The Half-World

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Now in (e-)book format!

The Half-World is a blog primarily for Fanfic MSTs run by theskepkitty, aka Control Brain Lillias on Operation Head Pigeons. It comprises of awful fanfictions from fandoms such as Invader Zim, Twilight, Harry Potter, and Portal; as well as various other posts (some of which are 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, is quickly expanding and now has over 150 chapters of MSTs.

She has MSTed these stories: (Sorted in order of MS Ting)

• What Tak Wants (Invader Zim)
• The Chronicles of Zim, Tak, and Tek (Invader Zim)
• Mission 1: Invader Bre-Z (Invader Zim)
• Invader Bre-Z: Captured (Invader Zim)
• The Strange Life on Earth (Invader Zim)
• Gone (Invader Zim)
• Invader Bre-Z: Secrets (Invader Zim)
• Defying Destiny (Twilight)
• Harry Potter Turns to the Lord (Harry Potter)
• How Zim and Tak First Met (Invader Zim)
• Zim's Future (Invader Zim)
• IZ Gang Together at Last (Invader Zim)
• ZaLR (Invader Zim)
• True Love Conquers All (Harry Potter)
• Grazie the Beautiful New Girl (Invader Zim)
• Half Irkens (Invader Zim)
• My Immortal (Harry Potter)
• It's My Life and Teen Fortress 2 (Portal / Team Fortress 2)
• Me in Invader Zim? Oh Kami (Invader Zim)
• Holes (Portal)
• Love Knows No Race (Invader Zim)
• Zim Born Again (Invader Zim)
• Invader Zim: Born Again Christian (Invader Zim)
• Matryoshka (original) (Portal)
• Who Says You Need A Heart To Love? (Portal)
• Forbidden Fruit: The Temptation of Edward Cullen (Twilight)
• Surviving Middle School at Aperture Science (Portal)

The blog also occasionally features guest MSTs:

• Irken Dib (Invader Zim)
• Invader Bre-Z: Day Out (Invader Zim)
• Grazie, Pain is My Reason For This Life (Invader Zim)
• Half Humans (Invader Zim) (exclusive to Book One, available to read separately here)

Due to her popularity, Skepkitty has also done co-MSTs which usually are held outside her blog:

• Aperture Nikki (Portal) (co-MST with Telltale Fanfic Theater 3000)
• The Softest Touch (Portal) (co-MST with sssporkings)
• Just Aperture Science (Portal) (co-MST with sssporkings)
• I Fixed It (Portal) (co-MST with sssporkings)
• Dib's Other Sister: Zim's HUGE Crush (Invader Zim) (co-MST with ASBusinessMagnet)

It can be found here.

Tropes used in The Half-World include:

MST Tropes

• Berserk Button: Many, many, things that show up in the fanfictions are these to Skepkitty.
  • (From Defying Destiny)

Has it occurred to you, cullengirl13xxx, that NO ONE GIVES A $%@# WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS ARE WEARING?

• • Skepkitty doesn’t like it when you insult G La DOS. Or get her out of character. Or kill her multiple times.
  • In fact, an MST blog inspired directly by The Half-World called itself "HIT THE BERSERK BUTTON!"
• Big No: (From It's My Life)

OH GOD NO PLEASE NO NOT A HIGH SCHOOL AU FIC NOOOOOOOOO

• Blatant Lies: (From Invader Bre-Z: Day Out)

gaz-yea sure whatever(turns around and see’s tak )tak tak-gaz Meadow: This is some of the best dialogue known to man.

• • Also, the blog's new tagline.

a blog full of serious criticism of great literature

• Catch Phrase: HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE

Sorry. Does "hate" still look like a word to you?

• • THE. PLOT. THICKENS.

