Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character? Have you ever fallen in love with one of your own characters?
No and No. There has, however, been characters that are so well developed I thought if they were real I would like to meet them. Stephen Deadalus, Winston Smith and Benny Profane. All fictional characters I would like to have a drink with.
I had a crush on the Death character from the Sandman comic when I was younger (she's depicted as a cute goth girl). I tend to feel an attraction to some of my female characters.
That's perfectly natural to feel attraction to a character, and Death from Sandman is a cutie, but love?
Yes and yes! All the time, especially if it's a character I can relate to. Right now I'm in love with my own characters, because I'm at the point where I know them so well. I like to think that they're out there somewhere, you know, like real people. It helps the writing process to think that way, but also makes me wodner if I'm a bit doo-lally. P.s I'm talking love as in, you know, a fondness or great liking for the character. Not actually in-love, although I probably did experience that in my early teens at some point.
No and no. Well, I like characters such as Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) because let's face it, who doesn't want a Darcy? But there are characters that I'd love to meet if, of course, they weren't fictional.
No and no. I have never given any thought to a relationship with a fictional character. As for in my own writing, I don't think I could ever love someone who I know as intimately as I know my characters. There is no mystery to them. I know every one of their flaws. I know, in any given situation, exactly what they would say and do. That would make for one boring relationship.
While there are plenty of characters in books, TV shows, and videogames that I wouldn't mind having a drink with if they were real, I don't have any attraction to them. <plus, knowing my luck, a normie falling in love with a protagonist will equal said normie being kidnapped and/or horribly killed by the bad guy> As for my own characters? I know them personally and know how they'd react in a given situation. However, I do not love them to the point where I refuse to let anything bad happened to them. If bad things happen to them, bad things happen. They do the telling and I do the typing. That's how it works.
Never fallen in love with any in the true sense of the phrase, but I've had a couple who I've really, really connect with. It's not about "ooh, he's such a great man!" as "this character is perfect." I suppose I fall in love with my writing, my depiction of certain characters. Other people's characters? No, not so much.
Hey, she's mine! I had a crush on her first. I don't really get crushes on fictional characters, but then again I have as much chance of dating them as dating a real woman, so why not? The last one I had a crush on were Heather from Silent Hill 3, and before that Claire Redfield from Resident Evil 2. (the games, not the crappy movies.) The strange thing is they are very different. Heather was a scared, lonely girl, and Clare a mature, badass zombie-killer. As for my own characters, that's a tricky one. There's one I based on Gina Gershon from the movie Bound (I even called her Gina in the story), and she was my favorite in the story for some time. Another one really grew on me, and even made an apperance in another story I have yet to finish. I can't say I had a crush on them, though.
Yep. Quite a few, actually. When I was in high school I read The Magic Cup by Andrew Greeley and fell in love with Cormac MacDermot. When I picked up my first few romance novels I fell in love with Caleb Black, an old testament type of wild west hero. Lately, it's Jamie Fraser from the Outlander series. All real-men-warrior, protect your woman and kick-some-butt-with-a-secret-soft-side types. Now obviously it's not love of the same kind I have for a REAL person and certainly not the kind I have for my husband...ahem...but there is a genuine concern. I remember not being able to put the Magic Cup down until I was sure the characters were safe. I felt real joy on their behalf, cried for them, and even wished at some point that they were real. Emotional investment.
I mean, as you're reading you should be able to get invested in a character a bit, care about his or her story, etc - a good writer should make you feel as though you care about a character to a degree. But to actually be in love with a fictional character?.... No. I usually just think something along the lines of, "Damn, I wish this person were real, because if he were I'd totally tap that" or, "If this person were real, I'd love to buy him a beer and have a conversation about life." That's about it LOL
I agree, I think many people confuse "having a crush on" and "being in love with". It's not the same.
I had a crush on Danny Phantom when I was younger, if that counts. Seriously, though, I've fallen in love with every Harry Potter character, most of the LOTR characters, and a few Hunger Games characters. Not to mention Star Wars characters....
I suppose I have, in a manner of speaking. My girlfriend happened to roleplay a character that I met via an online game, and thus our characters became romantically involved before we'd even met one another in person. Does that count? Otherwise, no, it'd take a serious strain of mental illness for me to actually end up with a crush on a fictional character, much less fall in love with one. That's just crazy. And quite delusional. Not even Narcissism could shine a candle to that...
I've had crushes, major crushes. Not love. I think I've fallen in love with the concept of them, but not like 'in love.' No, I have never fallen 'in love' with one of my characters, but I have gradually come to love them. At first it started out falling in love with the concept of them, but the more I worked on them ... the more I cared for them, the more I fought for them, the more I felt for them. I've cried, I've been angry, I've been betrayed, I've been blindsided, I've been hurt. I hurt when they hurt, I cry when they cry, I love when they love, I laugh when the laugh... so yes, I love them because they are simply a part of me and they are real. I'm a very empathetic writer.
Cornelius Suttree. I mean, I guess I didn't fall in love with him, but I definitely did love him. That book was so perfectly written I don't know that I'll ever read a book better than it, although I've said that before. I related to that character so well, as I've abandoned and been abandoned. Such a perfectly tragic character. Cormac McCarthy must spend a ridiculous amount of time on just one paragraph. And if he doesn't, he is Jesus.
Well it depends... My first crushes were on John McClane and Ashley J. Williams. John is a noble, foul mouthed badass, while Ashley I loved not because of his badass deadite killin skills, but because he NEEDS someone to like him for him. Seriously, that nasty stint he was in through most of the movies seemed like lashing out, and I never saw him as a jerk by nature, but just pushed WAY too far. But then there's other kind of love, do they count? My vampire Theresa was nothing but a mask to me...until the second session when the Sabbat that turned up wanted us to sleep the day away in coffins. Shiny, black, red lined coffins. I groaned at the campiness. Theresa was ENRAGED! It was the first time I felt a character seperate from me, becoming their own. She loudy and foul mouthedly swore she was never gonna sleep in a F***ing coffin and slept on the cold, filthy floor. I was in awe. And her sister in my Werewolf game is the biggest goofball I've ever made. And I totally did not design her that way. And if I ever met Ziva David from NCIS, I'd probably belt out "I wanna be like you" from the Jungle Book. Cute, tomboyish, undeniably feminine and can kick even Gibb's ass. She's one of my rolemodels. Along with Ellen Ripley, Ayern Sun, Turanga Leela and Zoe from Firefly.
Haha, yeah. Once in a while I'll completely get googley minded about some character I'm reading. But of course they're just fiction. Soon enough I'm brought back to reality every time I close the pages. Yes, I actually kinda fell in love with a stock character I've written into a short story of mine. I wrote him to be kinda handsome so does that count?
Katniss Everdeen ("The Hunger Games"), Dagny Taggart ("Atlas Shrugged"), Eowyn (LOTR) and Legolas (LOTR) are all characters I'd take out for a few drinks. Not that I'm in LOVE with them - being truly in love with a character would be weird - just a normal sense of attraction.
I wondered if there's some lonely guy/woman/girl out there who constantly writes about a character they're obsessed with. You know, like, writes about them to make them seem more and more alive because they're actually in love with them. It'd make a good story in itself, but I wonder if there's some author/hobby-writer out there who has millions of words written down about their imaginary lover? (Sh/t, I might just have to make a short story out of this now!)
