one spesfic episdoe of the orginal digimon anime. i watched it when i was pretty young; and the episode that skullgreymon comes out for the first time was the frirst time i ever saw a protagonist fail; and espically failing as a friend. it really stuck with me
The anime Oshi-No-Ko is a story about the Japanese stars known as Idols, it tackles all the deep dark issues with the entertainment industry like cancel culture, stalkers, and higher ups making poor decisions. After the first episode alone my mindset towards celebrities had completely changed, and when the main character is trying to stop his sister from achieving her Idol dreams, I actually was rooting for him. Which I wouldn’t have before seeing the first episode because it led to their mother’s death. Even though I knew what he was doing was wrong.
The anime/manga Banana Fish. Most people will focus on its tragedy, and I've had several people be surprised when I express my love for this story, but I carry the main character and his story deep within me, and I can confidently say that my life changed not the moment I finished the show, but the moment I started it. It was even one of the stories I mentioned in my application for the writer/researcher job. Another would definitely be Avatar the Last Airbender (plus the Kyoshi novels specifically). Still, I expect that to be the case for many people in this comment section and those who follow this channel. These not only fundamentally changed the way I viewed certain aspects of life or myself, but helped me through the grief of losing my brother. I am eternally grateful to those who put such love and passion into their stories and hope to do the same. However, the first story I ever recall having such a deep impact on me was a book I read in one sitting at my local library that I don't remember the name of and that I've never found. Curiously enough, Bridge to Terabithia (in my case the movie) also had an incredible impact on me, and I resonated VERY deeply with what you said about a whole world opening up for you. At that time, I lived in a house with a very large back garden, and I remember walking into it the first time after watching Terabithia and seeing it in such a different light, it was like what I had known for years had new colours I'd never noticed. Everything felt so different, I was filled with so many emotions and I had such a surge of imagination. That lasted for a while, but eventually, that story faded in the background for me, until I found myself going back to it in my mind after I lost my brother. I still haven't rewatched it, but I most certainly carry it with me.
Automata really did spend 4 playthroughs telling you everything you're doing is pointless, believing in things is dumb, and there's gonna be tragedy no matter how hard you try, but if you don't do something and don't believe in something then there's no point in existing. It's got such an existentially bleak outlook, and yet somehow, it's still the most cathartic and life-affirming piece of art I've ever encountered.
There will be tragedy no matter what, thus you must keep on fighting. Nothing has any meaning, thus, you must give things their meaning yourself. I once was were you were, therefore, don't give up!
See, I had a very different experience with Automata, which just goes to prove the point of the video. I thought it was very hopeful underneath all the existential dread. I took it was there is no one "true" meaning to life, there is only the meaning that we give it, be it family (Pascal's village), love (the songstress, some androids), peace (clown machines doing a protest), or any other thing we may enjoy. And it was not meaningless because we existed. Another thing I took (from both Nier games) was the futility of fighting. It's a bit ironic since they're both hack n' slash games, but they have such a nice peace message. In both games, neither side is right, neither side has an actual reason for fighting, yet they do. I especially love the last line of Ashes of Dreams (ending song of Replicant) "have we been fighting in vain?" Anyway I just thought it was neat to see someone had a different experience than I did.
Yeah man I feel you. Automata shocked me to my bone. However, after playing it I got my motivation ramped up and I decided to learn Japanese. made my way to level N3 😂
its beautiful, but it took me a week to really appreciate it after getting Ending E, since I had to deal with existential OCD first which i got from playing the game
Around 2010, when I was still a smoker, I went outside in the middle of a snowy, starry winter night, to have a cigarette, an owl landed on a tree branch about three metres from me. We just stared at each other for a long time. No one else but me and the white owl. That is one of my nicest experiences.
I attempted to quit smoking for a good while. It was only until I set a specific throw date. It was dark out and it was raining. I heard the meowing of a cat, it was cold and was under the cover of the roofed deck. I went inside and got some ham for the cat. I had my last cigarette with this cat, never to be seen again.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” The same way we never read a story twice as even if the text is the same, we are never the same reader. A story always with me is Princess Mononoke as i always keep the in mind the idea to see with eyes unclouded by hate.
perhaps that is why we find ourselves wanting to periodically reread the same stories again and again, because we know that our eyes have changed and want to see those stories through our new eyes
Frieren recently changed how I think of my friendships. Obviously I'm not a thousand years old, but I drift in and out of my friends' lives, often with years between my appearances. For me, nothing feels changed about those friendships no matter how much intervening time there is, but I really struggled last year when one of my old friends I hadn't seen in a long time died unexpectedly. Watching Frieren realize how much of Himmel's influence stayed with her despite spending a small fraction of her life around him paralleled how I felt about my friend who died.
I have to agree. Watching frieren made me realize I should pay more attention to the people around me and cherish the relationships with the people I love. It's a simple message but it deeply resonated with me. It's a beautiful show with a lot of symbolism and so many neat details if we look deeper into it
It pains me to lose a close friend. But what I understood is be happy it happened, and live like you mean it. What else is there to do except honor their legacy right
Outer Wilds is that game for me. The curiosity, the loss, the thrill of putting things together - and how most of the logs you find are just as curious as you are, and how the story rewards you for that interest... wow, man, just wow
Came here for the outer wilds comment!! This game gave me a reason to keep going after I escaped the lds church. I was told my entire life what would happen after death, and that every waking moment should be spent towards preparing for that death. And then I got Outer Wilds. It spun tales of characters that I fell in love with again and again, it told stories of compassion and tragedy, it finally made me realize that the universe isn't controlled by anything, it simply _is_ and that no one is judging me for living the way I want to. (It also reminded me that life can be unfair, and that it's always been that way. But that's not a reason to give up, if anything, it's a reason to keep going. There's always little moments of happiness to be found, sparks of connection with people who you may never see again, and isn't that so incredibly special?) And in the end, it told me that all will be forgotten. But instead of being put off by that fact, it gave me reason to find solace. You may fade from the record, but you are also _alive_ . You make your mark on the world before you dissolve into obscurity by the way you help people, the ways you try to make them smile, the ways they pay that back. And, aren't you glad you stopped to smell the pine trees? So uh yeah, Outer Wilds is probably the most life-changing piece of media that I've ever stumbled across, and I'm so glad I did
I knew this would be down here, and I am so glad it's as high up in the comments as it is. It was the first thing to come to mind when I read the video title.
Delicious in Dungeon. The amazing switch up from comedy to existential horror and impeccable character drama while keeping the story as fun as it ever was and even funnier, because Ryoko Kui is just the goat of writing intertwined comedy that feeds drama that feeds comedy which all is built upon incredible characters and Tolkien level worldbuilding. For it all to begin with food and base desires of human condition.
I was gonna say Dunmeshi too! The series basically single-handedly changed how I see eating and it’s helped me have a much better relationship with food. Not even to mention how the characters and rest of the plot/worldbuilding affected me. Probably my favorite story of all time at the moment.
9:36 This hurts. I'm sitting here trying, raking my brain, TRYING to remember a story that changed me and I can't remember any. I've read most of the ones you mentioned and I was like 'oh, yeah, right, I read that once...I don't remember if it changed me". I have a very bad memory especially of my childhood. I KNOW that there has been stories that changed me, that made me cry, made me question life and my place in it but I just can't remember them. I can usually ignore my memory problems. The great thing about forgetting things is you usually don't miss them...until someone reminds you...and suddenly you're crying, mourning something you don't remember losing.
I can relate regarding not being able to remember a story that's changed me. He's a passionate guy, which is great to see, but I'm not a passionate person. I've read stories that have blown me away (figuratively), but I cannot remember any that I would say changed me. I'm still basically the same steadfast person now that I was at 2 or 3 years old, back to my earliest memories. I feel the same, just more knowledgeable. When I read stories, great or small, I always have a feeling like I'm remembering something I knew but forgot. They're simply reminding me of what I already know, in a way. Stories always feel familiar to me, as if they've always been a part of me. I also have a bad memory. I've loved a lot of stories, but I don't feel changed by any of them. You're not alone in this.
There's so many books I read as a kid/teen that I can only kind of vaguely remember but that I remember being strongly affected by. I'd say though that every story we encounter changes us a bit. It may not be dramatic or fully conscious, but even books, movies, or games that aren't very good overall can offer little ideas, insights, or inspiration that can change how you think about things.
Hey! As someone with trauma-related memory issues in my background, I related to this hard. The best I can say while trying to make this brief is that it's hard to think of the things that have changed you on the spot, and you almost certainly have stories that have impacted you in some way, even not as passionately as described in the video. 2 years ago I got back into writing and started making a point to jot down media that I love/has made an impression on me, and it's been a very slow but rewarding process of reclaiming the things I loved while things were so chaotic in my childhood. All this to say that I'm nearly certain you're not some passionless blank slate or anything! It's just hard to sit down and come to the discovery that something impacted you profoundly on a whim.
I feel the same, and I've felt like this before and tried to dig up what kinda books would've been at my school library in certain years, but everything just sorts by publication date which is definitely not comparable haha. And then I think maybe shows? I've seen a lot deeper stuff now and can appreciate it all a lot more, but if I watch a retrospective on Teen Titans or whatever that points out something incredible all I think is "yeah cool, I don't quite remember that". Humans are meant to be a collection of what we've experienced and I just feel like I'm blank, I definitely exist, but in the here-and-now, I get obssessed and do a deep-dive of Bojack Horseman or Neon Genesis Evangelion or the Percy Jackson books, taking it all in, reading and watching so much extra analysis of the texts (Like this very channel), and then... Letting it go. It disappears, Percy Jackson was a slow burn so i remember that, the other two are recent within the last year or so, but one from 3 years ago? No hope, idk what stories I'm holding...
Disco Elysium, man. The final meeting of that game combined with the line "You are a miracle", recontextualising the entire human experience, the moments when the different parts of Harry come together to back him up in his grief and his acceptance of being the mildly insane guy that he is, not to mention EVERYTHING about Kim Kitsuragi, I just love it so much.
The fact that your emotions were your party members was genius. Shivers was my favorite. The story still sticks with me as one of the best I’ve played.
Omori for me for sure. That game changed my brain chemistry. I sobbed my eyes out with the MC at the end, and the music? The final song? The nostalgia for a life I hadn’t even lived? For friends I personally never had? What a game man. And it’s all locked behind RPG mechanics and a colorful world that can truly lure you in.
Celeste, for the simplicity of its graphics and its demand for the player to bring the characters to life through the lack of voice acting, is a beautiful and wholly real experience. The player will feel frustrated, defeated and unsure of how far they can take the player character up the mountain... but through that anger and bitterness, you push on, you complete a level or a single room, you collect that one strawberry that has eluded you for hours, eventually you reach the summit and the controller shaped barrier between you and the player character, it simply vanishes and you feel the exact catharsis that the character is supposed to be feeling. Celeste is a game that changed my life.
One of the most profound experiences I had was in "Umineko: When They Cry" that develops from a deconstruction of the murder mystery genre to the exploration of humanity's relation to fiction and shows how stories are alive as long as we carry them (one of the messages getting out of it). And after getting to what it really is about, there was almost nothing that could come close. "Without love, it cannot be seen"
AHHHHHHH. I was just about to write about my own experience with Umineko!!! It literally reconfigured my brain (and made me go "oh, this makes sense, it's like Umineko" when all of my classmates got super confused about post structuralism xD). But yes, it's such an unforgettable experience. Definitely recommend everyone who hasn't yet you check it out!
very much so. honestly, it changed my life a little because I looked at Beato and went "wait... she's just like me fr tho... I think that's a bad thing...". and I decided to pull myself out of this path I was taking. now, I can't say I'm doing well, but I'm certainly better. I also realized I'm a man, so that's good, too.
when I heard you discuss the funeralists, I assumed this was some classic story by a highly acclaimed author, so I was impressed to discover you wrote it
Glad to see this comment cause I was annoyedly about to leave the video after I read through some comments because I didn't see the point of having some jabroni tell me how amazing lifechanging stories were by spoiling one I could look into myself (which was my plan for when I left here). And then I saw this and was like "goddammit"
For me, what nier changed was that I started to internalise that no matter how dark it gets, you can find a light. It might be in an exceptionally weird place, you might even have to become the light yourself... but it's there. Somewhere.
The end of LOTR made me feel a strange kind of sorrow which has stuck with me. Having read the Hobbit, I expected a similar conclusion. But when Frodo and Gandalf and the others left for Valinor, and with the coming of the age of men, it felt like the magic was seeping out of the world just as the story was slipping away from me.
I’ve only ever seen the movies, but Sam’s speech at the end of the Two Towers always hits me so hard, it makes me tear up. The fact that it is about how powerful stories are makes it even better
When I finished LOTR I put the book down and went about my evening. When I went to talk to my mom about it I started crying and I really didn't understand why. I was hysterical and all I could get out was "it didn't end how I wanted it to." The loss of Frodo, of magic, of my happy ending, and of the book that had been with me for so long really hurt
Amazing video! I love that you are so vulnerable with these discussions; I've sometimes felt ashamed or guilty at feeling such strong feelings from a story, especially when others I know haven't. It's very gratifying to hear that I am not weird 😅.
Stories are stories and stories are meant to make you feel something. If you feel strongly about a story, you're not the weird one, you are enjoying the story as it was meant to be enjoyed.
The only video game thats done this for me was Life is Strange. I honestly don't know how to explain the feelings it gave me, but after i finished it for the first time, i literally sat on my couch in silence for at least an hour. I didnt touch a video game for weeks and i retreated to my comfort show (ATLA), binged it, then followed it up with Korra. Finally after all that i settled back into a somewhat normal routine. That was 2 years ago. Even now i will think back and sit in silence for a bit. Violet Evergarden did something similar as well.
