Profile

This is a journal created specifically for the purpose of sharing MSTs of bad fan fiction.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get a satellite of love for this, but there are plenty of lecture halls and projectors to use!

Who are the Admins?

This is a sister account that belongs to-- ironically-- twin sisters Mokyn (mokyn) and Tabbi-Katt (destavedated). They both love Kingdom Hearts and fanfics, so it stands to reason they've found quite a few badfics in their time. (They've also written a few in their time.) They admit to wanting some of their own fics to be sporked, so if anyone wants to, go ahead!

What is The Lecture Room for?

This journal is like most MST communities, just with a cheaper setting (because the admins are hicks that way). The biggest difference is the inclusion of Mog, a little moogle who oversees the sessions and keeps everyone in line. (The admins think the power may be getting to his head. Oh, sure, you know he's harmless, but try telling him that.) He's also the mascot of the journal.

How does your Rating System work?

Each fic sporked gets a rating, ranging from one "pompom" to five.

(1 pompom)- These fics may not be "great" but they're not bad enough to be "bad". Useful for a fic that is still enjoyable, the jokes were just too hard to resist.
(2 pompom)- On-the-fence fics. One aspect is bad but others are fine (bad plot but good spelling/grammar/syntax or good story but relies on an out-of-character cast) so it's not quite badfic but can easily tip over to the wrong side.
(3 pompom)- The fic has been shoved off the fence and is now in badfic territory. Can happen because of OOC, poor plot, bad spelling/grammar, the inclusion of a Mary Sue/Marty Stu... These are bad but still not horribly offensive.
(4 pompom)- The bad is starting to pile up. Along with the criteria in the last rating, this rating includes the addition of offensive content (ie- blatant sexism) and is uncomfortable to read.
(5 pompom)- Be afraid, viewers, be very afraid. This is the rating for fics found to have no entertainment value whatsoever; bad characters, bad story, bad spelling/grammar, bad everything.

How do your Tags work?

Known as "Criteria" in the side bar, our tagging system works like this:

fic: (insert name here) To keep track of all fics we've sporked, in case you want to re-read an older session, or are just browsing and one title catches your eye.

Rating: (#) Explained in above section.

Offenses These are certain badfic cliches that pop up, and were probably what put them on the "Spork This" list in the first place. Explanations for each below:

Bad Plotting- Nothing kills a story quicker than a bad plot. Maybe the scenes don't transition well, maybe the pacing is too fast/too slow, maybe the premise itself is just thin. Whatever it is, it's not an intriguing plot.

Broke spell checker AND grammar don't happen- These two usually come hand-in-hand. For constant spelling mistakes, including homophones, and a lack of proper grammar. (Examples: "it's" instead of "its", "I seen that" instead of "I saw that", fragmented sentences, random tense changes.)

Cliche overload- You've seen it all before but the fic seems to think it's original. Note that not all cliches are bad, some are even staples of certain genres, but a good fic should play with these cliches and weave them into the plot seamlessly. Badfics tend to throw cliches in when the author is short on ideas and surely an innocent misunderstanding in a romance will make things interesting, right?

High school AU- The KH fandom is infamous for these. Though there are good ones, this subgenre attracts badfics like nothing else. Strangely, the characters rarely have school to deal with, it's just a backdrop for some (usually romantic) hijinks.

Ignoring canon- There are two variants of this:

One, is a personal pet peeve of the admins. This tag is used on fics that have no relation to the canon of Kingdom Hearts. (Mostly seen in AUs, although canonverse fics are no immune.) Basically, if you can easily replace every characters' name with another one, the fic is ignoring canon. The writer just thought up an idea and smushed KH characters into it.

The second variant relates to canon facts. Whereas OOC concerns a character's personality, 'ignoring canon' concerns facts about characters' roles, appearances, relation to other characters, and events.

NOTE: The date the fanfic was written is brought into account, since part of fanfiction is to have fun with theories that may later be proven wrong. The author has no control over canon that hasn't been proven to happen yet.

Mary Sue/Marty Stu- A controversial part of fiction in general (and the admins could write an essay on how much this word gets thrown around). The main criteria for a Mary Sue/Marty Stu is how poorly they blend into the story: they grab the attention of all the other characters, they are the best at what they do with very little (sometimes no) effort on their part, have a magical pet (in a setting uncommon for that), can use the same powers as a canon character but even stronger. They're perfect characters that are boring to read.

No end for you- Endings are hell for writers. You have to somehow resolve the story in a satisfactory way, say goodbye to the characters, and wrap up any loose subplots. How can this be made easier? Don't bother with an ending, of course! This tag is used for fics that just go pfft! and leave the reader scratching their head, wondering why they even bothered reading the fic at all.

(NOTE: There is a difference between no ending and a dissatisfying ending. 'No ending' happens when there has clearly been no resolution to subplots/character arcs. Also, fics tagged as "incomplete" do not count.)

OOC- Short for out-of-character, this is when a character's entire personality is flipped around with no explanation. Even in AUs, where the characters have had different lives and events that shape them, certain aspects of their character should remain intact. (ie- Sora is the happiest kid you ever met, but is still perfectly able to protect himself and his friends. He is not stupid and gullible, he will not hurt his friends, he is not defenseless and vulnerable.)

Sexism- Another piece of the infamous cake for the fandom. Usually directed at girls though sexism towards the guys is not hard to find either. Can be as simple as the girls never being allowed to do anything or as rage inducing as slut-shaming.

Triggering content- A tricky tag, to be sure. Be aware that this tag doesn't exist for the sole reason of calling out a story for triggery content. It's not the existence of the content but how it's handled that makes this a problem. Fics with this offense more often than not come without proper warnings and use issues like domestic abuse and rape as easy plot points without any consideration or exploration of the issue. Sometimes they never even bring the issue up again. This could easily lengthen "offense" to "offensive".

What this is I don't even- Because sometimes there are no words. (Reserved for stories where you have to wonder why they even exist.)