What if a what if isn't a what if?

Today I read a story called "Chosen One" which was about what if Willow was the Slayer instead of Buffy? And the whole thing was pointless; a retread of the first episode of the series, and hardly anything was different. It all ended up the same way anyway -- with Buffy hanging with the "losers" crowd, just that the Slayer happens to be Willow instead.
Fine.
If that's what you want.

But what is the point of changing things if nothing changes?!!??

I really get irritated by stories like that. Like a Stargate/LotR crossover which plonks SG-1 in the middle of the story, with them travelling along with the Fellowship, and Nothing Changes. Except Sam gets the hots for Legolas. Hmmmm. Self-indulgent much?

I get irritated by AUs and crossovers where nothing happens. And AU crossovers where nothing happens, even more.

Look, the point of a "what if" is in the nature of a scientific experiment: if you change this variable here, how does it change the final outcome? Yes, it is possible that the final outcome won't be changed, but you have to convince me of that, not just inertia your way along. It could well be that the point of the story is to say "yes, they are Doomed", but, well, as I said, you have to convince me of that. Why would the Council of Elrond let these complete strangers be part of a secret mission? Why would Cordelia's crowd shun Buffy when it was Willow who was doing the wierdo stuff? (just to take these two examples of forced inertia).

(sigh) I don't think I'm saying this right...

This is similar to the irritation I feel when I read a crossover which ignores or glosses over the initial meeting of the two groups, and/or makes everybody be nice to each other because everyone is heros. It is so bland. We've lost the most interesting bit, the potential conflict, the grist to the mill, the imaginative bit.

Yes, the temptation in crossovers for many people can be to avoid the "explain" bit as much as possible because they think it will be boring. But I feel as if it's like having your cake and eating it too -- the freshness of a "first episode" (and for how many shows is the first episode one of the best -- quite a few) while at the same time being in the know: that's one of my favourite things about crossovers.

I don't have a term for this thing that is irritating me. Whatever it is, it's bland, lazy, sometimes self-indulgent... missing the point. Because I guess to me the point of AU (Alternative Universe) stories (where the "what if" is "what if this happened differently?") is to change things. And I think you have to work harder to convince me that things won't change, because I'm firmly convinced, as a matter of world-view, that individuals do make a difference. So if a particular individual is or isn't there, then that's going to make a difference.

I mean, take LotR for instance. There were so many things in the Quest that depended on such slender threads, that if you had a what-if where, say, an LotR fan got plonked in there with a copy of the book in her head, anything she did or said about it could cause the Quest to fail even as she tried to help. I mean, about the only change I can think of that wouldn't be a potential disaster would be if Boromir didn't get killed, and even then, things could go wrong. I haven't looked at very many LotR AU fics, but most of the ones I have looked at have been dark; with things worse off than before. Like the short but poignant one where Sam killed Gollum earlier, and then ended up jumping into the Cracks of Doom with Frodo in order to destroy the Ring. Dark and gloomy. But that's the point: it's biting the bullet, considering the consequences.

Having some imagination.

Which then brings me to the next most common flaw with Alternative Universes -- specifically, Alternative Histories, generally of an SF flavour (and this is with mainstream SF as well as fanfic), where some historical event happened differently. Thing is, they're usually good at the initial extrapolation, but the trap they usually fall into is to consider that the extrapolation is linear, and that history sort of stops, with no other Great Events happening between the Change point and the Now point (the point at which we enter the story). Such as stories which posit the Roman Empire going on forever just because of the avoidance of one event.

Of course, it isn't really fair of me either, because I'm asking them to imagine the unimaginable. Realism is hard to attain because truth is always stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense, you see.