[ SECRET POST #3773 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3773 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02. [repeat]


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03.
[Notorious, Megan and Julia]


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04.
[David Tennant in Broadchurch]


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05.
[Paul Hollywood and Noel Fielding, Great British Bake Off]


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06.
[The Americans]


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07.


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08.


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09.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 22 secrets from Secret Submission Post #540.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

07. http://i.imgur.com/AkIzCZF.png

[(Anonymous)]

I can see what you're driving at, and I definitely don't hate them in principle, but the reality is that basically every Char/Reader fic I've seen has been really bad, and they're also very common and widespread, especially in large fandoms. So it's just annoying in that regard.

[(Anonymous)]

It's a long-established fact that writing erotic self-insert fanfic puts you on the second-lowest rung of the fandom hierarchy.

[(Anonymous)]

The fandom hierarchy is a dumb ide

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much this.

[(Anonymous)]

Now I gotta know what the lowest rung is. I always thought the erotic self-insert stuff WAS the lowest rung.

[(Anonymous)]

But why, nonnie? Why? What is so foul? And is it worse than an OC that's clearly a self insert? (Genuine questions)

[(Anonymous)]

If they were kept in their own little separate area, I would not be bothered by them. When I read FANFIC I want to read about the characters. Not an OC, not a 'Reader' fic, etc. And they are so annoying to try and filter out (especially on mobile).

Also, every one that I have accidentally read has been written terribly.

[(Anonymous)]

This is also v true. They wouldn't be nearly as annoying if they had one standard form of tagging, but they don't.

[(Anonymous)]

Fucking this. I want to read about the characters and how people would interpret them as they get into certain situations with each other. I don't want to read stuff that's just meant to be the author's private wank material.

[(Anonymous)]

true story: I was scrolling to this secret and my partner, glancing over my shoulder, only saw your AO3 tags on top and immediately said "UGH characterxreader fanfic is so dumb, I hate it so much." before I even read the text. So it's not just F!S, man, it's fandom-wide.

there's lots of slightly more logical yet no less petty reasons for it. most of them are written in second person and I fucking hate second person more than almost anything in a piece of prose. my partner's reason is that they're the laziest form of Mary Sue fic - you can't even be arsed to make up a Mary Sue to self-insert, so you literally self-insert. add that to the overwhelming likelihood that it's going to be poorly-written anyway and...you get the gist.

[(Anonymous)]

I have never seen a well-written one in my life.

And as other anons said, they're so difficult to filter away.

[(Anonymous)]

They're cheesy as hell, but Dean Ambrose/ Reader fanfic kept me sane while I was watching my grandmother slowly die, so I'll never say a word against them. For those who don't approve, it's not like it takes major effort to *not* read reader insert fic.

Never has "don't like, don't read" been more appropriate.

[(Anonymous)]

I've never read one I can relate to, as I'm male and not into bottoming

[(Anonymous)]

They don't make me angry or anything because, personally, I don't see them much when I search by my favorite pairing tags, so I guess I find them easy to avoid.

However, reader/character is someone's sex fantasy in a way that's more explicitly so than smut between canon characters or with a named OC. It's kind of a turn off for me to not be able to ignore that. On top of that, character/reader is a style that invites me, the reader, to participate in the sex fantasy. Of course, unless I leave a comment, it's not like the author has any idea who I am or whether I read the fic, so I'm not really interacting with the author, but it's still just kinda weird.

[(Anonymous)]

The wish fulfillment/fantasy part of character/reader fics isn't the part bothers me. I wrote stories about myself with characters I crushed on when I was younger, after all, so this is no different and a bit of harmless fantasy is no biggie.

For me, it's more just mainly the fact that, from the couple fics of that sort I have looked at, the reader description will either have to be so vague because they're trying to make it where anyone can insert themselves, which kind of detracts from the story, I think, or they've got just enough specific details for the reader character to where I wonder why the author doesn't just turn them into a proper OC*. And then the (Y/N) aspect throws me out of the story, too. It's just jarring.

