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Waifu 301 Necrosage !!MxBGZjAwWw 02/28/11(Mon)22:14 No. 1656 [Edit]

The following below is a rough draft of what I've done, so it's by no means perfect and it's all over the place. And I just felt like writing it. But it concerns mostly regarding the waifu and the self, with a few things thrown in. I could call it "It isn't just about love, you are also your waifu - How your waifu is a part of yourself". While the more established waifu theories (such as "Thoughts on 2D love" and "A defense of the Waifu Movement") are more of a general insight to having a waifu, in short, more like a 'Waifu 101' primer usually intended for normals and people new to waifus. Now, what I have in mind is that I dwell deeper, more closer to a 'Waifu 201' or 'Waifu 301' and should be intended for readers who have waifus. Now "Ultimate Waifu Explanation" itself is more 'Waifu 201' material, usually not intended for normals to read, but does have this advanced, but also not quite advanced, feel to it. Now, I want to understand why we have waifus in the first place, not how we have waifus. Most people are attracted to their waifu because of certain qualities they see in their waifu. Now that would usually assume that you share many similarities with your waifu. But if you say that your waifu is different from you, then I would still think that liking opposites complements yourself, as if it makes you and your waifu into a single unifying whole. She could exhibit all the traits you don't have that you wish to have. So if you claim that you just like your waifu just because you happen to like her, just think of it this way, what exactly makes you and your waifu so different than those other people who share your waifu? Even though a waifu is a result of another person's creation and establishes her base concepts, it is up to you to decide who your waifu exactly is to make her your very own waifu. Your waifu is you, she is a part of yourself- your thoughts are what made her complete in your eyes. In essence, everything you like is a reflection or a shadow of yourself or what you want to be. It's a reflection of your taste, a reflection of your love for certain motifs- in this case, your waifu.

Now, for an example, this is Sofia. She is mai waifu, and by first glance:

a) Is a seemingly spoiled, arrogant rich girl with a quiet, kindly ojou-sama demeanor who lives in a mansion with her sister and her father in a small town. She sounds like a total piece of work, right?

b) She also happens to love trash and useless objects. In addition, she speaks in opposites. Isn't that USELESS? Now, before we come to conclusions... Now that is motivated in part because she accidentally offended her sister by bluntly stating the truth. Her sister gave her a necklace made out of 'trash' and she rejected it, being the spoiled girl that she was. Naturally, her sister ended up crying because her little sister rejected her gift. In order to distance herself from those memories, she had to like 'trash' and 'useless objects' and to speak in opposites in order to convey the truth. So much now, that is ingrained in her mind to the point she unconsciously speaks in opposites in order to tell the truth in order not to offend anyone. Well, she can be quite the blunt one, as she did hurt her sister's feelings. The plausible reason she likes trash is because she appreciates things which are overlooked or unappreciated by typical people who look down on her appreciation for 'useless objects'.

Wait a minute, that sounds somewhat very much like myself, except for the tactful opposite-speak part. The more I understood her, the more I am closer to her. The more I am closer to her, the more I fell in love with her. I do like other girls from time to time, but they won't be as perfect as Sofia is, in fact, they reinforce what love I have for mai waifu and why I love mai waifu or what exactly she is or who I am. But I strive to live my life like I always have, because that's what mai waifu would want.

I guess she, out of everyone, describes me the best. Sofia is very much a part of myself and expresses herself through myself without any of her 'limitations'. That clutter and trash in my room? My tendency not to get rid of things, still thinking that I'll save them for later? And not to mention people have called me blunt and tactless before, and I still am. My tendency to pocket random trinkets? Though I technically wouldn't call this a similarity, but I dislike certain dried objects used in food much like how Sofia dislikes powdery goods used in food. So am I really that similar to her? And why do I like Sofia, it isn't because out of those similarities, but except one motif throughout my life: I love eccentricities and often look at girls and see past superficialities and see the person within. The more eccentric a person is, the more I am drawn to that person. And something about Sofia kept drawing my attention, I kept looking at her. It's as if she wants me to love her, as if she wants me to be a part of her life. But more importantly, it wasn't the original creators who drew all those comparisons and interprets her actions and personality. But I did, I projected my thoughts, especially thoughts about my ideal waifu onto Sofia, and made her my ideal waifu, my Sofia.

Now, the waifu concept itself is quite ancient and predates the existence of modern technology and otaku culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(mythology)
Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (more accurately, they denied the divinity of Venus and she thus ‘reduced’ them to prostitution), he was 'not interested in women', but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it. In the vertex, Venus (Aphrodite)'s festival day came. For the festival, Pygmalion made offerings to Venus and made a wish. "I sincerely wished the ivory sculpture will be changed to a real woman." However, he couldn’t bring himself to express it. When he returned home, Cupid sent by Venus kissed the ivory sculpture on the hand. At that time, it was changed to a beautiful woman. A ring was put on her finger. It was Cupid’s ring which made love achieved. Venus granted his wish. Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Venus’ blessing.

