so you're using your own definition instead of the acutal defnition. Before you can make such an argument, you must properly define your terms so we're all on the same page.

I'll define obsession as such from dictionary.com:

"1. Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
2. A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion"

Based on this definition, obsession cannot be equated with love as actions of love are not purely governed by unwanted feelings or anxiety. A parent loves their child not out of compulsive behavior based on unreasonable idea or emotion. A parent loves their child regardless of their emotional state. Those that let their emotions directly govern their actions may at times give the appearance of showing love because of the nature of the actions, but fail to acutally love in that their actions are emotionally based.

Here's an illustration:

A parent finds out that their kid has done something terrible.

1. The parent punishes the child in hopes that they will learn from the mistake.

2. The parent punishes the child because what they did made them furious.

One is love and the other is not because the motivations of the action. One has the best interest of the child at heart. They dicipline out of love, the other punishes out of anger. One is a logical choice to achieve a goal, and the other is an emotional reaction.

Another illustration:

There are many times where I feel "love" as an emotion when I'm hooking up with a new girl. The feelings are overwhelming and so for a few weeks we tear each others clothes off and screw like bunnies. These are actions that might appear to be love, but in reality, they are only emotionally based complusive behavior. This situation lines more up with the definiton of obsession.


Feelings as in "i'm feeling hungry" are just as feeting as feelings like, "i'm feeling happy or sad or infatuated." Based on that, you can't promise to feel lovey dovey feelings towards somebody for forever any more than you can promise to always be happy. So in order to promise be able to make a committment to love somebody, love must be more than an emotional state as you can't promise to maintain any single emotional state.

And that last bit wasn't directed at you. It was just be going on a bit of a rant because I've seen the whole, Love is a feeling/ Love is a choice argument on this board several times.

Impressive. Were you ever involved in parlimentary debate? If not, then you might want to consider it.

I have to agree with him, Visavi. How were we to know that whinehurst was making up his own definition of the word if he didn't tell us otherwise? It was a logical assumption (on my part, at least) that he was using the standard definition of the word.

In an effort to avoid whatever is happeneing here between whitehurst, Alice and Gelf, I am going to go ahead and proclaim that any asshole who "falls in love with" a fictional character should be castrated.

Fiction is fiction, guys. If you're obsessing over a fictional character, take it as a note to get out a little bit more.

Reminds me of Holden McNeil in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back:

"These are fictional characters. Fic-tion-al char-ac-ters! Am I getting through to you at all?"

This whole thread got derailed because people misunderstood what gaming was asking.

Since gaming is into drawing and graphics, he was wondering if anyone liked a character based on the look--the way they were rendered.

Instead of reading the topic title--how about reading the first post?

Someone should make a thread called "do you like having sex with children?" and then in the message body type "do you like kids?" If anyone protests, they can just say "How about reading the first post instead of the title?"

Also, the poll results sadden me greatly and cause me to fear for the future of humanity.

How about a spin-off conversation which, you know, gives more discussion than "yea, I like how Yuna's ass is drawn. Thats why I like Yuna."

I mean, seriously. What the fuck were we supposed to discuss with that original topic?

Also, I DID read the first post and I STILL read what we are discussing now. I mean, even the poll suggests we're on the right track.

How is liking the way a character is designed "considered weird and freakish for normal people?" The freakish and weird part implies that he's got a little more attachment than just, "I love the way that looks."

whoa, I missed a flurry of activity. But no matter, for my issues seem to be drawing to a close.

AliceNWonderland, MeTheGelfling, I am happy to report that something you said has made sense to me. This is in regaurd to how "Love" was being defined, and as I hope you can see, there is a similar misunderstaning in your use of "Love" as there was with my use of "Obsession"

The concept I have of Love is that it is an emotion that people feel, and I'm not wrong in this, as the very first definiton that appeard in a "define:love" serach on Google reported this:

Emotion being a key word here I decided to run a similar search

Another serach on Feeling gave me the run-around back to Emotion, leading me to belive they are synonomous.

That being said, I have now come to the realization that what you actually intended by the word Love is rather a concept more akin to Commitment. A word, a conecpt, that is more permenate and character defining; along the same lines as Honor and Loyalty. I do not doubt that on this new defination of Love, we can all agree. Or at least us three.

