#because there's so much potential for interpretation in even the existing commonly accepted fanon aus

[stripedtabbycat]

my takes on various popular gravity falls fandom aus, as someone who was around for pretty much all of them:

monster falls: i was always fond of this one because it did indeed produce a lot of cool art, and the idea of aus where characters are all various supernatural creatures instead of humans just always had a certain appeal to my younger self because i was always into fantasy settings with a wide variety of sapient species, and it was just fun to imagine how things would work if that extended to the ordinary townspeople of gravity falls along with all their existing supernatural creatures. however when i tried looking into this au a bit more i was admittedly a little disappointed by what the established "canon" of the setting was, which is why i think a lot of people preferred it as more of a genre of fanart than a specific setting with rules and lore and stuff. i wasn't that interested in a story where everyone in gravity falls turns into creatures one day because of a magic spring or whatever it was, but i liked the version of the background for this one that i came up with in my own head more. i was imagining an au where gravity falls is a town inhabited by various sapient supernatural creatures as part of its natural weirdness, and the pines family has some kind of hereditary curse or something where they turn into creatures at some point in their lives, like maybe around their 12th or 13th birthday, and dipper and mabel have just had it happen to them, which is why they're going to stay with the last person in their family who went through it for the summer at least. (it skips generations; their parents and grandpa shermie might have thought they'd broken it, but no.) this would be a very different version of the canon setting in a lot of ways and you could do some fun stuff with it. i also remember the au almost always having dipper as a deer-centaur and mabel as a mermaid, but by now i prefer the versions where she's a unicorn-centaur, because they match while not being exactly the same, and it fits mabel's canon love of unicorns. i could write my own fic about this someday, i really enjoyed imagining in that space.

reverse falls: this was everywhere in the earlier days of the show and fandom but it had definitely run its course by the time we were into season 2. you can tell most stuff for this au was made during season 1 because of gideon and pacifica being thought of as the main villains, and bill being portrayed as maybe a bit more plausibly sad and downtrodden. (we must remember he was only in one episode of season 1 and it wasn't even the finale, although it did lead directly into that, so he seemed maybe not that powerful yet.) you can also tell a lot of this was made by younger fans because of the charming brand of edginess it tends to display. (the designs for the twins in this au also seem like they're intended to be a few years older...while i do feel like a lot of their characterization was established by fans who were closer to those characters' ages at the time.) sometimes it didn't really feel like that much thought was put into the characters or story in this verse beyond "what if good characters evil and evil characters good? and most importantly what if good characters evil in a cool and sexy [to 12-year-olds. i hope] way?? and what if evil characters good in a sympathetic woobified angsty way??" i definitely get why a lot of people kind of hated this one especially if they were around when it was inescapable in fanart. it does make me want to start drawing out what my ideal "reverse" au would look like based on everything we have in canon now, because i think the idea of a dipper and mabel / gideon and pacifica roleswap is actually a lot of fun and has potential that most creators in its heyday weren't really considering. (basic concept ideas: stan makes a deal with bill after ford is lost to the portal for success and wealth and getting his brother back in exchange for fixing the portal, the mystery shack becomes the most successful business in town and more famous than in canon, at some point the northwests' fraudulence about being the town founders is exposed and they fall from grace while maybe mcgucket moves into their former manor after regaining his memory earlier, by the time dipper and mabel come to town they're the beloved heirs of mr. mystery while gideon and pacifica are just normal kids living in town, they find the second journal at the beginning of summer and things proceed from there, also bill is just hanging around the shack with his own mysterious motives and willing to cut a deal with anyone who needs it...)

transcendence: i did try to get into this one because i followed a number of people who wrote for it but as hana hyperfixates said in their video on the subject (of aus), there is a lot and it can be intimidating. i think the concept behind it is really solid though and i'm impressed by how much it feels like a deliberate alternate ending for the canon series finale despite first being conceptualized way before that (before ford was introduced, even!) gf fans do like drawing and writing about characters as demons and the idea of gravity falls' weirdness spreading to the rest of the world (again, pretty much the canon intended outcome of weirdmageddon!) is a great concept for an au that travels far into time and space like this one does. i like that most content i've seen for it treats this event less like an apocalypse and more just like - magic and fantastical creatures are now known to everybody, the world is different now, how do we proceed? at least that's the version i like. i didn't know that most of the works for this au focused specifically on the reincarnation aspects so that's an interesting dimension, but i don't know if that's what i would find the most compelling part of the setting if i was writing for it. also i do love how dipper and mabel's demon names, alcor and mizar, were basically handed to fandom on a silver platter. they're literally twin stars that already exist, in the big dipper constellation, and their names even sound kind of like plausible archaic demon names [they're actually both from arabic though], and one of them starts with m. it's perfect.

