A Crossover Rant
Sep. 24th, 2003 08:25 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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crossoverficI posted this in my LJ, but I thought I would share the rant here, just to get the ball rolling.
This was supposed to be an essay on keeping canon characters in crossovers from becoming Mary Sues, and instead it blossomed into a total essay on writing successful crossovers. (My opinion only, folks. Have your own and fire away.)
1. Avoid the "You show me yours, I'll show you mine," plot device.
This is a staple of crossover fiction. Two groups meet, realize that they both have secrets to share and after an initial few paragraphs of "Do we trust them?" the two groups exchange their secrets. This is bad. This is unrealistic. There's a reason that secrets are supposed to be . . . well, secret.
Buffy immediately tells Duncan that she's a Slayer. Methos drops all his defenses and explains to Mulder about Immortals and the Game. You see where this is going and quite frankly it's ridiculous. Sure, it speeds up the story and moves the plot along, but it's not all that realistic.
Buffy (and the rest of the Scoobies) are very careful about whom they welcome into their little circle that is the darkness of the underworld. You have to have not only experienced some of the weird creepy shit that goes down nightly in Sunnydale, but you have to have dealt with it. You have to have staked a vampire, or stood up to a demon; you have to have faced apocalypse fully well aware of what it was. Even then there is the distinct possibility that Buffy will just pat you on the head, give you a cookie and send you home where you're safe and out of harm's way.
Part of the reason for this is because it's Buffy's duty to protect. The other reason is because chatting up vampires and demons is a good way to land yourself a nice room with four padded walls and a daily appointment with a man who likes for you to read inkblots.
And don't even get me started on why no one in their right mind would reveal all their supernatural secrets to Fox "The Truth is out there, I must find it and share it with the world" Mulder.
I have been guilty of this. I took pains to make the situation "plausible" so that everyone involved was forced to play their hands, but still in the long run it felt like the encounters and the knowledge had been forced for the sake of the story.
The first time I did this was in one of the first crossovers I ever wrote, "Perceptions." This was a Tomorrow People (TP)/Highlander (HL) crossover, and the TP learned about Immortals when they witnessed Richie's revival after seeing him shot dead. Of course, Richie was put into the situation of explaining all about Immortals and the Game, and in exchange, the TP told Richie all of the fun facts about being at TP.
I cringe now to think upon it. It was heavy handed, and in retrospect, I'm pretty certain that it wouldn't have played out like that. I think that even though Richie might still have been forced to reveal certain truths, the full truth would not have come out. Likewise, I don't think that the TP would have revealed themselves to him at that time. Taking that direction with things would have made for a longer, albeit a much more interesting story.
The second time I fell into this trap was with my Angel/TP crossover, "A Union of Souls." Again, I created a situation where the characters were forced to reveal themselves, this time in the form of the demon Whistler, who breezed in, knowing everything and forcing Angel to reveal himself, and the TP to do the same - or he would.
Again with the cringing. Hindsight is definitely twenty-twenty and if I had to do it all over, I would definitely do things differently.
Crossover stories work better, and more realistically, when the characters involved don't immediately share everything under the sun, and then some. A prime example of this is BK The Irregular's story The Scarab. The Scoobies and SG-1 spend a good deal of time trying to avoid giving each other all of the basic facts; Riley goes to his contacts for help, and even he doesn't get the whole story. This goes on even after a vampire attack, because both parties think that they know better than the other party how this type of thing should be handled.
Realizing that this tactic works better than an immediately stepping forward and spilling of the guts, it is the approach I am taking in my Stargate SG-1/Tomorrow People crossover series, The Sky Full of Stars.
The first story, "Unravel," has most of the main canon characters meet in some form or another: Jack and Teal'c encounter Jade, Megabyte and Kevin in Colorado while Sam and Daniel meet with Ami in London. The Colorado encounter has nothing to do with Goa'uld or the Stargate Program, unless you factor in Cassie whom is the mitigating reason behind the encounter. The London meeting does have to do with the Goa'uld and the Stargate Program, but Ami never learns of this fact. She never learns of this fact even when her mentor is taken as a host to a Goa'uld. And likewise, no one from SG-1 ever learns about the Tomorrow People and their rather unique abilities.
