Help with crossover?

[ladyvalady]

hey everyone. this is my first post!

I am trying to write a crossover with 7-10 characters and I am having a lot of trouble with a few different things.

Here are some of the characters I'm thinking about using:

Darth Vader
Obi-Wan Kenobi
John Connor + his T-101 from T2
Cara from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (I know he doesn't let ff.net archive fanfic based on his stuff--should I not use her?)
Boromir from LotR (i don't know how much you guys will appreciate that one... seems to be an all SF crowd here, not really SF&F)
Bran of Juliette Marillier's SEvenwaters tril.

There are some others, but that gives you basic idea.

MY PROBLEMS:
1) getting screentime for all of them is really hard. they are all so different that it takes a lot of work to really show their characterisations without seeming superfluous and contrived. for example, having t-101 (t-800) say, "I'll be back," or other some such nonsense.

possible solutions? should I make the cast smaller?

2) having so many characters. should I pare the cast down to two 'verses? with the people from non-tech 'verses and those from SW and Terminator, you have to be realistic in that boromir is not gonna have a clue what a 'cyborg' or 'artifical intelligence' is, so you gotta include places where tech is explained.

3) blending. this is obviously crucial to a crossover fic, and right now i'm teetering on creating my own 'verse, but that seems like a cheap shot, or cheating or something.

anyway, any advice that I can get would be really appreciated. i'm certainly a novice when it comes to crossovers, so in this matter i lay it down to you guys.

thanks in advance!

[Knife]

*shrug* take it in chapters. Highlight a couple in one chapter, then new characters in the next. If they're operating in a group, then yeah.

[ladyvalady]

that's good advice. do you have an opinion on including Cara, Boromir, and Bran? Myself, I'm willing to cut Boromir and Bran, but I think throwing in a Mord-Sith and her Agiel with Vader, John, and T-101 would be an interesting thing to write.

I can just picture Cara getting seriously freaked out when she takes her Agiel to T-101 and he just staring at her like, "that all you got, bitch?"

heh.

--val

[Knife]

that's good advice. do you have an opinion on including Cara, Boromir, and Bran? Myself, I'm willing to cut Boromir and Bran, but I think throwing in a Mord-Sith and her Agiel with Vader, John, and T-101 would be an interesting thing to write.

I can just picture Cara getting seriously freaked out when she takes her Agiel to T-101 and he just staring at her like, "that all you got, bitch?"

heh.

--val

Not really, since Boromir is the only name I recognise out of the three.

[ladyvalady]

ah. that would do it, then.

how do you think a Force-less Vader would fare versus T-101?

[Knife]

ah. that would do it, then.

how do you think a Force-less Vader would fare versus T-101?

Vader would tear through them like butter. Either with Force powers or lightsaber. A Terminator is impressive against 20th centuary weapons, but even in the future where they belong, a plasma rifle can take one down, watching the movies and flashback segments.

[ladyvalady]

Damn. I was hoping you weren't gonna say that.

I'm just too attached to my termies to let them go against Vader. maybe they should be on the same side... but that might not be as interesting. i can imagine t-101 taking out a whole legion of stormtroopers or something, not that troopers are especially great as it is.

who knows.

[Dalton]

Boromir from LotR (i don't know how much you guys will appreciate that one... seems to be an all SF crowd here, not really SF&F)

You'd be surprised how varied our population is.

[Sidewinder]

MY PROBLEMS:
1) getting screentime for all of them is really hard. they are all so different that it takes a lot of work to really show their characterisations without seeming superfluous and contrived. for example, having t-101 (t-800) say, "I'll be back," or other some such nonsense.

possible solutions? should I make the cast smaller?

Whether it will work will depend on the length of the story. I tend to focus on a few "star" characters, with a short scene for each of the supporting cast to shine in. Remember, the more "star" characters you have, the longer the story must be to let them develop.

Alternately, you can do what K. W. Jeter did when he wrote 'The Mandalorian Armor': focus on the supporting cast's thoughts when they interact with a mysterious "star", so their screen time won't seem to come at the expense of the "star".

3) blending. this is obviously crucial to a crossover fic, and right now i'm teetering on creating my own 'verse, but that seems like a cheap shot, or cheating or something.

How well they blend will depend a great deal on the setting. Do you plan to shoehorn SW characters in a fantasy setting and see how well they handle a magical environment? Shoehorn fantasy characters in the world of SW or 'Terminator' and see how well they handle a technological environment? Put them in a world inspired by the 'Final Fantasy' games, where magic and technology are used to counter each other, or reinforce each other, depending on the user's abilities?