(no subject)

[butterfly]

I am certain that no one on my flist needs to hear this, but I need to say it -- the most recent episode of Smallville was not an AU. It was all in Clark's head as he was being attacked by a phantom. An AU is an alternate universe -- Labyrinth was a possession-induced vision that Clark had to fight out of. It was not real in the Smallville universe and unless you actually do believe that we're supposed to believe that there's a universe out there with a human Clark Kent who lives in an asylum and washes with Jorel soap, the term 'AU' does not apply. This is not a world without shrimp -- this is Clark's head.

*sigh*

I really shouldn't visit TWoP.

Comments

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

?????

You could say the same thing about Normal Again in Buffy (which that ep sounds like a straight lift of) and I constantly see that being referred to as an AU in fandom.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm really glad that you brought up Normal Again -- part of the reason that NA caused such an uproar in BtVS fandom is because the asylum world was treated as if it could be real, including even have the ending shot placed there.

In contrast, absolutely nothing in the recent Smallville episode supports the idea that Clark's asylum world could be a reality -- there are blatant factual inconsistencies, a complete lack of the reality of travel from place to place (which they normally at least nod to), and absolutely no doubt at the end that it was anything but an attack from an enemy of Clark's. The world that's created by the phantom is not supportable in the way that the BtVS Normal Again world is.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I see the term A/U abused all over the place, and it annoys me too. For example, the Voyager episode Living Witness. The entire action of that episode took place in a piece of historical fiction written 900 years later on an alien planet, and yet people call it A/U. People also write the most awful fic for it, which makes me especially twitchy about it.

Then there's Roswell's I Married An Alien, which isn't even a fully formed story, it's just little snippets that Isabel imagines during the course of the episode, and it gets called A/U . . . or that second season Halloween episode of Dark Angel . . . or any of the ridiculous coma fantasy episodes from the final season of X-Files . . .

Yes, I get your rant. Sadly, being right doesn't mean you win the argument. Frustrating, isn't it?

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get your rant. Sadly, being right doesn't mean you win the argument. Frustrating, isn't it?

It really is.

*sigh*

This is why I like LJ so much. I can avoid the people who fail to make any sense.