So many pointless Isekai

[Anonjohn20]

Not all isekai are bad but so many either don't utilize the advantages of modern knowledge or just erase the character's memory so that he doesn't have the benefit of his knowledge. Many isekai could have used just used a character from that world but pointlessly grabbed a character from the modern world to have a self-insert.

Someone from the modern world has the advantage of learning math (at least basic math), should have basic critical thinking skills, understand the importance of networking, be willing to learn reading and writing of the new world, understand the basics of economics (even if its usually just microeconomics), and possibly have personal skills from a hobby (like a sport such as fencing, a science like chemistry, or an art like drawing or playing an instrument). Basically they should have an advantage over the average peasant even without cheat skills, but often times they don't utilize anything useful from their past experiences.

 

[melchi]

Um, that plot device is really common in Isekai. Some don't use it but it isn't hard to find.

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

Um, that plot device is really common in Isekai. Some don't use it but it isn't hard to find.

I agree. Most Isekai people use the knowledge they have gained in the real world to gain advantages in their new world.

 

[Anonjohn20]

I agree. Most Isekai people use the knowledge they have gained in the real world to gain advantages in their new world.

Um, that plot device is really common in Isekai. Some don't use it but it isn't hard to find.

They miraculously know how to build suspensions for carriages, smartphones, guns, distillation stills, and pump wells(even though they never did that in their previous life); just because we know what a car is doesn't mean we know how to build an engine from scratch. That being said, many isekai stories they rarely bring their actual experiences.

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

They miraculously know how to build suspensions for carriages, smartphones, guns, distillation stills, and pump wells(even though they never did that in their previous life); just because we know what a car is doesn't mean we know how to build an engine from scratch. That being said, many isekai stories they rarely bring their actual experiences.

I mean, what if the guy was an mechanical engineer? Or a herbalist? Or something else. I mean, that's what I do for my isekai. Some like to bring that knowledge out of nowhere, like that time I got reincarnated as a slime, but you know they are out there.

Well, one I know is Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story, which is a good one. She is an office worker, and because of that, she can manage funds to get a better standing. So, they are out there, just the magical ones tend also to drown them I guess.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I really don't want to play the devil's advocate since I agree that there are way too many pointless isekai, but your opinion about people is way too high. Basics of economics? Hobbies? Critical thinking? Be willing to learn reading and writing? You ask for way too much.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Not all isekai are bad but so many either don't utilize the advantages of modern knowledge or just erase the character's memory so that he doesn't have the benefit of his knowledge. Many isekai could have used just used a character from that world but pointlessly grabbed a character from the modern world to have a self-insert.

Someone from the modern world has the advantage of learning math (at least basic math), should have basic critical thinking skills, understand the importance of networking, be willing to learn reading and writing of the new world, understand the basics of economics (even if its usually just microeconomics), and possibly have personal skills from a hobby (like a sport such as fencing, a science like chemistry, or an art like drawing or playing an instrument). Basically they should have an advantage over the average peasant even without cheat skills, but often times they don't utilize anything useful from their past experiences.

All these skills would be mightily useless if you are born a peasant. Chemistry ... Economics ...

What are even those economics? Accounting? An excel sheet?

As for networking ... Depending on your fantasy setting, you know how the feudal system works, right?

 

[TroubleFait]

Sometimes the point of isekai is so that readers can identify with the character. The readers are not natives from this strange fantasy land, and neither is the protagonist.

Since that's the main reason they do it as an isekai, using the old life's technical skill to change the world has nothing to do with the plot. So, snip, out go the memories.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Yep

The more i read Isekai, the more i don't want to be Isekai-ed.

but your opinion about people is way too high. Basics of economics? Hobbies? Critical thinking? Be willing to learn reading and writing? You ask for way too much.

The reason people watch Isekai is to escape the constant challange of those economics, Hobbies, Critical thinking, and the skill to read and write in our modern world.

 

[RecursiveDescent]

An isekai where a fencer uses a rapier in a world where they are obsessed with normal swords and stuff would be epic, but you run into problems if you just make them a practitioner of modern fencing for sport. The skill for sport fencing turns less useful in actual combat because you're facing different weapons and there aren't any rules, if you don't drop the sport habits you're dead.

Unless they are practicing skills made for combat they'll definitely be vulnerable to things such as grappling or controlling their sword to get closer.
Sport fencers never really have to worry about sword binding, and when they do it's easy to disengage and duck under the other sword.

Against a normal sword it's much easier to get caught in a bind that allows them to immediately close the distance and stab you.

 

[Thraben]

I really don't want to play the devil's advocate since I agree that there are way too many pointless isekai, but your opinion about people is way too high. Basics of economics? Hobbies? Critical thinking? Be willing to learn reading and writing? You ask for way too much.

