Endings

[extrapenguin]

(But! The Guardian rewatchalong has yet to end. Episode 35, with time travel talk!)

Observation of the day: Other people seem to have a much higher tolerance for fairytale endings than I do; I find a lot of the more wish-fulfillment-y ones unrealistic and prefer stuff like "no matter what the rules are, you can live happily within them" to "if the author likes you, the rules will go out the window for your HEA". Perhaps primarily because the former is a thing that can happen while the latter is not applicable to reality.

(By "the rules go out the window", I mean stuff like e.g. a slash ship in a royalty arranged marriage AU in a world where there is no mpreg, no sexual nonexclusivity to create an heir with a concubine, and no stuff to handwave away the lack of biokid heirs, whether that be worldbuilding so that the monarchy is nonhereditary or simply a mention of there being a convenient nephew for them to adopt. There are lots and lots of other ways to go full fairytale in a fashion that I find unbelievable, but this scenario is perhaps the easiest to explain.)

Comments

[krait]

You are not alone. This is a big reason why I tend to be dissatisfied with AUS, because it seems like it's often more blatant in AU fics (and especially the further the AU concept gets from the canon's core concept).

I admit to having a couple of arranged-marriage slashfic WIPs tucked away on my hard drive, but there's always a background explanation built in! One is a concubinage situation rather than a marriage (royal gets a male concubine; he later marries and produces an heir, though he's in love with the concubine). Another features a m/m couple who already have an heir, whether from a previous marriage or by officially acknowledging an heir from a lateral line. A third involves a fourth son being married off to an ennobled victorious general, which is a deliberate attempt (on the part of the general's boss) to prevent him establishing a bloodline and amassing political power.

The 'rules out the window because I say so' approach just doesn't work for me as a reader or as an author! I have to know why the characters believe it can work. :D

[extrapenguin]

This is a big reason why I tend to be dissatisfied with AUS, because it seems like it's often more blatant in AU fics (and especially the further the AU concept gets from the canon's core concept).
Combining it with some other thoughts I've had, I think it's because it's a failure of worldbuilding, and people who're interested in doing the worldbuilding are more likely to not go setting change AU? (At least, i've heard several people say that they find canon worldbuilding intimidating and thus write a modern AU of some stripe.)

I admit to having a couple of arranged-marriage slashfic WIPs tucked away on my hard drive, but there's always a background explanation built in!
If there's an explanation, no matter how brief, then it's fine! As i said, I just need the briefest of handwaves. And the one with the general sounds intriguing.

I have to know why the characters believe it can work. :D
This, so much.

[krait]

Honestly, I think a lot of people who do the big AUs (like, big changes from canon) do so because the AU itself is a bit of a kink? An id thing? I don't quite know what to call it, but basically, I think the AU is the end goal rather than the set dressing. So worldbuilding isn't so much at the forefront of their minds when making the changes; Bob is a barista because it's not a coffee-shop AU if he's not, and the point is to make a coffee-shop AU rather than to realistically translate Bob's canonical career path/ambitions into a modern setting.

That doesn't work for me, since I don't share the love of the AU-for-its-own-sake.

I'm not sure that I have a bulletproof kink amongst AUs, honestly; even with the ones I love and want to write or read multiple iterations of, I still need the canonical version of the characters to be the focus. (It's probably really telling that most of the big-changes AU fics I've enjoyed are for canons I'm not familiar with!)

And yes to the handwaving being a perfectly valid way to handle it, too! If people are intimidated by worldbuilding, I wish there was a way to reassure them that sometimes less is more. A one-off discussion between your arranged spouses that mentions, "after the engagement I'll officially designate my eldest cousin as my heir, which removes the last impediment to the union" doesn't need a twelve-chapter explanation of how the lines of descent or legal requirements for royal marriage work in this universe; the reader can extrapolate enough to go on with.

[extrapenguin]

I think a lot of people who do the big AUs (like, big changes from canon) do so because the AU itself is a bit of a kink? An id thing? I don't quite know what to call it, but basically, I think the AU is the end goal rather than the set dressing
Ah, yeah, a narrative kink! I admit I don't share the kink for setting change AUs, either. (A bunch of the modern AU ones I've read are also deeply OOC because of the thing you mention: character X would never be content as a Starbucks barista without at the very least some ambitions of getting out of there, etc.)

It's probably really telling that most of the big-changes AU fics I've enjoyed are for canons I'm not familiar with!
Probably! The more one knows, the more one can notice the discrepancies and missed opportunities.

A one-off discussion between your arranged spouses that mentions, "after the engagement I'll officially designate my eldest cousin as my heir, which removes the last impediment to the union" doesn't need a twelve-chapter explanation of how the lines of descent or legal requirements for royal marriage work in this universe; the reader can extrapolate enough to go on with.
Plus eleventy billion. Worldbuilding is wonderful, but it's also reasonably easy to do the minimal handwaving that results in an impression that the characters have thought it through.

[krait]

Yep, I really think it's a case of narrative kink at play in about half of the cases, if not more. And yep, "badly translated" characters - where their canonical personality doesn't mesh with their AU placement - throw me out of a story really quickly. Some characters just really, really don't fit into some settings, not without such extreme changes that you're basically designing an OC. (I ran into this a lot in Yuuri on Ice fandom, where AUs were rife and often based on 'whatever cute idea is circulating on Tumblr today' rather than any ability to parallel the canon characters' personalities and dynamics.)

Plus eleventy billion. Worldbuilding is wonderful, but it's also reasonably easy to do the minimal handwaving that results in an impression that the characters have thought it through.

Yes. I'd add that what's most important is that the author has thought it through - no matter how much or how little explanation makes it into the fic, the author should have worked out the basic problems and how they were solved. If the author is working from a plan, the fic will have internal logic that holds up through the fic, even if the solutions happened offscreen. If not, they're probably going to trip up somewhere and give out conflicting information or leave gaps in the plot.

[extrapenguin]

Some characters just really, really don't fit into some settings, not without such extreme changes that you're basically designing an OC.
+1 I ran into it a lot in MDZS fandom – though to be fair, a lot of the allegedly canon setting fic also had very ... interesting characterization choices.

I'd add that what's most important is that the author has thought it through - no matter how much or how little explanation makes it into the fic, the author should have worked out the basic problems and how they were solved.
Oh, yes, this, definitely! Forays of fandoms past have revealed that there are people who don't even think about thinking it through; after getting started in Vorkosigan fandom, it was quite a shock. :P (Hm, this is probably also part of what underpins my dislike of Trope Product fic, where there's a trope that comes with a plot already and then that plot is hewed to to the beat, scarcely more than a search-and-replace needed *g* The lack of thinking leaves the plot with gaps or conflicts in the information.)