Crossovers
Nov. 17th, 2007 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyoreI've been thinking a bit about crossovers recently - writing them and reading them. Lucky you, I feel like sharing :)
I've seen crossovers get a bit of a bad rap, but I have to say I really like them* - I think it really gives the characters (and the author!) a chance to stretch their wings.
Consider when you have the observation of canon characters by characters of a difference canon. It gives the 'new eyes, new appreciation, new perspective' of an 'outsider POV' fic, but in this case it comes with an added bonus - because the observer isn't a cypher, their observations can shed just as much light on their characterisation as the characters they are observing.
And the same goes for character interactions - the way they respond to one another can through light on both characters, especially when you have a pair/group with strong similarities as well as distinct differences. Such interactions can make the differences and similarities in very apparent to the reader, without the author having to draw direct attention to it in the fic.
Plus, there's the fact that I love seeing the characters tossed out of their comfort zone, and I love seeing one set of characters I love meeting another set. Not to mention the technical challenges of getting the canon together in the first place - while it's easy(ish) in some cases (SG-1 get an alert about possible Goa'uld activity in a small town in California), it can be a lot harder to sell when one canon is set in, say, 21st Century earth and the other is in a galaxy far, far away (of course, sometimes this doesn't matter, depending on the fic).
*Done well - all of this applies to well done crossovers, of course. Done badly? I hate watching people mangle two sets of canon even more than I hate watching it done to one.
But that's just what I think - What about you?
[Poll #1090050]
I've seen crossovers get a bit of a bad rap, but I have to say I really like them* - I think it really gives the characters (and the author!) a chance to stretch their wings.
Consider when you have the observation of canon characters by characters of a difference canon. It gives the 'new eyes, new appreciation, new perspective' of an 'outsider POV' fic, but in this case it comes with an added bonus - because the observer isn't a cypher, their observations can shed just as much light on their characterisation as the characters they are observing.
And the same goes for character interactions - the way they respond to one another can through light on both characters, especially when you have a pair/group with strong similarities as well as distinct differences. Such interactions can make the differences and similarities in very apparent to the reader, without the author having to draw direct attention to it in the fic.
Plus, there's the fact that I love seeing the characters tossed out of their comfort zone, and I love seeing one set of characters I love meeting another set. Not to mention the technical challenges of getting the canon together in the first place - while it's easy(ish) in some cases (SG-1 get an alert about possible Goa'uld activity in a small town in California), it can be a lot harder to sell when one canon is set in, say, 21st Century earth and the other is in a galaxy far, far away (of course, sometimes this doesn't matter, depending on the fic).
*Done well - all of this applies to well done crossovers, of course. Done badly? I hate watching people mangle two sets of canon even more than I hate watching it done to one.
But that's just what I think - What about you?
[Poll #1090050]
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 12:35 am (UTC)I adore crossovers... when they're done well. (Of course, I adore slash when it's done well, too, and I don't normally put the qualifier on it.) I think of it as filking an entire universe. Or two at once. I'm all about the poly action.
I keep waiting for someone to write a long, plotty Dr. Who/Firefly crossover. And an X-Files/Harry Potter crossover, where Mulder's on vacation in the UK and runs into these weird people wearing dark robes and waving sticks around
and he winds up in bed with Snape. And a nice Trek/Blake's 7 crossover (which has to involve some kind of wormhole, 'cos they can't just bump into each other)--the Blake's 7 crew don't respond well to anyone claiming to represent "the Federation."Some fandoms cross well into anything; others don't. LotR is hard to cross; Star Trek is easy. (Although LotR could cross with Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Maybe.)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 12:48 am (UTC)http://honorh.livejournal.com/286024.html
It's still a work in progress, but she's almost done with it.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 08:59 pm (UTC)It's obviously 180,000 words short of what it should be, and she needs to write the rest of the season's worth of WhoFly episodes. Now. This week. Before I have to help cook a turkey on Thursday.
This may be the story that convinces my husband that fanfic has something to offer him.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 06:51 am (UTC)