Jedi Harris by Scribbler (PG to 15)
Title: Jedi Harris
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Star Wars, plus Stargate:SG-1/CSI/NCIS/Haven/Castle/Father Ted (yes, really) in later stories.
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Crossover, action, drama, occasional crack, YAHF
Length: Super-Epic (230,000 words, and that's just the first story)
Warnings: None (though the Wish-verse section is appropriately nasty)
Author on TtH: Scribbler
Author on ff.net: The Dark Scribbler
Summary:
“It’s a prop,” said a British voice to one side of him. “There’s a rumour that it was used, I believe, on one of the Star Wars films. I’ve no idea which one, but it might have been the original Star Wars.”
Review:
It's Cliché Week, and for Buffy crossover fans that can mean only one thing: YAHF. Yet Another Halloween Fic. That season 2 episode has launched more fanfics than any other single episode, in part because it's so easy to base a crossover from it. Just have your favourite characters pick up a costume of the show you want to use, and when Ethan Rayne's spell begins you have an instant crossover.
Needless to say, Sturgeon's Law applies in spades. Far too many stories use the idea as a cheap power-up for their favourite character, usually Xander, and let him keep his powers at the end with not the slightest hint as to why no one else gets to keep more than fuzzy memories. At first sight, Jedi Harris looks like it falls into that category; Xander dresses as a Jedi, becomes a slightly confused version of Obi-Wan, and still has Force powers at the end.
Fortunately, that's barely the beginning. Scribbler does have an explanation that the characters toss around; the Force is real, isn't the same thing as magic, and Star Wars gives the right metaphors to approach it despite being fiction in this world. It's a deliberately incomplete explanation, and it doesn't explain how Xander can remember large chunks of Obi-Wan's life that were never in any of the films (and aren't part of the Obi-Wan he dressed as, for that matter), but it does explain why Xander and (eventually) others can learn to manipulate the Force. It even comes with a built in balancing mechanism, not falling to the Dark Side, that stops Xander taking primacy from Buffy.
It's really cleverly done, in my opinion. The characters feel true to themselves throughout, though Jedi do tend to end up calmer and more self-assured, as you might hope. The plot moves on logically, taking into account both canon and where it would logically be changed by events. Many characters move in and out of events in ways you might not have expected, but which fit perfectly well when you think about it. There are even little cameos by other crossover characters, such as Don Camillo (give yourself a pat on the back and feel smug if that made sense to you).
Jedi Harris has turned into a whole sequence of stories of varying lengths, all equally well written, as more and more Jedi are found and trained. I thoroughly commend the lot of them, complete or not.
Jedi Harris (takes things up to Graduation)
The Terran Jedi (incomplete: introduces SG-1)
Train From The West (medium-length story in which the Vegas CSI team investigate an impossible crime scene).
Craggy Island: Vampire-Free Zone (purest crack)
The NCIS Jedi (how a member of the NCIS team becomes a Jedi)
A Jedi, a Mage and the Troubles (a case takes the NCIS team to Haven while Audrey is in the Barn)
The Alley and Jedi Castle (strange things happen in New York too).
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Star Wars, plus Stargate:SG-1/CSI/NCIS/Haven/Castle/Father Ted (yes, really) in later stories.
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Crossover, action, drama, occasional crack, YAHF
Length: Super-Epic (230,000 words, and that's just the first story)
Warnings: None (though the Wish-verse section is appropriately nasty)
Author on TtH: Scribbler
Author on ff.net: The Dark Scribbler
Summary:
“It’s a prop,” said a British voice to one side of him. “There’s a rumour that it was used, I believe, on one of the Star Wars films. I’ve no idea which one, but it might have been the original Star Wars.”
Review:
It's Cliché Week, and for Buffy crossover fans that can mean only one thing: YAHF. Yet Another Halloween Fic. That season 2 episode has launched more fanfics than any other single episode, in part because it's so easy to base a crossover from it. Just have your favourite characters pick up a costume of the show you want to use, and when Ethan Rayne's spell begins you have an instant crossover.
Needless to say, Sturgeon's Law applies in spades. Far too many stories use the idea as a cheap power-up for their favourite character, usually Xander, and let him keep his powers at the end with not the slightest hint as to why no one else gets to keep more than fuzzy memories. At first sight, Jedi Harris looks like it falls into that category; Xander dresses as a Jedi, becomes a slightly confused version of Obi-Wan, and still has Force powers at the end.
Fortunately, that's barely the beginning. Scribbler does have an explanation that the characters toss around; the Force is real, isn't the same thing as magic, and Star Wars gives the right metaphors to approach it despite being fiction in this world. It's a deliberately incomplete explanation, and it doesn't explain how Xander can remember large chunks of Obi-Wan's life that were never in any of the films (and aren't part of the Obi-Wan he dressed as, for that matter), but it does explain why Xander and (eventually) others can learn to manipulate the Force. It even comes with a built in balancing mechanism, not falling to the Dark Side, that stops Xander taking primacy from Buffy.
It's really cleverly done, in my opinion. The characters feel true to themselves throughout, though Jedi do tend to end up calmer and more self-assured, as you might hope. The plot moves on logically, taking into account both canon and where it would logically be changed by events. Many characters move in and out of events in ways you might not have expected, but which fit perfectly well when you think about it. There are even little cameos by other crossover characters, such as Don Camillo (give yourself a pat on the back and feel smug if that made sense to you).
Jedi Harris has turned into a whole sequence of stories of varying lengths, all equally well written, as more and more Jedi are found and trained. I thoroughly commend the lot of them, complete or not.
Jedi Harris (takes things up to Graduation)
The Terran Jedi (incomplete: introduces SG-1)
Train From The West (medium-length story in which the Vegas CSI team investigate an impossible crime scene).
Craggy Island: Vampire-Free Zone (purest crack)
The NCIS Jedi (how a member of the NCIS team becomes a Jedi)
A Jedi, a Mage and the Troubles (a case takes the NCIS team to Haven while Audrey is in the Barn)
The Alley and Jedi Castle (strange things happen in New York too).