Crossovers?

[Shuko]

What do you think about them?

I've got a soft spot in my heart for nearly any kind of crossover. :3 I guess it goes back to when I was a kid, and I used to get so excited if one or more characters from my favorite cartoon series would team up and fight together, or just meet up in wacky circumstances. At the time I didn't know what a crossover was, but now that I do, the intrigue is still there. I've written a couple of incomplete ones, and I'm in the middle of a big one, but I really like reading well-written ones.

Do you like crossovers? If so, what kind would you say do you like the most? My favorites are when the characters unite to face a common enemy. I'm not against pairings, but it's just not my thing, lol.

 

[Gazmof]

They've never really appealed to me. Well, I find the concept interesting, but I've rarely seen any crossovers where I've liked both series that are being crossed over, and when I do I always find they've been written poorly or there's no backstory to why the characters are together. The author just says "Well they are!" and assumes that's a good enough explanation.

I like fics with some history or background, and unfortunately I've yet to see a crossover which contains those elements.

 

[Ryuusei]

Depends on the thing really.

The best crossover I read was Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE with xxxHOLiC, and those are actually real life *****. Er... Wait, that's *****.

It depends. I've seen lots of Digimon Crossovers (Seasons 1 with 4 or something, that kinda stuff)

 

[Isfahan]

I've seen the law of diminishing returns at work in crossover writing—what little I've read, admittedly.

Generally, from what I've seen, the number of different sources of characters crossed is inversely proportional to the quality of the story. Two sources can be done well, or even three if the author is particularly talented. I don't think I've ever read a decent crossover with four or more sources in play. It's just too silly.

A writer might be able to superficially satisfy fans of particular sources by putting their favorite characters in, but I find myself more concerned with whether or not there's any actual story to be digested. Stories usually come about by conceiving a plot first and then creating characters to put in it rather than the other way around. It's a huge warning sign to me when someone rattles off a list of source material and characters for their crossover but not what these characters will be doing or why I should care to find out if I'm not already gaga over seeing anything with Character X in it.

Reading crossovers is just sort of a minefield, it seems. Much of it comes off as author self-indulgence and effort taken to find the few good ones could be better put to use reading more focused, plot-conscious stories.

 

[Ledian_X]

I like crossovers if they are plausible and make sense like intercompany crossovers in comics. I tend to do that with characters in my universe and whoever writes in it too. They show a great unification and that all characters' stories take place at the same time. Good examples of this include: Civil War, Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Infinity trilogy.

Then there are crossovers where people from diff genres meet up. If they are plausible and make sense then sure. It's been done in the Star Trek/X-Men comic and later novel. Stuff like say Sonic meeting Spider-Man would not make a lick of sense.

When you do a crossover like that, you should make sure both characters are written well and like the original characters. That would require a lot of research.

Then again massive company wide crossovers can get out of hand and you just want to say....No More Crossovers.

LX

 

[PDL]

Stuff like say Sonic meeting Spider-Man would not make a lick of sense.

I remember seeing an Archie/Cable crossover comic once. That was probably the least likely "offcial" crossover I've seen.

but I'll quote myself from another thread to show my opinion on fic crossovers

My only tip is to not do a crossover.

While they may seem fun to do, they are actually very hard to pull off properly, infact, I've never actually seen a serious crossover fic that actually was well written and fun to read.

First off, your deciding to crossover 4 completely separate fandoms. While It's possible to write a well-written crossover fic with two very simlair fandoms (a Recess/Hey Arnold fic for instance), a fic with 3 fandoms is next to impossible, 4 is a guaranteed train-wreck.

Secondly, all of these fics have almost nothing to do with one another, while Recess and Hey Arnold are very simlair in that they involve gangs of kids, Pokémon and the Simpsons are going to appear very out of place.