2. Acne, Bad Hair and Attitude Problems or Look Ma, I'm Not Perfect.
The second problem with putting two groups of canon characters together in a crossover is that one has a tendency to play up the strengths of each of the groups of characters. It's a logical, knee jerk way to do it, because basically what we see of these characters every week, they are the protagonists. They are the heroes that we love, adore and feel sympathy for. What fan fic writers sometimes forget is that these characters have flaws, and it's the flaws that actually make for an interesting, sympathetic (and many times annoying) character. Not only that, but if you think about, when diverse groups meet, the flaws are going to stand out a lot more than the strengths because that's just human nature. We notice what's wrong before we acknowledge what's right.
Once upon a time, I was a big fan of Ally McBeal. Ally McBeal did a crossover with The Practice. Now for anyone not familiar with those shows, they are both law dramas. Ally McBeal centered on the law firm of Cage and Fish, with some of the most off the wall, bizarre lawyers and cases that you could imagine. Ally McBeal was described as a dramedy because of its mix of comedy and drama. On the opposite end was The Practice, a very serious law drama. Sounds like an unlikely mix, and it would have been if the writers hadn't acknowledged that both groups were so different that each group was bound to notice the differences.
The Ally McBeal lawyers thought that The Practice lawyers were too uptight and took themselves too seriously. And the Practice lawyers thoughts on the Ally McBeal group? Something along the lines of "I can't wait to finish this case up. All these people are crazy."
Another example that goes above and beyond with illustrating flaws was the first season episode of Angel, "Sanctuary". In this episode, Angel has taken in the rogue Slayer, Faith, and she is having a crisis moment. Faith has broken down in Angel's arms when Buffy arrives. Words are exchanged and tempers flare. Buffy looks like she's in the wrong, she looks like a spoiled little selfish brat, while Angel looks like the hero.
It's supposed to look that way, folks. It's Angel's show, and he is the hero of the moment. For the first time, we actually are presented with Buffy out of her element, in a place where she is not the golden girl of the moment, and her character flaws are laid out for us to see in all their tarnished glory. In my opinion, this was one of Sarah Michelle Gellar's best acting moments, and it was a damned good episode of Angel because it brought out that element.
I'm learning this, slowly. It took me several years to figure it all out, but I'm applying the faults and flaws technique to my current crossover. The characters clash, it's not always happy-happy and most importantly, the Tomorrow People have grown up, developed and everything in their lives is not all black and white anymore. (This was a big one for me because I've felt that they've been stifled and held back as innocent teens for a good while, but I won't go into that here.)
On the other hand, however, writers have to be careful to avoid playing up the flaws of characters too much (which is a general fandom rant as well). Angel is not always the brooding vampire; he does sometimes make a joke and his ability to deal with people has improved dramatically over the years. He plays up the charm when he has to, and he plays up the demon as well when necessary. Jack O' Neill is not always a hard-ass full of biting sarcasm; he picks his moments. Never let the wary be fooled, Jack is not an idiot who speaks out of turn and puts his foot in his mouth - he knows what he's saying and he knows why he's saying it. He's actually an intelligent man who is very attached to and protective of his teammates; he wouldn't be the leader that he is if it were otherwise. And Duncan MacLeod is not always the Boy Scout taking the moral high ground . . . oh, wait never mind.
3. Sacred Cows, Cloven Hooves and The Slippery Slope of the Moral High Ground
Speaking of Duncan MacLeod and the moral high ground, let's tackle that problem. Now, granted this isn't always a problem in crossover fiction; sometimes two groups just naturally come together and work together to resolve a problem. But it's so much more fun and makes for a more entertaining story when they have to fight tooth and nail to get there because of differences of opinions.
