Is anyone else like, kind of sick of the “infection AU” trope that I’ve been seeing floating around recently?
Reason I’m posting this is because I deadass saw infection AU explained videos for Jujitsu Kaisen and Plants VS Zombies, and I realized how, well, obnoxiously “infectious” this trend has become.
I mean I can see the appeal in turning recognizeable characters “cOrRuPtEd aNd ScArY” or whatever but like it just feels so overdone and kind of just stupid
Like when are we getting an infection AU that’s just a completely normal scenario which parallels something like COVID, that’d be way more interesting than pretty much everything else.
You see the point is that people making infection AUs pretty much want to use popularity of the series to boost the idea that is also based on the power system in the said franchise
If you really want to think about it then most of the zombie games you could find are infection AU as well
Tfw the only one you’ve ever seen is Abyss Sea because it’s constantly resurfacing on the forums (no hate to the Abyss Sea community y’all are great it was just the only example I know)
Abyss sea isn’t really that egregious imo considering there canonically already is an infection-like presence in AO as is in the form of DS mutation, but this infection trope becomes an issue when it invades fandoms that seriously do not have any business with being edgy or scary, like MLP
As far as infection AUs go overall though I think abyss sea is definitely one of the more reasonable and modest examples of the trope. Dare I say, it’s actually done tastefully
An infected atlantean sailor makes more sense in the context of the source material, compared to like, Bluey with her jaw unhinged and all savage with the evil zombie virus or some shit
Dinosaurs was mostly Hugo having his own version of the AU, and since hes basically the only one who posts about the AU still yeah I could see the confusion
I still dont consider there being a definite canon so anything really goes
Ive tried to make sure most of what was considering “fact” in the AU was something thats plausible in the context of the AO world
I wouldnt have made AS if not for the existence of Atlanteans and the Dark Sea, and honestly Ive been more interested in exploring the environmental/ambience changes to the world during the invasion rather than the transformation aspect now
its fun to imagine your favorite characters in certain scenario
but it can be boring if its just some unknown virus that grows more and more powerful and scary
although some infection aus are pretty more interesting like
one that has parasites that eat you inside out, and you wont notice a thing until its already too late
really got into the plot but forgot how these series were called
but overall, its heavily depends on promise and its execution
even dumbest story can be turned into masterpiece by some fan
Idk man I think it’s kind of hard to make the (insert children’s show) zombie infection horror AU done in any way that’s graceful and doesn’t come off as absolutely unhinged or just straight up weird
Which is where most of my grievance comes from with this concept, taking shows or media and just, shoehorning in an infection AU regardless of quality
