Where does wish fulfillment go too far?

[Gray_Mann]

But if you told me the lonely nerd got sent to a world populated only by beautiful women who haven't invented clothes, he's transformed into a seven foot tall adonis with a massive, perpetually rock-hard [SET OF ABS], the women are divided into tribes that each personify one of the author's fetishes, his divine mission is to repopulate the planet, and also he can turn into a pegasus, my suspension of disbelief would probably collapse like the Golden Gate Bridge in an action movie.

So um.....when are you, or anyone, writing this one? Just asking for a friend.

Someone read the Makalang series, I see ...

Explain.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

This. "If a character never suffers, is it even really a story?" Like, yeah, we hate to see our characters (be they who we wish we could be, who we wish we could be with, or who we want to see more of in the world) suffer, but it's that suffering that makes the end goal worthwhile. no one would read a story where Naofumi shows up and someone says "Hey friend! Here's an enslaved raccoon girl, a giant bird that can turn into a humanoid, and the princess of a nation. That's your mansion and here's a million units of currency." Yeah, that would be grand for the character. BUT you'd get people reading one, MAYBE two chapters, then demanding a refund (Even on here, where reading it is free, they'd demand a refund of the time wasted).

As humans, we CRAVE conflict. We are a violent species. Rising of a Shield Hero is only good BECAUSE Naofumi suffers so much, so you're left wondering how the hell he's gonna deal with this new turn, this new accusation, this new psycho-babbling-bit- I'm getting off-topic. My bad. But you get my point. We're only interested in the destination BECAUSE of the journey.

SOL would like to make your acquaintance.

As for the OP, we all have wishes. Some of those are good, some of them aren't so much. When a story portrays evil as good for the sake of wish fulfilment, I'd say it's taken a pretty wrong turn.

 

[JayMark]

So um.....when are you, or anyone, writing this one? Just asking for a friend.

I'm working on it. But it's not an isekai or a litrpg so nobody is going to read. Thus I'm writing it at my leisure when I need a laugh.

 

[beast_regards]

Explain.

So, there is this story about the manly man which gets isekai'd to the world populated only by the female kemonomimi (and elves) in order to repopulate the planet because they run out of males? Especially the bat girls, because all bat girls in the universe are curvy ebony babes which didn't invent clothes yet. It's called Malakang series because that's how they call the protagonist, since Malakang in-universe is something like big foot, except it is not big foot, but rather a big ****

Only transformation to pegasus is missing, there is only abducting underage daughter from Earth to transform her to bunny girl ...

Yes, it is real, it is about 6 books long, and could be brought from Amazon.

Why write it yourself when a journalist on too much cocaine wrote it for you already....

First four audiobooks are even free on Audible.

 

[Bartun]

My wish-fulfilling is finishing my story ?

 

[John_Owl]

SOL would like to make your acquaintance.

As for the OP, we all have wishes. Some of those are good, some of them aren't so much. When a story portrays evil as good for the sake of wish fulfilment, I'd say it's taken a pretty wrong turn.

Slice of life?

And when it's evil IS good, yes. But I do like evil protag stories. Like megamind (but less cartoon evil and more genuine evil).

 

[Alfir]

And others do excellently well and sometimes would go too far in balancing wish fulfillment. you get an OP ability but give it a tragic side-effect like a nine-tailed fox that might kill you, give MC an OP dad but kill his mom and then kill the dad later, you are the hokage's son but no one knows, make the MC super rich but he is alone, give the MC a harem but make him dense or uninterested on them, give the MC a cute girlfriend who'd love you to death but yandere, give you the ultimate power in the form of a notebook but you are netflix, give Luffy awesome friends but kill his brother, give you ultimate power in the form of a smartphone but you are a loli magnet, you are the strongest and have awesome abs but bald, give a mob a superpowered spaceship but make him lack ambition, and then there was Rimuru Tempest.

I don't know why but I am starting to hate that slime.

Personally, I believe self-wish fulfillment goes too far if the suspension of belief is broken and it changes from one person to another because perception is not a constant. As long as your readers are willing to believe what you are writing and you do the same then you are golden.

 

[beast_regards]

and then there was Rimuru Tempest.

... Rimuru Tempest isn't sexy and bald, though.

 

[jal11180]

Any story is shit when characters break character. Even something as little as the way a character talks or present themselves breaks character.
Happens a lot in fanfics, as it mostly has to do with inexperience, not necessarily of craft, but wisdom. I sound like an old man saying this, but unironically characters won't break character if the author was versed in how people thought and acted, etc. When character breaks character, we see 'this is what the author would do if he were in this situation', not 'this is what the character would do'.

What if an OC kind of makes an established character confront a shitty part of their character and calls them out on their hypocrisy, bullshit, horrible behavior, and/or horrible life choices in their lives? Would that be a justifiable part of not only breaking the established character of their typical character traits, but also causing them to grow as not only a character, but as a person? Here is an example of what I mean...an OC gets the isekai treatment to their anime/manga that they like, even though said OC is NOT a part of the target audience, like a teenage boy that likes mecha anime/manga, but is sent into a magical girl anime/manga instead, but, for whatever reason, a powerful controlling character/franchise based deity/random deity deems the OC as worthy of joining this new world that is the anime/manga that they like in their lives. Said OC also meets an established character, called EC from now on, that is a bit of a tsundere, but, because the OC is NOT originally from Japan, and said OC has dealt with similar types of people before, e.g., the typical Reddit Karen/Kevin, in their previous existence, he is wise to their bullshit, and he will set the EC straight about their horrible attitude, and/or life choices because the OC is the only person that literally has the courage to call out the EC on their attitude, and bad choices, in their lives. Would that kind of action by the OC to the EC be justified as a not shit story, but, rather, a necessary historical correction type of story, e.g. a Tin Man (the SyFy miniseries of the retelling of the Oz franchise, not the Dale Brown book), or The Looking Glass Wars, yes or no? Also, if it is no, then is there a valid reason for the claim, or is it just that you have a below shit tier opinion on what makes a good story?

 

[Alfir]

... Rimuru Tempest isn't sexy and bald, though.

I don't know why I can't get emotionally invested on him unlike other MCs I've perused before.
He doesn't have any balancing on him or interesting flaws. If anything, I will go so far as say slime isekai is self wishfulfilment done just the right amount of good with nothing bad and that destoys my suspension of belief rather strongly.
As someone fairly imaginative and have a high threshold for my suspension of disbelief, it was quite something for it to be broken.

 

[Dragon_SAMA]

I don't know why I can't get emotionally invested on him unlike others I've perused before.

Probably because he was a old man before reincarnating as a slime and now he acts all cutesie..

 

[Alfir]

Probably because he was a old man before reincarnating as a slime and now he acts all cutesie..

Not exactly old, but middle aged. But yeah. I thought he'd act more self aware and perceptive for his age.

 

[ForestDweller]

When it gets boring to read.

A story without stakes isn't an interesting story at all.

 

[ArlindoFrancisco]

I don't know; there is a lot of work out there that would be pure wish fulfillment and complete trash but people still like it.
At the end of the day, it's just things that you like and things you don't like.

 

[HungrySheep]

And while this can be a legitimate criticism, you also can't deny that there's an element of wish fulfillment in every story ever written.

Have you read Camus' The Stranger? I do not think anyone would want to be in Meursault's shoes. There is no wish to fulfill there. How about All Men Are Mortal by Beauvoir? No one is happy there. No one wants to be a character in that novel, I can guarantee you that much.