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fandom quiz
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echan and I have spent seriously, like, three hours, discussing fannish categorizations of material as it strays further and further from canon. We are interested in your opinions on the following:In reference to vidding:
What constitutes canon (or nonviolation of canon)?
What constitutes an AU?
What constitutes constructed reality?
Where are the lines between these categories? What separates them? What rationales and characteristics can you use to differentiate between them?
Where does crossover fall in this scale?
Does the use of secondary sources make a vid fall into one category or another?
Second verse: would you care to tackle the same questions (as relevant) wrt fanfiction?
If you're very good, I may post my own thoughts on this matter when I am less drunk.
My $.02
For me, the line for canon is... no provable violation of established source material, as of the time of initial writing (that is, as of the last source material the author watched/read before writing), or at least as of when the story is set. I don't really count things that were made AU by subsequent changes in source material
Things like slash relationships only fall under AU if it is categorically established that the character Has Not Done That. Otherwise, unless the camera (or "camera") has been following the character 24/7, it's always possible that they've been getting sexed up (or whatever) on the sly.
Also not really considered are silly/trivial violations of Prior Canon, that are obviously either errors or minor jokes. That is, at worst, bad writing, but not really AU.
Constructed reality is not really a term I've run across before, I think it may be a vids-only thing. AU is... anything that substantially violates canon. Ranging from "Canon relationship? What canon relationship?" to "Our Heroes in the Wild West".
Crossovers can be AU or non-AU, or AU for only one source. I'm inclined to call them AU (for at least one source) if the "rules" of at least one source need to be violated to get the two to cross. For example, a Bab 5 x-over with any of the Star Treks would kind of have to be AU. But Doctor Who could cross over with a wide variety of things without actually going AU, because, well, he does things like that. And pretty much any set-in-reality-today source could cross without going AU. But (imo) crossovers don't really need to be *labeled* AU in cases of clashing source material, since it's kind of obvious.
As to vids with non-source material, I'd only really count them as AU if, again, they somehow violate established canon. Though I might be a bit stricter about it than I would be with fanfics, in terms of provably established canon, since the medium is a bit more... exact, in any case. In a fic, bad characterization or the like is simply a matter of sloppy writing, rather than "bad" source.