Parasocial Interaction is the term used for a one way relationship between two people, sometimes one of them being fictional. Person 'A' knows much about person 'B' while 'B' knows nothing or little about 'A'. Person 'A' feels they know and understand the object of their attention, sometimes to an intimate level. Yet due to never having the opportunity for social interactions with the person there is always a distance felt, regardless of how much person 'A' believes they understand 'B'. Many times person 'A' will fabricate portions of person 'B's personality and background to fill in any gaps and to create a sense of continuity and understanding. Parasocial Interactions are not always a negative thing but studies have suggested that the age a person is and what the personality they attach to is like heavily determines how that relationship will affect their behavior.
Its interesting to step back from your perception of a celebrity that you know about based upon media information. Think about how many gaps in that persons personality you have filled in using those bits of data you have acquired about them. You never truly know anyone, especially those that you will never have personal contact with. Yet to help us relate to them in a desirable fashion we always apply our own perceptions and views onto other people based upon the information we receive about them, whether its factual or otherwise, but that's getting off track.
Many studies suggest that we cling to fictional characters and their stories as a way of helping to deal with social rejection and the negative psychological impacts of such rejection. Its hard to have a negative emotional experience with a fictional character when it's entire purpose is for the reader/viewer to positively relate and identify with them. The old adage a 'dog doesn't judge you but only loves' can also be applied with fictional characters. Sure, there are some extreme cases were a character can have an adverse psychological affect on the reader/viewer, mostly in the body image area, but generally speaking fictional characters provide a positive feedback loop.
It's easy and expected to become emotionally attached to fictional characters. The character(s) are usually what draws us in to a story and keeps us wanting more from it. We hope for the best for them. Success in their pursuits, happiness in their lives and over all positive endings. When a character that is endearing to the reader is dealt a tragic, especially realist, blow from the stories writer, the reader/viewer can easily feel personally attacked. Why the hell would you do that? What was the purpose of such a horrible and pointless act? You have let me, the fan down, and for that you have lost my fandom
A problem I have with that type of mentality is the idea that an author has to always bow down to the pressures of the fan base. I am highly leery of stories created to meet popular demand. I think their should always be a separation between the creative process of the author and the audiences expectations. There will never be a case of discovering an author and liking their creations based on their meeting your demands...its impossible to happen. Instead everyone finds a creator they enjoy and then begin to mentally expect remuneration for their desires and projections from the creator solely based on their enjoyment of that creators previous works. When an author begins to bend their creative process to meet the popular demands of the audience the way they created stories to build those fans in the first place dissolves and you get an entirely different product.
I for one like characters being killed off, it takes guts and I respect that. I lean towards stories set in the real world that have realistic outcomes and scenarios. Life isn't always sunshine and happiness. At some point it is filled with overwhelming pain and loss. Portraying that in a fictional story is powerful and greatly appreciated in my mind. I am a little nihilistic with my world view (I prefer to think of it as realistic) so I get irritated by constantly positive stories from time to time. The good guys don't always win, no one is perfect and everyone commits bad deeds from time to time.
It will be interesting to see how Seo-sensei continues the story of Fuuka. I'm more interested in the manga now than ever before. Before this it seemed boring and rote. He usually adds little bits of realism into his otherwise typical shonen romance fantasy world, but this is a more drastic step than previously taken. It's a shame though, that the fan base, who are upset by this, can't lay off of the criticism. There has been a lot of yelling at him via the internet, much by people who can't even legally read his manga and are not actually paying him for his hard work regarding this series.
No matter how much you want to bend the story to your will it shouldn't bend. If the ending to a story was known ahead of time there would be little benefit from going through it. People need to calm down or move on. Attacking someone because they displease you in ways that do not actually affect your health and well being are pointless and counter productive. Hopefully Seo-sensei has some thick skin and can shrug this off with out it affecting the plan he has set in motion for his creation. Lets reiterate that...his creation.
Now it may seem strange that I take this view point, given half of my purpose for this web log is to criticize and critique things created by other people. I don't actually expect what I complain about to change the course of any given story. Instead I am offering a criticism to support issues I personally have with something, explaining why something isn't to my liking as a fan. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean it's not a quality product though. But the entire internet and then-some needs to step back from their frothy-ness...but that will never happen as the access and anonymity is to readily available.
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