Pieces of media that changed you?

[Leekleeks]

I'm not sure if this is a weird one, but it's the answer that jumped up as soon as I read the question.

It's an old podcast called Professor Blastoff with comedians Tig Notaro, David Huntsburger, and Kyle Dunnigan. The premise was that they knew only very surface level stuff about a bunch of topics and they brought on an "expert" guest every episode to talk about it. A lot of my sense of humor has been molded by their chemistry together. I've never laughed so hard listening to anything else. It's the kinda thing where you're trying to be quiet because you're listening in a public place, but then you just laugh and look dumb in front of everyone, but the joke was so good you didn't care.

What really made this a "changing" experience, is one of the hosts had a bunch of bad happen to them all at once, but the way they dealt with grief was something I've never seen before. They broke up with their long term partner, was hospitalized with C. diff, her mom then passed away, then she was diagnosed with breast cancer, all within the span of a few months. She showed up when she could, but when she did she was still just as chipper and they still all had a great time together. It built a whole lotta perspective on dealing with trauma.

Unfortunately the podcasting network they were a part of put it behind the paywall of stitcher premium. So if you have that subscription, you gotta listen to it. I've beene considering just paying the subscription to listen to it all over again like the old days.

Here's an example of what the podcast would often derail into:

[wichitalk]

Night in The Woods! It's particular type of existentialism has really stuck with me over the years - "I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do." "I want to hope again. And I want it to hurt. Because that means it meant something. It means I am something, at least... pretty amazing to be something, at least..." It's such a funky game with some many different layers that I love coming back to.

[arsenicteddy]

A piece of media that changed me? The only thing that I can actively think of is this niche, 18+ murder visual novel (won't get into that here) but because of that small community I met my best friend of going on 7 years and I can't be happier that I met them.
Another would be the most recent thing: the band Oingo Boingo. I got into the band in like, March-April of last year? And it essentially engulfed my interests for almost a whole year. I can't think of exactly how it changed me, I just know that it did, y'know (besides it being a hyperfixation that turned special interest)? I feel that change at my core but it's explainable.

[Onio]

I've had my fair share of influential albums, books, video games, films, artwork, but it looks like you all have got that covered here, so I'm going to run with photographers whose work strongly influenced me early on.

Michael Kenna (especially his Hokaiddo photographs)
Todd Hido (his moody nighttime suburban streetscapes from Ohio)
Cole Thompson
Andy Goldsworthy (his photographs of his earthworks)
Noelle Oszvald's black and white photo composites
Lee Myoung Ho
Zander Olsen
Sam Abell - the Nat Geo photographer
Galen Rowell
and ofc Ansel Adams, but he's someone everyone is introduced to when first learning about photography.

These are all photographers that influenced my creative vision in a strong way, and did so very early in my time with photography. But I wouldn't say any of these photographers are my top 10 anymore. I've found some really amazing work since then, but those new works by photographers I might prefer now are works that I found later on, after a lot of experience in photography, and after seeing many, many photographs. By the time I discovered the photographs whose work I really enjoy now, the crux of my vision as a photographer had already been formed, so they don't quite hit as deeply as these earlier influences did. Sometimes something really hits you because of the point in time you discover them, because your palette is fresh and your exposure to that sort of work is limited.

[almostcorporeal]

A piece of media that changed me? The only thing that I can actively think of is this niche, 18+ murder visual novel (won't get into that here) but because of that small community I met my best friend of going on 7 years and I can't be happier that I met them.
Another would be the most recent thing: the band Oingo Boingo. I got into the band in like, March-April of last year? And it essentially engulfed my interests for almost a whole year. I can't think of exactly how it changed me, I just know that it did, y'know (besides it being a hyperfixation that turned special interest)? I feel that change at my core but it's explainable.

I think I know which visual novel you're talking about! I adore it so so so much! It inspired me to make my first ever visual novel and properly get into coding!! That's so cool that it helped you meet your best friend 0:

I guess the media that has changed me in the most noticeable way is my favorite book, House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. It really revitalized my love for reading and in a weird way helped me become more comfortable being my naturally weird self!

[Azure]

i would have to say ace attorney as well (hello fellow ace attorney lover!) and pokémon, which also just happen to be my two favorite video games of all time (go figure)! there's just something about games where love is at the center of it all that speaks to me i guess.  

[arsenicCatnip]

Hmm. Over the years, I shall list them chronologically:

Zelda series
Splatoon series
Undertale
Homestuck.....

