Displaced stories... why? · 8:38pm Jun 23rd, 2015
Howdy folks, I know it's been awhile. Not much writing going on over here, just haven't been much inspired to do anything, to be perfectly honest. But, I'm not here to talk to you about my complete lack of writing, instead I want to bring up something that has been bugging me for some months now... the Displaced stories. Now, during my time on fimfiction, I've seen fads come and go, from the terrible and somewhat disturbing Ponyfall collaborations, to the Five Score Divided By Four fad that got so bad a clause was added to the submissions guidelines to address them, and leading up into the Displaced stories, the terrible League of Humans Acting as Villains. Almost all of the above were simply used as vehicles to indulge (and in some cases, over indulge) in the phenomena of inserting one's self into a story, for the most part. Almost all of them were poorly written (There are some here and there that are rather well written, yes, I will openly admit that) with issues ranging from pacing, to formatting, to grammar, to just plain being bad.
So, insert the newest fad iteration. the Displaced stories... In which some mysterious merchant (ooooh~ So mysterious... *eye roll*) gives some unsuspecting comic con attendee some sort of bauble or token, and they magically find themselves as a character from a TV Series/Movie/Book/Cartoon Show. And then, eventually, find themselves in Equestria. I say eventually, because most Displaced stories tend to forget that they are posting their stories on fimfiction.net, and their few thousand words completely devoid of any reference to MLP are perfectly fine to be submitted.
So, what we have going on here now is where I begin to take issue with things. Rather than reading about Crash Bandicoot* in Equestria, we are instead reading about some random human using Crash Bandicoot as a meatsack while in Equestria, retaining all of the powers and yet none of the memories or personality. (I am avoiding singling out any one story, so this is an example that I believe has yet to be sullied by the Displaced genre) As such, what at first glace appears to be a crossover with a character or universe we might thoroughly enjoy ends up being nothing more than a bitter disappointment as the character proves to be nothing like them, due to the fact that they only look like our favorite character(s) rather than actually being them.
Now, the above leads into the cries of self-insert, and all of the joys that come with it. Let's face it, self-insert in a fandom is generally a rather dirty word used in a derogatory manner. Yes, a lot of them don't do much to help this image as the 7th element swoops in and saves the day and gets all the mares, but moving on along... in the Displaced grouping, oftentimes the human who ends up in Equestria as Character X is indeed a self insert of the writer to some degree. I'm fine with people writing self-inserts, and I'm typically the last person you'd find discouraging people to not write, but the Displaced genre blurs the line and tries to combine crossover with self-insert. I don't understand who thought this was a good idea. After all, you are killing the very essence of what makes that character them. If you wanted to self insert and have superhuman powers that one might find as a dragon, then why not end up in Equestria as a dragon of your own creation? The show has even helped you out here, in that there is very little set in stone, so you could use your imagination for a near limitless amount of possibilities.
But, no. The people instead have all of Character X's abilities 'just because of this merchant fellow' and are in Equestria. Truthfully, why are you even writing your story in Equestria? Wouldn't it make more sense to go to some other site and make your Character X in its own universe? Why are you trying to paint ponies as the surface coating so you can write about how cool and awesome you are, and how much you save the day. Or, perhaps you have the throwback to the LoHaaV nonsense, and instead you want to show everyone how awesome you are at terrorizing the populace and subjugating them instead! Either way, I'm sorry, but your shit stinks. Even the more well written stories tend to fall short, if only because they try and read as a crossover-that-isn't-really-a-crossover-but-is-instead-a-self-insert.
Now, with all of that said, I'll go ahead and wrap things up by saying that yes, I wish Displaced stories would vanish off the face of the earth. I don't want those writers to simply stop writing, but I'd rather them use other avenues. Make proper crossovers, retain the character you are using as a meatsuit and have their personality be intact as well! Or, take your human self insert, and give them powers in other ways and make them unique, rather than stealing from another universe and butchering our beloved characters. Show some originality! Yes, I know it's a tad silly to use, originality when discussing fanfiction, but you still have a lot of room to work with. Try to make your own wagon, rather than jump on the one that is overloaded, disorganized, and reeks of stale beer.
