some adults could stand to learn the lessons in children’s media

remembering how 10+ years ago a bunch of grown men talked about empathy like it was a entirely new concept because they watched my little pony

see, i know children's media has deep and mature themes, but my gripe is that because something is made for children, they (understandably) make those themes palatable and appropriate for children, which may not be the experience i'm looking for. the themes are there but they are completely irrelevant to me.

it doesn't mean everything has to be gritty and grimdark, but it might be too complicated for children's programming. for example, a show for kids might portray someone leaving an abusive situation very differently than a show for adults even if there isn't anything violent happening.

basically, i need to have adult conversations about adult feelings and i literally cannot find that in children's media because it doesn't exist. it's never going to approach that on the level i'm looking for, but that's because it's not supposed to.

i believe adults writing characters from those canons can expand upon those themes and add nuance that comes from being an adult and no longer needing to keep things kid friendly, but i'm unlikely to ever watch the canon itself no matter how much i enjoy rping with the character.

the "conversations" in this case aren't strictly literal, as in talking with other people talking about the canon, but also within the dialogue or the writing wihin the canon. they don't exist because those canons don't contain the version of those themes i'm looking for because they're made to engage with those themes at a child's level. i would be concerned if people were applying those ideas to children's media anyway because it would be some seriously fucked up headcanon to apply on its own.

an example would be how encanto touches on generational trauma. you can assume any number of specific takes about the family dynamics involved and have very adult conversations about them but a lot of it will be headcanon and theories because it was never meant to go that deep. it's not a failing of encanto that it isn't having the same discussions about generational trauma as succession. it was never meant to do that and it would be a mistake for me to watch it and assume that it did.

it's no insult to children's media to say that it is simpler than adult media because that is by design.

just because you learned empathy from my little pony doesn't mean that my little pony isn't for kids, and wishing that people would not assume it's just for kids is pointless. because it's for kids.