Alternate Universe
An alternate universe or alternate reality occurs when accepted reality is altered. Characters may actually move into a universe that is separate from their own, they may find themselves in a reality constructed by a powerful being or induced by a drug, or they may find their own universe altered by time travel.
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Alternate Universes and Other Worlds
Fairy realm
Fairies live in a realm separate from ours, although they can move between their world and ours. The land of Oz is situated in the fairy realm.
Episodes: 6.09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe... and 8.11 LARP and the Real Girl.
Oz
Oz can be accessed from Earth through the use of a special key that turns any door into an entrance to Oz. The only other method of entry into Oz is through natural disasters like tornadoes, the eye of a hurricane, or whirlpools.
Episodes: 9.04 Slumber Party and 10.11 There's No Place Like Home
World without Supernatural
Balthazar sends Sam and Dean into an alternate universe, ostensibly to keep the key to where all the angelic weapons are being stored safe from Raphael. They find themselves in a world where their lives are the basis of a TV show, and they are actually actors - Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. In this universe spells don't work, and the supernatural doesn't exist. When they get back to their own universe, Sam and Dean find out the whole thing was a diversion so that Castiel could access the weapons.
Episodes: 6.15 The French Mistake
Apocalypse World
Apocalypse World is located in an alternate universe, one in which the forces of Heaven and Hell are fighting in an eternal battle with humanity caught in the middle. It is connected to the normal world by a portal opened by the Nephilim son of Lucifer -- Jack.
Episodes: 12.23 All Along the Watchtower, 13.01 Lost and Found, 13.02 The Rising Son, 13.07 War of the Worlds, 13.09 The Bad Place, 13.14 Good Intentions
The Bad Place
The "Bad Place" is a world located in an alternate universe, where giant monsters appear to be the dominant species of the planet.
Episodes: 13.09 The Bad Place and 13.10 Wayward Sisters
Scooby-Doo Universe
A ghost sends Sam, Dean, and Castiel into a TV where they enter the world of Scooby-Doo, meet up with the Scooby Gang, and join forces to defeat the ghost.
Episodes: 13.16 Scoobynatural
Tentacle Porn Land
"Tentacle Porn Land", so dubbed by Dean, is the home of the tentacled cosmic deities Yokoth and Glythur. Not much is known of their universe other than that Yokoth and Glythur have consumed most of it.
Episodes: 13.17 The Thing
Episodes Featuring Altered Reality or Alternate Timelines
2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be
A djinn poisons Dean and traps him in a dream state while it feeds from his blood. This AU is commonly referred to as the wish-verse. It is a construct formed by Dean's subconscious arising from one wish - that his mother had never died. As a result, Mary Winchester is alive in the present day, with Sam still attending Stanford and engaged to Jess while Dean works as a mechanic and dates a nurse, but John Winchester is still dead, Dean and Sam have a poor relationship, and everyone the Winchesters saved as hunters are dead.
3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me
Jeremy Frost is able to trap people in their dreams by mixing some of their DNA with African Dream Root. What happens in the dreams affects the dreamer - including death.
3.11 Mystery Spot
The Trickster creates a time loop in which Dean dies in every iteration regardless of what Sam does. When the Trickster is discovered by Sam, he ends the loop with Dean dying. Sam spends six months searching for the Trickster. When he finds him, Sam begs him to bring Dean back. The Trickster says he was trying to teach Sam that Dean is his weakness, and his enemies will use this against him, but he does restore the original time line. Dean does not remember his final death, although it is unclear if Sam remembers the previous six months.
4.17 It's a Terrible Life
Zachariah creates an alternate reality where the Winchesters are Dean Smith and Sam Wesson, two men who are not brothers, and who work for Sandover Bridge & Iron Inc.. They eventually team up to hunt a ghost in the building. At a time when Dean seems to recoil from hunting, Zachariah constructed the reality to demonstrate to Dean that he will always pursue hunting. This reality is simply constructed out of false memories and is not truly alternate per se.
5.04 The End
Zachariah creates a future alternate reality where Sam and Dean are no longer hunting together and haven't been for five years. It's the year 2014 and most of the population are either dead or have become zombies due to the Croatoan virus.
5.08 Changing Channels
The Trickster traps Sam and Dean in a reality based on TV shows and advertisements. The boys finally expose him as the archangel Gabriel, who is trying to teach them to play their roles as Lucifer and Michael's vessels.
6.17 My Heart Will Go On
On Castiel's command, Balthazar goes back in time and stops the Titanic from sinking. This has side effects, changing reality in many ways - Bobby and Ellen are married, Dean drives a mustang, and Cuba is a popular American holiday destination. A confrontation with Fate leads Castiel to reversing the effects, but he leaves Sam and Dean with the memory of what happened.
7.10 Death's Door
After being shot in the head by Dick Roman, Bobby must revisit old memories to try and survive. He remembers a hunt with Rufus Turner, his childhood, the last argument he had with his wife Karen, and times with young Dean.
AUs in Fanfiction
In fan fiction, an AU refers to a story that diverges significantly from the canon in the Show. Generally the writer will choose to alter key events in canon (known as the Point of Divergence (POD) ) e.g. John dies when Sam is a baby and the boys are raised by Mary, Dean doesn't go to hell, or Castiel falls and becomes human.
Some stories may become AU as new information is later revealed on the Show. This is especially true of stories written between seasons, where a fic is based on certain assumptions of what may occur that are then disproved by later canon (also known as being Jossed, a term coined in relation to Joss Whedon and the Buffy verse). In Supernatural fandom the term Kripked was coined to describe the opposite phenomenon - when events in fan fiction are later confirmed by canon.
If a story is generally compliant with major events, the introduction of a sexual relationship between characters - whether it's Wincest, for example, or Destiel, or Gabriel/Balthazar, is not considered to make a story an AU.
Some stories may be set in a totally different universe (e.g. Sam, Dean, and Castiel are professional bull riders or FBI agents). These stories more closely resemble original fiction in that the characters share little in common, other than their names and some personality traits, with their canonical versions. These stories are more common in RPF fics. In RPF AU stories are essentially original fiction, where the major characters are named, and occasionally very loosely based, on real people.
See also
External links
- The Big Damn SPN RPS AU LIST by Janissa11
- SPN AU comm
- Alternate Universes on TV Tropes
