>without having to really ever reciprocate like with a pesky autonomous human full of their own desires and interests.... And this is exactly the point. In the

>without having to really ever reciprocate like with a pesky autonomous human full of their own desires and interests.... And this is exactly the point. In the two articles I linked to above [about the man who "married" an anime character and the woman who "married" her dog] both of them say, in effect that this is their ideal partner as it will never leave them or disagree with them. So, these "relationships" are entered into by people who, for whatever reason, have been damaged by previous relationships, or are unable to form relationships with [to use your word] "autonomous" other people. They want to be in a relationship but one with a safety net, where it's guaranteed the other party can never leave you, never disagree with you, never want anytihng other than what you want. Thinking about it, it's probably better for these people to be in a relationship with a cartoon, a pet, a shitty chatbot, or their pop-up toaster, than a real person. Because one of the fundamental aspects of being in a relationship with a real person is that they are allowed to walk out the door, they are allowed to disagree with you and they are allowed to believe in different things than you. If you can't cope with any of that and you are in a relationship with a real person, then it's going to be a pretty toxic one and possibly a violent and controlling one too.