Fanfic ideas you've had/would like to see.

[FakeGeekGirl]

I want to write (and actually did a little bit of work on) a story where Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) and Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds) were roommates in college as underage geniuses.

During my phase of every idea I had being an Avengers crossover, I had an idea of putting Avengers characters into the Star Trek universe and basically doing the Voyager storyline. I also had an idea for a band AU with the Avengers as teenage musicians with very different styles (Steve Rogers is an old-fashioned folk singer, Tony Stark is the son of a folk singer who sang with Steve's dad but is himself into hard rock, Bruce Banner is a mild-mannered indie rocker, and Loki and Thor are a Danish pop duo) who get pushed to make a boyband by record exec Nick Fury and they go on tour with sulty singer Natasha "Black Widow" Romanov as an opening act. Loki is the asshole who breaks up the band going solo while stealing lyrics from Clint Barton who is too stage shy to sing in public but writes great songs.

I swear to God the fanfic I actually write is less weird. *Reaches behind me and sweeps story in which Phil Coulson and Herbert West are former lovers and Phil is an LMD out of sight.*

[FakeGeekGirl]

Also I would like to see a decent Dany / Loki GOT / MCU crossover fic. There are lots of crappy ones but I'd love to see one done right - I'd try it but I already have too many fanfiction and original fiction projects plus my actual job on my plate and I'm not familiar enough with the ASOIAF novels.

[Independent George]

The Black Company x My Little Pony

For those who are unfamiliar with the work, Glen Cook's The Black Company series is arguably the seminal work in grimdark fantasy. It follows the story of the titular mercenary company as it fights for and against various overlords, evil and otherwise. And while dark/light crossover fictions are often fun for their own sake, this one would actually works:

1. Equestria was not always the utopia it is today, ruled and defended by a benevolent God-Emperor; in times past, there was much strife between ponies, as well as with the other races.
2. Magical, sentient horses exist in the Black Company universe.
3. The Black Company [minor spoilers] //crosses over between different universes//
4. The Black Company's annals go back thousands of years, and they actively recruit from every race they encounter (granted, we haven't seen any sapient nonhuman races in the novels, but that doesn't mean they don't exist).
5. While they often work for villains, the company itself is amoral rather than evil; they're doing a job for a paycheck, and greatly prefer not fighting at all to getting killed for a cause they are indifferent to, and rely more on guile more than brute force

I've been trying to imagine a time from ancient Equestria where the Black Company is comprised of a ragtag band of various races in Equestria. In keeping with the theme, they'd primarily be Earth ponies, with a small number of pegasi, and maybe 2-3 low-level unicorns. I imagine the story being set shortly after the ponies had begun to unify, and the need for a mercenary band was not only unnecessary, but seen as a threat to the fragile peace. Though also weary of war, the Black Company is fundamentally comprised of outcasts. Maybe most of their members retire, and the ones left are the ones unable to fit in to this new world - and so they leave. The story would follow their journey first into the Evertree Forest, and then into the griffin lands (maybe they have a griffin or two in the company), trying to find a new hire and a new purpose.

For those who find the idea interesting, but don't feel like reading a few thousand pages, try The Black Company In Middle Earth.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

FakeGeekGirl, your Avengers band fanfic sounds great, but the only role I want to see the cast of Big Bang Theory playing in any fanfiction is a few hundred pounds of readibly available protien or host bodies for the incubation of more interesting characters. The entire show is about mocking nerd culture while pretending to revel in it, along with a healthy side-serving of misogyny.

[SlackerinDeNile]

FakeGeekGirl, your Avengers band fanfic sounds great, but the only role I want to see the cast of Big Bang Theory playing in any fanfiction is a few hundred pounds of readibly available protien or host bodies for the incubation of more interesting characters. The entire show is about mocking nerd culture while pretending to revel in it, along with a healthy side-serving of misogyny.

Thank you!
It isn't even funny or creative either, the rest of the humour is just pop-culture references. Oh look, one of our characters is playing a Batman Arkham game, oh look our characters are in possession of a ring prop from the Lord of the Rings and it's corrupting them just like in the franchise! See!? We understand this generation!

If people get enjoyment out of this series, that's fine, if people want to write stories about it, that's also fine, just keep it away from me.

