In love with a fictional character?
 

I was having a conversation with a girl friend of mine and we came over this topic. She kinda laughed when I said I liked Yuna from FFX.
Is it considered weird and freakish for normal people? (I come from a gaming world and I do a lot of graphics).

Can some moderator change the second options to: "It's normal for computer/gaming people" instead? Thanks!

"girl friend" lol a space changes so much.

I am in love with Rydia from Final Fantasy IV.

I know a girl friend who is in love with Edward Elric from full metal alchemist ;)

Well, she's not my girlfriend. Just a friend that's a girl. Just wanted to point that out. And she doesn't play much games, maybe msn games or something like that.

Please be honest and vote on this poll. I want to see the results :)

I guess this is not just restricted to video game characters.
I love Jack Bauer.

Sup Rockgamer.

I dunno. It seems like once you fallen in love with the real thing, a fictional character will never come close to that experience.

I voted it was pefectly normal for anyone to love a fictional character--gamers or otherwise.

But, to be honest, I like Auron from FFX, and a male friend of mine is in love with Lulu's boobs......

I have never actually loved any fictional character, although I will admit that I empathise particularly with Freya from Chobits. This had never happened before, and hasn't happened since. I keep a picture of her on the shelf of my bed's headboard. I do not have an infatuatory purpose for keeping the picture, suppose I just view Freya as being a kindred spirit to my own, in a sense.

I hope that doesn't sound too weird.

Maybe I should have been more specific.
I'm not talking about real love here (like going on a date etc.)
I just think Yuna is pretty and the way she was rendered. But if anybody in here have actually been IN LOVE with a fictional character, please do tell :D

That is a really superb way of putting it. Would you say it's more a love of what that character represents than it is loving the person representing it? Because if so I imagine something like this would be seen as far more "acceptable" than being in love with the character itself.

Never loved a character per se. But I definitely had some favorites or characters I thought were very nicely fleshed out. Now as far as enjoying a character's presence in a game? Well...:

I also always thought Rydia from FFIV was quite a neat character. Had a pretty rough life but you never really heard her complain about it. Plus, Yoshitaka Amano's artwork on her was gorgeous. Eat yer' heart out, Rosa.

Yuri from Shadow Hearts was a character that I thought was nicely fleshed out. Kinda fella who'd been through a hellish life and just bottled it up, only letting out a wise-ass crack on occasion with a cocky grin on his mug. He'd be getting torn up on the inside or his soul was in jeopardy. But in SH2, you really get the feeling across that the poor guy didn't have a will to live anymore following what happened at the end of SH1. This made for a depressing but interesting character. Typically you'd see folks who had a bad life and they'd be all emo or bitchy. Yuri was one of the first kinds of protagonists I saw in a game that put up a facade so that no one would get close or think there was much wrong with him. A complex anti-hero =o Or so I figure.

Falling in love with characters? No.
Having a preference and an interest in seeing them? Yes.

Don't go thinking I go looking at Yuri yaoi or Rydia-on-Edge Hentai any crap like that.

Changed the poll option for you.

Thanks Rydia. But what's your opinion on this?
I'm most interested in what girls think about this topic.

I made a thread a while back about having crushes on fictional characters, and for me, it was Daria in particular. Her affect, her sense of independence, but also her underlying empathy and moral character made me think that if she were a real character, we'd probably be pretty compatible. I'm attracted to intelligence, so I don't think I'd shy away from someone who could probably school me in more area than one.

I wouldn't say she's a mirror image of me, but there were enough complementary things about her character that I guess "kindred spirits" is as good a term as any.

This has happened a few times. I end up becoming infatuated with a strong, influencial character which are always females.

The first that I know of was Aeris from FF7. Cute personality with strong moral support made for a stellar 'angelic' character in the game. I was around 13 years old then.



The second is a lot more recent. Kaylee from the show "Firefly", more notably from the movie "Serenity." She portrays an almost child-like attribute of cuteness and kindness aboard the Serenity although they are almost always thrown into danger.

I have a big thing for cute (not hot) girls with that sincere and compassionate attitude. :/

Well, hmm. When I first watched Chobits, I was in a particularly difficult time in my life. A lot of things sucked, and I was feeling, very, very depressed. I don't mean OMG EMO depressed, but more like, despair depresed. So, when I saw the next to last episode where:



I sort of thought, "Hey, someone else that feels very sad." The more I thought about it, the more began I really felt quite bad for her, even though she is just a character in a show/manga. I've seen a lot of sad anime and read a lot of sad books, and it had never gotten to me like that before. And it hasn't since. I think it was probably because I was depressed, but still...

