WHEN THE PUZZLE PIECES FIT

[polarissruler]

Do you have some fandoms that mash together so perfectly, that you can headcanon them being in a single universe? Maybe the themes match perfectly, the worlds are built in a very similar way, or one character (or even all of them) can fit there without standing out at all? Are there any adventures that you can imagine happening (figuratively) side by side?

AKA, your strangest (or most normal) crossover headcanons.

Comments

[polarissruler]

To open up the discussion here's my entry. I have two large crossover verses that capture most fandoms I'm usually active in.

I've been calling the first "The Humanity's Epic" and it's a crossover between "Shin Megami Tensei", "Fate", and "IB: Instant Bullet" (not to be confused with another Ib later). It's not a crossover in the usual sense, as it is composed of different timelines that overlap (or in some cases precede/follow) each other. Also, mixing the way magic works in MegaTen and Fate (IB has less explanations on that side, it's easier to fit) can be pretty hard. So, what unites them? It's the themes of fighting for the whole of humanity's right to exist, the endless clash of values that comes with it, the strange nature of heroism, and the contradictory insignificance and great significance humans have in the context of the universe.
Once I finish Sailor Moon and Miraculous, I might also add them to this verse, but it's not clear yet.

The second one is "Art Verse". So far, it consists only of Ib (again, different from IB) and "Aria's Story" - two indie horror games. They have a lot in common and because they both deal with isolated environments, the library, and the gallery could exist side by side. Of course, there's more - they both deal with works of art that come to life and put a great focus on the way people express themselves through art.
Princess Tutu might also be added here once I finish it.

[silverr]

From the way you've described "Art Verse," I can see Tutu fitting in there quite well.

[waterscroll]

I like to imagine that Due South and The Good Wife take place in the same Chicago but some years apart and that the characters from the two shows know each other. I'd like to see Ray K and Kalinda (try to) work together.

I've also spent way too much time thinking about how Saito in Hakuouki could have grown up into the version of Saito in Rurouni Kenshin.

[polarissruler]

I must say, the second post is very well-thought. (Don't know the fandoms, but enjoyed the read).

[primeideal]

1. "Pitch" is set in 2016 in San Diego. One of the main characters, Mike Lawson, has an ex-wife named Rachel who is a sports journalist. Animorphs is set in the mid-1990s in an unnamed large American city, but we eventually come to learn that it's by the ocean and has a large zoo in the area, and in the end, it turns out to be in California. One of the main characters is a teenage girl named Rachel who enjoys gymnastics and watching ballgames with her dad. It takes a little fudging to the timeline and needs to go significantly AU in some areas, but it's a thing.

2. Tiny fandoms: "Children of the Star" by Sylvia Louise Engdahl and "Star Child" by James P. Hogan are both about humans in a low-tech fantasy world that is actually the last remnants of an advanced technological civilization that met with catastrophe, and now is almost forgotten. Both have amusing takes on the interaction of science and faith. I think it would be hilarious if the protagonists somehow met up or swapped places.

[polarissruler]

Yeah, timelines are the hardest part to mix properly.

As for the second idea, even the titles fit together!

[firecat]

One of mine is Lucifer Morningstar & co. mashed up with post-Avengers Marvelverse, but I haven't figured out the timelines.

[dragoness_e]

As someone who is binging Lucifer on Netflix (please, no spoilers!) because I read fanfiction crossing over Lucifer and Good Omens, awesome! Lucifer goes well with just about any "street-level" heroes who think too highly of themselves or are mired in drama.

(Lucifer & Good Omens is such an obvious overlap, it probably is the same universe. Besides, they share an author/creator.)

[dragoness_e]

I wrote an epic novel crossing over Dragonball Z and the Ramayana. They were a natural, almost perfect fit, right down to the transforming giant were-ape. And then I shovelled in several other mythologies, because Rule of Cool, and because Dragonball Z is mythic.

I have also looked at certain franchises and said "Nope, a crossover just will NOT work", either because of conflicting themes or vastly different powerlevels. That's why I never wrote a DBZ x Transformers crossover... curb-stomps are boring.

