What sort of Self-Inserts are annoying

C

Cortavar

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Whiny, "oh no this is awful, I miss being a fast food worker now I'm a god in a fantasy world" Isekai protagonists. If your Isekai situation actually sucks, you can complain. If you're living an objectively better life than what you had on earth, you'd better stop: you're not being relatable anymore, you're being stupid.

Generally, whiny MCs are annoying, but if they have actually nothing to whine about, and it's all in their head, they better have a character act to resolve it.
 
Succubiome

Succubiome

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Hot take: self-insert characters fail when the character is neither
1. bland but not relatable enough to the reader (varies wildly based on the reader)
or
2. different and interesting enough that the audience doesn't really realize/care that they're a self-insert-- even if they're a self-insert to the author, they aren't to the readers
Cortavar said:
Whiny, "oh no this is awful, I miss being a fast food worker now I'm a god in a fantasy world" Isekai protagonists. If your Isekai situation actually sucks, you can complain. If you're living an objectively better life than what you had on earth, you'd better stop: you're not being relatable anymore, you're being stupid.

Generally, whiny MCs are annoying, but if they have actually nothing to whine about, and it's all in their head, they better have a character act to resolve it.
Click to expand...
I feel like "oh no this is awful, I miss being a fast food worker now I'm a god in a fantasy world" could absolutely work if you made the MC very aware and stressed over the responsibility and repercussions their actions have for countless others, despite their own personal situation being improved.

They could more or less turn their brain off for eight hours a day, now if they ignore the repercussions of their actions and autopilot or do something impulsively, it could lead to the deaths of thousands.

...most "god in a fantasy world" type stuff does not do much of this, however.
 
Kamelingil

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Omnipotent MC just reading his own novel and spectating to multiple stories in the multiverse casually and me and my mc are just having a normal conversation
 
V

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I don't really care about the SI's character that much but the way some fanfics portray the characters of the original characters is so out of character(OOC) and shallow, makes me want to throttle the author of the fanfic.

just look at CN fanfics if you haven't encountered this problem yet.
 
C

Cortavar

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Succubiome said:
I feel like "oh no this is awful, I miss being a fast food worker now I'm a god in a fantasy world" could absolutely work if you made the MC very aware and stressed over the responsibility and repercussions their actions have for countless others, despite their own personal situation being improved.

They could more or less turn their brain off for eight hours a day, now if they ignore the repercussions of their actions and autopilot or do something impulsively, it could lead to the deaths of thousands.

...most "god in a fantasy world" type stuff does not do much of this, however.
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Yeah, I get what you are saying, the appeal of a simpler life could work. It doesn't really work for me, but I get it.
 
Terrate

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When a character is so stuck up their own imagination/mind that they disregard all evidences that are proving them wrong.

This is usually on those Villainess or Breaking death flag things, even though the story and the relationships are already derailed to oblivion, they are STILL somehow sure that it would end the way they think it would. Like, my man, EVERYONE loves you.
 
Succubiome

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Cortavar said:
Yeah, I get what you are saying, the appeal of a simpler life could work. It doesn't really work for me, but I get it.
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Yeah, absolutely valid if it's not your thing!

I was musing on my own thoughts on it, and I didn't mean to say your preferences were wrong, but I kind of got distracted by my tangent.
 
AliceShiki

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The poorly written ones, essentially.

Like, I don't really care if the character is a self-insert, like... Okay, sure, whatever, but is the character interesting? Do they go through character development? Are their decisions relatable?

If you do those things right, your character can be whatever you want. It being a self-insert or not isn't particularly relevant... And honestly, I would never notice if a character is meant to be a self-insert or not. Neither for the reader nor for the author. When I'm reading a story, I'm reading a story. I never assume an outside element is participating on it.

So yeah, the only thing I care about is having the character being well-written. The rest is all whatever.

... Well, I guess there are some character archetypes that I dislike, such as perverted characters or murder-hobo types of characters, but that's just my general dislike for some specific kinds of characters and not really something related to self-inserts.
 
Representing_Tromba

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The pompous, good at everything, OP Everyman is the most annoying to me. Revenge self inserts are also annoying but not as much because you know it's just a way for the writer to get out their frustrations in a nonviolent manner.
 
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CrimsonGenius

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I dislike self-inserts that have a harem. For some reason all the girls/boys like that character for no reason. Why do they like them? What do they have to offer? They are a nice to you? Idiots your friends around you are nice.
 
TheMonotonePuppet

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Succubiome said:
Hot take: self-insert characters fail when the character is neither
1. bland but not relatable enough to the reader (varies wildly based on the reader)
or
2. different and interesting enough that the audience doesn't really realize/care that they're a self-insert-- even if they're a self-insert to the author, they aren't to the readers

I feel like "oh no this is awful, I miss being a fast food worker now I'm a god in a fantasy world" could absolutely work if you made the MC very aware and stressed over the responsibility and repercussions their actions have for countless others, despite their own personal situation being improved.

They could more or less turn their brain off for eight hours a day, now if they ignore the repercussions of their actions and autopilot or do something impulsively, it could lead to the deaths of thousands.

...most "god in a fantasy world" type stuff does not do much of this, however.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a wonderful idea! I hope someone makes it a reality!
 
Succubiome

Succubiome

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TheMonotonePuppet said:
someone is talking shiitake mushrooms about your protagonists or protagonists you like reading about.
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I wouldn't say someone saying they don't want to read something is shiitake mushroom talking?

Shiitake mushroom talking is more like "wow I hate all these bland mushrooms, they're boring and pointless and don't deserve to exist-- unlike shiitake, which dried or fresh, are a great part of any dish! such a burst of flavor!" and then someone else bicycles in front of them and turns to the camera and says "this ad brought to you by the shiitake mushroom producers council"
 
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