Zav: Tentative Ideas for Fiction (Fan or Otherwise)

As the title suggests. And if this is in the wrong forum or whatnot, apologies in advance!

This is more of an experimental scrapbook of ideas. My brain's been circling around some ideas lately for a few stories, but that's all it's been for awhile. Just thinking about it, and not actually putting things down. I figured might as well put a stop to that and actually, you know, try writing it out. See if it sticks. If anyone likes the ideas and comments on it, I'd count it as a bonus.

There doesn't seem to be a particularly standard format for trying these out, so I'll go ahead and start with the one that's really been prodding at me lately:

Injustice: Gods Among Us (DCU, SI-ish)

Disclaimer: If you have not played either game, or have not read the comic tie-ins at all, there may be minor spoilers. I will try to avoid the big ones, and stick to the highlights.

If anyone's read the Injustice tie-in comics, or played through the story modes of both games, you know this: things in Injustice went horribly, horribly wrong for just about everyone involved (except the Joker, but he's not really around to enjoy the sick joke he played on his timeline). The Justice League is utterly fractured in the wake of the game's events, and by the time any resolution is had, the DCU has suffered a lot of damage. Many of the big players are dead, crippled, or are so bitterly opposed to each other that threats on the scale of the Justice League or the Green Lantern Corps are unchecked.

All because Superman had a really, really bad day, courtesy of the Joker.

Now I'm oversimplifying things. What I like about the Injustice setting is that while there are fairly big differences between the 'main' timeline and the Injustice timeline, there's also a lot of smaller ones that all build up to alter the core of some of the characters, even when they mostly started similarly to what we're familiar with.

Let's go over a few:

- Krypton still suffered its usual fate, but in a different fashion. In between a civil war (General Dru-Zod doing his usual thing), Krypton was also invaded and destroyed by Brainiac. Kal-El and Kara Zor-El were still sent to Earth, but effectively as war refugees escaping the doom of Krypton.
- Superman did not have a mortal nemesis. We all expect it to be Lex Luthor, but this was very much not the case in Injustice. If anything, Lex effectively shared the moniker of "Superman's Pal" along with Jimmy Olsen, and was the best friend of Louis and Clark.
- Because Lex was never the supervillain we normally peg him for, quite a lot of the threats Superman normally would face never appeared. John Corben, for example, did not appear as Metallo (or if he did, I admit I might have missed it). Bizarro was never made (until much later) because Lex never had the need or fixation to defeat Superman. Heroes are at least partially defined by their villains, and Superman's antagonistic relationship with Lex is one of his defining ones. What happens when you take that away?

There's more differences also, including Aquaman's distance from the surface world, Wonder Woman's more antagonistic tendencies despite her status as an Ambassador of Peace (quote Ares: "And now you're headbutting tanks"), and more.

So that was a lot of rambling about why you like Injustice. What are you getting at? What's your idea?

Having read a few pieces of fanfiction involving time travel and self-inserts (most notable in this category is Mr Zoat's 'With This Ring'), I know I'm not going to come close to matching them. This is really for fun, and to see if I can write something believable and something that people can enjoy with my relatively limited knowledge. So the setup would be this.

Meet this fellow. Nix Uotan, the Last Monitor, the Superjudge. Between the various realities of the DCU's Multiverse (the roughly 52 Earths as defined by Grant Morrison's Multiversity), it's his job to make sure nothing goes amok. This...didn't always go as planned. Some nasty folks known as the Gentry decided they wanted to consume the Multiverse (after having already consumed the previous iteration). The Gentry were eventually defeated in a contest they rigged against Nix Uotan, but only because he was able to send a call to assemble a multiversal Justice League. This is not the only time he's done something like this. In the comic tie-in to the now defunct MOBA game, Infinite Crisis, Nix Uotan also did the same thing (albeit on a much smaller scale). Taking heroes from the main universe, and the Nightmare, Magic and Gaslight universes (including one of my favorite depictions of Lex Luthor, if just for how unintentionally goofy he came across as - could just be me though), he was able to put down another multiversal threat.

I've rambled again, and there's still more backstory to him that I'm missing, but here's the point: this lends itself well to an SI-type storyline in the DCU.

