Discussion why do so many novels make the mc's be reincarnated

So you mean to tell me that the authors believe when they die they'll suddenly take over the body of a guy from a different world?

 

The authors believe in reincarnation. They believe that when they die, they get reborn as a different person.

 

And my reply was that it is because it is a core of the author's cultural belief system, which is why there is a tendency to write it in "for no reason".

 

Reincarnation is a plot device to explain why the protagonist has otherworldly knowledge. Sadly, a lot of novels misuse this and the reincarnation does not actually affect the plot in any way. Of course, many of the protagonist's actions can explained to be caused by memories of their past lives but that's just the most basic way to use it.

 

While I'm not saying you are wrong about it being part of their culture, but saying it is their only reason for including it is basically like just saying that they are bad writers that doesn't think about what they write.

 

I really doubt it; especially when it comes to how it plays out in their stories. First off, I doubt that very many modern Chinese give a damn about reincarnation any more. Nowadays most Chinese people are atheist and this is reflected in the authors' beliefs if you read the author notes. And then look at how transmigration tends to work in the books: it's usually either some form of time travel, traveling to another world, or second chance. It just doesn't line up mechanically with how Chinese reincarnation works - being born as a baby, usually 18 years after the date of death.

And of course none of this is necessary since it's perfectly obvious why transmigration is such a popular story device. Pretty much the entire reason is to put a character with modern and relatable perspectives into these worlds. It would be even more obvious if you were to look at the earliest transmigration stories.

 

Up to you guys if you can accept it or not. You asked, I gave an answer, I'm not responsible for if you can mentally accept the answer or not.

 

The easy answer is "it's easier". There are so many different things that people do with reincarnated MC's that would be weird if the MC was originally born there. From an individual being more independent, to an understanding of parts of how the world works that doesn't reflect the world around them, to gaining cheats that they should be denied or are literally only theirs due to reincarnating.

For example, Forty Millenniums of Cultivation has a MC who was reincarnated. What does this add to the story as a whole? Absolutely nothing. What does this excuse about the MC's backstory and initial character setting? Practically everything. In his original life, MC was a retired street racer turned mechanic who was persuaded to enter one last race and died in it. In the new world, MC is born into slums and orphaned early on, and this setting excuses him learning how to repair broken Mystic-Tech from another slum dweller, survive an attempt to take over his body from an ancient cultivator spirit that's memories becomes the MC's main cheat, and avoid joining a gang while hunting the dump for parts. As the story progresses the MC's reincarnation becomes less and less relevant to anything the occurs, but early on it gave a significant number of advantages to the MC even if the past life has little to nothing impacting the current one.

Ignoring the direct benefits & outright cheats reincarnation regularly allows authors to give to characters, I feel like writers also like the fact that it allows them to make real world references & comparisons without issue. There's been a few times when I've been reading a fantasy story where the MC has no knowledge of the technological world, but the author give descriptors from the real world. Descriptions such as "it looks like a Rocket Ship" might be simple to give, but it's annoying and breaks immersion when it's said in a world where literally nobody knows what a rocket ship is. It's particularly bad when it references something like Ironman's Armour Suit when the concept of technology is either alien to the world, or built entirely around the utilization of magic and lacks things important to our technology such as electrical wires. These issues are neatly sidestepped by someone, probably the MC, being "reincarnated" from Earth or somewhere similar.

So, yeah, you can just get away with a whole lot more with a reincarnated MC than you can with a non-reincarnated MC, even if their reincarnation has absolutely nothing to do with the story at hand.

 

Which is also true, but you can see the cultural differences between the East and West in their iskei novels.

For example, Alice in Wonderland, John Carter of Mars and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. To the West, iskei is a person physically transferring over in their own body while the East plays more with the concept of "Many bodies, one soul".

 

There are a fair number of older western fantasy involving reincarnation as well though, they are just typically not the reincarnated into another world type.

 

Another thing to note is that if authors are writing reincarnation stories out of religious conviction then you'd think that it would some sort of religious significance. Out of all the different transmigration stories I've read, I can only think of one that involved any religious figures (made up gods don't count!), and that one was strictly tongue-in-cheek. I just don't think this argument holds any water.

