Getting a Specific Concept Right

Have you ever felt, as a fan fiction reader, that you've encountered only one writer in a fandom who actually gets a very specific concept right? Have you, perhaps more arrogantly, as a fan fiction writer come to the conclusion that "So far, I'm the only person who's gotten this kind of concept close to right?"

Over on a "Crossovers You Wish There Were More Of" thread around here, I have previously expressed a desire for more Super Smash Brothers crossed with The Hunger Games . It may seem like a strange concept, a silly Nintendo Mascot Fighter paired up with a serious Dystopia, but it is actually kind of popular, seeing as the first is an everyone for yourself fighting game where the characters have a variety of strange powers. It really is a kind of sick fun to imagine the characters using those powers to fight for their lives rather than just to fight for fun. Before The Hunger Games was popular, there were "gladatorial arena" darkfics in the Smash fandom.

It's a specific kind of crossover, and (I think, at least) it fits surprisingly well.

I'd expressed a desire to see more of this, because it is kind of a niche... what I really meant is that I wanted to see GOOD crossovers of this.

I did my own once: https://archiveofourown.org/series/95621

- Having browsed other crossovers / fusion fics of these two things, and having just come from reading a fresh one on fanfiction.net... I'm basically left thinking "Am I the ONLY person who has tried this kind of crossover and has actually WORLDBUILT and given some backstory?"

EVERY OTHER Smash/Hunger Games fusion I have attempted to read either files the Hunger Games characters names off to replace them with names like "Link, Zelda, Mario" or takes the actual Smash characters, but plunks them down in the middle of a very unexplained Hunger Games without any rhyme or reason as to why their world is suddenly like Panem. The latest one I was reading did the latter.

I mean... in my work, I actually explained (through one of the characters), how Ganondorf got a hold of something that allowed him to take over and create a Capitol-like society out of a certain Smash City. I had a background of years of my version of the Games... I tried to inject emotion into it, rather than just have "Oops, someone's dead," - heartrent families, nervous chosen fighters... And I made a rather long story about it.

And then I go to read works by others of this fusion and all I get is "plunked down, they start killing each other." No worldbuilding.

It's kind of annoying. I want to see more in the ways of "getting this concept right," but I think I may be biased toward "getting it the way I did it." - And I don't even know if my fic is really any good. It just seems like it has more worldbuilding than others of that kind of crossover.

So, do you have anything like that? Something that you have dabbled in that you wish people wound up doing more like you (and you don't care how arrogant that sounds?) Or something that you want to see done different, but... done different than it is commonly done?

I'm writing a massive decon-recon switch of Kingdom Hearts tropes in both canon and fan-fiction.

The whole fic is a deconstruction of war fics, basically showing at the end of the day that you are indeed killing people and that war brings out SOME good (Techology and depending on the person, character growth) but mostly the bad out of people (violence, misplaced patriotism, generally psychotic assholes).

Also, rather then have a canon character be the main character, I was thinking of a sort-of self insert. This is so that I can get away with a lot more shit then with canon characters, world build and make convincing fan-characters.

Hoo boy, I know this feeling very well. When I first set out to write Antipode, I noticed some disappointing trends in the whole Riku + Keyblade role switch setup. Most fics would do one of several things. One, they'd switch the roles but keep the story exactly the same, with no regard to the fact that Sora and Riku's differing personalities would necessitate change. Second, they'd shoehorn in shipping, usually Sora x Riku, having the boys disregard Kairi in the process. One fic in particular had Riku extremely resentful towards Kairi in the opening chapters because he didn't want her to take Sora away from him. o_o Classic yandere!fanon Riku.

My goal with the AU was to start with KH 1 Riku and Sora and see what would happen if Riku, in all his bratty KH 1 glory, was forced to be the hero, while kind-hearted Sora got stuck with the wrong crowd. I thought it'd be fun to explore what would happen if Sora's desire for friendship and aiding others was turned against him. Ironically, BBS came out a few years later with a similar approach to Terra, which... actually worked out rather well, given some of my plans regarding Terra in the AU and the fact that Sora's buddies with Ven and Aqua now.

At this point, it's stopped following the canon game story lines to a T, but one thing that kinda bugs me about roleswitch fic in the KH fandom is that people feel obligated to make each story follow the exact template of the existing games. But when you switch characters around, there will be changes simply due to the different characters' personalities affecting how they interact with the other characters and the narrative itself. It's a more complex approach, but I love it when it's done well. Reasons why I also dig Remember the Tides and its sequel for taking the "Xion lives" concept and going all out.

edited 2nd Nov '14 10:18:31 PM by Dorked

The aforementioned Smash Brothers / Hunger Games fic of mine - one of the things that I did to make it unique is that I DIDN'T follow the storyline of The Hunger Games. I borrowed concepts and did have some very blatantly THG-inspired scenes and characters serving as semi-expys, but the direction, including the eventual revolution, just went its own way with the personalities, backstories and game-worlds of the Smash Brothers in mind.

I also got helpful advice from chapter-by-chapter reviewers. This is why Snake, a character I normally do not write because I have not played any Metal Gear, put a grenade underneath Ganondorf's throne. -Grin-

This here fic is probably the only thing in the Love Hina fandom to take the Keitaro/Tsuruko pairing and actually make it work.

Then again, I don't exactly read a lot of Keitaro/Tsuruko stuff, but the closing author's note indicates that I'm not wrong.

Just a question that I'm not sure fits here, but I write some fusion fics.... and since I suck with plots they tend to follow the plot closely.... and can that be interesting? How can I improve it?

Y'mean like that PMMM x Katawa Shoujo thing? Well, for that particular work, I imagine that as long as the characters feel like themselves instead of who they're replacing/standing in for, and you work out the relationships/drama appropriately, then yeah, sure it can be interesting, even if the overall plot only has minimal changes.

I'd say to remember which set of characters you are using. Don't make them entirely stand-ins / names filed off for the canon they are replacing.

For example, why I wrote my Smash/Hunger Games fusion in the first place was being "inspired" by mediocre fan fics in which the story of Katniss Everdeen was re-told with "Link" replacing "Katniss." There was even one story I read where he was given a little sister to protect... and it WASN'T the obvious choice of Aryll, his little sister from Wind Waker, but some random original character. None of Link's background as a Hylian swordsman/bowman forest-dweller/farmer hero chosen by the gods was considered at all. I mean, Link has a limited character, anyway, being primarily a player-avatar, but he does have *some* background, various incarnations of the Legend to consider.

So just making him Katniss of District 12 except he's a boy named Link... nope... Not happening with my stuff. I really played up some Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask angst with my story... also, I made him my "Haymitch" instead. Toon Link, who was more in the "Katniss" role just kind of went his own way, taking his background as a little island-boy.

If you need to do a fable remake for a plot, go ahead, but remember to consider the canons of your characters, rather than forcing them into another canon as "I just switched up the names."

and It's actually not that one, it's a crossover between APH and Persona 4 where the cast of APH plays out Persona 4.... and I'm worried that it's boring, even though my betareader said it was good... and I kind of wrote it as "X takes the place of Y".... sorry....