Coming back to nostalgic media as an adult

PavellumPendulum

oh, to be seen as the poet, not just the muse
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Hey y'all! As we get older, things that we used to think were soooo amazing and well done as kids sometimes can seem hilariously bad or just in terrible taste as we get older. Has this happened to you before, where you tried rewatching/rereading something you really liked as a child for the nostalgia, before realizing it just really wasn't as good as you thought it was?

I've been rewatching Ouran High School Host Club with my husband recently and though I do like it still, there are many jokes in it that are just in terrible taste and or offensive now that I'm older and more educated. The nostalgia is still there but I'm like, 'Woah, how did I not notice that this was in poor taste before?'

So how about y'all? Any rude awakenings about your childhood interests?
 
Harry Potter. With the controversy behind the author as well as an excellent video essay by Shawn, I'm no longer a fan, for bad/inconsistent writing and bad morals. ex. One line retcon for the time turners, bungling an issue as simple as slavery

 
Harry Potter. With the controversy behind the author as well as an excellent video essay by Shawn, I'm no longer a fan, for bad/inconsistent writing and bad morals. ex. One line retcon for the time turners, bungling an issue as simple as slavery


Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people being really really disappointed as the years have gone by. I was never into HP myself but it seems like a mess to get into these days 🥲
 
I can't really say that I've returned to something that I loved as a kid and had a negative experience with it; however, I have realized the meanings of jokes or comments by characters that simply went over my head before because I wasn't old enough to understand. Mostly, what I see is how suited to their times each show or movie is. For example, I'd gone back and rewatched Totally Spies on Youtube, since it was out there. I loved watching it as a kid. It is the single-most 2000's show I have ever seen. The fashion, the dialogue, all of it. Like I never understood as a kid what a "valley girl" was. lol Still a hilarious show imo though for all its ridiculousness.

I also noticed little things in various shows like the reuse of animations. A good example of this would be Code Lyoko. It never occurred to me as a kid that they were recycled or why. I just loved watching. The scenes where the kids are going to the factory, in the scanners, and to Lyoko are recycled animations (at least, when the show was still animated in its entirety and not live action). Watching with a keener eye, I picked up on it. Of course, it was to pad the run-time and because redrawing the scenes every time would be hella expensive. It's the same with shows like Sailor Moon, W.I.T.C.H., and Winx Club with the magical girl transformation sequences.

Now that I think of it, I guess you could say that I have had a sort of negative experience returning to a show, but not because of things being in poor taste, more like the quality just deteriorating over time. The aforementioned Winx Club. When I first saw it, it was on 4Kids! network. That was the dub that I remember, the one that was best imo. Then it got redone by various other networks over the years and, with each reboot, the voice acting got worse and the retcons were more noticeable. And while I get that they're supposed to be fairies or whatever, how OP'd is it to have hundreds of different forms/transformations? lol Of course, I also understand that this was for the costume design and to appeal to kids with sparkles and shit but why wasn't one or two enough? Now, it just seems overblown and kinda cringey.
 
Deviant art and NeoPets.

I was just a niave 15 year old when I discovered deviantart and a total innocent kid as well. I was invited to a club called 'dragon girls' and didn't relize until many years later it was nsfw and no one said shit about it to me until I looked back and saw how cringy it was.

As for neopets, oof. I recall someone actually asking me for ahem, 'consent' and had no clue what the word meant. When I asked, they told me and I was like 'wtf I am never using this site again'. Also introduced me to hentai which was totally not right for a kid of my age.
 
I've been revisiting some old YouTube content lately.

It's occurred to me how much of it was so tasteless, offensive, and stereotypical. I know that edgy humor was a staple of the 2010s, but yikes. I have no idea how I let some of this slide when I was a kid. Rewatching it as an adult is borderline physically painful. Some of the "jokes" aren't jokes at all and it rides so heavily on shock value or throwing entire groups under the bus. I'm glad we no longer live in this era, but the decade beforehand was pretty rough.

As for more positive stuff. .

Certain games like Pokémon, Harvest Moon, and Tomodachi Life continue to hold up for me. I continuously return to Pokémon Black 2 or Harvest Moon: Magic Melody when I'm having a rough day. I still resent the fact that newer Story of Seasons games aren't like Animal Parade either, since I'm positive that series peaked around Wii-era, but meh. At least some of the new stuff is salvageable too. Especially now that they've finally introduced same sex marriage, hopefully to stay, in the series.
 
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I've been revisiting some old YouTube content lately.

It's occurred to me how much of it was so tasteless, offensive, and stereotypical. I know that edgy humor was a staple of the 2010s, but yikes. I have no idea how I let some of this slide when I was a kid. Rewatching it as an adult is borderline physically painful. Some of the "jokes" aren't jokes at all and it rides so heavily on shock value or throwing entire groups under the bus. I'm glad we no longer live in this era, but the decade beforehand was pretty rough.

