#version of other aus I've seen using afo

[pocketramblr]

am I mistaking you for someone else or are you the one who made Giran Kotaro's dad once?

Haha no yeah that was me, that's a fun au born of a typo but committing to the bit was worth it as it ends up meaning Giran raises his grandchildren and leads to the Todobeards plotline

#step one: mistype 'giran' when you meant 'gran' #step two: realize this is a more fun version of 'Nana realizes her husband is a villain and fakes his death and hides their son' than the #version of other aus I've seen using afo #step three: ok so then it's a battle as giran is trying to hunt down the kid because you know what‚ Nana faking his death was fair‚ but she #didn't have to get the kid involved as Nana then later Gran and other ocs borrowed from apprenticeverse try to keep him hidden #until at last kotaro (idiot) is an adult and rechanges his name to Shimura leading Giran realizing he needs to hide him now from AfO #step four: ??? #step five: Hana and Tenko raised as brokers #step six: Hana falls for Fuyumi but they can't risk openly dating so Tenko is volunteered as Fuyumi's beard #and of course Fuyumi's boyfriend can't stay in her room overnight but the boyfriend's sister can sure why not #the boyfriend can stay with touya or natsuo if he doesn't want a guest bedroom whatever Enji barely even looks at those sons #also as Hana learns more about the todo family drama she gets worried about Fuyumi realizing what she is because she doesn't want to betray #her and doesn't intend to sell any of that info #but then she keeps learning more and can't help but wonder if passing on that info to someone else would be the right thing to do?? but who #Tenko is no help because if Hana asks him what he'd do he just shrugs and says if he needs an alibi for murdering‚ say‚ a top ten hero #he'll let her know #and yes Giran IS smoking even more now from the stress of the grandkids shenanigans #'they're the reason i went so grey so early ' #anon #pocket talks to people

[simkjrs]

Hi! Just a quick writing question. How do you keep au versions of canon characters from feeling like OCs and vice versa? I've been trying to write an OC fic but lately I've been wondering if it might work better as an au Izuku fic. I ask you because your fics always seen so in character even tho you have one where Izuku is like a distortion in the fabric of reality or something. that's one's really neat by the way.

for me, when considering au versions of a character, it basically comes down to: (1) what fundamental characteristics stay, regardless of change? (2) how are their beliefs and their inner world shaped by their alternate circumstances?

let’s consider the case for izuku. for question no. 1, i’d say that some facets of his personality that stay regardless of the universe are:

his tendency to fixate on a subject/topic of interest, which often becomes a driving passion as well. mostly: he’s a nerd who will write, color code, and organize 13 notebooks on heroism if that’s what interests him. although his interests may change between universes, how he engages with them does not.

his tendency to avoid or escape from his own problems, even though he knows he shouldn’t

tendency to devalue himself (this is usually tied to the years of bullying & abuse he suffered at bakugou’s hands)

alarming proclivity to go “self harm is okay then?” and do something extremely inadvisable for himself in pursuit of a goal (which is, more often than not, helping someone else)

this is because izuku considers his health and well-being as a tool he has to be used in pursuit of a goal, rather than a goal in and of itself

quick thinking and analysis, as well as some sarcastic quips if he feels comfortable at the time

loves his friends and family, would do just about anything for them

an unshakeable conviction and impulse to act when concerning his beliefs. he may be nervous, afraid, unwilling, etc. in any other situation or when it comes to protecting himself; but put him in a situation where someone is out of line with his beliefs, and he will act. (i.e. in canon, compare izuku’s normal demeanor with when he yells at todo/roki and i/nasa to get over themselves and get a-heroing. top 10 anime scenes)

so then we have a very good idea of the skeleton of izuku’s personality. we then flesh it out with changes rendered by an au, and consider question (2). 

example #1: in byggualom, izuku still fixates on heroism, so he is still knowledgable about heroes, their laws and history, etc. however, in this au, his passion also leads him to start considering all the flaws that exist within the industry. 

izuku wants to be a hero. in this au, this ambition leads izuku to actually take action – training himself to the point of absurdity, which leads to his strength. then, he finds he has the capability to help others. one of izuku’s strongly held beliefs is that if someone needs help, then you should help. therefore: izuku takes up vigilantism because he’s there, and he can help. he also blames himself for instances when he can’t help everyone the way he wants to, because he’s trained and he can fight and he should be able to do better! he shouldn’t need to burden anyone else with his problems! then we can see how izuku’s fighting prowess and insecurity can coexist, and in fact, are even related.

izuku’s “self harm is ok then?” tendency in this au changes his relationship with bakugou; bakugou fights him, punches him, etc. etc. and izuku goes, “well, it doesn’t hurt me anymore, so it’s okay!” and if bakugou says something hurtful every now and then, well, it’s just words. so izuku suppresses the hurt, anger, and occasional antipathy he feels for bakugou abusing him, and goes out of his way not to think about it. so here we have an internal character arc in the making.

example #2: black dirt under your feet, with afo!izuku. being abused by all for one for the better part of his life, izuku doesn’t have a lot of interests of his own, and in fact actively hides them. however, his analysis & ability to organize information makes him effective at carrying out the missions/tasks he is assigned. 

we know that all for one has been trying to shape izuku into a tool, but izuku manages to hang onto himself because a) his fixation on heroes, and admiration for how they helped others, from before he was taken; b) his core beliefs, i.e. villainy is bad. 

we also know that izuku, in order to survive, has suppressed these facets of himself and molded himself to afo’s expectations until he could plot a way to kill afo. but in order to do this, he had to do things that go against his moral code. izuku, then, is going to carry a lot of guilt and self-hatred, and probably has passive self-harm tendencies in that he lets himself get hurt even though he probably could have avoided it. he also makes his plan to kill afo, fully believing he would be dead afterwards. 

being raised into the villain alliance, izuku has had to learn to lie convincingly, to act, etc. the trauma he’s suffered under afo has also made him taciturn, wary, and mistrustful. he plays his cards close to his chest and will manipulate the people around him to meet his goals – this is what he was taught to do, after all. but some things don’t change, which is that izuku wants to do right. things can be extrapolated from there. 

example #3: with my spirit academia, i ask myself what experiences he went through as a child, and what kind of beliefs they installed in him. for example: did he try and tell others about the spirits, what kind of reaction did he receive? if it was repeated disbelief, then wouldn’t izuku learn that he has to keep that to himself? being unable to share such a large part of his world, wouldn’t izuku be unable to relate as well to the people around him? 

we have a premise, that izuku “should not exist” (for reasons i have yet to disclose), and that the spirits alternately fear him and revile him – except when they’re taking advantage of his skills. how would this treatment affect a young child? i’ll not write more on this but feel free to take a guess. 

so that’s roughly my process for understanding au versions of different characters, so that they are in character but still reflect the changes of my universe. 

i think the difference between an oc and an au version of character really comes down to... what are their fundamental characteristics? if your au character doesn’t share the same fundamentals as their canon counterpart, they’ll come across as ooc. if your oc shares the fundamentals of a canon character, then they could operate as an au version of said character. 

if you want to make sure your oc doesn’t overlap with a canon character, then i’d challenge you to figure out your oc’s fundamental  characteristics, how their personality was then informed by the environment they grew up in, and how that changes their relationships to others. 

hope this helps!

#Anonymous #ask #writing #sorry if this is preachy or pedantic