[moon_custafer]

Babylon Berlin and several of Fritz Lang’s pre-war crime films (M, etc) *seem* like they’d be naturals for a crossover—until you realize their universes are too close, and Karl Lohmann and Ernst Gennat would have fight each other for who gets to be head of the homicide department. Not that that wouldn’t be highly entertaining.

[thedivinegoat]

The Leverage showrunners consider it to be in the same universe as Stargate SG1. (They wanted to shoot a quick flashback scene with Eliot walking through the Stargate, but the sets had already been torn down.)

I think Leverage fits in with a lot of mundane and genre shows, it's got a lot of space in the margins so to speak.

[melagan]

This gets my vote! *g*

[arcanetrivia]

Doctor Who/Red Dwarf/Hitchhiker's Guide.

[firecat]

Aahhhh perfect!

[silveradept]

Any show that has Christian Kane in it (or is in the same universe as one) is in the same universe, even though all of the Christian Kane characters are separate entities. That covers the Buffyverse, Leverage, The Librarians, and probably a few more. Into that universe I also shove Psych, Warehouse 13 and Eureka, and Farscape as well. Because that will help stabilize the links to Stargate mentioned above through Leverage. That probably also includes Firefly and Killjoys.

Basically, so long as they're not absolutely incompatible with each other, universes that have a shared cast member are linked to each other. (Which makes most of the science fiction universe linked to each other in one way, shape or form.)

[firecat]

I tend to mash up different shows that share actors too. Someday maybe I'll finish my Babylon 5 / Star Trek reboot / Sylar fic.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I crossed The Sentinel and due South very early on. The Sentinel and Stargate:SG-1 is pretty much a give me. MacGyver, Remington Steele and Scarecrow & Mrs. King just make sense (Mom Holt and Amanda's mom are the same actor-bicoastal cousins for the win.) I've let Indiana Jones be implied as being mostly factual in The Real Ghostbusters. Captain America:The First Avenger talks about treasure hunting Nazis in the desert. Tony Stark needs therapy and Peter Venkman is a psychologist.

Gargoyles.

Remember, peak crossover was the primetime appearance of Samantha from Bewitched on the Flintstones.

Kung Fu:The Legend Continues's Kermit probably knows the former agent Sandburg knows from the faculty.

The Pretender. Really, we need so many FBI agents Dana Scully is summoned.

Go look up Wold Newton-that's a head canon of crossover that astounds.

[highlander_ii]

There's a running thing where everywhere that Richard Belzer has shown up (usually as John Munch whether stated directly or not) are part of the same universe. i'm not gonna list 'em all b/c it's long and does include Sesame Street. XD


White Collar and Suits are almost certainly in the same universe.

And I spent way too much time working out the timeline to cross H50 with The X-Files in such a way that Danno and Doggett had met at some point.

And since I do the intoabar challenge every year, i've done all kinds of odd crossovers - Dresden Files with several things, Suits w/ the Pretender (that was fucking weird)... on and on. =)

[moon_custafer]

The cricket-obsessed characters of Charters and Caldicott in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) were such a hit that they became recurring characters in several other thrillers of the time; sometimes for copyright reasons the actors played basically the same characters under different names. All of which fuels the possible interpretation, regarding their original appearance, that they’re really secret agents on a separate mission who can’t afford to break cover to help our protagonist. There was also a British miniseries from the ‘80s that brought back the characters as mystery-solving retirees, and which I think also went with the implication that they were former secret agents.

[megpie71]

I once wrote a fairly comprehensive piece of meta explaining how Blake's 7 and Firefly could be in the same universe and time span.

[melannen]

I like to believe that all my space fandoms set in a far future where there are humans everywhere and Earth is no longer central are actually in the same universe, just different bits of it.

Also Young Wizards is canon in every universe.

And Methos. (My favorite random crossover headcanon that takes a lot of work AND YET still totally works is that Methos sailed all the way to Tol Eressea with some Irish monks in the dark ages, and helped JRRT translate the Red Book of Westmarch.)

[mrkinch]

*heart eyes*

[castiron]

The Teletubbies are in the LOTR universe and can trace their ancestry to hobbits. (Look at the Teletubby Bunker and at the first view of Bag End in Fellowship -- it's the same kind of construction.)