Let's start out with the hypothetical situation of Buffy meeting Richie when he rides into Sunnydale. (And just to humor me, we'll say that this meeting takes place in a little land called Denial, all right?) Now, say we've moved past the whole chatting up vampires, and the questions of why this guy carries a honking big sword around and "Hey, didn't he used to have a few cuts and bruises from that vamp ass kicking he took?" This brings us to the K-Immie of the week whom Richie is hunting or whom is hunting Richie. (And knowing Richie, it's probably more of the latter.)
Buffy can't sanction the killing of a human even when that human is a murderer. (Remember Warren?) She wouldn't agree that Richie has to fight and kill this Immortal; she would be rather disturbed by the knowledge that this is a way of life for Immortals. Of course, we know Richie has to fight or run, and as much as there might be truth to the quote, "For he who fights and runs away/May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain/Can never rise and fight again," we know who Richie's mentor was and we know what he will do. Therefore in this scenario, we see Buffy faced with the choice of letting the duel go forward or interfering. If she interferes, is she right or wrong? It all depends on whom you ask; this isn't Star Trek, there's no prime directive here.
Another aspect of the moral high ground argument will be dealt with in my approach in The Sky Full of Stars series. When everyone has learned everything about everyone else and all the cards are laid out, there will come a point where a choice must be made. It will be age-old question that weighs the value of one life against millions - and the answer won't be so black and white as you might expect.
What's right? To allow a Goa'uld who has knowledge of the TP to walk free in exchange for information that could be used against Baal and Anubis, or to kill the Goa'uld? I'm pretty sure you can guess who advocates which and it's definitely a point of contention between both groups of our "heroes."
Right and wrong in many cases, or rather who is in the right and who is in the wrong, is all dependent on whose perspective we're dealing with. After all, if you're a Christian everyone who isn't is damned to hell, if you're Jewish you're waiting for the Messiah, and if you're Hindu you realize that good begets good and bad begets bad, and you work towards freeing yourself from the cycle of physical birth-death-rebirth to achieve moksha.
Who's right? According to their religious beliefs, they all are.
4. Candlelight, Mood Music, and the Question of Romance
All right, I had to touch on this one because I am such a romantic at heart, and I am a 'shipper when I write and I can't help but introduce 'shippery elements into stuff. This little bit of crossover mixing and stirring can be very tricky; readers will either like it or they won't and it has a great tendency to make one, or both, of the canon characters involved look very Mary Sue-like.
What is one of the first cardinal identifiers of a Mary Sue? The character has a romantic relationship, or falls in love with a canon character. That alone should be enough to show you the how and why doing a crossover romance must be carefully navigated.
First of all, the best approach is to not have the characters meet and fall in love at first glance. (Guilty, I admit it. I did it in ""Perceptions.") Make them develop a relationship slowly, just like they would have to do in The Real World. Or better yet, make them have to work at the relationship because of the situation that they find themselves in.
For example, because I am a 'shipper, there will be a crossover 'ship in The Sky Full of Stars (More than one probably). I'm sure I'm not giving anything away by saying that it will happen, and it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster ride because the two parties involved don't go into the relationship openly and honestly. That's a problem in and of itself. They both have their reasons; they are both protecting the secrets that they have to protect, but keeping these types of secrets are not conducive to building trust in a relationship. Eventually, the "fit hits the shan" and their relationship is pushed a good three steps backwards.
5. But You Can Have Two Way Travel Through A Wormhole
Research, research, research. If you're going to write a crossover, familiarize yourself with both shows that you are writing about. Know the mythos, know the rules, and know the laws. Find out what contradicts what and then work out a plausible explanation of why the conflict is there, or why it really isn't a contradiction at all. Don't throw established canon out of the window just because it conflicts with what you want to do in the story.
If you're writing a crossover with Stargate SG-1 and Highlander, and Methos is featured as a character, you damn well better explain how Methos knows (or doesn't know) that the Goa'uld were impersonating Egyptian gods. He was there, he lived through it, he knew of the enslavement of the people of earth. He better have had opinions and reactions to what was going on at the time. And certain things, like flashing eyes, reverberating voices and glowing hand devices are not easily ignored.
