That is, by "major plot twist" we mean that something happened somewhere along the plot that is drastically different from canon.
Let me use DHIL release as an example. Prior to finding out about DHIL, the audience assumes DH is a normal person, aka ages regularly like Welt or Himeko. From the audience's perspective, DH's reluctance to set foot on Luofu without knowing about DHIL is constrained to what he could have done as a regular person to make him persona non grata. If someone came up with a Xianxia fanfic about dragon people existing on Luofu and actually DH was their leader and there was a huge political mess that got DH exiled from Luofu it would seem like it ought to be tagged as AU. Sure, the location name might still be 罗浮, but the story is not "sci-fi" like Belobog (which sets the expectations for the HSR universe). Even more so if the fanfic makes the previously assumed to be regular teenager DH a 200-year-old dragon person. Prior to DHIL (patch 1.2?), this would seem extremely AU.
But then DHIL is released (plot twist), and actually DH was a dragon boy all along! He's actually older than he looks! He has magic! For the audience, the constraints of canon has suddenly shifted. Dragon people can exist. Magic reincarnation is a thing. Magical control over water can happen. These things that used to "violate the setting" are suddenly canon. This is what I mean when I say the plot twist is effectively a setting change. The audience's understanding of the rules of the universe has so dramatically shifted that the story might as well have taken place in another universe.
I prefer the whole metaphysics of Aeons either be vaguely canon-compliant (if relevant to the story), or ignored (as in not relevant to the story), but preferably not replaced by some other underlying system
Right, so in my previous DHIL example, I'm pointing out how the audience's understanding of the system completely shifted with the Luofu arc. There's nothing stopping HSR writers from going "actually, the aeons are gamers and the entire HSR universe was one giant Impact 3rd TTRPG campaign and we were writing a story-within-a-story this whole time".
Now if that happened, I would argue that it is perfectly reasonable to say, "that plot twist is stupid, I reject your reality and replace it with my own". Similarly, for certain aspects of HSR metaphysical rules, like infinite hyperspace personal storage, if someone decided "that's a stupid narrative explanation for a game play QOL feature, I'm ignoring it", I would say that's also perfectly reasonable.
On the flip side, if someone decided "I'm writing a historical AU with the Xianzhou characters because the canon story is practically a period drama anyway", I would argue that's a perfectly reasonable AU and the lack of paths and aeons wouldn't cause OOC-ness. Borisins are recast as the northern nomadic tribes. The Wingweavers are recast as an island nation. Foxians are minority immigrants who integrated. Etc. Like sure, the setting is different, but that doesn't really alter the character (personhood) of the Xianzhou characters.
Or say an Aventurine/Ratio fic is set in an AU where Aventurine is part of the board of directors of a global megacorporation and Ratio teaches at a prestigious university. That setup, whilst not part of the original HSR universe, still preserves the original character dynamics. I'm questioning how absolutely necessary the existence of IPC and Intelligensia Guild and having Aventurine/Ratio possessing powers (the setting) is to keeping Aventurine and Ratio in-character. It sounded like you're saying that kind of AU would still make the characters OOC, because there's no paths to walk and they wouldn't have their powers per the HSR setting.
no subject
Let me use DHIL release as an example. Prior to finding out about DHIL, the audience assumes DH is a normal person, aka ages regularly like Welt or Himeko. From the audience's perspective, DH's reluctance to set foot on Luofu without knowing about DHIL is constrained to what he could have done as a regular person to make him persona non grata. If someone came up with a Xianxia fanfic about dragon people existing on Luofu and actually DH was their leader and there was a huge political mess that got DH exiled from Luofu it would seem like it ought to be tagged as AU. Sure, the location name might still be 罗浮, but the story is not "sci-fi" like Belobog (which sets the expectations for the HSR universe). Even more so if the fanfic makes the previously assumed to be regular teenager DH a 200-year-old dragon person. Prior to DHIL (patch 1.2?), this would seem extremely AU.
But then DHIL is released (plot twist), and actually DH was a dragon boy all along! He's actually older than he looks! He has magic! For the audience, the constraints of canon has suddenly shifted. Dragon people can exist. Magic reincarnation is a thing. Magical control over water can happen. These things that used to "violate the setting" are suddenly canon. This is what I mean when I say the plot twist is effectively a setting change. The audience's understanding of the rules of the universe has so dramatically shifted that the story might as well have taken place in another universe.
Right, so in my previous DHIL example, I'm pointing out how the audience's understanding of the system completely shifted with the Luofu arc. There's nothing stopping HSR writers from going "actually, the aeons are gamers and the entire HSR universe was one giant Impact 3rd TTRPG campaign and we were writing a story-within-a-story this whole time".
Now if that happened, I would argue that it is perfectly reasonable to say, "that plot twist is stupid, I reject your reality and replace it with my own". Similarly, for certain aspects of HSR metaphysical rules, like infinite hyperspace personal storage, if someone decided "that's a stupid narrative explanation for a game play QOL feature, I'm ignoring it", I would say that's also perfectly reasonable.
On the flip side, if someone decided "I'm writing a historical AU with the Xianzhou characters because the canon story is practically a period drama anyway", I would argue that's a perfectly reasonable AU and the lack of paths and aeons wouldn't cause OOC-ness. Borisins are recast as the northern nomadic tribes. The Wingweavers are recast as an island nation. Foxians are minority immigrants who integrated. Etc. Like sure, the setting is different, but that doesn't really alter the character (personhood) of the Xianzhou characters.
Or say an Aventurine/Ratio fic is set in an AU where Aventurine is part of the board of directors of a global megacorporation and Ratio teaches at a prestigious university. That setup, whilst not part of the original HSR universe, still preserves the original character dynamics. I'm questioning how absolutely necessary the existence of IPC and Intelligensia Guild and having Aventurine/Ratio possessing powers (the setting) is to keeping Aventurine and Ratio in-character. It sounded like you're saying that kind of AU would still make the characters OOC, because there's no paths to walk and they wouldn't have their powers per the HSR setting.