[annathecrow]

This broke my brain. :D Thank you!

[eleanorjane]

White Collar and Leverage mash up very nicely.

As do NCIS and the Stargate franchise, which is always fun.

[dragoness_e]

I read a pretty good SG1 / BtVS crossover not long ago; the writer "decanonized" a couple of late season things they didn't like (one SG1 character's death, the entirety of BtVS comics Season 8) and went with it. Xander stumbles across Anise when she goes walkabout from SGC, and mistakes her for some kind of shape-shifting demon.

It's a pretty popular cross-over combo.

[alias_sqbr]

I keep trying to cross over all my 19th century canons, which is difficult since (a) a century is a long time and most of them are in different parts of it (b) figuring out a way for 19th century English people to meet 19th century Japanese people and have it both make sense and not be awful can be troublesome.

But I still really like the idea of Hakuoki (vampires in Japan as a metaphor for European conquest and violence) being in the same universe as Dracula (vampires in England as a metaphor for Scary Unchristian Foreigners and Homosexuality), especially since two of the Hakuoki endings have the immortal protagonist and her vampire boyfriend leaving for Europe, and thus perfectly poised to be Vampire Experts in England by the time the events of Dracula happen a few decades later.

[sylvaine]

Oh, heck yes, this sounds like an incredibly fun crossover!

[pedanther]

There's a corner of the Doctor Who extended universe that revolves around an organisation called The Library of St John the Beheaded, which is one of those hidden places where they keep all the Knowledge Man Was Not Meant To Know (Nor Woman Neither). In my headcanon, the LSJB also exists in the shared universe of Tim Powers's urban fantasy novels; I can point out a couple of Powers's characters who I suspect have library memberships, and I have a fairly elaborate set of headcanons about how The Anubis Gates fits into the Whoniverse, which includes Irving Braxiatel tracking down William Ashbless and bugging him to write a proper autobiography. They go together pretty well, possibly because Andy Lane, who wrote the first couple of novels establishing the Library, has admitted Powers as one of his influences.

[machiavellijr]

The 1999-2004 Mummy films are sequels to 'The Man Who Would Be King' - both feature lost civilisations, an adventurer named Carnehan, and are stuffed with Masonic references. I mean, generally all pulp adventure movies are pretty much the same universe, but those specifically link up very well. At some point I need to actually write the link story where Peachey Carnehan (preferably as played by Michael Caine) somehow survives, gets the crown back to England, and uses it to set himself up as an eccentric gentleman, which makes Jonathan and Evie his grandchildren.

[sylvaine]

Oh man, I would read that!

[annathecrow]

I love crossovers, but more as an ad-hoc worldbuilding and storytelling exercise than a permanent headcanon.

That said, someone on Tumblr pointed out that Hairspray, Shape of Water and X-Men: First Class (I think) all take place in the same city and decade, and that's just too good.

[moon_custafer]

Commenters replied with lyric variants on ‘Good Morning Baltimore’ mentioning “the fish-man who lives next door.”

The only fic I can recall was a cute little vignette of Elisa and Zelda windowshopping and Elisa dragging her colleague over to show her a very glam sequined dress on display in Mr. Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway.

[moon_custafer]

I headcanon One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Buckaroo Banzai as taking place in the same universe, mainly due to the presence of Vincent Schiavelli and Christopher Lloyd, and a mental hospital location, in both. I like to think the hospital from which Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin escapes is the one where John Bigbooté and John O’Connor, in their human disguises, were patients for a while in the 1970s before they were released and rejoined Yoyodyne.

[sathari]

Oh, this is great! It so happens that my coronavirus-lockdown-distraction project is a three-way (four if you count actual historical research into real events of the period) crossover among Captain America: The First Avenger, Downton Abbey, and (if you squint) Devil Survivor 2.

