Well, I've certainly been attracted to fictional characters. Love? Maybe, I'm not sure, but it's possible. Certainly, I never forget they're fictional characters, but I don't think that really matters much.

I really get absorbed in a good story.

There's a decision point in Chrono Cross where you have to decide whether or not you'll personally intervene on behalf of an injured teammate, arguably the real love interest, someone who went far out of her way (and time) to stand up for you.

It's phrased in terms of "not knowing how to help", and the 'reward' for doing that is a plotline which leads to the best NPC wielding the best weapon in the game, possibly excluding the ultimate weapon you get.

The means of obtaining the cure to the poison was just short of obvious, and I clued in right away. So to take that path, I (as in me personally) had to deliberately choose to not help her. Even knowing she'd survive, even knowing she'd get the cure through deux ex machina, I felt so rotten about it that I had to put the game down for a few days until I could look at myself in the mirror.

Contrast this with another book by the title Dr. Death, whose author escapes me. I only got through a few chapters. It was about a Jack Kevorkian analog who was murdered in the first chapter by being placed in his own assisted suicide machine. And I stopped reading when I realized I simply didn't care who did it. Not even for curiosity's sake.

[Edit: Actually, let me add two more examples. Steven Moffatt's characters Renette "Madame de Pompadour" Poisson and Sally Sparrow ("Blink") have been evocative enough to call it love, after a fashion.

In Renette's case, it's not so much an attraction as an admiration of the rather exceptional adult, but in the child Renette's case, it's pure protectiveness. My nature is that of a papa bear. I'm a bit indifferent to kids I don't know well until/unless it's clear they need immediate protection. I can be a bit overprotective after that. Renette qualified, and then some. She (meaning the character) also earned my respect for exceptional bravery in the face of the clockwork machine.

In Sally Sparrow's case, it's simply that "Life is short, and you are hot". She's easy to like, and I'm a sucker for "deep people" with epic eye-smiles.]

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

Imaginary or impossible, like rock stars. Yeah, Freud must have an explanation to it...

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

Just to clarify, I am not "in love" with any of the characters I've mentioned. Remotely. Oh, I say I've been in love with Hawkeye Pierce for years, but it's really just a shorthand. What it means is that the character has quite a few traits that I find desirable, that I would like any real-life person I'm in a relationship with to have. I will also note that it's not, at least on my part, merely a case of "I find that actor really attractive." Of the four I've mentioned, three are characters from books. (So's Hawkeye, but I can't get into the book and think of him pretty much exclusively from the TV show.) There have been several adaptations of Tale of Two Cities, but that wasn't what got me into Sydney Carton. There've been a couple of adaptations of the various Lord Peter Wimsey books, but I actively dislike the first actor to play him for the BBC and am neutral toward the second. Neither of them match up to the Peter who exists in my head.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Maybe the trouble is that love is such a subjective term, with a variety of meanings for each individual. Some use it to mean "warm feelings", others for "intense passion", and a whole spectrum in between.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I'm sure the concept of love is real popular here, especially among science nerds.

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Fields of Space

LOGIC, n.
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

In the Year 2525.

"One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind".

If an astronaut doesn't need good grammar, niether does you.

Host of Seraphim

And some use the word when scoring.

...what, I'm talking about tennis players. This is a family board!

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Tennis players use that word when they didn't score.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

I meant scoring like you score a round of golf, but yeah.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

I know, I just couldn't resist the joke.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Woooo! Hilarious.

Why do you ask, wanting some other male to admit to it before you do?

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Yes, I set a trap for ya.

I've tried to block out the memory of Episode II as best as I can, but didn't Anakin Skywalker murder an entire village of Sand People? Rather antisocial behavior, to say the least.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

No, he didn't do that. George Lucas framed him.

Now after he became Darth Vader...well, that's when Anakin and I part company.

Black samurai helmet, SCUBA breathing and James Earl Jones' voice don't do it for you, eh?

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

:-D :-D :-D :-D

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Kitty Pryde for me.
Wolverine trained, capable of taking out an N'garai on her own, putting Sabertooth down in single combat without resorting her powers, and scaring off Dracula with a Star of David.
I stopped my infatuation after the excretable S.H.I.E.L.D. story where she became yiddish and dumped Pete Wisdom.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Years ago, when I was playing Sakura Taisen, I fell in love with Kanzaki Sumire and Ri Kouran. Well, maybe not "love", exactly, but close enough. Close enough that I couldn't play Sakura Taisen today and feel the same way (I'm married now).

It's just NOT sexy (no offense to anyone wearing full body armour and black samurai helmet reading this)...

And of course after becoming Darth Vader he did become mean and nasty.

Why, Anakin?? WHY??

He broke my heart; I can never forgive him.