It means i'm happy and filled with love.

It means I'll have to deal with stinging loneliness each day because I'm grounded in reality and I know she's just a figment of a Japanese man's imagination. But that feeling when I see her makes up for it.

I know I saw this posted on /a/ a while back, but...

>What does it mean "to have a waifu"?
Having a waifu is just having a waifu. It could mean many things to many different people. But I'll answer them right here.

>Is it something platonic?
If doesn't have to be. If it's platonic, then how could there be love? Unless if you see your waifu as your sister or something.

>Does it have a sexual component?
I know that doesn't apply for me, but some people who do have waifus actually do include a sexual component. For me, any sexual thought of her is horrid, since there is no need to confuse the 2D realm with the 3D realm.

>Is it about the idea of pure love, or the realization of this idea?
What about both? The idea of pure and the realization of the idea of pure love are both sides of the same coin.

>Has this idea of a "perfect love" influenced your expectations on real-life love interests?
No, because I never seek such 'real-life love interests', due to many, many reasons. A waifu for me is not a surrogate for 3D love.

>What does "having a waifu" mean to YOU?
No restraints, no strings, no exceptions, just the purest love unbound by expectations and all such restrictions. Am I truly lonely? Certainly not. Just because her core concept is the product of many peoples' imaginations does not mean that she is her core concept herself. In a way, only you make your own waifu who she is, not other people. But for me, the waifu is also one of the many reflections of the self. In essence, our waifus are ourselves, in a way. We may share many things about our waifus that we do not know about. What we perceive what our waifus are is that we impose our thoughts on them, making them our own waifus out of a basic product of some other person's imagination and molding it. And since waifus are open to interpretation, anyone can have their own version of their waifu. So two people who share the same waifu may have differing opinions about her.

>>1080
That is a nice picture man.

>>1073
A real woman is nothing more than a creation of another mans seed. Dont get so hung up on that eh?

>>1081
Well I thought that I might have posted this picture before so I flipped it.

I've got a related question.
What do you people do with your waifus? How does having a waifu look like?
I used to think that people mainly just have them for fap fantasies, but that's obviously wrong.
Is she like an imaginary friend? Do you pretend to hold conversations with her? Do you imagine her walking by your side? Cuddling with her? What?

>>2016
I'm not going to answer until you learn what's wrong with the sentence, "How does having a waifu look like?"

>>2016

>What do you people do with your waifus?
Sorry to avoid the question so easily, but it really just depends on the person.

>How does having a waifu look like?
I don't understand this question. From a normal's perspective? Maybe pathetic. From a TC usual? Normal? I don't know.

>I used to think that people mainly just have them for fap fantasies, but that's obviously wrong.
Oh god no, yes that is obviously wrong. It worries me that people could actually think like this.

>Is she like an imaginary friend?
Depends on the person. I'd imagine no. What is an imaginary friend anyway? Is it where you see the person always and you actually think this person exists? I really doubt that one.

>Do you pretend to hold conversations with her?
Depends on the person, but I'd imagine yes. There are some people who naturally talk to themselves. I also think this kind of contradicts the answer before this one, and I don't really know how to explain it.

>Do you imagine her walking by your side?
Again, I don't think so. Unless you were incredibly imaginative. I don't even know if people would want to imagine their beloved walking next to them outside.

>Cuddling with her?
Depends on the person, but I'd also imagine that this is a usual for everyone. During those nights where people just feel lonely, I'd imagine they would cuddle.

>>2016
>What do you people do with your waifus?
It depends on the person. I just feel nice with mai waifu.

>How does having a waifu look like?
I don't understand the question. How does it look like to me? to others? to whom? Or do you mean How does having a waifu feel like?

>I used to think that people mainly just have them for fap fantasies, but that's obviously wrong.
Of course it is. It's deplorable.

>Is she like an imaginary friend?
Probably not.

>Do you pretend to hold conversations with her?
No, but I imagine how she thinks if I'm in a situation, such as 'What wouldn't mai waifu do?'