Much of CA:TFA is set in the WWII European theater, and the Downton folks definitely would have been involved in the war effort. I also have Tom and Sybbie Branson having a chance meeting with Howard Stark while the former two are living in America; they go from Boston to New York to visit the Levinsons and run into Howard (he'd be about eight and Sybbie is five) and the kids become pen pals; Tom later brings Howard's genius to the attention of Harold Levinson, who's always looking for a good investment, and that's how Howard gets his start. The friendship also leads into Talbot and Branson Motors branching out into aviation, and Sybbie develops a love of flying and joins the Air Trainsit Auxiliary (this literally happened to another British automaker, which became Marshalls of Cambridge, and one of the family's daughters, Molly, later Molly Rose, did basically what I'm having Sybbie do)--- until Sybbie gets recruited for the SSR through the Stark-Branson-Levinson connection.

Likewise, during the war, I found an actual quote from the people involved with the Special Operations Executive in Britain: in their training for the agents they were sending over to occupied France, they expressly said they wanted to emulate the tactics used by, among other groups, Sinn Fein. Now, we know that Tom Branson was formerly involved with Irish Republican groups, and as of the events of the Downton Abbey movie, he's been brought favorably to the attention of His Majesty's Secret Service. So Tom would be a natural for them to recruit to teach Feinian dirty tricks to British agents. Peggy was an SOE agent before she moved over to SSR. Tom would be one of Peggy's teachers and in fact the Stark-Branson connection may be how she gets pulled into SSR--- Tom recommends her to his friend Howard.

And the Devil Survivor 2 connection? If you squint? Thing I noticed in DeSu2 is that there are a LOT of highly placed women in JPs, the agency that Yamato Hotsuin runs and that's been in his family in some form for centuries. So I've long had the idea of a distant female relative of his who was alive in WWII and who might have actually won the Pacific theater for Japan, except that no one listened to her because she was a woman; even though she'd be long dead by the time Yamato came along, he'd found her diaries as a kid, was seriously impressed, and made himself a promise that he was going to find smart women, hire them, and listen to them. So I'm bringing her into this as well--- my idea is that while she certainly wants Japan to win the war, she also sees the writing on the wall as far as Nazi Germany being very likely to turn on its distinctly not-Aryan allies as soon as the war is over, and so she gives several boosts to the Allies, working behind the scenes. (There is even history that goes with this--- the Japanese military attache to Germany, Abe Katsuo, apparently did not trust his German allies and was running his own active spy network in Germany; the fact that the Americans had cracked it was instrumental in planning D-Day.) Then after the war, she appeals to the SSR for help dealing with the behavior of the American occupying forces, as the Howling Commandos have gotten a reputation for not tolerating the abuses that occurred on the Allies' side, and they also have several prominent women members. She and Peggy will be instrumental in getting JPs written into Japan's post-war Constitution.

[polarissruler]

This is wonderful! You've put so much thought in this - that now I feel in need to up the time I put in my crossovers. (Once I finish my other WIPs, that's it.) And historical research definitely counts in - especially something so extensive.

[doranwen]

*blinks at people's crossover ideas* Y'all are creative, lol. I have a hard time even thinking of prompts for any crossovers I request in exchanges. (It's not that I don't request them, I just go something like "these would be awesome to see together" and leave it at that because I have no idea how.) Though I did think of a Push/Leverage crossover idea once and that's sort of grabbed at me. (Because you know the Leverage team would totally love to take down Division, even if it's bad government secret agencies or whatnot and not just bad corporation CEOs.) Maybe someday I'll actually write something for that.

Oh, The Pretender crosses with just about EVERYTHING nicely. If I had one "this fandom shares a universe with most of my fandoms", it would be that one. Easiest crossover ever. And I so want to see a Pretender/Leverage crossover, because Leverage taking on the Centre would be the awesomest thing ever. Sadly, I am terrible at writing the Pretender characters, and so I will probably not be the one to write that. I've read some good Pretender/Smallville ones (set early on in the latter show), but I can't think of any other notable ones with Pretender, really.

As far as the "same actor = chars exist in same verse" thing goes, I like to imagine that Angie Harmon's characters in Women's Murder Club and Rizzoli & Isles are related somehow. (I contemplated C-16: FBI as well, lol, the one show few would remember she was in, early before she even got into L&O, but that crossover doesn't grab my attention as much as WMC/R&I does.) I tried to come up with a way for Missy Peregrym's character from Rookie Blue to segue into the CBS FBI show, but it would be a very convoluted method, so I'm going to have to go with "identical twin-like relative" (cousin she didn't know about?). But it wouldn't be hard to imagine all *five* of those, even, to exist in the same 'verse simultaneously.

