I'm not sure exactly when it started, but I did first noticed the term "Yumeshipping" on the Twisted Wonderland community, around when the game launched on 2022 in USA (it released in 2020 for JP). I think it's because of the nature of gameābeing a self-insert, and no Otome gameplay to speak offāit naturally game people more reason to ship themselves with the characters. Same with Obey Me! (Which another fandom I was heavy in at the time), tho I only saw Yumeshipping in the feed of the game AFTER it was popular on Twisted Wonderland Feed.
I did see Fans of Genshin that also played Twisted Wonderland referring their post of OC's/their-self-insert-character's as their "Yume" along with clarifying it was a self-insert. Now I don't claim that's where it started, but it's really fun to think about.
On a side not: I REALLY RECOMMEND TWISTED WONDERLAND FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN IT. It's not beginner friendly, and it takes a crap ton of time to advance in the game, along with the insane gacha system (you think Genshin had it bad?), it's not a good experience. BUT. You can find YouTube channels that post the story. And you're looking for good story, I think it's solid.
Personally I think Venti fans would LOVE Lilia. He's my fave and share's a lot of similarities with Venti.
OMG this has been more of a rant...lmao sorry Elli.
P.S. I'll clarify anything that was not understood or anything questions on the comments.
K bye, I'm talking(texting) too much šš.
Aww yuri dont apologize!! I like having discussions like this so feel free to yap as much as you want hereā°(*“︶`*)āÆā”
I used to play twisted wonderland during its launch release bcs riddleās design intrigued me and im a sucker for alice in the wonderland aesthetics (yes i was playing everything in jp at that time and im already used to it cuz im an enstars jp player in 2017 lol)
But now that youāve mentioned it, i do remember seeing the yume term around that time in twitter but i really didnt paid it too much attention cuz i thought it was a term for certain fandom and not as a general basis to address selfshipping
Eventually tiktok/short reels became a mainstream in every platforms and oc x canon artists dove straight into this media and drew genshin charas with their ocs.
I usually check usersā profile and bios to understand what type of content they do and they put these ā(insert chara name) yumeā along with it. That kinda clicked it for me since i easily understood that yume means dream in english and i thought it was aimed for oc x canon enthusiasts š
Welp as long as everyoneās having fun and respecting each other then thereās no harm in doing it! My only fear is now that selfshipping is gaining attraction in a form of short videos, i just hope reader insert fanfics dont get a lot of hate and get bashed on if someone decides to make a video of them š„²