to be honest there are periods where I want the crossover world to overshadowthe hp one just for something new. I gott say I am a bit crossover enthusiast and while it is true that most of the times it ends up being an OC character with the same name as Harry, I like that. It presents a what if. How would harry act i n this universe?
That is all a crossover attempts to achieve, and I'm the kinda of person that when i read a book or see a movie I like to think how other characters in other works I've seen or read would act in that situation or environment.
Yes most crossovers are bad, but they are worth reading when you find that one good one. And i.m.o the better crossovers are the ones that send Harry and Harry alone into the new universe, not the other way around.

 

Though my efforts with crossovers has not included the HP universe as yet, I've been asked to try a HP/Highlander crossover, just to see if I can make a relatively plausible merging of the two universes.

Still waiting for my muse to bite, but I do enjoy writing Batman/Highlander crossovers. The universes seem to work together well.

Draco

 

I’m actually a crossover enthusiast, but I understand that there are series out there that does not mesh with Harry Potter. Now, just because I like crossovers doesn’t mean that I approve of multi-crossover in the HP series; anime on the other hand is different, they are much more flexible.

 

I don't mess with it. It screws up both worlds and whatnot.

 

You know, speaking from experience as I'm presently in the middle of a big fat honking crossover, I think we're viewing them too narrowly. Meshing worlds together or fusing different historys and canons can sometimes work and sometimes not. It's no different though than contemplating whether a romance between Harry and a Slytherin could work.

It's all about the underlying story. Whether it's a good story, whether it works, and whether it engages people. Half the people reading and loving Ruskbyte's Evil Be Thou My Good have never seen a Hellraiser movie and know next to nothing about Cenobites or the Lament Configuration. But the story simply works damn well. The fact that it comes from fanons of two different fictional universes is secondary. I know I've gotten several people who've never seen or know anything about Firefly who seem to greatly enjoy my fic.

So sure we may have predispositions on whether we expect to like a crossover, but reading it is the only way to see if it works. I'm predisposed to not even give a "Romance" fic a second glance. Same thing with sticking Harry into a relationship with... let's say an alternate universe Slytherin Ginny Weasley (sickens you to think about, don't it?). It may work, assuming there's an interesting story in there. But on premise alone? I'm very hesitant when I see a fic is a crossover with a genre/anime/manga/video game that I've barely even heard of. Some of them work, some don't. But it's less to do with any particular other fanon (that may have magic or pirates or vampire slayers) and more to do with the story.

 

Crossover are pretty good, but I think they should be restricted to other magic worlds, like Harry Potter/Lost Years of Merlin or Final Fantasy. And I mean spellcasting, not sailor moon powers.

I suppose that mutations in x-men could be seen as manifestations of magic within DNA, and the Force in STar Wars could be seen as wandless magic, but those are the ones I try to stick to.

 

Well, I think they are okay, but usually I only read crossovers from writers that I have read something else from them in the past, and like the story so much that I actually kept up with the authors other stories.

Examples of this is Shezza, and his story that got deleted off of Fanfiction...bastards. I was not familiar with Stargate, so me reading it was mainly to due to the other stories that I had loved from him.

I am also still debating wether or not to read nonjons fic. I have no experiance in his crossover story, but I liked his other stories, and am therefore thinking about reading it.

Other crossovers, even those that I am familiar with, I will only read if I know that the author is capable of writing such a story.

 

I like crossovers. They give the main characters of both series a fresh set of challenges that can prove entertaining.

Unfortunatly, most crossover writers can't write for beans, so the fic turns into blatant favoratism of one series/character and complete rape for the other. If you want an example, look at Jeffery 'One Shot' Wong and his 'Just Won't Die' series. His more...recent poo-fest completely destroys all that is Naruto in favour of heighteneing the already Godly power that is Ranma Saotome.

The link for above mentioned thing.
http://www.fanfic.net/~jeffwong/wontdienaruto.txt

 

If a crossover as an idea itself is good mainly lies in the question of how it is used.

I have read two HP/SW crossovers where Harry was transported into the SW universe around the time of Episode One. Harry joined a given situation and known challenges, he has to face new problems.
I liked those two.

