ancientsgate wrote:
erunyauve wrote:
Alternate Universe - Sherlock and John as hairdressers, or BBC Sherlock set in ACD's time. It might even mean another universe, quite literally - I just saw one that takes place on another planet....
Technically, Johnlock fic and fanart is AU or AR (alternate reality), although it's not labeled as such.
I would disagree, because we really don't know what happens or might happen in the future behind closed doors. It's not likely, but it's possible, and and it's a possible interpretation of the relationship. To me, AU changes a major element of the original plot, and it's not done on a 'what if' basis but because the author wanted to play in a different playground. I would characterise BBC Sherlock as 'what if' to the original stories - the authors tried to imagine what Sherlock might be like in our time, while keeping as much of ACD's original intent true as they could.
Maybe I'm showing my own bias - I like fan fic that drives beneath the written lines - that fills in gaps or puts pieces together to deduce something about a character (hmm - sounds like someone we know). To me, an AU writer wants to write a story about, say, Roman legionnaires and wants to imagine characters that look like Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in their story. It's true that a lot of slash does the same thing - I could swear that some authors just change the names to suit their favourite pairing of the moment - but that's not AU. That's just badfic.
(I'm not a Johnlock fan, by the way - I think the bromance is already an incredibly realistic portrayal of how two men behave in a relationship, and I can't see John in a physical relationship with a man or Sherlock in a physical relationship with anyone.)
Edit: I'm a little harsh on AUs - some of them are very well written and stay in character. They just don't appeal to me because I don't think they add anything to the original.
Last edited by erunyauve (January 28, 2013 12:42 pm)
I fell for it the second I saw it.