Violet Evergarden was a brilliant story to get to experience. I remember sitting there bawling my eyes out for so many episodes, the entire story is an incredible (and beautiful!) exploration of human emotion and loss and identity and meaning and... it felt like a privilege to get to be impacted by it
Escorting spirits in Spiritfarer really helped me come to terms with the people who I've lost in life, and getting to be there at the end of their stories was deeply moving.
Im so happy a lot of people are writing about Umineko: when they cry. It turned me from a truth obsessed, cold hearted and analytical person into someone who could suddenly see so much more value in other people's worldviews. Unironically it taught me how to love humans. Along with Nier and Outer wilds it basically shaped my pholosophy towards life between 20 and 27. Id also say despite any success one of my biggest achievements in life is that i got a few people to read Umineko who were similarly impacted.
How To Train Your Dragon was that story for me. I learned so much from that movie and the ensuing franchise it spawned. It really shaped me into the person I am today. It taught me the value of being an idealist, what it means to be a good friend, how important compassion and empathy are, and to always stand for what I believe in, even in the face of overwhelming odds. I could go on and on about all the things I've learned from HTTYD and all the things I love about it. Also, coincidentally, How To Train Your Dragon is also the reason why I found your channel in the first place many years ago. I still remember all those great theories you made back when we still called ourselves the "Subfuries". It's hard to believe that was almost a decade ago... Man, I feel old.
One Piece. I took the plunge and got into it last year. I know the sheer length of the series turns a lot of people away, but man I'd give anything to watch it again for the first time. Oda has had his series planned out from the beginning and his writing reflects it beautifully. Heart wrenching moments, heavy topics, social commentary and found family all lie beneath the goofy Shonen wrapping. I think you'd really enjoy it, Tim!
The show is so long that I'd rather read the manga, but both are so long. I knew it had to be good, but it just seemed so overwhelming, like a giant commitment. That's why the netflix show was such a good gateway drug when one has been putting it off for too long. You know it's just skimming the surface, and it helps give the drive to enjoy it in depth afterwards.
totally. It's a great time to get into One Piece though! Netflix has the remastered anime project underway, and Toei just announced a long break to condense some of the earlier seasons. I switched to the manga and have no regrets. Plus, One Piece is approaching its final few years so new folks can catch up before the finale (no spoilers).
The live action finally got me into One Piece after thinking for so long how goofy it looked. Granted, it definitely is at times, but holy shit I had no idea what I was missing
The story that changed me the most was the first episode of To Your Eternity. At the time that I watched it I hadn't cried in years, or really showed much of any emotion for that matter. I still felt emotions of course, but nothing intense. I had gotten so good at hiding my emotions, that I often didn't recognize them in myself. However that first episode changed me, it unlocked those emotions, and everything has seemed so much more since then.
Edith Finch absolutely destroyed me with Lewis' story. I never expected the game to hit so hard until it told of a young man who lost his sense of reality and lost himself as a result. It's beautiful.
Signalis is one that changed me, I can't even describe how, but after playing it two years ago, it has left me with this inescapable longing, a dread in my heart that has never faded. 10/10, would play it again, and ugly cry into my desk.
i loved signalis, except for the part where if you play it using resources sparingly and not killing monsters (typical behavior for the genre it is emulating), you get a bad ending. was very frustrating when the whole game is so long. like, not replayable for me levels of long.
signalis is the most recent example i have of a story that changed me, like, jesus christ....... replaying the game for 100% achievements was daunting not because of the gameplay challenges, but because i knew i'd have to face this story again that makes me cry every time without fail. and it DID - HARD!!!!
I'm reading through Kentaro Miura's manga, Berserk, for the first time and I can feel it changing me. I've been confronting childhood trauma through it, but my partner is here to support me when it gets bad.
I know the feeling. Certain scenes in that manga traumatized me for weeks. Heck, it even made me react to a scene in a damned Donald Duck pocket. Wasn't even close to a similar one, but still. That was weeks later and I was still affected by it. Miura sure had some skills.
Growing up I felt I was never truly seen or heard. Trauma, loss, and sorrow shaped me into who I am today. I'm currently writing a book about my life and frankly it's hard. I've struggled because for me it's reliving past events but it made me realize how much I changed for the better
To The Moon. I had no idea why it resonated with me when I first played it on release over a decade ago. Several playthroughs later, and only last year, did I finally realize why, and how its subconsciously acted as a guide for me over the years.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin had me thinking about how there's no such thing as an objective ideal. One person's Paradise could be another person's Hell, and much harm is done by people who think they have all the answers and try to force others to conform to their idea of perfection.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It was the first video game I played on my own without my husband. It showed me that video games (something I didn’t grow up with and knew nothing about) could be these beautiful pieces of storytelling art. There was a place for me here, I could enjoy and even get good at video games and my world got so much bigger. I’m now 600+ hours into Baldur’s Gate 3, with three journals full of terrible fanfiction and I’ve never been happier 😄
That takes me back. One of my earliest preserved fanfiction scribbles is a Fire Emblem Awakening--my first FE game--self-insert story where I shipped myself with an expy of Azura from FE Fates (made her a fourth sibling of the Ylissean royal family) because I had a massive crush on her. I was actually intending to stay away from Three Houses back when it came out, until I could maybe get a Switch and play it. Then I made the mistake of reading a short crackfic oneshot crossover with Awakening, then I got sucked into a monster of an SI 3H fic that I binged simultaneously with the wiki because I had no prior knowledge of anything. Now I know more about it than I have any right to know when I've never played even a second of it. Have you played Three Hopes? It answers some theories that'd never been confirmed, such as Dimitri's uncle's role in the Tragedy of Duscur. P.S. I don't know if you've heard of Yoshiki Tanaka but the dev team was a fan because Claude was partly based on two of Tanaka's characters from different works. What's hilarious is that one of them is one of my favourite fictional characters, and Claude was already another before I found out the Tanaka connection.
@@EthanKironus8067 I love all the cross pollination in fanfiction! I know way more about Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir than I have any right to for never having seen a second of it. I haven’t played 3 Hopes, I’m not a huge fan of hack-and-slash, but I’ve watched a lot of clips and play throughs. Ok so help me out: please don’t hate me, but I thoroughly dislike Claude. I want to like him, I want to understand the hype, but I simply do not. In as many words as possible, please tell me why I should like Claude von Reigan
@@trumpetluver1022 Don't worry, I don't hate you for not liking Claude (it does take me slightly aback, but everyone has likes and dislikes). It would help if there are any identifiable things that get between you and liking him, but I get the impression that the appeal is also just not computing. I am drawing a bit on Three Hopes for this, since it fleshes out bits and pieces of him that Three Houses didn't have the opportunity to. I don't want to approach this as telling you why you "should" like Claude, so I'll say why I like him and hopefully there's something in there that clicks for you. For the purpose here I can separate the reasons I like Claude into two broad sections: personally identifying with him and his ideals/character arc, and his position in the game's narrative. The personal part is simple enough; I'm a brown-skinned Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, and while Almyra is much more Persian in its influence I still identify with him as a brown person who has a foot in both 'worlds'. I also see a parallel between Islam and his dream of opening people's hearts and minds to one another--I won't go on in detail but the 13th verse of the 49th Surah of the Qur'an says "We [meaning God] have made you into nations and tribes so you may (come to) know one another." His real name being Khalid is another notch under this, as that's a common name among Muslims. That's a rough summary but I don't want to be overbearing on this point. Claude believes that such change won't come unless people learn this for themselves through exposure; while he hands over the Fodlan side of this to Byleth in VW/SS and Dimitri or Edelgard in their routes, which itself is fascinating because of the similarities he notes between himself and Edelgard (more explicitly so in Three Hopes). As for his narrative role, it is admittedly hamstrung by Verdant Wind's similarities to Silver Snow--Silver Snow was the first route they developed, btw--and the game not really illuminating the issues between Fodlan and Almyra all that well, though they aren't absent entirely, just implicit. But one of the game's themes is (the sins of) the past coming home to roost--to coopt Dimitri's refrain, the dead must have their due. Besides ending the hostilities between Fodlan and Almyra, Claude is interested in the truth. Nemesis appearing in VW, while a story function (also must note that it's a result of the different pace of events) is the final piece of the past not yet laid to rest. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea are all of Fodlan. They see its problems to varying degrees, but they see it from the inside, and in Rhea's case contributed to them as much as she ameliorated things. Claude, having been raised in Almyra, has a different perspective. He isn't encumbered by the same baggage Rhea, Dimitri, or Edelgard carry. That baggage is not a shame, but it's a lie to say it isn't, or can't be, an impediment. Claude isn't an outsider though, he has 'blood of Fodlan' in his veins too. In other words, Claude comes in with a fresh set of eyes. His struggles demonstrate that outsiders can't unilaterally fix the problems, but in conjunction with the other leaders' own baggage, shows that it may take a new perspective to clear the fog. Because he isn't caught up in the "what" like them--the slaughter of the Nabateans, the Tragedy of Duscur, the injustices of the Crest system--he can more freely ask "why." Plus I've grown up with Yugioh for years now, so I'm a sucker for friendship speeches, no matter how cheesy. I hope this helps. P.S. Three Hopes shows Claude's more cynical side due to the diverging storyline. He's more deceitful, uses colder tactics including letting Randolph die while in alliance with the Empire, etc.which demonstrates how much his experiences in Three Houses, on any of the routes, change him for the better. Even when Byleth doesn't join him being immersed with his classmates prompts him to trust them more and he wears the laid-back mask a little less; more importantly, being at the monastery is how he realizes that there's truth behind the scenes he needs to get at. In Golden Wildfire he kills Rhea because as far as he knew she was the cause of Fodlan's insularity and ills. But spending time at the monastery clearly mollifies him, and while he still considers her a (potential) obstacle he realizes that there's more to the story. THAT REALIZATION (sorry, just trying to make this part stand out) is something neither Rhea, nor Dimitri, nor even Edelgard have. That is ultimately at the core of why I like him so much. P.P.S. And Joe Zieja is absolutely hilarious, his embrace of the role certainly helps.
I hope you know that I’m fully crying, I am not some who cries very often, but the funeralists and discussion of story has me actually bawling, tears running down my face
The first one I can remember really changing me is Good Omens. It was the first Terry Pratchett book I ever read (my dad lent me his copy in about 2011) and it really hit me with its humour, its themes of fate vs free will, determinism, and what the nature of Good or Evil are
The World Ends With You. It was the right story at the right time for me. I was roughly the age of the characters and deeply related to the main character especially who is not a good person at the beginning of the story. It made me realize that I also was a terrible person at the time and his journey helped my own. I can't say that it was the deeply profound feeling you described in the video because I don't engage with stories that way, but I internalized the message of that story and strife to emulate it in my own life.
I was in third grade and my friend and I were looking at books in our classroom when I picked up Harry Potter. I was going to read it but she wanted to as well, and since she was a faster reader than I was she read it while I picked up Dear America, My Heart is on the Ground. That book changed my life as a 9 year old by showing me how harsh it was to be a little native girl being sent to a missionary and being forced to give up her culture and watch her friend be buried alive. It was written in a diary format from the girls pov and it hit so hard. It changed me and the kind of books I was drawn to forever after that. I didn’t end up reading Harry Potter until I was 18 because of that fateful day 😅
The very first of these for me was The Phantom Tollbooth. That book basically turned me from a kid who could read, but was mostly read to, into somebody who started reading basically everything I could get my hands on. It quite literally changed the entire trajectory of my life, set me on a track that would guide me for decades to come, just by being /exactly/ the right book for the person I was at the time.
Great choice! I remember having a similar experience with Phantom Tollbooth. I was forced to read it in elementary school and I remember it vividly as one of the times I went from being forced to read something to devouring it quicker than my teachers ever expected.
@@Daemonworks I can't find my own post on this exact book, but I couldn't agree more with what you wrote. I recommend reading it again now that you've grown up. I did a year or two ago, and it was even more emotional and relevant than 20 years ago!
Bridge to Terabithia was one of my favorite movies as a kid because I could relate to every single character. My mom took me to the theater to see it one Saturday randomly- she never did that. Now, after my mom has passed, that movie always reminds me of her. I don’t know why she decided to take me- I hadn’t even heard of the movie before- but I’m so glad that I have that memory now. It has made the bittersweet feeling even stronger and I love how that memory has changed over the years.
Ocarina of Time, when I was like six or seven. It was my first favourite video game and it taught me that games could be more than just really fun toys - that they could be profound and beautiful. Even now I still think back to that line from Shiek, "the flow of time is always cruel". It's something I've understood more and more with time.
I've never actually played through it, but the passion people have for it is simply beautiful. I love listening to the main theme, and would love to give it a try one day. I'm glad to hear it matters so much to you and everyone else, it's really beautiful!
@@Genderkaiser Thanks for letting me know! Yeah I think I've heard about that lol. It might take some getting used to but I think it'll be a worthy trade off for a fantastic game overall. Thanks again though for giving me a heads up!
Great video! Sorry if this doesn't count, as it is nonfiction. David Attenborough's "Life on Earth" brought it home to me, at about 13, how old the world is and how important our brief time alive here is.
