Words of Light: On “So Bad It’s Good”
Many thanks to @typeaadventures for letting me use Fallen Oak and Legends of Lazlor as references for this post. Now, a lot of people will say they like a particular game, show, movie, song, book, or whatever (there really needs to be a good collective word for those things) precisely because they’re bad. I’ve never really understood that line of thought; maybe it’s because I have absurd standards for things but, if I like something, I find it’s because there are parts of it I think are good.
Hence why I bring up Type A’s 80,000 words of “regret”, Legends of Lazlor, as well as Fallen Oak. No one can deny her technique has only improved between the two stories; there’s a more coherent sense of place and movement in Fallen Oak and the descriptions are more vivid, not to mention less laden with errors.
But I’m mainly here to talk about Legends of Lazlor. I’m sure a lot of people are thinking “Man, this is so bad it’s good”. Granted, Type A’s experience of the time definitely shows and she has her reasons for referring to it with the words she does. But I’d argue it has its good, captivating traits. @brynprocrastinates and myself found plenty of amusement in it. I would never presume to know bryn’s reasons for liking something but I can at least talk for myself.
Legends of Lazlor is paced very quickly. The characters are loud and vibrant. The action is exaggerated and dynamic. I consider all these positive traits for the writing. It enthrals the reader’s attention but in a way that joyously invigorates it rather than deadens it into addiction. It’s immensely amusing when the villain smashes a pot in clear sight of the royal guards because he is extremely petty and angry at the princess, who says “The L in your name must stand for LIAR!”. It has all the excitement and entertainment value of a Saturday Morning Cartoon that we’d watch as kids.
I suspect this is where the notion of it being “bad” comes from. A lot of people are stuck with the sentiment of wanting to “grow up”, which inevitably leads to the discarding of “childish” things. It’s no secret that film producers will add profanity or something to avoid a G rating that’s unmarketable to older audiences. Personally speaking (and sorry for the anecdotal evidence), I avoided playing Kingdom Hearts as a kid because I thought Disney was “kiddy” and I thought myself grown up at the weathered age of 12.
I do think Legends of Lazlor is poor quality and in dire need of an editor if Type A has any aspirations whatsoever to get it out into the light of day for all to say. But I don’t think the points I mentioned above are faults. In fact, I think they’re strengths to be enjoyed. Hamminess is enjoyable, like the milkshake bit from There Will Be Blood and anything Brian Blessed dips his hands into. Stories are less of a sliding scale and more of sweets bowl with M&Ms, Skittles, and coloured rocks in it; rather than classify an entire one by good or bad, look at the components individually.
Do I think Legends of Lazlor is bad? Yes. Do I enjoy it because it’s bad? No. Do I enjoy it for the good parts it has? Yes. Perhaps this is a matter of taste and all you schadenfreude and cringe humour fans would know better but, if those parts were bad, I would not enjoy them. Its presentation needs a lot of work, sure, but it’s engagingly entertaining and vibrant and colourful. I’m not sure who considers the odd grammar and punctuation to be good qualities but I would only be mildly surprised if they turned out to have taught me literature in high school.