The basic setup would be that Nix Uotan, having finally put out enough multiversal fires that he doesn't need to intervene directly this time, settles down to relax in his civilian personality. As depicted in Multiversity, he is, appropriately, a comic geek. Aside from simply witnessing the lives of the Multiverse, he'd likely just be content with just that to relax. Just take stock, see what's working well, see what isn't. And while the Superjudge is not mentioned or referred to in Injustice, I choose to interpret that it still exists in the wider multiverse (there are a few worlds that are left intentionally blank in the guidebook, so that could still work). He'd likely be dismayed at the state of that particular part of the Multiverse, but all of his other heroes are already dedicated to stabilizing things elsewhere, he has nothing he can really spare to save that universe from its fate.

Which is right around when the soul of the SI lands on his desk.

It would be the typical SI experience: sudden separation from a life he might or might not have been satisfied with, suddenly has his entire fate in the hands of the Superjudge. Whether another Random Omnipotent Being (or ROB, as I understand it to be) cast him there by accident, or a quirk of the Source who decided to be said ROB, there the SI is. Nix is at first confused as to what to do with him, when he decides this could possibly work. He gives the SI a choice: he can try to send him back to his original world, without any guarantee that things would go back to normal for the SI, or he could set him up in the DCU for a new life. He could retain his memories, and the broad strokes of knowledge, but nothing specific.

His only price: do your best to make the universe a better place. Which, given Injustice, is something of a tall order. But the SI accepts the deal. And since it's well within his abilities to alter reality subtly, Nix weaves a new life out of someone who theoretically could have existed, and sends the SI off on his way.

What is this new life?

This part is still under consideration. But one idea I had was to cast the SI as a Kryptonian. Except as a Kryptonian that grows up among the last generation of Krypton, before the great scouring of Brainiac. The SI knows it's coming - either Krypton blows up on its own because the Science Council ignores Jor-El's warnings (and possibly dig in their heels when Dru-Zod tries to launch a coup), or Brainiac comes in to make sure Krypton goes the way of the dodo.

The SI knows Krypton is doomed, but he can still affect the whims of fate somewhat. He could tie himself in with Jor-El, and try to gain greater acceptance of the knowledge that Krypton is heading towards a cataclysmic end. Possibly he would already be a good friend, or at least a strong ally, of the El family, in whatever capacity he works in. Or, he could ensure he becomes classmates with Dru-Zod and his inner circle. Join them as a soldier of the Kryptonian military (the name of which changes depending on continuity - one name I've seen was the Military Guild), tie himself to Zod as a right hand of sorts, and ensure that Krypton can at least put up a better fight against Brainiac. Instead of one of its greatest monsters, Dru-Zod may go down as the beacon of Krypton's Last Stand. One way or another, however, the Kryptonian SI would make his own way to Earth, with events being slightly swayed by Nix Uotan, but not to the point of direct support.

His objective?

To try and keep the Man of Steel on the golden path.

Okay, I started this snippet thinking this was going to be a twenty minute thing. I've been typing for a good deal longer than that. If anyone wants to chime in or pitch ideas, I'd love to discuss them.

If you actually read this, thanks! And I hope you gained some entertainment (or food for thought) out of this.

 

I won't be posting these ideas in any chronological order. I'll probably arrange threadmarks later on, and anyone who's going just by the threadmarks may get slightly confused at how the pages are jumping up and down like a trampoline. At least, that's what I'm predicting.

But enough of that. I had another idea tangentially related to the Injustice one.

The Crime Syndicate of America (DCU, SI-ish)

I'll be perfectly frank. I adore Mirror Universes.

There's no real logic behind it. There's just something cool and campy about seeing alignments flipped on their heads. Sometimes they're roughly the same personalities but different people, otherwise it's out and out the same people with very different upbringings and life choices. Either way, it makes for a really, really fun contrast with the standard settings people are used to.

Here's some of my favorites:

Transformers Shattered Glass

Transformers! More than meets the eye! Decepticons wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Autobots!

Wait, what?

Yeah, that doesn't quite roll off the tongue the way the G1 opening did, but it sums up the setting rather nicely. You have to go a little out of your way to find this one, but Transformers does have its own Mirror Universe: a heroic Megatron leads the Decepticons in a desperate battle against the overwhelming forces of the Autobots. It's a very straightforward mirror flip at first, told from the perspective of Generation One's Cliffjumper (who understandably thinks everything's gone completely bonkers), but it slowly develops its own nuances. I admit later on there were times when I think it jumped some sharks along the way, but all in all, I enjoyed it.

An evil Optimus Prime is something to behold, just as much as comic relief Soundwave.

