A Shattered Funhouse Mirror, Built Upon a Slippery Slope..

Is the character you identify as the same entity as the character in the source material, or a version, an echo, or something related but distinct?

I have a very complex relationship to the idea of "fictionkin". 

I always have.

Do I technically identify as one? Yes, BUT.

Rarely are my own experiences ever straightforward. At best, what I see in a given piece of media is a funhouse-movie version of my own memories and experiences. A complex game of "Telephone" where the very idea of "canon" ceases to make much sense on the whole.

I can't even say I am a "fan" of a given piece of media that I find I "connect with" in this way. Usually, I go out of my way to avoid it altogether, once I've stumbled upon it, and it has stumbled into me.

I also do not participate in fandoms; but I'm also an introvert, and as such I often find fandoms to be thoroughly exhausting, unsettling, and uncomfortable.

I don't judge how others approach this, however. I'm only writing about how I happen to.

I am not a fictional character. I am a complex, multifaceted entity who may have lived an existence a fiction was then based on. Given the interconnectedness of the multiverse and the mind, chances are this may be the reality for most people. It would all depend on whether or not one is aware of it.

I don't claim that my interpretation is the only correct one, but I do wonder if anyone may feel similarly.