Mundane AU

Mundane AU is a term that is sometimes used to refer to an Alternate Universe fanwork set in a Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror canon where all the genre elements have been removed. The resulting AU takes place in our own mundane world without magic, non-human creatures, time travel or alien technology. (The opposite concept is a Magic AU.)
Some fans use the term Non-magical AU for fandoms like Merlin or Harry Potter with canonical magic. In BTVS, the term All Human AU is used when Spike and/or Angel are written as human. In X-Men, these are generally called "non-powered AU"s. In some fandoms there is no standard term. You might see a story header like, Dean and Cas are in high school, but there's no Demons and Cas isn't an Angel. High School and College AUs are popular choices when a fan makes a mundane version of a genre source. In Gateverse fandoms the term Earth AU is often used, but it can also include stories that are set on Earth, but still retain some genre elements.
Some fans do not like the trope, and think it's just badfic or crackfic. Or, if they're into the canon for the genre elements, stripping them away may take all the fun out of it. In the header for a Kingdom Hearts story on ff.net, Hades' Phoenix says, "This fic will also retain things like magic, potions, and moogles because it's just no fun to write a purely mundane AU."
Sometimes the character is so closely tied to the parts of the canon that a Mundane AU removes, they become a different person. This might actually be the attraction for fans of the trope. If you write about Spike as a human, you are, in a negative image way, still talking about Spike the vampire. You might also just want to write your favourite character as someone who hasn't murdered scores of people. Or you might want to write about the characters on your favourite show working at a coffee shop.
==Appeal==
The trope works well and is popular in some fandoms and not others.
The peace and lack of danger is an aspect of the trope that may be related it its appeal.
In a reposted conversation between hradzka and thefourthvine about AUs in general, thefourthvine says:
She generally makes the point that AUs, particularly mundane AUs, work when the characters in the canon are more archetype than three-dimensional character intertwined with the setting. SGA is absolutely a fandom with a huge number of Mundane AUs. 
trobadora came out and asked about the attraction of All-Human AUs in 2009 and lots of people gave lots of answers that covered the gamut from badfic, to easier to write, to separating individual from identity. 
Sailor Moon fandom at one point was heavily saturated with Usagi/Mamoru mundane AUs, which were heavily criticized both for being so far removed from the original series and for twisting Usagi and Mamoru into sexist caricatures found in the standard romance novel. One of the most notable examples was Lady M. Harris's Dance Beneath the Moon, in which Mamoru was a doctor and Usagi a schoolteacher and their torrid affair resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.
==In Canon==
*Supernatural showed Dean and Sam in a fantasy world where their mother didn't die and they weren't raised as hunters in the Season 2 episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", and the angels put them in a fantasy world where they were corporate drones and not brothers in the Season 4 episode "It's A Terrible Life". They also crossed over into an alternate universe without the supernatural in which they were temporarily swapped into the bodies of television actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki in the Season 6 episode "The French Mistake".
*Stargate: SG1 showed Teal'c in a fantasy world where he was a human firefighter on Earth in the Season 6 episode "The Changeling".
*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showed Benjamin Sisko as Benny Russel in the episode "Beyond the Stars". Benny was a sci-fi writer in the 1950s who had written a story called "Deep Space Nine".
*The 20th Pokémon movie, I Choose You, featured hero Ash Ketchum suffering a nightmare in which Pokémon did not exist, he went to an everyday school, and everyone was content with life simply being what it was. The animation featured washed-out colors and Ash struggling to remember what existed beyond this life, finally waking up when he heard Pikachu calling out to him.
== Comments by Fans==
sheron in response to Sexuality and slash fandom (2007 post):
The 2014 tumblr post Yes You Are Allowed attributed mundane and domestic AUs to a hesitance to take risks due to social justice culture:
queen-roger in 2016:
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanart===
*Can't Sleep by flymetosnarryland (Snarry Muggle AU)
===Fanfiction===
*Works tagged Alternate Universe - Non-Magical (includes Alternate Universe - Mundane) at the AO3
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Glossary