Self-Insert Fic: Difference between revisions

 

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* Interestingly deconstructed, averted, and played ''straight'' in ''[[Dreaming of Sunshine (Fanfic)|Dreaming of Sunshine]]'' the [[Author Avatar]] is not godpowered- and, in fact, attempts to change the timeline as little as possible. This is actually justified, as she is attempting to retain her advantage by not rendering her knowledge of future events useless. This is difficult, as she arrived many years before the worst of the shit starts to hit the fan. She has some skills beyond the norm, but those stem from being reborn with her memory intact, not from being an Uberninja.

* Nine times out of ten, a new original senshi in any ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' fanfiction will be a self-insert, replete with godlike powers and totally authority over everyone and everything -- the girl is usually related to a canon character as well. Considering the show's target audience was teenaged girls, which then became 5-13 girls when the show hit the US, this is not surprising.

 

 

* <s> Ebony</s> Enoby Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, of ''[[My Immortal]]'' infamy, is a thinly-disguised self-insertion [[Black Hole Sue]] in an unrecognizably goth (and poorly written) [[Harry Potter]] universe. The author, Tara Gliesbie (or Gillespie, her spelling skills are notorious) only saw the movies, and only became aware of the books at around chapter 15 or so ... not that she has any respect for the movies' canon either. The other characters occasionally slip up and call Enoby "Tara", thus giving away her nature as a self-insertion.

 

 

* The ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' character Will Shakespeare, based loosely on [[Shakespeare|the playwright]], [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/459.html wrote himself] into his ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfic. And later into his novelization of the ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' movies, as [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/874.html Willimir].

* When challenged to write a shameless self-insertion in the Harry Potter fandom, [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.

 

 

* 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''.

* 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.

 

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' is somewhat notorious for its terrible self-insert fictions, mostly starring young fifteen year olds who somehow get sucked into their television sets and get keyblades.

** [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Those Lacking Spines (Fanfic)|Those Lacking Spines]]'', which in one chapter, a long line of wannabe Keyblade bearers are waiting for their keyblades, with the [[Original Character]] population getting so high that the introductory towns in the game are incredibly filled.

 

 

* Dan O'Brien of ''[[Cracked]]'' has these as a regular feature of his blog. However, they're the self insert of a [[Self Parody|drunken loser making dick jokes]], hilariously out of place, and usually [[Lampshade Hanging|calling attention to logical inconsistencies within the story]]. Or just causing [[Hilarity Ensues|wacky drunken hijinx]]. [[Played for Laughs]] either way.

 

 

* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4483666/1/Neos_Happy_Funtime_Land Neo's Happy Funtime Land]'' by [[User:Neo The Saiyan Angel]] is an excellent parody of a Self Insert, in which the author rewrites an episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' and secretly tricks the animators and voice actors into producing it. The author describes herself as an "absolutely gorgeous person..." for a paragraph or two. Neo goes so far as to change a character's hair with the snap of her fingers, saying that she liked it better blond.

* [[User:Donteatacowman]]'s brief fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4616905/1/The_Strange_Self_Insert The Strange Self Insert]'' sees the author dropped into ''[[Kim Possible]]'' to gush over Ron (but she preferred him evil) and tell Kim she's one-dimensional. Unsurprisingly, they decide to send her home as quickly as possible.

 

 

* <s>[[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Linkara]]</s> [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Psyweedle]] wrote himself in as [[God Mode Sue|The Webmaster]] in a fic he <s> plagiarized from Dr. Who</s> wrote [[Old Shame|when he was 13.]]

* The [[Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society]] is actually made up of (mostly) self-inserts to, ironically, [[Mary Sue Hunter|combat]] [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] themselves; however, [[He Who Fights Monsters|the inserts actually work hard not to make themselves into Sues]]. Mostly through [[Lampshade Hanging|liberal usage of lampshades]].