But anyway, I don't love Freya herself. Perhaps a certain amount of admiration, (she kept going and never told anybody how she felt, even though the intensity of the pain was causing irreversible damage to her systems) but not love. I suppose when I look at the picture I am just reminded of how I empathised with her character and what she went through.

I feel like I'm in love with a lot of fictional characters because the immersion in the game, movie, book, or show is so good that I feel what the characters feel.

This is in almost 100% of all cases. For instance I felt like I was in love with Tifa, Rinoa, and Garnet from the FF series. Because I strongly felt like I was Cloud, Squall, and Zidane. But also in a lot of cases I have an infatuation with a fictional character regardless of my pov, and it sometimes goes beyond simple appearance but I get a feel for their personalities and how our chemistry would be if we had met or something and create imaginary scenarios in my head [i did this when i was young though!] for fun. Like with Misato and Asuka from Evangelion, Sango from Inuyasha, and other characters.

But to make the entire thing simple... do I think fictional characters are hot? Yes. I do.

It's messed up.

They're not real, man. And unlike being obsessed about someone that actually does exist, there is no possible happy conclusion. You can't go up and confess and take your chances. ...Man, it gets more absurd when I think about it. :tpg:

BTW, are you talking about love "love" or attraction "love?" The former is most definitely the sign of an obsession gone out of hand, but the latter is understandable. Some characters are just hawt, okay? Sex appeal is a perfectly legal tactic for getting a fan base. :tpg:

It;s pretty easy to fall in love with a character, especially when you get somewhat involved with the storyline. It's not hard, really..

However, the love of this kind, is quite hard to categorize, as it skirts close to idolatory

I dunno about falling in love with game charas, but I've fallen in love with characters from books. Mostly Erik/the Phantom of the Opera, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre (waa! so girly!). I've found myself fairly attracted to manga characters also.

Of course, it's nothing creepy or anything. I have a healthy appreciation for real people, thank you very much.

No offense, but if you can love Jesus or the Prophet Muhammad or whoever, I bet you can surely love a fictional character if it's done well enough.

I like a couple of fictional characters, but some of this is partly fueled by the fact that the actresses that play them are cute.

Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) from Smallville. She just has that quirky attitude about her that I just love, not only that, but she's a smart, inquisitive person as well. And she's cute.

Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) from All My Children (I swear to god I only watch this show when she's on it, and that's only because my sister got me to like her). She's cute as fucking button, she has a really nice attitude, and she's a lesbian. Fucking win! I would marry this woman if she were real (well, there's that whole lesbian thing as well).

Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) from Gilmore Girls. She's an intelligent, funny, all-around cool person that I would love to hang out with. She's also cute.



Spatula has a mancrush on Jack Bauer. LOL, who doesn't?

I don't see any problem at all. I mean, if boys find out that they are gay because they fall in love with Squall or Tidus, then it's even helpful!

My mom and sister have always hated Chloe, but I never really minded her too much. I guess it's a guy thing :D

Me, with the exception of Queen Amidala, I always seem to fall in love with any character Natalie Portman plays, epecially her character Sam in Garden State. She reminded me so much of a normal person, and to top it off, someone I actually know and love in real life. Regardless, Natalie Portman will be my wife someday, so fuck all you haters :)

In terms of the poll, I think it's normal... I think it's a tad weird to fall in love with game characters, but eh, to each his own.

Thats allowed though, for both men and women.

OK, I have a strong opinion on this because of an experience I had.

First off, let me say that I think it's completely normal to fantasize or to be infatuated with a fictional character. If there are things about a character that appeal to you, whether it's their looks, their persona, their attitude, whatever, then what's the problem with admiring those things?

HOWEVER, I dated a guy who confessed to me (after we had gotten pretty serious) that for years he had literally been IN LOVE with a fictional character. I tried to get him to say that he had been obsessed with her or had a crush on her that he knew to be unrealistic and that he could differentiate these feelings he had for her from real love, but he could not be persuaded. He considers her to be his first "true love." He told me that it had been a life-changing experience for him. (This was a television character that he had incorporated into his D&D game, btw.)

I think it goes without saying that this revelation of his was the beginning of the end for the two of us, and if he had mentioned this early on in the relationship it would have been instant game over, which is probably why he waited as long as he did to tell me.