Now, on the surface, I'm not explaining the whole idea behind 'You are your waifu' with the Pygmalion myth. But Pygmalion created his own waifu with his own ideas, his own thoughts on what his ideal waifu should be. Much like how we take other peoples' creations and make them into our very own waifus. Most people, even to this day, think that having a waifu is a byproduct of the 'negative aspects' of otaku culture, but not something that existed in classical literature and mythology. This ignorance on the part of most normals is the result of why they are hostile to the idea of having a waifu, that they believe that anyone who does have a waifu is automatically some kind of shut-in or sociopath and has to be 'rescued'.

Now people project their own thoughts onto their waifu, their perceptions, their wishes and dreams and whatever else they think of her. They love the image or the thought of their waifu, they become emboldened, inspired by their waifu. The more you understand and appreciate your waifu, the more you know why you love your waifu, the more you come closer to understanding yourself and of course, loving your waifu.

Now, what have we learned about waifus?
Waifus are love, but we knew that already, right?
We are our waifus.
Our waifus are a part of ourselves.
Waifus are nothing new under the sun.
Waifus are a way of life.

Note on changing waifus: People who change their waifus (no, not those flavor of the season fags you see on /a/) aren't necessarily guilty of infidelity. They probably felt out of 'love' with her simply because she doesn't resonate with them anymore. I use the term resonance as something to explain a connection between a man and his waifu. His waifu doesn't share much with him anymore. They're not on the same frequency anymore, and he'll go on his own journey to seek himself- maybe he'll return back to his waifu, or find a new waifu who is on the same resonance as he is. A plausible explanation is that he has changed rather than 'cheating' or 'giving up' on his waifu. In short, changing your waifu is fine (should be within a strong valid reason), since people change over time and one doesn't usually intend to think that they'll have the same waifu for the rest of their life. Maybe you haven't met the one waifu for you yet. That said, I dislike it when people change their waifu every single day, week or month or even year. It just gets sickening and shows that you're not being sincere about having a waifu.

Note on sexualizing waifus: For now, I refuse to speak about the sexual aspects of having a waifu as this needs a little more time for me to do some research. While my personal opinion is largely against associating anything sexual to mai waifu, I do understand the other side of the argument, but I refuse to accept it as my own opinion.

Note on harems: Harems, are partially relevant to waifus. They are usually seen as 'people with more than 'waifu', but I see harems and waifus as mutually exclusive. Generally if analyzed, there are a 'personality' test of sorts and shows the person's inner self through common trends and motifs within someone's harem. (except if they choose something like 'everyone that shares the same seiyuu or all drawn by the same artist') But I do have to say that people such as myself do share some things, a few motifs in common with their harem favorites.

Note on opinions: Now 'waifu-ism' or 'waifu movement' is home to a broad range of opinions, roughly similar to that of differing philosophies and ways of thought. Two people that have waifus may agree generally on the basics of having a waifu (and disagreeing with normals hellbent on 'normalizing' those who do have waifus), but they differ in terms of applying their waifu. Such is also the case for two people who share the same waifu. Maybe there could be different 'schools of waifu thought'.

Last note: Of course, this is by no means absolute, so I should revise it a little more. You guys could throw a bunch of suggestions if you'd like.

>>	Wild Western Waifu 03/01/11(Tue)00:19 No. 1658 [Edit] >Waifus are a way of life. Thats...arguable. You may want to touch on this a bit more.

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GM Punk!!AyMJHjBJDj 03/01/11(Tue)01:08 No. 1659 [Edit] I generally agree but I find saying that we are our waifus strange. I think to a a degree it sounds like we admire ourselves and that might sound egotistical to some. I think saying that they're our soulmates, the ones who make us whole would be easier to understand. I'm a bit confused overall on the subject but I understand it kind of. In a way I'd put it, we're all born with a piece missing, our waifus are that missing piece that makes us complete.

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paperface!3/L.WLhyP6 03/01/11(Tue)15:56 No. 1661 [Edit] I appreciate this. It helps shed a little more light on the whole waifu phenomenon. I never really thought about it, but I suppose my waifu and I have some themes in common. Though I always thought that she embodies aspects that I'd like to have, but for whatever reason, I can't have. And this is just me being stupid, but as for the name of the whole dilemma, I think 'Pygmalionism' might work, though it's a bit of a mouthful.

>>	Anonymous 03/01/11(Tue)16:18 No. 1662 [Edit] >>1661 Pygmalionism is already widely used to refer to people who have a statue fetish. In spirit, though, it's a lot closer to the waifu idea.

