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Self-Insert Fic: Difference between revisions
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* Interestingly deconstructed, averted, and played ''straight'' in ''[[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.
* In the ''[[Bleach]]'' fanfic [
* [[Jared Ornstead|Jared "Skysaber" Ornstead]] is known for his deliberately over-the-top self-insert character Skysaber, an interdimensional superspy-troubleshooter who was actually apotheosized into a literal god during the course of ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20080512012417/http://www.asynjor.com/fanfic/sharp.html The Bet]''.▼
** His current (August 2007) project is a "type two" Self Insert called ''My Gilded Life'', in which he has found himself taking over the life of Gilderoy Lockhart right at the end of ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Philosopher's Stone''; with his knowledge of the books he is deliberately and relentlessly running roughshod over canon. Sadly, he seems to be losing control of the story, and it's running off the rails.▼
* The [[Eyrie Productions, Unlimited|authors]] of ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' started the project in the early 1990s as a self-insert fic for themselves and many of their friends, but as time has gone on, the focus has moved mostly off their avatars and onto other, newer characters.▼
** Many other [[EPU]] projects also involve self-insert avatars, making it one of their signature details. However, even though their series ''[http://www.eyrie-productions.com/NXE/ Neon Exodus Evangelion]'' ''didn't'' include either of the two primary writers as insert characters, critics still accused the story's lead of being one or the other ''in disguise''. (Arguably this protagonist, DJ Croft, ''is'' a [[Marty Stu]]. But he's not an avatar.)▼
** ''NXE'' manages to [[Inverted Trope|invert]] the [[Author Avatar]] trope with John Trussell. He was inserted in the story ''before'' he became one of the authors.▼
* 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.bladeandepsilon.com/hybridtheory.htm Hybrid Theory]'' by Blade and Epsilon [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] and satirizes the self-insert phenomenon while at the same time subverting the [[Mega Crossover]].
* [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).
* Possibly the most infamous example of the godlike insert is Darren "Twister" Steffler and his incomplete mid-1990s megaseries ''[http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Twisted-Path/ Twisted 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|Shout Outs]] to ''Twisted Path'' or blatantly set themselves in the [http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/images/crossovers.jpg same multiverse].▼
* One such story was Bert Van Vliet's ''[http://www.bgcrisis.com/zone/index.html The Bubblegum Zone]'', a ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' self-insert which later had an explicit crossover with ''Twisted Path'' in the latter series' fourth installment.▼
* Another is Ed Becerra's ''[http://www.fanfic.net/pub/Anime/FanFictions/Miscellaneous/Legions-Quest/ Legion's Quest],'' which carefully and skillfully walks the complicated line between playing a godlike Self Insert straight, parodying it, and subverting it. It, too, crosses over explicitly with ''Twisted Path'', in its own ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' segment.▼
* Possibly the most notorious self-inserter of all was the one known only as "Oscar"; his [[Author Avatar]] was a 13-year-old ''[[Dragonball Z|Super Saiyan]]'' hermaphrodite (no, that is ''not'' a joke) who engaged in a sexual affair with Artemis from ''[[Sailor Moon]]''... in his ''cat'' form. (Again, that is ''not'' a joke, as much as one might wish it so.) In later stories, Oscar became "involved" with Felicia from ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' and [[Looney Tunes|Lola Bunny]]. To top it all off, the real Oscar then mysteriously disappeared, and is now presumed dead. [http://www.nabiki.com/mst/megane67/mst/oscarfic/ A link to an] [[MST]] [http://www.nabiki.com/mst/megane67/mst/oscarfic/ series of some of his work]; linking to the actual ''stories'' would be [[NSFW]].
* Dr. X of ''[http://www.suburbansenshi.com Suburban Senshi]'' is a surprisingly well-done self-insert, even with his gobs of power that mix and match multiple canons. It's all in the writing (and the fun social commentary, upon which the series could stand alone).
* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/741167/1/Not_A_Dirty_Word Not A Dirty Word]'' by Michael Fetter is a rather... twisted, if witty parody of the usual Type 2 self-insert, in which the male author finds himself stuck in the body of Kasumi Tendo of ''[[Ranma ½
** Speaking of ''Ranma ½'', ''Ranma'' fanfiction written in the mid-90's commonly featured Self-Insert Fic, but with amusing twists due to authors trying to avoid the pitfalls of this trope. The most common twist was usually the author being deposited in the fic wholesale, with no changes from their real self, and the story characters teaming up to reap gallons of pain on the author for the things they've "put them through".
* [http://www.heavens-feel.com/elmer/evad1.txt Tom. Fucking. Dyron.] is one of the more audacious, unbelievable examples readily available. His 13-chapter fic, ''Evangelion 2: The DELTA Invasion'' ('''EVANGELION 2'''!), is the most ridiculous mess ever seen. Tom, the character, is... look, just read it. MSTed in the link above, ''do not'' attempt to read it raw.
* [[David Gonterman]]'s <s>fanfics</s> ''everything'' feature Gonterman himself (or an obvious [[Author Avatar]]) as the story's ''real'' hero. In the rare cases he isn't, it's because he made an obvious dream heroine, whose boyfriend will be suspiciously similar to him.
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* Hundreds, possibly ''thousands'' of these came up over the years in the ''[[Bob and George]]'' forums among the fan authors. It would be impossible to list them all. Needless to say, some were good, some were bad, and some were just plain ugly.
* ''[http://www.yggdrasil.org/omg/index.html Oh! My Brother].'' An example of the good kind of self-insert fic. Christopher Angel manages to create a very readable and enjoyable series.
