[~Why we feel so attached to fictional characters and why we shouldn’t hate post~]

During my studies I was lucky to have made some research on fictional characters and their effects on our mental health
I just thought of sharing some interesting facts with you and maybe raise

awareness. It’s so super important to me to keep our fandom a safe and healthy place for all of us

Did you know that feeling passionate and attached to fictional characters is natural and also highly important for our emotional development?

The way we get so wrapped up in a story, that we start to feel even more empathy than for things IRL? We start looking for peers, a fandom, with whom we can exchange thoughts and ideas with! We can’t wait to hop home from school to meet the characters we feel so attached to while

reading or watching on our notebooks.

Storytelling exist since thousands of years, relating to fictional characters and involving in their worlds is a very human thing.

Of course, not everyone can develop passionate feelings for a fictional world, but there’s nothing wrong

if you do as long as your passion doesn’t end up in obsession and effects your IRL.

Feeling passionate about a fictional world is something not everyone is capable of, since it demands a certain degree of empathy.

There are a few factors on which depend how passionate you can grow for a story’s characters:

1) Insight –
We only know what’s going on inside our own heads, but we often wonder what’s going on in other persons. We want to know what other people are like, how they feel, think,

deduct, etc.
Information we get easily access to in fictional worlds. We can involve in the character’s world, we feel what they feel, we stay at their sides, when no one else is and that creates a special connection between us and our characters.

2) Empathy –
Mirror neurons in our brains can make us feel happy, sad, angry when we see our character experiencing strong emotions. They serve as expansions for ourselves. We were right there, when Dazai clenched his bloody hand into a fist and decided to pursue Odasaku’s last

wish for him. We screamed, we broke into tears when Chuuya saved Dazai in DA before Dazai took care of him.
These emotions are real, our body responds to the stimuli.We feel with our characters as if they are real persons and there’s nothing wrong about being empathic!

()

3) The Mirror –
We often feel attracted to characters, who share our own experiences and also sufferings. We can highly relate to them and the way they deal with their demons, can serve as a motivation to find creative ways to deal with our own struggles, worries and fears.

It’s like holding thew hand of someone, who understands you even better than an actual friend.
We also gravitate to characters, who do what we wish for our own as well. They can push our intrinsic motivation to take the steps, we always were too hesitant to take!

4) The appealing Villain– Yes, even Mori and Fjodor as well deserve their stans!!! They have their reasons why the act the way they do. If the bad guys wouldn’t be around, we would have three seasons of Dazai, Atsu and the other ADA members eating potato chips.

The fictional world is a safe haven for us to explore darker, more immoral versions of ourselves and we all love the excitement without being judged!

As you see – the affection for fictional characters is something super personal, a vulnerable topic.
The revolving topics of death, father figures, the long way of healing from abuse, mental illnesses, etc. are extremely sensitive topics. If you talk derogatory about Atushi,

Dazai, Mori or anyone else you also hurt their fans in a very personal way.

We have a lot of super passionate, creative authors and artists in our fandom sharing their content with us, without demanding anything else than being treated respectful. TWs and Tags help us to decide

if we should view the content or not.
Don't blame others for their perception of characters, they have their personal reasons. Stay respectful and scroll further if you don't feel in line with a Tweet or Thread.

I don’t want to say that it’s not ok to not like a character! There are many characters I could strangle just thinking of them OMG!!!! But there’s a difference of discussing different opinions in a respectful way with someone than to post: “Mori-stans are always like this!” or

“Atsushi should die”.

You wouldn’t say this about anyone else’s family or friends IRL (and if you would, you shouldn’t be in a socal media community in the first place).

It’s not about being muzzled – it’s about that we are a community with real people behind each account,

people with their own past, people with feelings. It’s about being considerate and respectful. We grew up with characters, we know them for years, we’ve gone through so much with them, they motivate us keep going!

Let’s keep encouraging each other, share our passions, discuss our POVs in a respectful way towards each other, stick together through good and bad times – and that is what I would wish for our amazing fandom so much

For everyone who is following me around here:
I can't describe how I grateful I am for any interaction I had with you up until now!I love the passionate and respectful discussions with you, to share HCs, thoughts or just stan about SKK senselessly!
Thank you incredibly much!