Thirdly, your going to find yourself catering to one fic while ignoring the others. This is pretty much impossible to avoid. Why would it be called a Simpson's fic when only a single part actually has Simpsons in it? It's also important that your fic caters to a wide variety of readers, being a pokémon website, there are going to be more pokémon fans here then Simpsons/Hey Arnold and Recess fans. As Psychic already said, It'll be impossible to find readers that are interested in all these fandoms that will read your fic.

Don't make a crossover, because from the sounds of it, it's pretty much doomed to fail.

 

[Shuko]

Wow... I had no idea crossovers were that difficult to pull off. o.o I thought I had a pretty good idea for my own crossover, but now I'm not so sure. I'm not extremely talented, and my fic involves crossing Mario, Zelda, and Sonic the Hedgehog fandoms, so with three in one, it's really hard, right?

Hrm... well, just because it's hard doesn't mean I'm disinclined to try. I enjoy a challenge, and I'm not afraid of failure either. I was going to ask if any of you could recommend a really good crossover fic I could read, but it seems that there are few around here. My own so far doesn't have any reviews, so maybe it's the stigma about crossovers that's going against it. I hope that's not the case, though. I want to read some others too, and if people don't usually submit them, it'd make it that much harder to find them, lol.

 

[duncan]

Well, I've never tried a crossover (no reason to, really). And I've been tainted by way too many bad crossovers. My only advice is to make it tasteful. Like everyone has already said, too many things can completely kill it. Just keep it down to two or three fandoms, and try to keep the amount of characters down so everything makes sense.

 

[Dragonfree]

I think crossovers can work just fine, but only when they're crossing the universes in such a way that they are compatible. For example, my fic The Type Chart is a Pokémon/The Matrix crossover, which of course would make you cringe if it involved Neo becoming a Pokémon trainer or something like that. However, that is not how it crosses the universes: it takes the concept of The Matrix (the world we live in isn't real, but a simulation created to make us unsuspecting while being farmed for energy for another species, but certain people have discovered the truth) and mixes it up with concepts from Pokémon that happen to work out surprisingly well with it (the real world is the Pokémon world, and in fact we are all Pokémon being used to produce energy for humans while recalled into special Pokéballs; certain Pokémon have managed to break out of their Pokéballs themselves, however, and are trying to help others do the same). In this case, neither of the actual canonical storylines ever happened - both the Pokémon video games and animé and The Matrix were published to make those who spread the truth seem like lunatics. Of course, I don't think The Type Chart would work out at all if it weren't a humourous parody - crossing these two fandoms at all would be too ridiculous in itself to work out as anything serious.

There are other fandoms whose universes are pretty compatible in a much more extensive way, such as just about all fictional material that happens in "the real world" unmodified (or rather, only modified in aspects that are not touched upon in the other fandom involved). Technically it is easy to imagine all such stories to be happening in the same universe, even if the actual stories are vastly different (I've heard about a Harry Potter/LOST crossover, for example, and while very different in tone and nature, they are perfectly compatible since nowhere in Harry Potter does it specify that the island does not exist and nowhere in LOST is it specified that Hogwarts and wizardry do not exist in the way portrayed in the Harry Potter books). This opens up opportunities to actually respect both canons and have characters meet. This type of crossover can also work out.

However, anything that is not either a purely conceptual crossover (with no characters or events from either fandom involved) or a crossover between perfectly compatible universes (where the two canons happen in the same universe obeying the same laws and do not contradict one another anywhere) is pretty much doomed to fail on account of sheer ridiculousness and lack of sense. It can maybe work out as a short work of humour, but no more than that. And even a conceptual crossover is stretching it; if the concepts both blatantly scream out their particular fandoms, it will never work unless treated humourously as with The Type Chart.

 

[Psychic]

When I went to an Animé convention, there was actually a Panel (basically a more loose lecture) on Fan Fiction writing, and for awhile the Panel Heads talked about crossover fiction.

