i feel like when i was younger i exclusively did the first thing, just relate to the main character. but now it’s more fascinating to zoom out more.
ex I’m watching Black Swan atm and instead of being like oh dancing is hard the teacher wants to fuck me etc, I’m thinking about like, that’s a lot of effort just to do ballet, which the opening 5 minutes establishes is a completely irrelevant art form
I do immerse myself in the story, but I don’t necessarily emphasise with the protagonist. The most recent example of that would be Dune for me, where I’ve read the first two novels before the movies and therefore didn’t really want Paul to succeed.