You know what type of stories I am talking about:
"Character, that has the same name as me, went to UntalentedLosersCon dressed up as whatever overpowered character that is currently popular. Bing-bang, that will unlikely ever be satisfyingly explained, and I am in Equestria in this character's body with all amazing powers (sometimes even knowledge as well). I am either misunderstood edgelord, resulting in slaughter of stupid ponies or I saving the day every single time, building harem that consists of Mane Six, Princesses, Chrysalis, my favorite background pony and your mom."

I can completely understand appeal of self-insert, lazy power fantasy, isekai cliches, but, HUGE FREAKING BUT, this particular kind is so in your face! This basically screaming "I have no imagination and I am lonely, but look I having all those cool adventures!!!". Even as child I would feel ashamed of such low quality power fantasy. People who write those stories lack basic self-respect, dignity?

If you want to give your self-insert certain power, it isn't that difficult, you can place yourself in Equestria and than obtain similar power by reenacting events that gave powers for original. Example. Want to be like Spider-Man? Place yourself in Equestria, some evil Equestrian scientist catches alien (you) and when you escape from lab, spider bites you and you gain this kind of powers, so you decide take superhero identity because you were always inspired by Spider-man. Done.

Want character from another fiction to be in Equestria? Write about it!

I understand that there are graphomaniacs who just want to write no matter how much cringe they bring to this world, but I completely don't understand how this can have audience. Is it like netorare fetish to see someone else's lazy self-insert power fantasy?

7218918
It's just an easy way out using your favorite character but with you instead.

Also most are sent because of a small-dick Merchant who sends them to Equestria for the lolz

7218923
I still wanna see a story where the Merchant or whatever it is that normally sends a character off is sent in their place and begins freaking out.

It'd make for a pretty great comedy, in my opinion.

Yeah, these are pretty annoying. It's fine having superpowers, just don't be an a**hole with these powers and don't pull the old, "I have this one weakness but I also have [blank] which counteracts this weakness and thereby makes it something I don't have to worry about." It wasn't fun back when you were playing with the other children in the park and it isn't fun now either.

Unless you want to write a fic that ends with someone hitting you in your Achilles heel and killing you, no one is going to like it and even then it is very unlikely anyone is going to read to that point... so it really isn't worth it (unless you can find a way to keep people interested in your story).

We don't need any more Lelouches from Code Geuss.

7218929
That's if it's done right. Also the freaking out part is in a lot of DIsplaced fics I believe.

Still, not my cup of tea. Tried writing them, quickly hated it.

7218943
Hm. Aight.

7218918
Two words:
Power. Fantasy.

People want to indulge in their own fantasies. There's nothing wrong with that at all, we all have our own daydreams/power fantasies. And while I'd never belittle someone for wanting to share that on a website designed to share one's creativity and stories, I will agree that there is an abundance of this particular type of self-insert fanfiction. If you want to do something like that, I'd honestly rather see something with a whole-original self-insert/OC. Sure, it's basically the same thing, but at least it'd be different.

7218943 The only "displaced" stories that I really like are stories where they take a character from the show and put them in an alternate version of the mlp universe (I'm not referring to EqG but even that would be preferable to the garbage mentioned in the OP).

7218923
7218949
I understand 'your favorite character but with you instead' thing, but this so low, that I would be ashamed to read this even as porn. When I was kid (around 10) I frequently imagined what if I was on heroes' or villains' team as OC with powers of similar level, but I never imagined myself supplanting any character, let alone copy-pasting them in completely unrelated setting, this idea is so lame that I can't barely can't imagine writing anything like this without hating myself.

I am normally picky about the stories I read. The Harem, power fantasy bs I do with out.

That said I have seen some good Displaced like Skeletor Master of the Empire. It even inspired me to write one of my own.

Now to the question Why? It boils down for me to one question “What would I do if I had the powers of (insert character here)?” What would you do with the powers of Superman? Then you add the setting this is a MLP site so Equestria has to be involved somehow. Now you have the Displaced story of hero/villain with the powers of other franchise character in Equestria.

7218957
But you can obtain Superman powers in much less cringy and forced way, as I mentioned in the OP. You can look inspiration in the Progenitor of World Shifted Power Fantasy - "John Carter the Martian", where protagonist is stronger than almost anyone on Mars, because we evolved in gravity 2.7 times stronger. There is bazillions better ways to place yourself with someones superpowers in Equestria, than just being forced into their form because you dressed up like them.

7218960
I can’t say why others use the Displaced method. I tried to come up with an interesting twist in mine. My story the Displaced has no control of the body he’s in Dr. Doom’s mind also was part of the package.

Now for others there a bit of “Choose your fate” angle. By dressing up as said character for cosplay they chosen their fate. They chosen to be said character instead of themselves to the con/party/ or event. In doing so doomed themselves.

