Worst Worldbuilding (Featuring Fanfics)

You would think that if anything had good worldbuildings, fanfics would as they don't even have to build their world, or plot, or characters. That's wrong.

 

I once read this Yugioh fanfic that was super awful. The writer argued that because you can play professional Yugioh in their universe, and since professional football equipment is hundreds of dollars, that means Yugioh cards would be in their universe. None of this made any sense.

Firstly: Yugioh cards are already in real life expensive. Try one dollar a card. Nextly, the reason why the good sports equipment is so expensive is because that's cost of materials and usability. You still have cheap mitts and gloves, some that work just as well. Yugioh cards don't have this, there's no Yugioh cards that are professional only. Thirdly, If they were hundreds of dollars, no one would buy them, there'd be no professional players. Fourthly, you can already make tens of thousands of dollars playing the game, not even counting streaming your games, in real life. Ironically, fifthly, the duel disk being expensive makes sense since that summons literal holograms.

Also, they bumped the rarity of each card by one. So commons became rares, rares became secret rares. Noah immediately told me, "Then wouldn't they all be the same rarity?"

I think the reason the person did this was to justify their little orphan Annie having no money when they attending a dueling academy (something you think would cost even more money). Yeah, no. Scrounging up money for a several hundred dollar gift is... doable. Repeatedly, on yugioh cards, no. And you can't even excuse the idea of "well some people throw their cards away" because, if they're hundreds of dollars, no one throws their cards away.

Let's give the terrible worldbuilding runner-up to a Pokemon fan. One fan wrote up how Pokemon would go insane in Pokemon Mystery Dungeons because the walls are "perfectly straight". I'm not even joking. The walls were apparently so supernaturally straight that drove people to madness.

This is, without a doubt, pure nonsense. That would actually be pleasant for your perception and technically probably closer to how you remember things. Actually I'm pretty sure that's how video games work even. You might be like "well maybe they're even straighter than computers allow", but at that point, would you even be able to tell?

Even if you could somehow make this make sense: Walls. People going insane because of literal walls. What a wimpy thing to drive people insane out of all possible answers like "Psychic Pokemon", "Ghost Pokemon", "They're not actually insane they're just wild Pokemon and like to fight". The Walls drive you insane. If that's the issue, why not just break the walls or cause cracks?

Question of the day. What is bad worldbuilding? I mentioned how characters who live in their worlds makes good worldbuilding, but I think I was wrong- that just explores the setting.

I'm going to segway to talk about something very important. Spongebob Squarepants.

In Spongebob, you can't really argue that the world is built "well". The laws of physics alter every episode, particularly about fire. When do they go to work at the Krusty Krab, when does the Krusty Krab close, does the Krusty Krab close? All of those questions matter on the episode, however Spongebob is still great and this never really bothers people in the moment. Part of this hinges ona reason - this fits the show.

Spongebob, even as a character, can go from being majorly upset his pet snail left him, and freaking out from stealing a balloon, to icing a guy just because he tried to get a free krabby patty all while laughing while the life leaves his eyes. Yet, you never really feel like he's "breaking character", because the show gets you to accept this inanity.

Could we theoretically justify the several hundred dollar Yugioh card thing? Sure. Maybe the government has artificially inflated the prices by buying them up so they can train their police with yugioh cards against card bandits. And since most bandits are usually poorer players, by making cards near impossible for "plebians" to obtain, you restrict the flow of card bandits If you amp the insanity of the world, stuff actually begins making "sense". Because if everything else is insane, nothing is insane.

Sorta like the old adage "surreal comedy is watching someone act funny. Surreal comedy is the act of watching someone watch someone act funny."

Let's talk about Ponies. Specifically, My Little Pony. The worldbuilding in that show is... rough. Practically every fan I know is really only enjoying the world for the characters, never for plot.

There's one element that's always gotten me is Cutie Marks. First time we really get any news, they're basically symbols that talk about what a pony's special talent is in an indirect way. For example, three butterflies is Fluttershy's, and while that sorta talks about her ability to nurture animals, is also about how a butterfly is delicate. If handled improperly, you'll tear her wings. If dealt with fairly and kindly, even the cowardly worm becomes the most beautiful animal and learns to spread their wings. Applejack's is three apples, showing her proficiency in running an applefarm, but also representing herself and presumably her two siblings.

However, as the episodes go by, cutie marks become something that makes ponies unique and stripping them makes a pony become some kind of one-note character without a personality. And then there's signs transferring them alters destiny...

Even worse, in my opinion, is "The Stare". The first thing we learn about the Stare is this:

Rarity: "Did you use... the stare on her."

Fluttershy: Oh no. I wouldn't! I couldn't! I-I don't have any control that just happens."

The literal first fact we ever learn is Fluttershy doesn't press a button and stare someone out. We also see Fluttershy's stare hypnotizes an animal basically and makes them comply. However, I've always disliked any fanfic that tried explaining her stare. Most go with an ancestry trait - but that makes no sense. If this is an ancestry feat, we would see other ponies capable of this, (like her parents or her brother), or other miscellaneous ponies. We also find out later that she can do the stare while in the body of Angel. The Stare is, simply put, a joke. She's the kind one, she's the wimp, but she has the power to put the fear of a thousand suns in someone.

In later episodes, they try to break her out of hypnosis by showing her a mirror so that way she'll stare at herself. That's, not really how that works. The stare isn't something she's always doing, and the stare isn't about breaking hypnosis, but intimidating animals or ponies into doing whatever you want because you're a stern yellow mama.

When a show goes against their previously established logic, this also creates the sense of terrible worldbuilding. This is: Twisting the world into a pretzel shape to fit the needs of your story.

A lot of terrible worldbuilding comes down to simply mashing stuff together to get what you want, without properly thinking of the costs, consequences, or unfortunate implications. If your world has official assassins who run around, without fear of the law, they just have to be paid, that makes someone look corrupt somewhere.

"What can I do to prevent bad worldbuilding?" 

 

There's not really an easy answer. Have someone with you who can tell you if your ideas seem implausible, try to listen to what your world needs, and figure out the rules of special magics ahead of time. Or special weapons. 

 

This has been worst worldbuilding and part 2 of my worldbuilding articles.