Alternative Ain't Necessarily Good
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| Title: | Alternative Ain't Necessarily Good |
| Creator: | Lena W. Jones |
| Date(s): | June 9, 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fanfiction, AU |
| External Links: | Alternative Ain't Necessarily Good/archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Alternative Ain't Necessarily Good is an essay by Lena W. Jones.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
In universes, that is. In this column, I'm not talking about those alternate universes that make a tiny tweak to canon and work from there. (Though the larger the tweak, the less likely I am to read.) In those, the original is still visible. I'm talking about those brutal AUs when an author picks up their preferred pairing and plonks it somewhere else entirely.I like a particular show for more than just the characters. I'm interested in the setting; the ethos of the world; the way the characters fit into their places in it. No matter how good the characters themselves are, if that's all there is to a show, I'm not going to be going back there.
Of course, that brings up the fact that characters are a part of their environment. What has happened to them plays an inevitable part in the 'person' they are. Take Obi-Wan out of the Star Wars universe, plonk him in modern-day Manchester, and you've either got an entirely different personality or a completely unrealistic character.