7218918
Well, that's the legacy of Lohav--which was dead by the time I arrived on this place, replaced by Displaced.

Among many things, what makes it Displaced and not say a regular Self-Insert is the capability to travel to another author's story (which you can figure out is, in fact, a real problem due to many issues involved with that alone) which more often than not kills the stories by either a)the other author not doing the job as it does require showing both sides to count (you may feel free to laugh out loud at this one), b)by breaking the story due to power-level discrepancies like the allmighty hammer of smiting making one side's villains a joke through overpowering, or c)making things just to fetishise their egos and not to allow the story to move forward, or d)they act like the world is there for them to antagonize just for shits and giggles, then everything turns alright - the end.

Besides, despite it not need to happen as you described, the group attracts newbie writers that take everything and make it a copy-paste due to how ... established it is at this point in order to 'isekai themselves' and live vicariously through their SI's, more often than not with a harem in order to feel special with the power of the character/characters they like the most.

Sturgeon's Law applies. There are great stories written even with that 'formulaic' structure, but you'd need to filter through the dross to find them.

I didn't know it back then, but there is such a thing as using an established character from one franchise ending up 'displaced/ROB'd' into the MLP setting. It is a regular crossover. I still facepalm every now and then but figured out soon after: why not? It'd make at least a difference, and wouldn't be my ugly arse being put on the screen!

The rest is execution so to speak, as a good writer could make this shine ... but would need hard work to make it so. I hope that helps!

7218918
Not the worst genre I have seen, bad, but not the worst.

the worst genre, by far, is bashing-fics. Fanfics that only exists to bash on a single/more characters and portray all their negative aspects without even bothering to remember their positive aspects.
Usually because the author has a grudge and a stick up their ass.

7218994

the worst genre, by far, is bashing-fics.

Agreed.

7218994
7219002
You wan't almost run into them if you don't look for them specifically. It is much less of problem
For me, after 'Displaced' fics, are never ending factory belt of 'Anon the Green Jerkass' stories and 'Anon-A-Miss. Equestria Girls Discount Angst' stories.

7218918
The next item in my feed after this: Looking for Editor group, someone asking for an editor on a displacement fic.

7218918
Lack of creativity?

7218918
I...

Honestly don't know, but I won't be whining about them, just don't read them as, in the end, they are not the mayority of the fics on this site.

7218918

7219006
depends on the fandom.

MLP? Not a problem most of the time.
Harry Potter Fandom on fanfiction.net? Holy hell, it is a massive shitfeast of bashing at times.

7219062
Yep, especially Dumbledore bashing.

7219006

Anon/Anon-a-miss needs to die. A stupid porn trope that somehow spread around the rest of the fandom like a disease.

7219032

Haha, that's a joke right? Everyone knows Displaced fics never get edited.

7219062

Oh there's still plenty of MLP bashing fics. Starlight Glimmer bashing in particular is practically it's own genre by now.

7218918
Have you thought about doing a series called: "Why _________ stories are even a thing?"

Basically, it's a chat about different story types and other issues that people see here on Fimfiction.
Readers drop by and give their opinions.
It might be very informative.

7219006
I was actually wondering where the green guy came from, cause I think I saw his character tag somewhere. Is it something from the comics?

7219096
I was told it originated from some site called 4chan.

7218918
1: Self-Insert. Makes it easy to write, without needing to figure out the mindsets of a different character
2: Power Fantasy: Woo explosions
3: Isekai. That's a thing that's popular now
4: Not actually being same character: See 1)

7219096
Anon is from 4chan, as 7219104 said. He is suppose to represent the 'Average Joe', basically a mannequin that you can project yourself onto.

7219124
Think pre BOTW Link, but with even less personality

7219096 Yeah, Anon is that self insert that also has a tendency to ruin 2nd person stories for everyone else as well (a shame since some of us have actually written what are hopefully some pretty decent 2nd person stories in comparison).

7219121 Indeed, it is the trapping of lazy writing. While I understand taking shortcuts to make writing easier, it usually means you have to have at least put in a TON of effort ahead of time in order to warrant such shortcuts. Sadly, a lot of these displaced stories don't bother putting in the effort.

The other things I don't see being done that could actually work with this was if you had the self insert isekai character appear but have the story be from the perspective of a character native to that world.

Example: Self Insert Character 6969 comes to Equestria and starts trying to amass a female pony harem (because that seems to be a common theme for some reason), however the story takes on the perspective of a male pony (Big Mac, Shining Armor, Soarin, Sunburst, Mudbriar, etc...) who decides to take it upon themselves to conquer and defeat Self Insert Character 6969. After a few failed attempts our male protagonist discovers our villain's secret weakness (could be anything from a small opening in their armor, to a peanut allergy, actually writing a good story or even broccoli) and uses it thus vanquishing Self Insert Character 6969 and saving Equestria.

This might be a bit of an extreme example but it is an example non the less.