>Do you imagine her walking by your side?
I don't even know. Probably not. Most people probably don't imagine that.

>Cuddling with her?
Yes. I cuddle with mai waifu whenever I feel like cuddling.

>depends on the person
Well that's almost obvious. Just say what applies to you personally.

What I meant with "How does having a waifu look like?" was, how should I put it... How does your daily routine/life with a waifu differ from how your life would be without one?

It's changed over the years
At first I thought it was just a crush. But...as I finished the show, the fact I got up and punched the screen when the MP Evas...well...you know, kind of got me thinking.

Then as the years passed I started to believe it was more of an unhealthy obsession than anything else. Reality vs fiction sets in and what not.
After some more time, I guess I've just reached the conclusion she's the one I want but can't have. Nothing extremely weird about that. Happens to a lot of people. Some move on, others don't. I can't move on because I love her to much.

>What does it mean "to have a waifu"?

To me, having a waifu means peace and tranquility. A life filled with a very manageable love with none of the drawbacks of traditional relationships.

>Is it something platonic?

Not in the common sense of the word. It is a romantic love, for sure.

>Does it have a sexual component?

I suppose it has to. I find my waifu extremely attractive. However, it is not a base carnal lust, and consummation (for me) is relatively infrequent.

>Is it about the idea of pure love, or the realization of this idea?

It is absolutely the realization of love in its purest state. There is no mistrust, doubt, fear, or manipulation. It is just love for love's sake.

>Has this idea of a "perfect love" influenced your expectations on real-life love interests?

Real life what? Ick. Yes, it has. I gave up on that stuff half a decade ago and have never looked back. However, the experiences I had in the real life dating arena were important and cemented my decision to pack it in.

*Note I've spent a fair amount of time and money to give my waifu a more tangible feel. Between dakimakuras, figures, alarm clocks, and other merchandise. I've pretty much trained myself to associate being with mai waifu as being with a physical reproduction of her. So the next few answers when I say I'm with her assume I mean with a dakimakura or plushy.

>What do you people do with your waifus?
I spend time with her in different ways. Take her to conventions and other places where our relationship wouldn't be viewed negatively or be problematic. Also spend my nights with her.

>How does having a waifu look like?
I wake up to her voice, and go to sleep looking at her face. I make sure I shower and maintain proper hygiene because of her and have learned to better allocate my free time (more so after entering the workforce since free time became precious and more rare). Without her I think I'd fall back into the rut of never wanting to wake up, going to bed at god awful times, and being generally a mess.

>I used to think that people mainly just have them for fap fantasies, but that's obviously wrong.
Generally this isn't the case. People may still fap or have fantasies about their waifu but that is far from the main purpose. For me personally I have a waifu to keep me emotionally stable and give my life more meaning.

>Is she like an imaginary friend?
This is kind of a hard question. When I went to talk to a psychologist he wasn't hesitant to call her an imaginary friend to me because I knew she didn't exist in reality (the dakimakura also really threw him for a loop). Yet I would still live life like she was there or had expectations for me and such.

>Do you pretend to hold conversations with her?
Kind of relates to the question above, but sometimes. It's not an everyday thing or something that occurs very often. Honestly it mostly occurs when I'm driving with her in my car and would be talking to myself anyways. I just seem to find myself talking to her instead (again this only happens when I'm driving with her plushy or dakimakura in the passenger seat)

>Do you imagine her walking by your side?
Nope. Again if I was in a place where I wanted to bring her or felt I could bring her I'd just bring a physical representation.

>Cuddling with her?
Of course, was the biggest reason I bought a dakimakura in the first place.


From my understanding, most people haven't gone this far or enjoy their relationship with their waifu in a different way. But I'm still very happy with it. I know giving mai waifu a more tangible feeling is something some people may be against but it really has helped me keep the relationship strong. I also kind of enjoy that longing feeling I get when I'm separated from her for a long time and the only thing I have to remind me of her is a picture in my wallet. It just makes the relationship feel more "real". It also makes coming home after a long trip (or even taking her on a trip with me) more exciting and heart warming.

