Lazy Saturday post

[dolorosa_12]

Today's two fandom meme questions are so outside of my general approach to fandom that I've been staring at them for quite a while and wondering how to answer them (although I had an amused moment contemplating the idea of the Peaky Blinders characters as contestants on Bake Off). But it's hot, and I'm tired, so I'm going to be lazy, and throw things over to you.

Instead of answering the questions, I'm going to pose one of my own: for those of you who enjoy crossovers, fusions, and setting change AUs, what it is that appeals about them? I always love to hear about other people's different approaches to fandom, and different tastes when it comes to fanworks.


Day 9: Drop the cast of a fandom you follow into a reality tv show - who/what/why?

Day 10: Drop your OTP or small ensemble from the fandom they're in into another fandom - how do they do?


Day 11: What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place?

Day 12: Who is someone that you share the most fandoms with?

Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.

Day 14: What fandom broke your heart?

Day 15: What fandom pairing took you over like Venom took over Eddie?

Day 16: Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon?

Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?

Day 18: Recall a time when two of your fandoms collided, at least in some way. For example, a song that you fell in love with from one fandom showed up in a second fandom.

Day 19: What is something that you associate with a character in fandom, but aren't sure if it's canon or fandom?

Day 20: A random character shows up at your doorstep at dinnertime saying a friend sent them. Why did your friend send that person, how does it go, and what do you talk about?

Comments

[lyr]

I do sometimes enjoy a good fusion or crossover. I like it when a cool concept I like is applied to a group of characters I like, especially if it fits well with the characters and their relationship dynamics. I especially enjoy it when that crossover or fusion allows the writer to explore an aspect of the characters or world that canon didn't.

[dolorosa_12]

That makes perfect sense! It's like another kind of canon divergence, and can show characters or their world in a new light.

[forestofglory]

My enjoyment of crossovers comes form getting to see how characters form multiple sources might interact. It can be an interesting lens on the characters and/or just fun.

Fusions are more complicated. Sometimes I just like seeing character in different settings . But a fusion can also be a way of highlighting thematic similarities between two sources. Or similarities and differences between two the characters. Its a way putting works in direct conversation.

[dolorosa_12]

a way putting works in direct conversation is a great way of looking at it.

[sophia_sol]

I love setting change AUs that are basically....any setting except modern day (I still read modern aus because there's a lot of them, but I'm not intrinsically attracted to them!). What I like about the setting change au is a) getting to see interesting and different worldbuilding, b) seeing how that world affects the characters, and c) seeing the ways in which the characters are still themselves even when everything around them is different. More or less treating setting like an interesting and relevant character in itself, and smooshing it with the other characters to see what happens!

Not all setting change au writers are in it for the same thing I am, but when they are, I find it so much fun.

(I like crossovers and fusions for basically the same reason; they can be another way of changing the setting in interesting ways!)

[dolorosa_12]

I think disliking modern AUs is very common! From the sound of things, you are a huge fan of worldbuilding, so I can see why that would make setting change AUs appeal.

[sophia_sol]

I wouldn't say I dislike modern AUs! I have really enjoyed plenty of them, for a variety of reasons. I just don't actively seek them out the way I do other things :)

[chestnut_pod]

I actually like fusions but not crossovers! I never feel the need to see characters from different canons interact, and I feel like it tends to encourage writing where each character is the shallowest, brightest version of themselves. Fusions, on the other hand, tend to be thoughtful explorations of the thematic implications of the setting-world and the core personality traits of the characters. The most common one I see is His Dark Materials fusion, which can be truly phenomenal, but I have also enjoyed, in the past, Harry Potter fusions and Pacific Rim fusions.

[superborb]

Yes! I too love fusions, but crossovers tend to be less interesting. At this point, most HDM fusions are just the dressing of daemons (cute animals!) so I tend to be less interested, but fusions that explore worldbuilding are some of my favorites

[dolorosa_12]

That makes a whole lot of sense, and I can see why you like fusions. They're like a way of digging deeper into characters and relationship dynamics.

For me, as an HDM fan, I find them a bit frustrating, because when I'm looking for HDM fic it normally involves filtering out a whole wall of dæmon AUs featuring the characters from Sherlock, the MCU, Supernatural, and so on. But that's a problem with AO3's tagging system, rather than an objection to HDM fusions existing in the first place!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, I can imagine! Thank goodness for the "exclude crossovers" button on AO3; I find it very useful myself when digging through older LOTR stuff :)

[lirazel]

Oooh, I wrote a very short Pacific Rim fusion once and it was so fun!

*whispers*StarTrekfusion*whispers*

[lirazel]

for those of you who enjoy crossovers, fusions, and setting change AUs, what it is that appeals about them? I always love to hear about other people's different approaches to fandom, and different tastes when it comes to fanworks.

I used to be part of this community on lj where we all wrote short fics (usually 300-1000 words, sometimes actual drabbles, sometimes slightly longer) based on monthly prompts and it was specifically for crossovers. I had a lot of fun in that comm because it was a small group of us (about 20 or so?) and we watched mostly the same shows (so, like, the Buffyverse, Friday Night Lights, Veronica Mars, The Black Donnellys, Supernatural, even Gossip Girl--the stuff that was airing at the time or had just aired) and it was just interesting to see if you could create a believable little ficlet involving two characters who didn't know each other. (I actually have several of my favorites of these up on AO3 to this day.) But that was more about the fandom experience of doing it with friends than it was about the inherent appeal of crossovers. I never would have written those fics on my own.

Other than that, most crossover thoughts I'm into are either not actually crossovers since they're set in the same loose universe (for instance, I have a lot of feelings about how Buffy and Gunn should have interacted) or are set in canons that have the same ~vibe~ to me (for instance, I once wrote a fic about Lux Lisbon from The Virgin Suicides/William Miller from Almost Famous and another time I wrote a fic about two characters from two different kdramas that felt mash-up-able to me). So there's got to be a...connection between the two. Do they feel like they could already inhabit the same world? If so, I can go there.

As for AUs (as opposed to canon divergence), the only kind I really like to write are post-apocalyptic ones, because I like to imagine the characters in extreme situations. (Like I once wrote a zombie apocalypse AU for Nothing Much to Do, which is about as far from that canon's vibe as possible!). Oh and also Star Trek AUs. I have written two of those. But that's probably just because I love Star Trek as a universe so much and also Lan Wangji already acts like he's half-Vulcan.

[dolorosa_12]

Ooh, I would have loved to see Gunn and Buffy interacting in canon! (In general, I wish we had had more crossovers between the Buffy and Angel characters, although of course the change in networks probably had a lot to do with why that didn't happen.)

That LJ comm sounds really fun, and a great way to stretch your creative muscles.

I also just love hearing about people's different approaches to fandom, their tastes in fic (both reading and writing), and the reasons behind them, so this was really interesting to read.