AU ramblings; very general spoilers for Jossverse shows up to ATS' present season

[selenak]

My Five Things Which Never Happened Between Kira and Dukat is up, beta-read thanks to kathyh, here. Once again, thanks everyone for the feedback. Writing another Five Things... after the Warren one made me wonder what it is about the format that appeals to me so much, when I'm usually not that fond of AUs. Probably because in the Five Things... stories I read - and I tried to make this true for my own efforts as well - the usual trapfalls of many an AU fic, blatant wish fulfillment at the expense of character and/or universe were avoided, because in this format, we always start with canon and take one twist. Just one. Sometimes it can change a life entirely; I remember reading a Five Things Which Never Happened To Aeryn Sun in which Aeryn did what Xalax Sun did before here, sold out the man she loved for her child. Which I can see Aeryn doing, and that is why it worked for me.

It's interesting to look at canon AUs in this regard. On BTVS and AtS, we have several of them. Still ruling, not just because it's the first but because it's such a goldmine for fanfic and such a dark dystopia, is the Wishverse based on the season 3 episode The Wish. The twist being that Buffy did not come to Sunnydale in Welcome to the Hellmouth. Incidentally, one of the reasons this outclasses the final Highlander episode which are based on "what life without Duncan MacLeod would have been like" is that The Wish postulates her friends influenced Buffy just as much as she did them - it's not a one-way street, and Wishverse Buffy doesn't just have a scar on the face, she's Buffy drained of any passion, joy and empathy in the inside. Ats' Birthday pales for me in comparison, because Birthdayverse Cordelia - i.e. Cordy as she would have been if instead of hooking up with Angel in L.A. she'd have become a moviestar - is far too nice and tainted by that unfortunate AtS season 3 travesty, St. Cordy. (Season 3 BTVS Cordy, which presumably this Cordelia would have developed from, would have saved the girl, too, but told her what a stupid ninny she was to mess with black magic in the process, and she definitely wouldn't have kissed Angel, whom she had hardly spoken to in Sunnydale.) Back in Sunnydale, there's again the world as depicted in Normal Again, season 6. (Normalverse?) Which does work for me and fascinates me, but doesn't get that much fanfic attention because of the rather depressing premise - no slayers, no vampires, and instead Buffy in an institution.

And then there are the two big canon AUs: BTVS has the world before Dawn, and the world after Dawn, i.e. after the monks did their spell and rewrote history. Now I know there are some stories out there that speculate on how the Scoobies recall the events of the first four seasons with Dawn in them. But has anybody ever tried to write the last three seasons without Dawn? Obviously the biggest difficulty is season 5 as its emotional core is the Buffy-Dawn relationship. But if you find an alternate reason for Buffy to sacrifice her life, which given her profession shouldn't be too difficult, you could do 6 and 7. Except that I'd say without Dawn, Buffy's season 6 post-mortem depression might have become self-destructive enough to get her killed again.

AtS, on the other hand, has the world with Connor, and the world without Connor, and currently we're still all trying to guess how everyone renembers the past two years after the mindwipe. In fanfic terms, the premise would be "What if Darla had never returned after Epiphany?", I guess. And the fascinating thing about the current season is that it shows Fred, Gunn and Wesley going through their own series of "Five Things". Because clearly the writers' answer to "what if Wesley hadn't become alienated from the group via Connor (but still have been somehow involved with Lilah)?" is "Another Way For Wes To Access His Dark Side". And Gunn who does not remember Wesley keeping a secret from the rest of them and making a fatal decision does the same thing himself.

Gotta love AUs. Sometimes.

Comments

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Because clearly the writers' answer to "what if Wesley hadn't become alienated from the group via Connor (but still have been somehow involved with Lilah)?" is "Another Way For Wes To Access His Dark Side"

I liked this post a lot -- I guess before reading it I'd never really thought on the top of my brain about canon AUs (beyond seeing the "Flat Earth" topic on TWOP and staying away from it). Now I'd really like to see someone write that Five Things bit about Wesley, because I can't see exactly how he'd go with Lilah without the whole baby-napping, throat-slashing MoG-abandoning thing -- I thought his whole point to Fred about "it's not always about holding hands" was that he had been pushed so far away from his friends he had to find comfort somewhere. (To tell me the truth it kinda annoys me that I don't feel this was really adequately represented in the show -- I thought since he has no scar, he just shouldn't've mentioned Lilah, especially since he still had the hots for Fred -- but it would make a fascinating fanfic.)

