December Talking Meme

[lunabee34]

lyr asked me: What's your little black dress fandom? You know, that fandom you find yourself trying to crossover with everything else - whether you actually write it or not.

I have several answers to this seemingly uncomplicated question. :)

In terms of writing, I am most compelled to crossover the Gateverse with all the fandoms ever. I really enjoyed figuring out how to mesh together the worlds of SG-1 and SPN in my Through the Rabbit Hole 'verse because so many elements of each source canon align very neatly.

In terms of reading, Gateverse and HP are the two fandoms I always search for new crossover fics. Gateverse crosses over so well with procedurals like NCIS because of the military/law enforcement connection. It also crosses over well with canons that are magical, like Buffy or SPN, and canons that are sci-fi based, like Star Trek or BSG. HP obviously works well with canons that contain magic, but I really enjoy when HP is crossed over with canons that aren't magical because part of the fun is A) watching the non-magical characters discover that magic is real and seeing how they deal with that revelation or B) exploring how the non-magical characters might behave if they were magical.

I think crossovers get an undeserved bad rap; I admit that the more fandoms involved in the crossover, the less cohesive the story is likely to be, and I don't enjoy reading those monolithic SuperWhoLockTrekVengers crossovers because they are ridiculous. I also think it's less difficult to cross over fandoms that are very different from each other than might be apparent. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of a crossover that neatly aligns elements from each canon (the Goa'uld have glowing yellow eyes? the demon who killed your mom has glowing yellow eyes?), but I also enjoy really unexpected canon choices, like Murder She Wrote + SGA (Jessica Fletcher is Rodney's aunt).

What do y'all think about crossovers?

Comments

[executrix]

I love crossovers SO MUCH. Apart from wanting to fix up my guys, there are so many ways that an outsider's perspective would solve problems that the insiders just can't.

Err, I've been watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (gotta use the punctuation because of my early fixation on Illya Kuryakin) and I might be thinking about a B7 fic with a drop-in Melinda May expy. Who might just kick Tarrant's ass and hook up with Vila.

Zulu: I agree about working out the implications seriously.

Princess: But what about fandom osmosis? I have a lot of info about shows I've never watched and in all probability never will.

[lunabee34]

The outsider POV (which is something I always enjoy) is one of the big draws for me. I like seeing how our intrepid heroes come off to others who aren't in the know.

Fandom osmosis doesn't work all that great for me in terms of fic enjoyment. I'm not interested in reading in fandoms where I'm not familiar with the source material unless it's a really tiny part of the fic or inconsequential.

[princessofgeeks]

I do have some fandom osmosis, but not as much as you'd think. I'm really an outlier here and I realize that.

Hi!

[executrix]

Hi princess!

I suspect everyone in fandom feels like an outlier, it's the pixelated equivalent of the other line always moving faster.

[lunabee34]

Naw, I don't think so.

I mean, hardly anyone on my flist is posting fic for or meta about stuff I'm watching or fannish about, and while I get some references from those shows, I mostly just don't read those posts. LOL So, I remain very ignorant about a lot of the juggernaut fandoms.

[princessofgeeks]

OK you're just trying to make me feel better, right? LOL.

Seriously -- I know at least 60 percent fewer fandoms than the average person on my F list. And certainly I don't know the popular crossover fandoms.

Or if I do know them, it's not an enticement for me to read.

I was intrigued by one of your commenters who said that they tend to crossover Firefly with everything, and honestly I do see that. :)

[lunabee34]

No, I think we're legit in the same boat. LOL

My flist is full of White Collar and Teen Wolf and Sherlock and Elementary and Hawaii 5-0 and Sleepy Hollow and etc., and I have no idea about any of that.

Firefly has some awesome crossovers. There's some really good Buffy ones. Exec has written a couple. And some good SPN ones; there's an amazing one where Dean ends up on Serenity that's by sevenfists, I think, and it's so so so awesome.