Nonfiction stories are still stories. They're told from a particular POV, and can change drastically if that POV is changed, so however "real" it is, it's still a story. Attenborough counts. :)
Absolutely it counts, Koyanisquatsi is my film that changed me, a book that changed me is more difficult, perhaps "The Boy with the Bronze Axe" by Kathleen Fidler
I am sitting on my couch on a cold and grey sunday morning with tears streaming down my face. I can mot remember a single instance of being fundamentally changed by a story despite consuming them for all of my thirty-six years of life. I feel like I have missed out on or failed some aspect of my humanity and my soul is as grey and barren as the sky outside. Thank you for making me feel something, even if it ended up being more akin to Void than Joy. It was something i needed to realize.
hi I feel about the same here. i had to really think about it to even remember one. perhaps you just don't remember, but regardless, at least after this maybe we would pay more attention when a story does change our life again :')
Sometimes we change too gradually to notice it like this. I consumed a tremendous amount of media as a child for escapism from my life, having depression from health issues, situational depression and extreme anxiety from cPTSD, undiagnosed autism and adhd. I was heavily molded by all that I consumed, yet I cannot point at any one instance where I felt immediately changed. I can point to many moments when I took note while consuming stories that this or that was important. But none of them were singular radical experiences, everything built on past experiences too much to be that radical.
It doesn't have to come in such a rushing all-encompassing form. When I read / watch a story there is sometimes a tiny little voice stuck in my head for days or even weeks after, as I keep remembering everything I experienced until I unpack it all. And if it has any value to add it slowly weaves itself into how I see the world. Sometimes I just remeber an encouraging or comforting line when I feel down and I don't know what to do. That's how I learned to deal with daunting challenges, a story I've half-forgotten reminded me that failure is not the end of the world and so I accomplished things I would never before dare to try. It can be subtle and sneaky, but it does not make it any less impactful. Me, I can only pinpoint my sources in retrospect.
Yeah idk, I feel like people tend to exaggerate how impactful stories are. Like hard hitting, day ruining, week-affecting, shit like that is all easily believable and have been experienced by me. But actually life changing? Idk man. And on the rare occasion you get someone or see someone talk about what it was that was so life changing for them or what the changes actually were it's almost always something pretty obvious that you already know/think/feel and I just wonder if they lived under a rock to only ever have such thoughts/feelings from this thing for the first time now.
the stories that changed me are games like nier, persona 5, outer wilds and what remains of edith finch tv shows like teen titans, avatar, death note and batman tas movies like a silent voice all of these mediums made me different and for that i will always love them
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky wasn't a game I was ever prepared to play, but it has stuck with me ever since. It was *my* first game. Sure, I played Mario and whatnot before, but those were games my parents chose for me. This is the first game I bought with my own money and chose for myself. And there were so many moments in this game that I can recount to the exact moment where and how I experienced them because of their nature. The moment where you see the beautiful lake in the sky where the nintendo switches from showing 2 distinct things on each sreen to basically transforming it into a single big one, and yet with double the available screen space it is still to small to capture what it is trying to show. Or the moment where you see a sunrise after the game was more or less black and white for hours and you feel the colors returning. Or the trigger that is the ost's 70th song "Don't Ever Forget...". And it made me realize even more how much it sucked me into the world in the post game where there is a mission, where you don't see the characters that are speaking, but since every character had characteristic speaking patterns, you could tell, who is speaking in the darkness. I will never forget this game. I've replayed it multiple times, multiple years apart and every time it is something special. You notice other parts that you didn't notice before. Different sections of dialogs that speak to you, or the same lines now in another context since you are now older. The ending has made me emotional every time and every time for a different reason. I hope I can find another game like it again. Someday.
Games are unique from all other forms of media in how they are able to give their audience agency in stories. It is that very interactivity that defines the medium. But the truly, greatest games are not the ones that give the most agency, but the ones that know when to take it away again.
When i was in early middle school my mom decided i was old enough to see a production of Les Miserables. That story has shaped my morality for the rest of my life, and i haven't shut up about it since. One of my most happy moments was receiving a text from a friend saying they'd just watched it, and they got it now.
This has to be one of my favorite videos from you ever For me, that piece of media will be Into the Spider-verse. It may sound silly, but I went to see that movie on a whim, having known nothing about it, and having struggled with suicidal ideation for most of the week. I went to see it alone. And I cried. For the animation. For the beauty of a story I needed in that moment. It will always have a special place in my heart that I will never truly be able to explain to anyone
For me, it's Arknights. Namely because it was my first time seeing a setting diversify so much when it came to their stories. It can go from a story about conflict to a story about travelling to a story about eldritch to a tropical vacation in an instant. And in a way, I find that endearing. How they do those stories can hit damn hard, despite it being told by 2D art & text. Combined with the game's wide assortment of music & characters, and they got a recipe for success.
Thank you for this video. I was born a storyteller and still am one. I've written 3 unpublished books, and love stories with all of my heart. A while ago I was at an exploitative company and I used writing as my last hope to escape that. Creativity and writing is something to be enjoyed, putting that pressure and expectation on myself made everything I did not enough. Fast forward to quitting my job and working on my mental health, the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert has helped me change my perspective. I think that stories are beautiful, and all of them should be celebrated, including the broken ones told by 5 year olds. Thank you for speaking of the majesty of stories. Please continue creating(: And my fellow storytellers, don't be so hard on yourselves. 'done is better than perfect' and 'You are not required to save the world with your creativity; your art not only doesn't have to be original, in other words, it also doesn't have to be important' Your art is something to be enjoyed and celebrated.
I have two: Rain World fundamentally altered my brain chemistry, probably some of the best ludonarritive around. It also taught me that i'm not the protagonist, or even a side character, I'm part of a dense ecosystem of others, and that doesn't make life any less meaningful. I Saw the TV Glow woke me up to the fact that I'm probably trans, and it feels like a lot of the scenes are laser-targeted to emotionallly annihilate you if you are closeted.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask to me. Despite being completely terrified of it initially, I grew over time to find its beauty in its horror. To find its hope in its hopelessness. It was the video game that taught me to analyze stories and understand what they can teach their audiences.
Bastion. I will never forget how I felt playing the end of bastion. the entire game is structured around a premise and it twists at the end and I sat there for 15 minutes, paralyzed by the intensity of that twist. truly one of the best games I have ever played.
For me it was the story of Elantris. Specifically, the story of Hrathen, the priest. The exploration of religion, morality, how faith drives us, what faith is, and everything else helped shape me so much in my relationship with religion.
The story that changed me ever since reading it is one I'm sure many of those watching haven't heard of, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. It's a light novel that, at first, seems like a generic power fantasy with neat worldbuilding and systems, but overtime the story continues to amp up and keeps amping up with each story beat. It truly is a story about stories, one that brings together all kinds of fiction/ mythology/ religion into one world, a story that takes every story trope and experiences each one through the lens of a reader. It's also been one of the most emotionally investing narrative I've experienced so far, alongside Arcane, NieR and 1000xRESIST. I don't think I'd be able to put into words just how truly impactful this story has been for me and many others who have finished its Epilogue, but if you are interested, I'd definitely recommend reading the english webnovel (it's completed with 551 chapters and there are even consistently updated side stories past the ending ^^) It's a story that will make you have a new outlook on stories itself (as well as other aspects of life
I agree. It has been so long since I first saw it but I still know the feeling I got when I finished it. From time to time, I remember the ending song and it JUST makes me feel so much.
Damn in. Why are you hitting me in the feelings like that! Getting me all reminiscing about all the stories, anime & cartoon I've listened to, read, or seen. Like you said, it makes you feel lonely...
I think the best tales are those that pick a theme and go through with it all the way to the very end, even if it's uncomfortable to do so. Sometimes, there's no end in sight, but you've got to keep going down the winding path through to wherever it takes you
Percy jackson, first book I read. It both changed my life and taught me the value of a simple unheroic life. Worm, its hard to describe how many ways Worm changed me
Man I dont think i have ever had a story change me. I like stories and feel emotions with some of them but none that changed me. Heck i dont think there is any that i relate to. What gets me is i feel i watch and listen to many talented creators who all seem to have these awesome insights and i think is there a problem with me, do i lack some sort of intelligence or awareness to pick up on these things or connect with a story. Idk, but i like and appreciate your work.
I cannot describe how it felt seeing the thumbnail, reading the title, seeing the channel, and listening to the intro. I have so many thoughts and feelings about Nier Automata, always excited to see it get acknowledgement for the less obvious reasons.
_The Beginner's Guide_ has fundamentally shifted my perception of video games, interpersonal relationships, storytelling, and just generally how humans communicate and understand each other. Other things that have completely redefined how video games and storytelling work: - _The Stanley Parable_ (same dev as _The Beginners Guide_ ), especially the broom closet ending - _Spec Ops: The Line_ (iykyk) - Most of the Supergiant Games catalogue, but especially _Pyre..._ a rare game that turns all "fail states" into meaningful and interesting stories, to a degree that you might intentionally choose to lose sometimes in the main gameplay loop to make the story go the way you want it - _Stray Gods,_ which somehow pulls off a real-time choose-your-own-adventure musical while also being a classical Greek myth about prophecy - _Journey_ (same composer as _Stray Gods_ ), which manages to have an emotionally impactful story with an unnamed mute protagonist and only the occasional other player with whom you can only communicate via moving around and a little audio-visual ping
@@scriptkid_rs Well, I _did_ say most Supergiant games belong on the list. 😜 I actually made an elaborate Red costume for a con, complete with a lit-up Transistor! I might try a Pyre outfit next. (Jodariel carrying a Ti'zo plushie?)
The way you talk about stories makes me feel seen and like there are other people like me out there after all, even if I didn't grow up around them or have them around me now.
Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander - as a 10 year old who didn’t know who I was, but wanting to accomplish something important, journeying with him as he became a man changed me. I have returned to this over and over again. The original Homeworld. When you jump back to the Earth and the debris of the last space station greets you while Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings calls all the longings of lost hope… The anguish of that moment is something I’ve never experienced in a video game before or since. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Tolstoy - two years after being diagnosed with brain cancer, laying in bed, reading about Ivan’s loneliness and the humiliation of dying, it was so sad and distressing I couldn’t do anything but lay there and weep for hours. I couldn’t explain it to my family, especially because they have been there with me throughout the hospital, the surgery, the chemo, all of it.
God this video perfectly describes what I have not been able to put to words for so long, and the fact it starts with nierautomata (my favorite piece of media ever) only makes this feel all the more real and understood, thank you.
For me, it was Girls Last Tour. It's something that speaks to me, about living fully and happy in spite of the futility of it all. Whether it's the apocalypse or the hopelessness of modern world, it's the same. Finding happiness is an universal need, but it's also a matter of perspective. And since then, I've started living in a way that makes me happier. Another has been a more recent one: Look Back (manga or movie, take your pick). I have my bouts of motivation loss for creative things (I write, surprise surprise), but Look Back has hit me like sack of bricks in the face, showing why an artist should persist. It is exactly what this entire video is about, and I cannot recommend it more.
Mob psycho 100 is probably the first story i cam across where i saw myself represented. I'd always been reading with a vague desire to see myself in the characters, i always related and empathized before this point, but mob psycho was the first to make me go oh thats me. Up until this point i hadnt realized how emotional repressed i was. I recognized the potential for violence in me and i had always valued kindness but mob psycho was the first story to give me a character who did the same thing and had the same values and needed to grow beyond it. There's this arch in mob psycho where he trapped in a dream world, basically alone, being bullied and emotionally tortured by the other people in the world. Hes trying so hard to maintain hope in the face of cruelty and isolation. He almost loses himelf to anger when a friend breaks through the dream and remimds him the dream isn't real. It reminds him how lucky he is in real life to have hi friends and family. It reminds that he can be courageous because there are people he loves waiting for him. Mob is so kind and do... at times innocent. But its not coming from a place of ignorance. Its coming from an internal conflict between the violence of his emotions, the violence that the outside world demands from him, and the gentle heart at his core. Mob psycho likes to present 3rd options. Its okay to run away. Its okay to turn to the adults in your life or fall back on friends. Sometimes true heroics is talking things out. Reaching an understanding. And sometimes people are too immature or cruel for talking to work and its a struggle to break through to them without violence, without getting hurt yourself. Mob is a gentle character, his core philosophy is kindness, he tries to nurture those around him and even himself. And it hard. This story acknowledges that maintaining a calm gentle nature is often costly. That it gets you tken advantage of, that often times your own limit and own potential to be cruel and violent get thrown back in your face over and over again. But it never treats kindness as a weakness. Its the power hungry and arragont who are shown to be weak and immature. There philosophies and identities are far more fragile than mobs, because theyre usually built on a lie. Might makes right. Im the best because im the most powerful. I need this to be a whole person. The only way to make it in this dog eat dog world is to have the sharpest teeth Mob psycho strips the characters of their lies and shows the people they are with out power. Desperate, lonely, angry, stupid, shallow. And over and over we see the kindness reach people past the violence and anger. We see people grow and blossom with mobs gentle nurturing. Characters often have to be humbled first but it takes a lot of strength to reach out to people who hurt you. It takes a lot of vulnerability and sense of self. And it can still backfire, it can still get you hurt. I guess the thing thats most striking about mob psycho for me is how earnest it is. Its conflict is something I identify with. It emotionally repressed but highly empathetic main character is something i personally relate to. And its earnest desire for kindness, nurturing, redemption, and self improvement are things that motivate me. Mob psycho is special to me because for the first time i felt seen and it took the journey further. It gave me options and criticisms and ways for me to grow
The story of dead poets society did this for me. I had avoided spoilers for my entire life and watched it for the first time this year...my god.A masterpiece of beauty and pain
I can't adequately express how much this was the exact video I needed today. I've been feeling profoundly sad about how I can't truly share the stories I love most with the people I love most, because what I loved about them was so subjective and personal. Hearing that feeling put into words by someone much more eloquent than me was validating and cathartic in a way I didn't even know I needed. So, thank you. (The story that had me feeling this way was, of all things, the mobile gacha game Fate/Grand Order, which is a truly ridiculous thing to be having such an existential crisis over, but I suppose that's the point isn't it - what might be nothing more than a trashy cash grab to one person can be deeply emotionally resonant to someone else.)
