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thefourthvine) wrote2008-04-25 08:14 pm
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]
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]
This got kind of long
The other difficulty with crossovers is tone. Something like Wodehouse or Carebears has a very distinct tone and that can be hard to make work. With Carebears it isn’t usually a problem since a lot of the appeal seems to be warping the source, like the infamous Yuletide Carebears fic or this crossover (http://community.livejournal.com/mollyscribbles/7942.html), but it would be really hard to do a Wodehouse crossover well.
Re: This got kind of long
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Yeah, definitely. Although I have seen some - like, I saw one SGA x LotR in which John was an elf who had just kind of never gone to the Grey Havens. And it did work. But that's definitely the exception.
Oooh, I should look those up. Vorkosigan crossovers have never worked for me yet, but there's always a first time.
Harry Potter/Yu Yu Hakusho crossover The Best Defense because I couldn’t imagine how you could make that work, but she did, mainly by taking advantage of the separation between England and Japan to postulate very different conditions and styles of magic.
Do you think I'd need to know Yu Yu Hakusho to get the crossover? *curious*
but it would be really hard to do a Wodehouse crossover well.
The big advantage with Wodehouse seems to be Bertie's first person narration (which is also its biggest disadvantage for fan fiction, because that voice is hard to get right and a travesty if done wrong) - the narration basically forces the tone.
It's like the OMG so brilliant Saki x Wooster and Jeeves x Temeraire crossover that Afrai wrote - she's using Saki's tone there, not Wodehouse's, but they're very similar.
Hmmm. That could have made more sense, but maybe you see what I mean? My point is: a really strong narrative voice can actually work with you, not against you, in a crossover, provided you have the voice nailed down.
Re: This got kind of long
Vorbarra Honeymoon (http://legionseagle.livejournal.com/19679.html#cutid1)
Can't Trace Time (http://legionseagle.livejournal.com/6831.html)
Best Defense (http://www.foreverfandom.net/viewstory.php?sid=44&textsize=0&chapter=1) focuses more on the Yu Yu Hakusho characters, so it would probably help to have at least a vague idea who they are. The first ten character descriptions here (http://community.livejournal.com/crack_van/2277355.html) would be cover it.
A Wodehouse/Temeraire crossover does sound entertaining. I suppose it's less that Wodehouse is hard to crossover, as it is tricky to get right at all, but I can see how it could work if you did.
Re: This got kind of long