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Do I actually care enough to post this?
Jul. 31st, 2011 11:05 amAnswer: Apparently.
I am frustrated by how people keep using the AO3 tag "Alternate Universe - Canonical" in a way that makes no sense to me. Like, they use it for things that I would just call Alternate Universe. To my mind, a canonical AU is one that makes an appearance in the canon, like:
--the classic Spock's Evil Beard universe
--any of the eleventy billion universes Stargate discovered via the mirror device
--and also that alternate timeline where no one discovered the Stargate and they all had sad, unfulfilled lives as ESL teachers
--or the thought-universe where Daniel went mad with power and blew up Moscow
--or the one where Rodney wears leather and is secure enough to go by Mer
--frankly Stargate had rather a lot of them
--*points up* the universe of my icon, that one episode of Andromeda where Rhade killed Dylan and the entire series was his journey to um, time travel suicide
--"unrealized realities" shown to us in Farscape, like the one where Scarrans took over the Earth in history or the one where everyone wore each other's make-up
--or like, I guess if you wanted to stake a claim on a particular episode of Sliders and write about the universe where sexism worked backwards and Quinn got slapped on the ass in his temp secretary job
--or that dream universe in Supernatural where their mom didn't die and Dean had a hot nurse girlfriend
--or that one time bisexual vamp!Willow wandered into Buffy's universe from next door
Right?
*breathe in, breathe out*
But since it seems that a lot of people are not using the Alternate Universe - Canonical tag in this way, and are using it as like, I don't know, "this AU is an 'I changed one decision from canon' AU and not a 'they are all girl scout cookies' AU or 'I transplanted them to the age of sail' AU or 'suddenly, there are dragons' AU" --I guess that is how they are using it?
That being the case, wtf tag could one use to indicate the first case outlined here--the AU whose existence was presented in canon? I tested "canonical AU" and it has been wrangled to point to "Alternate Universe - Canon" so that's out, which, fuck, that's what I use. And it becomes meaningless and impossible to find the thing I actually want when it's all wrangled together. Damn it.
I am frustrated by how people keep using the AO3 tag "Alternate Universe - Canonical" in a way that makes no sense to me. Like, they use it for things that I would just call Alternate Universe. To my mind, a canonical AU is one that makes an appearance in the canon, like:
--the classic Spock's Evil Beard universe
--any of the eleventy billion universes Stargate discovered via the mirror device
--and also that alternate timeline where no one discovered the Stargate and they all had sad, unfulfilled lives as ESL teachers
--or the thought-universe where Daniel went mad with power and blew up Moscow
--or the one where Rodney wears leather and is secure enough to go by Mer
--frankly Stargate had rather a lot of them
--*points up* the universe of my icon, that one episode of Andromeda where Rhade killed Dylan and the entire series was his journey to um, time travel suicide
--"unrealized realities" shown to us in Farscape, like the one where Scarrans took over the Earth in history or the one where everyone wore each other's make-up
--or like, I guess if you wanted to stake a claim on a particular episode of Sliders and write about the universe where sexism worked backwards and Quinn got slapped on the ass in his temp secretary job
--or that dream universe in Supernatural where their mom didn't die and Dean had a hot nurse girlfriend
--or that one time bisexual vamp!Willow wandered into Buffy's universe from next door
Right?
*breathe in, breathe out*
But since it seems that a lot of people are not using the Alternate Universe - Canonical tag in this way, and are using it as like, I don't know, "this AU is an 'I changed one decision from canon' AU and not a 'they are all girl scout cookies' AU or 'I transplanted them to the age of sail' AU or 'suddenly, there are dragons' AU" --I guess that is how they are using it?
That being the case, wtf tag could one use to indicate the first case outlined here--the AU whose existence was presented in canon? I tested "canonical AU" and it has been wrangled to point to "Alternate Universe - Canon" so that's out, which, fuck, that's what I use. And it becomes meaningless and impossible to find the thing I actually want when it's all wrangled together. Damn it.
