Comfort Media

Dusk

the eye of the beholder
Original poster
STAFF MEMBER
DONATING MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
  2. Not accepting invites at this time
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
  5. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
Most days, most hours
Writing Levels
  1. Elementary
  2. Intermediate
  3. Adept
  4. Advanced
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Nonbinary
  4. Agender
  5. Primarily Prefer Male
  6. No Preferences
Genres
Adventure. Angels and demons. Apocalyptic. Arthurian. Comedy. Dystopian. Fantasy. Historical. Horror. Post-apocalyptic. Romance. Science fiction. Supernatural.
October has been a month full of stress and anxiety for me (fun way to start a thread, I know). As a result I recently finished watching The Good Place for the second time this month and it got me thinking about my comfort media in general. I am a chronic rewatcher and comfort media is one of my go-tos when things are getting rough. It doesn't always help but it rarely hurts. What are some of your comfort series, books, movies, songs, or what-have-yous? For me, different types of stress and struggles tend to require different flavours of media. I'm also discounting anything that tends to be a double-edged sword as I have a great many of those. I also limited it to works I am able to actively engage with as there are other things (such as Star Trek TNG) that count but do me no good out of reach. These are my rules. You can follow your own.

The main things that come to mind are:
The Good Place (as mentioned), Futurama (I've potentially watched this more than any other show), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The first season of Hilda (I have not watched the second), the album Celtic Dreams by Rowenda Taheny (spotify link), Fate, and HoMM3. Stardew Valley used to be a big one but unfortunately after some stuff it has lost much of its ability to be soothing for me.
 
  • Love
Reactions: iridescent
Kirby's Epic Yarn. It's too cute. Nearly any Let's Play by Chuggaaconroy and/or the Runaway Guys. And anything from MickyD on youtube and MasaeAnella. I also have a spotify list titled "It'll be okay" filled with stuff that makes me feel better. Like "Zidane to Vivi" by Brentalfloss.
 
It depends on what thing I'm fixated on. But some shows I can always fall back on are miss fishers murder mysteries or httyd race to the edge

Movies, always going for the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society, silver skates, dirty dancing, twilight, or any random childhood movie I suddenly remember

Books are again twilight or Harry Potter usually. Or a random book I'm obsessing over at the time

Forgot video games, huge one is pretty much any pokemon game, sims, house flipper or planet zoo
 
Depends really on my mood and why I'm "upset" or pissed off...

If really pissed off I like to get into a hour of Wolfenstein.. because.. nothing relaxes more then shooting Fascists in the face with a shotgun :3
 
If I notice I'm getting stuck in a panic loop, I pop on the animated versions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast or the Lion King, or I go for The Princess Bride, because they'll distract me just enough I can focus on them instead of my anxiety, but not enough that I can't fall asleep if needed as I tend to fall into those kinds of panic loops before bed. If I'm upset or not feeling well, I will put on The Mummy (1999) (which is hilarious because it gave me nightmares as a kid, but now it's a favourite) Pride and Prejudice (2005), The Dark Crystal, or Labyrinth.

If I'm angry or stressed enough that I feel like I need to hit something, I usually go for video games instead of movies and my ultimate comfort game is Kingdom Hearts II for some reason (you'd think that long-ass prologue would just make everything worse, but nope).
 
  • Like
Reactions: LunaValentine
This is actually not easy. I do not usually rely on specific shows/movies, e.t.c. But my go tos have always been manga. Manga in and of itself is a huge comfort for me, and I always see myself falling back to them for rereads/catch up. I will spend hours on them. One that I constantly reread will be Skip Beat, amongst others. Same with books, honestly. It has been a long time since I have reread any books, but a specific genre I will always gravitate towards will be high fantasy, as it helps me escape this dreary world. That said, I do have a fan fiction I always reread, by a specific author on Wattpad (It's a guilty pleasure. T.T). Music is something I hardly listen to, and I do not believe that it serves any purpose for me, unfortunately. Same goes with shows and movies. Once I am done with them, I will not rewatch.
 
Avatar; the Last Airbender and BBC Merlin (except the last season) are both my comfort shows. They bring me a lot of joy. Reading-wise I have found myself reaching back to Oscar Wilde's short story 'The Nightingale and the Rose' frequently. Something short, something I can run in the background without having to give it too much thought or attention, but enough to distract me.

Sometimes I don't need a distraction, though. Sometimes I need a good big cry and to trigger that I pick tearjerkers like Coco. 😂
 
Iwaku is my happy place
 
  • Love
Reactions: PaulaVonMalotki
It depends on what thing I'm fixated on. But some shows I can always fall back on are miss fishers murder mysteries

AHHHH MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES! I need to find a new place to stream this since Netflix got rid of it.

Everyone who knows me knows that Law & Order SVU is my ultimate comfort. I can watch reruns all day, everyday, and I take great naps when it's playing in the background 😌 another one is Star Trek TOS (haven't seen the other ones since I'm slow to watch anything).
 
If I'm angry or stressed enough that I feel like I need to hit something, I usually go for video games instead of movies and my ultimate comfort game is Kingdom Hearts II for some reason (you'd think that long-ass prologue would just make everything worse, but nope).

The prologue is the most comforting part! Twilight town's music is just so cozy.
 
It depends on what thing I'm fixated on. But some shows I can always fall back on are miss fishers murder mysteries

AHHHH MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES! I need to find a new place to stream this since Netflix got rid of it.

Everyone who knows me knows that Law & Order SVU is my ultimate comfort. I can watch reruns all day, everyday, and I take great naps when it's playing in the background 😌 another one is Star Trek TOS (haven't seen the other ones since I'm slow to watch anything).
Ngl I bought the series on vudu 😂 when it left Netflix I was distraught as fuckkk I was like nahhh I'm buying this mf now 😂 I love that show too much to lose it

Also have to add YESSSS FELLOW TREKKIE
 
Sometimes, when I feel especially hollow, I watch some stuff that'll make me cry, usually in a good way, not necessarily a heart wrenching way, because sometimes it's nice to feel sympathy for others, even if they aren't real people.

Think the last thing that made me feel that way was "Erased" (an anime) I just watched it for the first time not too long ago, and while the ending isn't all that great, man, I really felt for the girl the main character was helping. I think it's mainly a mystery show, and I think I watched it with that intent, but ended up really enjoying that aspect.

And I think before that, it was "A Silent Voice". Really damn good film. I think someday I'll probably watch "Your Lie In April", because I've heard that's good too.

As for other comfortable media I go back and enjoy from time to time, I usually play Persona 5 yearly, typically in spring, and I've re-watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Trigun more than a couple times.
 
Broken Hearts Gallery and Beauty and the Beast(real-life action version)will forever be my comfort movie. No matter what my mood is but I watch it whenever I need a good cry or a good laugh.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, or Friends are some of my comfort shows that I watch, again depending on my mood. If I listed all of my shows, you'd be reading all day.

Another comfort media that I enjoy is music, much more than anything else. ✨