Again I'm the first to admit that I failed to define Obsession in acceptable terms before hand, try as I might. But that issue, I think, has passed, so mea culpa, my bad, whatever. I'm glad we have that all settled out now.

Welcome to the fray, Neus. I don't expect you thought to pass by this vortex without getting sucked in somehow.

Yes. I can not truely argue how it feels to be in love (I hope such word choice as 'feel' won't get me in trouble here). What I can do, and attepmted to do, was argue the meaning behind words. And what better way to look at words, or anything really, then with logic? After all, we are creatures of logic, for what are words than a vain attept to categorize and sort the chaos that surronds everyday life? And with such a varity of words as found in the English language, and with each word possessing layers of meaning, I love nothing more than to string them together into little paper airplanes and let them fly around in the abyss we call the internet, to meaninglessly pass some by and land with the weight of giants on others.

Well, maybe not the weight of giants, but at least get noticed, knowwhatimean?

I don't think that it's normal to be passionately in love with them, like having their picture all over your wall or something, but just thinking that a character is really hot is different.

I think having that type of feeling for an imaginary character is still pretty weird.

I gotta say, I believe one of my original arguments still applies, which is that it's entirely possible for someone to fall in love with a fictional character. Whoever does actually fall in love with a fictional character has blurred the line between fantasy and reality, which is very bad, but it's still possible.

I think that the "Love for your work" thing gets streached when you say that you want to have sex with a character that you created.

I still don't think this is possible under what I consider to be love as stated earlier. Instead the word love here is used to represent something more along the lines of admiration. Here a person is "in love" with a fictional character but really they just admire the ideals that the character embodies.

Oh, I do agree as well. I didn't mean it as sarcasm. I just never seen anyone actually use the technique that he used except in Debate. I thought it was clever.

Well I can't say 'In love', but I have had crushes and attractions.... my cousin and I thought that Locke from FFVI kicked ass and thought he was hot... we even made jokes like buying a big screen tv so large that the pixle character was large enough to hug into!

anyone who is a fan of media can have a attraction to the people envolved, real and fictional alike.... it makes the fandom a little more fun! for example I currently think that Hugh Jackman is really hot... more so when he plays Wolverine in the X-men movies, Cloud from FFVII is cool too! Too bad he's not real ^_^

Never in love, I think that's weird, but I could understand it for computer and gaming people, probably because I'm stereotyping. I'm under the impression that this doesn't mean serious love and moreso of "strong admiration" or "infatuation".

I did like the kind of person that Daria was when I saw the show on air still, but I just think it'd be creepy to confess intense love. The whole time I was wondering: "I wonder if there's anyone in real life that's like Daria?" She intrigued me very much, but didn't evoke any feelings like that.

Yup! I was very much like Daria when I was in high-school, I even looked like her to a certain extent... the only real difference between me and her are I don't wear glasses, and I don't talk in a monotone voice.

My best friend is also a artist and was just as sarcastic as Jane in high-school.

When people ask me what I was like in high-school, I just tell them to watch Daria.

yes, the word love is quite strong here, but once i found that sheik was female...i had some other good reasons to play zelda...

When I was 11 I though Cammy from SSFII was drawn really hot... and so was Psylocke from X-Men comics. Once in 6th grade the teacher called on me when I wasn't paying attention and asked me to answer some question. I replied with, "Cammy's a babe!"

I would say that if someone holds a mental image of an ideal, they're already in love with a fictional character. If someone else creates a character that matches reasonably with said ideal, it'd be hypocritical to find that weird. So yes, it's normal.

My point is this has turned into another "what is love?" thread. Do we really need another one of those?

Perhaps if this had been in the Artist forum, it'd make sense.

As for the "weird for normal people" thing...."normal" is being used to describe anyone who doesn't play video games and such. So, maybe the poll needs re-wording.

Falling in love with say, Mrs. Pac-Man (love those curves) is no different than a photo of what was once a real person in a popular fashion magazine or whatever. Same amount of fancy technical computer magic.

Me, I'm in love with Colonel Sanders modern day cartoon logo version where he's just a giant chicken nugget head. What a dreamboat! :dopey_love: