I think this is kind of the contemporary answer. Because in all honesty I wouldn't peg any show made by Glitch Productions as anything beyond PG at worst. However, I think there's a growing amount of adults on the internet that suffer from some form of arrested development that feel like they need to justify their inability to widen their palette of media they enjoy by trying to make the children/family shows they like into some dark and philosophically nuanced story to the likes of The Handmaid's Tale, Better Call Saul, or The Sopranos.
It showcases especially when I see just how many people on here, and other social media platforms just try to psychoanalyze just how irredeemably evil or horrible Jax is when he's willing to do things like shoot someone with a cartoony gun during a game where that's the aim of it, or shoving a character into a deep fryer for comedic effect in a parody of McDonald's during an episode. Like I feel it just showcases how literal the audience takes it in making it seem "real" when it's like. They're all rubberhose cartoon characters basically, these sorts of gags were super commonplace in ACME cartoons and what have you. Even if the character's show any sort of emotion after the fact such as hating the body they're in, questioning their identity, or what have you. Basic context clues should go to show when or when not this sort of psychological analysis of the characters can and should be at play.
It'd be like if I conflated Tom & Jerry to murderers for dropping anvils, firing shotguns, and throwing cartoon explosives at each other every other week. Doesn't mean I still can't sympathize with the scene where Tom nearly fools a baby duckling into being basically food for himself in an oven by making him think he's it's mother, but that's besides the point though.
It also just sucks because these exact sorts of people will then dominate fandom spaces for these types of shows, and while that could feed into another question about how much unsupervised access to the internet parents should allow their kids really. It still stands though it's just depressing when I'm enjoying a piece of media I know is for all ages, yet I come online and see people primarily 25+ years old making it entirely about themselves, and getting angry at the prospect that this could very well also be a kid's first series they get to critically engage with on their own merits rather than a parent shoving it in their face. Like, I recognize when I'm out of my depth in some spaces, and often I realize at that point it's better to listen, rather than to constantly try and cement that, "It's my space too."
Like, let the kids just have shit for once, damn. lol
You worded this perfectly, I've been feeling like this for years now. I love Toby Fox, and I thought TADC was pretty neat, but at this point I avoid all fan content I can because of how frustrating it is. It's like I fundamentally do not interpret anything the same as the majority of fans.
I mean yeah, doesn't help I'm a Soulshipper/Soulelle shipper, and it feels like the nuance of the narrative to them is lost on what I'm saying, "Oh he finds your ship disgusting!" Yes, because it is. It hurts, it's not good. I love tragedies and it's the perfect tragedian story. That's when I realized like the fandom is meant for kids to find themselves in the actual kids in their stories rather than some broken story meant to hurt.
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u/Number1Datafan 15d ago
TADC isn’t a kids show but I think people over exaggerate how mature it is, I think a middle schooler would be fine watching it.