So About Self Inserts

This comment section, snd rhe video is kinda bleeding some rhetoric that makes me uncomfortable. I agree that I didn't love the Velma show as much as the next guy. But saying self inserts are only damaging to the film or for the product of a show seems disingenuous and reductive to the point of WHY self inserts are a thing.

Maybe we should ban self inserts for stuff thats supposed to be professional

as a hopeful writer myself, i think i much more frequently go for the "author avatar" than the "self-insert" (i'd hope, when it gets to that, my in-story avatars don't come off TOO MUCH like myself and are more their own thing but occasionally "Hey, listen, here's what the author thinks about this topic roughly explained over a paragraph or two. Now back to the real story" instead of being pages-long diatribes). i think the only story idea i've come up with that directly relies on a self-insert instead is one where my equivalent character is basically isekai'd into the Batman mythos (or using a direct, obvious equivalent to it instead) and uses his expansive but not encyclopedic knowledge of it as a fictional franchise to try and get Batman to help him return to his own world with it explicitly NOT being that he ever takes on his own superhero/sidekick mantle since i'm absolutely certain that i as a real person as i currently am would never be able to physically handle that.

Why do they feel the need to make their self insert characters ugly, annoying, vain and greedy scum?

Well,a "Self Insert" character is something of your own Avatar and not a Character who already exists,which are independent. So when the author Self inserts into an Independent character or MC, it doesn't work at all. But when it's a self insert character it's different

Also, you got a Nice cute looking self insert Avatar yourself 😅☺️

Reminds me of loads of anime, especially harem. Mangakas are usually stressed the fuck out since you know, they draw for a living (with a salary around of a minimum wage worker if not popular or even less) and so they actually add themsleves into their own stories, hence why there are SO MUCH HAREM STORIES, almost every genre I can think of, there's harem. Don't get me wrong, there are actually good self inserts like Kaiju No.8 but the tendency to fall into your own fantasy rather than making a fiction/fantasy with good plot is most likely wont happen.

Ok
Personally, Im just glad Ive never seen Velma. Ever. Not a single episode.

self inserts can work if it's not a 40 year old ugly man-hating woman who's absolutely miserable and puts themself in place of an established character absolutely ruining them because as mentioned before they are a miserable person

the most self-insert-esque character i've ever made is Jackie Jones, who is essentially supposed to be casey jone's sister in the 2012 tmnt generation
why?
because its one of my favorite generations, and i heavily relate to casey. as shitty as the writing was, they did nail the dynamic of teens simply being teens. so did rise and mutant mayhem recently, but idk. 2012 just feels like the gen i'd act the most natural in lol

If you're gonna put a self-insert into an existing IP, do it properly and write a fanfic full of grammatical errors and dialog tags that make no sense. (Cough cough My Immortal cough)

So I created a self-insert of myself in my games that I'm working on let me know if this is too far but I made them a disease that causes characters to act like me whether or not they look like me so they'd monologue to themselves in an empty broken room while twirling a knife trying to break the fourth wall but failing because they simply just act like and think they're me as well as cutting everything people props places with a knife they carve the initials saw which is my explanation for my watermark their purpose gamewise however is to get people on the wrong track since they carve my initials into everything and believes that they've done all these gruesome acts of crime he basically gets the detective you play as on the wrong path and gets them away from the actual killer but also he's the hint because of the fact he monologues about things going on in the story

Who is this woman who speaks such truth?

I think that not enough people played The Wonderful 101 .
Because it could heal all ails and deliver us from all evil.

Self Insert is good for gags (see stan lee showing up in marvel comics). Even in my own WIP novel I have a self insert character as just a reoccurring character with little to no plot relevance

Seems like Mindy might be racist to white people

Velma pisses me off so much. I cannot stand Mindy, she’s the same problem with this industry. same shit is happening with video games too.

Felt so bad for the animators that had to do this. I very much agree that they took Scooby Doo and made it a “skin” Velma could be so much more if they stuck with the material. Velma had a sprinkle of sass, not a completely insufferable personality. Its been out for decades and were their own stereotypes. And they absolutely shot themselves in the foot making fun of the originals in a very mean way.

"way to go squidward"
oop nevermind the other kind of self-insert

Yep. Hirch make a show to make dreams come true. Pseudo-Velma showrunners make a show to mock people who they don't like. Maybe a dream too. But the difference is BIG.

i am trying to make a videogame and i do have my own “self insert” of sorts, but it was originally just a silly persona that kind of grew into a spot i didn’t originally expect it to fill, and the persona part is not actually going to be seen in the story very much because it’s supposed to be a very mysterious sort of character whose entire lore is never going to be explained.

