I’m asking as I’m trying to understand empathy and whether it’s normal to get so invested in fake characters, I mean it’s probably a testament to the writers but I overthink… a lot.
This question was bright on as I’ve been catching up on The Blacklist and at lunch today watching Season 8 Episode name “Anne “ and it wrecked me.
Tap for spoiler
Basically the main character Red has to live a guarded life and for once he let it form and got close to Anne and you could tell shit was going to go downhill and it destroyed me when you think about it from his or her perspective.
For reference I’m 41 year old dude, not that it matters.
Edit: Bedtime for me but back tomorrow to reply to all.
Edit 2: I’ve got 41 comments to respond to. Currently working but I’ll be back y’all.
The film Click always makes me cry. You know, the comedy where Adam Sandler has a magic tv remote? I’m not gonna go into too much detail on which scene; spoiler tags don’t seem to work on my Lemmy reader, so I won’t know if I’m doing it right. I’m just going to say it’s the scene where he has an important message to deliver to his son. Gets me every time.
And books.
If the story and characters are well written and/or acted well enough to pull you in to the story you can certainly feel empathy and other feelings vicariously.
There is plenty of entertainment that does not pull the viewer/reader in, and you don’t particularly get “involved” with them.
I’d be curious what the line is for most people, what draws them in to a story emotionally to make that investment in a fictional character.
My memory sucks so can’t remember much, but:
The Hunger Games (1) when
Major Spoilers btw
Rue died and Katniss was honoring her, and did the District 12 salute and the scene cuts to District 11 start doing it, then the whole riot scene and it just reminds me of so much of the injustice and tyranny of the world… I just can’t stop crying. I wished we have some of the District 12 - District 11 Solidarity IRL.
I actually remember when, as a kid, I rarely cried about fictional stories, or something even bad events IRL.
But once I go through the existential crisis at 18, I started to actually feel stories, like actually feeling it. I ser deaths, injustice, and tyranny. The “veil of innocence”, as I call it, completely shattered. The world isn’t beautiful, its hell, its horror.
Its actually when you get older, you understand the stories being told.
I feel like there’s a term for it, but I can’t recall it now - it seems like after you have kids, emotional impacts in media can also start to hit a lot harder. I’m not sure if there’s some empathetic response that tends to get strengthened or what, but my wife and I both have things we either can’t watch anymore or don’t process the same way. Like, I decided to start rewatching Star Trek: DS9 a few years ago (a year or two into fatherhood) and got wrecked by the scenes in the first episode where the captain relives losing his wife.
I do. Not very often, but not super rare either.
It can help when I’m miserable, as a form of emotional release.
Mainly on anime for me, I guess, largely because that’s what I watch most. I don’t think I’ve felt that emotional on other film media.
The most recent anime that touched me was Ave Mujica: The Die Is Cast.
Me, and yes it’s normal to have an emotional reaction to media. You want a good cry? Watch Violet Evergarden. That shit’ll wreck you.
This is something that gets easier after your first cry, I watched dramas before and all, but only after playing Narcissus I cried for fictional characters; after that it happens more easily.
Hell, now I get teary eyes just by watching the new Anne Shirley anime opening seeing her grow up, I don’t even have a kid.
I cried like a baby watching Titanic and Interstellar. I also cried at the end of WALL*E
Big Fish in particular got me because my dad is similar to the protagonist’s.
I cry watching space rockets launching.
Am 41 y/o dude not that it matters
It does matter because a 41 y/o dude is also allowed to have and express emotions.
I’m a dude in his 40s. If anything, I’ve gotten more empathetic and easily moved over the years. I have cried at movies and over books.
My first time crying at a movie was a little while after I started HRT. It was Into The Spider-Verse. Dad Morales tells his son “I love you, but you don’t have to say it back.”
That movie is a trans allegory fr
Me for sure. Every so often, I’ll pull something up just for the sake of some tears.
My go-tos include (in no particular order):
- Avengers: Endgame
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- Patch Adams
- The Deathly Hallows (Part 2)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- The Owl House
- House MD (Season 4 finale)
Probably some more I’m not thinking of, at the moment.
The one scene in Lion King hits harder without James Earl Jones on this planet anymore.
Yeah buddy, it’s normal to feel your feelings.
I guess I grew up with people without feelings as when I raised with this my closest friends (5), none of them admitted to it. I know they could lie but I also don’t know how invested they get in to media.
They might be, they might not be. It’s entirely possible that they don’t interact with any media that contains emotions past shooting a gun. I’ve cried to music, movies, and books. Art (paintings, sculptures, etc) I’ve never had that reaction.
I think you’re on to something about them not really focusing on the same kind of media I gravitate towards, complex characters with a moral grey area.
Trying to think if I’ve cried over a book, the most emotional I can recall is the Steig Larsson millennium trilogy, but not sure if I cried was more psyched up for the story.
Art. Never, music lyrics yes but not musical pieces like classical which I listen to a lot. Going to try opera soon so maybe there. I can see people crying at art but I don’t think I understand art enough to even get to that level of emotional connection.
