Writing advice
KRYAL'S CROSSOVER CREED: Equal Opportunity Awesome, and its prerequisites: equal opportunity competence, amazement, and involvement.
Guidelines for Crossover Fanfiction (borrowed from Lady Salazar)
1. Power levels must mesh. If doesn’t matter if you think universe A kicks so much more ass than universe B, crossovers where one side drastically owns the other are auto-fail. For believable conflict, and thus an interesting story, sometimes canon apparent power standards must be modified. Doing this heavy-handedly will make the other universe fans angry. Not doing it at all is worse. Just use a little logic, people. If the lead of one universe is nearing forty, and one’s a teenager, the passage of time alone allows for growth. Just because area-of-effect spells aren’t commonly seen in HP doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Hell, Pettigrew blew up a street and killed a dozen Muggles with one spell. I repeat: Pettigrew.
Example: Naruto ninjas have greater speed? Meet Harry Potter apparation. Why isn’t it used in HP combat? Well, think about it. Two wizards using apparation in a battle are going to basically have a high-stakes game of tag, based more on luck than skill. Sensible duelists are going to go for skill, thus minimal apparation. And there’s always the chance that one may be dueling within an anti-apparation ward.
2. Both universes must be present to some extent. In other words, a character crossplant is not a crossover. A boy raised in the ninja world called Harry Potter who’s not involved with Hogwarts, Britain, Voldemort, etc. is called an OC. Just because you call a random LotR elf ‘Harry’ does not mean it’s Harry Potter or a crossover. Call this the ‘if it looks like a duck’ principle. If it looks like a ninja, acts like a ninja, talks like a ninja, was raised like a ninja, and never had contact with magic or the magical world, it’s likely a ninja, not a wizard.
3. Share the pain, share the glory. Anakin Skywalker is the one Chosen to bring balance to the Force. Taking down Voldemort is Harry’s job. Even if it’s a HP/Star Wars crossover, and you think Anakin owns Harry, they are both leads and heros. Respect that, instead of flipping Harry the literary middle finger, and the crossover’s chances of being a success instead of auto-fail drastically improve. It’s one thing to expand a hero’s duty to encompass another universe; gloryhounding in favor of your preferred lead is an entirely different animal.
Corollary: Reincarnation-style crossovers can avoid this issue entirely, but only if done well and carefully. If Harry’s the reincarnation of Namikaze Minato, something of Harry must remain - he must still use magic, still interact with the wizarding world/Harry’s friends, etc. - or you have ventured into the land of lead-replacement, another auto-fail.
4. A crossed universe must be internally consistent. This consistency will usually come at the price of an altered canon, with alterations varying from minimal to great. Wait, Merlin was an Ancient? That’s kinda neat, but not HP-canon relevant. On the other hand, if the crossed universe involves Harry being a son of Sparda, then post-GoF canon is by necessity blown out of the water. One, because devils and demons will be a known if uncommon threat, and two, because the potential consequences of Voldemort’s rebirth are positively hellacious. Handwaving this is almost certainly auto-fail.
5. Good and evil are subjective. As easy as it is to draw lines in the sand, the Good Guys of respective universes are not always going to agree on what Good is. Sam and Dean Winchester kill supernatural stuff. Wizards are supernatural. Even more importantly, megalomaniacs out to enslave the world don’t usually team up. Use each other, yes. And even a megalomaniac out to enslave the world may find himself fighting with the forces of Good against a megalomaniac out to destroy it utterly. For a skilled writer, this can be very fertile ground. Very, very difficult to pull off realistically, yes, but to do so would likely transcend the bounds of epic storytelling.
Guidelines for Crossover Fanfiction (borrowed from Lady Salazar)
1. Power levels must mesh. If doesn’t matter if you think universe A kicks so much more ass than universe B, crossovers where one side drastically owns the other are auto-fail. For believable conflict, and thus an interesting story, sometimes canon apparent power standards must be modified. Doing this heavy-handedly will make the other universe fans angry. Not doing it at all is worse. Just use a little logic, people. If the lead of one universe is nearing forty, and one’s a teenager, the passage of time alone allows for growth. Just because area-of-effect spells aren’t commonly seen in HP doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Hell, Pettigrew blew up a street and killed a dozen Muggles with one spell. I repeat: Pettigrew.
Example: Naruto ninjas have greater speed? Meet Harry Potter apparation. Why isn’t it used in HP combat? Well, think about it. Two wizards using apparation in a battle are going to basically have a high-stakes game of tag, based more on luck than skill. Sensible duelists are going to go for skill, thus minimal apparation. And there’s always the chance that one may be dueling within an anti-apparation ward.
2. Both universes must be present to some extent. In other words, a character crossplant is not a crossover. A boy raised in the ninja world called Harry Potter who’s not involved with Hogwarts, Britain, Voldemort, etc. is called an OC. Just because you call a random LotR elf ‘Harry’ does not mean it’s Harry Potter or a crossover. Call this the ‘if it looks like a duck’ principle. If it looks like a ninja, acts like a ninja, talks like a ninja, was raised like a ninja, and never had contact with magic or the magical world, it’s likely a ninja, not a wizard.
3. Share the pain, share the glory. Anakin Skywalker is the one Chosen to bring balance to the Force. Taking down Voldemort is Harry’s job. Even if it’s a HP/Star Wars crossover, and you think Anakin owns Harry, they are both leads and heros. Respect that, instead of flipping Harry the literary middle finger, and the crossover’s chances of being a success instead of auto-fail drastically improve. It’s one thing to expand a hero’s duty to encompass another universe; gloryhounding in favor of your preferred lead is an entirely different animal.
Corollary: Reincarnation-style crossovers can avoid this issue entirely, but only if done well and carefully. If Harry’s the reincarnation of Namikaze Minato, something of Harry must remain - he must still use magic, still interact with the wizarding world/Harry’s friends, etc. - or you have ventured into the land of lead-replacement, another auto-fail.
4. A crossed universe must be internally consistent. This consistency will usually come at the price of an altered canon, with alterations varying from minimal to great. Wait, Merlin was an Ancient? That’s kinda neat, but not HP-canon relevant. On the other hand, if the crossed universe involves Harry being a son of Sparda, then post-GoF canon is by necessity blown out of the water. One, because devils and demons will be a known if uncommon threat, and two, because the potential consequences of Voldemort’s rebirth are positively hellacious. Handwaving this is almost certainly auto-fail.
5. Good and evil are subjective. As easy as it is to draw lines in the sand, the Good Guys of respective universes are not always going to agree on what Good is. Sam and Dean Winchester kill supernatural stuff. Wizards are supernatural. Even more importantly, megalomaniacs out to enslave the world don’t usually team up. Use each other, yes. And even a megalomaniac out to enslave the world may find himself fighting with the forces of Good against a megalomaniac out to destroy it utterly. For a skilled writer, this can be very fertile ground. Very, very difficult to pull off realistically, yes, but to do so would likely transcend the bounds of epic storytelling.