AUs in the Pros community--discussion

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

Hi, all. You may have been reading the panel reports that I've been posting about CQ in my LJ and over on the CQ yahoo group as well. If not, go read 'em, and enjoy!

It occurred to me that I didn't have notes on a panel that I very much enjoyed---why do you think the Professionals has so many good AU stories---I think I was blasted on Sunday morning and had lost the will to write, hence no notes. Then I realized, there's no reason that discussion couldn't go on here, at ci5hq. gblvr got the ball rolling in the panel discussion, and I'll borrow the three things that I do remember from the panel to get things started.

1) If you look at the total number of stories archived at the Circuit and click the "only AU" stories option, you get about 7% of all the stories. So on the whole, there don't seem to be many AUs in the fandom.

2) Yet, if you ask somebody to rec in the Pros fandom, within the first few recs, they'll be saying, 'oh, but you need to read this AU.'

3) One comment that was offered by flamingoslim at the con was that, back in the day, Pros picked up AUs that were scorned by the Starsky/Hutch fandom early on. As one of the oldest fandoms, she suggested, authors who felt closed out of one fandom moved over to another and went wild.

So, why the contradiction? Compared to other fandoms, Pros has very few AUs, but some are notably (and worthily) famous. And which AUs would you automatically rec to others? And what elements make for a successful AU, using Pros characters?

Comments

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

There was a lively debate on MOTR on Pros-lit, which was quite enjoyable. People have strong opinions on the story both pro and con. And the author did tell the group that she is now editing the story and will post it when it's finished. It was very interesting to hear from her that it was written in chapters which were sent out on the circuit. Then the raw chapters were just gathered up and published. So there will be a shiny, edited story from HG in the future.

Personally, I think Galen was very close to Bodie. Zax was what I'd classify as a damaged Doyle who recovers into more of the Doyle I love. That is enough to send people running away right there! But I could see Doyle in Zax.

Actually, it was the entire story that sucked me right in. I was prepared not to like it because of the strong opinions people have about it, but inside of the first few pages, I couldn't put it down. It did take me at least two weeks to read that tiny print! My old eyeballs needed a break.

There were slow spots and spots I didn't like, but overall, I was quite entertained and wanted to know what would happen next. I liked the story line and the relationship that built between the main characters. There were times when I wanted to beat both of them with a very large board when they both clammed up or did something stupid. There were too many misunderstandings I felt when I'd first read it and it bogged down the story line at times, but once I found out about the way it was written, I'm able to overlook those things and look forward to the edited story.

Again, the zine is beautiful which makes me very happy since I bought it based on art before I'd known anything about the story. And I've yet to see the movie, but I hope to get my hands on a copy one of these days.

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your points about why you like the story so much. Bodie did seem more Bodie-like in the story than Doyle, and I think Doyle/Zax is what threw me out of the narrative: I have a hard time with people who write Doyle as anything like damaged or somehow less competent than he is in the series. But it's good to know why others love it so. I'll have to go read back in Pros-lit to find the thread you're talking about, and see what others have to say about it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

*jumps in again* - sorry, not meaning to be hit-and-run-ish about this, serves me right for coming to the conversation too late!

I've only just read MotR, and it's still in my mind a little... I think I was trying to see Doyle in Zax as well at first, because Galen was Bodie - and certainly they're both the same physically. But I found that I was able to get into it much better when I remembered that Zax wasn't Doyle - Zax in the film is quite a horrible bloke, who deserves all that he gets, and he never quite loses that in the story, which is why it's hard to see him as Doyle to quite the same extent as in other Bodie/Doyle AUs... Zax and Galen are not completely supposed to be the lads that we love best! Zax is damaged to redeem him as a character, I rather think, not necessarily to turn him into Doyle - although because we do like him a bit better afterwards, it's a similar effect... Well, that's what I reckon! *g*