Now, there ARE fictions that can cross over just fine like Dragonfree mentioned, and would actually make a ton of sense. I don't remember both fandoms that were specifically mentioned, but I remember that it was Stargate and something. Basically, in one fandom this fic used, there was a species called the Ancients, and since the other fandom included some sort of character with the same name, it was just possible to combine and connect the two fandoms through this little thing. Who's to say you can't put Buffy the Vampire Slayer into the Charmed series - if I'm not mistakes, vampires and other such creatures exist in both, so why can't the Charmed girls meet and maybe try to help Buffy some day?

Of course, some fandoms are just never meant to be mixed. At the Panel, one of the Heads kept bringing up this god-awful Pokémon-Gundam Seed fic. Those two are probably rather hard to mix - after all, does that mean that there are giant Pikachu and Rhydon mechas flying around outer space? I mean, unless you have a really great idea for that one, I can't really see the two fandoms mixing very well.


Personally, I tend to stay away from crossovers just because they generally take a LOT of time and effort to pull off well, and from what I've seen, they tend to be done by less experienced writers who aren't really interested in spending ages trying to make two words connect in a logical way. If you have a Yu-Gi-Oh Pokémon fic where it's all one universe and Pokémon cards are used instead of Dual Monsters, I would totally read it because it has the potential to work. But Digimon and One Piece? That's just a waste of time waiting to happen, unless it's for comedic purposes. XD

If it's a comedy, anything goes. Otherwise I say be very careful with how you execute it.

~Psychic

 

[PDL]

If it's a comedy, anything goes. Otherwise I say be very careful with how you execute it.

Even comedy fics need to follow the same guidelines to produce a quality fic, otherwise you'll end up with unfunny tripe.

 

[Apotheosis]

I think it's better to take elements or only a few characters from one thing and cross them over into something else. In fact, my fanfic could be considered a crossover of sorts, but it's very hard to guess what other game besides pokemon is used since I don't make it very obvious. Also some people may even have played the game but not gotten to the point where they would know the characters I included. It's all quite subtle.

 

[ChloboShoka]

I am writing a crossover at the minute. I decided to puase and think it over carefully as I have about at least 10 or 12 fandoms involved. The crossover I am writing at the minute is called paranioa wars community, It was something I did for a school project, then I decided to continue on it.
I believe crossovers are a huge risk. Some work, some don't. However the rules of writing, grammar and spelling applies to all fictions. Fan or orginal, crossover or not. The writing skills should still be decent

 

[Shuko]

Fan or orginal, crossover or not. The writing skills should still be decent

Yeah, but that goes without saying for ALL fanfiction, lol... unless you're trying to insult someone's intelligence.

 

[purple_drake]

Mmm, I have a guilty fondness for crossovers but as people have said, it's so difficult to find good ones, let alone ones which cater specifically to fandoms you want to read.

Usually I don't go for stories with more than one fandom, although there is at least one exception I can think of, which is YuGiOh/Yu Yu Hakusho/another fandom I can't remember the name of because I don't actually watch it. And the story makes sense and is very well written.

I agree with you though, Shuko--stories which end up with inter-fandom romances (or are crossovers for the sole purpose of an inter-fandom romance) usually have me doing an about-face and leaving the thread as soon as cyberly possible.

Myself, I do have quite a few crossovers planned... none for the pokemon fandom (none seriously considered, anyway, although I have played with the idea of how I could cross over with certain fandoms--like Pokemon and Stargate. Fun for daydreaming purposes and thinking up random plotlines, but not so good for actual writing).

Most of my crossovers are Harry Potter ones, 'cos Harry Potter can cross over with just about anything

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

The crossovers I've written, rather than taking a setting or a character, used an idea from series a and transfered that to the world of series b. For instance, Induction of the Black Rocket (which got a Best Crossover prize at Sakura Con) was the confessions of a new Rocket agent. But it was based on the elevator confessions forced out of the Black Rose Duellists from Revolutionary Girl Utena.