Crossovers.....

I know not many people actually read these blogs from me, but I feel I need to say this nonetheless. I personally love crossovers.... but only if they are done right in my opinion. I really dislike stories that fall to what I call Crossoveritis.

What does Crossoveritis mean? Well I shall try to explain.

Crossoveritis is a disease that many fanfics suffer from in general. On here they usually involve a different well known fandom attempting to splice with MLP:FIM. When a fic suffers from this horrid disease, they more often than not have a hero from a different world that more or less curb stomps every bad thing in the MLP universe, while scoring with one, if not all, of the more popular ponies in MLP:FIM.

If it was a purely clop fic or comedy this won't matter. However if the author tries to pass this story, with varying degrees of success, off as an actual serious fanfic. it is suffering from Crossoveritis. These stories can still be successful, or maybe decent, if it is something new and different. When this happens I personally am more lenient on criticisms because they are breaking new ground. Still somethings can really destroy a crossover fic... In the next paragraphs, I try to explain these things.

First of all and very important, there needs to be some kind of balance in the story. We all know that some fandoms are a lot more power heavy than MLP. I do really enjoy these fandoms and even celebrate some fanfics and other such fanworks that really exemplify these aspects of a story. However when it comes to crossovers, I want there to be a certain balance to them.

This balance can be achieved by few different ways. The first way is to have the character from a different universe starting at normal in the new world they are becoming a part of. This can be achieved by either having the character down-powered or empowered, depending on the universe they originally came from. There has to be a believable reason for this change to happen.

Personally, I hate it when a character is down-powered and it is extremely obvious this is rather severe and stupid. For instance, having Naruto or Harry Potter completely useless and powerless in Equestria for no real good reason, and then expecting them to still go back and save their old world.

A second option is to have them become a sort of antagonist in the new world because of all they have experienced in their old world. I haven't really read many fanfics that do this personally, but I have read summaries to fics like this that I can fully understand why they went that route. I would still want them to be defeated in some manner though, and learn their lesson. Whether they return to their old world with this new wisdom or not is entirely up to the author.

A third option, and my personal favorite, is to actually upgrade the world a crossover character enters to balance out the power now present in that world. I don't mean to have it be something too sudden and very unlikely. I mean for it to be something that actually makes sense and uses reason to explain the changes.

For instance, if Harry Potter is sent to Equestria and really super uberly powerful there. It is because he unwittingly got involved in some dark deal that he did out of desperation. He then has to may or may not lose his powers and has to work hard to gain them again. The last thing I usually want to see is him becoming some extremely powerful Alicorn that everything comes to him with ease, and he doesn't have to do anything to figure it all out. However I don't mind him being really uber powerful if he actually has to figure out how to control his new powers so much. This is just my opinion.

The second thing I really care about in crossovers is characterization. I don't mind if you have Spike or some other side character become an ultimate bad-ass, but please.... please.... don't make the mane six we all care and love, become complete idiots. I can be very lenient on crossover stories because I know how hard it is to meet my expectations, but if you make the mane six completely useless and little better than horny school girls I get really pissed. I know few, if any, care about what I think, but it is the truth.

If you bring in god like characters from a different universe, don't make Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie little better than just a cheer-leading squad for the crossover characters! We love at least one of these characters because they are female, and not just silly little school girls with a crush (This of course doesn't apply to clop fics since the main reason they exist is to... enjoy certain activities...). Each of these characters have some kind of strength to them, that amounts to more than just being in that character's personal cheer squad.

Don't get me wrong I know it is tough to treat each crossover character or universe equally. It is far to easy and fun to focus on one universe over the other. I know I am guilty of doing this as well, but I do try to make, or find, some balance between everything that makes sense. Fortunately there are plenty of stories that do manage to at least come close to what I love for in a fic to avoid suffering Crossoveritis.

Heh... end of my crossover rant.... I am now going back to my own crossover stories with the intent to avoid falling to Crossoveritis. Sorry for wasting your time if you bothered to read this and absolutely hated it. If it managed to reach you n some level than I feel happy.