In love with a fictional character?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Cellius

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.

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:

Spoiler:

Hibiya explains to Hideki about Freya's past and how she died (or so they thought) simply from intense grief she was experiencing

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.