The Roboutian Heresy

I enjoy Warhammer 40,000, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to write an indepth quest or story about it. I casually dip into the lore, not go really deep into the novels - the amount of books out there that Black Library publishes scares me somewhat. I like reading about it in broad strokes, with one exception: I usually make time for the Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) series. But I know enough of the basic lore - the Dark Age of Technology, the Unification Wars, the onset of the Adeptus Astartes, the Great Crusade, and, of course, the Horus Heresy that nearly destroyed the Imperium of Man.

The Heresy, of course, was primarily led by Horus Lupercal of the Luna Wolves-turned-Sons of Horus-to-become-eventually-the Black Legion. But the Roboutian Heresy, much like what Injustice did with some of its characters, put in lots of smaller differences in the lives of the Primarchs that would draw the lines of the Heresy. The greatest monsters of the original timeline are in fact the heroes they should have been, and those of the Loyalist legions of our timeline fell to become grotesque Chaotic parodies of what they once were. And even though it's more or less a straight flip of Loyalist vs. Traitor Legions, this timeline is at the same time worse than the original in some ways, and better than the other. The Imperium is fragile, but its legions of Space Marines remain strong alongside the Imperial forces. Chaos, though arguably more dangerous than before, is even more fractured against each other (and particularly against the Archtraitor's sons) than ever before.

...look. I like seeing how the differences play out, alright?

Okay. So what's your idea here?

As the title up there said earlier, one other idea to play out as an SI scenario would be set on a version of the DCU's Earth Three. The Crime Syndicate of America are the evil counterparts of the Justice League of America. Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring are the greatest criminals of their world, and they lord their status over everyone else. One of the most recent interpretations that showcased this universe was Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (and expanded on a bit by Mr Zoat's With This Ring). Though not to the extreme of Grant Morrison's take on them - that evil always triumphed in their world as much as good triumphs in ours - the heroes of that world almost always tend to be on the back foot like the villains are for us.

So what would it take to be a successful hero in a supervillain-dominated world? Could you make it work? Could you inspire enough support with the heroes of that world to level the playing field?

In this story, Nix Uotan might be intrigued by the idea. Making more or less the same offer as the Injustice idea, he grants the SI undetermined powers (to be discovered and experimented on his own), and lets him loose on an 'echo' of Earth Three. Nix Uotan figures, hey, if he can make that world a better place, then it prevents the villains from getting complacent (which happens a lot to the Crime Syndicate despite their successes against the Justice League) while also preparing that world for multiversal threats should another come again.

As for what that power would be...there's a lot of unexplored lore in Earth Three that could be fun to experiment with. Just as an example, what would a Yellow Power Ring in Earth Three look like? As far as we know, the only power ring shown from Earth Three is...well...Power Ring's. And rather than the emotional spectrum of Willpower, it is an ancient parasite known as Volthoom, who gains power by draining the life and sanity of its weakwilled wielders (Abin Sur of this timeline was all but desperate to get rid of it and didn't care how). Poor Harold Jordan was constantly subjected to charging the ring by witnessing horrifying images of an eldritch dimension, and he absolutely hated using the ring, even though he loved the power it gave him. So if a Yellow Ring capitalized on Fear in our universe, is it the power of Courage in Earth Three? Does it even exist?

Or what about the Speed Force? Johnny Quick has been seen as part of a wider effort of united Flashes to overcome a crisis (like on Earth Seven in Multiversity), so it exists there. But does a version of the Reverse Flash - of Eobard Thawne - exist?

And in all honesty, what would a Justice League - or its equivalent - look like in this setting? In Crisis on Two Earths, the Justice League clearly existed before they were mostly wiped out, with Lex Luthor as their leader and the Jester as his right hand. Could they even operate in the open, or would they work like the Secret Society does?

That's my thoughts for now. If anyone's reading this, I hope you're getting some enjoyment out of it.

 

So, this next one is not really a story idea per se (it could be, but I'm not sure I'd be able to do it justice). But awhile back, I remember there being a string of fanfics that all hinged on one premise:

Spider-Man in the DCU (AU, isekai??)

Yeah, I know. I've got a lot of DC comics on the brain.

Anyhoo.

I don't know a whole lot about Marvel. I've seen some of the movies, I've read some of the comics, but I don't really dive into it the same way I do with DC. There's really cool heroes and ideas in it - I mean, DR. DOOM is awesome - but it's never really grabbed at me the same way the DC multiverse does.

