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Lord Jade Cross

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Well, my first thoughts after reading this are that this is a sign of a well written/designed character. This is why I think it is said that characters are the best/most important part of a story. So many conversations around how to pull a viewer/reader into a story revolve around what happens to a character, because you become invested in them to the point that you are emotionally affected by what happens to them.

 

I can't say that I've personally felt an attraction to a character in any capacity, but I do think that emotional affection or attachment is pretty common.

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It could be an indication of romantic/aesthetic/sexual attraction, and it's definitely an indication of emotional investment of some sort. But I think its also possible to feel parental towards a character, or like 'best friends', or strongly identifying with the character to the point of feeling their suffering as though it were your own, picturing yourself in their shoes. I have a character like that right now, except she does not suffer, she laughs as people discover with horror how very messed up she actually is. How much I identify with her varies with how angry I am at the world.

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Like @Osiyo_Waya said, that’s probably the result of a well-written character. Good characters are those who (for books) can empathize with, and feel their pain and successes. Let’s take an easy example: Your favorite character in a movie or book dies. If you are beyond human emotion, it would not affect you, but I’m guessing you’re not. The point of a character is to want to follow their stories, relate with their failures and successes. That’s why overpowered characters might be fun for the creator, but anyone looking at it will probably not be very interested, especially not emotionally. Another easy example: Your friend is crying and asking for help because something bad happened to them. Unless you’re an oaf with emotions, like yours truly, normal people would want to comfort them and feel sad too.

 

Overall, that’s normal, and I don’t think it’s attraction at all.

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I read a series and there have been times when a character dies (set in WWII) it is kind of upsetting.

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I don't know sometimes for me it is the pain or death that gets the reaction out of me because it is relatable. If you have gone through mental illness like me a lot of characters with that or show any signs of what I went through I become attached to them. Same with death everyone has lost someone and we all have to die so i guess emotional attachment is involved. 

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Anthracite_Impreza

Considering I genuinely consider myself to have two brothers who are my own "OCs" (except they aren't really, cos they naturally emerged at a difficult time), and to be my carsona, in soul if not this shitty body I got lumbered with, I'm about as connected as you can be with characters. They're all male cars - the older psychopath I find rather sexy, the younger empath I only ever want to comfort - so yeah, it certainly can be an indicator of attraction. That said, getting emotionally invested in characters, for a large percentage of the population, is just a normal extension of empathy.

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Janus the Fox

My characters Janus, Gwydion and Rhoslyn have parts of me that exist or existed within me, it is a form of Tulpa and Fursona to me.  Janus being a personification of Manic energy as a Fox, Gwydion, the hyperactive child interested in stage magic tricks as a cat and Rhoslyn the rose, female, personification of the depressed self, devil like as a rabbit.  They where vocal hallucinations before forming, they have complex identities with their own interests.  It isn’t part of my own sexuality or fetish areas, can be part of a written role play, Janus has a deeper story arc that played out on Second Life years ago.

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I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with romantic or sexual attraction. Fictional characters allow us to examine parts of ourselves that we like, dislike, fear, or don't understand. They give us a safe way of examining parts of life we can't necessarily in person. They hold up mirrors to us and require us to examine ourselves through them. In turn we use them as channels through which to release emotions that don't necessarily have a specific context in our real lives. People have essentially been producing fanfiction and fanart for milennia. I think there's just something that draws people to fiction that is completely separate from sexuality or romance. 

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