Now, pay attention. That's sick. You can not LOVE a person who isn't real. There has to be interaction between two people, mutual chemistry and appreciation, etc. Anything else is just obsession. It is NOT real love.

I voted "weird" before I saw gaming's clarification - because it is definitely weird to actually be in love with a fictional character. But to identify with or be attracted to a character is what every writer hopes to accomplish with those who read/watch/play their work.

Speaking of Jack Bauer, though - every 24 character I get attached to ends up dying.

Actually being in love with a character? No. Being attracted to the character based on how he/she was drawn/rendered? Yes.

I don't see how it's possible to actually fall in love with a fictional character, but I most certainly know that you can obsess over a character and grow feelings for them that would class you in the the "Rabid Fan" category.

What AliceNWondrland said summed it up nicely:
In some cases however, people could tend to grow a preference to real people through characters in games/animes/cartoons. Like me for instance. During Digimons peak years here in the states (1999-2000), I was obsessed with Sora from the first two seasons. Feeling that way about her caused me to develop an attraction to shoulder length, red-headed girls.

That preference still exists with me today, but I keep myself open 'cause I know I'll probably never find someone with those qualities.

*goes back to trying to complete his Krystal picture collection*

Working in the live theater, I can fully understand falling in love with a character. Good direction and good acting can convey some strong emotions to the audience. The point of going to a live theater instead of a movie theater is to be a lot more intimate and candid with the story and characters. I remember at the end of Anton Chekov's 'Three Sisters', a lot of people, both men and women, were really in tears by the end of the show (of course, these are 'theater people' we are talking about) because the actors pushed a heavy tone of saddness and grief, being in the positions they were in. The job of the live theater is to sell the illusion that these people actually exist. These illusionary people have real dilemmas and personalities, and you have a window in to their world. On that note, I have voted to say, yes, it is possible to fall in love with a fictional character.

On the other hand...

Alice makes a good point of, love with a fictional character can be an unhealthy obsession. I don't necessarily agree with her, but I do believe that dude she was with was messed up. I can understand not wanting to date someone, but refusing to date someone because you have an obsession with someone you can't ever be with is a mental problem. Besides, you'd probably be crazy to not want to date Alice :love:

Now if I had my choice of dating any woman, I know who I would date (I'm sorry Alice, you didn't make the list), and they are real flesh and blood. If I wanted a fictional character, I would probably say Aya Brea from Parasite Eve for her iron will and strong confidence, or Jane Lane from the cartoon Daria, for her cynical sarchasm, yet light hearted enough not to be a complete asshole (there is a delicate balance there). I also reall like Jane's bro Treant, and of course Ms. Morgendorffer is a hoot and a holler too.

Well, the guys at my high school and I had a mutual hatred toward one another. Over half of the guys at my college, and about 95% within my major, are homosexual. Most of the men I meet are either really great friends or very creepy/clingy dates. Yeah, and I just discovered a week ago that I'm the only single female of all my female friends (and not just the close ones).

I think having little crushes over a fictional character is fine. Sometimes you need it to keep your mind off the whiny females in society who believe that not having a serious boyfriend by the time you're 20 means you're life is over :rolleyes:. As long as you realize that they are not real, and that those who fantasize over live action characters know that these people probably have other loves in their life, then it's fine. Just keep the barrier and keep looking elsewhere.

There are some fictional characters whom I really admire. I just think to myself, it'd be great if I personally knew people like these. Sometimes the way they appear they look as if they are perfect in their own world. Out there I'm sure there's characters like these, but I do not know them, at least not yet.

I'm not really out to go on about rendered/drawn characters, I know the actress of the character has a different life, but it's the way it's presented to you. I'm sure our interpretation of love would be different but it'd be like perhaps how I love my SNES or whatever.

I voted its normal for gamers, but actually in love? b.c i have had some dreams about cortana, but love??

Falling in love with traits that are presented by fictional characters, and wanting to find those in real people, I can see that as feasible.

Falling in love with the fictional character? Umm go get some help, because that's just a bit over the edge. I can deal with the infatuation bit, the sex appeal that does sell some characters, but to read any more into that, you need to take a step back and make sure you've got a good grip on reality.

I know there's been some characters in movies/series that I figure, damn I wish I could meet someone that nice in real life, but that's usually the extent of it. I don't think I've ever fantasized about a fictional character, only about real people that they resemble.

I must admit it's happened to me a few times. The first time I saw an ad for Everquest in a PC Gamer mag I totally fell in love with whoever that spokeschick suppsed to be, but that was just a physical thing and I eventually had to break it off.

