This is something I had in mind for a while.

Let's say that on the subject of "waifus", there's 2 obvious rules:

• You get only one of them (Who follows this anymore lol).
• It has to be from something you actually experience like a series you watch/read/play etc.

I think another rule is that of a character that is genuine.

Not just a girl that looks cute in official material and not just fanart, but also if she's an actual character with a story and emotions.

It's part of why it's important that you grow up with anime/manga.

Or at least specific comics and cartoons.

Teen Titans is a good example.

Otherwise, think of these kind of characters people make porn of: The Wendy's mascot, that Samsung girl, the fucking Duolingo characters etc.

These brand mascots with no actual story arcs and some don't even have an actual idealized look.

Even FNAF is like that to me because I'm pretty sure they're machines pretending to be fictional-in-universe mascots which is not the same as Rouge the Bat or Carmelita Fox, who are actual characters in their settings.

And going back to looks, people talk about how Hex Maniac is portrayed as having bigger breasts than she has but she's still technically a cute anime girl.

Not the same as someone making very cute fanart of a character from a cartoon with a basic beanmouth art style or even an AAA game with uncanny photorealistic graphics.

Going back to "genuine characters", this probably applies to characters whose source material is also genuine.

As in, not a series trying to be "trope aware", anything subversive or ironic.

Like the difference between a girl from a genuine Japanese visual novel and one from a Western ironic VN parodying the former.

Because I'm kinda reminded of when I knew this guy in school who was really into Sonic and he even liked Sonic Boom of all things.

So it got me wondering "if you're going to have some heavy attachment to fictional characters or something, make sure it's at least with something genuine and not like a show with cynical ironic/self-aware humor or anythig like that".

Like, you want the things you (Zoomer speak alert) "hyperfixate" to have a sense of magic.