I'll stop whining now.

[Robovski]

Ben Franklinstein Benjamin Franklin and his Masons work dark experiments with electricity to discern the secret of life. Initially the story will be about his experiments with electricity upon body parts, but while in Paris he assembles The Creature which is set loose by John Paul Jones upon the British Isles during a raid, only to be captured and mistaken for a creature by the people of Whitehaven who burn it at the stake.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Okay Robovski, but what is that a fanfic of? The original Shelley novel, or some historical fiction franchise of which I am unaware? Right now it sounds a lot more like an original work.

[Robovski]

Okay Robovski, but what is that a fanfic of? The original Shelley novel, or some historical fiction franchise of which I am unaware? Right now it sounds a lot more like an original work.

It's a Frankenstein fic, but set in colonial America and Revolutionary Europe. Maybe it's too original for this topic, but I've had the idea of mixing Benjamin Franklin, the Masons, the Revolutionary War/Enlightenment and Frankenstein for literally decades now but I doubt I have the writing chops to make it happen.

[SlackerinDeNile]

Okay Robovski, but what is that a fanfic of? The original Shelley novel, or some historical fiction franchise of which I am unaware? Right now it sounds a lot more like an original work.

It's a Frankenstein fic, but set in colonial America and Revolutionary Europe. Maybe it's too original for this topic, but I've had the idea of mixing Benjamin Franklin, the Masons, the Revolutionary War/Enlightenment and Frankenstein for literally decades now but I doubt I have the writing chops to make it happen.

If you're passionate about it I think it's worth a try no matter what your current skill level is, there's plenty of material available these days to help you become a capable creative writer by yourself, although it helps to have reliable people around to help critique your work.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Romulan Republic, your ideas are fascinating but my god we are completely different people when it comes to taste, I think a lot of the things you have come up with in your time on this forum are interesting and well thought-out but part of me just cringes reading much of it. This isn't to do with you or the quality of your ideas, your analysis, your critique or whatever, it's just me and my narrow-mind and opinions.

Eh, tastes differ. Nothing wrong with that. I'd only consider probably under one percent of fan fic worth reading-granted, a lot of that is because most fan fic sucks beyond belief, but some of it is just different interests*.

One peculiarity of mine is that with a few exceptions, I have far, far more interest in crossover fics than in non-crossovers. Combining two realities, and watching them play off each other, with all the potential for parallels, contrasts, and deconstruction/reconstruction, just adds a whole new dimension. To use a math analogy, it doesn't double the potential- it squares it.

But then, my main initial introduction to fan fic was through the Star Trek vs. Star Wars community (on a related note, I do think that Star Trek and Star Wars, and particularly the Federation and Empire, make brilliant foils for each other- there's enough common ground for them to be compatible with a little effort, but enough differences to make things extremely interesting).

*I've said before, and I'll say again, that in my experience, fan films have a much better shit-to-quality ratio than written fan fic.

The Batman in the Matrix one sounds like it has the most potential to be incredibly entertaining, if not disturbing in parts.

Oh, yes. Definitely disturbing.

Its... really a fascinating situation to put Bruce in, I think. His whole life (depending somewhat on the version) is basically built around two principles: fighting to save Gotham, and "Thou Shalt Not Kill", which in his case extends as far as "Thou Shalt Not Let the Joker Die By Someone Else's Hand". Granted, Batman is good at finding alternatives to killing, but The Matrix nonetheless challenges both of those principles, and particularly his Save Gotham crusade.

Because Gotham never existed. Or if it did exist, it hasn't for centuries.

My biggest misgiving about writing it is probably that I'm not sure if anything recognizable as Batman would still remain after that revelation. Its an attack on the very core of who he is, and who he has been ever since he watched his parents die.

I'm not actually even really a fan of The Matrix (though I love Batman), but that's a fascinating premise to me. I think that it has a lot of potential, done right, to deconstruct elements of both franchises- The Matrix's cavalier indifference toward killing innocent bystanders on the one hand, and Bruce's whole identity as Batman on the other.

I mean "Batman has to kill (or at least accept extra-judicial killing by others) to save lives" is a good moral dilemma, if one that's been done before. But "Batman has to decide weather to kill an innocent possessed person" is a whole different question.

