Self-Insert Fic: Difference between revisions

* In the ''[[Bleach]]'' fanfic [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6820157/1/Fanfictional-Fugitive Fanfictional Fugitive], the author directly admits that the main character is [[Author Avatar|based on herself]] as much as possible. Then she starts to pretty much beat the entire shit out of her(self?) by both turning the character based on herself into a [[Wangst|whiny]], [[Minor Injury Overreaction|powerless]], [[It's All About Me|selfish]] and generally [[Dirty Coward|unlikable]] [[Damsel in Distress|damsel in constant distress]] and making [[Author Avatar|Fanfic!Myrthe]] experience an [[Deus Angst Machina|ongoing]] [[Chew Toy|series]] [[Mind Rape|of]] [[Break the Haughty|nasty]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|events]]. And then lets her character react to these events [[Deconstruction|in a way]] that does [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|not]] [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|flatter]] [[Freak-Out|her]] [[Dirty Coward|character]] at all.

* SIs are pretty common in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' fandom. Especially the female body swap kind... either a spare body of one of the show's main characters, or some OC with an even more fucked-up past than the series' own characters. Unfortunately, these are considered the ''good'' ones. ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3322840/1/New_Perspective_Evangelion New Perspective Evangelion]'' by Dartz_IRL and ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1046500/1/ I was a Teenage Dummy Plug]'' by Foxboy. The second of these is usually regarded as the best of the subgenre.

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/5209/ Gregg "Metroanime" Sharp] also subverts the self-insert trope with his fictional counterpart "Grey", who becomes a cosmic [[Butt Monkey]] doomed to endless futile struggle in an uncaring multiverse.

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/17205/ Contrabardus a.k.a. Carrotglace] has also played with Self Insertion, but usually with a somewhat more comedic take than Metroanime. See his stories ''The Spirit Within, [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/216310/1/Insertion Insertion], Insertion: Reflux!'' and [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/404359/1/ Gaijin] (though this last is anything but comic).

 

=== Literature ===

* When challenged to write a shameless self-insertion in the Harry Potter fandom, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120308015030/http://sam-storyteller.livejournal.com/ Sam Storyteller] went the 'godlike powers and meta knowledge' route. The end result was a touching [http://sam-storyteller.dreamwidth.org/99272.html guardian angel] style piece which may just have turned the genre on its head.

* The hero of ''The Takers'' is [[Two-Fisted Tales|two-fisted]] action-adventure writer Josh Culhane. The book is written by action-adventure writer Jerry Ahern, who deliberately gives the character some of his own traits.

 

 

* Not surprisingly, a fair amount of ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Fanfic]] follows this line, including any number of stories where, due to painfully contrived circumstances, Mr. Spock falls passionately in love with a woman who bears an astonishing resemblance to the author. The term "[[Mary Sue]]" actually comes from a parody of these kinds of stories.

** On the other hand, no less a luminary than David Gerrold originally wrote the famous "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode to feature a young ensign that he saw as a self-surrogate, and did something similar in his novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool''.

** A rather large percentage of other fanfics featuring an author-created companion for the Doctor could arguably fit in this trope quite comfortably as well.

** The Foreword to the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' 2009 Specials box set is, in fact, a short story by [[David Tennant]] wherein he goes back in time thirty years to tell his eight-year-old self that he will play the Doctor someday. In other words, it's a ''double-self-insert [[Real Person Fic|RPF]]''. (And yes, it's adorably geeky.)

* A good chunk of ''[[Supernatural]]'' [[Fanfic]] contains self-inserts that are supposed to be the Winchesters' sister, who is either a long-lost relative or just always been there.

* The ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' episode "Creative Writing" has the main cast writing self-insert stories. Most of them blatant Mary Sues (complete with superpowers and ninja); one writes a soap opera, and another writes a musical number.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' doesn't get very many self-inserts for some reason. One of the best of the small bunch is ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2211755/1/Heres_Your_Accordion Here's Your Accordion]'' by Drakensis (incomplete, but with its conclusion [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10521339/1/Continuations-That-May-Never-Be found here]). In it, a twenty-something British man wakes up in Buffy Summers' body on the first day of the series. While not exactly happy with the situation, he'll use what he can remember of the first season to make the best of his situation and maybe make some better choices than the "real" Buffy did. Now if only (s)he can figure out why there's a 10-year-old Dawn hanging around. Oh, and yeah, stop obviously drooling over Willow.

 

=== Video Games ===

* Possibly the most infamous example of the godlike insert -- the [[Trope Codifier]] for the godlike SI, if not the [[Trope Maker]] -- is Darren "Twister" Steffler and his incomplete mid-1990s megaseries ''[https://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Twisted-Path/ Twisted] [https://puck.nether.net/~sakura/tpath/ Path]''. Steffler's work started out rather crude but improved noticeably as he continued writing, although it never quite reached better than high average in quality. Nevertheless, ''Twisted Path'' was incredibly influential, prompting a number of other writers to create their own Self-Insert or pseudo-Self-Insert fics, many of which included [[Shout-Out]]s to ''Twisted Path'' or blatantly set themselves in the [[:File:Crossovers.jpg|same multiverse]].

** One such story was Bert Van Vliet's ''[[The Bubblegum Zone]]'', a ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' self-insert which later had an explicit crossover with ''Twisted Path'' in the latter series' fourth installment.

 

== Canon Examples ==

=== Anime and Manga ===

* Singer and [[Nirvana]] frontman Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love pretty much admits that ''[[Princess Ai]]'' is a very loose and much more fantastical version of her life. That is, if the fact that the title character works as a singer, falls in love with a "sensitive musician" named Kent, and has a name that means "love" in Japanese or Chinese didn't tip you off.

 

=== Comic Books ===

* Accidentally happened in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', when Shinkawa designed Otacon to look like [[Hideo Kojima]], and Kojima ran with it and based Otacon's personality off his own as well. While Otacon is one of the most heroic characters and ends up [[Relationship Sue|having sex with Naomi, a character Kojima based on his ideal woman,]] the amount of [[The Woobie|abuse Kojima piled on him]] easily overwhelms all this and makes him look kind of pathetic.

* Sakupen in [[Dad Series|Dadgame]] is probably a parody of this played for laughs (his power is ''really'' over the top, plus he runs away screaming when first engaged) which does not stop him from being [[That One Boss|atrociously]] [[God Mode Sue|hard]].

* The entire plot of ''[[Touhou Pocket Wars Evolution]]'' is that of the player (a [[Otaku|slightly obsessed Touhou fan]]) going to [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|Gensokyo]].