7218918
still reading the rant but if you want a decent displaced story thats not op and right into thw nsfw stuff id say read diarys of a madman displaced not op not even into horses for a third of the starting arc and even then he goes for other species first

7219316
I'm not sure Madman really counts as Displaced, or what the type of story "Displaced" brings to mind when spoken. I still vaguely remember the beginning, and he's at most just a Self Insert/HiE/isekai. You generally need some sort of crossover element being brought in with the human.
7219267
I've kinda wrote a parody of the entire thing, based on stuff created with my brother, where all the power fantasy in the world can't save you from even more bullshit.

7218929

You don't mind if I use this idea, do you?~

7219383
true
7218918
why not check out broken world by Arceaion its a displaced but not op hecl the main character willling goes there and has there memories erased

7218929
love it but er i dunno wouldant that like mean thsy stsrt displacing ponies about

7218939

Unless you want to write a fic that ends with someone hitting you in your Achilles heel and killing you, no one is going to like it and even then it is very unlikely anyone is going to read to that point...

You seriously overestimate the standards of quality of the Displaced fanbase as a whole. All you need to do (and LITERALLY all you need to do ) to make a “well-received” Displaced story is introduce whatever IP you plan on crossing over and then watch the fanbase come in and clap like the equally-illiterate circus seals that they are when they recognize said IP.

7219405
Go ahead. I did say that I've been wanting to read something like this, after all.

7219461
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

To be honest it was sub-fandom thing where the first couple of writers for it did this really good stories and then there was a multiverse gimic with a token or something which let you cross over into someone else's story if they found your characters token. The only problem was popularity kind of buired all the good stories under all the crap

7219549
There was the old Chess Game of the Gods group, which kinda did that, except it was supposedly all on the same planet and time. Only like, 2 stories are left active (from the old like, 15) since everyone else left or quit.

7219412
That could be why I have more likes on a half-assed attempt on a SAO cross with my oc entering it and only doing minor changes that really bugged me in the 2-3rd episodes and having a blatant op character even for the anime surviving when they should not by luck and in-game mechanics

7218952
I am going to be frank here, I hope you don't mind. I think you kind of miss the concept of the 'Displace' trope. The point of this trope is not for the self-insert character to cheaply take over the magic/power of the character they displace (Discord for example). The point of it is to put the self-insert character in the middle of the relationship web the displaced character already has (for example Discord's romance with Fluttershy, his relationship with the other mane 6, etc.) and force the self-insert character to work out all the misunderstanding, confusion and shenanigans entailed. That's the central difference between 'Displace' trope and the common 'Isekai' trope. If employed well, it could make for hilarious, or on the other hand, tragic situations (for example the other characters think the displaced character has turned insane/lost memory and try to cure him, while the self-insert character sees the others heartbroken and torments himself for "killing" the actual one).

I am not saying that most or even any of the 'Displace' fics actually utilize this concept well, or at all. I am just saying that the trope itself is not without its merit, regardless of the writers' ability to get it right.

7220176
I didn't talk about this kind of stories. You need to reread the OP, because you clearly didn't pay attention. I talked about situation when person from our world is placed in body of character from another world and placed into Equestria.

7220226
Oh ok then. Sorry for the misunderstanding. But your original comment is indeed confusing, because there is no indication that the "overpowered character" that was replaced was "from another world that is not Equestria", so I assumed you were talking about stories where self-insert character replaces Discord or Sombra or something along the line.

7220338
I see stories with "I went to ComicCon dressed up as Thanos and now I am in Equestria and I am Thanos, give me likes!" description in "New Stories" section about every two weeks, so I thought it easy to understand what I was referencing considering entire paragraph of mock description and paragraph on hypothetical plot idea involving Spider-Man.

7220414
You want an example of Displaced done right, with all the horror that it can truly entail without any fantasies nor self-insertions? Hollow Shades, by Dilos1.

All that which you complain about here is handled seriously. Truly, it is a good read as it examines how it would really affect the mind of the idiotvictim and the kind of horror that would be interested in pulling a monkey's paw on you, as well as the ponies' side on things.

It isn't a harem too, nor a powertrip which is a true legs-up compared to the competition that other posters here have mentioned. Truly an interesting read.

... Pfft, I am this and that, gimme likes. I can only agree and despair at how true that is.

7218918
One solution is to have the person turned into a character from MLP. That way they conform to the laws of said universe. A friend of mine wrote a story where they got displaced in the EqG world as Wallflower Blush. Not only does Wallflower conform to the laws of the EqG setting (and thus aren't an idiotic power fantasy), they also are a background character, thus increasing the scope of what the author can write about without messing up the timeline.

7227386
I don't have particular grudge towards this type of story, this thread mostly about fandom fad that involves being turned into character from completely different universe because you dressed up like them on convention and than being sent in Equestria.

7227541
I dislike those as well. They dilute the genuinely good ones.

7218918
At least Isekai can be somewhat creative. The only problem about the loosercon stories it's their repetitive formula. The story can't appeal to your average fanfic reader because not many of them would go to any kind of con for the rest of their lives nor they'll be interested in going into one. Also the main character can be complete wooden edgelord so the reader has to take them with a grain of salt.