thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2008-04-25 08:14 pm
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Poll: Crossovers, Oh My

Recently, I was moderately flabbergasted to come upon a Highlander x Yami no Matsuei crossover. I had one of those moments of staring blankly at the computer screen, trying to figure out if I had experienced a sudden linguistic disconnect, and maybe in this language "Highlander x Yami no Matsuei crossover" actually meant "now we all get cake" or something, because surely such a thing, defined as I understood it, was totally impossible.

And then I read it, and realized that, no, it isn't impossible, and I was forced once again to reflect on the fact that Highlander seems to be a fandom that is just very open to crossovers. I know that's partly because, hey, you've got 5,000 years of mostly unfilled Methos backstory, and who is to say he didn't pick up a young Christopher Keller in a gay bar? He could have! He could also have spent fifteen years traveling around with Doctor Who. I mean, it's not like he'd necessarily bring either of those things up in conversation. But also, just, the Highlander universe seems to be unusually smooshy - it is totally willing to cozy up to, maybe even move in with, other canons, as I'm reminded every time the HL newsletter comes out and most of the new stories are crossovers.

Naturally, I got to wondering: what other fandoms are particularly crossover-friendly? And that led, inevitably, to thoughts of those fandoms that are much, much harder to work into crossovers. Which led to thoughts of AUs, which in turn took me to a terrifying meta place, and Best Beloved had to come talk me down. "How about a poll?" she said. "Polls are fun! And, also, you can probably finish one before you fall asleep." (Whereas with actual meta - at the rate I'm currently finishing stuff, I'd have it ready for posting in, um, 2012 or thereabouts, assuming no delays for rain.)

So perhaps you would like to write my meta for me? I offer ticky boxes as incentive!

[Poll #1177790]

[identity profile] kindkit.livejournal.com 2008-04-26 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
I call them "Giles went to Hogwarts crossovers" because, well, if Giles had gone to Hogwarts, wouldn't he have mentioned it before this story?

There's also the problem of a universe being referred to as fictional in another universe. There's a Harry Potter reference in Buffy, which for me kills of all possibility of crossovers, at least without some very deft explaining. Similarly, in Doctor Who there's a reference to the Doctor reading the HP novels.

[identity profile] paper-tzipporah.livejournal.com 2008-04-26 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
I like to just ignore those little throwaway lines. There's a lot of excellent fiction out there that I wouldn't have read, otherwise. Like, in Farscape, Crichton bitches about missing episodes of Buffy, but if you ignore that one tiny joke, VOILA, brilliant Farscape/Buffy fic is perfectly reasonable.
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[identity profile] holli.livejournal.com 2008-04-26 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
I am actually better able to handwave, say, Dean mentioning watching BtVS than Dean failing to notice the existence of Buffy-style vampires and demons in his universe.

Yes, I realize that this makes no sense, but in my head, the latter requires *much* more handwaving.
brownbetty: (Default)

[personal profile] brownbetty 2008-04-26 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh man, ditto. I mean, it's one live vs. DIFFERENT LAWSY OF THAUMATURGICS.
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[identity profile] musesfool.livejournal.com 2008-04-26 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
Pfft. We resolve this the way they did on Homicide, by completely ignoring it. In season 3 Munch complained that nobody was coming to the bar opening because they were home watching X-Files and then in season 6 he actually crossed over onto the X-Files.

[identity profile] malnpudl.livejournal.com 2008-04-26 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
Wow. Munch gets around, doesn't he?
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[identity profile] musesfool.livejournal.com 2008-05-06 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, he's got the record for character appearing in most television shows or something - Homicide, L&O: Original Flavor, L&O: SVU, X-Files, some other cop show I can't recall the name of, The Wire, and Arrested Development.

[identity profile] daegaer.livejournal.com 2008-05-02 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
In an episode of Millennium told from some demons' pov, there was a scene of some TV series being filmed that looked awfully like the X-Files!

One of the most canonically crossovery characters ever is Detective Jon Munch who has been shown on Homicide; The X-Files; Law and Order (original series and SVU, possibly others as well) and I know I'm missing at least one other show. (I've heard that if you follow the chain of official show crossovers you end up with a hospital drama, the last episode of which reveals the whole show to have been a fantasy of a child patient, thereby inadvertently making all the other shows by extension also his fantasy ;-)