I think switching lines within a universe counts as a 'what if'. Pop culture references are good when it's fairly obvious that that's what they are, ie the character would know the ref and be quoting it deliberately. The problem comes when the character says something as if it's completely original to them. Like eg someone from before Shakespeare's time speaking lines from MacBeth.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 02:59 pm (UTC)