>>2240
Please don't take a dakimakura around everywhere

>>2240
Silly me meant to answer OPs questions too.

>What does it mean "to have a waifu"?
To me it means to have someone or something to love.

>Is it something platonic?
No I'm physically and emotionally attracted to her. It's much more of a romantic relationship feeling.

>Does it have a sexual component?
A little bit. I first was deeply physically attracted to her and then her personality, back story, and other parts of her continually grew on me and I figured out it was deeper than me just liking her character design.

>Is it about the idea of pure love, or the realization of this idea?
I like the concept of that this is a love that is pure to me. I'm in it almost exclusively for emotional fulfillment. Regardless of the fact she can't "truly" love me back I feel that (even though it may be narcissistic) by me being happy she's happy, and if I'm not she wishes for me to be happy.

>Has this idea of a "perfect love" influenced your expectations on real-life love interests?
I've pretty much given up on real-life romantic relationships. I just know there will never be a girl IRL that I will love and trust as much as mai waifu. I've just seen (and experienced) so many real life relationships fail even though at one point in time it felt like they would last forever. I've learned that when dealing with people eventually their tastes will change. Which means that even though two people may have been infatuated with each other that the so called passion they feel for each other will die down and they may possibly get bored with each other. This is when a lot of relationships start to fall apart. They get bored of each other or begin to dislike aspects of their so called loved one. Pretty much outside of other reasons (financial, political, etc...) I don't find much reason to be in relationship or get married.

>>2243
I don't take her around everywhere. I only take her to places I'm comfortable in feeling it would be not looked down upon terribly (most conventions people actually find it cute or ask where they can get one, at my last convention out of the 100 or so people who commented on it to my face or my friends only one was a negative comment and it was more sarcastic than anything else) or to friends places who are perfectly cool with it.

I'm not going to be an exhibitionist at the mall or something and take a dakimakura everywhere I go.

>>2245
Nii-san, is that you?

>>2246
He's very successful last I heard.

>>2247
Pimpin' hard. NEET Lyfe.

I can't really put what Miya means to me into words. She's something in between an angel and a imaginary friend (lol, redundancy). In a sense, she replaces every single thing I've wanted to feel, but, for whatever reason, couldn't. She distracts me from poverty and despair, aimlessness and alienation. If I could, I'd truly and honestly give her anything she wanted in return.

I feel something akin to love towards her, that's for sure. But, I've always viewed love as mutual, and...if I can love her, but she can't love me, what's the point? I guess, to have something 'beyond reality'. Something better. That's what my waifu is to me in the most base sense - Something better.

People who have a waifu have a waifu for two reasons - They want something better than what the blatantly inferior reality has to offer, and they found a character who particularly resonates with them.

>>2248
This. All his blog is full of sadness.
Translate more, please.

>>2258
I don't think he was translating, Anonymous.

You know, the comments on the "nisan" article included someone defending loli-aged waifus as filling the role of a daughter the same way we normally think of waifus filling the role of a romantic partner.

I wonder, given what we've seen with e.g. the recent thread about Taiga, maybe there's something to that theory. Maybe waifus encompass more than just romantic love--maybe they're friends, daughters, sisters, mothers, role models... Maybe that's part of why there's a divide between people who see their waifus sexually and those who don't. Something to think about?

>>2265
I actually sometimes think of Tenshi as a daughter, too, which is weird. I don't want to make love to my daughter.

>>2265
Strangely enough, people have told me my love for her might be more akin to the love for a daughter or love for a friend. I am in love with her, but I don't want to think about her erotically or view images of her where she is nude; it just doesn't resonate well.

>>2265

Good hypothesis, I think this could lead somewhere interesting.

Oh, and my response to OP is identical to Surtic's. >>870

>>2269
If you will, can you please elaborate on why you wouldn't want to have sex with her?

>>2265

I can see that.
I have other characters I feel a bond over, but it isn't the same as love.

I don't have anything that's akin to a daughter though.