The degree to which modern fans deliberately project their personal psychological issues onto fictional characters is alarming.
You are expected to "relate" to some characters and stories. Yes. That is not the same thing I keep witnessing, where people will decide a given character is literally everything they are the very instant they have anything in common, or an antagonist is exactly like a real person who hurt them, and emotionally invest SO much into this that they can feel actually betrayed when the events deviate from exactly the catharsis they hoped for.
This seems so normalized by some people, I suspect they assume by default that this is basically what fiction is "for" and it never even crossed their minds that you're supposed to enjoy most stories as an outside observer rather than as some sort of guided roleplay session.
This is why creators get harassed and abused more than ever by entitled fandoms.
No, it's not normal, you are not supposed to think of it that way, fictional characters are separate beings from you.