Another HP/SW I read made Lily a Jedi and had Lily, James, Yoda, an evil Sith Lord from 50000 years back who was really just a misunderstood guy and his poodle train Harry in the Jedi ways in his ancestral manor. In short, it just used the powers from the SW universe to make Harry better.
Needless to say, I didn't like it.

So I generally distinguish between two kinds of crossovers, one where people have to face new challenges, and one where people get new powers/possibilites.

Nonjon's crossover belongs to the first category, and I like it (even though he has few problems). Harry finds himself in a new situation and has to face different problems.

Ruskbyte's crossover I liked as well, even though I didn't know Hellraiser. Although it does give Harry a new power/possibility, it also gives him a problem/challenge.

So, in the end, it all depends on the skill of the author to pull off the story.

 

I cannot get into crossovers. Period. The premise may seem exciting, it may be praised to the skies, but I just can't seem to enjoy them. The only crossover that I've read and enjoyed was the one with Harry as Dark Lord Revan, and even then it was mostly Harry as a super-Jedi instead of Potterverse and the SW universe meshing together.

Like Cervus, the main problem with crossovers, to me, is that I've never seen almost all of the animes, read any of the comics, or don't understand the worlds at all.

 

I don't think anime stuff and Harry Potter mix very well. It's like seeing Mickey Mouse fighting along side Rambo. It's just weird.

 

eh - if the crossover can add something to the story, then all for it. Ive found that most AU's can be classified as a crossover with an original story. So to my mind if you love AU's and not crossovers there is a little bit of hippocracy in your thinking.

Then again, Im biassed since all of my work so far have been crossovers or AU's.

 

I can't read Crossovers if I know the other book/movie/etc. If I never even heard of the other part, I can read it, but if I know it.... Well, thus I can't read f.ex. Harry Potter/Star Wars Crossovers. I don't know why, but I can't get into such a story.

 

Most the times crossovers are just stories that mesh a bunch of characters that rabid fangirls just want to see together, but if the story can truely immerse the reader and make the story a realistic cross between the two stories I think they are pretty good. But other than that I think characters should just stay in their own world.

On the last note about crazy rabid fangirls, I have seen a story that has 15 plus anime show's characters in it and they are all going to some randomn high school, AND the author inserts themselves and turns it into a crazy unrealistic stupid piece of crap.

So in conclusion, I would think that crossovers are only good if they can immerse you into both the universes and make it realistic how they connect. Not just throwing all the characters into some melting pot and hoping it creates a good fic.

 

Yes it was a shame when Naruto became infested by rabid fangirl/Slash authors. Now you can't even look in that direction without stepping in shit

 

I am in full agreement with nonjon's comment. It's not so much what realities are being mixed together, but how well they are mixed together.

 

I enjoy crossovers. They bring a little variety in to the routine of reading Harry Potter fanfiction everyday.

Speaking of variety, has there ever been a Harry Potter/Star Wars cross where Harry doesn't join the jedi? Sith!Harry maybe? I've never seen one.

 

My favorite types of crossovers are usually just one-shots or drabbles. I think that the comedy or parody crossovers are the best, one of my favorites had Harry as the long lost decendant of Gargamel and he was to be one of the best hunters of the rare blue goblins in years! ::Laughs:: I had never thought I'd see a Harry Potter/Smurfs crossover, but there it was!

 

I've only read two crossovers I enjoyed; Ruskbyte's HP/Hellraiser, and Mhalachai's Inevitable. I came across one recently that me FUME! An HP/Discworld crossover. WHY? Discworld is sacrosanct for christ's sakes, NOBODY should try to write Discworld fanfiction because Terry Pratchett has created something intangible and IMHO impossible to replicate or better. It was reasonably well written, but nobody can write discworld characters but Pratchett, and they simply don't blend with HP characters at all. *gets off soap box*

I think the problem in crossover fanfiction comes from this kind of position. Some authors create something and perfect it, and the world that fanfiction writers try to blend it with cheapens it and simply doesn't work. It takes an incredibly talented writer to blend two totally different worlds, and most fanfiction writers simply are not good enough. So there!

 

mmm...was the discworld crossover something along the lines of Rincewind going to Hogwarts? Because I've seen one like that, and I agree. There are some characters that simply cannot be tampered with, discworld being one.