That is all.
My wagon has spinners. What now?!
Igotta agree I have no idea where these displaced even come from. And in some caasses you dont evenknow it is dispaced untill like 10 chapters in. I swore I wouldn read displaced fics and i sgand by that. There is only like 3 that are even sotth reading... on a side note my grammar sucks right now brcause i am phone typing. sorry.t
Personally —and for disclaimer purposes I'm writing two such stories even if I got started when they were still called the LoHAV verse, I think that the main character not being the [Insert Name Here] is, or at least should, be the point.
Exactly because this dude or dudette hasn't earned these powers and abilities. How would Joe or janne Avarage react to suddenly having all the powers of, say, The Nameless One? Or Corvo Altano?
If you're a fan of one of those characters, it can be a fascinating little 'What if?' regarding what if somebody with the exact same powers had been a different person.
To be blunt, I don't think there's a coincidence that the ones that actually make it in ratings and such have either powers with clear if not outright horrific drawbacks, actually likable protagonist trying to do the best with horrible PR, or outright both.
Of course, I won't deny that the setup is almost industrial grade flypaper for self-inserts. It is. And with the stories where the person simply ceases to be or is clearly the author in a... well, costume, it's one of the most boring set-ups ever.
Just saying that when the setup does work, it's an interesting twist on HiE stories.
There has been exactly one displaced idea that struck my fancy, and it was actually my own twist on someone else requesting advice to make their idea work.
The base idea was that several people got displaced to Equestria as several Jedi/Sith, became overcome by the memories/personalities of those personages, and then took the Jedi/Sith fight around Equestria. The idea sounded stupid to me. If the human characters were going to be wiped out in favor of their new Jedi/Sith personalities, then why would you even bother making them ordinary humans in the first place other than to ride the bandwagon? You wouldn't.
My twist was that the human and new personalities vie for dominance with varying results. This gives you a number of outcomes: Some humans will retain themselves whether infused with Jedi or Sith, some will reach an accord with their changes to create amalgam characters, and some would succumb and eventually be subsumed by the new personality. This, to me, seems even more interesting because you could have ponies helping a "Sith" to retain his/her former human nature in spite of the new dark urgings trying to impress themselves upon them, while at the same time having a character going off the deep end and giving into the power rush being a "Jedi."
Though even that idea still leaves no good answer to the question "why pony-land?"
As best as I can discern, someone made a self-insert, called it a 'displaced' story, and then it caught on as the new way to do Self-inserts that have incredible powers.
What I find most amusing about the whole displaced thing is that for me, it's not even that new. It's actually very, very old. (Well, very old by internet standards.)
When I got started in writing on the internet at the end of the 90s, beginning of 2000, it was on the Transformation Story Archive. It was a mailing list for authors with a website on the side hosting some of the better stories that got posted there. While it was active there were a number of one-offs, of course, but also a number of Shared Universe stories -- basically, what we called authors making their own stories based off someone else's original idea. It's the same thing as the Displaced, Five Score, FoE, etc story settings here.
One such Universe was called Spells R Us. Instead of the Merchant and a con, those stories typically featured a small shop located in the mall and run by an old man who more often than not wears what looks like a bathrobe. Unsuspecting character purchases cursed item, and is transformed in some manner, various consequences are had, the end. Pretty much the same thing here.
Another is the Human Extinction Agency which operated on the same principle as Conversion Bureau stories; aliens come to earth and forcibly convert "violent" humanity into fuzzy, harmless wildlife. Here we do it with ponies, but the whole underlying structure is the same.
