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I have made so many memes of my own about how I crush on fictional men. One of my favorites is this one:
I've been thinking about Yami Bakura again a lot... He was my first fictional crush and has been an on-and-off one for the past 20 years. I've had numerous crushes over anime, manga, cartoon, and video game characters over the years. And I usually go pretty hard, with fanart, fanfiction, changing my avatars most everywhere to reflect this crush, etc. I find it fun and a great form of escapism. I embrace the weirdness of having crushes on fictional men. Some of my crushes include:
Yami Bakura/Thief King Bakura (ultimate waifu/husbando)
Lucas Baker
Eridan Ampora
Paul from Pokemon
Trafalgar D. Law
Portgas D. Ace
Shadow the Edgehog (I'm not a furry I swear :(((( )
The Once-Ler (I did it before Tumblr thought it was cool)
And honestly just way too many to list...
Trust me, dude, I've been harassed and degraded for crushing on fictional men ("they're not real, you know that don't you??" like, no shit. So condescending), and there is nothing wrong with your question. Some people don't and won't get it, which is totally fine. Everyone has their preferences.
I can only speak for myself and not other fangirls and especially not fanboys (I find that males and females tend to deal with their crushes differently). The main appeal to me is a mixture of the fantasization and romanticization (not words but they should be) of whichever character I find myself becoming attracted to. I write a lot, which is a great way for me to escape reality for a little while and provides the perfect vector for my weird crushes to come to life, so to speak.
Having crushes on fictional men has given me something to look forward to in my day, gives my racing mind someone to settle on, and it becomes a victimless crime of sorts because I'm not involving a real-life person into my writing or fantasies. I'm one of the odder fangirls that very, very rarely ever crushes on real-life people, probably due to my general misanthropy, thus leading to more romanticization of fictional men. In a way, I suppose it's an unhealthy coping mechanism, but it doesn't affect my ability to function so I've never really cared.
I guess the tl;dr explanation comes down to: this fictional has his own trope that he settles into, but his personality can be molded into what I want and the "perfect" "relationship" can be formed through daydreaming and writing. Is it weird? Yes, absolutely. Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional. But it is what it is, and some people like myself have turned to fictional characters to cope with daily life.
That said, it doesn't really explain how I started so early, with my first fictional crush on Yami Bakura starting at about 8 years old. But I can't remember at all what was going through little me's mind and can only speak for adult me now.