Nothing will ever be the same after Attack On Titan for me man. Stories are my life, yet nothing has ever moved me quite like AoT. Kinda crazy to think about honestly, just how much that story influenced my outlook on many very real things, just how much the whole thing resonates with me. I also watched in the exact time I needed it. Simply beautiful ❤️
For me, it’s the story that is the Mass Effect video game trilogy. Although I’m an avid reader too, the sometimes hundreds of hours you immerse yourself into a video game story should not be underestimated in the impact it can have on you.
I think that was one of the reasons as to why people were so upset at the ending of the third game. People were so affected by the story, so when that first ending was released...not really the same quality as the earlier games/story.
I really liked and appreciated the way you analyzed and broke down these beautiful stories. It reminds me of the AP English assignments I used to do in highschool. This video made me think of a quote I take to heart that goes, "Stories teach us how to live..." Among the stories mentioned was Bridge to Terabithia, I'd first heard it when I was seven. It moved me and taught me to cherish my time with my friends and family because of how quickly they can be taken from you like Jess and Leslie's friendship.
I don't have words to explain the stories that impacted me, so I'll just leave a list. Black Sails. Hadestown. Arrival. Avatar the Last Airbender. Paddington 2. Haikyuu. Battlestar Galactica. Firefly.
Sounds weird but Fight Club (the movie). Seeing the way that the story satirizes everything, including itself, was such a mind blowing experience. I still watch it every year and I still find new things to fall in love with
Haibane Renmei was a story I watched because it influenced Megatokyo, showing up in some of the artists side projects. I watched it tell a slow, character focused story in a setting that was mysterious and never really explained much. I didn't understand it then, and on rewatching it to show some friends, I would say I still don't. But the experience of absorbing 13 episodes of the lives of these characters in an unfamiliar world, culminating in a single scene that still resonates, with everything leading to just a single sentence with so much weight behind it. That changed me, it showed me that lore and action and dialogue are tools that don't always need to be used, that storytelling is about knowing how to use them and when not to. I will spend hours watching, listening, reading, just to find that one moment of weight. And I will enjoy every bit of it.
Haibane Renmei is s show that I love and cherish as well. I used to be a capital W weeb, and while those days are long behind me I still come back to Haibane Renmei every so often.
Outer Wilds. Everyone should play it. Play it blind. Don't look into it. Just get it and start it. It's worth it every time. In my humble opinion. Lol. All The Wyers of Pern was the first book I had a visceral emotional reaction to as a child. The end of that hit me light a freight train. And diving into Dune for a while as a teen gave me a literal existential crisis. XD
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky was one of the very first stories that did this to me. I was just a child at the time, and I never really connected to a piece of media before. Games were just meant to be played and I never payed much attention to the narrative because who cares? Until I played this game. It made me think about gratitude, about death, about friendship, about what I wanted the meaning of my life to be, about how I wanted to change the world and how it would remember me after I was gone. All from what was supposed to be a silly game where you get to play as a pokemon. There are other stories that touched me since then, but I will always hold a special place in my heart for this one.
“The Inner Light” from StarTrek TNG is a master piece in this topic. The Enterprise encounters an ancient probe and it zaps Picard, usual stuff, but it isn’t nefarious, it has Picard live the life of one man living on a dying world. In the end, it was a desperate plea cast into space on the glimmer of hope that someone would find it and witness there in. The episode ends with Picard making the sort of flute they had and playing a song he learned; the last notes of a civilization millions of years dead.
not gonna lie... i love TNG and seen all the episodes like 100+ times and that one is among my least favorites lol. Its funny how each media hits us all differently.
I think a part of my childhood died when I read Flowers For Algenon in school. I saw people take turns reading parts of this piece out loud, each voice changing from bored to excited to scared to me. On my turn I was quiet. I had a paragraph, there were words on a page of a man yelling in a diner at the injustice he has just seen. But yet I couldn't say it, I went to the bathroom and cried. I will always love this story and I read the rest on my own.
For me, the story that changed me was The Way Of Kings. Kaladin's segments and the insight on how he tries to be good, wants to be good, but his sense of sadness and depression sabotaging his attempts touched me. However, it was wwhen despite everything, despite his emotions and shit the world threw at him that Kaladin decided to stand again... that made me want to not give up on my hopes and aspirations too. Life is hard. It is. And sometimes one's own emotions hit you and isolate you. But who's to say that this is the end? No one but yourself declares that. Kaladin taught me to foght, and keep on holding to all the reasons I can to continue living and finding the good amidst all of the bad. After all, it only takes one leaf of piison given to a man in hopes of making them happy in order to have them be reboen into something greater.
A Practical Guide to Evil reignited my creative writing juices, and otherwise crystallized a lot of things I think about and needed to hear into something I could truly enjoy.
Baldur's Gate 3, Nier Automata, Divinity Original sin 2, hell even Mass Effect Andromeda. These are just four stories that have resonated with me on deeply personal levels, and they are all on my list of inspirations and reasons for wanting to create and share stories with others. To build epic worlds full of love and tragedy.
@@scrollkeeper5272 Planet 4546B (the setting for the game) is top tier in my opinion It tells the narrative of protagonist Ryley Robinson, an engineer employed by a trans-gov corporation named Alterra, who in the year 2190, gets stranded there after crash-landing via the Aurora starship on the aforementioned ocean planet, and must find a way to escape the planet, but soon uncovers a dark secret about the planet's past.
In year 9 , 14years old, my English teacher, who was amazing BTW, took me off the standard curriculum as i was ahead of the standard ( or whatever) and gave me 1984 by George Orwell. Totally gave me a new lense to view the world around me. Changed my life, Totally changed me for the better. I'll always remember and have great thoughts of her. ❤❤😊😊
So glad someone describes bridge to terabithia like this too. Most of my friends don't even remember the movie while it had such a big effect on me. I even remember feeling a little betrayed as at that age I still had to understanding that all the good guys win and are happy at the end and didn't know stories could do this.
I read "A Silent Voice", it had me crying a lot, and for weeks and months I debated whether to give some people in my past a chance. Maybe they regretted, or had matured in ways they had to.
For me a movie that I distinctly remember changing me was the Nightmare Before Christmas. I was super homesick one time in college (I was only 4 hours away but that's a difference when you've never left home before) and I was super depressed. At the end of my freshman year I watched this movie and got enamored with it. I wanted to learn more about the movie making process. So, I switched my major to Film. I wasn't as into the major as I hoped (thanks depression) but one thing I did really love despite my crippling depression was editing. It's a grueling process, but fun to see it come together. I'll watch a movie now, even something as simple as Transformers, and be in awe of the CGI for the Autobots and Decepticons. I'll watch Arcane and be enamored with the animation. I'll watch Titanic and be floored by the practical effects used to bring that gorgeous ship to life. Be in awe of how they broke her in half. Be impressed by the attention to detail. Only to then go online and see people talk about the usual talking points, vs what I'm seeing; the techniques, the themes, and technology used to create these stories. It is a lonely isle indeed. Part of me wishes I was a ignorant as the average movie going audience but the other part is glad I know how these stories are made so I can better appreciate them.
I wish more people would talk about those things too! I disliked the live action ATLAB on a bones deep level, and I agreed with the usual talking points, but it wasn’t until I saw a video of someone breaking down the terrible shot compositions and specific film making techniques that I really understood why I disliked it so much. Wish I had a more positive example, but this is the most concrete one I could think of 😅
There is almost nothing sweeter in this world than watching or playing a masterpiece and going in blind with no knowledge of what you're about to watch or play.
The main moral of my favorite series, His Dark Materials, is that human spirit is motivated by story and experience. After watching this, I’m thinking no wonder it’s my favorite
I read Little Women for the first time in eighth grade. When it got to the chapter describing Beth’s passing, I found myself uncontrollably sobbing over a book for the first time in my life. I had never known there could be such peace and beauty in death, and it shook teenaged me. When I revisited it a few years ago, it broke me all over again, but this time because I felt myself so deeply in every character. I am Jo; I’m Meg and Beth and Amy too. Their struggles are mine, and I yearn for the victories they achieve. Their beautiful, humble femininity is aspirational for me, and their painful growth into womanhood deeply resonated with me. Around the same time I reread Sense and Sensibility, having read it a few times in my teen years. I found myself weeping over Marianne and Eleanor. I had at the time been newly single after a relationship that deeply reminded me of Marianne’s with Willoughby; and seeing my own pain written on the page wrecked me. I also felt Eleanor’s heartbreak and fear of facing a life alone more deeply than I ever have before. I’ve been a reader since I was 3 years old; I must have read thousands of books at this point. But few have captured my heart the way Little Women and Sense and Sensibility have.
I'm in my mid-20s and a long way away from being a parent, but The Last of Us (games and show, respectively) have changed my life in a way I didn't know I needed. Joel and Ellie's journies highlighted issues I was harboring against my dad (they were problematic, and I was raised estranged from them). Joel's story put a spotlight on my desire to be as good a father as I could be one day, regardless of the obstacles I face. A lesson in fatherhood or what being a father-figure might look like. Ellie's story in TLOU part 2 made me realize the resentment I felt towards my dad's past, while justifiable, was perhaps putting me in situations and mindsets that were self-destructive. A lesson in finding forgiveness but maintaining accountability
there are several "parent simulator" games that help confront and parse our issues with our parents and, on replaying, begin preparing us to become good parents.
Hunger Games. I know it's probably a popular but those books touched me deeply. It helped me to face trauma from bullying in a way I hadn't before through Katniss's trauma. It helped me understand why I did things like hid in closets. And it helped me have more compassion for the suffering of those in a war and who lose family members in a wa I couldn't without experiencing it first-hand. The way Suzanne Collins portrayed PTSD for multiple characters just really touched me and has always stayed with me.
shame about how many young adult/tween girls completely missed the themes of the books and we got that trend of shitty YA dystopias with love triangles for a bit :
![On Worldbuilding: Fallen Civilizations! [ Forbidden West | Halo | Doctor Who ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DdH3RqVNUaE/mqdefault.jpg)
Which story changed YOU forever?
Get 50% off A Catalogue for the End of Humanity and the audiobook HERE linktr.ee/timhickson
one spesfic episdoe of the orginal digimon anime. i watched it when i was pretty young; and the episode that skullgreymon comes out for the first time was the frirst time i ever saw a protagonist fail; and espically failing as a friend. it really stuck with me
I've never actually had a story change my life. Though, I find that others have fascinating.
The anime Oshi-No-Ko is a story about the Japanese stars known as Idols, it tackles all the deep dark issues with the entertainment industry like cancel culture, stalkers, and higher ups making poor decisions. After the first episode alone my mindset towards celebrities had completely changed, and when the main character is trying to stop his sister from achieving her Idol dreams, I actually was rooting for him. Which I wouldn’t have before seeing the first episode because it led to their mother’s death. Even though I knew what he was doing was wrong.
Soylent Green terrified me and showed me for the first time of how dark our world could truly be if we remain ignorant.
The anime/manga Banana Fish. Most people will focus on its tragedy, and I've had several people be surprised when I express my love for this story, but I carry the main character and his story deep within me, and I can confidently say that my life changed not the moment I finished the show, but the moment I started it. It was even one of the stories I mentioned in my application for the writer/researcher job. Another would definitely be Avatar the Last Airbender (plus the Kyoshi novels specifically). Still, I expect that to be the case for many people in this comment section and those who follow this channel. These not only fundamentally changed the way I viewed certain aspects of life or myself, but helped me through the grief of losing my brother. I am eternally grateful to those who put such love and passion into their stories and hope to do the same. However, the first story I ever recall having such a deep impact on me was a book I read in one sitting at my local library that I don't remember the name of and that I've never found. Curiously enough, Bridge to Terabithia (in my case the movie) also had an incredible impact on me, and I resonated VERY deeply with what you said about a whole world opening up for you. At that time, I lived in a house with a very large back garden, and I remember walking into it the first time after watching Terabithia and seeing it in such a different light, it was like what I had known for years had new colours I'd never noticed. Everything felt so different, I was filled with so many emotions and I had such a surge of imagination. That lasted for a while, but eventually, that story faded in the background for me, until I found myself going back to it in my mind after I lost my brother. I still haven't rewatched it, but I most certainly carry it with me.
Automata really did spend 4 playthroughs telling you everything you're doing is pointless, believing in things is dumb, and there's gonna be tragedy no matter how hard you try, but if you don't do something and don't believe in something then there's no point in existing. It's got such an existentially bleak outlook, and yet somehow, it's still the most cathartic and life-affirming piece of art I've ever encountered.
There will be tragedy no matter what, thus you must keep on fighting.
Nothing has any meaning, thus, you must give things their meaning yourself.
I once was were you were, therefore, don't give up!
See, I had a very different experience with Automata, which just goes to prove the point of the video. I thought it was very hopeful underneath all the existential dread. I took it was there is no one "true" meaning to life, there is only the meaning that we give it, be it family (Pascal's village), love (the songstress, some androids), peace (clown machines doing a protest), or any other thing we may enjoy. And it was not meaningless because we existed.
