Crossovers.
Jul. 9th, 2025 02:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452Sometimes I wished fandom fucked with crossovers more like it used to. *
Maybe I'm not looking in the right places since I know it stills happens, it's just that I remember when fandom crossovers were a massive thing especially during my early days in fandom. Yeah, fanfic fusion AUs exist, but it's not the same. There would be fanworks of various kinds where alternate universes featuring different fictional worlds would visit each other, either already existed in or created a kind of wormhole or portal to go into each other's world. It didn't need to make sense, it just needed to be like "how would these characters from this story interact with these others from this other story?" and that's that. But I rarely see those kinds of fanworks anymore, at least not in the way that it used to thrive in fandom spaces. I only see aspects of it now among the cdrama fandom. Of course, this is mere speculation on my part, I kinda theorize that the rise and fall of SuperWhoLock sort of got people to shy away from doing crossovers in such a way, because it was viewed as "cringe" since it was everywhere and dominated a lot of the fandomsphere especially on Tumblr. Which would be a shame if that were true. There is something amazing and uniquely fannish about crossovers, whether it be fanfiction, fanart, fanvids, or classic image manips, it's always been interesting to see the kinds of creativity fandom can come up with. You might not always know the fandoms in question, but it's nice to see people having fun.
(* I'm including myself in this as well, since I had once created some crossover fanworks in the past but have also unfortunately fallen off that wagon and need to get back on.)
Maybe I'm not looking in the right places since I know it stills happens, it's just that I remember when fandom crossovers were a massive thing especially during my early days in fandom. Yeah, fanfic fusion AUs exist, but it's not the same. There would be fanworks of various kinds where alternate universes featuring different fictional worlds would visit each other, either already existed in or created a kind of wormhole or portal to go into each other's world. It didn't need to make sense, it just needed to be like "how would these characters from this story interact with these others from this other story?" and that's that. But I rarely see those kinds of fanworks anymore, at least not in the way that it used to thrive in fandom spaces. I only see aspects of it now among the cdrama fandom. Of course, this is mere speculation on my part, I kinda theorize that the rise and fall of SuperWhoLock sort of got people to shy away from doing crossovers in such a way, because it was viewed as "cringe" since it was everywhere and dominated a lot of the fandomsphere especially on Tumblr. Which would be a shame if that were true. There is something amazing and uniquely fannish about crossovers, whether it be fanfiction, fanart, fanvids, or classic image manips, it's always been interesting to see the kinds of creativity fandom can come up with. You might not always know the fandoms in question, but it's nice to see people having fun.
(* I'm including myself in this as well, since I had once created some crossover fanworks in the past but have also unfortunately fallen off that wagon and need to get back on.)
no subject
Date: 2025-07-11 10:24 pm (UTC)Interestingly, this also happens to me whenever I watch crossover episodes where I have watched only one show but not the other, and then when I do watch the other show (or at least get better knowledge of it) I'll have a similar reaction, because you get the full context. That's what I want to see more of with fandom crossovers, to be honest, just the sense of bringing people who aren't aware of all the fandoms involved but are curious enough to get context and so they'll understand what the significance or parallels of what is being referenced.
That might actually be part of the problem, trying to make it make sense, when in fact, it doesn't HAVE to. You're exactly right, it's about having the characters interact.
Yeah, and while it doesn't have to make sense it also does require a lot of effort to understand both canon worlds in order for the nonsensical reasons of them interacting, y'know? And I think for some, even if they like the idea of that, actually putting pen to paper to make it happen can be difficult to tackle. Also, some might even consider it too cracky to even consider putting it out there, again going with the "but it's cringe" mentality and thinking that it won't get them noticed in fandom. Which is bullshit, obviously.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-11 10:58 pm (UTC)Definitely!
Pen to paper is one of the reasons I haven't written more crossovers, for sure. Also the fact that even though in my head, certain worlds share a 'verse, I don't necessarily know how I'd bring them together.
Are there really a lot of fans who are worried about "cringe"? That's so sad to me.
Are there a lot of Friendly Fandoms left? I wonder if that's part of it as well. I feel like in the days of SuperWhoLock, for instance, a lot of people were in those fandoms. I know it's still very much a thing for fans to follow one another to new media, but that doesn't necessarily translate to fanfic. (From what I've seen, too, it's been less crossovers and more "we met through Fandom X, we've collectively moved on to Fandom Y". That's just my experience, of course.)