There might be others, as the TSA had a number of universes when it was more active in the late 90s, as you can tell by the above links. Still, what I'm getting at is that those were phenomena that I had seen many years before and personally couldn't help being very amused by when I came to this fandom and found that they were still around. It's just so surprising that some of the people writing these stories now were barely of an age to be writing on their own (or possibly even reading on their own) when I first encountered these ideas and tropes and likely never even heard of those universes. Given that I can't find almost anything of them myself now, it's unlikely they ever even read them before. Yet all the same, we have the same old ideas coming around again, only with ponies.
Ahh displaced, the genre where the
selfinsertoc can proove that they are sooo superior to the equestrians.I, personaly, like displaced stories, IF they are well written and the
selfinsertoc can be at least be put into place.This creates potential for struggle and comedy.
As for "mysterious merchant" , maybe its annoying. But be honest, the powers can be just given and never explained, and i think that most of HiE fics are selfinserts, (even the ones that claim they arent), the autors just say "ohh, no its OC.. totaly not selfinsert" and it is.
Nothing wrong with it per defenition. It all comes down to the writer and how well he/she writes.
My 2 Cents, and please forgive me my grammar
3175901 I was thinking of Xanadu more. In short there is a big convention run by a rich guy with big money for the costume contest so almost everyone is in some sort of costume. Then rich guy puts on an old mask and bam everyone is their costume, mentally as well depending on how in character you were and other factors. However most of the conflict comes from the fact that the rest of the world is still normal, and group dynamics between various sources clashing. Also if for example a husband now has to deal with the fact his wife well and truly believes she really is Wonder Woman, where he has the powers but knows he isn't Superman. One person alone in Equestria eliminates pretty much all of that and leaves you with something far more boring that it's to not make a self indulgent self insert of the highest magnitude, even by accident.
3184532
Ah. Never got into Xanadu at all myself, and only heard very vague things about it. I knew about SRU largely by reputation as well, though did read some of them as they were short. I wrote one HEA myself, largely as a refutation of the setting and how the vast majority of humanity seemed too willing to roll over for the invaders and go furry.
I have to say, I agree with your point of view. I can't say I've really read any so-called "Displaced" stories myself, but that may be a good thing. From what you're saying, they sound very unoriginal, and if there's one thing I don't like in a story, it's lack of originality. I do have one question, though, what was the so-called "LoHaaV" nonsense? What's that stand for?
Also, on a personal note, I'm considering making my own self-insert, but in light of this blog post of yours, well, I'll be more careful.
3175090 I thinl yoi needxa neq keubosrd
(sorry, I couldn't help myself. It's late, and my self-control is minimized by fatigue)
3196471 i was on my phone. big fingers + small keys equals a lot of mistakes,
3196507
Twisted Code: kind of like trying to type with hooves? Been there, done that.
yeah, I guess.
I usually try to stay away from HiE and crossover stories in general.
I'm probably missing out but I desperately need to avoid self-insert fics. I've never liked the idea of taking people or characters from different shows or movies and putting them in Equestria.
So displaced fanfics are pretty much the sum of everything I avoid in a story.
Honestly the more I think about displaced stories the more horrifying it seems
A regular person is turned into a fictional character.
But here’s the problem what if being that fictional character sucks.
Like if I was cosplaying as chainsaw man now I have to feel the intense pain of chainsaws ripping through my limbs .
Or being turned into a space marine dreadnought where in the lore it’s usually described is extremely terrible and torturous . They are just brainwashed to ignore the pain , yet you’re not .
Or if you’re turned into a robotic character and your mind breaks over the fact that you can’t breathe or eat or feel anything
You’re basically just given powers that you have no training ,discipline or experience for .
You didn’t train for years on how to fight , shoot , use magic or a blade like whatever fictional character you got turned into .
You’ll be just as dangerous as a teenager fooling around with a gun or a knife
Being turned into goku is useless because you aren’t a martial artist nor do you know how to use ki
Your just you
You’re mind in a foreign body in a foreign universe with no way home