Fanthropological

Should we get emotionally attached to fictional characters? Of course we do, intentionally or not… but _should_ we? No guarantees that we get anywhere near addressing that, but we definitely dig into how and why people get attached to characters (for good reasons… and for reasons)! In particular, we talk about: * The (non-)distinction between fictional and real characters… and real people? * How writing has gotten better, and how people can relate to even villains * How people can exert agency over fictional character in fanworks and how that promotes attachment And more! All in under thirty minutes. ## Episode Outline **Topics:** We do get attached, fictional vs real characters, beyond the emotional journey of a story, uncritical character love, villains and relatability, queer coding villains, characters as proxies, rewriting characters’ destinies, beyond physical attraction, reinforcement learning in a nutshell, the randomness of initial selections, a bad sports fan fandom analogy, cosplay an