Likewise, you can't do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Highlander crossover without acknowledging that there are two groups that call themselves Watchers and that both groups are centuries old. Either they are two separate groups (who more than likely know about the other) or they are two branches of the same group, or whatever else you can come up with to make it plausible. It simply won't work however to have Joe Dawson call up Rupert Giles and trade information without any background explication.
6. A Raft on the River of Denial and Blurring Around the Edges (or How to Get Away with Rewriting Canon)
Listen up boys and girls, because this one is important. The only way to rewrite canon and that is to make the story alternate universe. Period. End of story. Now, when I say, rewrite canon, I am specifically referring to those fics that feature an author's note which typically goes along the lines of something like this:
You know where I'm going with this. Pay close attention now, because I am only going to say this once: If you have to put that many stipulations on what you are writing, then you are not writing in Joss-verse (or Highlander-verse or whatever fandom floats your boat); you are writing an alternate universe story. Accept it, spank your inner moppet, admit it and move on.
That being said, let's acknowledge that sometimes, canon needs a little "tweaking" to make the crossover work. "Tweaking" does not equal "rewriting."
In my story, "Unravel," I plotted and planned and made Cassandra Frasier (SG) a sophomore in college. Too late, I realized that she should have only been a freshman if I was actually paying attention to the timeline, but it's more convenient for her to be a sophomore. So, I left it because it was only Cassie's age and it was only by one year. It's not going to make or break canon in any way shape or form. It's harmless. This is what I mean when I say "blurring around the edges."
Another example of this is that in The Sky Full of Stars series, I've opted to make General Damon (TP) an Air Force General. As far as I know the Tomorrow People never said what branch of the military he worked in, and I need him to be Air Force. And even if they had said, the character never really interacted with US military, so I probably would still have made him Air Force. Changing his military service doesn't change the whole course of canon.
However, if I was to say, decide that Daniel Jackson (SG) had never been married, well that's taking canon and tossing it out of the window. And that is unacceptable because it clearly violates canon. By taking away Daniel's marriage, you take away a good part of what Daniel's mission and motives were for the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 and you change canon, and the character completely.
The last bit of this is that River of Denial. I had a fondness for the character of Richie Ryan on Highlander, not because I thought he was incredibly savvy or anything like that. I liked Richie because as a character, he clearly had the most room for growth and development due to his newly Immortalized status. And while I had no problem with Richie's death, if that's what the writers wanted to do, I did have problems with the way it was done and the uselessness and foolishness of it all.
Now, I have often referred to Richie still being alive as living in the land of Denial, but that's not particularly accurate. I'm not saying that Richie is alive and Season 6 happened, but rather that Season 5 of Highlander up to the last good episode before the travesty of "Archangel" is where Highlander: The Series ends for me. All of my stories branch off into an alternate universe.
I admit this … and it wasn't that hard.
I have found that the best way to deal with canon when writing fan fiction is to pick a stopping point from both shows and consider the rest alternate universe from there. For example The Sky Full of Stars starts in mid-season of Season 7 of Stargate SG-1 and years after the last serial of The Tomorrow People. Originally, I wanted to use Season 5 of Stargate, but some things were done in Season 6 that I wanted to be part of the universe as well as some things established in Season 7. So I made that concession.
I'm sure there are more, but I'm not thinking of them right now.
. . .
This was supposed to be an essay on keeping canon characters in crossovers from becoming Mary Sues, and instead it blossomed into a total essay on writing successful crossovers. (My opinion only, folks. Have your own and fire away.)
1. Avoid the "You show me yours, I'll show you mine," plot device.
This is a staple of crossover fiction. Two groups meet, realize that they both have secrets to share and after an initial few paragraphs of "Do we trust them?" the two groups exchange their secrets. This is bad. This is unrealistic. There's a reason that secrets are supposed to be . . . well, secret.
Buffy immediately tells Duncan that she's a Slayer. Methos drops all his defenses and explains to Mulder about Immortals and the Game. You see where this is going and quite frankly it's ridiculous. Sure, it speeds up the story and moves the plot along, but it's not all that realistic.