Then in high school my friend introduced me to a manga called Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnum, for japonophiles who need to be picky) and I still have a thing for the main character in that series, Alita (or Galley, whatev). It's pretty much the only manga I read, just because it has that X factor where I just really, really like it.

So how could you define real love? I'm sure you'd be very adamant in saying that true love exists, but a cynic such as myself can always say that ideal is stemed from cultural conditioning - too many chick flicks and Hallmark greetings cards have etched the illusion of love into your mind to the point where you believe it to be real.

Now I'm not saying I don't believe in love - I see the way people interact with each other and the varieties of love (romantic love, brotherly love, love between parent and child) and since I have felt deep seeded hatred of other people it's not hard for me to expect that I can feel the oppisite towards others as well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that love, and hate for that matter, both are feelings that stem from obsession; unlike the black and white seperation you defined, how can love be described except a controlled degree of obsession? Is not love the act of careing deeply for someone? Is not hate the act of, in it's basic nature, careing deeply about someone as well? And is not obsession the act of caring for something deeply?

So then I must say it is entirely possible to fall truely in love with a fictional character - I don't believe it has to be an interaction either; haven't you had a crush on a real life indivdual who didn't return the love? The problem then, in your personal situation, was that he had only blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, or rather the line beween what is physically possible and what is not. And that, by a majory vote, is most definately insane (or sick, if you wanna call it that).

All I'm trying to say is that it is entirely plausable for someone to truly fall in love with a fictional character and the only thing that keeps it from going to far is a clear distinction between reality and fantasy (which I have always prided myself on keeping).

That's exactly how I would have said it if I was any good with words. I don't think it's that uncommon for the personality traits of fictional characters to be desired, or loved to use such a strong word, or perhaps for physical traits to be lusted after (in a fantasy world you can find truly perfect people, especially physically...). But truly in love with a fictional person seems to be taking things a little too far.

That's where you're wrong. Love is not just a feeling, for one thing, and I also disagree that it stems from obsession.

You're right in that there are many kinds of love, but the feelings that accompany all of them are just a side effect. The way I know I truly love my husband and children is because I know that I would sacrifice my life for any of them, that I would do whatever it took to make them happy, even at the expense of my own happiness. We have a history together...memories (good and bad), we've made one another the center of our lives. We admire and celebrate the good things about each other and we also know each other's bad traits, and we stick together anyway. That's love. Anything else is just infatuation.

I think it's normal as long as it's not obsessive, like hanging a million posters of that character on your wall etc. It's normal to have a crush or admiration for a fictional character. It happens to me quite often. I like many manga characters. A few notables with other fictional characters are Edmond Dantes (The Count) from the Count of Monte Cristo, since he's always described as extremely handsome and cunningly smart. And then there's the pity factor. Also the infamous Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Simply the perfect man ever written.

You know, characters like that I understand an infatuation.

Listen, I don't have any personal experience dealing with the romantic notions of love, so I'm only working with what I've observed.

Now that I've said that, how is anything you discribed above not a form of obsession? "We've made one another the centure of our lives"? Admit it, you are obsessed with your family. How could you not be? If you wern't, then I'd be concerned. You should be obsessed with your husband and your children, because they are your life. And anybody who isn't obsessed with their own life, who has lost interset in their own life, is ten seconds from jumping off a bridge.

You must be thinking that obsession is always a bad thing, and it's not. I just think the meaning behind the word implies a massive amount of careing. So love, as an emotion (and love has to be an emotion/ feeling, are you kidding me?) stems from obsession: if love=caring+caring and obsession=caring+caring then love=obsession.

The rest of my argument was just that other emotions stem from obsession as well, such as hate (most would consider the opposite of love) because to truely hate something you must care an aweful lot about it.

In my opinion, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's self. Love always focuses on the other person, and what can be done to make them happier, but selfishness only cares about me, myself, and I.

But that's for another thread.

It's just plain weird, wrong, geeky/nerdy and completely idiotic. That's sticking to the fact that we're talking about "love".

Eh, that would depend on how "deep" the lurve would be, I'm supposing. Having a slight infatuation would be ok, a full blown crush might be as well, as long as it's not "acted on" in any way. (Take whatever meaning you want from that.)

I've never had any kind of deep feelings of that for any fictional character. I have looked at the front of my copy off and on to look at Yuna's face on the cover of the FFX-2 box after I first purchased it, but that about as close as I've gotten.