Another thing I took (from both Nier games) was the futility of fighting. It's a bit ironic since they're both hack n' slash games, but they have such a nice peace message. In both games, neither side is right, neither side has an actual reason for fighting, yet they do. I especially love the last line of Ashes of Dreams (ending song of Replicant) "have we been fighting in vain?" Anyway I just thought it was neat to see someone had a different experience than I did.
Yeah man I feel you. Automata shocked me to my bone. However, after playing it I got my motivation ramped up and I decided to learn Japanese. made my way to level N3 😂
its beautiful, but it took me a week to really appreciate it after getting Ending E, since I had to deal with existential OCD first which i got from playing the game
Eh, it's kinda alright and often even very generic in it's themes. Nothing that his other games did better
Around 2010, when I was still a smoker, I went outside in the middle of a snowy, starry winter night, to have a cigarette, an owl landed on a tree branch about three metres from me. We just stared at each other for a long time. No one else but me and the white owl. That is one of my nicest experiences.
“You know man, some cultures view my presence as a portent of death. I’m not saying I am, but, uh.. maybe take it easy on those things.”
I attempted to quit smoking for a good while. It was only until I set a specific throw date. It was dark out and it was raining. I heard the meowing of a cat, it was cold and was under the cover of the roofed deck. I went inside and got some ham for the cat. I had my last cigarette with this cat, never to be seen again.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” The same way we never read a story twice as even if the text is the same, we are never the same reader. A story always with me is Princess Mononoke as i always keep the in mind the idea to see with eyes unclouded by hate.
I tried for so long to keep those eyes. Now it feels like I can barely see at all. That movie has affected my mindset more than most.
perhaps that is why we find ourselves wanting to periodically reread the same stories again and again, because we know that our eyes have changed and want to see those stories through our new eyes
Whose words are these?! Shi blew me away!
@@harshdwivedi7928 A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus.
Frieren recently changed how I think of my friendships. Obviously I'm not a thousand years old, but I drift in and out of my friends' lives, often with years between my appearances. For me, nothing feels changed about those friendships no matter how much intervening time there is, but I really struggled last year when one of my old friends I hadn't seen in a long time died unexpectedly. Watching Frieren realize how much of Himmel's influence stayed with her despite spending a small fraction of her life around him paralleled how I felt about my friend who died.
Never expected but should have.. its just that
I do the same, with drifting in and out of relationships
I have to agree. Watching frieren made me realize I should pay more attention to the people around me and cherish the relationships with the people I love. It's a simple message but it deeply resonated with me. It's a beautiful show with a lot of symbolism and so many neat details if we look deeper into it
It pains me to lose a close friend. But what I understood is be happy it happened, and live like you mean it. What else is there to do except honor their legacy right
Outer Wilds is that game for me. The curiosity, the loss, the thrill of putting things together - and how most of the logs you find are just as curious as you are, and how the story rewards you for that interest... wow, man, just wow
Boosting this with a comment because he NEEDS to see this. Outer Wilds is *that guy*
Came here for the outer wilds comment!!
This game gave me a reason to keep going after I escaped the lds church. I was told my entire life what would happen after death, and that every waking moment should be spent towards preparing for that death. And then I got Outer Wilds.
It spun tales of characters that I fell in love with again and again, it told stories of compassion and tragedy, it finally made me realize that the universe isn't controlled by anything, it simply _is_ and that no one is judging me for living the way I want to. (It also reminded me that life can be unfair, and that it's always been that way. But that's not a reason to give up, if anything, it's a reason to keep going. There's always little moments of happiness to be found, sparks of connection with people who you may never see again, and isn't that so incredibly special?)
And in the end, it told me that all will be forgotten. But instead of being put off by that fact, it gave me reason to find solace. You may fade from the record, but you are also _alive_ . You make your mark on the world before you dissolve into obscurity by the way you help people, the ways you try to make them smile, the ways they pay that back. And, aren't you glad you stopped to smell the pine trees?
So uh yeah, Outer Wilds is probably the most life-changing piece of media that I've ever stumbled across, and I'm so glad I did
Yes, I forgot to add that one to my list. It was frustrating at times and yet the mystery was very compelling.
Travellers starts playing in the background
We cri
I knew this would be down here, and I am so glad it's as high up in the comments as it is. It was the first thing to come to mind when I read the video title.
Delicious in Dungeon. The amazing switch up from comedy to existential horror and impeccable character drama while keeping the story as fun as it ever was and even funnier, because Ryoko Kui is just the goat of writing intertwined comedy that feeds drama that feeds comedy which all is built upon incredible characters and Tolkien level worldbuilding. For it all to begin with food and base desires of human condition.
I watched this recently and was blown away at how well everything in the story was handled! The show absolutely deserves the praise it's getting.
I was gonna say Dunmeshi too! The series basically single-handedly changed how I see eating and it’s helped me have a much better relationship with food. Not even to mention how the characters and rest of the plot/worldbuilding affected me. Probably my favorite story of all time at the moment.
Really?? I freaking love the anime! Is it a must to read the manga?
9:36 This hurts. I'm sitting here trying, raking my brain, TRYING to remember a story that changed me and I can't remember any. I've read most of the ones you mentioned and I was like 'oh, yeah, right, I read that once...I don't remember if it changed me". I have a very bad memory especially of my childhood. I KNOW that there has been stories that changed me, that made me cry, made me question life and my place in it but I just can't remember them. I can usually ignore my memory problems. The great thing about forgetting things is you usually don't miss them...until someone reminds you...and suddenly you're crying, mourning something you don't remember losing.
I can relate regarding not being able to remember a story that's changed me. He's a passionate guy, which is great to see, but I'm not a passionate person. I've read stories that have blown me away (figuratively), but I cannot remember any that I would say changed me. I'm still basically the same steadfast person now that I was at 2 or 3 years old, back to my earliest memories. I feel the same, just more knowledgeable. When I read stories, great or small, I always have a feeling like I'm remembering something I knew but forgot. They're simply reminding me of what I already know, in a way. Stories always feel familiar to me, as if they've always been a part of me. I also have a bad memory. I've loved a lot of stories, but I don't feel changed by any of them. You're not alone in this.
There's so many books I read as a kid/teen that I can only kind of vaguely remember but that I remember being strongly affected by. I'd say though that every story we encounter changes us a bit. It may not be dramatic or fully conscious, but even books, movies, or games that aren't very good overall can offer little ideas, insights, or inspiration that can change how you think about things.
Hey! As someone with trauma-related memory issues in my background, I related to this hard. The best I can say while trying to make this brief is that it's hard to think of the things that have changed you on the spot, and you almost certainly have stories that have impacted you in some way, even not as passionately as described in the video. 2 years ago I got back into writing and started making a point to jot down media that I love/has made an impression on me, and it's been a very slow but rewarding process of reclaiming the things I loved while things were so chaotic in my childhood.
All this to say that I'm nearly certain you're not some passionless blank slate or anything! It's just hard to sit down and come to the discovery that something impacted you profoundly on a whim.
I feel the same, and I've felt like this before and tried to dig up what kinda books would've been at my school library in certain years, but everything just sorts by publication date which is definitely not comparable haha. And then I think maybe shows? I've seen a lot deeper stuff now and can appreciate it all a lot more, but if I watch a retrospective on Teen Titans or whatever that points out something incredible all I think is "yeah cool, I don't quite remember that". Humans are meant to be a collection of what we've experienced and I just feel like I'm blank, I definitely exist, but in the here-and-now, I get obssessed and do a deep-dive of Bojack Horseman or Neon Genesis Evangelion or the Percy Jackson books, taking it all in, reading and watching so much extra analysis of the texts (Like this very channel), and then... Letting it go. It disappears, Percy Jackson was a slow burn so i remember that, the other two are recent within the last year or so, but one from 3 years ago? No hope, idk what stories I'm holding...
I relate to you Guys a lot especially having crappy memory, I am glad I am not the only one.*
Disco Elysium, man. The final meeting of that game combined with the line "You are a miracle", recontextualising the entire human experience, the moments when the different parts of Harry come together to back him up in his grief and his acceptance of being the mildly insane guy that he is, not to mention EVERYTHING about Kim Kitsuragi, I just love it so much.
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons gave me that same series of reflections on the miracle of life, the "Thermodynamic miracle" dialogue.
The fact that your emotions were your party members was genius. Shivers was my favorite. The story still sticks with me as one of the best I’ve played.
Omori for me for sure. That game changed my brain chemistry. I sobbed my eyes out with the MC at the end, and the music? The final song? The nostalgia for a life I hadn’t even lived? For friends I personally never had? What a game man. And it’s all locked behind RPG mechanics and a colorful world that can truly lure you in.
Celeste, for the simplicity of its graphics and its demand for the player to bring the characters to life through the lack of voice acting, is a beautiful and wholly real experience. The player will feel frustrated, defeated and unsure of how far they can take the player character up the mountain... but through that anger and bitterness, you push on, you complete a level or a single room, you collect that one strawberry that has eluded you for hours, eventually you reach the summit and the controller shaped barrier between you and the player character, it simply vanishes and you feel the exact catharsis that the character is supposed to be feeling. Celeste is a game that changed my life.
So it changed nothing, only your feeling at that moment
One of the most profound experiences I had was in "Umineko: When They Cry" that develops from a deconstruction of the murder mystery genre to the exploration of humanity's relation to fiction and shows how stories are alive as long as we carry them (one of the messages getting out of it). And after getting to what it really is about, there was almost nothing that could come close. "Without love, it cannot be seen"
umineko and nier both are stories that changed my life but also my outlook on it for the better. truly unforgettable and unparalleled experiences
I hope we one day get a complete animated adaptation. I really need to sit down and read the novels.
AHHHHHHH.
I was just about to write about my own experience with Umineko!!! It literally reconfigured my brain (and made me go "oh, this makes sense, it's like Umineko" when all of my classmates got super confused about post structuralism xD). But yes, it's such an unforgettable experience. Definitely recommend everyone who hasn't yet you check it out!
very much so. honestly, it changed my life a little because I looked at Beato and went "wait... she's just like me fr tho... I think that's a bad thing...". and I decided to pull myself out of this path I was taking. now, I can't say I'm doing well, but I'm certainly better. I also realized I'm a man, so that's good, too.
Yes!!!! Umineko truly changed how I saw reality, and how I want to interact with the world, it's my favorite story of all time!
when I heard you discuss the funeralists, I assumed this was some classic story by a highly acclaimed author, so I was impressed to discover you wrote it
Glad to see this comment cause I was annoyedly about to leave the video after I read through some comments because I didn't see the point of having some jabroni tell me how amazing lifechanging stories were by spoiling one I could look into myself (which was my plan for when I left here). And then I saw this and was like "goddammit"
For me, what nier changed was that I started to internalise that no matter how dark it gets, you can find a light. It might be in an exceptionally weird place, you might even have to become the light yourself... but it's there. Somewhere.
The end of LOTR made me feel a strange kind of sorrow which has stuck with me.
Having read the Hobbit, I expected a similar conclusion. But when Frodo and Gandalf and the others left for Valinor, and with the coming of the age of men, it felt like the magic was seeping out of the world just as the story was slipping away from me.
I know exactly what you mean. Same here.
I’ve only ever seen the movies, but Sam’s speech at the end of the Two Towers always hits me so hard, it makes me tear up. The fact that it is about how powerful stories are makes it even better
When I finished LOTR I put the book down and went about my evening. When I went to talk to my mom about it I started crying and I really didn't understand why. I was hysterical and all I could get out was "it didn't end how I wanted it to." The loss of Frodo, of magic, of my happy ending, and of the book that had been with me for so long really hurt
Amazing video! I love that you are so vulnerable with these discussions; I've sometimes felt ashamed or guilty at feeling such strong feelings from a story, especially when others I know haven't. It's very gratifying to hear that I am not weird 😅.
Nothing to be ashamed of. Just means that you're not yet dead inside which kinda is a good thing these days if you ask me ;-)
I understand your feeling especially if it's a sory that's very simple or ment for children. It's gratifying to know so many people experience this.
Stories are stories and stories are meant to make you feel something. If you feel strongly about a story, you're not the weird one, you are enjoying the story as it was meant to be enjoyed.
Seeing this comment near the top made me almost click off after reading the first two lines of it. But it's not his fault
The only video game thats done this for me was Life is Strange. I honestly don't know how to explain the feelings it gave me, but after i finished it for the first time, i literally sat on my couch in silence for at least an hour. I didnt touch a video game for weeks and i retreated to my comfort show (ATLA), binged it, then followed it up with Korra. Finally after all that i settled back into a somewhat normal routine. That was 2 years ago. Even now i will think back and sit in silence for a bit. Violet Evergarden did something similar as well.
LIS was so good!
I wanted more and wasn't disappointed personally.
Check out TotalJunkieGamer. He does streams of LIS
Oh my gosh, Violet Evergarden absolutely wrecked me. To this day it’s the only anime I’ve ever finished
Violet Evergarden was a brilliant story to get to experience. I remember sitting there bawling my eyes out for so many episodes, the entire story is an incredible (and beautiful!) exploration of human emotion and loss and identity and meaning and... it felt like a privilege to get to be impacted by it
How, lis was so incredibly awful. How did it resonate with you so much
Escorting spirits in Spiritfarer really helped me come to terms with the people who I've lost in life, and getting to be there at the end of their stories was deeply moving.