Buffy (and the rest of the Scoobies) are very careful about whom they welcome into their little circle that is the darkness of the underworld. You have to have not only experienced some of the weird creepy shit that goes down nightly in Sunnydale, but you have to have dealt with it. You have to have staked a vampire, or stood up to a demon; you have to have faced apocalypse fully well aware of what it was. Even then there is the distinct possibility that Buffy will just pat you on the head, give you a cookie and send you home where you're safe and out of harm's way.
Part of the reason for this is because it's Buffy's duty to protect. The other reason is because chatting up vampires and demons is a good way to land yourself a nice room with four padded walls and a daily appointment with a man who likes for you to read inkblots.
And don't even get me started on why no one in their right mind would reveal all their supernatural secrets to Fox "The Truth is out there, I must find it and share it with the world" Mulder.
I have been guilty of this. I took pains to make the situation "plausible" so that everyone involved was forced to play their hands, but still in the long run it felt like the encounters and the knowledge had been forced for the sake of the story.
The first time I did this was in one of the first crossovers I ever wrote, "Perceptions." This was a Tomorrow People (TP)/Highlander (HL) crossover, and the TP learned about Immortals when they witnessed Richie's revival after seeing him shot dead. Of course, Richie was put into the situation of explaining all about Immortals and the Game, and in exchange, the TP told Richie all of the fun facts about being at TP.
I cringe now to think upon it. It was heavy handed, and in retrospect, I'm pretty certain that it wouldn't have played out like that. I think that even though Richie might still have been forced to reveal certain truths, the full truth would not have come out. Likewise, I don't think that the TP would have revealed themselves to him at that time. Taking that direction with things would have made for a longer, albeit a much more interesting story.
The second time I fell into this trap was with my Angel/TP crossover, "A Union of Souls." Again, I created a situation where the characters were forced to reveal themselves, this time in the form of the demon Whistler, who breezed in, knowing everything and forcing Angel to reveal himself, and the TP to do the same - or he would.
Again with the cringing. Hindsight is definitely twenty-twenty and if I had to do it all over, I would definitely do things differently.
Crossover stories work better, and more realistically, when the characters involved don't immediately share everything under the sun, and then some. A prime example of this is BK The Irregular's story The Scarab. The Scoobies and SG-1 spend a good deal of time trying to avoid giving each other all of the basic facts; Riley goes to his contacts for help, and even he doesn't get the whole story. This goes on even after a vampire attack, because both parties think that they know better than the other party how this type of thing should be handled.
Realizing that this tactic works better than an immediately stepping forward and spilling of the guts, it is the approach I am taking in my Stargate SG-1/Tomorrow People crossover series, The Sky Full of Stars.
The first story, "Unravel," has most of the main canon characters meet in some form or another: Jack and Teal'c encounter Jade, Megabyte and Kevin in Colorado while Sam and Daniel meet with Ami in London. The Colorado encounter has nothing to do with Goa'uld or the Stargate Program, unless you factor in Cassie whom is the mitigating reason behind the encounter. The London meeting does have to do with the Goa'uld and the Stargate Program, but Ami never learns of this fact. She never learns of this fact even when her mentor is taken as a host to a Goa'uld. And likewise, no one from SG-1 ever learns about the Tomorrow People and their rather unique abilities.
2. Acne, Bad Hair and Attitude Problems or Look Ma, I'm Not Perfect.
The second problem with putting two groups of canon characters together in a crossover is that one has a tendency to play up the strengths of each of the groups of characters. It's a logical, knee jerk way to do it, because basically what we see of these characters every week, they are the protagonists. They are the heroes that we love, adore and feel sympathy for. What fan fic writers sometimes forget is that these characters have flaws, and it's the flaws that actually make for an interesting, sympathetic (and many times annoying) character. Not only that, but if you think about, when diverse groups meet, the flaws are going to stand out a lot more than the strengths because that's just human nature. We notice what's wrong before we acknowledge what's right.