* The character of Peter Chung in [[Star Destroyer Dot Net|Mike Wong's]] ''[http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Fanfic/Conquest/index.html Conquest]''; his academic and ethnic backgrounds are similar to those of the author's, and when analysing Imperial technology, he even brings up some of the same points made on the main part of the site.

 

 

* When Marv Wolfman was writing ''The New Teen Titans'', he gave Wonder Girl an older boyfriend (who was, apparently, one of her college instructors). The new boyfriend, named Terry Long, was breaking up with his wife who looked like an older version of Donna to marry the hotter, younger, super-powered version. He was also an insufferable jackass in his earlier appearances. For some reason, the artist, George Pérez, drew Mr Long to resemble Marv himself. Undeterred by fan [[Squick]], Marv had Donna and Terry marry; afterwards, Terry developed into a nicer, more decent, more tolerable character.

** Once Wolfman had left the book, one later writer had Donna and Terry divorce, and then a [[Wonder Woman]] writer killed off both Terry and the son he'd had with Donna in about one page.

 

 

* One of the (two) screenwriters for the [[B Movie]] ''[[Soultaker (Film)|Soultaker]]'' (which is best known for being featured on [[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]) also played the lead female in the movie. The plot? A rich girl and her ex-boyfriend get into a car accident and must outwit an angel of death, who was in love with her [[Reincarnation|in a past life.]] Hmm...

* [[Charlie Kaufman]] wrote himself into the script of ''[[Adaptation]]'', a movie "adapted" from the book ''The Orchid Thief''. The movie is about him trying to adapt ''The Orchid Thief'', and eventually writing himself into the script.

 

 

* Richard Marcinko, former Navy SEAL, has written the ''Rogue Warrior'' series, a collection of anti-terrorism action novels with himself as the main protagonist. What is especially interesting is that the ''fictional'' Rogue Warrior books are written as sequels to the ''factual'' first book, entitled ''Rogue Warrior'', which was Marcinko's autobiography. What is even more interesting is that his real life exploits (leader and founding member of both SEAL Team Six and Red Cell, along with being a legitimate [[Jerkass Stu]]) make it almost impossible to draw a line between self-insertion and [[Author Avatar|avatarhood]]. Fans and critics of the series argue over whether Marcinko's characterization in the fictional followup books is [[God Mode Sue|blatantly overpowered]] or whether he is, in fact, just that Badass.

** FBI agent Joseph Pistone, better known as ''[[Donnie Brasco (Film)|Donnie Brasco]]'', wrote (or put his name on top of) several fiction novels following him going undercover yet again as Donnie Brasco to infiltrate some evil goings-on or another. These seem to be out of print.

 

 

* 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.

* This is the actual power of ''[[Bleach]]'''s new post-[[Time Skip]] villain Tsukishima. To those not affected, it's ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]''-level disturbing to see their friends greet him as if they'd known him all their lives. {{spoiler|Especially for Ichigo, when he learns that Tsukishima [[Marty Stu]]-ed himself into everything ''he'' has fought and suffered for.}}

 

 

* Margaret Thatcher once wrote a skit for ''[[Yes Minister]],'' in which she played the part of the Prime Minister. The piece is [[Actually Pretty Funny|actually quite amusing,]] and did air on the BBC.

* Melina Kanakaredes (Stella Bonasera) wrote a fifth season episode of ''[[CSI New York]]'' and turned her character into a forensics [[MacGyver]].

 

 

* ''50 Cent: Bulletproof'' and its sequel ''50 Cent: Blood on the Sand''. According to [[The Other Wiki]], when asked to do the voice for the main character of ''[[Grand Theft Auto San Andreas]]'', 50 Cent replied that he would only voice himself in a video game. So these little self-insert adventures were developed for him.

* This trope is literally invoked in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series with the [[Winnie the Pooh|100 Acre Wood]]. Thanks to the magical nature of the book (it sucks the reader from the "real" world into the story), restoring the Pages (and thereby reconstructing the world) and interacting with the characters, allows Sora to (inadvertently) rewrite the plot of ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' to include himself as a prominent character. When you lock the world's keyhole, it even includes him on the cover with the rest of the characters.