Im so happy a lot of people are writing about Umineko: when they cry. It turned me from a truth obsessed, cold hearted and analytical person into someone who could suddenly see so much more value in other people's worldviews. Unironically it taught me how to love humans. Along with Nier and Outer wilds it basically shaped my pholosophy towards life between 20 and 27.
Id also say despite any success one of my biggest achievements in life is that i got a few people to read Umineko who were similarly impacted.
How To Train Your Dragon was that story for me. I learned so much from that movie and the ensuing franchise it spawned. It really shaped me into the person I am today. It taught me the value of being an idealist, what it means to be a good friend, how important compassion and empathy are, and to always stand for what I believe in, even in the face of overwhelming odds. I could go on and on about all the things I've learned from HTTYD and all the things I love about it.
Also, coincidentally, How To Train Your Dragon is also the reason why I found your channel in the first place many years ago. I still remember all those great theories you made back when we still called ourselves the "Subfuries". It's hard to believe that was almost a decade ago... Man, I feel old.
And u can read the books
Probably my favorite movie/movie trilogy
One Piece. I took the plunge and got into it last year. I know the sheer length of the series turns a lot of people away, but man I'd give anything to watch it again for the first time. Oda has had his series planned out from the beginning and his writing reflects it beautifully. Heart wrenching moments, heavy topics, social commentary and found family all lie beneath the goofy Shonen wrapping. I think you'd really enjoy it, Tim!
And we don't even have to be sad it's over yet!
The show is so long that I'd rather read the manga, but both are so long. I knew it had to be good, but it just seemed so overwhelming, like a giant commitment. That's why the netflix show was such a good gateway drug when one has been putting it off for too long. You know it's just skimming the surface, and it helps give the drive to enjoy it in depth afterwards.
totally. It's a great time to get into One Piece though! Netflix has the remastered anime project underway, and Toei just announced a long break to condense some of the earlier seasons. I switched to the manga and have no regrets. Plus, One Piece is approaching its final few years so new folks can catch up before the finale (no spoilers).
The live action finally got me into One Piece after thinking for so long how goofy it looked. Granted, it definitely is at times, but holy shit I had no idea what I was missing
The story that changed me the most was the first episode of To Your Eternity. At the time that I watched it I hadn't cried in years, or really showed much of any emotion for that matter. I still felt emotions of course, but nothing intense. I had gotten so good at hiding my emotions, that I often didn't recognize them in myself. However that first episode changed me, it unlocked those emotions, and everything has seemed so much more since then.
Ted Lasso was an extremely impactful story. Could not stop thinking about it for weeks.
Edith Finch absolutely destroyed me with Lewis' story.
I never expected the game to hit so hard until it told of a young man who lost his sense of reality and lost himself as a result.
It's beautiful.
Signalis is one that changed me, I can't even describe how, but after playing it two years ago, it has left me with this inescapable longing, a dread in my heart that has never faded. 10/10, would play it again, and ugly cry into my desk.
i loved signalis, except for the part where if you play it using resources sparingly and not killing monsters (typical behavior for the genre it is emulating), you get a bad ending. was very frustrating when the whole game is so long. like, not replayable for me levels of long.
Perhaps this is hell, but we made a promise
signalis is the most recent example i have of a story that changed me, like, jesus christ....... replaying the game for 100% achievements was daunting not because of the gameplay challenges, but because i knew i'd have to face this story again that makes me cry every time without fail. and it DID - HARD!!!!
@@ohmanohman...But it changed only your state after you finished it, nothing in your life tho
@@Exel3nce ????
I'm reading through Kentaro Miura's manga, Berserk, for the first time and I can feel it changing me. I've been confronting childhood trauma through it, but my partner is here to support me when it gets bad.
I know the feeling. Certain scenes in that manga traumatized me for weeks. Heck, it even made me react to a scene in a damned Donald Duck pocket. Wasn't even close to a similar one, but still. That was weeks later and I was still affected by it. Miura sure had some skills.
Oh man. Seriously I wish you the best of luck going through that
I recommend also reading Vagabond by Inoue Takehiko
Growing up I felt I was never truly seen or heard. Trauma, loss, and sorrow shaped me into who I am today. I'm currently writing a book about my life and frankly it's hard. I've struggled because for me it's reliving past events but it made me realize how much I changed for the better
To The Moon. I had no idea why it resonated with me when I first played it on release over a decade ago. Several playthroughs later, and only last year, did I finally realize why, and how its subconsciously acted as a guide for me over the years.
this is quite possibly the best ad for your own book I've ever seen. If I had the means, I would be buying the book right now.
Saemm
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin had me thinking about how there's no such thing as an objective ideal. One person's Paradise could be another person's Hell, and much harm is done by people who think they have all the answers and try to force others to conform to their idea of perfection.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It was the first video game I played on my own without my husband. It showed me that video games (something I didn’t grow up with and knew nothing about) could be these beautiful pieces of storytelling art. There was a place for me here, I could enjoy and even get good at video games and my world got so much bigger. I’m now 600+ hours into Baldur’s Gate 3, with three journals full of terrible fanfiction and I’ve never been happier 😄
That takes me back. One of my earliest preserved fanfiction scribbles is a Fire Emblem Awakening--my first FE game--self-insert story where I shipped myself with an expy of Azura from FE Fates (made her a fourth sibling of the Ylissean royal family) because I had a massive crush on her.
I was actually intending to stay away from Three Houses back when it came out, until I could maybe get a Switch and play it. Then I made the mistake of reading a short crackfic oneshot crossover with Awakening, then I got sucked into a monster of an SI 3H fic that I binged simultaneously with the wiki because I had no prior knowledge of anything.
Now I know more about it than I have any right to know when I've never played even a second of it.
Have you played Three Hopes? It answers some theories that'd never been confirmed, such as Dimitri's uncle's role in the Tragedy of Duscur.
P.S. I don't know if you've heard of Yoshiki Tanaka but the dev team was a fan because Claude was partly based on two of Tanaka's characters from different works. What's hilarious is that one of them is one of my favourite fictional characters, and Claude was already another before I found out the Tanaka connection.
@@EthanKironus8067 I love all the cross pollination in fanfiction! I know way more about Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir than I have any right to for never having seen a second of it. I haven’t played 3 Hopes, I’m not a huge fan of hack-and-slash, but I’ve watched a lot of clips and play throughs.
Ok so help me out: please don’t hate me, but I thoroughly dislike Claude. I want to like him, I want to understand the hype, but I simply do not. In as many words as possible, please tell me why I should like Claude von Reigan
@@trumpetluver1022 Don't worry, I don't hate you for not liking Claude (it does take me slightly aback, but everyone has likes and dislikes). It would help if there are any identifiable things that get between you and liking him, but I get the impression that the appeal is also just not computing. I am drawing a bit on Three Hopes for this, since it fleshes out bits and pieces of him that Three Houses didn't have the opportunity to.
I don't want to approach this as telling you why you "should" like Claude, so I'll say why I like him and hopefully there's something in there that clicks for you. For the purpose here I can separate the reasons I like Claude into two broad sections: personally identifying with him and his ideals/character arc, and his position in the game's narrative. The personal part is simple enough; I'm a brown-skinned Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, and while Almyra is much more Persian in its influence I still identify with him as a brown person who has a foot in both 'worlds'. I also see a parallel between Islam and his dream of opening people's hearts and minds to one another--I won't go on in detail but the 13th verse of the 49th Surah of the Qur'an says "We [meaning God] have made you into nations and tribes so you may (come to) know one another." His real name being Khalid is another notch under this, as that's a common name among Muslims. That's a rough summary but I don't want to be overbearing on this point. Claude believes that such change won't come unless people learn this for themselves through exposure; while he hands over the Fodlan side of this to Byleth in VW/SS and Dimitri or Edelgard in their routes, which itself is fascinating because of the similarities he notes between himself and Edelgard (more explicitly so in Three Hopes).
As for his narrative role, it is admittedly hamstrung by Verdant Wind's similarities to Silver Snow--Silver Snow was the first route they developed, btw--and the game not really illuminating the issues between Fodlan and Almyra all that well, though they aren't absent entirely, just implicit. But one of the game's themes is (the sins of) the past coming home to roost--to coopt Dimitri's refrain, the dead must have their due. Besides ending the hostilities between Fodlan and Almyra, Claude is interested in the truth. Nemesis appearing in VW, while a story function (also must note that it's a result of the different pace of events) is the final piece of the past not yet laid to rest. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea are all of Fodlan. They see its problems to varying degrees, but they see it from the inside, and in Rhea's case contributed to them as much as she ameliorated things. Claude, having been raised in Almyra, has a different perspective. He isn't encumbered by the same baggage Rhea, Dimitri, or Edelgard carry. That baggage is not a shame, but it's a lie to say it isn't, or can't be, an impediment. Claude isn't an outsider though, he has 'blood of Fodlan' in his veins too.
In other words, Claude comes in with a fresh set of eyes. His struggles demonstrate that outsiders can't unilaterally fix the problems, but in conjunction with the other leaders' own baggage, shows that it may take a new perspective to clear the fog. Because he isn't caught up in the "what" like them--the slaughter of the Nabateans, the Tragedy of Duscur, the injustices of the Crest system--he can more freely ask "why."
Plus I've grown up with Yugioh for years now, so I'm a sucker for friendship speeches, no matter how cheesy.
I hope this helps.
P.S. Three Hopes shows Claude's more cynical side due to the diverging storyline. He's more deceitful, uses colder tactics including letting Randolph die while in alliance with the Empire, etc.which demonstrates how much his experiences in Three Houses, on any of the routes, change him for the better. Even when Byleth doesn't join him being immersed with his classmates prompts him to trust them more and he wears the laid-back mask a little less; more importantly, being at the monastery is how he realizes that there's truth behind the scenes he needs to get at. In Golden Wildfire he kills Rhea because as far as he knew she was the cause of Fodlan's insularity and ills. But spending time at the monastery clearly mollifies him, and while he still considers her a (potential) obstacle he realizes that there's more to the story.
THAT REALIZATION (sorry, just trying to make this part stand out) is something neither Rhea, nor Dimitri, nor even Edelgard have. That is ultimately at the core of why I like him so much.
P.P.S. And Joe Zieja is absolutely hilarious, his embrace of the role certainly helps.
Finally a comment about a true life changing event, and just being emotionally down,happy etc. that is over in a couple of hours.
Thank you
I hope you know that I’m fully crying, I am not some who cries very often, but the funeralists and discussion of story has me actually bawling, tears running down my face
The first one I can remember really changing me is Good Omens. It was the first Terry Pratchett book I ever read (my dad lent me his copy in about 2011) and it really hit me with its humour, its themes of fate vs free will, determinism, and what the nature of Good or Evil are
Best book I ever read. The commentary and humor it brings to religion had a lasting and profound effect on me.
The World Ends With You. It was the right story at the right time for me. I was roughly the age of the characters and deeply related to the main character especially who is not a good person at the beginning of the story. It made me realize that I also was a terrible person at the time and his journey helped my own. I can't say that it was the deeply profound feeling you described in the video because I don't engage with stories that way, but I internalized the message of that story and strife to emulate it in my own life.
I was in third grade and my friend and I were looking at books in our classroom when I picked up Harry Potter. I was going to read it but she wanted to as well, and since she was a faster reader than I was she read it while I picked up Dear America, My Heart is on the Ground.
That book changed my life as a 9 year old by showing me how harsh it was to be a little native girl being sent to a missionary and being forced to give up her culture and watch her friend be buried alive. It was written in a diary format from the girls pov and it hit so hard. It changed me and the kind of books I was drawn to forever after that. I didn’t end up reading Harry Potter until I was 18 because of that fateful day 😅
The very first of these for me was The Phantom Tollbooth. That book basically turned me from a kid who could read, but was mostly read to, into somebody who started reading basically everything I could get my hands on. It quite literally changed the entire trajectory of my life, set me on a track that would guide me for decades to come, just by being /exactly/ the right book for the person I was at the time.
Great choice! I remember having a similar experience with Phantom Tollbooth. I was forced to read it in elementary school and I remember it vividly as one of the times I went from being forced to read something to devouring it quicker than my teachers ever expected.
@@Daemonworks I can't find my own post on this exact book, but I couldn't agree more with what you wrote.
I recommend reading it again now that you've grown up. I did a year or two ago, and it was even more emotional and relevant than 20 years ago!
Don't Rest Your Head is a TTRPG inspired by Phantom Tollbooth I would recommend.
Omg, this book exists! I had to read an excerpt for something as a child and it's the sort of thing that I wasn't sure if I'd dreamt.
Bridge to Terabithia was one of my favorite movies as a kid because I could relate to every single character. My mom took me to the theater to see it one Saturday randomly- she never did that. Now, after my mom has passed, that movie always reminds me of her. I don’t know why she decided to take me- I hadn’t even heard of the movie before- but I’m so glad that I have that memory now. It has made the bittersweet feeling even stronger and I love how that memory has changed over the years.
Ocarina of Time, when I was like six or seven. It was my first favourite video game and it taught me that games could be more than just really fun toys - that they could be profound and beautiful. Even now I still think back to that line from Shiek, "the flow of time is always cruel". It's something I've understood more and more with time.
I'll never forget entering Hyrule Field that first time. We'd never seen anything like it before then.
I've never actually played through it, but the passion people have for it is simply beautiful. I love listening to the main theme, and would love to give it a try one day. I'm glad to hear it matters so much to you and everyone else, it's really beautiful!