But Spider-Man's always felt more accessible to me. I'm sure there's plenty of reasons behind it, but I'm not read up on him enough to list why (and I'm sure more qualified people than me have done that already). Suffice to say, he's someone who does great things with his powers responsibly, and gives 110% to save the day, even when the Marvel universe seems utterly determined to rain on his parade. If one part of Peter Parker's life is successful, the other always seems to suffer, and vice versa.

I've read some fanfiction that runs with this idea. That Spider-Man (Earth 616 or a rough analogue of it anyway) is finally done. His life is in ruins, or he's finally defeated, or he sacrifices himself in one final battle. Some of the Powers that Be decide, "Okay, it's time to give this guy a break." So through whatever mechanism or contrivance, he's thrown into a version of the DCU (with some of them specifically being the DCAU, ala Justice League the animated series). From there, Peter has nothing left on him but the costume on his back, and possibly the bemused patronage of the Justice League (the degree of which always varies).

And in all honesty, if the DCU doesn't constantly crap on Peter the way the Marvel universe did, his new home would be something of a vacation compared to what he's used to. Peter Parker as Spider-Man would be a veteran by then, and generally knows how to deal with supervillains. And the DCU's villains are about as classic as they come, with plenty of fodder for the Parker quippage to drive them crazy. If he settled in New York, it probably would be one of the more mundane cities of the DCU due to a general lack of supervillains (outside of a few, like Killer Frost or Deathstroke) and he'd see more of the action if he gets deputized into the Justice League.

Though another method which I've seen used less in this trend is having his whole life transplanted to the DCU. Slotted to fit into the DCU as if he were meant to be there all along, he is as familiar a sight to people around the United States as Superman, Batman, and the Green Lanterns are. Perhaps even had a few team-ups with the bigger names before any of the big crises that formed the Justice League comes along to spoil everyone's party.

So how would he get along with the other heroes?

Usually depends. Some depictions I've seen show him developing a respectful rapport with Batman, while in others they do not get along. Almost universally he and the Flash are thick as thieves due to their very similar mindsets to fighting crime and saving lives (and just being a people person overall). But for the most part, Spidey probably has the mindset to fit right in with the generally straightforward heroics of the wider DCU.

Romantically, well, there's an entire series of fanfiction that ships him with various women of the Marvel and DC universes in one-shots. Think it was called "Everyone Loves Spidey" or something along those lines - I'm sure I'll remember after I move on from this article. But usually a popular woman to pair him with is Kara Zor-El, Supergirl. Usually it's portrayed as a classic case of young love, of two young people trying to make their way in an already established world. The fics don't normally go far enough to explore it too much in depth, though, so I can't really say otherwise.

Could I write this? Maybe not.

Part of why I say that is a mix of reasons. Part of it would be figuring out what the overall plot is. A lot of fics tend to just put him in the DCU for the sake of putting him there, then sort of wandering parallel to the already ongoing plot without changing it too much outside of one-shot adventures. Which is fine, honestly, I had fun reading those for what they were. But I'm honestly not sure what the overall plot and end-game would be. *shrug*

Would be fun to write, but it would also probably be fairly difficult for me.

Either way, those are my thoughts on the matter. It's fun as it is just to get this down out of my thoughts.

 

So this next idea isn't really a fandom related one. This is one that I've had for awhile, but haven't really pushed forward with as much as any of the others. Simply put, this is probably much, much more in line with a narrative quest than an out and out story on its own.

A New God in a Rebuilding World (Original, Fantasy, Isekai)

This is going to be a heck of a lot less structured than my past couple of ideas, so bear with me, possible readers that may or may not be out there. I have no names, characters, or anything lined up here; this is all strictly hypothetical.

Imagine a fantasy world. It ranges anywhere from the grittier side of the Witcher series, to somewhere more grey such as Thedas, or an out and out heroic high fantasy, edging more towards Faerun. It is a land rife with intrigue, adventure, and political divisions that can flare up at the drop of a hat. People do not get along, someone is always plotting something, and the gods - who do exist - are just as fractured as their mortal followers.

Then it all just disappears. A great cataclysm if you will, a traumatic event that wipes the slate mostly clean. The gods are dead, dying, or uncommunicative and powerless, the major civilizations of elves, dwarves, men and all other races are in steep decline. Knowledge of smithing, engineering, magic - lost.