Really? So, you've never heard of anyone looking at a painting and falling "in love" with the subject--simply based on how it looked?

gaming isn't talking about dating--if that was the subject, then I don't think I would have mentioned that a friend of mine liked the way Lulu's boobs looked....

Weird, especially if someone breaks up with a real person for one on a Ps2 DVD rom.

So admittedly, you're hardly the expert. Why not consider Alice's opinion as she is somebody who has had personal experience dealing with romantic notions of love... she's married and has kids.

So the idea of putting others before yourself equates to obsession? That's a pretty twisted perspective.

I don't know what that little math equation was about but equating caring for something and being obsessed with it are extremely different. Obsession implies compulsive behavior based on emotion which is not even close to love. I take care of my friends, my family, but am I obsessed with them? The idea about love being a feeling is silly. Can you promise to love somebody forever? Sure, you do when you get married. I'll bet that Alice loves her husband and her kids and she will continue to do so for as long as she's here. If loving somebody was merely a feeling, then you couldn't promise to love someone any more than you could promise to have a headache for the rest of your life.

Love is choosing to put another person before yourself despite your feelings at the time. It's easy to love somebody when you're enfatuated with them and you're glowing for just having a roll in the hay. It's not easy to love them when they piss you off and make you upset.

So based on this can you acutally love a fictional character? Not a chance. You may be inspired by the ideas, values, and beauty that they represent but you cannot put their needs before your own, you cannot be kind to them regardless of your feelings, you cannot be patient with them when they offend you, because they aren't real.

This argument about whether or not love is a feeling has never been settled on this board because every now and then another 14 year old comes along feeling reflective and they figure that the overwhelming emotions associated with a first huge crush, or even worse, when some kid on here gets laid for the first time at 17 and thinks they have "love" all figured out.

well, what the hell, I'm on a roll - might as well talk about this as well

The way I see it is this: student.elon.edu/mbell2/!file/obsession.png
Yes, I am lame enough to go into mspaint and create a visual aid.

My point, Piccalo, is that since love and hate are emotions, and self...isn't, then self can not be the opposite of love. Rather, self is a target of love (or any varying degree of obsession). Thus, the story of Narcissis - a man so egotistical he fell deeply in love with his own reflection. Selfishness is defined as self-love, as self-obsession. Other's can also be a target of love, as I said in an ealier post: parents, brothers, children.

I know this wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, but I want to use it to facilitate a point. I have no doubt that people who fall madly in love with fictional characters have several issues to work out and I am upset with people who can not comprehend the difference between reality and fantasy.

Even though it's insane, I do not doubt that it's entirely possible for a person to, in the true sense of the phrase, fall in love with a fictional character.

It's normal to a point. You can like a fictional character, like they're personality, looks, and sex appeal. But the day someone says that they're going to marry that character, make they're boyfriend/girlfriend dress up as that character, and live out their fantasy with them...that's a little to freaky.

You might say, How do you know this? Well I've seen some very rabid fans do this. For instance one Gojyo fanbrat had her boyfriend grow his hair out, dye his it red, pick up smoking and dress like him. A few months later once her Gojyo obsession had passed, she broke up with that boyfriend.

I admit, I like a lot of anime characters. I love them in the sence that they are my favorite characters and they have some personality traits that I like. But that's as far as I go. I mean, I wouldn't have anyone cosplay as one of them for fantasy purpouses or find some look alike and say right "I will mary that man...right now!" Those are the people who give liking fictional characters bad names and make the rest of them who happen to like them seem like weirdos to the rest of the world....

In short, It's normal if you can relize that they're not real and not try to make them that way....

I say it's perfectly normal. I have a lot of friends who admire fictional characters, but they don't love them.

Like Alice said... you can't love a fictional character. They don't exist. Moreso it should be described as infatuation, because, you want them, but you can't share thoughts & feelings with a fictional character. It just can't happen.

A huge chunk of the internet is bombarded with furry lovers as well. I see some of them saying they want to marry furries, or have sex with them badly. I'd say that's going insane - it would be normal to just admire them, draw non-pr0n images of them, etc.

Sadly to say, I think I classify myself as insane. There's a lot of furry/video game characters I seem to obsess over. That, and some characters from animated movies/TV shows. I remember I had a huge infatuation for Lisa Simpson for about a half-year, about two years ago. Somehow I'm glad I got over that...

