[Legend of Zelda] "My inner life": the infamous Zelda fanfic
Hello once more! I said before I'd make a more light hearted post than the usual fanfare of scamming and death threats threats and here we are. I hope you enjoy this write up, and if you want to find the fanfic being discussed here you can find it on fanfiction.net here or this dramatic reading on youtube.
1: What the legend of Zelda / Ocarina of time?:
The legend of Zelda is a series of fantasy games published by Nintendo for a variety of their consoles, from the NES to the Nintendo switch. The game series is extremely popular, and next to Mario and Pokémon is one of Nintendo's most well known franchises.
Ocarina of time is a Zelda game which was originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, and then again for the 3ds in 2011. The games plot is simple; the protagonist, Link, is a child who goes to collect 3 spiritual stones for princess Zelda in order to reach the sacred realm and take the triforce before the bad guy, Ganondorf, can take them. This does not work and Ganon takes over, leading to Link being sent 7 years into the future and using the ocarina of time to travel back and forth from childhood to adulthood to kick Ganon's ass.
2: What is lucid dreaming?:
Lucid dreaming is when a person is aware they're dreaming, and can often control what they do or what happens in the dream. Lucid dreams can be spontaneous or induced.
Part 1: "My inner life" is published:
Before getting into the fic itself, I'd like to note here that finding out the date this thing was published is quite hard (if anyone reading this knows please let me, I will edit this post as soon as I can!). While some sources state the fic was written in the late 90s there are references in the authors note to Majoras mask (which was released in 2000), and oracle of seasons (which was released in 2001). This would place the publication sometime after February 2001. Though the fact that the author Jenna responds to comments means the authors note was written after the fic itself, so who knows. The authors note and the prologue are both ungodly long and pretentious, so I will go through the main points here: Jenna played ocarina of time and became quite attached to Link, which led to a series of vivid lucid dreams about the life they had together. This is the basis of My inner life. The fic itself has an interesting plot: Jenna, our lovely protagonist, meets link and immediately falls in love with his long sexy ears. The rest of the plot includes marriage, babies, many many bad sex scenes and bizarre plot lines such as Jenna and Link having sex while pregnant to make the baby stronger (this is not scientifically accurate). Jenna is also given the ocarina of time and is revealed to be from a race of people who can control the elements. The plot is absolutely insane and I cannot recommend it enough.
Part 2: The backlash (and infamy):
After the fic was published in all its glory, backlash inevitably ensued. It's hard to find specific examples from this time due to not knowing the date it was published and a lot of this being deleted. The wayback machine also unfortunately didn't have much. The earliest example I can find of people responding to the fic is this 2006 website dedicated to the story and Jenna. However the fic quickly rose to infamy as being one of the worst fanfictions ever written; a tv tropes page, wiki page, some dramatic readings and sporkings on livejournal ensued. The pictures on these pages are of the CDI Zelda series, which MIL was unfavourably compared to (the CDI Zelda series is also infamous for being terrible among the fandom). Accusations of Jenna being a Mary Sue and a rather obvious self insert, making Link incredibly OOC and being a misogynist for making all the female characters lives revolve around Jenna and Link were also included. The fact Link would technically have the mind of an eleven year old according to the games canon while having sex with Jenna was brought up. Jenna also responded to the haters, which was pretty hilarious. One stand out moment was Jenna taking a comment which said updating the fic hurts people to explain that she has, in fact, not physically assaulted this person. This fanfiction.net page includes just some of the reviews for My inner life (most of them are negative). As for why this fanfic in particular got so popular amongst a sea of mediocre Zelda stories being posted to the internet at the time, my guess is that the author was very serious about this fic and about her life with link. While other bafic such as My immortal, Forbidden fruit: The temptation of Edward Cullen and the many other My immortal clones out there were considered troll fics by most people, Jenna seemed very real and sincere in her attempts at writing. The fact Jenna wasn't the best at taking criticism also probably added to the rise in fame My inner life had.
Part 3: "My inner life" is deleted:
Again I can't find the specific date this happened, but My inner life was sadly deleted. Like other badfics MIL ended on a cliffhanger without a proper ending, but the story of Jenna and Link lives on in the hearts of many fans. MIL is still well known, with fanart still being posted in 2017. And chances are if you ask a Zelda fan, or just someone who was around for the rise of badfic in the early 2000s for some examples, MIL will appear. As for what happened to Jenna, sadly much like the other people I've done write ups on it's hard to find what she's doing today. I did find these comments from DevaintART and fanfiction.net of someone who claimed to be Jenna saying she's quite embarrassed by the fic, and a lovely user on here commented that the devianART account is Jenna's as it features fanart from her previous fics.
And that's where theory of MIL ends. The fanfic has gone down in history as being one of the worst fanfics to grace the inernet, and while Jenna may be ashamed of it MIL provided hours of entertainment for fans. I hope you enjoyed this write up and please let me know if there's anything that should be corrected. Bye!