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torkragnarok · 3 years ago

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Elwynn James, Tails Gets Trolled and the Growing Genre it Created, Crossovers, and Monkees AUs: An Essay by torkragnarok

I'm going to preface this by saying I have a neutral opinion on most of the subject matter of this essay, and I do not mean any ill will towards the people and stories mentioned in this essay. Please do not assume I am pro- or anti- anything here. I just find the subjects of the essay fascinating.

The trolled-like genre is a fascinating crossover genre, and one that is growing slowly, but surely on the internet.

The main big stories of the genre are the genre's originator, Tails Gets Trolled, as well as its similar, more "Learning with Pibby"-like cousin, Scoob and Shag.

There are also a few other stories in the genre, most notably Mr. Boop, as well as the Elwynn James (nesmithplaza/grendolenz) and Jessica McKinney (cashewstar/nuttystar/felineofallstars) fanfiction, and the only non-comic format story in this genre thus far: Crossover Chaos.

Crossover Chaos was not originally part of the genre, but was retooled into it when Scoob and Shag was becoming popular on the internet.

WHO ARE ELWYNN JAMES AND JESSICA MCKINNEY?

Elwynn James is a Korean-Canadian gay transmasc fanfiction writer, known only for Crossover Chaos, Sailor Moon Primordial X-Storm (if you've seen the Fanfiction Wiki, that's the articles that are summaries of a fake anime saga with the paragraph-long titles, usually mentioning Sailor Moon, Kingdom Hearts or Bakugan), and the drama he's gotten himself in (see the cannedtins/swagfacechild drama, as well as the trigonal drama. the latter is archived on deviantartdramanow, and is still ongoing).

Elwynn is very anti-modern fanfiction (he loves the mission of AO3, but hates the content on it, as he considers the coffee shop AUs and omegaverse a/b/o fics bland, and wishes the fanfiction world would shift back to crossovers, more specifically surrealist crossovers like his own, for the reasons of 'making it unmarketable for capitalist purposes', which is an interesting reason).

Elwynn is also schizophrenic, and, as he says himself, is 'hanging on the ledge of my grip on reality at this point'. His surrealist sense of humor may arise from this, as well.

Jessica McKinney is his co-writer, an American asexual fanfiction writer, known for Unity Hearts, Crossover Chaos, and her fursona, now open-sourced for other peoples' use, Trippz Grissom.

Jessica is an odd duck among the modern fanfiction community, as her sense of humor, and ways of writing, seem to be stuck in the era of 2008 to 2014 type of fandom. This is apparent in Crossover Chaos, her Deviantart status updates, and some of the jokes she may make.

She is also on the autism spectrum, and may be undiagnosed bipolar(? some of her behaviour online leads me to this conclusion, i'm not self-diagnosing her).

This fanfiction writing duo has been writing the Crossover Chaos saga for about a decade or so. The story is mostly on Deviantart, but currently, the newer stories in the saga are on a private forum.

WHY ARE THE MONKEES RELEVANT IN THIS ESSAY?

The story, as it currently stands, currently stars a heavily changed version of Michael Nesmith, as the story revolves through main characters, depending on whatever show or celebrity Elwynn and Jess are obsessed with.

(Side note that has some relevancy to both essay and fandom: Elwynn is a Mike stan, Jessica is a Peter stan. This may explain why Mike is the Crossover Chaos lead right now, and why Trippz is paired up with Peter. Elwynn has also made jokes about Mike and Peter girls being hostile to each other in the fandom, saying, that 'Mike and Peter girls can get along'. Moving on)

Crossover Chaos is a crossover saga of thousands of series put together in a lore and worldbuilding heavy alternate universe, and originally started out as a "Fanboy and Chum Chum in Equestria" story, believe it or not.

The 'Mike era' of the saga, as Elwynn calls it, started approximately around November or December 2021, around the time the real Michael Nesmith died.

Elwynn, doing as Elwynn does, was enamoured with Mike to an obsessive degree, and made him the lead character of the story, dethroning the then-current leads, Socks (Mission: Magic!, a 1972 Filmation cartoon starring Rick Springfield, Socks is the Jughead-like character in it), Elaine (Digimon Adventure 01, a transfem axe-wielding aged-up version of Joe Kido that is basically the story's equivalent of the Doomslayer from id Software's video game Doom), and Kaz (Chaotic, a 4kids-made card game show that takes big inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, as well as Lord of the Rings, Kaz is the nerdy best friend character of the lead in this show).

MIKE NESMITH, AND HIS TREATMENT IN THE STORY

The most relevant, plot-wise, in the Mike era of the story, are, as previously mentioned, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork.

All four of them feature in the story, but Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz are in supporting roles compared to Mike and Peter.

Mike Nesmith is the lead character, and Elwynn gives him a lot of qualities taken from the stock isekai harem protagonist.

This leads to Mike being more powerful then most other characters in the story, excluding mainstays such as Valo (a petty caricature of Funny Music Project musician, known for the comedy song 'Grease Wars', and Mighty Magisword storyboarder and voice actor, Luke Seinkowski, notably open-sourced for all to use), Floofty Fizzlebean (a heavily AU version that ascended 'beyond godhood' due to mad science never truly explained), the Colmares (one of them being Puggsy from the Ruby-Spears cartoon 'Fangface', a Scooby-Doo-a-like where the Shaggy character is also the Scooby because he's a werewolf, Puggsy is the sidekick character in this one), and the head honchos of the setting, the Pokemon Legendaries (Arceus' power level and 'One True Arceus' storyline is blatantly stolen from fellow deviant simbiothero's crossover AU 'Crossverse', as Elwynn is incredibly petty, and likes his characters being at the top of the fanfiction power level food chain).