But the survivors eventually rebuild. Eventually they discover new gods. They form new nations. They rediscover (or 'invent') the knowledge of the past. And after so many centuries after the past cataclysm and fall, when it all becomes just a myth and a fairy tale, the bickering and divisions all starts over again.

Only for the same thing to happen again. And again.

Much like in the Mass Effect trilogy, there is a constant cycle of rise and fall. The only reason people even know this is because there's so many ruins among the rebuilt cities and landscape that adventuring is a constant, secure job. But at the height of each cycle, it all comes crashing down again.

So where would the players come in?

One god would decide, as a last act of defiance, that he's going to have the last laugh at whatever is causing this. He doesn't know what it is - he just knows it's destroying everything he built his divine life with. Or maybe his domain gave him a particular perspective, and sees a glimmer of discovering just what's causing this and why. Either way, as the world dies, he commits one final great divine act, and fades into nothingness like all the other gods.

But this time, as the dust settles, a new god arrives on the scene. Much, much earlier than expected.

The players would take the role of a new godling. Imbued with the spark of the past god who spit in the wind out of spite, this would be a wayward soul from outside of the known realms. Someone who is not tainted by familiarity of what should be, or what has been. This is someone who has absolutely no idea what they're going in for, which ironically makes them the better judge of what should be done.

Naturally, it's an isekai'd soul. Because of course it is.

The players would be imbued with a divine spark, but with a bare minimum of explanation as to what the hell's going on. But the divine spark is a potent thing - it starts small, but can and will grow in strength until the players become a god in their own right. And long before other gods organically come into existence, the divine spark also gives them an edge over everyone else - they have seen the world recovering from relatively fresh wounds, not awakening to a world who has grown scars over the damage. And that will possibly drive them to want to know what and why.

What would the players be the god of? How would any of this work?

Having taken a stab at being a GM before, I'm not really all that great with numbers. I much more prefer to tell the narrative focus and consequences of what happened, over obsessing over the numbers. I'd likely have some kind of minimalist dice system in play, but telling a neat story would always come first for me. It's probably not everyone's preferred method, but it's mine. *shrug*

That said, the players' god avatar would have to first learn what they can do. How the separation of the godly plane (just as trashed as the mortal realm) works relative to the mortal one, how they can interact with the mortals, which group of mortals to start observing, and how they interact with them.

As an example, suppose that gods' identities in this setting are defined a great deal by how the mortals see them, interact with them, and tell stories about them. So in this case, first impressions are super important for gods. They might overlook some aspect of them if it only happens infrequently (and by infrequently I mean over the course of generations) - so a god who acts as the mysterious messenger won't be solely defined by the two times they waded into battle. But mortals will remember that one version of the story that one shaman the tribe over the hills told their uncle once, however unevenly.

The more consistent the players' actions with mortals are, the more that solidifies their identity with that group of mortals. So if they approached the various clans of orcs roaming the steppes, for example, and always appeared at the height of great battles, those orcs will start associating the god primarily with battle and war. But that doesn't necessarily end there - the god might appear, but the first few times, the orcs won't know what the god wants, or what he's doing there. Given time, they will come up with their own conclusions - perhaps this god, who appears in a cloak at the eve of great battles, is there as a sign that many will die. Or perhaps he's there to witness a great act of heroism. Or he's there as a figure of retribution, that someone who committed a great wrong is about to meet their just end.

That might change if the players always appear at battles of orcs in specific ways. Suppose that the players only appear under certain circumstances, and act under certain circumstances. That god just appeared right when the chieftain's son, the true heir, was about to be struck down by the usurper! This god of war favors justice! Or he appears the night before a great battle, to talk specifically to one individual about what is to come. So on, and so on. There's literally many different ways this could go - and once that identity is established, word of that will spread beyond that group. So even when players would interact with those outside of that group - say, another tribe, or the nearby human settlements - they will see an orc god based off of what they heard about them, though they can still act contrary to those expectations (it would have a further impact on their identity).

I don't have much more beyond this, but these are just random ideas. Would be fun, and it does have a tangible end goal (find out what keeps destroying the world, nudge development to weather the oncoming storm). But it'd also be one hell of a time commitment.

That's all for today!

 

Another day, another idea to throw onto the pile. Whether I'll actually do this one or not (or any of them, really), who knows?

*shrug*

I sure as heck don't.

