We all remember that first fictional crush. Whether you were taken by the cuteness of Cardcaptor Sakura, the goofy Goku or the Red Ranger, we’ve all been there, trying to explain a crush on a totally fictional character to our closest friends.
This week we’re debuting our new column, Inner Geek, which will touch upon all the weird and wonderful things us geeks have loved since that first moment we watched Akira, or Yu Gi Oh! or Pokémon.
MATT
Growing up, I adored the classic Disney movies. Whether it was listening to the soundtracks on my mother’s vinyl player or watching the movies on VHS, the magic of Disney was a huge part of my early childhood. It is during this very innocent time that I encountered my first fictional crush.
Of the 1930s Disney fairytale movies, my favourite was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and my first fictional crush was the story’s namesake, Snow White. I am not sure what is was about Snow White but my parent’s recall me being glued to the screen whenever she sang ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’.
Whether it was her dark hair, pale skin and rose red lips or Adriana Caselotti‘s haunting voice singing that song that drew me in, I am not sure. But Snow White is the first time I remember seeing a fictional character and thinking ‘Wow, she is beautiful’! To this day, over twenty years later, that song still has the same effect on me.
It was wonderful so many years later to see Ginnifer Goodwin bring the character to life as Mary Margaret in Once Upon A Time. But it is the 1930s Snow White who is truly first in my geeky little heart.
ADAM
One of the earliest fictional crushes that I can remember was probably Artemis Fowl, the titular character from 
Irish author Eoin Colfer‘s Artemis Fowl series.
I have fond memories of convincing my 5th/6th class teacher that we needed to read this book as our ‘class read together’ that year (I had convinced her we needed to read Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone the year previously), and so she went out and ordered 26 copies of the book. She is probably to blame for encouraging my obsessions.
I really can’t think of any good reason why I liked Artemis, or what I liked about him. I guess I thought he was somewhat of a ‘cool’ character. He was a complete prodigy yet he was a total bad boy. The complete opposite to Harry Potter who I was also growing up with at the time.
It’s also interesting for me to think back and see that I was aware I had an attraction to male characters at that age, but never really questioned or labelled it.
Other honourable fictional crushes include Red Power Ranger, Jason, and bad guy Cole Turner from Charmed.
MARY
I’ve had many obsessive crushes over the years, from Ron Weasley to Quicksilver from X-Men Evolution to Daryl Dixon, but the first one I remember is Seto Kaiba.
Falling for the bad boy persona is very original, right? Actually now that I look at some of the other fictional crushes I’ve had over the years, there seems to be a pattern. It appears I’m a sucker for anti-heroes and social rejects. For the record, I’m totally okay with this.
I remember watching Yu GI Oh! for the first time with my brother and, for whatever stupid reason, I claimed I didn’t even like the show (young me was very concerned with what was ‘cool’ and what wasn’t), but while pretending to do homework, I sneakily watched it and set my eyes on Seto Kaiba.
I had seen anime characters before (like Ash Ketchum and Brock), but I always thought they were just cute, whereas Kaiba was the first cartoon that made me think of myself as an anime character so I could imagine myself dating him.
I’ll not lie, any time he came up against his arch enemy Yugi, I’d secretly root for him. #KaibaForPrez!
Who were your first fictional crushes? Any embarrassing confessions? Let us know in the comments!
