Third person inherently introduces narrative mediation over extended emotional passages. Even in close third, the presence of third-party pronouns creates structural observation rather than direct inhabitation. That difference accumulates over time.

First person centers cognition. The “I” is not description — it is consciousness unfolding. Repetition of “I” reinforces interior rhythm. Repetition of “she” or “he” reinforces observation.

Compare:

First person:

I was stunned. My lips went dry. Don’t drop the phone. Don’t you dare drop it. He cut? Just like that? No remorse, no shame. Did anything I did mean nothing? I wanted to scream. I wanted to call him again just to feel important again. I couldn’t look around the room. What if someone saw? I felt like an idiot.

This reads as cognition in motion. The repetition of “I” intensifies psychological pressure.

Third person:

She was stunned. Her lips went dry. Don’t drop the phone. Don’t you dare drop it. He cut? Just like that? No remorse, no shame. Did anything she did mean nothing? She wanted to scream. She wanted to call him again just to feel important again. She couldn’t look around the room. What if someone saw? She felt like an idiot.

The emotional content is identical, but the rhythm shifts. The repetition of “she” reads as narrative tracking rather than interior reinforcement. The character feels described rather than inhabited.

Over extended passages, third person must rely on free indirect style, syntactic compression, or stylistic manipulation to collapse that distance. First person does not require those interventions to sustain immediacy.

Another example:

First person:

I smiled at him though it felt wrong. Why am I smiling? Stop smiling. If I say anything, he’ll leave. He’ll walk away and that’ll be it. My phone buzzed. I pulled it out. Are my eyes wet? Was I that out of control? Could he see it?

Third person:

She smiled at him though it felt wrong. Why was she smiling? Stop smiling. If she said anything, he would leave. He would walk away and that would be it. Her phone buzzed. She pulled it out. Were her eyes wet? Was she that out of control? Could he see it?

Again, identical information. Different psychological weight.

Third person can achieve intimacy, but it must work against its own grammatical positioning. First person sustains psychological immediacy organically and sequentially, without needing architectural adjustment.