 

 

* Possibly a parody, ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' has Rayne Summers write a book, [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20081229 apparently with him as the protagonist], if the visual representation is supposed to be contextual. As a possible subversion to the standard [[Mary Sue]] tendencies of such a thing, the text of the book says "Though he began with the best of intentions, ultimate power did what is always had. It corrupts" [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090106 in reference to his character] as a joke to how he hates Apple Inc. Also, he apparently [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090108 tries to conquer the world in it].

* An ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'' story arc has a thinly veiled [[Author Avatar]] of Randall Munroe meeting and chilling with the cast of ''[[Firefly]]''.

 

 

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has had a fair number of self-inserts over the course of four versions. Usually they're not frowned upon, as long as they're treated realistically and don't stretch the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. And other times [[Write Who You Know|characters based off of people the handler knows]] show up too.

* Since the day the ''[[Draw Your Own Story]]'' comics began on the CivFanatics forums, most of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] were more or less [[Mary Sue|Sue]]-ish self-inserts (often represented by the user's avatar.)

 

 

* There was an example in ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It involved Marge practically inserting herself into ''her own'' novel, but she didn't stop there, she more or less inserted the entire residency of Springfield into the story. Initially she writes Homer's character as a noble, loving husband, but when the real Homer commits a brazen display of [[Jerkass]]-edness, Marge angrily rewrites his character to match. The real conflict comes when Marge has her protagonist fall for Ned Flanders' character, making everyone in Springfield suspect that Marge had fallen for Flanders. When Homer actually got around to reading it, he went after Flanders...not to kill him (unlike the novel), but to ask him for advice on how to be a better husband. As for the novel, it got terrible reviews.

** ...but sold well enough for every person in town to have a copy of it.

 

 

 

* Similarly, ''[http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Shoujo-Kakumei-Utena/utena.ma-vie-et-roses.gz Ma Vie Et Roses]'' by Scott Johnson and Scott Jamison subverts and plays with Self Insertion. In this ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' fic, an anime fan finds himself shoved into a show he's barely even heard of. One of the authors, who was genuinely unfamiliar with the series at the time, wrote the actions of the pseudo-[[Author Avatar]] Skyler Sands, while the other wrote the rest of the fic around him. Acting out of true ignorance, Skyler manages to thread his way through the main action while still ranging far afield (such as ending up joining the Shadow Girls' avante-garde theatre group). Skyler is very [[Genre Savvy]], which helps (but not enough), and eventually ends up speculating on the existence and motives of the "meta-Skyler" who put him in the story.

* ''[http://indiemadnesse.sandwich.net/extract/extract.html Self-Extraction]:'' a "charming little tale of the people who write themselves in, and the people who shoot them back out", written round-robin by a half-dozen or so authors. Initially played for laughs but gets more serious toward the [[Dead Fic|incomplete]] ending.

 

 

* One minor character in the ''[[Simon R Green|Hawk & Fisher]]'' novels was a self-promoting mercenary who wrote loads of over-the-top adventure stories about his own "incredibly heroic deeds", then published them as mass-market chapbooks under a pseudonym.

 

 

* Historical example: Given the state of the facts, Martha Jane Canary-Burke, aka ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamity_Jane Calamity Jane] herself'', may be the world's first fangirl to create [[Self Insert Fic]] -- her claims of relationship to Wild Bill Hickok and serving under Custer are largely unverifiable or false by history.

* Similarly, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Leonowens Anna Leonowens] (the "I" in ''[[The King and I]]'') similarly exaggerated her role and influence at the court of the king of Siam, though not to the extremes her erstwhile "biographers" did in the works based on her own.

[[Category:Mary Sue Tropes]]

[[Category:Wish Fulfillment]]

[[Category:Older Than Print]]

[[Category:Fanfic Tropes]]