Concerning trobbits.

Trollfics? by Niko on 2014-12-15 03:44:00 UTC Reply

What is the PPC's stance on trollfics? I seem to be seeing them more and more often on The Pit. Based on a quick search of this site, I know that agents have handled trollfics before, but I think they were all floaters if I remember correctly.

I personally can't stand trollfics; if you're going to go through all that effort of writing something that god awful, can't you put the same amount of effort into writing something that's good? It's so obvious when you spell "Legolas" multiple ways in just the title and summary alone that you're just trying to mess with people, to provide one specific example.

So anyway, my question is it something that requires more attention from the PPC? Maybe a new department?

I don't have Permission to post PPC stories yet and I haven't been here too long, so I hope I'm not stepping on any toes by suggesting this.

Concerning trobbits. by Huinesoron on 2014-12-15 14:35:00 UTC Reply

Er, trolls; beg pardon.

The problem with trolls is that, depending on their 'quality', it's hard to tell whether they are trolls. I mean, Kelly the Roman Warrior was a fairly obvious troll - but what about Thorin's Little Princess? It had the 'random things just sort of happen', and the 'most of the story is just the script', and several people thought it might be a troll. But is it? Or is it just a badly-done story?

Then there's... well, it's not quite Poe's Law, but it comes close: there's never been a troll so outrageous that it wasn't matched by at least one real badfic.

Finally, there's the fact that 'troll' is an accusation against the author. Even if only actually said of the fic, you're still attributing intent to the author. Which isn't what we do around here.

Extra-finally, really outrageous trolls tend to be... kind of boring to mission. If a story consists of:

So Legolas and Harry Potter met Edward Cullen and then Queen Amidala went to the Ringworld and fought Captain Kirk's baby and Pikachu slept with Jack Sparrow and-

... all badly-spelled and with every character a mini, what story are you going to tell with the agents? They'd just stand around looking baffled. And I have a feeling that 'not definitely a troll' and 'incoherent' overlap, so there's few-to-no clear trolls worth a mission.

That said, we do have a Troll Division, as others have said. No idea how they operate, though apparently Bad Parody seeks out, uh, the spirit of the author and kills it? I don't think that'd fly any more... though NytBloomer is noted for her dodgy terminology. It may be that Bad Parody and Trollfics alike have a troll 'puppetmaster' sitting around somewhere manipulating the characters; or maybe it just possesses them. It's likely to be up to the first person to actually write a mission of that kind; did you say there were some?

hS

Trolls work a lot like wraiths, actually. by Neshomeh on 2014-12-16 00:19:00 UTC Reply

As for the Troll Division, I dunno how they work today, but we know what Marokee tells us about how they worked in the past. I done did the research on this stuff.

(And yeah, I wouldn't take NytBloomer's word for anything.)

~Neshomeh

I should've known you had the answer. ^_~ by Huinesoron on 2014-12-16 10:29:00 UTC Reply

So it seems like intentional uncanonicity manifests as a Parody Cloud, which can be maneuvered into taking a physical form which some agents refer to (incorrectly) as the author. A Parody Cloud can be benevolent (good parody), incompetent (bad parody), or malevolent (troll). Depending on the cloud, it either hangs around in the shadows, acts as a puppet-master, or physically possesses the canons.

A PPC agent's job is then to either dispel the Cloud as if it were a Sue or Slash Wraith, or - if they think it's worth the time - to try and convert it into a benevolent form. The specifics on how that works are a bit, uh, unspecific, naturally.

All of which means that Parody Clouds (and the other Wraiths) must be found under Fandominus on the tree of life. Let's see...

The three subspecies of parody cloud (Parodismus), along with species-level designations for Sue and Slash-wraiths. There is some debate as to the accuracy of this model; some DMSE&R agents advocate classing Sue Wraiths as a species of Sue, and other claim that they don't even exist, being just a manifestation of Pseudocanonica Sues or Altercanonica OOC canons.

hS

Let's not forget the most infamous of them all! (NSFW?) by Iximaz on 2014-12-15 17:38:00 UTC Reply

If My Immortal really was a troll, it was a pretty darn good one. There's the fact that the malapropisms of 'masticating' and 'shit' (in place of 'masturbating' and 'sit') seem a little too perfect. Then of course we have 'Cornelio ...'. And special mention goes to the cameo made by poor Tom Bombadil.

I just cite the above because even to this day, nobody is quite sure if Enoby was a troll or not. Unless the author comes out and says they were trolling, it can be nigh impossible to be certain.

Re: Trollfics? by SkarmorySilver on 2014-12-15 05:59:00 UTC Reply

As doctorlit said, the Department of Bad Parody would handle trollfics, but it's a tad lacking in actual missions. We HAVE actually tackled trollfics before, though. The first such mission I remember reading would have to be that Twilight one by Evie and the Fisherman, and there's also the one I myself tackled on my second mission as well. Both are from Floaters, though I suspect the All-Purpose Department may have also tackled some from their specific fandoms as well.
We have a special division for those! by doctorlit on 2014-12-15 04:45:00 UTC Reply

The Department of Bad Parody has a Troll Division that, well, yeah. The title gives it away.

Unfortunately, no missions from within the division itself have been published yet. All we have is an interlude and a character journal.

Soooo . . . it would totally be super-cool to see this old department/division see some modern-day love!

I've actually been working on something for that. by DawnFire on 2014-12-17 20:03:00 UTC Reply

Technically, it's a mission where the agents are temporarily transferred* (as sometimes happens; I may have the wrong term, mind, but I'm jetlagged and can't be expected to remember where I put my vocabulary), but it is a mission from the Trollfic Division! I've been basing its structure mostly on that interlude and the wiki page. I'll have to take a look at the character journal, I don't think I've seen it before.

But yes. A Trollfic Division mission is coming, albeit one involving agents who are not usually in that division or even in the DBP. It's going to be fun.

I would absolutely love to see more takes on the division, though. That would be very, very fun.

~DF

--
*Aha, I think I meant 'reassigned'. That sounds more likely...

I'm doing a troll Bleepfic later! by Iximaz on 2014-12-17 23:20:00 UTC Reply

Albeit, not one on the Wiki's list. It's the Percy Jackson version of My Immortal and whoo boy, is it a doozy. Just three words: Daughter. Of. Artemis.