*(But then, of course, if the author did that, they'd get flak from people who don't like canon character/OC stories, too, so... Can't win either way, it seems.)

And on a general level, I think one reason those kinds of stories bother some people so much is because the canon already has so many characters one can use to write about/ship a character with/whatever, and they might be rather frustrated that some fans are ignoring exploring those characters and possible dynamics (platonic and non-platonic) in favor of some vague reader-insert.

That said, however, even though those kinds of fics aren't my thing in general, I'm not going to get bent out of shape if people write them. I just simply scroll past them and move on. And since AO3 has a way to filter out the types of stories you (general "you") don't like, then people who really can't stand those kinds of fics can just use that. Should solve the problem, I'd think.

And if anyone does have any examples of good character/reader fics, feel free to share them :). Always good to be reminded that any type of fic can work in the right hands.

I guess some people are ardently against them.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't harbor any particular hatred for them and I don't think they're tasteless, but I guess I, personally, do find them somewhat pointless. That just means that they're not for me. If other people enjoy them, that's cool. I can just scroll past or exclude them from my search.

A little distance makes fiction better

[(Anonymous)]

There is a reason that fiction works better with one step of divide, a fourth wall between the writer and the reader. And that reason is it allows room for the reader to engage in their own imagination as part of partaking in the story. If you get too close, you see the gaudy costumes and pancake makeup and you lose the magic pretty fast. That's why a lot of people find inserts pretty "cheesy" or squicky or uncomfortable. They're sitting right up there in the orchestra pit looking up the dress of the performers instead of ten rows back where they can suspend their disbelief a little.

So it's not just that most insert fic is bad. It doesn't really stand a chance. There's not a lot of magic to be had when you've lost the best crutch.

F!S be like

[(Anonymous)]

"Every kink no matter how disturbing/disgusting should be supported because it's IMPORTANT. Also, anything as CHILDISH as Character/Reader should be shamelessly MOCKED."

So yeah, I agree with this secret. Character/Reader stories are generally (in my view) a bit immature or childish. I'm not personally interested. But I think worse of the people who mock them mercilessly. Just avoid them, for pity's sake. And yes, even if they're annoying...they're not killing your puppies. Which you would probably fap too anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not gonna try to tell people what to like and I think it's 100% okay to have guilty pleasures, but personally I cannot get over the way they are written. I've seen stuff that just has [your name] or has to be really vague and there is zero character depth.

I personally prefer stuff that has character descriptions and development rather than a place holder.

[(Anonymous)]

I find them extremely embarrassing, but there are way more fandom trends that annoy me way more. At least I can usually edit my AO3 search to exclude them. The same usually can't be said of crossovers, issuefic, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

I try not to judge others for liking reader insert fics, but to me they could not be more anathema to me.

Inserting myself into the story? Oh fuck, NO. I'm here because I love the characters, and their story, and their relationship with each other. For me, imagining myself involved in their story in any way feels really intrusive and disruptive and off-putting. Even the thought of sitting down beside one of the characters on the bus and having a casual conversation with them for a few minutes gives me a strong "wongwrongwrong" feeling. I am not part of their world, and I don't belong in their world, and it feels disruptive and weird to even try to imagine myself there.

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanna know why they are so damn abundant? It seems like a thing not many people could get into, yet I see all sorts of scenario blogs where ppl describe themselves and then get headcanons generated for them x fictional character.

[(Anonymous)]

I hate them because they're so widespread in my fandom on tumblr under the guise of "companions react"-type prompt's and they're oh so very obviously written with het in mind. It also doesn't help that they will clog up the m/m or f/f tags by trying to be gender neutral but is again, clearly written with m/f in mind.

Also most writers lack the finess to pull off second person.

[(Anonymous)]

I got nothing to say about the content because I don't read them. I'm just baffled why these fics are appearing in a medium where the readers can't actually input their own names (or whoever they want) so that they don't have to be seeing "Y/N" all the time?