Mike, in this AU, is not only hyper-powerful like the typical stock isekai light novel or anime protagonist, but also has other 'power fantasy' traits from the trope, such as starting out 'average', the fact he got taken into the world of the story by his death (stated in the story to be his own real life death, this is also the same for Davy and Peter), as well as having a 'harem', consisting of his own bandmates, characters from other series, as well as Elwynn and Jess' original characters.

Mike is heavily sexualized in his designs in this story, but never dehumanized like the other three (Micky and Peter are especially given that treatment, sometimes Davy, too).

Mike is also written less like actual Mike Nesmith in the story, and more like a 'self-insert' for Elwynn, taking on many of his personality traits, and even having the bleached fringe that Elwynn has in photos of himself.

Basically, Mike Nesmith in this story is just Elwynn James, if he had Kirito from Sword Art Online's post-isekai life, and wore the nudie suit, to put it plainly.

PETER TORK, AND HIS TREATMENT IN THE STORY

Peter Tork is the second-most relevant Monkee in the story, as he is Jessica's favourite Monkee.

Peter Tork in Crossover Chaos is often portrayed as Mike's narrative foil in the story, being his closely allied friend, and, often, second in command.

Peter fills in the story's 'Lancer'-style character trope, as Mike is very surly, analytical, and sarcastic, and Peter is more cheerful, peaceful, and optimistic.

He sticks to Mike's side often, tried and true, and will lay down his life, often, for Mike.

Peter is often highly sexualized, and almost dehumanized in terms of his physical description in the story, however, and this is highly reflective in the clothes he wears in the story, often wearing next to nothing, and that next to nothing is usually mesh and/or tight leather. Considering Peter was a nudist and also, later in his life, into health foods and fitness, they are taking traits he actually had, and heavily sexualizing it, and heavily dehumanizing him for it, for the sake of their own personal titillation.

Peter's autism is brought up frequently, but always, concurrently, with the mentions of his physical attractiveness, or his sex life.

It is never mentioned without those being mentioned, making him seem like Jessica and Elwynn consider him a sex object, and little more.

DAVY JONES AND MICKY DOLENZ, AND THEIR TREATMENT IN THE STORY

Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, in the story, are often considered characters that 'revolve' around Mike and Peter in the story.

Micky Dolenz is transfem in the story, and is, basically, just there to be the sexy big anime titty girl character, as well as the character that spouts the currently relevant funny meme of the week from her mouth, which may date this story in 10 to 20 years.

Davy Jones, in this story, is meant for comedic relief, and is very much comparable to Mineta from My Hero Academia, in which he is a misogynistic pervert, though Davy goes, often, after men (a cruel take on the gayvy jones joke in the fandom, as Elwynn has stated its referencing that), and really, really hates women.

Micky, in the story, is in a relationship with Mike, and most of her character in the story beyond what has been said previously, revolves around her relationship with him.

Davy is also slightly a fetish object in the story, as Elwynn has a very specific fat fetish, for men under 5'7", and that's why Davy seems to get fatter as the story goes on.

Micky is often sexualized to hell and back, and dehumanized because of her role in the story, and Davy less so, but it still happens.

CROSSOVER CHAOS, AND THE TROLLED-LIKE GENRE

Crossover Chaos shares the surrealist humor of everything else in the trolled-like genre, and, also, many of its problems, too.

Tails gets Trolled, the comic the genre came from, has many homophobic, misogynistic, and otherwise not very great jokes ('Can you put that on a coaster', anyone?), but shines in its surrealist vibe, mushing series together in a way that makes sense, and makes it a fun, surrealist ride.

Crossover Chaos, is similar with its problems (Davy is a huge example of that, as well as many, many other problems), but also has its own share of problems different then Tails gets Trolled.

One of them being that the story has an oddly Evangelical feeling, without mentioning Christianity nor any of the characters within it, nor God himself.

Instead, the story mentions, in its place, "trans rights", as well as many trans people, the most common being Marsha P. Johnson, and the characters are sometimes even shown praying to her.

The story, even though it seems very LGBT-friendly on the outset, is heavily steeped in gender roles, and what its like to be a good "trans person", which is also very much steeped in Evangelical morals, while also putting in slight bits of queer theory, highly misused to seem more 'progressive'.

Another problem is the unauthorized use of other people's fanfiction, because Elwynn, again, is petty, and likes having his fanfiction characters at the top of the fanfiction power level pecking order.

(The man even destroys the Protectors of the Plot Continuum and its universe, citing the excuse of the people writing the universe "not being good queer people because they critique bad writing", and the Keys to the Canon, called the Four in All in the story, are unceremoniously absorbed by Nesmith, and added into his already overpowered powerset.)

Elwynn has also targeted Loud House Revamped, ShakespeareHemmingway, and the Shared Crossover Universes, as well as many fanfictional imperial power fantasies, as well, just so Nesmith can destroy them, take everything they have, and become the god of fanfiction, so to speak.

IN CONCLUSION

I'm not saying Crossover Chaos is a bad story, but it's definitely not a good one, and it definitely needs to be criticized as a fanfiction, because many of the elements within it are... not palatable to many people.

I'm saying, also, don't send Elwynn or Jessica any death threats, doxxes, etc., because this story has piqued my curiosity, and I am, unfortunately, very obsessed with it, and all of its oddness, and I'd hate to see it gone from the internet.

Elwynn and Jessica are flawed people, yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't people just because they write 'problematic' fanfiction.

And that's why I find it all amusing.

#the monkees #fanfiction essay #tails gets trolled #scoob and shag #crossover essay

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