ohhhh it's so lovely to see another vocal selfshipper x canon person around <3
you have a lot of incredible thoughts in this post that i won't be able to touch on (falling asleep here, long day) but i was nodding the whole way through, having seen that sort of subtle shift as far as self inserting goes. it's interesting too - because there's a giant chunk of, uhhh, kindlerotica romance genre that is written in this POV precisely for the immerseiveness, and it's both a little gratifying to see it being so popular there, but slightly aggravating when it's been so maligned in fandom circles for so long. the resurgence in DnD popularity feels like it could have strands of this as well, since there's an overlap of like ... being immersively involved in a larger story, whether it be actively acting there, or in the reader fic that you mentioned, going with what the author is acting out/dictating, but willingly so.
"But in x reader fic, there is a sort of collective consciousness you get to share with the Reader and all the other readers and it's almost spiritual. The connection doesn't really exist but in that moment you can have the faith that you are admiring a paradise of collective creation." this is a beautiful line, just so you know. personally have some woo feelings wrapped around the idea of a... artistic muse in this sense, fictional characters as a muse to be precisely, and this is eerily on point there. thank you. <3
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you have a lot of incredible thoughts in this post that i won't be able to touch on (falling asleep here, long day) but i was nodding the whole way through, having seen that sort of subtle shift as far as self inserting goes. it's interesting too - because there's a giant chunk of, uhhh, kindlerotica romance genre that is written in this POV precisely for the immerseiveness, and it's both a little gratifying to see it being so popular there, but slightly aggravating when it's been so maligned in fandom circles for so long. the resurgence in DnD popularity feels like it could have strands of this as well, since there's an overlap of like ... being immersively involved in a larger story, whether it be actively acting there, or in the reader fic that you mentioned, going with what the author is acting out/dictating, but willingly so.
"But in x reader fic, there is a sort of collective consciousness you get to share with the Reader and all the other readers and it's almost spiritual. The connection doesn't really exist but in that moment you can have the faith that you are admiring a paradise of collective creation." this is a beautiful line, just so you know. personally have some woo feelings wrapped around the idea of a... artistic muse in this sense, fictional characters as a muse to be precisely, and this is eerily on point there. thank you. <3