Addiction: a nine-letter word that can mean a whole lot more. People joke about “needing” a certain fix, but some addictions shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The recent and ever so popular Twilight Saga came to a close this month with the release of the final movie, much to the same remorse as when the Harry Potter series ended. Lives were changed.
Granted, this addiction to a fictional series is not as bad as an addiction to drugs or alcohol, but personally, I’d rather be addicted to Nutella. I was never much of a Twilight fan, but I am still, a Harry Potter fiend. I mean who didn’t want to go to Hogwarts? I would much rather date a wizard than a vampire, but that fantasy faded and I remain outside Hogwarts looking in and accepting of the fact I will never cast a spell.
People live vicariously through the characters they watch in movies and television shows or read in books, so when the characters’ lives end, do theirs? For some, yes. There is a line between fandom and obsession. Yes, books, shows and movies are a method of escapism, and it’s okay to indulge yourself in a fantasy, but it is not healthy to develop a certain dependence on the fictional worlds.
Women in general tend to get attached to the male figures in these movies or books because they are created to be the “perfect” gentleman that any women would die to have. When they can’t find that man in the real world, or their man just isn’t living to their unrealistic standards, they fall in love with the characters instead. This may sound ridiculous, but yes all of us have fallen (or thrown ourselves) at fictional characters that make it impossible to find the perfect, real significant other.
You wait for the final chapter in a book and the closing scene of a movie that gives the aloof representation that everyone will finally end up happily ever after. So in comparison to your own life, you expect everything will work out and that you too will end happily ever after. However, there is a life after Cinderella rides off into the sunset with her new prince. You read faster to get to the end sooner, but why race to the end, when you always are wanting of more?
On the positive side, all the curiosity the audience had about how the Twilight saga would end can now be settled since their questions have been answered. But that is not the case for Lost fans who will forever be held emotionally frustrated in a lurch.
For some to ease this pain, they will find another series to obsess over, perhaps Fifty Shades of Grey or The Mortal Instruments. For others, they will have to face reality and live the life they were given.