relativity falls: this one might be my favorite. it's a very simple roleswap concept but it has produced some of the most delightful fanworks i've seen in the fandom. we were 100% right to latch on hard to the idea of grauntie mabel and i love that everyone knew exactly what kind of cool old lady she would be. oddly enough though you don't see nearly enough fanart of grunkle dipper and i wonder if that's because people figured he'd kind of just be canon ford, without much else changing about his role in the story. or it could be that this was also largely conceptualized before ford was properly introduced or we knew what his dynamic with the other characters would be so you'll see a lot of stuff where the stans' names are unintentionally switched. but i don't think that's true for this one because i'm pretty sure it really took off after "a tale of two stans" aired. most works for it seem to be set in the same general timeline as the show just with the characters' ages changed, but i did see a great concept for it taking place in the stans' canonical 60s childhood with dipper and mabel growing up in the 1910s, which i loved. all the various takes on how the events of the show would play out in this au are also great. i love it. no notes

mystery trio: well, this one kind of retroactively gained obligatory au status after canon completely jettisoned any possibility of it having happened...but it was a fun time seeing the stories and art people would create for that specific dynamic, even if a lot of it now has a confusing name problem when it comes to the stans. (and if by necessity most of ford's - or "stanley"'s - characterization had to be invented, but i think they got him pretty accurately.) and with all the aus people are still creating, and the existence of a canon multiverse, we can still find ways to make it happen. we wanted fiddleford to have interacted with stan at any point. please. it could have happened. (i can spin something out of what i noticed last rewatch, in that stan, along with the twins, is one of the few people not laughing at mcgucket when he first runs in yelling about the gobblewonker in episode 2...)

then there are all the aus where different characters go through the portal or go back in time and various roles are shuffled around and there are a dozen different variations on one au that kind of started out as a fanfic concept, many of which i'm less familiar with. but i do want to read some more classic fanfics now. because there are some great ideas with things like the various timestuck aus, blind faith, drifting stars, grifting stars, the various portal swaps...i feel like in recent years there's been a surge of au ideas focused on the stans in different configurations and they're all super interesting. this fandom is endlessly creative and it will never die.

[raelis1]

2, 25, 37, and 40

Thank you!

Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.

I don’t know about important, but my formative ships - the ones that still influence what kind of ships/tropes I’m drawn to - are Smallville’s Clark/Lex (mostly their fanfiction version, though), Sam/Frodo, and… maybe John/Rodney from Stargate Atlantis (also mostly their fanfiction depiction).

Have you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar?

I started shipping Clark/Lex after reading The Identical Series (I’d only watched two or three episodes of Smallville by then). And I sort of went into Stargate Atlantis fandom expecting to ship the most popular pairing, John/Rodney, because I’d heard the quality of fanfic for this ship was phenomenal, but it took a while for the ship to really grow on me (to be precise, it took around 4 seasons of the show, and several very well-writen fan stories to boot). So I never ship based on gifs or any visual fan content, but I might ship a pairing based on fanfiction because to me, it’s a much better way to gauge the pairing’s chemistry/potential for interesting stories.

Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?

Canonverse (including what-if AUs set in canonverse), hurt/comfort, pining, first time and angst with a happy ending are my go-to tropes. I’m a simple gal with simple needs! And my all-time favorite sci-fi trope is dimension hopping! I’m always down for characters traveling to alternate universes and seeing how different choices affected their AU doubles’ lives. (If we’re talking PWP, I’m… into fic featuring voyeurism. I don’t know why I’m embarrassed to admit it; my tastes are pretty damn vanilla!:))

If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?

I’d want more experienced writers/adults in my OTPs' fandom. Or just more writers that care more about characterization than shipping (even in shipping fic). And more writers interested in challenging the commonly accepted fanon interpretations. And also more writers that are primarily interested in canonverse fic because I can’t make myself become interested in complete AUs no matter how hard I try.

Canonically, I’d change a hell of a lot about most ships that I shipped, so if I list it all, it might take a while…

Carth/Revan - I’d make female light-side Revan canon and erase Drew Karpyshyn’s book out of existence.

Clark/Lex - I’d make the show a lot more focused on their relationship. I’d erase the damn Clark/Lana/Lex love triangle and make the eventual dissolution of CLex friendship about their struggles and different viewpoints instead. I’d erase the child abuse apologism and the fucking gaslighting, and I’d make Clark more sympathetic towards Lex’ past. I’d make their falling-out hurt them both more, and I’d make Clark more determined about reaching out to Lex instead of writing him off almost immediately.

Eren/Mikasa - I’d make Mikasa more prominent, give her more character-defining moments and more one-on-one scenes with Eren (and other characters). I’d make it clear how her presence in Eren’s life affected him. I’d probably get rid fo the Ackerman loyalty. It’s not as bad I’d feared it would be, but it’s still unnecessary. Mikasa has reason enough to care for Eren as it is.

Ymir/Historia - I’d make them fucking reunite! I would not have Ymir just give up for no reason at all and let herself become a passive victim contrary to everything that was established about her character. I’d make her fight for her and Historia’s future.

Hawke/Fenris - I’d make Fenris more plot-important and give him and Hawke more opportunities to discuss/argue about magic. I’d make Fenris’ growth in this regard more obvious (maybe even acknowledge that he and Anders have some things in common), especially when in relationship with mage!Hawke.

Mika/Yu - I’d make Yu show more outward loathing towards Ferid and be more conflicted about Guren’s role in everything that happened to him and Mika. I’d make him more considerate and understanding of Mika’s objections to working with Guren instead of dismissing him with “You’ll grow to like him eventually!”. I would not make Yu Mika’s sole link to humanity (to me, it’s not romantic in the least because it removes the possibility of choice).