Superman/Tenchi: The Inhuman Condition

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Ah, the wonders of crossover fanfic!

Allow me to introduce you to Superman/Tenchi: The Inhuman Condition: a Tenchi and Superman crossover put together by writer Mike Smith. The fic's plot is pretty self-explanatory, chronicling the adventures of the gang as they attempt to thwart the plans of a mysterious figure known as Legion.

Tropes used in Superman/Tenchi: The Inhuman Condition include:

• Abusive Parents: Washu, continuing a fine tradition from the OVA verse.
• Fridge Logic: If Washu was trying to observe Superman for her research on the inhuman condition, then wouldn't it make more sense to observe him secretly and not contaminate the results with her interference? At worst, she should've just released some super criminals and just watched the results.
• Jerkass: Again, another fine Washu Hakubi tradition is upheld in this fic.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Thanks to Legion's machanations, Washu loses all common sense and decides to play General Zod in Metropolis after seeing Superman while watching Science for Eggheads.
• Villain Ball: Want to play a Drinking Game? Go though the story and count all the times Legion could've skipped off into the sunset and won but was upturned by Plot Induced Stupidity. Some of the highlights include:
  • Superman is a superhero. It wouldn't have been too hard to lure him to some out of the way place and use Legion's brainwashing device on him before the story started. Never meeting the Masaki clan, Ayeka would have no reason to allow the duel to go ahead since she would have had no idea that her suiter was Superman in disguise.
  • Legion implanting the notion that it was he behind the scheme in Ryoko's mind while leaving that part out in Mihoshi and Sasami's mind, to 'sow distrust among their members'. So...why would he expose himself like that? He had nothing to gain by doing so, and he only increased the resistance of the main cast by doing this. Better yet, why not just implant the idea that Washu was behind the whole scheme? That would really sow distrust among the cast, and Washu would be in no position to proclaim innocence after turning people in a major American city blue.
  • Or how about just wiping the minds of Ryoko, Sasami and Mihoshi clean. It would've proven to Azusa that Tenchi couldn't be trusted to protect the girls and Ayeka would've been dragged back home to marry Superman. Ayeka was really the only one Legion needed for his plot anyway.
  • Even at the end, Legion had a chance to at least force a stalemate. After Superman tells Legion to jettison the core of the ship, Legion could've told him that seven years was more than enough time to find a new body, that his men would carry on his conspiracy with out him (overthrowing an empire had to entail more people than were on that dinky little ship) and that in seven years Legion would own those star systems, not Jurai. Not to mention the fact there were a bunch of things that could go wrong living on a barren world like the one they were about to be stranded on, and many of them could've been killed in the meantime. At the very least he'd be rid of Superman. Superman even tells him this. Instead, Legion chooses to surrender without a fight...not wanting to die. Makes no sense when Azusa was willing to execute him for his crimes, and only didn't do so because of the mind wiping device.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ken Ohki is left behind on earth by Nagi and Lobo and ends up in Steel's shop. After a brief examination by Washu (and some admonishment from Ayeka for making another one of those things) we never hear about Ken Ohki again. Never mind the fact that he was left behind at all is an Out-of-Character Moment for Nagi.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Comes into play when Superman visits Tenchi's house and takes a while to realize Ryoko counts as a "real person". Washu using mindless Ryoko-clones as Mooks when playing supervillain in Metropolis earlier didn't help, of course...
• Xanatos Roulette: Legion's whole plan started with interupting a broadcast on TV, and meandered through a plot to frame Ryoko and hoping the Jurai Royal Family carried the Idiot Ball (which to be fair, they did for the most part). It would have been simpler just to grab Superman from the jump...