As for more positive stuff. .

Certain games like Pokémon, Harvest Moon, and Tomodachi Life continue to hold up for me. I continuously return to Pokémon Black 2 or Harvest Moon: Magic Melody when I'm having a rough day. I still resent the fact that newer Story of Seasons games aren't like Animal Parade either, since I'm positive that series peaked around Wii-era, but meh. At least some of the new stuff is salvageable too. Especially now that they've finally introduced same sex marriage, hopefully to stay, in the series.

I totally feel that! I used to watch a lot more edgy YouTubers without batting an eye and now that I'm older I go, "Holy shit, they said that?" It's such a weird moment, realizing how much you've grown since then. That humour unfortunately remains to this day and the generic 'you're too sensitive' rebuttal has also overstayed its welcome. You can be funny without being racist, homophobic, transphobic and everything else. Punch up, not down. Some people just can't fathom that, though.

Tomodachi Life is such a gem. I wish they'd made more of it! I used to play Harvest Moon and Rune Factory all the time as a kid. Thankfully, not everything we filled our childhoods with is nasty and outdated, haha. I'm glad for the introduction of same sex marriage, I hated having to play a man just so that I could romance a girl. 😔
 
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I totally feel that! I used to watch a lot more edgy YouTubers without batting an eye and now that I'm older I go, "Holy shit, they said that?" It's such a weird moment, realizing how much you've grown since then. That humour unfortunately remains to this day and the generic 'you're too sensitive' rebuttal has also overstayed its welcome. You can be funny without being racist, homophobic, transphobic and everything else. Punch up, not down. Some people just can't fathom that, though.

Tomodachi Life is such a gem. I wish they'd made more of it! I used to play Harvest Moon and Rune Factory all the time as a kid. Thankfully, not everything we filled our childhoods with is nasty and outdated, haha. I'm glad for the introduction of same sex marriage, I hated having to play a man just so that I could romance a girl. 😔
I cannot fathom how many YouTubers I've unfollowed over the years simply because they've gotten annoying, I realized their humor was never funny, or they're outed as predators. It's a really alarming trend. I don't think there's even one that I've been subscribed to longer than five years at this point.

Relatable with the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory thing too. I still play them to this day. Nothing beats Animal Parade in my book and Rune Factory 4 still holds up at one of my favorite games of all time. I like Rune Factory 5 too, but it's kind of laggy and poorly optimized. At least it's also introduced same sex marriage though.​
 
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdamar books. They were great ecapeism when I was younger even when some of the tropes were disturbing but when I’ve tried to get into them for nostalgic reasons I can’t unsee all the flaws.
 
I return every now and then to those "graphic novels" of my childhood called "Digedags" (esp. the America story line)
Original a GDR produced series and later brought into a bound form as books ... the stories are decent and the artwork is just beautiful
 
I also used to be a big Harry Potter nerd. I even ran a fandom Harry Potter role-play for years. And trust me when I say I tried my best to separate the art from the artist. However, it got to a point where I felt like I was contributing to the problem by keeping her relevant. And relevance is the only reason she has a platform at all.

I have since distanced myself from Harry Potter and I avoid talking about JK Rowling and her work as much as possible. I am now focusing on doing original role-plays instead. And now that it has been a few years, I can safely say that the nostalgia has lost its hold and I definitely see the flaws in her work now.
 
I also used to be a big Harry Potter nerd. I even ran a fandom Harry Potter role-play for years. And trust me when I say I tried my best to separate the art from the artist. However, it got to a point where I felt like I was contributing to the problem by keeping her relevant. And relevance is the only reason she has a platform at all.

I have since distanced myself from Harry Potter and I avoid talking about JK Rowling and her work as much as possible. I am now focusing on doing original role-plays instead. And now that it has been a few years, I can safely say that the nostalgia has lost its hold and I definitely see the flaws in her work now.


Always the option to take the major plot points/lore and magic system, etc.pp
and then rip it off into an "original setting" to RP in ;3
 
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I also used to be a big Harry Potter nerd. I even ran a fandom Harry Potter role-play for years. And trust me when I say I tried my best to separate the art from the artist. However, it got to a point where I felt like I was contributing to the problem by keeping her relevant. And relevance is the only reason she has a platform at all.

I have since distanced myself from Harry Potter and I avoid talking about JK Rowling and her work as much as possible. I am now focusing on doing original role-plays instead. And now that it has been a few years, I can safely say that the nostalgia has lost its hold and I definitely see the flaws in her work now.


Always the option to take the major plot points/lore and magic system, etc.pp
and then rip it off into an "original setting" to RP in ;3

That's basically what I did! I took inspiration from HP and turned it into my own little thing, which then evolved into something completely different. But I like it much better that way because it's a work I can call my own. :^)
 
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