So, I recently criticized a Beware of Chicken fanfic (this one) for problems relating to the "Unicorn in the Garden" rule as applied to fanfic.
I later elaborated (on another site, so I'm quoting here), when the author started adding entire multi-paragraph author's notes on the things he was changing in the background. Disregarding some story-specific stuff:
The reception I got was, in some ways, predictable and rather missed the point. For instance:
And, of course, it's still attracting people who think they're goddamned telepaths and can address emotions that I didn't express rather than anything I actually said.
But, all that aside, it's got me thinking about my original point... and the general problem of people trying to change some random thing in the setting for the sake of their fanfic.
Namely that any change to the setting might change X, which the author wants, but it'd also logically have impacts other than that -- and the author might not want those. A less-skilled author will run into it head-on and, when it becomes an issue, simply introduce a new change to the setting... adding a new unicorn to their metaphorical garden. Sometimes this can be handled with a degree of grace, but, in the worst-case scenario, this is basically a last-minute ass-pull on the author's part.
The unicorns, in other words, start breeding.
A skilled author, on the other hand, will likely explore the conflict, lampshade the matter, avoid taking the story into a direction where the other impacts matter, adjust how they made the change... or spin the entire concept off into a completely original "thing."
This is what I've taken to calling, at least in my head, the Problem of Unicorn Epicycles, after the "Unicorn in the Garden" rule and a rather famous real scientific problem: sooner or later, as a story concept branches out and grows away from the story that inspired it, the concept stops being for a fanfic and simply becomes a story that's vaguely inspired by its "canon" while being held down by the elements of said canon that it retains.
Thoughts?
I later elaborated (on another site, so I'm quoting here), when the author started adding entire multi-paragraph author's notes on the things he was changing in the background. Disregarding some story-specific stuff:
Aleh Wrote:I'm just going to paraphrase what I said over in SB: Why?
The "unicorn in the garden rule" is a thing for a reason. You have your premise: Jin attracts Su Ge's attention and stays in the Cloudy Sword Sect as a result.
Making the rot worse than it was in canon, changing the backstory with Shen Bu, altering the base cultivation system... just... why? They don't aid the story: they detract from it. You don't need to do any of those things to tell this story. It's just... pointless.
Aleh Wrote:The point is that you're not making your canvas, as you put it. You're borrowing an unused section of Casual's, and that's part of the premise of the story.
Jin, at the start of canon -- and this AU -- is disillusioned with the idea of "seeking the heavens," as you put it. Him coming around to that sort of position isn't the premise -- it's the planned outcome of a character or story arc. It's a destination, not the beginning.
By changing things in the background to contradict canon, you're changing the starting point. You're adding an extra unicorn to the garden, as it were.
This is a problem.
Aleh Wrote:Look to the other AU timelines -- Casualfarmer's, in other words -- to see what I mean. The Dark Meiling timeline changes when Jin never shows up, and thus things start going spectacularly wrong for Meimei, sending her on a vengeance quest. The unicorn there isn't Meimei as a vengeful wandering cultivator -- it's Jin never showing up. Everything else flows from that.
In the SHI timeline, Jin is sent to the SHI instead of the CSS. As a result, he has different experiences, meets different people, goes on different adventures, and eventually adopts a different dao. The unicorn there isn't Jin as a roaming skyship captain -- it's Jin being sent to a different sect. Everything else flows from that.
In the JSYR timeline, Jin decides against going to the Azure Hills and instead settles down somewhere else. This leads to him contracting with a different (and more intact) earth spirit and creating a different sort of "farm" (or ranch). The unicorn there isn't Jin as a rancher. It's Jin settling down somewhere else. Everything else flows from that.
In yours... Su Ge steps in to help Jin, leading to him not staying in the CSS. But then we find out that the situation in the CSS isn't what it was in canon. But then you change the background with Shen Yu and Shen Bu, as well as the overall political situation of the Empire. But then you change the cultivation system itself in ways that contradict canon. So Jin doesn't leave a different sect and situation from canon, leading to him facing problems whose existence contradicts canon, and facing heaven via a different system from the one he abandoned in canon.
Sooner or later, and I'd argue sooner between the two, this stops being a Beware of Chicken fic and simply becomes a fic that's vaguely inspired by Beware of Chicken and is held down by the elements of canon it retains. It's trying to be two different things at once and suffering for it.
Or, to put it a different way, it's chasing two rabbits at the same time, and that's a bad thing.
The reception I got was, in some ways, predictable and rather missed the point. For instance:
Quote:Great argument, now tell similar thing to EVERY SINGLE FANFICTION IN THIS EARTH.
Quote:The beautiful thing about fanfics is that they aren’t canon and don’t have to follow it 100%.
And, of course, it's still attracting people who think they're goddamned telepaths and can address emotions that I didn't express rather than anything I actually said.
Quote:Cope. Seethe, even.
Maybe do some malding while you're at it.
Because this fanfiction that explores the side the verse that the original canon tosses to the wayside, to put frankly, fucks....
But, all that aside, it's got me thinking about my original point... and the general problem of people trying to change some random thing in the setting for the sake of their fanfic.
Namely that any change to the setting might change X, which the author wants, but it'd also logically have impacts other than that -- and the author might not want those. A less-skilled author will run into it head-on and, when it becomes an issue, simply introduce a new change to the setting... adding a new unicorn to their metaphorical garden. Sometimes this can be handled with a degree of grace, but, in the worst-case scenario, this is basically a last-minute ass-pull on the author's part.
The unicorns, in other words, start breeding.
A skilled author, on the other hand, will likely explore the conflict, lampshade the matter, avoid taking the story into a direction where the other impacts matter, adjust how they made the change... or spin the entire concept off into a completely original "thing."
This is what I've taken to calling, at least in my head, the Problem of Unicorn Epicycles, after the "Unicorn in the Garden" rule and a rather famous real scientific problem: sooner or later, as a story concept branches out and grows away from the story that inspired it, the concept stops being for a fanfic and simply becomes a story that's vaguely inspired by its "canon" while being held down by the elements of said canon that it retains.
Thoughts?