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localfreakI like crossover fiction. Not ALL crossover fiction, obviously, but I like stories where, for example, a character in one fandom time or dimension (or both!) travels to another and has to learn to live there, as a general rule. It is nothing new and sometimes it can introduce me to new fandoms- I learnt more from LOTR from reading cheesy HP/Crossovers (although weirdly I only ever like ones in which Harry/Ron/Snape land in Middle Earth, I don't like the Hobbits coming to Hogwarts), but crossovers sometimes can be just FUN. I love the famous Billionaire Boys Club series, for example, where Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark knew each other from childhood. I like Harry Potter landing at Xavier's school (or I would, except I've only found one good fic for this niche, and it is a permanent WIP), I like esama's brilliant story in which Harry Potter, Master of Death, ends up in BBC!Sherlock world and becomes an object of Mycroft's absolute fascination. I like the fics where Bernard Black is actually one of Sirius Black's relations, and ones where he is secretly a Holmes. Or where Harry is 'Mummy' and James and Albus Severus are Mycroft and Sherlock.
So yes. I like crossovers. But it is quite a niche, and that means quite often the number of really excellent fics written that press my buttons right is very small. In Avengers fandom, Loki is probably the most well travelled and (I'm sorry okay!) most of the time that doesn't work for me. I get bored. There's also a lot of Avengers-as-Hogwarts Students which also doesn't work for me; I think it is because I very rarely like 'no-powers AUs' in any of my fandoms- to be magic, mostly, that means they lose their original backstories and I don't like that- which is why I'd prefer Harry or Ron or Hermione or whoever falling into their world but coming from their original dimension.
Except there's not much of this around yet. There's a LOT of HP crossover, but worryingly the kind of stuff I'd expect to trawl through on FFnet (just try looking for X-Men Wolverine/Gambit slash on FFnet, you'll see what I mean...or Harry Potter/X-Men crossovers- there's one or two decent the rest is SCARILY NOT FUN) on Ao3.
I just opened one now that began(I'm paraphrasing a little just to retain semblance of anonymity) "This is also on FanFiction under the same name written by the same author (me). I apologise for the grammar, I'm dyslexic so please no nasty comments. Also if you don't agree with or like mpreg, slash and/or creature fic's just please go away and save us all the trouble."
Now, I try not to be too much of a wanker about people apologising for grammar and spelling like that, because I know that I can be an ass about issues like that although try not to be purposefully horrible if it's obvious an author is doing their best and, quite frankly, if the story is good enough then I can ignore minor slips here and there- one of my favourite HP gen stories which I'm planning to re-read again soon has some absolute clangers of spellings and sentences but when I'm reading the story is so good I don't care. What bothers me more is when a story is badly written- it's not just spelling but when it's so bad it isn't really telling a story properly, it becomes impossible to follow the plot. FFnet is rife with stuff like that.
Which is why, when I read this I found myself starting to wince (" fic's ") and thinking 'Oh no, FFnet has invaded'.
I immediately realised what an asshole thing this was to think; I know, I'm a wanker. That doesn't however deny the fact that was my first feeling. I haven't read the fic yet, I'm just about to. Maybe it will be terrific, after all several authors I like apologise in advance for their grammar EVERY SINGLE FIC and yet I've never ever found anything seriously terrible about it- certainly their fics are brilliant fun and if there is the odd error here and there it doesn't compromise the fictionality or the sense of the piece.
At the same time, I looked at the other summaries for this particular crossover page. Suddenly, too, there are an awful lot of, for example female!Harry (Potter) with names like Jaylian Sparklight-Potter and Emerald Potter finding herself helpless (grr!) and abandoned in X-Men/Sherlock/Avengers fandom only to end up shagging Cyclops/Wolverine/Sherlock/Any-Male-Avenger-But-Mostly-Loki
And I can't help but worry. Ao3's filtering system is good but I don't think it's reached the stage where it can save me from the kind of FFnet turn out that I call 'the dross'.
So yes. I'm a snob. And an ass. And a wanker.
But I don't want to have to go back to the bad old days of spending obsessive hours trawling through fic in which characters showed as much life as wooden planks just to find the shiny nice ones.