Once upon a time, I was a big fan of Ally McBeal. Ally McBeal did a crossover with The Practice. Now for anyone not familiar with those shows, they are both law dramas. Ally McBeal centered on the law firm of Cage and Fish, with some of the most off the wall, bizarre lawyers and cases that you could imagine. Ally McBeal was described as a dramedy because of its mix of comedy and drama. On the opposite end was The Practice, a very serious law drama. Sounds like an unlikely mix, and it would have been if the writers hadn't acknowledged that both groups were so different that each group was bound to notice the differences.
The Ally McBeal lawyers thought that The Practice lawyers were too uptight and took themselves too seriously. And the Practice lawyers thoughts on the Ally McBeal group? Something along the lines of "I can't wait to finish this case up. All these people are crazy."
Another example that goes above and beyond with illustrating flaws was the first season episode of Angel, "Sanctuary". In this episode, Angel has taken in the rogue Slayer, Faith, and she is having a crisis moment. Faith has broken down in Angel's arms when Buffy arrives. Words are exchanged and tempers flare. Buffy looks like she's in the wrong, she looks like a spoiled little selfish brat, while Angel looks like the hero.
It's supposed to look that way, folks. It's Angel's show, and he is the hero of the moment. For the first time, we actually are presented with Buffy out of her element, in a place where she is not the golden girl of the moment, and her character flaws are laid out for us to see in all their tarnished glory. In my opinion, this was one of Sarah Michelle Gellar's best acting moments, and it was a damned good episode of Angel because it brought out that element.
I'm learning this, slowly. It took me several years to figure it all out, but I'm applying the faults and flaws technique to my current crossover. The characters clash, it's not always happy-happy and most importantly, the Tomorrow People have grown up, developed and everything in their lives is not all black and white anymore. (This was a big one for me because I've felt that they've been stifled and held back as innocent teens for a good while, but I won't go into that here.)
On the other hand, however, writers have to be careful to avoid playing up the flaws of characters too much (which is a general fandom rant as well). Angel is not always the brooding vampire; he does sometimes make a joke and his ability to deal with people has improved dramatically over the years. He plays up the charm when he has to, and he plays up the demon as well when necessary. Jack O' Neill is not always a hard-ass full of biting sarcasm; he picks his moments. Never let the wary be fooled, Jack is not an idiot who speaks out of turn and puts his foot in his mouth - he knows what he's saying and he knows why he's saying it. He's actually an intelligent man who is very attached to and protective of his teammates; he wouldn't be the leader that he is if it were otherwise. And Duncan MacLeod is not always the Boy Scout taking the moral high ground . . . oh, wait never mind.
3. Sacred Cows, Cloven Hooves and The Slippery Slope of the Moral High Ground
Speaking of Duncan MacLeod and the moral high ground, let's tackle that problem. Now, granted this isn't always a problem in crossover fiction; sometimes two groups just naturally come together and work together to resolve a problem. But it's so much more fun and makes for a more entertaining story when they have to fight tooth and nail to get there because of differences of opinions.
Let's start out with the hypothetical situation of Buffy meeting Richie when he rides into Sunnydale. (And just to humor me, we'll say that this meeting takes place in a little land called Denial, all right?) Now, say we've moved past the whole chatting up vampires, and the questions of why this guy carries a honking big sword around and "Hey, didn't he used to have a few cuts and bruises from that vamp ass kicking he took?" This brings us to the K-Immie of the week whom Richie is hunting or whom is hunting Richie. (And knowing Richie, it's probably more of the latter.)
Buffy can't sanction the killing of a human even when that human is a murderer. (Remember Warren?) She wouldn't agree that Richie has to fight and kill this Immortal; she would be rather disturbed by the knowledge that this is a way of life for Immortals. Of course, we know Richie has to fight or run, and as much as there might be truth to the quote, "For he who fights and runs away/May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain/Can never rise and fight again," we know who Richie's mentor was and we know what he will do. Therefore in this scenario, we see Buffy faced with the choice of letting the duel go forward or interfering. If she interferes, is she right or wrong? It all depends on whom you ask; this isn't Star Trek, there's no prime directive here.
