Here's a neat little idea I had for a discussion thread. Most of the time when someone says something they really liked is as good as it is, there's at least some chance that they experienced whatever that something was "in its prime", when it was brand new and taking the world by storm. It's not uncommon for people to become super nostalgic for things they grew up with- I mean, heck, most of my entire online profile is centered around a Pokémon Ranger game for crying out loud- but those kinds of things have been talked about to death at this point. Sometimes, though, we come across older media a long time after it was released. This can happen for a number of reasons, with burnout from "newer media" and an interest to see what other people grew up with both being common situations people go through every year. My personal favorite: "Is insert media franchise here really as good as my friends have said it is, or is this just super overrated?"
I'm not afraid to admit I was late to the party on... a lot of things. That's okay, though. In fact, I actually... kind of prefer it that way? It's strange, I know, but knowing there's an entire generation of kids up and coming now that will grow up with radically different things than I did, I'm finally starting to understand what people mean when they look at younger people, like myself, and start reminiscing about the glory days. Maybe these books, shows, movies, games, music, whatever it is, maybe this stuff really is as good as they say, I started telling myself during college. In this sense, my idea to make this thread actually goes as far back as my junior year of college (the 2022-23 academic calendar year, if anyone's wondering). It took me THAT long to finally get around to watching a certain hit... cartoon? Anime? What is this show exactly? I still can't really tell what this franchise counts as, but... well...
Yeah, no, I was wrong. This show's a freaking banger, and I had no idea what I was missing for just over 15 years at that point. All of the hype for this original series- ignore the 2010 movie and the recent Netflix adaptation- is totally justified. I... I was at a loss for words. Not only did I start seeing a little bit of myself in Aang at one point, as someone who always felt like and knew he was different from other people and was constantly pushing himself to live up to standards HE was putting onto himself, but the supporting cast, the locations the show visited, the soundtrack, OH MAN the music in this series... I'm getting chills just typing this up right now. Like I've said multiple times by this point, I have no idea what took me so long to sit down and watch this from start to finish but BOY am I glad I did. The last season makes a genuine argument for the single best season I've ever seen from a show. It's THAT good. Even the first two seasons, while not being as emotionally strong as Season 3 are still excellent and set this world up in a way that's easy to understand while making you want to see more with these characters and their various abilities. Overall, this show actually manages to dodge a lot of the problems that are gatekeeping me from wanting to watch a lot of, say, modern shonen anime for example. (Emphasis on "Modern", I hear The Big 3 were also pretty solid in their prime.) There is stuff here like power scaling, the "Cliché Trio" archetype I've never been a big fan of- for context, that's when a series has its main three characters be the protagonist, a best friend, and a potential love interest- a few story arcs that don't work as well as others, but every show of this variety is going to have some of these things and the tropes that are visited here, as someone that likes to write, these are some of the better examples of these tropes that I've seen and none of it really takes that much attention away from what makes up the core appeal of the show. For the most part everything gets just the right amount of emphasis and screen time without getting too little or too much, and because of that you're able to develop a fondness and connection for these characters as they grow throughout the series and develop their own senses of identity.
It's not every day that something I originally missed out on for so long can shock me with how good it was to this extent. That's why I wanted to make this thread. Not only as a way for me to maybe discover even more gems I've missed out on so far, but so you can all share your stories with each other, too. Am I using this as an excuse to type up that whole paragraph about how much I loved The Last Airbender? Eh... maybe. But can you really blame me? I'm just looking forward to hearing everyone's stories, really.
I'm not afraid to admit I was late to the party on... a lot of things. That's okay, though. In fact, I actually... kind of prefer it that way? It's strange, I know, but knowing there's an entire generation of kids up and coming now that will grow up with radically different things than I did, I'm finally starting to understand what people mean when they look at younger people, like myself, and start reminiscing about the glory days. Maybe these books, shows, movies, games, music, whatever it is, maybe this stuff really is as good as they say, I started telling myself during college. In this sense, my idea to make this thread actually goes as far back as my junior year of college (the 2022-23 academic calendar year, if anyone's wondering). It took me THAT long to finally get around to watching a certain hit... cartoon? Anime? What is this show exactly? I still can't really tell what this franchise counts as, but... well...
Yeah, no, I was wrong. This show's a freaking banger, and I had no idea what I was missing for just over 15 years at that point. All of the hype for this original series- ignore the 2010 movie and the recent Netflix adaptation- is totally justified. I... I was at a loss for words. Not only did I start seeing a little bit of myself in Aang at one point, as someone who always felt like and knew he was different from other people and was constantly pushing himself to live up to standards HE was putting onto himself, but the supporting cast, the locations the show visited, the soundtrack, OH MAN the music in this series... I'm getting chills just typing this up right now. Like I've said multiple times by this point, I have no idea what took me so long to sit down and watch this from start to finish but BOY am I glad I did. The last season makes a genuine argument for the single best season I've ever seen from a show. It's THAT good. Even the first two seasons, while not being as emotionally strong as Season 3 are still excellent and set this world up in a way that's easy to understand while making you want to see more with these characters and their various abilities. Overall, this show actually manages to dodge a lot of the problems that are gatekeeping me from wanting to watch a lot of, say, modern shonen anime for example. (Emphasis on "Modern", I hear The Big 3 were also pretty solid in their prime.) There is stuff here like power scaling, the "Cliché Trio" archetype I've never been a big fan of- for context, that's when a series has its main three characters be the protagonist, a best friend, and a potential love interest- a few story arcs that don't work as well as others, but every show of this variety is going to have some of these things and the tropes that are visited here, as someone that likes to write, these are some of the better examples of these tropes that I've seen and none of it really takes that much attention away from what makes up the core appeal of the show. For the most part everything gets just the right amount of emphasis and screen time without getting too little or too much, and because of that you're able to develop a fondness and connection for these characters as they grow throughout the series and develop their own senses of identity.
It's not every day that something I originally missed out on for so long can shock me with how good it was to this extent. That's why I wanted to make this thread. Not only as a way for me to maybe discover even more gems I've missed out on so far, but so you can all share your stories with each other, too. Am I using this as an excuse to type up that whole paragraph about how much I loved The Last Airbender? Eh... maybe. But can you really blame me? I'm just looking forward to hearing everyone's stories, really.