@@Phantomile06 just a word of warning for playing it in 2024, there's no direct camera controls beyond a button to centre behind you and a lock-on
@@Genderkaiser Thanks for letting me know! Yeah I think I've heard about that lol. It might take some getting used to but I think it'll be a worthy trade off for a fantastic game overall. Thanks again though for giving me a heads up!
Great video! Sorry if this doesn't count, as it is nonfiction. David Attenborough's "Life on Earth" brought it home to me, at about 13, how old the world is and how important our brief time alive here is.
Nonfiction stories are still stories. They're told from a particular POV, and can change drastically if that POV is changed, so however "real" it is, it's still a story. Attenborough counts. :)
Absolutely it counts, Koyanisquatsi is my film that changed me, a book that changed me is more difficult, perhaps "The Boy with the Bronze Axe" by Kathleen Fidler
I am sitting on my couch on a cold and grey sunday morning with tears streaming down my face. I can mot remember a single instance of being fundamentally changed by a story despite consuming them for all of my thirty-six years of life. I feel like I have missed out on or failed some aspect of my humanity and my soul is as grey and barren as the sky outside. Thank you for making me feel something, even if it ended up being more akin to Void than Joy. It was something i needed to realize.
hi I feel about the same here. i had to really think about it to even remember one. perhaps you just don't remember, but regardless, at least after this maybe we would pay more attention when a story does change our life again :')
Sometimes we change too gradually to notice it like this. I consumed a tremendous amount of media as a child for escapism from my life, having depression from health issues, situational depression and extreme anxiety from cPTSD, undiagnosed autism and adhd. I was heavily molded by all that I consumed, yet I cannot point at any one instance where I felt immediately changed. I can point to many moments when I took note while consuming stories that this or that was important. But none of them were singular radical experiences, everything built on past experiences too much to be that radical.
It doesn't have to come in such a rushing all-encompassing form. When I read / watch a story there is sometimes a tiny little voice stuck in my head for days or even weeks after, as I keep remembering everything I experienced until I unpack it all. And if it has any value to add it slowly weaves itself into how I see the world.
Sometimes I just remeber an encouraging or comforting line when I feel down and I don't know what to do. That's how I learned to deal with daunting challenges, a story I've half-forgotten reminded me that failure is not the end of the world and so I accomplished things I would never before dare to try.
It can be subtle and sneaky, but it does not make it any less impactful. Me, I can only pinpoint my sources in retrospect.
Yeah idk, I feel like people tend to exaggerate how impactful stories are. Like hard hitting, day ruining, week-affecting, shit like that is all easily believable and have been experienced by me. But actually life changing? Idk man. And on the rare occasion you get someone or see someone talk about what it was that was so life changing for them or what the changes actually were it's almost always something pretty obvious that you already know/think/feel and I just wonder if they lived under a rock to only ever have such thoughts/feelings from this thing for the first time now.
Because it doesn't work like that. A story can't and won't achieve something like that
the stories that changed me are games like nier, persona 5, outer wilds and what remains of edith finch tv shows like teen titans, avatar, death note and batman tas movies like a silent voice all of these mediums made me different and for that i will always love them
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky wasn't a game I was ever prepared to play, but it has stuck with me ever since.
It was *my* first game. Sure, I played Mario and whatnot before, but those were games my parents chose for me.
This is the first game I bought with my own money and chose for myself.
And there were so many moments in this game that I can recount to the exact moment where and how I experienced them because of their nature.
The moment where you see the beautiful lake in the sky where the nintendo switches from showing 2 distinct things on each sreen to basically transforming it into a single big one,
and yet with double the available screen space it is still to small to capture what it is trying to show.
Or the moment where you see a sunrise after the game was more or less black and white for hours and you feel the colors returning.
Or the trigger that is the ost's 70th song "Don't Ever Forget...".
And it made me realize even more how much it sucked me into the world in the post game where there is a mission,
where you don't see the characters that are speaking, but since every character had characteristic speaking patterns,
you could tell, who is speaking in the darkness.
I will never forget this game.
I've replayed it multiple times, multiple years apart and every time it is something special.
You notice other parts that you didn't notice before.
Different sections of dialogs that speak to you, or the same lines now in another context since you are now older.
The ending has made me emotional every time and every time for a different reason.
I hope I can find another game like it again. Someday.
3:21 i remember that. I was sad i could never re experience Ddlc for the first time ever again
Games are unique from all other forms of media in how they are able to give their audience agency in stories. It is that very interactivity that defines the medium. But the truly, greatest games are not the ones that give the most agency, but the ones that know when to take it away again.
When i was in early middle school my mom decided i was old enough to see a production of Les Miserables. That story has shaped my morality for the rest of my life, and i haven't shut up about it since. One of my most happy moments was receiving a text from a friend saying they'd just watched it, and they got it now.
I didn't see Les Mis until my mid-twenties, but it definitely had a massive impact on me too
This has to be one of my favorite videos from you ever
For me, that piece of media will be Into the Spider-verse. It may sound silly, but I went to see that movie on a whim, having known nothing about it, and having struggled with suicidal ideation for most of the week. I went to see it alone. And I cried. For the animation. For the beauty of a story I needed in that moment. It will always have a special place in my heart that I will never truly be able to explain to anyone
For me, it's Arknights. Namely because it was my first time seeing a setting diversify so much when it came to their stories. It can go from a story about conflict to a story about travelling to a story about eldritch to a tropical vacation in an instant. And in a way, I find that endearing. How they do those stories can hit damn hard, despite it being told by 2D art & text. Combined with the game's wide assortment of music & characters, and they got a recipe for success.
Thank you for this video. I was born a storyteller and still am one. I've written 3 unpublished books, and love stories with all of my heart. A while ago I was at an exploitative company and I used writing as my last hope to escape that. Creativity and writing is something to be enjoyed, putting that pressure and expectation on myself made everything I did not enough. Fast forward to quitting my job and working on my mental health, the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert has helped me change my perspective. I think that stories are beautiful, and all of them should be celebrated, including the broken ones told by 5 year olds. Thank you for speaking of the majesty of stories. Please continue creating(: And my fellow storytellers, don't be so hard on yourselves. 'done is better than perfect' and 'You are not required to save the world with your creativity; your art not only doesn't have to be original, in other words, it also doesn't have to be important' Your art is something to be enjoyed and celebrated.
I have two:
Rain World fundamentally altered my brain chemistry, probably some of the best ludonarritive around. It also taught me that i'm not the protagonist, or even a side character, I'm part of a dense ecosystem of others, and that doesn't make life any less meaningful.
I Saw the TV Glow woke me up to the fact that I'm probably trans, and it feels like a lot of the scenes are laser-targeted to emotionallly annihilate you if you are closeted.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask to me. Despite being completely terrified of it initially, I grew over time to find its beauty in its horror. To find its hope in its hopelessness. It was the video game that taught me to analyze stories and understand what they can teach their audiences.
Bridge to Terabithia was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.
you should totally play "To the moon"!!!! The story takes only 4 hours to play but will stay with you for life :D
Bastion. I will never forget how I felt playing the end of bastion. the entire game is structured around a premise and it twists at the end and I sat there for 15 minutes, paralyzed by the intensity of that twist. truly one of the best games I have ever played.
I was thinking of this one, too. The ending still gives me shivers.
For me it was the story of Elantris.
Specifically, the story of Hrathen, the priest. The exploration of religion, morality, how faith drives us, what faith is, and everything else helped shape me so much in my relationship with religion.
The story that changed me ever since reading it is one I'm sure many of those watching haven't heard of, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. It's a light novel that, at first, seems like a generic power fantasy with neat worldbuilding and systems, but overtime the story continues to amp up and keeps amping up with each story beat. It truly is a story about stories, one that brings together all kinds of fiction/ mythology/ religion into one world, a story that takes every story trope and experiences each one through the lens of a reader. It's also been one of the most emotionally investing narrative I've experienced so far, alongside Arcane, NieR and 1000xRESIST. I don't think I'd be able to put into words just how truly impactful this story has been for me and many others who have finished its Epilogue, but if you are interested, I'd definitely recommend reading the english webnovel (it's completed with 551 chapters and there are even consistently updated side stories past the ending ^^)
It's a story that will make you have a new outlook on stories itself (as well as other aspects of life
A Place Further Than the Universe- the only people that haven’t been changed by it hasn’t watched it. To say it is a masterpiece is an understatement.
I agree. It has been so long since I first saw it but I still know the feeling I got when I finished it. From time to time, I remember the ending song and it JUST makes me feel so much.
Damn in. Why are you hitting me in the feelings like that! Getting me all reminiscing about all the stories, anime & cartoon I've listened to, read, or seen. Like you said, it makes you feel lonely...
I think the best tales are those that pick a theme and go through with it all the way to the very end, even if it's uncomfortable to do so.
Sometimes, there's no end in sight, but you've got to keep going down the winding path through to wherever it takes you
Always a good Saturday when there's a new Hello Future Me video
Percy jackson, first book I read. It both changed my life and taught me the value of a simple unheroic life.
Worm, its hard to describe how many ways Worm changed me
Worm is one I still come back to like, every couple of years
Worm!!! What a tour de force, honestly
Man I dont think i have ever had a story change me. I like stories and feel emotions with some of them but none that changed me. Heck i dont think there is any that i relate to. What gets me is i feel i watch and listen to many talented creators who all seem to have these awesome insights and i think is there a problem with me, do i lack some sort of intelligence or awareness to pick up on these things or connect with a story. Idk, but i like and appreciate your work.
Fiction reveals the truth that reality obscures.
I cannot describe how it felt seeing the thumbnail, reading the title, seeing the channel, and listening to the intro. I have so many thoughts and feelings about Nier Automata, always excited to see it get acknowledgement for the less obvious reasons.
Undertale fundamentally changed how I played every single game after it.
in what way(s)?
It's an amazing game!
Doubt it but yes, fantastic game
@@Exel3nce What do you doubt? His personal experience?
_The Beginner's Guide_ has fundamentally shifted my perception of video games, interpersonal relationships, storytelling, and just generally how humans communicate and understand each other.
Other things that have completely redefined how video games and storytelling work:
- _The Stanley Parable_ (same dev as _The Beginners Guide_ ), especially the broom closet ending
- _Spec Ops: The Line_ (iykyk)
- Most of the Supergiant Games catalogue, but especially _Pyre..._ a rare game that turns all "fail states" into meaningful and interesting stories, to a degree that you might intentionally choose to lose sometimes in the main gameplay loop to make the story go the way you want it
- _Stray Gods,_ which somehow pulls off a real-time choose-your-own-adventure musical while also being a classical Greek myth about prophecy
- _Journey_ (same composer as _Stray Gods_ ), which manages to have an emotionally impactful story with an unnamed mute protagonist and only the occasional other player with whom you can only communicate via moving around and a little audio-visual ping
i feel the same way about the beginner's guide!!! i will always talk my friend's ears off about it and make them play it going in blind, that's so key
Journey has been amazing. I would add transistor from supergiant games to this list too.
Great picks ❤
@@scriptkid_rs Well, I _did_ say most Supergiant games belong on the list. 😜
I actually made an elaborate Red costume for a con, complete with a lit-up Transistor! I might try a Pyre outfit next. (Jodariel carrying a Ti'zo plushie?)
Stray Gods was an unbelievable experience!!
The way you talk about stories makes me feel seen and like there are other people like me out there after all, even if I didn't grow up around them or have them around me now.
Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander - as a 10 year old who didn’t know who I was, but wanting to accomplish something important, journeying with him as he became a man changed me. I have returned to this over and over again.
The original Homeworld. When you jump back to the Earth and the debris of the last space station greets you while Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings calls all the longings of lost hope… The anguish of that moment is something I’ve never experienced in a video game before or since.
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Tolstoy - two years after being diagnosed with brain cancer, laying in bed, reading about Ivan’s loneliness and the humiliation of dying, it was so sad and distressing I couldn’t do anything but lay there and weep for hours. I couldn’t explain it to my family, especially because they have been there with me throughout the hospital, the surgery, the chemo, all of it.
God this video perfectly describes what I have not been able to put to words for so long, and the fact it starts with nierautomata (my favorite piece of media ever) only makes this feel all the more real and understood, thank you.
For me, it was Girls Last Tour. It's something that speaks to me, about living fully and happy in spite of the futility of it all. Whether it's the apocalypse or the hopelessness of modern world, it's the same. Finding happiness is an universal need, but it's also a matter of perspective. And since then, I've started living in a way that makes me happier.
Another has been a more recent one: Look Back (manga or movie, take your pick). I have my bouts of motivation loss for creative things (I write, surprise surprise), but Look Back has hit me like sack of bricks in the face, showing why an artist should persist. It is exactly what this entire video is about, and I cannot recommend it more.
Mob psycho 100 is probably the first story i cam across where i saw myself represented. I'd always been reading with a vague desire to see myself in the characters, i always related and empathized before this point, but mob psycho was the first to make me go oh thats me. Up until this point i hadnt realized how emotional repressed i was. I recognized the potential for violence in me and i had always valued kindness but mob psycho was the first story to give me a character who did the same thing and had the same values and needed to grow beyond it.
There's this arch in mob psycho where he trapped in a dream world, basically alone, being bullied and emotionally tortured by the other people in the world. Hes trying so hard to maintain hope in the face of cruelty and isolation. He almost loses himelf to anger when a friend breaks through the dream and remimds him the dream isn't real. It reminds him how lucky he is in real life to have hi friends and family. It reminds that he can be courageous because there are people he loves waiting for him. Mob is so kind and do... at times innocent. But its not coming from a place of ignorance. Its coming from an internal conflict between the violence of his emotions, the violence that the outside world demands from him, and the gentle heart at his core. Mob psycho likes to present 3rd options. Its okay to run away. Its okay to turn to the adults in your life or fall back on friends. Sometimes true heroics is talking things out. Reaching an understanding. And sometimes people are too immature or cruel for talking to work and its a struggle to break through to them without violence, without getting hurt yourself.