What many dont understand is that self-inserts must be at least aware of their existing flaws and, if necessary, have character arcs to fix them. Quintel wrote Mordecai as a flawed slacker that gets his lumps whenever he tries to ditch work, lie about himself or do some other stupid deed. And he usually learns from it. Mabel and Dipper both have solid character arcs as well. Having a self-insert that is basically "flawless" in the story makes it suck.

Ngl, I feel like self inserts can work for a character
Just the person who's inserting themselves in are just lack luster

I think a great example of a good self insert is Jennifer Tilly playing herself in the Child's Play franchise. She's always so willing to use self-depricating humor and play sort of a caricature of herself and imo it's funny every time.

You realize in the show they constantly say how Velma is not only wrong but being totally unlikeable as well

As an Indian guy who grew up with the classic Scooby Doo series on cartoon network in the late 90s early 2000s, I've always loved and related to Velma and her nerd trope.
Last thing I wanted to see was her to get race swapped by an American claiming to be Indian. There's nothing Indian about this version. Heck if anything, the personality of the OG Velma is much much closer to girls I've known in real life.
I think I can confidently say she doesn't represent any of us out here in India. 😂

Alan Becker being the final boss of self inserts

She became a bitchy version on Meg from family guy. Just some dumb idiot cosplaying Velma.

Hot take but I haye modern Velma because of the fact rhat shes not even the same Velma. Might as well call her a different name when nothing matches to the original.

This show is just an edgy Amino fan fiction

(YOU KNOW WHAT APP IM TALKING ABOUT)

forgot about starfires queer emo fat daughter

is mariko tamaki even actually japanese, cus it doesn’t look like it

As you pointed out in the video, shows like Gravity Falls and Regular Show were successful and still have a wide fan base, with people often talking about their favorite moments, while their authors admit that the stories are based on their personal experience. So, I'd say they prove that there is a good way to write "self insert stories.
I think part of the point is that, when I watch Gravity Falls, I see Dipper and Mabel. When I watched some episodes of Velma, I did not see Velma in the character (whereas, even in other adaptations of Scooby-Doo, we could see Velma in character, even if they changed a few things about her)

Mindy is just an unlikeable unfunny person who thinks she's SO interesting she feels the need to make multiple shows all about herself.

Self inserts can work I have seen it done you brought up a good example with gravity falls you just have to be self aware enough to not make you self insert a could do no wrong perfect being “Mary sue” type character and don’t make the narrative and supporting character bend over backwards to make your self insert seem better

Bart Simpson is technically a self insert too lmao

It’s not a show, it’s a high budget twitter post.

If I would write a self-insert character into an already existing franchise then I wouldn't make the character be a person that's an ass and has everyone loving them and getting away with their actions without consequences. I also wouldn't make them be the center of attention 24/7 cause I hate stories that have an MC and the story only focusses on them and you never get to see the other side characters have their chance to express themselves as a character so that viewers and/or readers can connect with them the same way they connect with the MC. I don't think all self-inserts are bad whether they're in their own story created by the creator or made in an already existing piece of media, but what I think makes a bad self-insert is if they have no purpose to the story, they're loved by all no matter what, and they outshine everyone in every situation and scenario.

Self inserts work only if they have the author's flaws as well as their positives and if those flaws were written in intentionally and not in a clueless "not realizing this is bad" kind of way, dipper has the same flaws as alex because he intentionally wrote them in while being self aware enough to understand them, mordekai is immature just like his creator was in highschool, meanwhile velma has tons of flaws but her "creator" doesn't see them and thinks she's perfect

Self insert isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that Mindy khaling is an intolerable bitch

How did this get a second season?

For me in my story, I have my oc with different characters as part of the crew. I don’t try to push anything that steps out of bounds for the readers, it’s just him hanging with crew while fighting in space. Just simple story writing that doesn’t try to be cringe like Velma, which I try very hard not to end up like that.

Btw, I’m so glad that show is now cancelled. Let’s just pray to god that no one ever tries to bring it back or do something similar.

The best part is that the people who do these self inserts are already massively disliked as people

Mindy Kaling's only claim to fame is her being a meh-side character on The Office nobody really cared about.

Also, speaking of self inserts, remember Turning Red? Ya know, that movie that was as autobiographical as it was terrible to the point critics had to come up with whole new ways to say that its characters are all heinously unlikeable pieces of ish because Domee Shi literally copy-pasted in herself, her friends and family...

I think self insert characters are vital to literature & entertainment. So many young people write their first stories about themselves. Sometimes it’s a huge success like the book Eragon or a flop like “I am not Starfire”

Elminster and Hermione Granger are good examples. They help guide the main character in the right direction.

A good example of a self insert imo is the manhwa “Omniscient Readers Viewpoint” I definitely recommend it

Self-insrts work when you don't know it's one