* The Multi-universal crossover ''[[Sleeping with the Girls]],'' deconstructs the idea of a self-insert ''heavily.'' The idea is that every time the nameless self-insert falls asleep, he is teleported to the bed of one of eight girls from anime. The problems quickly build up, as a) most of these girls are [[Tsundere]] types, and do ''not'' react kindly to him. b) "comical" attacks like a [[Megaton Punch]] ''will'' kill the Self Insert and subject him to the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]]. c) Because he has to wake up as quickly as possible to avoid the aforementioned consequences of death at the hands of crazy girls, by the end of the first volume, he has gone almost a week without sleep, is badly injured from a vast collection of wounds accumulated from a variety of sources, and the healing nanobots he picked up in his first world nearly boil him alive in his own sweat. d) because of his actions, he has ''severely'' damaged the timeline of several worlds, possibly dooming them.▼
=== Film ===
* <s>
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* 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.
* 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.
* Many early ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfictions feature an 'American exchange student' (in a British school), who happens to have a main character fall in love with them and be friends with everyone (even the Slytherins). No reason is ever given behind the exchange, nor do any Hogwarts students ever go over to America
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** Almost as common is a girl showing up as Matt and Jeff Hardy's long-lost sister. This will not necessarily stop her from sleeping with one or both of them.
* Parodied extensively in the British comedy show ''[[Garth Marenghi's Darkplace]]''. The show is based on the premise that Garth Marenghi wrote and starred in a 80s low-budget hospital-based horror show. Many jokes are based on the idea that Garth Marenghi not only wrote the series, but also plays the central role in the show. As such, his own character—Doctor Rick Dagless, M.D. -- exhibits outrageously unrealistic traits.
* Lampshaded and spoofed in [http://web.archive.org/web/20030711193142/members.aol.com/tjats/204.html this episode of'' Science Fiction Theater 1,000,000,000''] (a fan fiction series based on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'') where the [[Author Avatar]] tries to play the role straight, but after probing by Crow and Servo, he then turns into a typical [[Marty Stu]], even changing the series into Freedom Fighter Theater 3000 for a time.
{{quote|'''MAGIC VOICE:''' Warning! Unauthorized use of self insertion!
'''JIM:''' Cram it, you talking tin can!
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* 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 (TV)|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.
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=== Crossover/Multiple ===
* <s>[[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]]</s> [[Atop the Fourth Wall|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]]s 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.
▲* [[Jared Ornstead|Jared "Skysaber" Ornstead]] is known for his deliberately over-the-top self-insert character Skysaber, an interdimensional superspy-troubleshooter who was actually apotheosized into a literal god during the course of ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20080512012417/http://www.asynjor.com/fanfic/sharp.html The Bet]''.
▲** His current (August 2007) project is a "type two" Self Insert called ''My Gilded Life'', in which he has found himself taking over the life of Gilderoy Lockhart right at the end of ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Philosopher's Stone''; with his knowledge of the books he is deliberately and relentlessly running roughshod over canon. Sadly, he seems to be losing control of the story, and it's running off the rails.
▲* The [[Eyrie Productions, Unlimited|authors]] of ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' started the project in the early 1990s as a self-insert fic for themselves and many of their friends, but as time has gone on, the focus has moved mostly off their avatars and onto other, newer characters.
▲** Many other [[EPU]] projects also involve self-insert avatars, making it one of their signature details. However, even though their series ''[http://www.eyrie-productions.com/NXE/ Neon Exodus Evangelion]'' ''didn't'' include either of the two primary writers as insert characters, critics still accused the story's lead of being one or the other ''in disguise''. (Arguably this protagonist, DJ Croft, ''is'' a [[Marty Stu]]. But he's not an avatar.)
▲** ''NXE'' manages to [[Inverted Trope|invert]] the [[Author Avatar]] trope with John Trussell. He was inserted in the story ''before'' he became one of the authors.
▲* The Multi-universal crossover ''[[Sleeping with the Girls]],'' deconstructs the idea of a self-insert ''heavily.'' The idea is that every time the nameless self-insert falls asleep, he is teleported to the bed of one of eight girls from anime. The problems quickly build up, as a) most of these girls are [[Tsundere]] types, and do ''not'' react kindly to him. b) "comical" attacks like a [[Megaton Punch]] ''will'' kill the Self Insert and subject him to the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]]. c) Because he has to wake up as quickly as possible to avoid the aforementioned consequences of death at the hands of crazy girls, by the end of the first volume, he has gone almost a week without sleep, is badly injured from a vast collection of wounds accumulated from a variety of sources, and the healing nanobots he picked up in his first world nearly boil him alive in his own sweat. d) because of his actions, he has ''severely'' damaged the timeline of several worlds, possibly dooming them.
▲* Possibly the most infamous example of the godlike insert is Darren "Twister" Steffler and his incomplete mid-1990s megaseries ''[http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Twisted-Path/ Twisted 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
▲* One such story was Bert Van Vliet's ''[http://www.bgcrisis.com/zone/index.html The Bubblegum Zone]'', a ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' self-insert which later had an explicit crossover with ''Twisted Path'' in the latter series' fourth installment.
▲* Another is Ed Becerra's ''[http://www.fanfic.net/pub/Anime/FanFictions/Miscellaneous/Legions-Quest/ Legion's Quest],'' which carefully and skillfully walks the complicated line between playing a godlike Self Insert straight, parodying it, and subverting it. It, too, crosses over explicitly with ''Twisted Path'', in its own ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' segment.
== Canon Examples ==
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