Grant: I feel that this is time to introduce a catch phrase; I mean, Skepkitty has “The plot thickens”. Hm… ”The plot takes a U-turn”… ”The plot hits a fork in the road”…perhaps I should just stick with “Fuck it”

• • JOY JOY JOY JOY JOY JOY
  • It just makes so… much… sense.
  • It. Sporks. Itself.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Redundancy is practically a Running Gag on The Half World, given how often it happens in the FanFics (which is always pointed out by Skepkitty). The MSTs occasionally contain redundancy as well:

And here’s another stupid chapter of the stupid fanfiction My Immortal, which is stupid.

• Detractor Nickname: Invader Cakez, author of "Grazie the Beautiful New Girl", is almost always referred to by Skepkitty as "Invader The-Cakez-Is-A-Lie".
• Five Second Foreshadowing: Skepkitty helps us out with the revelation in Love Knows No Race.

Really really really bad feelings

• Heel Face Turn: Invader Cakez, originally the author of two of the fics subject to MSTing here, by May 2012 has become a hater of badfics herself.
• I Do Not Own: (From Book One)

The fanfics in this book are owned by their respective writers, and neither Skepkitty, Meadow, or RingmasterJ5 claim any of them as their own. "Friday" and "My Jeans" are copyright Ark Music Factory, 2011. The two full-page ads featured here are the property of Richard W. Wetherill. "Invader Zim" is copyright Viacom. "Harry Potter" is copyright JK Rowling. "Twilight" is copyright Stephanie Meyer.

• • Justified, as an e-book is only one step away from a published book, which could earn money.
  • Horrible Fanfiction #1 begins with "No, I didn't write it, okay?".
  • However, one MST gives this: (From Teen Fortress 2)

[...] THEN I REMBERED THE BLOOG BOUT HAF WORLDS WAS LIKE INVADER ZEN SO I PUT GAS IN TO SEE HOW SHE LICKS SAYIN STUFF BOUT YUR CHARS LIKE HOW SHE SAID SCOT MOLEST/RAPED KATTY!) I like the idea that Gaz is somehow “my” character.

• Incredibly Lame Pun: Sometimes in the FanFics (which always leads to much Facepalming), sometimes in the MSTs.
  • (From My Immortal)

Butt the worst thing was who the ppl who were shot in the dream where……………………… Lucian and Serious!111 Serious-ly?

• In Joke: "...and there was ____, looking extremely fucking hot." (Based on a line from My Immortal)
  • "Still a better love story/fanfic than Love Knows No Race."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A comment on Zim Born Again, noting that Zim was literally born again, not converted to Christianity, has led MarissaTheWriter into writing a fanfic "Invader Zim: Born Again Christian". It was promptly MSTed.
• Orwellian Retcon: While usually against changes in her published MSTs when a mistake is pointed out, in the MST of Chapter 7 of Teen Fortress 2 Skepkitty actually did that.
  • As a general rule, if the mistake is a minor one it's corrected. If the mistake was a bigger part of the MST a note is added.
• Rapid-Fire "No": (From Love Knows No Race)

no no no no no no THIS ISN’T HAPPENING no no no no THE AUTHOR DID NOT JUST IMPLY THAT ZIM AND DIB ARE BROTHERS AND THE CHILDREN OF THE ALMIGHTY TALLEST no no no no no no no no no NO FUCKING NO

• Reference Overdosed: Basically every post is like this, but particularly the MSTs of "Grazie the Beautiful New Girl" and "Half Irkens" due to Skepkitty playing through both Portal and Portal 2 at the time.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: In response to comments by MarissaTheWriter:

Perhaps I should rewrite this site’s tagline: “THE HALF-WORLD, a bloog bout haf worlds.” Maybe I really should change the tagline. “THE HALF-WORLD, a bloog bout haf worlds which is like Invader Zen”. Catchy.

• • In fact, the tagline was changed to "a bloog bout haf worlds which is like Invader Zen" for a week.
• Running Gag: Dib taking people to carnivals.
  • Specific to the Zim's Future MST: Gaz throwing people (mostly Zim) into puddles.
• Sarcasm Mode: From the Love Knows No Race MST:

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. Oh, fantastic. /sarcasm

• Shipper On Deck: Even though Skepkitty is against Shipping in most works, there are a few exceptions...

