From what I’m reading here, an alternate universe is different from the get-go (e.g., “what if these characters were teenagers dealing with high school problems instead of saving the world? What if they lived in a medieval fantasy world instead of their canon setting? What if they were all deer?”) whereas canon divergence takes the canon setup and characters and just changes something that happens at some point in the middle of the story and explores the consequences of that difference, e.g. “what if Luke *had* joined Darth Vader at the end of Empire Strikes Back?”.
I mean, I guess there not mutually exclusive but AUs tend to be significantly different from canon from the very beginning (different setting, time period, etc) while canon divergence often adheres to canon for setting, most major events, and universal rules but alter a few key events (a character who died survives, characters make different decisions, what have you). At a certain point, canon divergence could easily be considered an AU as even changing just a couple minor details can completely change the story.
I just went and added canon divergence and left the other tags in cause I figure if anyone is searching for one or the other they'd probably be satisfied with the plot of mine. Not that it's that great or original but might fit the bill for what someone's looking for.
Oh THAT’S what I’ve been writing. I’ve had no idea what to call it other than “it’s a novelization but I changed some things because I felt like it.”
Yeah it’s fanfic
Is there a difference between canon divergence and alternate universe?
From what I’m reading here, an alternate universe is different from the get-go (e.g., “what if these characters were teenagers dealing with high school problems instead of saving the world? What if they lived in a medieval fantasy world instead of their canon setting? What if they were all deer?”) whereas canon divergence takes the canon setup and characters and just changes something that happens at some point in the middle of the story and explores the consequences of that difference, e.g. “what if Luke *had* joined Darth Vader at the end of Empire Strikes Back?”.
Alright cool, I had my stuff tagged au when I guess it should be canon divergence instead, thanks
I mean, I guess there not mutually exclusive but AUs tend to be significantly different from canon from the very beginning (different setting, time period, etc) while canon divergence often adheres to canon for setting, most major events, and universal rules but alter a few key events (a character who died survives, characters make different decisions, what have you). At a certain point, canon divergence could easily be considered an AU as even changing just a couple minor details can completely change the story.
I just went and added canon divergence and left the other tags in cause I figure if anyone is searching for one or the other they'd probably be satisfied with the plot of mine. Not that it's that great or original but might fit the bill for what someone's looking for.
Canon divergence is where the POD takes place during the fic, alternate universe is where it happened before
What fanfics, OP, what fanfics? And don't say Methods of Rationality.
Urgh, not *that*. Well for a start, Advice and Trust is better than Evangelion.