Another aspect of the moral high ground argument will be dealt with in my approach in The Sky Full of Stars series. When everyone has learned everything about everyone else and all the cards are laid out, there will come a point where a choice must be made. It will be age-old question that weighs the value of one life against millions - and the answer won't be so black and white as you might expect.
What's right? To allow a Goa'uld who has knowledge of the TP to walk free in exchange for information that could be used against Baal and Anubis, or to kill the Goa'uld? I'm pretty sure you can guess who advocates which and it's definitely a point of contention between both groups of our "heroes."
Right and wrong in many cases, or rather who is in the right and who is in the wrong, is all dependent on whose perspective we're dealing with. After all, if you're a Christian everyone who isn't is damned to hell, if you're Jewish you're waiting for the Messiah, and if you're Hindu you realize that good begets good and bad begets bad, and you work towards freeing yourself from the cycle of physical birth-death-rebirth to achieve moksha.
Who's right? According to their religious beliefs, they all are.
4. Candlelight, Mood Music, and the Question of Romance
All right, I had to touch on this one because I am such a romantic at heart, and I am a 'shipper when I write and I can't help but introduce 'shippery elements into stuff. This little bit of crossover mixing and stirring can be very tricky; readers will either like it or they won't and it has a great tendency to make one, or both, of the canon characters involved look very Mary Sue-like.
What is one of the first cardinal identifiers of a Mary Sue? The character has a romantic relationship, or falls in love with a canon character. That alone should be enough to show you the how and why doing a crossover romance must be carefully navigated.
First of all, the best approach is to not have the characters meet and fall in love at first glance. (Guilty, I admit it. I did it in ""Perceptions.") Make them develop a relationship slowly, just like they would have to do in The Real World. Or better yet, make them have to work at the relationship because of the situation that they find themselves in.
For example, because I am a 'shipper, there will be a crossover 'ship in The Sky Full of Stars (More than one probably). I'm sure I'm not giving anything away by saying that it will happen, and it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster ride because the two parties involved don't go into the relationship openly and honestly. That's a problem in and of itself. They both have their reasons; they are both protecting the secrets that they have to protect, but keeping these types of secrets are not conducive to building trust in a relationship. Eventually, the "fit hits the shan" and their relationship is pushed a good three steps backwards.
5. But You Can Have Two Way Travel Through A Wormhole
Research, research, research. If you're going to write a crossover, familiarize yourself with both shows that you are writing about. Know the mythos, know the rules, and know the laws. Find out what contradicts what and then work out a plausible explanation of why the conflict is there, or why it really isn't a contradiction at all. Don't throw established canon out of the window just because it conflicts with what you want to do in the story.
If you're writing a crossover with Stargate SG-1 and Highlander, and Methos is featured as a character, you damn well better explain how Methos knows (or doesn't know) that the Goa'uld were impersonating Egyptian gods. He was there, he lived through it, he knew of the enslavement of the people of earth. He better have had opinions and reactions to what was going on at the time. And certain things, like flashing eyes, reverberating voices and glowing hand devices are not easily ignored.
Likewise, you can't do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Highlander crossover without acknowledging that there are two groups that call themselves Watchers and that both groups are centuries old. Either they are two separate groups (who more than likely know about the other) or they are two branches of the same group, or whatever else you can come up with to make it plausible. It simply won't work however to have Joe Dawson call up Rupert Giles and trade information without any background explication.
6. A Raft on the River of Denial and Blurring Around the Edges (or How to Get Away with Rewriting Canon)
Listen up boys and girls, because this one is important. The only way to rewrite canon and that is to make the story alternate universe. Period. End of story. Now, when I say, rewrite canon, I am specifically referring to those fics that feature an author's note which typically goes along the lines of something like this:
This takes place in Season Four of Buffy, right before the big fight with Adam. Except that Angel never left Sunnydale and Buffy never dated Riley (even though the Initiative is still around) but she still lives on campus with Willow, except that Willow never turned gay and Oz never left, and Willow and Xander never cheated on Oz and Cordelia in Season Three. And Faith is back with the Scoobies because she never tried to kill Angel and she was really just pretending . . .
