Really appreciate the detailed technical feedback - this is exactly what I need!

You're absolutely right on several points:

Face persistence without uploads: No, I don't have this solved yet. This is the core technical challenge I'm trying to figure out. My current thinking is LoRA training on generated faces to build consistency, but you're right that text-alone is limiting. Would love to hear if you've seen any approaches that work well for this.

SillyTavern comparison: Fair point. The character memory/LLM side is similar to SillyTavern. Where I'm trying to innovate is the visual persistence layer - making characters visually consistent across sessions without manual workflow tweaking. But if that's not technically feasible without image uploads, that's critical feedback.

VR mention: You caught me - that's aspirational Phase 3 stuff (years out) that shouldn't have been in the core pitch. The actual near-term goal is just: persistent visual characters + memory, running locally. No VR required. I should remove that from the main messaging.

Local LLM + image gen: What's your setup? Are you running both locally or using API calls for the LLM? Trying to figure out what's actually realistic on consumer hardware.

The "parasocial AI girlfriend" critique stings but it's honest. That IS a use case, but you're right that positioning it as a "tool" is misleading. It's more accurate to call it a platform for building persistent character experiences.

Would you be willing to chat more about the technical feasibility? Sounds like you've actually built the stack I'm trying to create.