What is a crossover and what is not?

[jansenov]

This one occured to me yesterday.
How many anachronisms can appear in a LBT fanfiction before it is regarded as a crossover? For those that don't know, an anachronism is plot element (an object, an action) that didn't really exist in the time period in question. LBT takes place in the Mesozoic, probably late Cretacious to be more precise. LBT dinosaurs can talk, those that have hands can use them as skillfully as a human can, dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretacious live together, in LBT 1 when Petrie promises he will keep the treestar he holds it like a rifle and walks on Littlefoot's head in a guard's manner, in LBT 2 the Gang builds a craddle to carry unhatched Chomper,  dinosaurs use sharptooth teeth to decorate Saurus Rock in LBT 6, Tria and Ms. Swimmer use bandages, the Old One and Mr. Thicknose are familiar with healing properties of herbs, Ruby has a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy, and in LBT 1, LBT 5 and in a TV episode we touch upon spiritual concepts. In LBT 7 we have aliens visiting Earth. All members regard the examples above, save the last one, as cannon and not a crossover of any kind, eventhough some actions and concepts require a great deal of sophistication on the dinosaurs part, and some are so sophisticated, like Petrie holding the treestar as if it were a rifle, they could only be thought of as humor.

I'm saying this because building weapons and fighting wars is thought of as crossovering, even though building a spear for example is no more complicated than building a craddle or decorating Saurus Rock. By the same token, what prevents the LBT dinosaurs from building temples?

I'm not a proponent of wars or building temples in LBT myself, but I want to know when does a plot element, provided it is not too difficult for the LBT dinosaurs to build, use or understand, is a part of the LBT universe, and when it is not? Should a writer, willing to write a pure LBT story, stick only to the elements he finds in the movies and episodes, or is he allowed a certain creative freedom? And where are the limits of that freedom, before it goes into "crossover land"?

[Allicloud]

Well, a crossover implies that the themes, characters and scenarios of 2 or more media franchises are being mixed. Taking an example from a previous fafic I've read, crossing the show "Ed, Edd n Eddy", with the horror-movie series "CUBE", done by placing the characters from Ed Edd n Eddy into the scenarios of the original CUBE movie (Having to negotiate their way through a series of rooms that are sometimes boobytrapped, and may follow a pattern). However, take another EENE fic (written by me, actually): It involved Edd accidentally summoning a spirit-familiar in the form of a little girl. This takes ideas from books, but they are non-fiction books, so it's less of a crossover fic and more of a themed-fic

So, I think that an LBT fic would only be a crossover, if it's explicitly being combined wth another form of media. For example, if there was a sci-fi theme (Sci-fi weapons, space combat, aliens, etc), it would just be a sci-fi fic. But if they explicitly used lightsabers or the Force, or meet Han Solo or Yoda, it would become a Star Wars/LBT crossover (How awesome/stupid would that be?!)