Follow-Up Poll: AU versus AR

[kennahijja]

Alright, people - I ran into a definition problem with yesterday's poll. Basically, I used the options Alternate Universe (AU) and Alternate Reality (AR) because those often turn up as categories in archives, but I have no idea what they mean exactly.

Ok, I do know what area they cover - from 'nonmagical AU' to H/D as dragon riders in a fantasy dimension to Harry-in-Slytherin to Sirius/Remus living happily ever after after the war, no Veil. But the difference? Not a clue. So...


[Poll #785583]

And abuse the comments if you run out of space!

Comments

[sor-bet.livejournal.com]

I was going to post some definitions of my own, but then I took a look at other people's.....hm. Now I'm not sure.

I think of AR as the regular characters with their regular relationships, but something happens in the story to take them to another place. rushlight75's "The Pendulum of Choice" would be my perfect example of AR. Canon is all still there as backstory, but they're in a different place/time.

AU -- for me, this has more definitions. As other people have said, if you ignore bits of canon, it's AU. If it's in a different setting, if people have different relationships (Harry Weasley meets Ron Potter on the Hogwarts Express), it's AU. If Remus is a monk in the 11th century, it's AU. If Sirius is brought back through the veil, it's regular fanfic; if he never went through the veil to begin with, it's AU. Or maybe I'm splitting hairs.....

The difference between the two? Maybe how much canon you keep. I just read liriaen's comment:

To me, Slyth!Ron would be AR because it's still got more than a foot in JKR's world, whereas I'd see gunslinger!Snape/horse-thief!Harry hatesex (CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE WRITE THAT? PLEASE!) as AU.

and that makes a lot of sense.

And here I thought that my Snupin Santa request of Old West AU with Snape as a gunslinger was original......*scuffs toe and pouts, but goes off to read your rec*

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Did you get a fic on that gunslinger!Snape request??? Because I'd die to read that!

It's really fun how everybody seems to make the same distinctions on the difference between AR/AU (closer to/further away from canon), only that the names differ ;). I'm pretty sure by now I'll never use either without a description in the future ;):

[sor-bet.livejournal.com]

Did you get a fic on that gunslinger!Snape request???

Heh. Not yet; they're still just taking sign-ups, but I'll let you know if I do. Now that I think of it, I'd take just plain art of gunslinger!Snape. :-D

You're probably safe to go with just AU for everything that's not a missing scene or an extrapolation of HBP. Because I suppose you could say ALL fanfic is AU, since it's not canon......my head has imploded now, and it's all your fault.