Do you lurk on lists, waiting to pounce on anyone who seems to be about to say something mean about the character you've chosen as your Ideal?

Is it your life's mission to slay everyone in the world who won't agree that your favorite character should be elected King (or Queen) of the World?

Are you so blinded by infatuation with some imaginary character that you don't have time in your life for anyone who isn't fixated on the same thing?

Do you tear down everyone you meet who doesn't believe that this character is the sole reason for the existence of the universe?

Have you, in short, forgotten that the character is imaginary and that the people you're flaming are real?

I get passionate in my defense of the characters I like, but my passion is connected with story characterization. I like believable characterization, in case you haven't noticed the way I harp on this theme incessantly. I don't actually believe that Methos is a god come to earth to make my mortal dreams come true if only I could be allowed to meet him.

(Also, Methos is a character and he is nothing like Peter Wingfield. Okay, they're both presumably male, but none of us have seen Methos' bits and pieces, so it's just a theory. If you've seen Peter Wingfield's, I don't want to know about it.)

I'm not here to deal with the folks who are already shopping for a wedding dress so that they'll be ready when Walter Skinner drops by and pops the question. (Or with the people who think that their entire lives would have been changed if they could have met Adrian Paul in person, because, naturally, he would have found them so wonderful that a lifetime friendship would have ensued.) Psychoses aren't my field.

But for those of you who aren't that far gone, please try to remember that the folks you correspond with on-line are real human beings. Don't get so focused on your admiration of the characters that you do damage to a real person in defense of an image on a television screen. (And don't get so passionate in your defense of an actor or actress who will never know most of us exist that you hurt someone who does know you exist and who shares a fandom with you.)

I probably had a real point when I started this essay, but in the end, all I really want to do is repeat what you've heard a dozen times before.

You can be a fan all by yourself, but it's not that much fun. Play nicely with the other children, or they won't play with you.