Tara/Raven is the best pairing and you must ship it now.

• • Also from My Immortal: Voldemort/Draco, after the line about Voldemort having Draco in "bondage".
  • In fact, jokingly shipping two characters has become sort of a Running Gag. Many of the Invader Zim MSTs contain ZaDR jokes, there was at least one Chell/GLaDOS joke in the MST of It's My Life, and in the Teen Fortress 2 MST Skepkitty mentioned wanting to ship Sniper/Caroline because their voice actors are married.

My OTPs are Tara/Raven, Sin/Mystie, and GLaDOS/testing. XP

• Shout Out: "SIR/MADAM, I DOUBT THE VERISIMILITUDE OF YOUR..." is a Shout Out to Topless Robot.
  • As is HATE HATE HATE, but The Half World actually uses that more than Topless Robot does.
  • And "WELL, THIS AMAZING PLAN CAN'T POSSIBLY FAIL."
• Symbol Swearing: For a while, but then Skepkitty gave up; mainly because the FanFics she was MSTing tended to use more language/mature content (My Immortal, for example), and thus the posts were going to be NSFW anyway.
• This Is Sparta: Used when the Catch Phrase "It. Sporks. Itself." is present, and many other times as well.
• All The Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary: There are many, many references to tropes on the site.
• Unusual Chapter Numbers: The MSTs have four separate counters: Horrible Fanfiction, guest MSTs, My Immortal and Surviving Middle School at Aperture Science. Hence, Skepkitty acknowledged both the 100th MST and the 100th HFF.
  • RingmasterJ5's MST of Half Humans, as it's only on the book and not on the blog, doesn't get a number, and is known as "guest MST #?".

Fanfiction Tropes

• Applied Phlebotinum:

Since when did Ebony have a camera?

• Costume Porn: Many of the fanfics, particularly those featuring a Mary Sue, are prone to this.
• Crossover: My Immortal, It's My Life and Me in Invader Zim? Oh Kami.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Happens constantly in the FanFics on the site, and is made fun of whenever it happens.
  • (From My Immortal)

Dumbldore yelled at them but they didn’t stop. All of a sudden…… a terrible man with red eyes and no nose flew in on his broomstick. He had no nose and was wearing a gray robe. Wait, so did he have a nose?

• • (From Grazie the Beautiful New Girl)

“A diary…” I was walking home from Skool when I tripped over the Diary. Well, now we know where Grazie is from. She’s from the Department of Redundancy Department.

• • (From Teen Fortress 2)

This is the new studant hes new. The new student is new? No points for guessing that all these guys passed their Redundancy classes of redundancy. They probably got A’s.

• Exposition Beam
• Fandom Specific Plot: Many of the FanFics MSTed on the site.
  • There's also a blog post about Fandom Specific Plots in Invader Zim here, as well as a blog post about Invader Zim pairings here, and blog posts about pairings and overused plots in Portal are being worked on.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: In many instances. See Gratuitous German below.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language:
  • German: (From Grazie the Beautiful New Girl)

“Hallo, mein Name ist Grazie, ich freue mich darauf, Sie kennen zu allen! Ach ja, und Frau Bitter ist ein horribe Lehrer und hat keine Ahnung, was ich sage, so HA! Toodles!” According to Babelfish, that means: “Hello, my name is Grazie, I looks forward to it, you knows to all! Oh, and Mrs. Bitter is not a horrible teacher and has notion, which I say, so HA! Toodles!” I would suspect that what she meant is “Hello, my name is Grazie, I look forward to meeting you all! Oh, and Ms. Bitters is a horrible teacher and has no idea what I’m saying, so HA! Toodles!” I can’t explain the “Toodles!”

• • • The German is never mentioned again...

Reminder, again: Everyone but Zim thinks Grazie can only speak German. It was part of her cover. I guess we’re just tossing that out the window now.

• • • ...until much later.

“Ähm, Entschuldigung! Kein Englisch!” I turned around. Dib was standing right behind me. You dropped the German act back in chapter 1, and now you’re digging it up again after Dib’s already heard you speak English several times? You’re an IDIOT. Not that I mind idiots terribly, but the author seems to think you’re a genius. God, I hate her. And I hate you too.