Any anthromorphic furry is easy to fall in 'love' with - Krystal from Star Fox Adventures being an example. And I especially seem to love Pokemon. Like Treecko - the green gecko in my avatar.

Haha... I'd tell more, but this post would be excessively long, and I think it already is.

oh man, I failed to refresh the page to see MeTheGelfling's post ealier. And since it's directed at me, I feel obligated to reply.

First, let me try and answer the misunderstanding with the way I'm using the word "obsession":

I am aware that the term obsession is defined as something along the line as:

"A persistent, repetitive, and unwanted thought. Cannot be eliminated by logic or reasoning."

"A recurring, unwanted idea that cannot be eliminated. Obsessive ideas are often unreasonable and disturbing. Preoccupation with an obsessive idea can interfere with normal daily activities."

and a slew of others that poped up in Google, and even though I could make an argument bending them in the way I want, I won't bother. Because the point I want to make is this: I only hijacked the word Obsesion to use as a blanket term meaning "careing deeply about something". I did that because I can't think of another word that means exactly that. So, by my definition, I would certainly hope that AliceNWonderland "cares deeply" about her family. Otherwise, she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on, does she?

I know you're thinking of obsession with all the negetive connotations it comes with, and it's my fault for not making my definition clearer, but I'm pretty sure I said something along the lines of
to try and claify what I meant.

I agree the little math equation was pretty lame, but I am obviously having trouble translating my opinions into words.

Wait, are you serious? I didn't expect anybody to have trouble wrapping their mind around the concept that I mean feeling as an emotion and not feeling as in "feeling hungry" or "feeling tired" And if you're going to turn around and tell me that Love isn't an emotion then I will go throw myself off my third story balcony. And I think that's all that needs to be said about that...


Lastly, and I'm not entirely sure if this bit was aimed at me or not, but just in case...
As I was literally the first to admit, I have never (and I use the word never in the only sense it can be used) had a relationship with a girl or even a boy - so I can't deduce why you'd go and compare me with a 14 year old with a crush or, worse yet, a 17 year old who got laid for the first time. I think, and this seems perfectly logical, that as a neutral observer I am in a good postion to make these kinds of observations. You know, so I don't let personal feelings, sorry, emotions get in the way and all that. I'm basing all this on logical reasoning.

Come back here after you've been with the same person for twelve years and tell me if you still think that love is an emotion.

I think that in the beginning there needs to be strong emotions or real love won't develop, but those feelings you're placing so much emphasis on fade with time.

Therein lies your problem and the reason why Alice's argument is far more valid than yours ever will be.
You see, it's perfectly natural to reason through photosynthesis, cellular respiration, nuclear fusion and artificial insemination - not love. Scientific concepts can be reasoned through but love needs to be lived through to be understood. One simply needs to accept this and trust the wisdom and life experience of older people.
I sympathize with you, good sir. I, too, have no experience with love or romantic involvements, but I understand that I cannot discuss either until I actually experience them.

On the topic at hand ... I can certainly say I've been attached to a fictional characters. But love ... pfft. The very idea seems too ridiculous to discuss.
It's rather normal, me thinks, to be attached to a well written chracter. I found myself identifying and relating to Anil from Oondaatje's Anil's Ghost. I will admit I've felt a certain emotional attachment to her, but I consider that to be a sign of great literature, not of my flawed outlook on life.

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:

Usually fictional characters are the most near to what everyone wants (near to perfection) so for me its completely normal. Why do people like the actors or actresses? Becuz them act and the people fall in love with the roles they play in their movies.

Ya are right, its now obsession now not love. But if you think about it, they feel like they are interchangeable. Love = obsession, well it's more like love is an obsession, and love leads to obsession.

And for me, I respect what the characters do, instead of trying to fall in love and contempt with my feelings for them.

ps: IMO, respect for those who are higher up than you because some how they made it up there. Though it's sorta different when it's obtained/reached/accomplished thru luck, like the lottery or such.

Are we talking about serious love or just "Oh he's hot, I love that pixelated man" I adore plenty of fictional characters, game characters but that doesn't mean I want to have a marriage with them.

Alice wrote this earlier but there's nothing wrong with being infatuated or fantasizing about fictional characters, people fantasize about their potential partner without knowing who they are. But being in love with someone that you KNOW isn't real, that is a problem... especially if you go around saying that they are your true love or that you've never loved anyone else like you've loved Yuna. This is about as insane as being in love with an object, except if you're in love with your car, people will just think you're obsessed, in love with a game character? You're obsessed, and weird. :p