I've seen a few brief crossover fics, but the idea of Rizzoli & Isles crossing paths with Leverage during the latter's time in Boston has its appeal. Of course, one might have to tweak the Leverage universe to explain why the Irish mob has a different head figure in R&I… Or maybe have Maura's dad die and the guys featured in The Boys' Night Out Job in Leverage take over? I haven't thought all that hard about it, lol.

Clearly, Leverage is also very crossover-friendly, as I've seen some previous comments indicate. :) (I just don't happen to know a lot of those other fandoms so I can't say I've looked at any of the copious crossover fics involving Leverage and said fandoms.)

And I've thought Worldweavers would fuse very interestingly with a lot of fandoms - but it would definitely make some changes to the other fandom, with the magic and the Alphiri and Faele and all that. So it doesn't blend smoothly. I *did* receive an absolutely fantastic Worldweavers/Push crossover for an exchange one year but that one had Thea being pulled into the Push world by someone's power (a logical segue, I thought, but not the same as existing in the same 'verse).

[lea_hazel]

Before I fell out of both fandoms, my great contribution to Narnia fandom was my solution for the Problem of Susan being "she got married, moved to Scotland and became a teacher". Because if you run the math on the canon ages, McGonagall is exactly the right age to be Susan, and it just so happens that the only physical description of both of them is having black hair (and Minerva has glasses, but). Minerva could even be her middle name. It's easy to imagine the Pevensie parents, who raised four Lion-Jesus worshiping little miscreants, were the sort of people to give Roman mythology middle names to their otherwise normal-seeming, thoroughly English children.

Leverage? Cross Leverage over with everything. Elementary? Sure. Psych? Absolutely. Fun times to be had by all.

My crackiest Leverage crossover is one that makes no sense, but is very emotionally satisfying, and that's with Skyrim. Seriously, there are so many people in Skyrim who deserve the Nate Ford treatment. But generally, wherever I encounter corruption, my first thought is "Nate would destroy these people and make them cry". It's soothing.

Murderbot and Imperial Radch? Not convinced that it makes sense in the worldbuilding sense, but again, the character interactions are very emotionally satisfying.

And more of a fusion than a crossover, my pet visual novel fandom (Seven Kingdoms) is the one that I try to slot every cast I like into. It's sort of like taking characters in non-fantasy settings and trying to assign them D&D-style race/class combos, but in a frilly, girly way. And heaven knows I love me some frilly girliness.

[polarissruler]

The Narnia and Harry Potter crossover is certainly interesting. (Also, Minvera has black hair? Time to reread the books for me, it seems. I could swear it was something else.)

[pedanther]

I was reminded by somebody else talking about series whose timelines overlapped:

Tezuka's Astro Boy series and Asimov's United States Robots series (I, Robot, etc.) are both set in a version of the 21st century where humanoid robots are common. Both are concerned with questions about are humanoid robots people, and what does "person" mean anyway.

The main character of Astro Boy is a humanoid robot who was built in imitation of, and to take the place of, a human whose life ended in a car accident (Tobio Tenma). One of the significant recurring characters in I, Robot is possibly -- Asimov deliberately avoided committing himself -- a humanoid robot who was built in imitation of, and to take the place of, a human whose life ended in a car accident (Stephen Byerley).

And Tobio Tenma and Stephen Byerley are very nearly the same age.

I'm still not sure what to do with that, but I remember that it struck me with great force the first time I realised it.

[lea_hazel]

That's quite the coincidence!

[pedanther]

Relatedly, I just discovered Unalienable, a crossover fic which starts with the fact that one of the lead actors from Highlander: The Series also has a small role in X2: X-Men United, and asks: supposing that it's somehow the same character, and these two works are set in the same world, what would be the implications?

And one of the implications it lays out is that either the world has somehow evolved two entirely separate ways for a person to have rapid healing, the ability to recover from wounds that would kill a normal person, and arrested aging -- or Wolverine is an Immortal.