Some thoughts on 'X Reader' fics

For breakfast on Saturdays, I eat my chocolate muffin and drink cold milk from my yellow mug. Next to me is a blue leather bag hanging off the chair. I smell this as I enjoy melted chocolate. 

After this lovely breakfast, I return to my room and enjoy the pinnacle of literature: X Reader fan fiction.

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It all started one day when I came across a Marco X Reader drabble of sorts on Tumblr. I read it, thought it was delightful and reblogged it. I checked out the writer's blog and was immediately impressed by the masterlist, the careful curating of their masterlist. It's been years since I last even made a masterlist myself (I typically post on AO3 and thus see no need for it) so seeing one so nicely done, with proper headings and even the nice graphic for borders instead of the generic line, made me unbelievably happy.

Following this, I read their other works, mainly for the Whitebeard pirates, kicking my feet all the while. I won't say their writing made my heart melt or my soul sing like some great books have, but it made me happy.

The subtly cringe but affectionate feeling of being addressed by the second-person pronoun (as if I'm in the same room as these people), the rapid nodding of 'oh yes, I am in fact a Whitebeard Pirate who's also conveniently drop dead gorgeous' despite the vague self-awareness, the absolute delusion of imagining yourself to be with these people—all of that is such a wonderful feeling. When I read these X Reader drabbles, I smile uncontrollably, not because it's well-written per se or because it's funny, but because I can tell that the writer particularly adores this character, and it's infectious. 

Arbitrarily speaking, it's more passionate than shipping. Personally, I ship characters and pair them with whoever I fancy. It takes another level of pure-hearted commitment, in my view, to bypass any respect for the canon material, and to just claim this character as your own and call them your significant other. Cringe, maybe, delusional, maybe, 'out of touch', call it whatever, but I respect that. It's a special type of love that cannot be confined by social norms.

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The pure passion in creating content under this genre is inspiring.

There's no (monetary) incentive to writing this, let alone for writing this long and this much. Yet, people do it. As someone who gets hung up over numbers, it's an admirable attitude. I get frustrated when something doesn't do as well as I'd like. Despite my best efforts, I do think about what gets popular and such thoughts influence what I make, even if subconsciously.

X Reader fan fiction is written for the love of the character, for the love of the game, rather than to please the crowd. Perhaps that's what makes them so infectiously delightful and ironically, so crowd-pleasing. At least, it makes me want to read more. A warm, selfish love for something is the thing that touches people first, before the numbers or even the question, 'is it cringe'?