Snark incoming.
Feb. 24th, 2014 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Possibly one of the most useful features of a sci-fi/fantasy fandom: it's really easy to weed out fics you don't want to read, just by checking to see which ones can't spell the fandom-specific made-up words correctly. Kismesitude? Paidi Aiji? Valdemarian? NOPE, sorry, no +1 hit count for you!
(Also useful in these fandoms: excluding "human AU" from your search results; but that's another rant for a different day.)
(Also useful in these fandoms: excluding "human AU" from your search results; but that's another rant for a different day.)
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Date: 2014-02-24 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-24 05:16 pm (UTC)On the other hand, if you can't spell 'kismesis' or 'silmarillion'? Not only are you failing at basic find-a-beta stuff, you also appear to be failing at canon; the vibe I get is "the characters will be generic OCs with fandom names, and the fandom setting will be pastede on."
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Date: 2014-02-24 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-24 05:22 pm (UTC)It's completely baffling to me why anybody would take a fandom with whole alien cultures to explore... and decide that what they, and a bunch of readers, really want to see is a story about a bunch of {American} high schoolers. *facepalming*
There are already So. Many. Fandoms. where the entire cast is high school kids; just go read fic for one of those fandoms! Why is "how can I strip out every vestige of what made these characters interesting when they first appeared in canon" such a popular route to take?!
Siiiiigh.
(Heh, and I'm such a xeno-snob, too; I get annoyed when aliens are written as 'too human' as well as when they're deliberately turned into humans. It's part of the reason I was so hideously disappointed by Avatar - the idea that a bunch of telepathic aliens with biology shaped for a completely different environment would be basically people in monkey suits was just offensively poor writing... even before the rest of the offensive bits of the writing became clear.)
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Date: 2014-02-24 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-25 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-25 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-25 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-25 04:09 am (UTC)I mean, really; now I'm trying to picture it, and I just can't! College student!Banichi? High school romance!Jago/Bren? Pfeh. Does not compute.
On the other hand, maybe I'm going at it backwards. Maybe the reason Foreigner is a tiny fandom is because it's too hard to imagine an all-human AU? Perhaps "ability to inspire human AUs" is a necessary component for becoming a large fandom... *ponders*
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Date: 2014-02-25 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-25 10:55 pm (UTC)AUs that take people in a mundane setting, like a cop show, and put them in a magical fantasy or on a spaceship, can be pretty amazing. I don't get the impulse to make things LESS interesting.
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Date: 2014-02-28 12:49 am (UTC)take people in a mundane setting, like a cop show, and put them in a magical fantasy or spaceship
Yes, I like Fantasy!AUs (especially Temeraire fusions; they're a major weak spot) and InSpace!AUs of non-magical fandoms. I even enjoy AUs where a mundane setting has been replaced with another mundane setting (What if Clark Kent had been adopted by a Kansas farm couple in 1805 instead of the modern day? That might make a really cool AU!) It's strictly the magical-to-nonmagical switch that I find unappealing!
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Date: 2014-02-25 08:30 am (UTC)(Due to my frustration at HOW MANY DIFFERENT TERMS TO I HAVE TO - TO MAKE YOU STOP SHOWING UP ARG)
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Date: 2014-02-28 12:50 am (UTC)And NO, Homestuck fandom, "College AU" does NOT necessarily imply "Human AU"; you need to tag both of those!
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Date: 2014-02-28 01:01 am (UTC)Said as someone who is terrible about tagging beyond the basics at AO3 at least. >.>
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Date: 2014-02-28 02:03 am (UTC)as someone who is terrible about tagging beyond the basics at AO3
Alas, I'm bad at it, too. I need to start keeping a list of awesome useful tags that I come across when reading, so that whenever I post something I can check it against the list.
Now I want to hit up AO3 and try to revise all my tags...
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Date: 2014-03-01 02:58 am (UTC)