Self Insert Morality

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If there's one thing SB, SV, QQ, and even fanfiction in general love, it's a good SI. That said, sometimes the morality of these stories is... questionable at best. This is a thread where we ask the hard questions, offer our own personal opinions, and generally discuss some particularly touchy topics.

Allow me to get the ball rolling; is SI murder? That can be a tough question to answer at times. Most SI's aren't done directly, instead people inhabit the bodies of characters, whether they be original or canon. Furthermore, most SIs occur because of forces outside the protagonist's control. The only way I would truly consider it murder is if you were given the option to possess said character and use their body as the proverbial meat-puppet and you said yes, heck, even that can be explained away if you thought the question was a joke.

Most other situations are either unhappy accidents, use your own body, have an avatar created specifically for the purpose of the SI, or are essentially a form of reincarnation. You can still feel varying levels of guilt over it, but in my opinion you can't really be held responsible for what happened.

Next, how real is reality? The answer to that, I believe, is 'As real as you want it to be.' It may follow canon exactly and diverge considerably from what we know as standard physics, it may even look and act like a cartoon brought to life, but in my opinion reality and everything in it is real until proven otherwise by sound logic supported by hard data. I imagine anything else would have a rather poor effect on your overall sanity.

In short, treat people like they're actually people, and take what happens seriously.

Third, in the case of reincarnation, is it squicky to be attracted to, and possibly even be in a relationship with, someone your physical age, but not your mental age? This is one is particularly tricky, as it touches on a subject many people are uncomfortable with, but I'll do my best to be as respectful as possible. In short, I believe the answer is yes... and no.

On the one hand were are conditioned all our lives to believe that relationships with people considerably younger than us are wrong, and there are some very good reasons for that. Hard evidence revealing the downright abusive and controlling nature of such relationships, as well as substantial evidence that getting involved with another person too early can have significant negative impact on a person's emotional development. That said... is physical age and mental age the same thing? I would say no, a person can act and feel much older than they are, and if reincarnation is a thing, which, if you're an SI there is evidence right there that it is, then who's to say other people aren't older on the inside then they are on the outside?

No matter your memories, your body is your body, and it's programmed to act a certain way at a certain age. You will notice people your age of the opposite, or perhaps even the same gender whether you want to or not, and your hormones will demand that you act on those feelings. Now what you actually do about those feelings is up too you, but it's unhealthy to just pretend they don't exist, or that they're 'wrong' somehow. That said, you are the master of your domain, and you don't have to do anything you aren't comfortable with.

To surmise, it's squicky on a deeply personal level, but I don't believe there should be a stigma against it. Note you, I am in no way defending inherently abusive relationships; I just believe that your biology is your biology, and that you should be allowed to act your age. All this means is that I think that SIs should be given all the consideration and leeway that a person their actual physical age should have, not that they should have any special treatment or consideration.

And if a person abuses said consideration to be a creeper, well then he or she deserves whatever karmic retribution they get.

 

[Generic_Generica]

... i don't think I'm in a position to comment on any of this considering the one SI I'm writing is 'Generic_Generica gets catapulted into the body of a genderless amorphous space-cockroach gene-engineered by lovecraftian horrors from the Void.'

Also it's on SV and I wasn't even planning on having any romantic scenes because the protagonist actually doesn't have a sex drive what with the 'genderless massive space-cockroach gene-engineered by lovecraftian horrors from the Void' schtick.

Also lots and lots of trauma so there's that too.

Like- I actually had to get myself into an inhuman mindset in order to write a few of the scenes, which meant lots of sleep deprivation. No alcohol, just sleep deprivation.

The other SI I was planning on writing would've been different but it's sort of been strangled in infancy.

... So yeah those are my thoughts on the matter.

 

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... i don't think I'm in a position to comment on any of this considering the one SI I'm writing is 'Generic_Generica gets catapulted into the body of a genderless amorphous space-cockroach gene-engineered by lovecraftian horrors from the Void.'

Also it's on SV and I wasn't even planning on having any romantic scenes because the protagonist actually doesn't have a sex drive what with the 'genderless massive space-cockroach gene-engineered by lovecraftian horrors from the Void' schtick.

Also lots and lots of trauma so there's that too.

Like- I actually had to get myself into an inhuman mindset in order to write a few of the scenes, which meant lots of sleep deprivation. No alcohol, just sleep deprivation.

The other SI I was planning on writing would've been different but it's sort of been strangled in infancy.

... So yeah those are my thoughts on the matter.

Click to shrink...

Damn, that's some dedication right there. Though I have questions; first of all, how can something be both amorphous and a cockroach, and how does said species reproduce? I mean, I'd imagine asexually, but with Lovecraftian horrors it's never good to assume.

And as to my own thoughts about mental and physical age, I sat down and asked myself, 'Imagine humanity finds a way to program into children invaluable life-skills that will greatly improve their quality of life, but that the source of said information is the donated memories of adults, would the new memories and programmed skills make the children older?'

I came to the conclusion that no, no it would not. I find we place a great deal of value on our memories, but in the end it's all just information. Perhaps the soul lives on, even when all else is gone, perhaps the soul is a towering monument to our experiences, but memories are transient and identity is fluid. We are what we are, but also what we choose to be.