User blog comment:Lordganon/ASB, Historical Fantasy, and Future History/@comment-82.139.5.13-20111204094013/@comment-352226-20120126085228

"An Independent" fits the original and most useful definition of ASB. It has people and nations acting in ways that they normally wouldn't, without explaining why. That's what the Bats are originally for: they fly in and make people act in weird and inexplicable ways. Later the meaning of "ASB" tended to move in 2 directions - some said it could only mean specifically supernatural, non-realism elements, while others use "ASB" as shorthand for "I don't like it."