Talk:All Human AU

How about Stargate SG1 or SGA AUs that have everyone be human, even the aliens? It's a different case (and ties heavily into the question of the way minority characters or poc characters are handled in fanfiction) but one I'd have expected to see mentioned here when I saw the page title. - Is there any discussion on the topic/trope of making aliens human here on fanlore? anotherslashfan 10:28, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I think in SGA fandom those are mostly called Earth AUs when people are talking about them as a group... (And an Earth AU page could reference the canon SG-1 Fireman AU, too.) I *was* also thinking about making a pan-fandom trope page, maybe called "Mundane AU" or something, that could list all the different tropes that pop up in different fandoms-- SGA's Earth AUs, HP's non-magical AUs, DC Comics non-superhero AUs, etc., and maybe go into a little more detail about why these are fun to write, etc. -- Liviapenn 10:45, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Sounds interesting! I think this is a good idea, since this phenomenon obviously spans many fandoms./ With SGA I think there definitely is a marked difference between having a story take place on earth (acknowledging that some characters are alien to it) and having Ronon, Teyla, Todd etc. be human./ As for naming a panfandom page including all these examples, I'm somewhat stumped, too. Mundane AU doesn't really fit with the SGA case, does it? anotherslashfan 10:56, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you're using "mundane" as the opposite of "sf/f", it sort of does-- I mean being a veterinarian or a CEO is mundane compared to fighting alien monsters on another planet. The only other kind of thing I can think of would be "Removed Genre Elements AU" and that seems really unwieldy. .... And yeah, it would definitely be interesting to go into different people's ideas about SGA Earth AUs-- do you have Ronon and Teyla there as characters and just not explain why they were born on Earth, or do you leave them out, etc. .... And now I'm going to bed. *G* -- Liviapenn 11:15, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Mundane AU is the term I've heard too, across a bunch of different fandoms. --MegR 14:39, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I like the idea of Mundane AU too. In SPN there's certainly lots of them, but I don't think they really have a name, but there is meta that asks what is the point of writing the characters into a "normal" world. So the term works for fandoms that use it, and for those that don't use any term. As far as SGA goes, Earth Au can mean set on Earth, but canon compliant as far as the stargate world goes, or it can mean the set on Earth and if there is any other life out there, we don't know it.--facetofcathy 14:51, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't call a SGA AU where everyone was born on Earth All Human AU. If we are talking about an Asgard character like Thor or some of the Wraith characters, sure, why not. As far as I know All Human AUs are a very common trope in BtVS fandom because many of the characters are demons and other supernatural beings in canon. Turning a canon vampire into a human is an inversion of the vampire trope where human characters are turned into supernatural beings in fanfic. Giving someone a different place of origin just isn't comparable IMO. --Doro 12:20, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I generally agree with you that the case of the All Human AU as seen in BtVS fandom and the case of All Born on Earth SGA AUs are different enough that it would be hard to subsume them on the same page; nevertheless, this trope should at least be linked to similar tropes as for example those mentioned by Liviapenn. And yes, making a Wraith or Asgard a human fits the All Human trope best. Nevertheless, what about the implications of making Ronon or Teyla born-on-earth-human? Their canon backgrounds are mired in cliché, but are definitely markedly different from the Earth humans, who in turn are from varying backgrounds (as exemplified by Radek versus Rodney etc.)... I realise my own thoughts are not very clear on this matter and how it relates to the All Human trope, yet./ Anyway, how about extending this page to include (fitting) examples of this trope from other fandoms? As I read Liviapenns examples, a few of them should fit without huge need for discussion. anotherslashfan 12:46, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Having read the above discussion I don't think all-human AUs are limited to the Buffyverse. I've added a widely recommended example from the Good Omens fandom, and I'm sure there are plenty of other non-Buffy examples. Espresso Addict 05:05, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm sure I've seen some examples in X-Men First Class but can't think of any at the moment. I think consensus above was that maybe this page should be renamed to "Mundane AU" and then it could include all those stories where John and Rodney and Ronon and Teyla work at a fashion magazine, Harry Potter AUs with no magic... basically any SF/F sources moved to an AU non-SF/F setting. But I don't want to rename it myself, I'd probably mess it up. ^_^ -- Liviapenn 05:19, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

I think "mundane AU" might be getting at something slightly different, but they're clearly closely related. The term used in all those fandoms I've encountered the trope in is "all-human AU", but that might be unusual? Espresso Addict 06:09, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

I've seen "All Human AU" in Buffy/Angel, in HP it's "Non Magic AU," in X-Men it's "No Powers AU" ... I just think it's basically all the same thing and should go on one page, especially since a lot of the meta about it is pan-fandom. -- Liviapenn 06:23, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

There already is a Mundane AU page for the pan-fandom discussion of these tropes. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be pages for the different fandom versions like Non Magic AU, No Powers AU, Earthside AU or whatever. More pages means more links, more examples, etc. --Doro 09:22, 15 October 2011 (UTC)