I'll take this point and run home to my secret cave of horrors with it to present a deeply unexplored space of Isekai writing despite three of the most popular isekais of all time (Overlord, Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei) basing their entire protagonistic appeals on it:

Why don't more isekai protagonists bring their traumas with them to their new worlds?

 

[T.K._Paradox]

I actually believe that the modern person isn't as self sufficient as those peasants you seem to be comparing them to.

Also I gotta say the people back then were just as smart as us, the only prevailing problem they had was the lack of a decent widespread education amongst the masses.

After all, all the insight and big ideas we have are just expanding on the ideas of old.

 

[Jerynboe]

I don’t get the impression I’m doing anything particularly groundbreaking in my isekai, and Curtis uses his old life knowledge as a finance bro all the time. Cooking pigs feet with a recipe his nan taught him, basic accounting making him an above average quartermaster, using interview techniques for dealing with the dread pirate captain that kidnapped him and forced him into his crew, Corporate speak and PR spin on nearly everything he does while planning a mutiny… he leans on his isekai powers for things he doesn’t know how to do, but I wanted to have both sides of him be relevant to the plot.
I genuinely doubt I’m the first or even fiftieth person to do this.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I'll take this point and run home to my secret cave of horrors with it to present a deeply unexplored space of Isekai writing despite three of the most popular isekais of all time (Overlord, Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei) basing their entire protagonistic appeals on it:

I'm not sure what you mean here, sorry. You can try paraphrasing it.

Why don't more isekai protagonists bring their traumas with them to their new worlds?

I asked the same question, but it was a rhetoric question. The answer is on the surface. People want self-inserts, not protagonists.

 

[QuercusMalus]

You are confusing 'memorized in school to pass a test/class' with actual understanding and being able to apply it.
Compounded with isekai when most modern skills are going to be useless. I can drive a car mean fuckall when the best personal mode of transport is a horse drawn carriage. Even if your an economic or political wiz, you still need to get people to listen to you, and book knowledge is very different than implementing in the real world with people who share next to none of your basic knowledge or assumptions.
I figure that most of the people who fall into an isekai would starve or freeze to death. Can you light a fire without matches or a lighter? Can you skin a rabbit? Care for a horse? Do you know how to cook something that doesn't come out of a box without a microwave?

 

[RecursiveDescent]

You are confusing 'memorized in school to pass a test/class' with actual understanding and being able to apply it.
Compounded with isekai when most modern skills are going to be useless. I can drive a car mean fuckall when the best personal mode of transport is a horse drawn carriage. Even if your an economic or political wiz, you still need to get people to listen to you, and book knowledge is very different than implementing in the real world with people who share next to none of your basic knowledge or assumptions.
I figure that most of the people who fall into an isekai would starve or freeze to death. Can you light a fire without matches or a lighter? Can you skin a rabbit? Care for a horse? Do you know how to cook something that doesn't come out of a box without a microwave?

my next isekai mc is cursed as hell so I'm going to note all that down to make them suffer even more

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Why don't more isekai protagonists bring their traumas with them to their new worlds?

I bring ALL the trauma.

I figure that most of the people who fall into an isekai would starve or freeze to death. Can you light a fire without matches or a lighter?

Yes.

Can you skin a rabbit?

Yes. Not that I would. It's a lean meat and in the long run costs more calories then you get out it. I'd make it into seasoning.

Care for a horse?

I could kill and eat it. That's all I care for when it comes to horses.

Do you know how to cook something that doesn't come out of a box without a microwave?

Dude, I could cook YOU. Damn straight I can burn meat on a stick.

 

[T.K._Paradox]

I bring ALL the trauma.

 

[melchi]

I mean, what if the guy was an mechanical engineer? Or a herbalist? Or something else. I mean, that's what I do for my isekai. Some like to bring that knowledge out of nowhere, like that time I got reincarnated as a slime, but you know they are out there.

Well, one I know is Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story, which is a good one. She is an office worker, and because of that, she can manage funds to get a better standing. So, they are out there, just the magical ones tend also to drown them I guess.

Metaworld chronicles is like that as well. The MC was an economist before and she redoes how a port works and gets rich using modern import export techniques.

 

[Gray_Mann]

I really don't want to play the devil's advocate since I agree that there are way too many pointless isekai, but your opinion about people is way too high. Basics of economics? Hobbies? Critical thinking? Be willing to learn reading and writing? You ask for way too much.

You beat me to it. I was headed to type this, though you were more elegant about it then I likely would have been.

Metaworld chronicles is like that as well. The MC was an economist before and she redoes how a port works and gets rich using modern import export techniques.

That's very interesting.