You know where I'm going with this. Pay close attention now, because I am only going to say this once: If you have to put that many stipulations on what you are writing, then you are not writing in Joss-verse (or Highlander-verse or whatever fandom floats your boat); you are writing an alternate universe story. Accept it, spank your inner moppet, admit it and move on.
That being said, let's acknowledge that sometimes, canon needs a little "tweaking" to make the crossover work. "Tweaking" does not equal "rewriting."
In my story, "Unravel," I plotted and planned and made Cassandra Frasier (SG) a sophomore in college. Too late, I realized that she should have only been a freshman if I was actually paying attention to the timeline, but it's more convenient for her to be a sophomore. So, I left it because it was only Cassie's age and it was only by one year. It's not going to make or break canon in any way shape or form. It's harmless. This is what I mean when I say "blurring around the edges."
Another example of this is that in The Sky Full of Stars series, I've opted to make General Damon (TP) an Air Force General. As far as I know the Tomorrow People never said what branch of the military he worked in, and I need him to be Air Force. And even if they had said, the character never really interacted with US military, so I probably would still have made him Air Force. Changing his military service doesn't change the whole course of canon.
However, if I was to say, decide that Daniel Jackson (SG) had never been married, well that's taking canon and tossing it out of the window. And that is unacceptable because it clearly violates canon. By taking away Daniel's marriage, you take away a good part of what Daniel's mission and motives were for the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 and you change canon, and the character completely.
The last bit of this is that River of Denial. I had a fondness for the character of Richie Ryan on Highlander, not because I thought he was incredibly savvy or anything like that. I liked Richie because as a character, he clearly had the most room for growth and development due to his newly Immortalized status. And while I had no problem with Richie's death, if that's what the writers wanted to do, I did have problems with the way it was done and the uselessness and foolishness of it all.
Now, I have often referred to Richie still being alive as living in the land of Denial, but that's not particularly accurate. I'm not saying that Richie is alive and Season 6 happened, but rather that Season 5 of Highlander up to the last good episode before the travesty of "Archangel" is where Highlander: The Series ends for me. All of my stories branch off into an alternate universe.
I admit this … and it wasn't that hard.
I have found that the best way to deal with canon when writing fan fiction is to pick a stopping point from both shows and consider the rest alternate universe from there. For example The Sky Full of Stars starts in mid-season of Season 7 of Stargate SG-1 and years after the last serial of The Tomorrow People. Originally, I wanted to use Season 5 of Stargate, but some things were done in Season 6 that I wanted to be part of the universe as well as some things established in Season 7. So I made that concession.
I'm sure there are more, but I'm not thinking of them right now.
. . .
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Date: 2003-10-09 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-04 07:27 pm (UTC)But you hit all of the main points of difficulty with writing a crossover.
Including the re-writing canon bit. Or ignoring it. Because, sometimes? There's not other way.
Or, my favourite: "Because I said it did!"
*cough* Which is really a nono.
But! The other one is the, "Everyone is Instantly the Best of Friends! Hee!" type.
Buffy meets this person, Jack meets that person. Etc. And suddenly, they're the best of friends. They exchange phone numbers and calling cards, and go shopping together for roses.
Not that characters can't grow to like and respect each other -- even in situations of Dire Peril. Sometimes, you can't get away...
I... had a point. Somewhere. *eyes strawberry schnapps*
Blithely dancing around canon, or fitting bits into a puzzle where they fit is also chancy. You have to get it right.
...I'll come back later and try this, shall I...
no subject
Date: 2004-01-01 02:35 pm (UTC)Crossover couples are generally a bad idea, especially with already established couples. I have found that the best ones involved characters that were already single.
About the secret thing, you are right when you said that it is unrealistic for people to suddenly tell important secrets to people they just met. Even trusting people (myself included) wouldn't tell their biggest secrets to someone new.
-Iapetus
lol, i'm dumb
Date: 2004-06-19 06:46 pm (UTC)