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Self Inserts
Oct. 22nd, 2021 01:57 pmI've gotten really into self-insert stories. Once I got past the kneejerk 'self insert bad!', I found them to be really enjoyable stories that mix together several tropes from time travel stories.
There is technically no time travel, so there's no real need to worry about disrupting timeflow or returning to the past/future, but the character knows what happens -or what SHOULD happen. Their own presence in the story throws things off, but in a way that they can control. To me, it is an exquisite combination of fate and free will in fiction. Fate dictates that Anakin Skywalker falls, but someone from our world walking in the skin of a Wookie or Twi'lek can decide to meddle, and change the course of everything!
I've since started working on some really absurd but fun self inserts. Like, what if someone woke up in the body of Overlord from Transformers, during the MTMTE comics? Would they just turn themselves in when the Wreckers find the horror show of Garrus-9? Do they try to escape and find a place to settle down? What if they land on the Lost Light? Even if all they do is sit around and eat copious amounts of energon candy, the absence of Overlord in the story has a cascade effect that changes everything, and I love that so much.
Now I just have to figure out how to choose from the myriad of things that could happen once Overlord gains the mind of a young woman that only read the comics once and then forgot most of the details!
There is technically no time travel, so there's no real need to worry about disrupting timeflow or returning to the past/future, but the character knows what happens -or what SHOULD happen. Their own presence in the story throws things off, but in a way that they can control. To me, it is an exquisite combination of fate and free will in fiction. Fate dictates that Anakin Skywalker falls, but someone from our world walking in the skin of a Wookie or Twi'lek can decide to meddle, and change the course of everything!
I've since started working on some really absurd but fun self inserts. Like, what if someone woke up in the body of Overlord from Transformers, during the MTMTE comics? Would they just turn themselves in when the Wreckers find the horror show of Garrus-9? Do they try to escape and find a place to settle down? What if they land on the Lost Light? Even if all they do is sit around and eat copious amounts of energon candy, the absence of Overlord in the story has a cascade effect that changes everything, and I love that so much.
Now I just have to figure out how to choose from the myriad of things that could happen once Overlord gains the mind of a young woman that only read the comics once and then forgot most of the details!
