Blog / The Half-World

"serious criticism of great literature"

The Half-World (previously on Tumblr, now hosted on Squarespace) is a blog originally dedicated to Fan Fic MSTs run by Skepkitty. It used to comprise of awful fanfictions from fandoms such as Invader Zim, Twilight, Harry Potter, and Portal; as well as various other posts (some of which were MSTs in their own right, though not of FanFics). The site, which was started in September 2010 but didn't post any MSTs or attract much attention until early 2011, saw rapid growth in the first two years and, before a purge that happened in 2014, had over 250 chapters of MSTs. Currently, the blog is more focused on reviewing published literature, as Skepkitty has grown and picking on authors that are younger than xem has become an issue. In addition, due to Old Shame issues (both on Skepkitty's and the MSTed authors' part) and the fact that maintaining two Tumblr blogs is easier than maintaining a Tumblr blog and a WordPress blog, The Half-World has moved to Tumblr, where only select past reviews will appear.

Xe has taken on these stories: (Sorted in order of appearance)

• Published book reviews:
  • Fifty Shades of Grey
  • City of Bones (in progress)
• Fanfic reviews:
  • Curiosity (Invader Zim)
  • Dark Harvest (Invader Zim)
  • Cheerilee's Garden / Scarlet Harvest (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)
• Fanfic MSTs:
  • Love Knows No Race (Invader Zim)
  • ITS MY LIFE! series (Massive Multiplayer Crossover, started off with Portal) (in progress)
  • I like it. (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Forbiden Fruit: The Tempation of Edward Cullen (Twilight) (complete with a Dramatic Reading of the fic by Skepkitty)
• Some of the more famous fanfic MSTs that are not available on Tumblr:
  • My Immortal (Harry Potter)
  • Me in Invader Zim? Oh Kami (Invader Zim)
  • Invader Zim: Born Again Christian (Invader Zim)
  • Surviving Middle School at Aperture Science (Portal)

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This website provides examples of:

Riffing Tropes

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Invoked when Love Knows No Race claims its "moral" is that you should never judge or force the love of other people.
  Really? Because I think the moral is "Plan out what's going to happen in your alien yaoi incest fic before you sit down and write it."
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The content warnings on some of the fics have this, such as the My Immortal riff having "Hot Topic" at the end of the list.
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: "Obstacles of Childbirth" is considered for one.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: At the end of Love Knows No Race:
  It's a goddamn pity that when I first read this fic I was too young to drink away the memory afterwards, but I sure as hell feel like doing that now, if it's not too late.
• In-Joke: "Still a better love story/fanfic than Love Knows No Race."
  • As well as that, Love Knows No Race gained reputation as "The Fic That Shall Not Be Named".
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: (From Love Knows No Race)
  No. NO. DID THE AUTHOR JUST FUCKING IMPLY THAT DIB AND ZIM ARE SIBLINGS AND ALSO THE CHILDREN OF THE ALMIGHTY TALLEST. IN A FIC WHERE ZIM AND DIB ARE FUCKING. NO.
• Not Bad: Skepkitty has this reaction to Love Knows No Race getting something right about the series for once. It doesn't last long.
  On the other hand, the author is one of the few Zimfic writers I've seen who understands that Tallest is both singular and plural. Unfortunately, she also thinks they're brothers and have an incestuous relationship and that Purple gave birth to Zim and Dib, who later became lovers and had a child together, so that overshadows the good stuff a little.
• Orwellian Retcon: As revealed on his Tumblr, Skepkitty frequently changes or removes lines from his MSTs as xe sees fit, without warning anyone.
  Virtually none of what was on the old Half-World was in its "original form" anyway.
• Sarcasm Mode: From the Love Knows No Race MST:
  Carlotta's Author's Note: OKAY! I'm gonna explain a few things... I know it's going really fast, but that's only because the rest of the story is going to go really slow.
  Kester: Awesome! I'm sure that’s what everyone wanted to hear, and it'll definitely also fix the pacing problem in the first few chapters!

Tropes of Stories Riffed On

Obviously does not include tropes of stories with their own TV Tropes pages.

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• Brother–Sister Incest: Love Knows No Race seems just like your run-of-the-mill canon-defying ZaDR fanfic. So what's the problem? The thing that sets Love Knows No Race apart from other ZaDR fics is the twist that Tallest Red and Purple are brothers who hooked up and gave birth to Zim and Dib, who found each other later in life and got together. This sends Kester into a disgust-induced Heroic BSoD.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Chapter 8 of Love Knows No Race takes place in the future, where Dib and Zim's daughter Sek is an adult. In the beginning of the chapter, the narration implies she killed her parents offscreen. This is never brought up again.
• Never Trust a Title: Love Knows No Race is meant to indicate the Interspecies Romance between Zim and Dib, but it turns out to mean nothing when 1: Dib is revealed to have been an Irken all along and 2: every couple is of the same species.
  ...[E]very couple in the fic has been Irken, indicating that love does know a race. "Love Doesn't Care If You're Related" might be more accurate at this point.
• Outdated by Canon: Invoked by Kester, who takes note that some of the claims of the author of Love Knows No Race (Zim being younger than the Tallest, there being no female Tallest) were written before "The Trial" was known to the public, which Jossed those claims.
• Series Continuity Error: One of the big issues of Love Knows No Race is that it tends to contradict itself a lot. To show one example, Dib states that he hooked up with an Irken offscreen and they had a half-human child, and one of the literal next things that happens is that Dib is revealed to be an Irken too.
• Surprise Incest: Love Knows No Race's biggest twist (coming in at Chapter 5, halfway through the story) is that Dib and Zim are brothers. And despite Dib's initial shock about the incest, it wears off quickly and he's totally cool with it! In fact, the only characters in the story who don't actively practice incest (that we know of) are the three SIR units, Gaz and her fiancé, the OCs that only appear for a single chapter and Cyle.
  UpsidePickle: All in all, incest, incest COMBO x2!!, incest TO THE SECOND POWER.
• Ur-Example: Love Knows No Race was actually written in 2002, inciting Skepkitty to point something out...
  I was going to suggest that Marissa (of "It's My Life!" fame) try to get a part in this, but then I realized that this story was written in 2002. Since it's such an old Zimfic, maybe, instead of just borrowing every Zimfic cliché in the book, the author helped invent those clichés, which makes it worse in a way.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants:invoked Kester accuses Love Knows No Race of this. Given how almost every chapter contradicts a previous one in some way, Carlotta probably was writing by the seat of her pants.

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