Would maybe IWRY count as an AU? Or maybe not, since (IIRC) it didn't actually happen and only Angel remembers....

moi

you read too much of Jenny O's fanfic *g*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

To tell me the truth it kinda annoys me that I don't feel this was really adequately represented in the show -- I thought since he has no scar, he just shouldn't've mentioned Lilah, especially since he still had the hots for Fred --

The scar came from Justine, and had nothing to do with Lilah. I never understood why a Wesley who still remembered Lilah shouldn't still have the hots for Fred, considering he had them during his entire relationship with Lilah. It might be a fanfic standard that Wesley realizes he didn't/doesn't really love Fred and that what he had with Lilah was True Love (TM), but that's not what happened on the actual show. Yes, he realised that it wasn't just sex with Lilah. No, that did not make him stop longing for Fred.

londonkds has come up with a brilliant way of how Wesley's season 3-4 arc still would have essentially happened sans Connor earlier in this thread, btw.

Re: you read too much of Jenny O's fanfic *g*

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

londonkds has come up with a brilliant way of how Wesley's season 3-4 arc still would have essentially happened sans Connor earlier in this thread

Cool -- I don't think I saw that. ((checks it out))

moi

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

As I've posted elsewhere, my theory at the beginning of this season was that Wes's arc in S3-4 would have worked almost identically without Connor if Connor hadn't existed because Wes had gone Necessary Thing and staked Darla before she gave birth, believing that she'd give birth to an Evil Thing.

Consider me awed.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That makes perfect character sense.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Regarding Birthday, of course, you've got the fact that the whole scenario wasn't genuine--it was a deliberate manipulation to get Cordy into the position of accepting a demon aspect. Therefore, they left her with hints and memories about her real life. Otherwise, I'd agree with you that it was a wash. Canon retcons are so great, no?

As for seasons 5, 6, and 7 without Dawn, I agree with you that the emotional core would be missing. Say Joyce had still died, for instance. Would Buffy, without Dawn to take care of, have died sooner because of her love affair with death? Probably. Would Willow have still brought her back? Probably. Would Buffy have stayed, without Dawn to take care of? I don't think so. The thing that brought Buffy down from the tower was Dawn. Even if Buffy hadn't managed to get herself killed that night, though, I think she'd still have gotten herself killed because really, there was no one for her to live for. Her friends would have been okay without her. They weren't a part of her the way Dawn was. So I'm pretty sure she'd have been dead long before S6 was over.

All of it sounds good to me

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

I love yer analysis but I do disagree as far as one thing goes.. I personally think the last three seasons woyuld ahev gone completely differently and Buffy would ahev had a resutrgence from a different direction, I am not sure exactly how, but I think so. With the lack of Dawn and therefore Glory, the whole seaon's lights and events would ahve bveen cast differently and in my opinion would probably have been much better. Without Dawn, a whimpering oozing ball of insecurity constantly feeding her sadness and insecurities with more of the same, Buffy would have been more open to her friends, and might even have done more growing up that season than she did. She would not have dioed in My opinion for by the end of the season a different situation would have reigned. A buffy more in control and with a solidified and more confident Scooby Squad at her side.
The next season would thus have been totally different, enabling Buffy to be there and quite possibly head off Willow's addiction to Magick before it started, not losing Giles, and also being able to help Xander and Anya find their true love and actually get married. I think the final season would have shown us a much better fight then, because when it opened you would haev a powerful, but in control Willow, a Buffy who was confident, Anya and Zander in love and together instead of infighting and angsting, and when the slyer candidates showed up I think things would ahev gone a lot better.

Also as far as Spike goes I think she would not have gone there at first but eventually fallen in love with him and acted on it much sooner than in Cannon.

Re: All of it sounds good to me

[selenak.livejournal.com]

We'll have to agree to disagree on Buffy and Dawn then. I think Buffy matured greatly in season 5, and that Dawn gave her strength after Joyce's death (which would have happened in any case). For further events and the Buffy-Dawn bond in general, see honorh's take above in this thread, which is essentially my opinion as well, loving Dawn as I do.

Xander's insecurities which led to his abandoning Anya at the altar had nothing to do with Buffy; they were founded in his life long before she ever came to Sunnydale, due to his parents. She would not have been able to change anything about that. As for Willow, while a happy, emotionally stable Buffy would have noticed something was going wrong there earlier, I still think it would have happened; again, Willow's issues, her self-loathing and need to be, as she herself puts it, "Super Willow", as well as her tendency to get through tough emotional situations with magical fixes can be tracked back as early as season 3.

Re: All of it sounds good to me

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

grins-- agreed to disagree-- so er... how about them bears?