Mob is a gentle character, his core philosophy is kindness, he tries to nurture those around him and even himself. And it hard. This story acknowledges that maintaining a calm gentle nature is often costly. That it gets you tken advantage of, that often times your own limit and own potential to be cruel and violent get thrown back in your face over and over again. But it never treats kindness as a weakness. Its the power hungry and arragont who are shown to be weak and immature. There philosophies and identities are far more fragile than mobs, because theyre usually built on a lie. Might makes right. Im the best because im the most powerful. I need this to be a whole person. The only way to make it in this dog eat dog world is to have the sharpest teeth
Mob psycho strips the characters of their lies and shows the people they are with out power. Desperate, lonely, angry, stupid, shallow. And over and over we see the kindness reach people past the violence and anger. We see people grow and blossom with mobs gentle nurturing. Characters often have to be humbled first but it takes a lot of strength to reach out to people who hurt you. It takes a lot of vulnerability and sense of self. And it can still backfire, it can still get you hurt.
I guess the thing thats most striking about mob psycho for me is how earnest it is. Its conflict is something I identify with. It emotionally repressed but highly empathetic main character is something i personally relate to. And its earnest desire for kindness, nurturing, redemption, and self improvement are things that motivate me.
Mob psycho is special to me because for the first time i felt seen and it took the journey further. It gave me options and criticisms and ways for me to grow
The story of dead poets society did this for me. I had avoided spoilers for my entire life and watched it for the first time this year...my god.A masterpiece of beauty and pain
I can't adequately express how much this was the exact video I needed today. I've been feeling profoundly sad about how I can't truly share the stories I love most with the people I love most, because what I loved about them was so subjective and personal. Hearing that feeling put into words by someone much more eloquent than me was validating and cathartic in a way I didn't even know I needed. So, thank you.
(The story that had me feeling this way was, of all things, the mobile gacha game Fate/Grand Order, which is a truly ridiculous thing to be having such an existential crisis over, but I suppose that's the point isn't it - what might be nothing more than a trashy cash grab to one person can be deeply emotionally resonant to someone else.)
Nothing will ever be the same after Attack On Titan for me man. Stories are my life, yet nothing has ever moved me quite like AoT. Kinda crazy to think about honestly, just how much that story influenced my outlook on many very real things, just how much the whole thing resonates with me. I also watched in the exact time I needed it. Simply beautiful ❤️
For me, it’s the story that is the Mass Effect video game trilogy. Although I’m an avid reader too, the sometimes hundreds of hours you immerse yourself into a video game story should not be underestimated in the impact it can have on you.
I think that was one of the reasons as to why people were so upset at the ending of the third game. People were so affected by the story, so when that first ending was released...not really the same quality as the earlier games/story.
I really liked and appreciated the way you analyzed and broke down these beautiful stories. It reminds me of the AP English assignments I used to do in highschool. This video made me think of a quote I take to heart that goes, "Stories teach us how to live..." Among the stories mentioned was Bridge to Terabithia, I'd first heard it when I was seven. It moved me and taught me to cherish my time with my friends and family because of how quickly they can be taken from you like Jess and Leslie's friendship.
I don't have words to explain the stories that impacted me, so I'll just leave a list. Black Sails. Hadestown. Arrival. Avatar the Last Airbender. Paddington 2. Haikyuu. Battlestar Galactica. Firefly.
Sounds weird but Fight Club (the movie). Seeing the way that the story satirizes everything, including itself, was such a mind blowing experience. I still watch it every year and I still find new things to fall in love with
I'ld recommend Chuck Palahniuk's other novels too.
Haibane Renmei was a story I watched because it influenced Megatokyo, showing up in some of the artists side projects. I watched it tell a slow, character focused story in a setting that was mysterious and never really explained much. I didn't understand it then, and on rewatching it to show some friends, I would say I still don't. But the experience of absorbing 13 episodes of the lives of these characters in an unfamiliar world, culminating in a single scene that still resonates, with everything leading to just a single sentence with so much weight behind it. That changed me, it showed me that lore and action and dialogue are tools that don't always need to be used, that storytelling is about knowing how to use them and when not to. I will spend hours watching, listening, reading, just to find that one moment of weight. And I will enjoy every bit of it.
Haibane Renmei is s show that I love and cherish as well. I used to be a capital W weeb, and while those days are long behind me I still come back to Haibane Renmei every so often.
Outer Wilds. Everyone should play it. Play it blind. Don't look into it. Just get it and start it. It's worth it every time. In my humble opinion. Lol.
All The Wyers of Pern was the first book I had a visceral emotional reaction to as a child. The end of that hit me light a freight train. And diving into Dune for a while as a teen gave me a literal existential crisis. XD
Everyone (who can tolerate intentionally challenging gameplay) needs to experience Outer Wilds. Life changing story.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky was one of the very first stories that did this to me.
I was just a child at the time, and I never really connected to a piece of media before. Games were just meant to be played and I never payed much attention to the narrative because who cares? Until I played this game. It made me think about gratitude, about death, about friendship, about what I wanted the meaning of my life to be, about how I wanted to change the world and how it would remember me after I was gone. All from what was supposed to be a silly game where you get to play as a pokemon.
There are other stories that touched me since then, but I will always hold a special place in my heart for this one.
“The Inner Light” from StarTrek TNG is a master piece in this topic. The Enterprise encounters an ancient probe and it zaps Picard, usual stuff, but it isn’t nefarious, it has Picard live the life of one man living on a dying world. In the end, it was a desperate plea cast into space on the glimmer of hope that someone would find it and witness there in. The episode ends with Picard making the sort of flute they had and playing a song he learned; the last notes of a civilization millions of years dead.
not gonna lie... i love TNG and seen all the episodes like 100+ times and that one is among my least favorites lol. Its funny how each media hits us all differently.
Picard also ordered the probe be serviced and refueled and sent on its way onwards into the stars.
I had forgotten that episode, I haven't seen TNG since it first aired so it's gone pretty fuzzy. That was a good episode.
I think a part of my childhood died when I read Flowers For Algenon in school. I saw people take turns reading parts of this piece out loud, each voice changing from bored to excited to scared to me. On my turn I was quiet. I had a paragraph, there were words on a page of a man yelling in a diner at the injustice he has just seen. But yet I couldn't say it, I went to the bathroom and cried. I will always love this story and I read the rest on my own.
For me, the story that changed me was The Way Of Kings. Kaladin's segments and the insight on how he tries to be good, wants to be good, but his sense of sadness and depression sabotaging his attempts touched me. However, it was wwhen despite everything, despite his emotions and shit the world threw at him that Kaladin decided to stand again... that made me want to not give up on my hopes and aspirations too. Life is hard. It is. And sometimes one's own emotions hit you and isolate you. But who's to say that this is the end? No one but yourself declares that. Kaladin taught me to foght, and keep on holding to all the reasons I can to continue living and finding the good amidst all of the bad. After all, it only takes one leaf of piison given to a man in hopes of making them happy in order to have them be reboen into something greater.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has left me going out of it with a sensation I had never had before, and never since. I do not know quite how to describe it.
We love Arthur Morgan ❤
A Practical Guide to Evil reignited my creative writing juices, and otherwise crystallized a lot of things I think about and needed to hear into something I could truly enjoy.
Probably your best video
You’ve perfected your style getting your thoughts, opinions, and emotions about an idea across so well here
as soon as you brought up story of your life i immediately understood what you meant. even hearing the name of the short story sent pain through me.
Baldur's Gate 3, Nier Automata, Divinity Original sin 2, hell even Mass Effect Andromeda. These are just four stories that have resonated with me on deeply personal levels, and they are all on my list of inspirations and reasons for wanting to create and share stories with others. To build epic worlds full of love and tragedy.
What about Subnautica, which is one of my favourite examples of compelling worldbuilding
@@unicorntomboy9736 A great example, never played though
@@scrollkeeper5272 Planet 4546B (the setting for the game) is top tier in my opinion
It tells the narrative of protagonist Ryley Robinson, an engineer employed by a trans-gov corporation named Alterra, who in the year 2190, gets stranded there after crash-landing via the Aurora starship on the aforementioned ocean planet, and must find a way to escape the planet, but soon uncovers a dark secret about the planet's past.
@@scrollkeeper5272 I tried to explain the premise of the game's narrative, but UA-cam deleted it
In year 9 , 14years old, my English teacher, who was amazing BTW, took me off the standard curriculum as i was ahead of the standard ( or whatever) and gave me 1984 by George Orwell.
Totally gave me a new lense to view the world around me. Changed my life, Totally changed me for the better. I'll always remember and have great thoughts of her.
❤❤😊😊
So glad someone describes bridge to terabithia like this too. Most of my friends don't even remember the movie while it had such a big effect on me. I even remember feeling a little betrayed as at that age I still had to understanding that all the good guys win and are happy at the end and didn't know stories could do this.
I read "A Silent Voice", it had me crying a lot, and for weeks and months I debated whether to give some people in my past a chance. Maybe they regretted, or had matured in ways they had to.
There's stories that gave me fresh perspectives on things but I don't think I've ever had this feeling of being changed by it.
Same. I like his passion, though. :)
The To the Moon games have amazing, emotional, and relatable stories that made me think twice about the way I should live my life
For me a movie that I distinctly remember changing me was the Nightmare Before Christmas. I was super homesick one time in college (I was only 4 hours away but that's a difference when you've never left home before) and I was super depressed. At the end of my freshman year I watched this movie and got enamored with it. I wanted to learn more about the movie making process. So, I switched my major to Film. I wasn't as into the major as I hoped (thanks depression) but one thing I did really love despite my crippling depression was editing. It's a grueling process, but fun to see it come together.
I'll watch a movie now, even something as simple as Transformers, and be in awe of the CGI for the Autobots and Decepticons. I'll watch Arcane and be enamored with the animation. I'll watch Titanic and be floored by the practical effects used to bring that gorgeous ship to life. Be in awe of how they broke her in half. Be impressed by the attention to detail.
Only to then go online and see people talk about the usual talking points, vs what I'm seeing; the techniques, the themes, and technology used to create these stories. It is a lonely isle indeed. Part of me wishes I was a ignorant as the average movie going audience but the other part is glad I know how these stories are made so I can better appreciate them.
I wish more people would talk about those things too! I disliked the live action ATLAB on a bones deep level, and I agreed with the usual talking points, but it wasn’t until I saw a video of someone breaking down the terrible shot compositions and specific film making techniques that I really understood why I disliked it so much. Wish I had a more positive example, but this is the most concrete one I could think of 😅
There is almost nothing sweeter in this world than watching or playing a masterpiece and going in blind with no knowledge of what you're about to watch or play.
The main moral of my favorite series, His Dark Materials, is that human spirit is motivated by story and experience. After watching this, I’m thinking no wonder it’s my favorite
This series helped me deconstruct my Christian faith. It was central to it. It helped me let go and it a book series that touched my soul.
I read Little Women for the first time in eighth grade. When it got to the chapter describing Beth’s passing, I found myself uncontrollably sobbing over a book for the first time in my life. I had never known there could be such peace and beauty in death, and it shook teenaged me. When I revisited it a few years ago, it broke me all over again, but this time because I felt myself so deeply in every character. I am Jo; I’m Meg and Beth and Amy too. Their struggles are mine, and I yearn for the victories they achieve. Their beautiful, humble femininity is aspirational for me, and their painful growth into womanhood deeply resonated with me. Around the same time I reread Sense and Sensibility, having read it a few times in my teen years. I found myself weeping over Marianne and Eleanor. I had at the time been newly single after a relationship that deeply reminded me of Marianne’s with Willoughby; and seeing my own pain written on the page wrecked me. I also felt Eleanor’s heartbreak and fear of facing a life alone more deeply than I ever have before. I’ve been a reader since I was 3 years old; I must have read thousands of books at this point. But few have captured my heart the way Little Women and Sense and Sensibility have.
I'm in my mid-20s and a long way away from being a parent, but The Last of Us (games and show, respectively) have changed my life in a way I didn't know I needed. Joel and Ellie's journies highlighted issues I was harboring against my dad (they were problematic, and I was raised estranged from them).
Joel's story put a spotlight on my desire to be as good a father as I could be one day, regardless of the obstacles I face. A lesson in fatherhood or what being a father-figure might look like. Ellie's story in TLOU part 2 made me realize the resentment I felt towards my dad's past, while justifiable, was perhaps putting me in situations and mindsets that were self-destructive. A lesson in finding forgiveness but maintaining accountability
there are several "parent simulator" games that help confront and parse our issues with our parents and, on replaying, begin preparing us to become good parents.
Omg I had to pause. When you said there was a first story like that I immediately thought "Bridge to Terabithia"!
Carry on
Hunger Games. I know it's probably a popular but those books touched me deeply. It helped me to face trauma from bullying in a way I hadn't before through Katniss's trauma. It helped me understand why I did things like hid in closets. And it helped me have more compassion for the suffering of those in a war and who lose family members in a wa I couldn't without experiencing it first-hand. The way Suzanne Collins portrayed PTSD for multiple characters just really touched me and has always stayed with me.
shame about how many young adult/tween girls completely missed the themes of the books and we got that trend of shitty YA dystopias with love triangles for a bit :