Princess Emily
[isekai] something I was thinking about,
Princess Emily
in a lot of isekai, romances are uhhhhhh not the greatest, because the protagonist is usually like idk 30 or something and the love interests are always teenagers
Princess Emily
and like, to me, it always seemed like it'd be fine if there was at least like.... if the person identified with their new life and identity. "I'm 16 but I have memories from a previous life where I was older" instead of "I'm 30 but my new body is 16".
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
i'm not... 100% sure i'd call that fine but it would be a hell of a lot better
Princess Emily
but a lot of isekai just fucking don't, they in fact emphasize how much they are the Same Person Continued
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ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
: (I mean, if I suddenly had memories from a previous life, I don't think I'd suddenly think of myself as my age + that age. I don't think people generally find that an issue with non-isekai media and people remembering previous lives either, which is its own trope outside isekai)
Princess Emily
the point is it's an easy solution to at least be less creepy and isekai does not care at all
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
i guess, yeah, a lot of it is like...
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
the separation of identity
Princess Emily
yeah exactly
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a lot of isekai now are reincarnation types
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it makes sense that there'd be that separation
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except they seem to willingly choose to just. not.
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but also while thinking about it I kind of realized that accrual that's not quite right, I have seen it done before,
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and it hit me
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male MCs tend to have complete "I am continuing my old life, I am the same person" mentalities
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girl MCs tend to have that separation
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not 100% but like, thinking about where I've seen it before, it's pretty strongly correlated
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and like, man, why is that? is is just that female authors (who tend to write female MCs) are thinking about this more (like I am)?
Cute Quinn
for male isekai writers this is a feature not a bug
Cute Quinn
being 30 and having girls half your age falling all over you is the fantasy
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/nods
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there's also, less skeevily, a difference in like,
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both methods involve regaining your youth (at least in part), but
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one is about Winning At It (via being an adult, having that experience, and also power gaming shenanigans)
Awe
One of the big ongoing LPs I’m following is dealing with this! ...With a female character and female writer, which is just more fuel to the “ban men from this” Fire
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and one is about getting a chance to re- experience it (considers new life their real identity, etc)
Awe
Chisa Inomiko is having a big existential crisis over her lack of self-knowledge between having Chisa memories, Raven memories, and whatever is going on with her mystery knowledge she doesn’t know why she knows
EsperBot
I think our ethical systems don't have a pat answer for the ethics of dating a 16 year old when you technically have 30 years of experience but have the body (and thus brain) and social power of another sixteen year old. Because...this is not a situation that ever comes up in real life
EsperBot
But it's definitely creepy if that age disparity is what the author is foregrounding
Tangent
I think its interesting that even when a female MC ends up in an "empty vessel" scenario (which is more typical for male MCs) they tend to have a lot more questions about WHO that person was and what that person would have WANTED
Tangent
I think it makes for a better story when the person is trying to honor both parts of themselves without having easy answers for that means, but I GET why that's intimidating to try and take on narratively.
☆Tobu☆
honestly, I'll bet part of why the female MCs identify more with their new teenage selves in these scenarios is simply that we're conditioned to want to be young forever
☆Tobu☆
of course you're supposed to melt right back into being seventeen, what more could you want? where's the prestige to lord over others in being a woman over thirty?
☆Tobu☆
plus there's way less societal fetish for "older woman dates teenage boy" than vice versa
☆Tobu☆
so it'd be considered more palatable to the average escapist reader to fantasize about being a teenager again and dating a cute boy your age, than about being Oh! No! A Cougar! Lol
BattroidBattery
the 'reawaken in someone else's body' scenarios always kind of bother me
BattroidBattery
like, I love Death Flags, but it does kinds of bother me that there's nothing left of the original Katerina in Katerina, she basically just dies when she hits her head.
BattroidBattery
...that was mostly a response to
Tangent
Striving Spark
I'm personally a fan of "I've regained memories of my past life! ...But I'm still me. Cool memories, though, I'm gonna use those!"
Striving Spark
(There are not a lot of examples of this)
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yea yea