graculus

I find myself in something of a quandary - historically I have been a fan of AU fic (though in my defense, I would say that's more the 'what would happen if...' episode/canon rewrites rather than Jack-the-pirate and Daniel-the-cabin-boy kind, though I can get with some swashbuckling at times...) but in Harry Potter fandom?

What exactly is the point of non-magic AUs? Isn't the whole concept of being able to do magic = wizard so much entrenched in the HP universe that taking that away actually essentially removes a significant chunk of who they are? How much is stripping the characters of this the equivalent of disability fic on steroids?

And don't even get me started on the whole ice-skating thing... ;)

Current Mood: contemplative

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

graculus.livejournal.com

Taking both Snape and Harry out of the universe in which they both have significant roles to play (it's not just Harry with the 'one day I'll show you lot!' thing going on, after all...) strips them of a significant part of their context, though.

Like you, I would then have to have someone work incredibly hard to give the relationship between those characters the same kind of frisson and complexity that the canon universe does. And that seems like a bit too much effort, for me...

From:

leethet.livejournal.com

Particularly in that (IMO) one's upbringing and experiences so shape one that a Snape who grew up in a nonmagical world, even with shit parents and bullies in school, would not be the same Snape at all - AUs, to me, with rare exceptions, are original fic with the same names.