Dex-chan lover
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2019
- Messages
- 2,094
Original story. Do not steal.
As has been said, it thrives because it's self-insert wish-fulfillment for beaten down loners in school or salarymen stuck in soul-crushing, dreary, faceless office jobs. They hate their lives and the fact that nobody respects them or treats them well, so they get to throw themselves into a fantasy where a hated and looked-down-on person that is mocked for contributing nothing or for being weird or whatever is cast aside only to reveal that they're actually super powerful and had been secretly carrying everyone else the whole time. It's the chuuni kid who thinks that the popular classmates hate him but don't know he's secretly smart and talented or the faceless office drone whose ignored work and constant dumping of everyone else's work on him is the difference between the company succeeding or falling apart because he's not there to do all the heavy lifting.
Bonus points if the MC also suddenly finds attractive, forward women throwing themselves at him because it turns out he's also sexually desirable now in a bland, milquetoast "nice guy" sort of way only people now recognize it because he's a walking power god. Because then it also appeals to the dreary incel crowd.
People love it because escapist stories are easier than fixing massive personal and/or societal problems and companies love writing it because why risk failure on a new and daring story concept when you can just do the thing everyone else is doing and cram one more samey, predictable, safe story into an already over-crowded market?
As has been said, it thrives because it's self-insert wish-fulfillment for beaten down loners in school or salarymen stuck in soul-crushing, dreary, faceless office jobs. They hate their lives and the fact that nobody respects them or treats them well, so they get to throw themselves into a fantasy where a hated and looked-down-on person that is mocked for contributing nothing or for being weird or whatever is cast aside only to reveal that they're actually super powerful and had been secretly carrying everyone else the whole time. It's the chuuni kid who thinks that the popular classmates hate him but don't know he's secretly smart and talented or the faceless office drone whose ignored work and constant dumping of everyone else's work on him is the difference between the company succeeding or falling apart because he's not there to do all the heavy lifting.
Bonus points if the MC also suddenly finds attractive, forward women throwing themselves at him because it turns out he's also sexually desirable now in a bland, milquetoast "nice guy" sort of way only people now recognize it because he's a walking power god. Because then it also appeals to the dreary incel crowd.
People love it because escapist stories are easier than fixing massive personal and/or societal problems and companies love writing it because why risk failure on a new and daring story concept when you can just do the thing everyone else is doing and cram one more samey, predictable, safe story into an already over-crowded market?
