I was thinking about character crushes the other day, trying to think about if I have any. I read about them all the time. I don’t get it. That look someone gets when you mention their character crush- that dreamy, wistful look like it’s a real person they have a shot with. They get angry when fanfic doesn’t do their love justice. The characters don’t particularly have to be your TYPE for them to be crush-worthy and sometimes what would be a real life dealbreaker is overlooked for the fictional hottie. In TV, movies and video games, where you see the character with your own eyeballs- they don’t even have to look good. So what’s with that, I wondered.

Then I started replaying Fallout New Vegas. I talked to Boone, swooned a little, then tried to analyze my own completely unreasonable character crush.

He kills people. I’m not really into that. If my boyfriend sarted killing people I might have to break up with him. But Boone is a sniper, so I guess it’s okay, right? He kills people to PROTECT people. Not only is he a sniper, he’s an ELITE sniper. Who is so… beautifully… tragically…. BROKEN by the death of his wife. The first thing he wants from you is to find the person who is responsible for his wife’s death and lead them to the business end of his rifle so he can SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD. But he gives you his beret to put on, so…. swoon. So is it the fact that he’s broken, or incredibly skilled, or is it that beauful, beautiful voice? Or maybe that he’s so anti-social and so obviously somene you want on YOUR side? Or maybe it’s his beautiful undying devotion to someone who was from a different world from him.

Why do some people crush SO HARD on an Edward or Jacob? Or secretly harbor a LOVE for some silly side character or the entire underaged cast of Harry Potter (cast meaning the characters, not the film actors)?
I don’t know. Who are your characer crushes? I know I have one other one I was reminded of the other day but I can’t think of who it is right now.

So who’s yours? Do you have a million or are your character crushes reserved for an elite few? Do we need to start discussing an “okay to cheat with” list of characters like some do for celebrities?
More imporantly, how des one create such a crush worthy character, or does it “just happen”? What do you think? Comment. I’ll throw my other character crush/es in the comments as I think of them, too.