Crossover and/or fusion?

[graculus]

So, in the interests of furthering my chances of writing stuff for trope_bingo, would anyone like to have a go at explaining to me the what makes something a crossover fic rather than a fusion fic, preferably citing examples of fandoms I actually know something about (i.e. not Teen Wolf or Supernatural)?

Because I have managed to get a card with both and can't really see what the difference is from the definitions linked from the community...

Comments

[khek.livejournal.com]

I can't give examples, but I've always thought that a crossover involves characters from two universes coming together for some reason (like Jack and Daniel go through a wormhole that brings them to 1960s New York, where they meet Napoleon and Ilya) where a fusion is where you put characters from one universe into another (Jack and Daniel as UNCLE agents or Napoleon and Ilya as SG-1).

I could be wrong, and I don't know what it is if the two sets of characters meet in some separate, totally unrelated universe (J & D and N & I in Four Corners) but that doesn't sound like your card, anyway!

:)

[manna]

I've never even heard of fusion fics. Kids today and their wacky fanfic lingo...

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

Basically, I think I agree with khek. Any story that Sheila's written with two sets of characters from two shows meeting and working with each other (eg, where the Ghostbusters help the SG-1 figure out some problem with the Stargate) is a crossover, but a story where characters from one show exist in the universe of the other, probably leading different lives than they do in their own universe, is what I would consider a fusion story. IMO, fusion stories have a lot in common with AUs, but are sort of AUs that take place in a known universe (eg, the characters from Ghostbusters are an SG program team, rather than professional paranormal eliminators). IMO, this story is a good example, if you know Firefly and Sherlock: Interesting People by Natt_Barn (http://natt-barn.livejournal.com/18866.html)

[alyse]

Yep, I agree with the comments already made. Basically a crossover is where two fandom universes collide, and a fusion is where characters from Universe A are written in Universe B as if they'd always been there.

The other thing that often distinguishes them is that with a crossover you will have characters from both universes in the story, but with a fusion it may just be the characters from Universe A in Universe B. You don't have to have any of the Universe B characters in there. I don't think that's obligatory, but it's a very common type. (So in a Mag7/Firefly fusion, the characters from Firefly could be the Magnificant 7 rather than Chris, Vin, Ezra et al.)