Dilemma!

What Meredith Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

DILEMMA!
So, in overhauling 30kisses (and we're almost done! Hip-hip-hurrah!), I've come across a predicament. What to do about fandoms that are set in the same universe?

For example, Final Fantasy X and X-2. Same universe, many of the same characters. But there are characters in each game that DO NOT appear in FFX-2 (or they're only referenced, at best). I consider them a "grouped" fandom, meaning they'd appear together on the Claims List. Also, someone requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX wouldn't have to worry about someone ELSE requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX-2. They're the same characters, even if technically, they're from "different" fandoms. I consider them the same fandom if:
(a) they have shared characters
(b) they take place in the same location (in this case, Spira)

But then look at Star Ocean. It's not quite as huge as the Final Fantasy series (where it makes sense to split up each game, with the exception of FFX and FFX-2, and possibly those games in the FFVII series), but still, it spans HUNDREDS of years. Technically, the only character that's ever been in two games is Ronixis, and he wasn't even a playable character in Star Ocean 2.

Should I consider Star Ocean 1, 2 (but not Blue Sphere), and 3 as separate fandoms, even though they take place in the same "universe"? I really wouldn't consider someone doing an Ashton x Fayt fic a "Crossover," because it is the same universe.

What I might consider a crucial factor in determining if you separate the fandoms is if they have different characters in each --characters that DON'T appear in both shows. For example, "Angel the Series" had Doyle, Fred, Gunn, et. al.; "Buffy" had Glory, Riley, Dawn, etc. But the main cast of characters (Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Spike, Oz, Faith, Giles) all knew each other, and many of them crossed shows. I'd consider them the same universe, even though you can't say that a Fred x Gunn pairing takes place in the Buffy universe; technically, it's the Angel universe. So do I group them or not?

And, like Star Ocean, there's massive universes that span lots of time, like Star Trek or Star Wars. It seems silly to split Star Wars up by episode (or by the "Expanded Universe" novels) when they're in THE SAME UNIVERSE. Same goes for Star Trek, though it seems a little unwieldy to have Spock x Kirk listed alongside Harry x Seven of Nine.

What to do? When is it reasonable to break up a fandom-- e.g. Yu-Gi-Oh! vs. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? Is it a matter of a whole new cast of characters, with no one from the original series in a recurring (main or supporting) role?

HELP!!!

( Snagged from Kysra )