>>	paperface!3/L.WLhyP6 03/01/11(Tue)16:29 No. 1663 [Edit] >>1662 Oh, man, that kind of sucks. Then again, I understand, it's more about a solid statue than a fictional character, despite the overall theme connecting to the waifu movement.

>>	Anonymous 03/01/11(Tue)16:43 No. 1664 [Edit] I really don't have anything to critique here except for the grammar and word choice. You use 'now' so frequently that it comes off as unbelievably pretentious, and there are some tense/punctuation issues that you should sort out. Otherwise, good read.

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Anonymous 03/01/11(Tue)18:13 No. 1668 [Edit] Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding the whole topic, or if I'm really just pushing it aside to make an opinion but: I see no reason for this to be here(other to to pique curiosity or out of interest). If we already loved and cared for our waifu, then it shouldn't matter why. I'm all for the scientific/psychological reasoning for why we love our waifus so much, but reading it like this kind of takes the whole "magic" away from it. The other theories such as "Thoughts on 2D love" and "Defense of the waifu movement" focus primarily on people who don't understand people like us. What I'm understanding here is that this is almost like a lecture. What I'm trying to say is that I think you're taking it a bit too far with the whole psychological loving a part of yourself thing. I also think that some, if not many, already know that their concept of waifu is what they love, and by that statement, it means that they add personalities and tidbits of details to their waifu to make her seem like the perfect match for them. Now where do they get these personalities and details? One can easily deduce that the answer is in themselves.

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Necrosage !!MxBGZjAwWw 03/01/11(Tue)23:43 No. 1670 [Edit] >>1664 >You use 'now' so frequently that it comes off as unbelievably pretentious, and there are some tense/punctuation issues that you should sort out. Well, I grew up bilingual, so those were unintentional mistakes on my part. >>1668 Well, I'm someone who dabbles and deals in numbers, concepts, theories and absolutes. And I do tend to speak in this type of language if I wanted to clarify or explain something in depth. Sorry if it came across as a pretentious lecture, it's a strong habit of mine. And this wasn't exactly intended for those who embrace 'magical' concepts of waifus. Well, I did say this: >Now 'waifu-ism' or 'waifu movement' is home to a broad range of opinions, roughly similar to that of differing philosophies and ways of thought. Two people that have waifus may agree generally on the basics of having a waifu (and disagreeing with normals hellbent on 'normalizing' those who do have waifus), but they differ in terms of applying their waifu concept. Such is also the case for two people who share the same waifu. Maybe there could be different 'schools of waifu thought'.

>>	Necrosage !!MxBGZjAwWw 03/02/11(Wed)14:21 No. 1676 [Edit] >>1668 Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that most normals don't read them because their minds cannot handle what they think is 'walls of text'. They're stuck in their 3D world. Everything is permitted, nothing is true. Take it easy~

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DESU!LSUJDHu/Og 03/05/11(Sat)22:12 No. 1706 [Edit] There is two things I would have to disagree with, one is that you would change your waifu to suit you. I personally accept Hanako as she is portrayed in the visual novel. The second is that I don't love Hanako because she is like myself. For example: I have in interest in weaponry (military and civilian), fast cars, would rather watch an anime than read it's corresponding manga, and can be outgoing and talkative, while that's pretty much the opposite with Hanako, yet I still love her with all my heart.

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Fraietor!ldEN21PHUk 03/09/11(Wed)15:17 No. 1714 [Edit] To begin with a conclusion: overall, I like it. Out of interest, what is your other language? It's great to see bilingual people writing extensive pieces in English. I don't change Erica, as, like in Desu's case for instance, I accept the original character fully. However, I do add to her. Her favourite colour is never mentioned throughout the series. I just filled it in as blue - like the skies. A little corny, but it fits. It's tiny details similar to that which are, I think, the most customisable.

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Necrosage !!MxBGZjAwWw 03/15/11(Tue)21:30 No. 1755 [Edit] >>1714 >Out of interest, what is your other language? A Sinitic language that I speak only at home with my parents. >>1706 >>1714 This is the trouble with myself sometimes. I have trouble wording things properly so that whenever I say one thing, people think that it's another thing. At one point, when I sent an email to students saying that I won't be holding my office hours that day, somehow I accidentally told them that no office hours would be held that day, so I had to correct myself shortly afterwards, but the damage has already been done. Some people started to think that no office hours again. You guys are spot on. I guess only change minor details about mai waifu and my perception of my waifu as opposed to other peoples' perceptions. Some people can even be attracted to their waifu because of how different she is to him, literally like an opposite. My conclusion was that some people want a waifu to feel 'complete', though I fear that saying this type of stuff would lead to some misunderstandings.