What Makes a Story Original? ✧Reading Alchemised Beyond Its Past✧
I’ve seen so much polarized discourse online about this book, mostly about its fanfiction origins and whether it “should” exist. I just wanted to add my two cents to the discussion
Well, I’ve actually started reading it, and honestly? It’s fascinating to see how much the story has grown into its own world. People forget that Harry Potter itself is built on a set of deeply familiar archetypes : a magical school or institute, a tortured hero MC, the “good order vs bad order” duality, a slightly caricatural villain, a prophecy. The originality of the HP world was never in inventing new archetypes, but in how those tropes were combined and exploited.
That’s why I find Alchemised so interesting: it shows how you can take the same building block and completely reinterpret them into something new.
I was deep into the HP fandom back in the day (fanfiction.net, Drarry, Dramione, Lily/James…) all of it. But over the years, I really outgrew that fandom, especially as J.K. Rowling became more and more openly transphobic. Even though I’d heard a lot about Manacled, I never felt like returning to that world. So I’m genuinely glad Alchemised exists because it offers a whole new universe to explore, detached from that space.
A lot of people say it’s “impossible” to separate a story from its source when it begins as a fic, especially because of characterisation. But I think that’s false. Many fanfictions don’t follow canon at all : they reinterpret it. Take Dramione fics, for example: so many portray Ron as possessive or manipulative, which is clearly not the canon version. And that’s exactly what makes fanfiction compelling : it’s not imitation, it’s transformation.
If we accept that, then yes, it’s absolutely possible to take archetypal figures and rewrite them through your own lens until the story becomes fully yours.
What makes Alchemised stand out, to me, is that Sen Lin Yu actually rebuilt their entire world. They didn’t just rename characters, they transformed the foundation. They’re also a trans author who’s been very clear about wanting to move away from the HP sphere, asking people not to circulate their old fic illegally and that deserves respect.
When people mention the “fanfic-to-publication pipeline,” they often stop at Fifty Shades of Grey or After but there are so many others. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram… all started as fics before finding their way to bookshelves. Some of them barely resemble their origins anymore.
So why is Alchemised getting so much backlash, especially on TikTok? I can’t help but feel there’s a layer of transphobia in how people talk about Sen Lin Yu : the intensity, the moral outrage, the refusal to let them move on from their fandom past. It’s not just about “ethics in publishing” anymore... it’s about who we allow to reinvent themselves and who we don’t.
I know the fanfic-to-publishing pipeline raises complex questions about access, privilege, monetising fandom work and creative ownership and I’m not pretending to have all the answers. I understand that it can encourage a view of fanfiction as just a “pre-published draft,” changing the fandom culture from gift-sharing to profit-seeking and potentially shrinking the space for free creative play. But I also think it’s a space of transformation, where writers who’ve honed their craft in fandom can step fully into authorship.
That’s partly why I’m writing this, not to take a definitive stance, but to stay curious, to understand more, and to keep the conversation open.
So I’ll be reading Alchemised as its own book, on its own terms.
Not “the Manacled rewrite.” Just Alchemised.
