of story you're trying to tell. Are you trying to write a modern-day version of the game? Or are you trying to write something completely different while still keeping the characters intact? Because both of these are two very different things when you're sitting down looking at two completed stories. Both can be fun, but both require completely different forumulas to create.

Also, as an aside, though I enjoy writing AUs, I also find them extremely difficult. Having lived in a remote countryside area all my life and having never really been anywhere else, I find...writing believable AUs to be very challenging. It's extremely strange for me to have to write about people walking places. And I have never successfully pulled off a high school AU because large schools kind of freaked me out, and most people never attended a small school (which is all I've had experience with). So writing about ~omg leaving friends who are going to a different middle/high school~ is just really odd. I attended in the same building all my life! I can't relate or understand another way without extensive thought and constantly reminding myself about it.

As far as other AUs go (Prince!Soren, Erik/Lyn, What-if-Pelleas-read-that-contract, What if Ike had been too late to rescue Elincia? What if Valter had killed Seth and Eirika had escaped alone? WHAT IF ____________?) they require special attention to detail, as it goes against canon to change anything. But, just as in real life, we may be handed 10 different paths to choose, and there are always a few we struggle to pick between. The same can, of course, be said about game characters-- just because X happened doesn't mean Y or Z wasn't almost as plausible-- or just as plausible. For all we know, someone was eenie-meenie-miney-mo'ing to make a choice.

Re: and to think this is the short version LAWL

[hooves.livejournal.com]

Oh and while I'm thinking of it, I kind of feel when people pull personal experience into it (or knowledge via research), I find AUs more believable. A modern-day AU 'fic that doesn't have the characters doing normal everyday things (going out to eat, going bowling, watching football/tennis/soccer/basketball or being a fan of a specific team, et cetera, it really kills the immersion into the world the author is creating. It doesn't FEEL real.

I mean, I live in Ohio. When we see Michigan football M stuff we cringe or make mean comments or roll our eyes. And no matter where you are there are fast-food chains and malls and convenience stores and gas stations and libraries and local hangouts for the kids and stuff like that.

Of course, maybe your AU is a sci-fi one, or a medieval fantasy one, a western, or hell, a caveman one. <--now I want to try the last one ahaha I'm a terrible person

That's cool. But they had everyday normalities that people did. Maybe it was tea at 3:00 sharp, or dinner at 6. Maybe there's a famine and everyone's eating watery soups. I mean, maybe this is a 1970s AU and the kids go hang out at the park and the teenagers hang out at the junkyard doing dangerous stuff.

That's realistic. Those types of, idk, DETAILS make me feel like I'm reading something genuine, something that's more than just "Lol I'm putting FE8 characters into a modern day setting lololol". Because it takes more than just putting them there to make it work.

They have to fit.

Re: and to think this is the short version LAWL

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

When we see Michigan football M stuff we cringe or make mean comments or roll our eyes

Right back at ya, Buckeye.[*]

That's a very fine line to navigate, though. That 'ficlet about FE7 characters cheering on football teams was hilarious, but putting RL cultural points into 'fic can also read like... product placement. I often find it jarring, kind of like the moment in Please Save My Earth where the characters eat at a fake McDonald's. Why is Eliwood a Red Sox fan? It is because the author is a Red Sox fan? I don't want to read a thinly disguised version of the author. Why does Lyn like pepper jack cheese? Lyn would totally not eat pepper jack cheese! And so on.

I mean, maybe this is a 1970s AU and the kids go hang out at the park and the teenagers hang out at the junkyard doing dangerous stuff.

That sounds fun, actually.

* Kidding. Not a native Michigander and do not care.

Re: and to think this is the short version LAWL

[hooves.livejournal.com]

Lmao. :P

Yeah, I guess you're right. I tend to shy away from using myself as a model for AU fics because it's really obvious. But the more outgoing characters could easily be fans of a sport-- in fact, a huge percentage of people in the world root for some kind of sports team, if only half-heartedly.

/wearing an OSU sweatshirt/hoodie now.

Also holy shit pepperjack cheese. I haven't had that in forever. Do want. :( Your fault.

Re: and to think this is the short version LAWL

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I reckon, but most of the time it's not done well or believably.

I think this ties back into the core rule of writing as found in the Anne books-- writing about "rich people" and having it be totally phony. :/

Story takes place in Bern, so why the HELL are Hector and Eliwood there attending high school?

HAH.

I can't relate or understand another way without extensive thought and constantly reminding myself about it.

My high-school experience did not involve hanging with friends much at all. It was a magnet school, and we all lived far away from one another, and all went our separate ways after class. None of us got cars at sixteen. We had to work around schedules to arrange a lunch date or a mall date. None of us dated. We didn't do any underage drinking or partying. Some times we went to museums for fun.

So, basically, the typical concept of "high school" life is completely foreign to me. It's nearly as fantastic as princes and dragons, and about as believable.

Then again, I feel the same way about most portrayals of college life.

Re: and to think this is the short version LAWL

[hooves.livejournal.com]

Wow, so your high school life was a lot like mine, then. Nobody I knew except the dentist's daughter got a car at 16. Certainly not my friends. And we didn't just "hang out", it was all planned way in advance. Haha. But you know, whenever I try to write with that experience in mind, it feels likeeeeee I'm not writing something real. Or maybe it feels more like I AM writing something real-- my own life-- and THAT is the problem.

And well, I have no college experience so whenever I write it I just completely BS it.