Subject: So bad it's good
Author:
Posted on: 2013-02-03 16:08:00 UTC
Has anyone ever read a fanfic that was so poorly written you suspected it had to be intentional? I recently ran into this problem with Homestuck High, and a friend and I got in an debate over whether or not it was real. Same applies to *shudder* My Immortal. Thoughts on either of these two/other fandoms that fall in this paradigm?
I still can't decide whether My Immortal is a troll or not. Either possibility just seems too completely, horribly mind-boggling.
I think that usually, fanfics with lovingly described, perfectly beautiful Mary Sues tend to be real (well, most of the time). Some fanfics don't have terrible writing, just bad characterization, and those also seem to mostly be serious.
I am 90% sure that My Immortal was a troll, though.
I sort of feel like 'Cupcakes' and 'Sweet Apple Massacre' were actually meant to get a rise out of the MLP fanbase than as actual stories. 'Cupcakes' is just such glaringly obvious gore-porn that I find it hard to believe a true fan of the series would actually write something like that about two of the most beloved characters among the fandom, and 'Sweet Apple Massacre' is a trollfic and proud of it - the original author very loudly admitted it was just to tick people off. But that's just my sense of things.
Big time. I'm even going to send agents into it, once I have permission. Which may be sooner than you think...
It's very annoying, trollfic or not. Actually, trollfics are, by definition, rather annoying, but this one goes much too far.
Because it had no right to be as infuriating as it was. Disgusting, yes, even vomit inducing, but not infuriating. So I see it as an act of defiance.
In other news, World-Jumper: screwing up his SPaG yet wanting to ask for permision some day. Oh well.
No, Big Mac murdering his sister and her frends through rape and knives is not too far. Big Mac, gentle giant, who loves his famaly almost more than anything, would totaly do the things he did in that fic. The worst part is that it's not that badly written, mechanicly at least. The author has talent, and he wastes it on writing a trollfic. It's kinda sad actualy.
KittyNoodles: Blatantly plugging her own MSTs! :D
I sense many much sarcasms. Deep breaths. -pats you on the shoulder-
…or any other continuum I know, I will beta. I'm one of those rare people who is a naturally good speller, and I offer my talents to help you.
As to MLP badfic: NOOOOOOO! NOT THE PONIES! *reaches for Bleeprin*
And I agree, it's worse when badfic has good SPaG. I found a Star Trek Suefic where the Sue inserted herself into one of my favorite episodes, but before she showed up the fic was a well-written novelization of the episode. Making it all the more painful when she upstaged my favorite character.
Either the meeting of my first two agents, Marvin and Printworthy, when Printworthy falls in through a plothole into HQ, or an original peice I wrote for a creatine writing class. Preferably I could use the meeting of Printworthy and Marvin, but I am not sure if it falls under PPC fic or not. If it does, I'll whip out the other peice. Marvin is a hardcore brony who is practicaly an encyclopedia for canon and popular fanon, and Printworthy is a unicorn author who in his home fic was the author of Daring Do (if you have not seen Read it and Weap yet, you'll find out what that is then) who wants to protect his home continuum from the atrocities of badfic. They will be in All Purpose, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic devision. Don't worry, Jumper will come along eventually, I just want to start with these two.
As for the existance of MLP badfic, I'm sorry to say, it is EVERYWHERE. On the whole, the fanfic writers are actualy pretty good, but you still have your Mary Sue alicorns, Gary Stu humans in Equestria (so much that there is a human in Equestria subsection on FimFiction) and the infamous gluefics. Trust me, Printworthy and Marvin will have plenty to work with.
I like these agents - anypony who's an author is cool, and of course, to be paired with a brony. I look forward to reading the missions.
I assumed that there would be lots of "Seventh Member of the Mane Six" fics, which actually sound amusing, especially since the agents who tackle them have to either be ponies or disguise themselves as ponies. Hilarity ensues as a human/humanoid agent adjusts to having hooves. It's the graphic stuff that I just can't concieve. DO NOT WANT.
(I'll probably read the sporkings anyway, though.)
'In other news, World-Jumper: screwing up his SPaG yet wanting to ask for permision some day. Oh well.'
Meh. Get a good beta for the SPaG, and you're set. I'll even volunteer, depending on the fandom, and I'm sure there are plenty of other Boarders who are willing to beta-read. Actually, I'm sure of it.
~DF
'In other news, World-Jumper: screwing up his SPaG yet wanting to ask for permision some day. Oh well.'
Meh. Get a good beta for the SPaG, and you're set. I'll even volunteer, depending on the fandom, and I'm sure there are plenty of other Boarders who are willing to beta-read. Actually, I'm sure of it.
~DF
I have found that 99.9% of My Immortal look-alikes are glaringly obvious trolls, though I'm doubtful about the original. I'm pretty sure that Thirty H's was intentional as well, because it actually has some pretty clear grammar, and a friend of mine that has seen some of the author's other works has said that they're all equally chaotic. I'm pretty sure it would be pretty hard to make something that bad more than once if it wasn't intentional.
Because if you look at the imitators, they just don't have the certain something that makes MI so (un)intentionally funny.
The authors of "legolas" and "C*l*br**n" both later came out as trolls, I think. "My Immortal," of course, is the most famousest of trollfics, and it has a gajillion imitators in other fandoms.
Then there's my current sporking project, "Blood Raining Night." I've had several conversations about this one with various people, and we cannot tell for sure. It READS like a troll, but the author has a deviantART account full of pictures of the OC, not to mention a YouTube account where she's turning the fic into videos. The quality of everything is pretty terrible, but to me, it still seems like way more effort than you'd expect from a troll. Plus, she seems fairly genuinely clueless in most of the conversations I've read between her and her reviewers (some of whom are genuinely trying to help, some of whom are trolls themselves). This one is quite the puzzle! If she IS a troll, she's the most dedicated one I've ever come across. I find it easier to believe she's just completely obsessed with her OC and oblivious to criticism, constructive or otherwise, but I guess you can decide for yourself.
Either way, I'm still gonna spork the bejeezus out of it, because the raw material is just too good to pass up. ^_^
~Neshomeh
Hey, the knowledge that the fics are trollfics makes their dramatic readings all that funnier, if you ask me.
I wonder how many people who come out as trolls much later are doing so to save face, once they realise how dreadful their work really was.
By name of Sue/Stu:
Syan This one is like the person went down a checklist of Suvian traits. Color changing eyes: Check. Sparkly name: Check. Perfectly beautiful appearance: Check. Seduces all the men: Check. All the women are her friends: Check. Member of a 'cool' species: Check. (bonus points for the species being uncanonical) Speshul powers: Check. (bonus points for uncanonical powers) Traumatic backstory: Check. Is the only person who can save them: Check. The list goes on and on.
Shaundrah The SPaG is just as bad as My Immortal. Perhaps worse. A few examples that will manifest amusingly: "he is so wired","nanaprobes", "expload in a few minuets", "shook violetly", "hankie pant key", and "good locking". And that's just a few of the examples. And let's not get started on the mind-boggling logic, or rather, lack thereof.
Jack Russel I have a feeling this author's a troll.
I most likely would have him if you did not, hermione. That Stu's author has 43 stories on FFN, and from the reviews I've seen for some of his stories, they're all bad. Yet he calls himself a "fanfiction expert."
Either he's a retard or a troll. My money's on troll.
That legolas by laura was written while Laura was drunk off her tush.