Subject: Crossover
Author:
Posted on: 2009-05-15 06:28:00 UTC
Thank you all Powers that Be! What you have planned sounds like it could work and a lot better then some of the stuff I've seen.
Subject: Crossover
Author:
Posted on: 2009-05-15 06:28:00 UTC
Thank you all Powers that Be! What you have planned sounds like it could work and a lot better then some of the stuff I've seen.
Every now and again, story ideas get buried in the depths of my mind due to lack of time to write them or them being just plain rubbish. Occasionally, they’ll make a return at some point with a few new ideas. One of them, a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings crossover, just made its third attempt at resurgence, with a flood of new ideas. The last time it raised its ugly head, I shot it in the face for the first chapter alone (in which Harry was almost certainly OOC). This time, it’s wised up to my strategy for headshotting and come up with a way to avoid the OOC Harry and a way to integrate him into the LotR world relatively seamlessly. Here’s where my question comes in. While I’m looking for your views on the basics of the plotline, there’s a specific aspect of it that I want to know about to discover if I need to bury the fic again:
Harry dies fighting Voldemort (though taking Voldemort with him) after having fought the Dark Lord for about five years after DH. He wakes up at or near Esgaroth/Erebor about five, maybe six hundred years before the War of the Ring, with no memory of who or where he is, only remembering his name. Exploring, he encounters the local population (probably Esgaroth as I feel I could write humans far better than dwarves) and manages to communicate with them (as time goes on, he grows more and more fluent in most of the LotR languages). It’s about this time he discovers that he’s an elf.
At which point, my conscious mind went ‘Wait, what?’ until my brain decided to explain a bit more of the plot to me. It’s dripfed throughout the fic, but I’ll give an infodump here. Harry was an elf first. Let’s call him… Glorgathon, because I have no name for him currently and can’t be bothered to find a proper Elvish example name that hasn’t already been used by Tolkien. Glorgathon died in the War of the Last Alliance, possibly just before the end. I only have a ridiculously basic grasp of the Elven afterlife and I’m probably getting everyone’s names and roles wrong, so don’t kill me if I horribly screw it up now. The Valar (the sort of second-in-command gods, right?) are aware of Voldemort (possibly because the Valar exist in both worlds or maybe the act of creating a Horcrux was so horrific that they became aware of Voldemort) and want someone to sort the guy out. Glorgathon agrees and they send him in the form of Harry Potter. After Harry’s death, Glorgathon is brought back to the Halls of Mandos (?) and given a gold star and a fruit basket before being kicked into Middle-Earth. At first, he has no memory of anything that’s happened to him in either world, but as time passes, he eventually pieces together memories and works out what happened.
Anyway, Harry/Glorgathon (we’ll call him Harry, though) is led to Mirkwood (I’m guessing my subconscious chose Mirkwood simply as a probably misguided attempt to be different from the Suethors who choose Lothlorien or Rivendell for their Sues) and is recognised by the elves he meets, though he can’t say the same of them (you’ll really have to forgive me here. I have no clue how the resurrection part of Elven afterlife works. Do they randomly appear as adults or are they born and raised like any elf child until they reach a certain age where they say, “By the way, I’m Glorgathon” or is there another method?). This lack of remembrance causes chaos when it turns out that he’s married to… umm… Glorgatha the elf. After that, cue life in Mirkwood as he tries to figure out what happened to him, try to cope with having a wife he can’t remember and Sauron rearing his probably ugly head in the East once again. At some point, Glorgatha dies when she… err… ingests rat poison (*shrugs* haven’t figured out her death yet). Now, I’m vaguely, vaguely (lots of emphasis on the ‘vaguely’) aware of Finwe and Miriel (anyone care to explain properly?). Could the same thing possibly happen here? Because my brain is currently demanding that he have a human love interest in Minas Tirith/Edoras around the time of the War of the Ring. This is the main question I’m asking, by the way.
When the war does begin, Harry volunteers to represent the elves, but Legolas is chosen instead. Therefore, Harry only encounters the Fellowship every once in a while (Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith, probably). There are two things I can do here; a) have him choose to defend Minas Tirith (and get injured while doing so, meaning he’s not at the Black Gate) or b) choose to defend the Mirkwood and Erebor et cetera from Dol Guldor, but I have no idea of the specifics of those battles (I somehow doubt that Battle for Middle-Earth II is reliable) or even if it’d fit Harry’s character to be that far away from the battles that would actually bring about Sauron’s downfall.
After that, stuff happens. Probably Harry healing, marrying his love interest, having two point four children and then leaving Middle-Earth soon after she dies.
