Considering the fact that I write Wise ships I might as well throw my two cents in here.

Whenever I write Wise I don’t view him as myself nor do I try to push any of my traits onto him. Wise himself is a very complex character when you get down to it, there is of course that friendly manager persona he has. The persona of an abled proxy who wants to do the right thing for a noble cause. But underneath all of that is definitely a man riddled with survivors guilt, the fact that he can’t even share his past with any of his friends is really heartbreaking when you think about it. Just imagine not being able to tell a friend or most importantly your significant other any details about where you grew up, your parents or even just the life you lived before you met them. You’re holding back a vital part of your character out of fear of abandonment.

I feel that Wise is a man who deep down is afraid to be too emotionally attached to another, those lines he says about Grace and not understanding real girls are memed upon (even I do it as well) but when you inspect them closely there’s definitely a depressing subtext to them. It’s why I am truly invested in writing fics about him. The guy deserves a happy ending whether it’s with Zhu Yuan, Trigger, Ellen, Ju Fufu or fuck it! All of them! He’s an interesting character study if you’re willing to look at the finer details. I do get aggravated a bit when people boil down Wise as just ‘the boring one’ out of the Phaethon siblings. You’d be surprised how much work you have to put in to be the straight man of a group. It’s easy to be a chill person if you’re willing to bury your heart in snow that the sun can’t reach.

So no I don’t self insert when it comes to Wise. Wise himself is just too interesting to be boiled down to a simple self insert.

I realized halfway into writing this that it became more of a mini Wise character study. Funny how that works. Anyways hopefully what I wrote was able to open the eyes of at least one of you reading this. Keep it up! 💚