I mentioned this in Anya's SI thread and I would like us to make this a reality.

DLP would create a character with a well defined our-world background, including age, nationality, personal views etc. And then we would invent a way to transport him/her to the HP world. We would make sure their 'new origins' in the new world would be clear, for example if this person is reborn with a new body and a new family or if this person is simply thrown into the new world without any explanation.

Before anyone asks "Why do this?": For fun.

Some input of my own to start the thread:

Many SI authors overlook this, but being transported to another world would be actually a big deal. You've basically lost your family, all your friends and everything you've ever had.

You also witnessed something that is supposed to be impossible. Who might have transported you? God? Aliens? Imagine how an Atheist would react.

Basically, such an event would have a tremendous impact on one's personality. Religion, philosophy, political views, emotional status, sanity. Everything could change.

Depending on your age, you might even arrive in a world that existed before your birth. For example, I was born in 1990. If I was reborn during Harry's time, I would be born 10 years earlier than normally.

Reactions could be various. You could become insane, have a nervous breakdown, think you're dreaming and kill yourself, everything is fair game in a story like that.

Assuming we would be sending a person who is a fan of the Harry Potter series, their personal views on canon can and will make a difference. Do they believe in fanon cliches or are they strongly pro-canon?

Does this person want to champion muggleborn rights, or do they want to take over the world?

What are their views on Harry himself? Are they from the FanFiction.net Harry/Snape shipper crowd, Mugglenet-Potter-Musical guys or are they a DLP member? Have they read the books or have they only seen the movies?

Would they rehash canon, would they attempt a fix-it-all quest or would they subtly influence events from behind the scenes?

There is a very high amount of variables and this project would not be an easy one.

So it would be nice if people did not dismiss it outright as dumb

 

If I were extremely honest with myself and I was transported somewhere where I can do magic....I'd become Jiraiya pretty much.

Or a much wealthier pothead, one of the two...

 

You bring an interesting point about something I forgot to mention.

Different people have different views about things. As such, the SI's attitude regarding the Unforgivables, Love Potions, Memory Charms, Veritaserum and Unbreakable Vows may be highly controversial.

 

I think the most important question is whether or not they tell anything to anyone. After that, it's who they reveal it to, when they tell, and how much they tell.

 

Or whether they think they can change the world. Even if they know what will happen, they are in a situation in which they know that it will work out in the end. They could decide to just stand aside and then become friends/ get attached with someone who is supposed to die and start feeling guilty about letting people die. Or they could decide it is not worth fighting and risking their health, leaving England and coming back after the war is over.

Then there is the fact that even if you liked the characters in the books, it is a different thing to meet them as a real person. And since the books are supposed to be in an alternate version of the real world, one of the first things I would be curious about is whether there another muggle version of myself.

In case the SI is summoned in a new body then there is good chance of going native. Long exposure to a new society's belief system might change their own views of things. So the longer he has to adapt, the more akin to a normal wizard he might be.

Finally, they might forget details about the books since they would also have their everyday life to begin with.

 

Too late.

Why the sudden interest in self-inserts from DLP? I thought that was one of the few things we could all agree (for once) was a stupid concept.

 

It's stupid when it is a masturbatory fantasy for writers. Obviously, something like that would not happen here, given that nobody real would be used.

 

So, all the time. That's the whole point of the idea.

If you're not going to use anyone real then how is it even a self-insert? You might as well make a normal OC.

Self-insert is the lowest tier of fanfic. The only way you could possibly make a "good" one is to write a parody relentlessly making fun of the idea.

 

This SI needs to be Taure. And everytime he mentions the mechanics of magic some sage wizard steps in saying, "It just works that way, stupid."

This needs to be written.

 

Surely the point of a self-insert is that it's yourself.

 

I agree.

That's the point here. The entire point is to create an interesting original character and throw him into the HP world.

Nah, I don't like parodies because my sense of humor is wildly different from the average person, I'd just ruin everything.

Why do I suddenly feel that I should have called this thread differently?

 

I don't think I've seen one positive Red Aviary comment in the time that I've been here.

 

I'm just with Aviary on this. What you're describing isn't even a self insert. I'm pretty sure a shared SI is just another OC.

 

So alright, I should have called this thread differently instead of a 'self-insert' project. My bad.

I've seen. You're not being fair.

 

You just have to believe. Almost like he's a Fairy from Neverland.

 

The ugliest fairy. ;_;

I don't really mean to rain on your parade, but... yeah. Self-inserts have never sat right with me. Ever since I first started reading fanfic I've avoided them like the plague.

But I would read that.

 

I can totally understand where you a coming from. My mistake was to use the phrase 'self-insert' in this thread instead of calling it OC, as I have already stated.

And to be honest, I'm probably the worst person to become a SI, I would be the second coming of Voldemort :awesome

 

SIs really are the lowest part of an already low type of fiction. I've seen them done decently a few times... and one of the common threads is that they either possess no knowledge about the series they're in or they might as well possess no knowledge. That said, I could see Taure having an aneurysm being pretty funny.

 

"NO, it works this way and I have 10,000 posts on an internet forum to prove it!"

And that's the prologue. The rest is a thirty chapter argument about magical cores.

---

OC then. Okay, well, then you have to avoid the trap of the OC being a self-insert in all but name, where they are basically a vessel for the author's opinions on canon. But I have slightly more faith in DLP making a good OC for this purpose than I do the ability to write a good self-insert story.

 

I guess the question should be what would each of us do if we found ourselves reincarnated/transported into the HP world?

It's actually pretty hard to do without turning yourself into a Mary/Gary stu in some ways because I know that if a Hogwarts letter showed up on my 11th birthday I would probably become an even bigger bookworm than Hermione and would never stop practicing spells. As for the story itself there's the problem of knowing too much of the canon. Would you just sit back and let the story unfold while you focus on learning? Or would you get to the Hogwarts Express early and meet Harry before Ron has a chance so that you can change the story?

Maybe it would be better to set the story during the previous generation? Go to school with James, Sirius, Lily, Snape etc? This way you won't find yourself on a giant chess board on your way to get the Philosopher's Stone or trying to steal the diary from Ginny.

Shit, this thread makes me want to create a character sheet for myself, but I may go overboard and make myself the son of Regulus Black and the heir to the Black fortune -_-