• • Japanese: My Immortal and Me in Invader Zim? Oh Kami.
    • Skepkitty had to be told what "kami" means, because she didn't know that. .
• Incest Is Relative: Love Knows No Race practically runs on incest. Red/Purple, then Zim/Dib (Red and Purple's kids), and then Purple/Sek (Zim and Dib's kid).
  • Though, Zim/Dib is actually incest (in the fic, as they're twins), Ho Yay (complete with M Preg) and Foe Yay (in the canon) in one place.
    • If Dib wasn't Irken all along, it would have been Interspecies Romance as well.
• Instant Humiliation - Just Add YouTube: Grazie's prank in Grazie The Beautiful New Girl was an air-cannon rigged cookie basket left on Zim's doorstep. Grazie filmed it and put it up on YouTube, under the name DEATH BY COOKIES.
• Lost Forever: Often Skepkitty will MST fics that end up being deleted from FF.Net, My Immortal was removed even before Skepkitty was active, and Me in Invader Zim Oh Kami was removed while it was in progress and Skepkitty was MSTing it, leading to her officially acknowledging the loss.
  • Recently Invader Cakez removed the Grazie saga because Skepkitty MSTed it.
• Mythology Gag: In the universe of Invader Zim: Born Again Christian, the plot of It's My Life replaced Portal 2.
  • Also from Invader Zim: Born Again Christian, both Skepkitty and the reviews pointed out the "former" relationship between Gaz and Demoman.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: All. The. Time. (From Half Irkens)

Then we started our normal Saturday retain (a/n I suck at spelling).

• Self-Insert Fic: What many fanfictions that Skepkitty features is based around. It also counts as a Berserk Button for her.
  • (From Grazie the Beautiful New Girl)

Allow me to rant here: you should never base a character on yourself. It just sets you up for viewing the character as you, rather than as a tool with which to write a story, and then you become attached and don’t want to make anything bad happen to the character because that’s you, and you also don’t want to show the character’s bad side because you’d like to present yourself in the best light, and before you know it you’ve turned your character into a Sue.

• • (From Me in Invader Zim? Oh Kami)

Now, as you can no doubt tell, I am a big fan of Invader Zim. Would I want to go to the IZ world? No, because it sucks. Earth is horrible, everyone is stupid, and the rest of the universe frankly isn’t much better. As much as you might want to go to meet a specific character, the entire cast is mentally unstable if not downright murderous or insane. And she didn’t ask if she could ever come back…

• Surprise Incest: Shows up everywhere in Love Knows No Race.

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 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.

• • Which also makes it older than My Immortal, which by The Half-World's present day (2012) had become a badfic classic.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: (From My Immortal)

“Thou must!” he yelled. “If thou does not, then I shall kill thy beloved Draco!” “Thou dost”, not “thou does”. Ye Olde English 101.

• • Invader Zim: Born Again Christian also has a few lines in Ye Olde Englishe.

Other Blog Tropes

• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The (Other) Half-World, Skepkitty's Tumblr (The Half-World itself runs on WordPress).
  • Though really, all these two have in common are the name and the author.

Be warned: the site’s title may be “the (other) half-world”, but it’s quite a bit different from this half-world, and if you follow me you’ll have to put up with a lot of Fan Girl behavior.

• One of Us: Skepkitty constantly references this site and has her own Troper page.
  • And she helps edit this page sometimes.
  • She also, once her My Immortal MST got to the "Hajimemashite gurl." part, almost directly quoted TV Tropes on the matter.
• Review: A few non-MST reviews have appeared. Listed here.
• Word Salad Title: The title comes from a phrase in Skepkitty's family:

The site is called “The Half-World” because whenever I space out (a very, very common occurrence), my mom will try and snap me out of it by saying “You’re staring into the half-world.” I found the name appropriate for a site that’s full of the kind of things I think about when I’m spacing out.