So yeah, what do you think? I’m guessing (and kind of hoping, given my current workload) that you’re going to tell me not to ever write this under pain of pain. If I did, I’d obviously come here for beta readers, but it all depends on your reaction. So?
Well, that is most likely an Improbable Crossover, but it could work if you are really careful. I agree with the idea of keeping the Love Interest alive and him learning to live with her. If Harry is going to be an elf, please still give him weaknesses and dear Eru, don't even dream of having him learn weapons or languages in weeks, or even in months. *stabs The Inheiritance Cycle* They take years to get really good at. Harry would probably be really unhappy about not being part of the Fellowship, and dear Eru, no Tenth Walker to get around that. If you can figure a way to get him to the battles with Sauron, more power to you. I personally can't right now. Good luck and may the typo demons avoid you.
He takes less time than usual to learn weapons, but not due to being Eragon. He learns languages and the basics of weaponry skills as he unlocks more of Glorgathon's memories, but he still requires training for a long time to truly master either.
As for Tenth Walker, don't worry. I'm aware of how much that deserves to join the fate of the Ring. Basically, Harry was just going to hear rumours and hop around from place to place getting caught up in battles (or just happens to be staying in a certain spot when stuff happens). For example, if the human love interest gets kept, Harry might go to Minas Tirith and say goodbye to her as the civilians all run off, then he might stick around with the soldiers.
And is there any crossover that truly works? Surely every fandom contradicts every other fandom in some way?
Like yours, my knowledge of LotR-cosmology is pretty limited, but I'll give it a shot.
The Valar are, indeed "sort of second-in-command gods", although I'm not certain if the Ainur fit into the picture in any manner.
Elvish resurrection is, by my understanding, incredibly rare - as in, to the best of my knowledge, it has occurred roughly half a dozen times in the history of the world.
I'd do my best to seriously rethink the human love interest. I'm not certain, but I think Beren & Luthien, Tuor & Idril, and Aragorn & Arwen are the only Man-Elf couples. Encyclopedia of Arda mentions another as possible, but I don't recognize either of the names, and even so that's only four in the whole history of the world. More than that, I have the distinct impression that Elves take one spouse, and one only, their entire lives.
I might see if I could merge the brain-shapes of the love interest and "Glorgatha", and probably keep her alive - aiming for a sort of "stuck with her, so learn to love her" situation.
Frankly I think the concept is at best an Improbable Crossover, and could very easily become Implausible, but if you think you can make it work more power to ya.
Ainur?
And I realise that elvish resurrection isn't the most common thing to happen, but the potential is there for everyone, right?
"I'm not certain, but I think Beren & Luthien, Tuor & Idril, and Aragorn & Arwen are the only Man-Elf couples. Encyclopedia of Arda mentions another as possible, but I don't recognize either of the names, and even so that's only four in the whole history of the world."
Surely you don't mean someone said "okay, in the entire history of the world, you only get four interspecies relationships. Use them well"?
"I have the distinct impression that Elves take one spouse, and one only, their entire lives."
That was what I was commenting on at one point. To my knowledge, there was an elf that was allowed to remarry as his wife had made it clear that she was never coming back to Middle-Earth.
"I might see if I could merge the brain-shapes of the love interest and "Glorgatha", and probably keep her alive - aiming for a sort of "stuck with her, so learn to love her" situation."
Hmm... maybe. I guess my subconscious just thought that Harry would be able to relate more with a human woman.
"Frankly I think the concept is at best an Improbable Crossover, and could very easily become Implausible, but if you think you can make it work more power to ya."
Frankly, I'm hoping that it won't work as I have a lot of stuff on my To Do list. :P
What about turning the HP universe into a second 'province' of Ea(can't add the double dots, sorry), in which access to the Music of the Ainur was more open to humanity (and possibly elvenkind). You can then make the spell system used by wizards a degraded version of it (using latin, and whtever tounges percieved as high). Then, turn Harry/Glorgathon's mission into the reintroduction of the 'true music', which is love (already his post powerful exsisting power). Just my two cents!
Knew I'd forgotten to mention something. The HP magic is a wild card at the moment. It flickers on and off. I don't want it to happen randomly, because that'll be rubbish. Is there anything I can tie it to in the LotR universe that will decide when it's on and when it's off (e.g. the phases of the moon)?
Unfortunately, that's the only comment I can give to yours, because I have no idea what you're talking about. The Silmarillion is gathering dust on my bookshelf at the moment.
By the way, have you noticed my topic, just above your post? If so, can you help? If you can't, it's okay. I just want a reply.