fail_fandomanon

High school? Coffee shop?

I love epic fantasy AUs - sadly there aren't very many. Rec your faves!

My favorite is the IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE AU, which is alas too rare a critter.

I really don't like "regular life" AU of the bookstore/coffeshop/waiter kind for epic stories, but at least they're better than the old American high school thing

Is "every kind of AU" an acceptable answer? I guess I love historical AUs best, but I'm willing to read nearly any AU, even the dreaded high school AU. I guess it's because my fandoms are small enough that any AU is kind of special.

I also love "what if everything was the same about canon except THIS" AUs. Not where canon diverges, necessarily, but where all the same characters and concepts are present, but in a different order. Someone recently posted a class-swapped Downton Abbey AU idea on tumblr, for instance, and I love the idea. Same house, same characters, but moving the characters around means that the central problem becomes "what happens when the lord of the house doesn't actually want to take a lady?" instead of "ENTAILMENT!" Variations like that fascinate me, and I wish there were more of them.

Heh. Whereas while I really really prefer fantasy/SF/horror/etc. stuff in pro media to mundane modern-world realism, but in my primary fandom -- an action-heavy animanga franchise full of supernatural/fantasy elements -- I don't mind quiet little regular modern life office/bookshop/college/etc. AUs at ALL. (It's very much fandom-specific, though -- I would be so utterly uninterested in a non-fantasy AU for something like LoTR, Mononoke, etc; but something about this one series, the draw for me is so much about the characters and their interaction rather than the specific MacGuffiny plot or inconsistent worldbuilding, so if you keep the characterization and relationship dynamics consistent I will happily read them ANYWHERE and enjoy it.)

Anything in which the world has gone to shit. Whether it be post-apocalyptic, everyone has been enslaved or totalitarian government - I like AU's to make the characters suffer.

My main fandom is epic fantasy... and I have a deep and secret fondness for modern!AU. Even though I have rarely see it really well done (or to my tastes anyway).

Ooh what fandom, anon?

IDK if this is your fandom, but I would kill to read a AOIAF AU set in Corporate America/Wall Street.

Rentboy AUs. Slavery AUs. All other AUs can DIAF as far as I'm concerned, but those two I have unlimited tolerance for.

There can never be too many slavery AUs.

Generally, I love High School AUs. (Man, that's embarrassing to say even as anon.)
In my current fandom, Homestuck, medieval fantasy AUs. Those with the kids as the princes and princesses of Prospit/Derse, Karkat as a peasant, Kanaya as the royal family's seamstress, and anti-troll discrimination. They're all almost the same and I can't get enough of them dammit.

I love high school AUs as well, so we can be embarrassed together, anon.

I can count the decent ones I've found on one hand, but a part of me still likes the concept.

I love post-apocalyptic AUs beyond anything else. And space. And well done historical ones.

I hate D/s AUs and slave AUS

I love historical AUs, especially if they show off a side of the characters or pairing that its usual setting doesn't.

Stereotypical cookie-cutter high school AUs are my guilty pleasure.

I love pirate AUs, space western AUs, and military AUs, but I'm open to reading a lot of them. Slave AUs and D/s universes definitely depend on the fandom and how I'm feeling at the moment- I have two fandoms that lend themselves very well to AUs and I tend to avoid slave and D/s stories in those two, for whatever reason, but will read them in other fandoms.

All of them. ALLLL of them.

AUs of other specific canons, such as Pern!AUs and Daemon!AUs and ASOIF!AUs and all the Disney!AUs (too few of these, anyone got recs?), Sentinel AUs and Highlander AUs (despite never having seen either of those). These days I'm rather craving AUs of some 'grown-up' canons with YA stuff, specifically Hunger Games!AUs and CampHalfBlood!AUs (seriously how is there not any of this in fandom at all?).

Historical AUs. The better researched the more I love them (though ones that exist in that special magical history of no-*isms and *-phobias, have an equally special magical place in my heart) and the more unusual the setting, the more I adore.

Genre!AUs like space-opera!AUs (ok, in practice they mostly seem to be Firefly!AUs) and western!AUs and regency!AUs (not seen many in my fandoms though) are awesome too. And yes, I would like to see more epic fantasy AUs too, that is such a cool idea.

Generic modern-day!AUs like university AUs and HS!AUs and coffeshop etc, these I can also like but I have a slightly higher standard for them. (possibly due to their ubiquity)

University AUs/high school AUs are my guilty pleasure. I also love D/s AUs but my favorite are fandom AUs.

Generally I just like what-if AUs. I might try other sorts if they have an especially gripping summary, but generally I think they're more fun to think about than to read; I once spent an excellent evening plotting out a combined Norse mythology/early English monastery AU for Naruto, of all things.

I don't read a lot of AU, so don't have a favourite type. When I do read them, I generally enjoy it, but it depends on a lot of factors. Wind direction, my neighbour's horoscope, etc.

I'm less likely to go for a "what if" scenario that uses established canon as a starting point (I might want to write that more than read it); I'm more interested in fic that transplants the characters in a different universe/environment. But those scenarios have to be really interesting to me to begin with (so no coffeeshop/highschool/university for me). Apocalyptic and noir AUs were a big thing for me a couple of years ago, but I'm a bit bored with them now.

One I read a while back had the main character as a late night radio host and the love interest as a listener, so I was on it like thrush. The fic wasn't that great but the scenario saved a lot for me.

tl;dr -- depends on the fic, how original!

During or post-apocalyptic AUs, political AUs, His Dark Materials AUs. Also D/s'verse stuff, but for some reason I categorize that as kinkfic and not AUs?

I have very little interest in total transplants (coffeeshop, university/high school, historical, putting the characters into the overall plot and situation of another movie, etc) unless it's idfic.
Idfic: rentboy/prostitution AUs, finance/corporate AUs, lawyer AUs :D

The kind of AUs that read more like overlays- I'm thinking particularly of daemon AUs and directedverse (straight up D/s verses squick me instead)- are gorgeous. They maintain the relationships between characters, allow for the original occupations and settings and plots under many circumstances, and have just enough change to be interesting. I like canon-based AUs for the same reason.

Vampire AUs. Yes, I'm part of the problem.

Ones which are well written, and take place after a given point in already established canon!

I love non-kinky wingfic.

Secondses says hello, and suggests that you come over to the Compound. Seconds has some really good ideas for AU's, and wants to talk the plot points over with you.