Both kinds exist in Chinese fiction. Bear in mind that the first of the proper transmigration stories is "a Step Into the Past" and that one is about time travel. The main reason why most are about taking over someone else's body is that it instantly gives the character status and position in society. Starting from scratch would make the writer come up with a way to engage the protagonist into the story. The bigger question is perhaps why the West has an aversion to this version of transmigration.

 

yea its not even funny anymore, some of the reincarnation plots have no use for the reincarnation other than just getting hte story started or allowing mc to have a bit more knowledge than the rest. It sure as hell doesnt seem change the ditzy or low iq of the mc tho.

 

Why not?
Nothing stopping authors from writing about it; it seems like a fun idea to write about and explore though.

 

But the thread is about stories that doesn't explore it though and just randomly mentions it.

 

Yeah so I guess it’s just for fun and barely trying for the explore part then in that case lol

 

I don't really read stories that do this, but even the books I read where the transmigration isn't a big deal, the story is still about someone with a fundamentally different perspective than the people who inhabit the story. So what I'm saying is that I don't think this phenomenon, at least in its pure form, is all that common. Maybe it happens more often in bad books, but you know the standard advice for that.

 

Well yeah in it's purest form it is mostly going to show up in bad stories, although bad tropes do pop up in better stories as well once in a while.
As for the mc having a "fundamentally different perspective", I honestly don't feel I see that done convincingly very often with transmigration since most of the time I tend to feel that there would have been better ways to achieve the same thing.
But well, I'll admit I have much narrower view on these stories than I would like, especially since I can't read chinese, korean or japanese.

In the end, I'm just a bit personally frustrated by all of this because I actually want to read reincarnation stories that makes a big deal out of it and does it well, and it feels like a pain to find them among the sea of stories that either don't bother trying to utilize it or does it badly.
Doesn't exactly help that reincarnation is something that is complicated to write in the first place if you want to do it well.

 

See, maybe it's because I don't read xianxia novels but I don't see books play out like this at all. I do read a lot of transmigration stories though, and the transmigration factor really does play a large role in the vast majority of them. And this role is primarily in the way the protagonist deals with the society he finds himself in. For example, I'm reading a book right now that takes place in a (fake) historical China. And he finds himself in deep conflict with just about everybody because his feelings on Confucianism is diametrically opposed to how everybody else sees it, and that everybody else includes just about everyone who has any real power. Or other cool things like how nobody pays it any heed when the name Temujin shows up in an intelligence report but the protagonist recognizes it and instantly changes his entire long term strategy on the spot!

Or in another book I finished recently, the character's modern viewpoints don't factor so heavily into the story, but she's read the original book (and it's a real book in this case, making this story a piece of fanfiction). So much of the story is about the protagonist fumbling through half-remembered events from the original novel and trying (poorly) to work those to her advantage.

 

I don't deny what you've said about Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, but you see it added to the story it was done in a way that it was relevant instead of just being there for the sake of being there it's also not constantly brought up that he was reincarnated after it stops being important to the story and what I view as the most important part is that it's not the old personality taking over the new in fact it was viewed as a possession attempt that didn't work which the body learned to fight against which is why it became a vaccine so while it could be considered as reincarnation it could also be considered the same as upgrade specialist in another world where he gets the cheat and some of the knowledge but the personality didn't come with

 

On a side note I feel like this has been derailed
I won't deny that there are some stories that do reincarnation well. They contribute to the story and it makes things fit. I like a lot of those stories such as Chrysalis, Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, Bringing Culture to a Different World ect.I'm asking about the ones that don't contribute and just reincarnate for the sake of reincarnating, but then keep holding on to it by referencing his reincarnation. Some people have given me answers about how it's so modern examples can be used, but if that's how the character talks then people in that world would look at him like he's crazy, because no one understands his references. Others have said it's due to the belief system, but that doesn’t match up because then they wouldn't have their memory's and it would be a newborn baby not some recently dead teen who they then live the life of exactly as the original would have lived.