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snowflake_challenge #3: In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.

I am a huge fan of canon divergences. I am always left unsatisfied by canon (it's why I always dive into fanfic to get a specific itch scratched) and I really, really love missing scenes, fix its, and continuations from episodes. The reason why I always read fanfic was to read more about the characters from that canon world. How did James Potter ask Lily Evans out? What if Caroline Forbes used Klaus Mikaelson's affections for her to manipulate him? (This is my favourite interpretation of this relationship, btw.) Recently, I went searching for Six of Crows fanfic because I wanted to see Kaz react to Inej's burned feet, something that the book didn't cover since it didn't have the real estate to. (I've been devouring Crooked Kingdom-compliant fanfic about Kaz and Inej, a little prematurely since I'm reading the book, but I love these "What happens after?" stories.)

I like requesting canon divergence aus in exchanges, especially because I like seeing someone else's interpretation of a "what if?" scenario. I like reading about these characters' stories continuing.

I think DWRP has made me become comfortable with fusions. I'm not a big fan of them in my fiction unless it's a fusion where I can still see the character as they are in canon. (For instance, I don't like the idea of Harry Potter in The Hunger Games universe with his backstory of being targeted by the greatest Wizard in history being removed from his character. To me, that's removing Harry's very core. Put Harry in the Hunger Games because the Ministry of Magic has been taken over by Death Eaters and they want to get enjoyment out of seeing "good" wizards and witches die and they want to keep them distracted from fighting the good fight by fighting one another. Do you need President Snow in there? You can change England to Panem as long as Panem remains a magical/human world. Make President Snow and the Ministry of Magic scuffle for power… or make Snow the actual top dog of the Ministry.)

I'm not a fan of aus where characters are changed, even in profession if their profession is a big part of their character. I don't like coffeeshop aus (I don't understand them), I don't like actor/musician aus, superpowered characters were never born with superpowers (not unless it's a plot wherein Barry Allen loses his powers and has to figure out how to solve something while being a Muggle again—him being a superpowered person is still a core part of his character as he has to learn how to not rely on his powers), etc. I feel like what I love about the characters—and the world they're in, since characters reacting to their respective worlds is what I love most about them—is stripped away when we take away someone's powers or make someone a musician when they're not (and have that be the focus of the plot).

I can't see Kaz Brekker taking the place of Han Solo in Star Wars, for example. Can I see Kaz Brekker being on a spaceship? Yes, as long as Kaz Brekker remains conniving, cunning, and manipulative, and his backstory remains very close to what it canonically is. (Again, playing in jamjar games in DWRP has made this type of AU really easy for me to enjoy since I write in it daily. The character remains the same, but they have a new environment to react to and different players on the chessboard. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Characters being kidnapped or agreeing to help someone who wants to basically kidnap them would result in more mutiny and rebellion than what we write in DWRP, but hopefully you get the gist here.)

How he gets onto the spaceship can be a simple explanation of someone in the Barrel or another country ends up settling in space and invites the crime lords for a meeting to settle some disputes. (It's not the best AU, but I like it when my canon crossovers are interwoven in a way that requires some explanation that doesn't remove the fundamentals that I love about a character and a world—the politics and the manipulation is still there.) Removing Kaz from the political landscape would mean stripping Kaz of who he is as a person imo. I don't want him to become a musician because that's not Kaz.

I also don't like the idea of Game of Thrones characters being modernised. What makes them so great to read and watch and write is seeing them interact within their own canonical world (one that I wish was actually not so ripe in misogyny and racism). Could the world be tweaked a little to be less grounded in "Well, it's based in the medieval times, so therefore it has to have a shitload of misogyny despite the fact there are DRAGONS!"? Fuck yes. I love seeing worlds tweaked a little to make them less… that.

There are definitely some concepts that I'm interested in—fairytales is a big one!—but I'm very picky (in case you couldn't tell lol) about what aus I like. (I like the idea of fairytales because you're picking a character to take over the role of Snow White, for example, based on a character trait you can see in the character themselves. I love asking for Little Red Riding Hood inspired stories for The Vampire Diaries because of the dark themes of both stories. I also think many creators make great twists with their fairytale retellings, and it's interesting to see which characters fall into particular roles.)

I do think it's great that there are fans out there who create content for these aus and that they go wild and have fun and be super creative with how they assimilate characters into these new worlds and "What if Harry was never a wizard?" concepts. They're just not for me.

The type of aus I like to write and consume are:
• what if X doesn't die?
• what if X made a different decision, i.e. they didn't open the front door?
• what if X took care of Y when Y was hurt?
• what if X's stubbornness was a trait that was kept strong in their character development and they remained stubborn against Y?
• what if X, who is claimed to be the most manipulative person in the universe, was actually the most manipulative person in the universe?
• what if X was not woobified?
• what if X did not forgive Y?
• what if X and Y banged? (My favourite.)
• what if X and Y met? what if they fell in love?
• what if the writing didn't completely disregard a character's trauma and actually dug deep into it?