Plus, I think there's some real stylistic compatibility between the two settings, with the Matrix's signature blend of martial arts, gritty urban settings, superpowers, and black leather outfits.

I'd very likely take a crack at it, if I didn't have four unfinished stories underway already. I'd also have to figure out weather to bring in other DCU elements- there's a surprising amount of room for that in the Matrix-verse, with the second film indicating that various paranormal phenomena could be attributed to rogue programs, but at some point it might dilute/distract from the central ideal. In any case, Batman appeals to me more than the DCU as a whole, barring perhaps Superman, and I really don't know that Supes would fit in this story, unless you made him an unwitting agent of the system or something.

I detest The Big Bang Theory (although I love other nerd comedies such as The IT Crowd) and I'm just not that into The Dresden Files, so I'd probably give that a pass.

Yeah, I figured that bringing TBBT into this would be controversial.

But unless a story is truly just irredeemable, I sometimes prefer to take a flawed series/premise and try to fix it, rather than write it off. Not in the usual lazy "fix fic" way where the author is just trying to make everything the way they want it to be, or worse, ignoring canon outright, but in trying to take the existing canon and trying to come up with reasonable explanations for why it is the way it is. To build on, rather than tear down, the existing foundation. Its more of a challenge- but I find that, in the end, I am better at analyzing and tinkering with other peoples' stories (or at least I find more fulfilment in it) than in writing my own. I don't know if that says anything good about me or my talents as a writer, but I suppose there's always a market for adaptations/sequels/prequels/reboots/spin-offs.

Taking a sit-com and trying to weld it together with a fairly dark urban fantasy series holds a similar appeal to me.

Of course, I'm also a proponent of the idea that a sufficiently messed-up franchise can always benefit from a good hard reboot to the ass.

I would check out the Firefly\GoT crossover out of curiosity because I really like both of those franchises.

As for my own ideas:

-I'd like to see a fan-written season 5 of Farscape done right. A group of fans tried to do a fan-fic season years ago after Peacekeeper Wars, but it was utterly dreadlful, ridden with cliches, lacked creativity and was just really cringeworthy for a sensible person to read.
By 'right' I mean it forgets The Peacekeeper Wars and just starts off from where Season 4 ended, continuing the themes built up throughout the show, continues the character arcs, actually brings up creative plot ideas, both for the myth arc and individual episodes, and has an interesting twist or two placed at the right moment for good measure. It could go through the events of The Peacekeeper wars in more time and detail, as was originally intended and feature an actual, drawn out Hynerian coup and Nebari invasion plot.

Not much for me to say about this, I'm afraid, since my knowledge of Farscape is very limited.

-I wouldn't mind seeing a proper H.P. Lovecraft inspired cosmic horror story in the Babylon 5 universe, B5 was always very 'Lovecraft lite' and while the Shadows had some scary moments, they were neutered fairly quickly. I wouldn't mind seeing something that went all out with the horror, despair and hopelessness and featured some more powerful, strange, potentially malicious, aliens that just don't care about what their effect is on the protagonist and other victims of the story.

A bit grimdark-sounding for my tastes, personally, but I'm sure that it would find an audience.

-A Stargate Atlantis fan rewrite would be interesting, it could start where Season 2 ended and create a more interesting and imaginative Pegasus galaxy, with some more interesting species and cultures, maybe develop the Wraith in a more complex direction.

Not a bad idea at all.

-A post-reaper invasion Mass Effect story about a transhuman movement. The humans in the Mass Effect franchise were, like the humans in Star Trek, against genetic engineering for various political reasons. However, given the nature of the Reapers and the fact that humans came on the verge of extinction perhaps this movement would start arguing for the 'uplifting' of the human race or something, in order to better combat similar threats in the future. The Deus Ex games have explored this issue, particularly the second game with the 'Omar' faction, who were a group of adaptable, advanced cyborgs who wanted the human race to embrace transhumanism and travel into space. The story could explore the issue from multiple sides and points of view, including the alien angle and how they think and feel about the situation and the conflicted ways of their new allies.

Our tastes certainly are different. Mass Effect is another on my list that I'm just not terribly familiar with, I'm afraid.