Put your self in movie, show, book stories?

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So there is this thing I have always done and I had always thought it was because of some kind of mental illness but I am thinking is just part of my apsie traits. I have noticed I might have a lot of these little tendencys since I recently found out about it a few months ago.

Do you ever watch shows and imagine your self in the story line as you are watching it? Do you ever imagine that you are an extra character in the story? A hero? An antagonist? Sometimes I think about what I would do if I was in the show or I imagine something cooler than what happens in the show.

I caught my self doing this last night with Frozen and thought...hmm....I know I'm an aspie now....I wonder

For me I think it is part of the way I process emotional or social information, or maybe its just an aspie thing I do for fun idk!

I did that for a big chunk of my life. Instead of imagining myself as a character in a favorite book or TV show, I'd imagine myself into them. Sometimes I'd give myself abilities that I don't have. In fantasies, magical traits or super abilities of course. But in more realistic fare, I'd imagine myself as braver, more capable, able to understand people. It gave me a lot of satisfaction, of course, comfort, because it's easy to understand people when you're controlling all of them!

So maybe it IS an aspie thing, tapping into a desire to be successful socializing, to understand why people are acting as they are, to have people who think you're great and are friends and you don't have to worry about them getting fed up with you. Mental stimming?

Just the other day, I was reading a book & the main character (who was unarmed and had just escaped from a military prison facility) noticed a trail of blood and just decided to follow it. I thought to myself that if I were there with her, I'd tell her to just get out of there. I'd tell her that there's nothing good to see at the end of a trail of blood. Of course, fictional characters always do that kind of stupid stuff...

I do this kind of thing pretty often.

An engaged viewer is neither symptomatic of mental abnormalities nor Aspie traits. Art is supposed to engage the viewer/reader/audience.
Art that tries to limit the audience's ability to put themselves in the characters' shoes typically fails as art.
A viewer/reader who doesn't think about the content (and/or form) and think about being in those situations isn't getting the full experience.

(Of course, some stories try to hold the audience at a distance from some characters, so that we can see their actions first before their motives are revealed.)

I think the viewer/reader should try to ask questions that the writers/crew didn't anticipate, especially in movies/books where not a lot of thought was put into production. (Mystery Science Theater 3000 does a good job of this.)

Do you imagine yourself as the characters? or do you imagine yourself in the same physical space as the characters?

I did this with the Star Wars movies and even video games, and it's quite refreshing.