Update: The fic, if anyone cared to know, was on the whole not great. The prose was a bit excessive (lots of Harry as 'the youth' 'the beautiful child' 'ebony hair' 'pearly white teeth' 'dazzling smiles' etc and the author has also demonstrated a total lack of knowledge in terms of where-the-carribean-is-in-relation-to-England-America-Afghanistan-Pretty-Much-Anywhere and a similar lack of research in UK households - the Dursley's hire a maid servant after Harry disappears. Not 'a woman who does' or a 'cleaner' but a maid servant...awkward!turtles) Oh an also has just described someone's cock as his 'instrument nestled between his strongly toned thighs' and 'his large strong organ' in the same paragraph. *cries*
So yes. I like crossovers. But it is quite a niche, and that means quite often the number of really excellent fics written that press my buttons right is very small. In Avengers fandom, Loki is probably the most well travelled and (I'm sorry okay!) most of the time that doesn't work for me. I get bored. There's also a lot of Avengers-as-Hogwarts Students which also doesn't work for me; I think it is because I very rarely like 'no-powers AUs' in any of my fandoms- to be magic, mostly, that means they lose their original backstories and I don't like that- which is why I'd prefer Harry or Ron or Hermione or whoever falling into their world but coming from their original dimension.
Except there's not much of this around yet. There's a LOT of HP crossover, but worryingly the kind of stuff I'd expect to trawl through on FFnet (just try looking for X-Men Wolverine/Gambit slash on FFnet, you'll see what I mean...or Harry Potter/X-Men crossovers- there's one or two decent the rest is SCARILY NOT FUN) on Ao3.
I just opened one now that began(I'm paraphrasing a little just to retain semblance of anonymity) "This is also on FanFiction under the same name written by the same author (me). I apologise for the grammar, I'm dyslexic so please no nasty comments. Also if you don't agree with or like mpreg, slash and/or creature fic's just please go away and save us all the trouble."
Now, I try not to be too much of a wanker about people apologising for grammar and spelling like that, because I know that I can be an ass about issues like that although try not to be purposefully horrible if it's obvious an author is doing their best and, quite frankly, if the story is good enough then I can ignore minor slips here and there- one of my favourite HP gen stories which I'm planning to re-read again soon has some absolute clangers of spellings and sentences but when I'm reading the story is so good I don't care. What bothers me more is when a story is badly written- it's not just spelling but when it's so bad it isn't really telling a story properly, it becomes impossible to follow the plot. FFnet is rife with stuff like that.
Which is why, when I read this I found myself starting to wince (" fic's ") and thinking 'Oh no, FFnet has invaded'.
I immediately realised what an asshole thing this was to think; I know, I'm a wanker. That doesn't however deny the fact that was my first feeling. I haven't read the fic yet, I'm just about to. Maybe it will be terrific, after all several authors I like apologise in advance for their grammar EVERY SINGLE FIC and yet I've never ever found anything seriously terrible about it- certainly their fics are brilliant fun and if there is the odd error here and there it doesn't compromise the fictionality or the sense of the piece.
At the same time, I looked at the other summaries for this particular crossover page. Suddenly, too, there are an awful lot of, for example female!Harry (Potter) with names like Jaylian Sparklight-Potter and Emerald Potter finding herself helpless (grr!) and abandoned in X-Men/Sherlock/Avengers fandom only to end up shagging Cyclops/Wolverine/Sherlock/Any-Male-Avenger-But-Mostly-Loki
And I can't help but worry. Ao3's filtering system is good but I don't think it's reached the stage where it can save me from the kind of FFnet turn out that I call 'the dross'.
So yes. I'm a snob. And an ass. And a wanker.
But I don't want to have to go back to the bad old days of spending obsessive hours trawling through fic in which characters showed as much life as wooden planks just to find the shiny nice ones.
Update: The fic, if anyone cared to know, was on the whole not great. The prose was a bit excessive (lots of Harry as 'the youth' 'the beautiful child' 'ebony hair' 'pearly white teeth' 'dazzling smiles' etc and the author has also demonstrated a total lack of knowledge in terms of where-the-carribean-is-in-relation-to-England-America-Afghanistan-Pretty-Much-Anywhere and a similar lack of research in UK households - the Dursley's hire a maid servant after Harry disappears. Not 'a woman who does' or a 'cleaner' but a maid servant...awkward!turtles) Oh an also has just described someone's cock as his 'instrument nestled between his strongly toned thighs' and 'his large strong organ' in the same paragraph. *cries*
