alternate universe n. 2

I am not trying to attack a Kirk/Spock sexual relationship in general. It is just that when an author uses terms from a particular ‘alternate universe’, that author ought, in my opinion, be limited by the boundaries of the universe that the terms imply. I don’t believe that a homosexual relationship for Spock and Kirk is legitimate in the KRAITH universe, and I therefore object to certain aspects of ‘Aftermath’.

In Kraith Collected we met an alternate universe Spock whose Kirk had died.

[T]he alternate story lines are sometimes as fascinating and fun as the original versions. If my own universe gets blown to shreds by ROTJ I’ll be a bit upset probably, even though I fully expect that to happen, but at that point I’ll simply consider mine an alternate universe and stay with it, possibly starting a new line to go with the official one. We’ll see.

I think what I was really after was a hierarchy of secondary canon. What is secondary canon and what is alternate universe? Where does tradition fit in? What is their order of importance or believability?

Alternate universes basically offer one thing: alternates. We do want to see different sorts of conclusions, right? We don't want to see Qui-Gon die so we re-invent scenes where he doesn't die. We don't like this particular scenario and a whole legion of fics can start from there. Such are the joys of a/us. There are stories with Jim and Blair bonded together. There are stories with Chakotay and Paris married and having children. The moment a fan-fic writer starts writing, she is essentially starting an alternative universe of her own. She is creating a world as she sees it .

‘Ae Fond Kiss’ falls into the category of AU (Alternate Universe stories): it imagines Elizabeth Bennet working as a schoolteacher in present-day Glasgow, while Jane Bennet is recast as a social worker, and ‘Bill Collins’ is an irritating mature student whom Elizabeth meets at a training college.

In The Man In The High Castle show, Tagomi is able to travel to an alternate universe where the Axis did not win WWII and the world looks much more similar to our real history. But is the alternate universe in the show meant to be our real universe? My initial assumption was yes, but then they show that the Japanese were able to develop a hydrogen bomb and test it in their territory. That never happened in our reality, so does that mean the alternative universe is not our universe?

The key to an alternate universe is the reason it exists—the aforementioned ‘what if?’ coupled with the question of ‘why?’—otherwise known as the divergence point.

In 2024, popular fic author SenLinYu announced that her famed Harry Potter story ‘Manacled’, set in an alternate universe and focused on Draco and Hermione, would be traditionally published under a new name and premise.