The Flash-Sideways in Lost

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  • #608
    Danielle Puccio
    Participant

    I am a very casual fan of Lost so I am not familiar with a lot of meta on the different timelines, but I do know that there are at least three alternate realities for the ensemble of characters across the six seasons. They have different jobs and have different relationships with each other. Aspects of their personalities are similar, but there are still major changes to their situations; we recognize them as the same people no matter what timeline we are watching them in. It expands upon their personalities and shows they are complex, and in some ways feels like a soulmate AU (aka ‘they were meant to find each other’ sort of thing). When I started reading the transworld piece my first thought was Into the Spiderverse, but I think that works better with the ‘counterpart’ theory presented in the article because all of the spiderpeople are different individuals and have different roles and backstories. Another example is the Star Trek TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror” which is sort of an alternate universe take on the characters. They interact with the ‘actual’ universe and obviously create chaotic scenarios. On one Person of Interest episode, the Machine calculates different end-games for a situation and has to run the odds by predicting how each character would act and then selecting the best option. Similarly, the Machine also shows a character an alternate future where if one different choice had been made, all of the characters’ futures would have been drastically altered – one works for the antagonist instead, one doesn’t die, one never meets another, etc.

    I really loved this reading, especially the part with the ‘components of the bicycle’ example. I don’t like to read AUs but am obviously familiar with how they work and why people write them. It’s such an interesting bit of character study to write a common Coffee Shop AU or something, having to know your characters well enough to convincingly imagine them in a completely different environment. A special episode of the modern BBC Sherlock a few years ago had Sherlock imagining himself and the other characters living in the 1890s instead. I think the bicycle problem in this reading was cool because it made me think of differences in adaptations and what constitutes a particular character. Some characters on The Witcher series on Netflix are people of color whereas in the video games they are white. One character’s name was translated back to the original Polish while all of the others use their English counterparts. Still, we recognize the characters as the same through adaptations despite changes.

    I think this also relates to any canon-divergence fic like fix-its or just anything, or even potentially canon-compliant fic like missing scene or post-canon. Fans can also develop fanon that can either comply with or alter the canon interpretation of a specific character. One question I would have for the writers of the transworld piece would be who decides/interprets what shares an identity or is a counter-part? Everything means something different to everyone. What one
    person says is the same between worlds might disagree with another’s thoughts. With the It films, Stephen King said that with his book he didn’t intend for Richie (or Eddie) to be read as gay. Is Andy Muschietti’s Richie the same as Stephen King’s Richie? How does this impact who fans prefer and how we characterize the character? Besides the obvious change from the character being in a book to being in a movie, how do we interpret continuity or sameness between characters who are presented in different ways by different people, those who are reaching different audiences and have different goals with their creations (like fanfic writers!).

    #685
    Grant Glass
    Keymaster

    Extremely thoughtful response! I often wonder the difference between au and fictionalizing real people. Is there a difference?

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