But since I'm thinking of the whole "OC/Isekai" thing anyway, here's another one:

Super Robot Wars (OC/Isekai)

Super Robot Wars (otherwise known as SRW or Super Robot Taisen) is a very, very long running series of video games. Starting with the original Gameboy, it basically throws a smorgasbord of mecha anime together into one big giant crossover in a tactics RPG. For the most part, you were out of luck if you didn't speak Japanese and wanted to play it (I did anyway when I was younger, and I just kind of got used to the kanji for attack, defend, evade, spirits, launch, etc.). But the writers make it a point that the story actually somewhat flows well with each other, with justifications for why certain series can coexist with each other even when the designs are rather different.

While the series normally change from game to game, you'll usually have a few consistent ones, and usually along two broad genres: Super Robot, and Real Robot. Super Robot refers to, well, Super Robots. Mecha that are very much not really realistic, and are more like super heroes than anything else, fighting the monster of the week, invoking the power of hot bloodedness and courage, where good triumphs over evil - y'know, that sort of thing. Mazinger Z, Getter Robo (from the anime to the batshit insane versions of the manga and Armageddon), Daitarn 3, GaoGaiGar, Gravion, Aquarion - the list goes on. Real Robot refers to series where the mecha are very much machines of war, used by soldiers for fighting battles. Think of the majority of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, Macross, or Code Geass (at least for the beginning before the arms race well and truly escalated) and you've got a good idea of what a Real Robot means.

Of course, you have series that are much murkier than that. For example, Neon Genesis Evangelion is very much a mecha series (plus or minus some of the secrets about the EVAs anyway), but while they have all the abilities of a Super Robot, the tone is very much more along the lines of a Real. Then you have series like Gunbuster - it is conducted in the midst of a galactic war, and the weapons, while advanced, are distinctively Real Robot in tone. But the way Noriko, the pilot, handles the Gunbuster, the way in which the battles in the titular mech go - it feels very, very Super.

And in between all these, there is usually a game-specific cast and enemies that bind it all together. Collectively referred to as the "Original Generation" part of the cast, the story is usually told from their perspective. They usually get their own mecha, their own stories, and their own archenemies to deal with.

So about the story...

Recently, starting with SRW V, the games have been seeing English translated releases (for sale in Asia, primarily), so I can finally read along with the insanity and see what's going on. And for the most part, it's a really fun ride - seeing how different series all interact with each other (or also lampshade the general insanity that goes on) is good fun to read along with. But if I did have one criticism, however, it's that as more and more characters and mecha join the roster, there's a lot of dialogue via infodump in some areas, and some characters just lose focus altogether. Not something you can help necessarily with a cast this big, but it is a little unfortunate - some characters you might be more focused on, or want to see more of, get sometimes lost in the wider events of things.

I think one way to get around this, if I were to write it, would be to focus on one particular series and their neck of the woods in a wider SRW-type setup.

Whether it is from the acts of a ROB or just a flat out original character, I'd place the main character in one corner of it all. Unlike an original character of a canon SRW, however, they would not necessarily be the protagonist. Heck, they might not even be a pilot or combatant. My idea for this would be to set the main character as a relevant supporting character - having enough of an impact in their part of the series, but not necessarily the one in front and center.

If anything, it would almost be like a slice-of-life setup. One thing I always enjoyed about the SRW stories were how the characters interacted. There were always the bits of infodump where they compare notes about their respective technologies or pilots, but there was also always the hint of a semi-regular life when the plot allowed for it. In addition, each series mostly started somewhere - a lot of SRWs usually start about one conflict ahead, where past events of different series have already come and gone (in SRW T, for example, GaoGaiGar's Season 1 has already happened along with the season finale of Might Gaine, whereas other series such as Magic Knight Rayearth are just getting started).

The nice part about trying something like this would be that I can mix and match what series are actually coexisting with each other. I could make the universe as small, or as vast, as I'd like. And while the major events of the series in question do happen, I wouldn't necessarily put the main character in the thick of it. Tangentially related maybe - for example, if he were a mobile suit mechanic, he'd be possibly one of the work team leads that gets broken and damaged mechs back online.

Would I write this?

Maybe. It'd be a lot of fun, I think, but I'd have to consider what the end state here is. If anything, this might make for a better quest than a story, but I'd have to see.

A lot of it would come down to how much, and how far, I'd want to take this. I could very well push it for a side character increasing in prominence, or a side character that is quite happy to stay as the side character - if this is an isekai'd protagonist, he'd have a healthy dose of genre savvy to match. Again, this is more of a brainstorming/putting thought to processor sort of deal.

That's all for now!