Have you ever gotten that feeling when you finish a story you've put a lot of time into? Maybe a long-winded JRPG or a particularly good book that you just couldn't put down until the sun had gone down and come back up again? It seems like every moment up to that final frame of the closing cinematic or the last punctuation mark on the back page is spent hungrily devouring the narrative, reaching desperately for that next big fight, seasoned with a blushing thank-you kiss; but somehow every resolution and climax doesn't satiate you as much as go right through you. And when it's gone, when the writer has stopped bringing out the next course, and the last scraps of plot ambiguity and lingering questions have been scrapped from your plate, you feel hungrier than before. Starved in fact. And you're just left there in the awe of all you've tasted, aware that it was only a taste, and that you'll never be satisfied the way you want to be. The best stories never end, they say. Or at least you never want them to.
I remember I got that feeling when I beat KHII in only 2 days. I remember walking out onto my porch and staring at the sky. I had been so invested in that story, so intensely and for such a significant length of time that when I realized it was gone... I was in tears. It took a good long moment of reflection before I realized that the whole story was a convoluted mess of retcons and deceptively shallow pathos driven nonsense characterized almost entirely by novelty and nostalgia -- and then I felt a lot better. And silly. I'll never forget that odd and profound sense of loss though. Perhaps the effect is just stronger when the narrative is gobbled up all at once, like my 2 day 40hr playthrough.
But now I have that feeling once again. Last night I finished book 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I can't get it off of my mind -- and this time I don't have the comfort of knowing it was actually stupid. That show was good. I almost feel bad saying that, considering the primary demographic, or at least the fan base, is about 5 years younger than me and female. Not to mention that it's a Nick show; Nick being a station I treat with increasing contempt. But to be fair, my fandom stared back when the show was new, when I was younger, and when Nick actually played cartoons -- some of which didn't even suck. Anyway, I guess enough of you liked the show that you would understand, or at least won't judge.
Actually, this isn't even the first I've had to deal with this over this show. I'd seen it all when the final episode premiered, and I was watching it again because I've got a lot of free time right now and apparently a bad memory. And now there's an added dimension of nostalgia... this was new to me back when I was falling in love with my current girlfriend, a relationship that is currently on the rocks. Maybe that's why I drooled over the Katara/Aang relationship so pathetically this time around. I've already mentioned on this forum that if I had a crush on any fictional character it would be Katara.
I'm writing all this because since I finished the last chapter, I haven't been able to concentrate on much else but what's going to happen next. I have to keep reminding myself that as far as the cannon is concerned, there is no "next." It's not a real place, and Katara and Aang aren't really getting married, and there won't be any more badass adventures to write home to gran-gran about. There's not even any home. Or gran-gran. I tell myself that, but it's been like 10 hours and I keep going back to that final kiss... This is mostly a distraction, like everything else I've done this morning. I've already gone through half the old episodes of Escape to the Movies, and ZP was getting old. What stories have given you this feeling?
TLDR:
Have you ever experienced a story that you didn't want to end so bad you couldn't stop thinking about it? I'm having that problem with Avatar: The Last Airbender this afternoon. Distract me.
I remember I got that feeling when I beat KHII in only 2 days. I remember walking out onto my porch and staring at the sky. I had been so invested in that story, so intensely and for such a significant length of time that when I realized it was gone... I was in tears. It took a good long moment of reflection before I realized that the whole story was a convoluted mess of retcons and deceptively shallow pathos driven nonsense characterized almost entirely by novelty and nostalgia -- and then I felt a lot better. And silly. I'll never forget that odd and profound sense of loss though. Perhaps the effect is just stronger when the narrative is gobbled up all at once, like my 2 day 40hr playthrough.
But now I have that feeling once again. Last night I finished book 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I can't get it off of my mind -- and this time I don't have the comfort of knowing it was actually stupid. That show was good. I almost feel bad saying that, considering the primary demographic, or at least the fan base, is about 5 years younger than me and female. Not to mention that it's a Nick show; Nick being a station I treat with increasing contempt. But to be fair, my fandom stared back when the show was new, when I was younger, and when Nick actually played cartoons -- some of which didn't even suck. Anyway, I guess enough of you liked the show that you would understand, or at least won't judge.
Actually, this isn't even the first I've had to deal with this over this show. I'd seen it all when the final episode premiered, and I was watching it again because I've got a lot of free time right now and apparently a bad memory. And now there's an added dimension of nostalgia... this was new to me back when I was falling in love with my current girlfriend, a relationship that is currently on the rocks. Maybe that's why I drooled over the Katara/Aang relationship so pathetically this time around. I've already mentioned on this forum that if I had a crush on any fictional character it would be Katara.
I'm writing all this because since I finished the last chapter, I haven't been able to concentrate on much else but what's going to happen next. I have to keep reminding myself that as far as the cannon is concerned, there is no "next." It's not a real place, and Katara and Aang aren't really getting married, and there won't be any more badass adventures to write home to gran-gran about. There's not even any home. Or gran-gran. I tell myself that, but it's been like 10 hours and I keep going back to that final kiss... This is mostly a distraction, like everything else I've done this morning. I've already gone through half the old episodes of Escape to the Movies, and ZP was getting old. What stories have given you this feeling?
TLDR:
Have you ever experienced a story that you didn't want to end so bad you couldn't stop thinking about it? I'm having that problem with Avatar: The Last Airbender this afternoon. Distract me.
favorite. anime. ever.
