>>69538
> How can someone love something that doesn't really exist?
Well, I'd say that love is more about loving someone's personality and inherent traits rather than necessarily any physical actions–those are some expressions of love, not love itself.
>What do you do to "love" her, apart from, like, having pictures, figures of her, thinking about her, etc. Is it like worshiping a god?
The biggest thing for me, is imagining her with me in my daily life, doing things with me and spending time together. It may not be real but it certainly makes it feel moreso.
And I definitely would not equate waifuism to worshipping a god. This analogy is a pet peeve of mine, being both a waifuist and religious. It's a romantic attachment, but to a fictional character.
>>69542
>I know everyone always says "you don't find your waifu, she finds you" but what if she never finds me…
While everyone means well when they say this, I feel like it's an empty platitude if it's not expounded on. Think about all the girls you like. Do you simply enjoy their designs, find them cute or interesting on a more detached level? Or is there one that you actually have feelings for on a somewhat deeper level–you want to be in their life, feel a deeper attachment to their personality, etc.. Also, how long have these feelings lasted? Is it just a brief, hormonally-fueled crush that disappears after a month or so, or could you see those feelings lasting a lot longer? Those, I think, are the things you have to test for to see if you really have a waifu.
>>69540
>How do you feel about her being a fictional character with her own story and stuff? Do you have in mind that story? Like, do you consider your waifu to be the same character with the same personality and the same backstory than the original character?
Yes. Waifuists love the character themselves, and generally speaking they imagine her with the same personality and backstory as the character themselves. Almost all waifuists take the story of her source into account, though to what degrees vary. If you're like me you might sometimes get really autistic about inserting yourself into her world and story, or you could just take that as just being her history and be a bit more lowkey about it like some others do.
>If she's evil in the story, is she evil to you too? What if she dies in the story? What if she has a love interest?
I can't really speak to the evil part, but when it comes to death or other love interests that depends. Many people will just choose to ignore her death, and change that event in their personal canon. Same goes for characters with love interests, depending on the character they might self-insert as them, or just ignore and disregard them, making themselves that character's true love interest.
>What if she's a secondary character that only appears during 2 minutes and barely has any dialogue?
The likelihood of someone falling for that character in a genuine, romantic way is pretty low. Can you fall in love with a stranger you met walking down the street and never talked to again? That being said, some people have waifus like vocaloids or characters from gacha games who only have a base personality but not a lot of deep development, and in that case sometimes a little headcanon is called for.
>Do you have your own headcanon and come up with your own stories involving her and stuff?
A lot of people do, and this applies regardless of whether she's an obscure side character or not. Headcanon is fine, good even–but with the caveat that you're not changing any of her fundamental characteristics. For example, writing out or imagining your own adventures with her as a side story or after her source ends is great! Same goes for stuff like inserting yourself into her story, or adding some personal information or plausible quirks that canon didn't expound upon. But what would be a bad example of headcanon is changing her personality or fundamental traits. That's something you should always avoid.