[debleb]

white fang by jack london has been super influential for me, i first read it when i was like 6 and it pretty much kickstarted my love of xenofiction. i think it’s also really shaped my view on animals, reading a book where the protagonist is an animal that’s just an unspecial animal i think has helped me look at animals as equal if not identical to people. also put me on the road of being a furry and otherkin lol

more recently i feel that final fantasy xiv has affected me a lot especially the endwalker expansion. idk i think it kinda just has helped me see the hope in things even when they look bleak. thanks venat lol

[Commodorn]

Star Trek (TOS-TNG), definitely. Watching it made me feel more hopeful about the future while also giving me a better understanding of humanity. And myself. I share/have shared some of my less ideal traits with Spock (And Data, actually), so it's very interesting seeing how those characters develop either late into their respective series, in movies, or in books. Strangely enough, they also make me feel less like an alien <:O) despite neither even being completely human if at all.

There's one book I read by someone who found himself bringing up or using Star Trek nearly every time a problem arose at his place of work (or life in general). I've developed a lot of the same ideas that were portrayed in Star Trek before I REALLY started getting into it, but I find it a lot easier to use a line, question or scene that was brought up in the series as a way of communicating certain thoughts (Including ones that were newly encouraged by the series).

I've done this a little with Stephen King books, actually.. mostly to describe the experience of losing someone very close to me. I can't remember the exact sentence or scene I was thinking of, but one thought I had was "This reminds me of something I read in Desperation ....Oh no, why am I relating to a Stephen King novel??"

[Necrosia]

There are two types of media that changed me:

1 - Media that changed me because I got to meet awesome people who are still important to me today.
These would have to be D Gray Man and Lamento Beyond the Void, these franchises no longer mean anything to me but I am grateful for the people I got to meet thanks to this mutual interest and the chain of events that generated from it.

2 - Media that changed my perception and inspiration
Trinity Blood - What initially attracted me to Trinity Blood was the outfits because I was an avid cosplayer back then but what really got me to stay and hold this close to my heart decades after the initial encounter was the richly complex political story and gray morals. I really dislike stories with the chosen one trope or binary good and evil.

No character is shallow, no faction is presented as the ‘Good One’, there are many characters making important choices that change the course of the history. Some are vile, others are naively good or just plain dumb, some are aware sacrifices must be made while others are willing to dirty themselves and take the fall if it means a good outcome for humanity.

Sadly this is a very hard franchise to get into because the anime barely scratches the surface, it serves to give a general idea of the ambiance and only that, the manga is released once in a blue moon and the original author already died, the editors had to literally search for authors notes on spare papers to try and guess what they wanted for the ending. The illustrator of the artbooks I'm pretty sure is xenophobic because of multiple stances and comments they made.... With all that said and done I still think it's an awesome franchise but one that requires a bit of wild goose chasing to get into, still it changed me a lot and I often catch myself rethreading things that happened on Trinity Blood in my stories.

Touhou Project is a treasure trove of sensibility hidden beneath a franchise with very ugly art (yeah I said it! Fight me!). A lot of characters are absurdly overpowered but the plots of the many stories are not some world-shattering event but rather something silly or mundane with a twist of fantasy, my favorite is one where a resident from a place that used to be hell but nowadays is just an underground city makes geysers appears into the surface to try and get someone to help stop her friend who became overpowered, all that behind her master’s back since the master can read thoughts and would know instantly that something is wrong. Some other time a god of death decides to slack off and spirits start to incarnate as flowers everywhere, or a ghost princess is preventing spring from happening because she is using all of its power to try and make the body buried beneath the perfect cherry three revive out of curiosity, unaware that it’s her own corpse. There’s also the animal mafia and many others shenanigans, all characters are extremely overpowered yet they live their usual bucolic lives as if they are not simply able to bend reality. . I also love how Touhou portrays different religions without judgment of character, they are not good or bad, they are simply different and have different beliefs that sometimes clash with one another.

[lulu]

ah this is a good question!

i know this probably makes me sound super ~basic~, but.. the beatles? i was just going through my dad's CD collection in alphabetical order (bored, no internet.. but i had a discman haha). he had the "1" album & sgt. pepper. let's just say i never made it to C.

this was in the mid 2000s i didn't have the internet (unless i snuck on) so i had to beg for CDs. if i wanted to talk about them, i had to find a grown-up (and they usually had OPINIONS).. and if i wanted to see a picture of them, i was limited to album artwork! i fought for my content! but it was a very personal thing, so imagine my surprise when i realized they were the biggest band in the world. but how did they change me? well, they set me on a trajectory away from teen radio pop hits ~ nothing wrong with those, but there is obviously so much more out there. they made me feel less alone and depressed, at a time when i was really hurting for some hope. and they got me into touch with my queerness? i already knew i liked gurlz, but this was the first inkling of "i know i should have a crush on these boys but i kinda just want to be them".

and, of course, they introduced me/the world to paul mccartney, who is my role model i guess. not even musically, completely seperate from the whole "beethoven of our times" rhetoric. i just like him as a person, yknow? he's kind of the proto "cringe culture is dead" icon, which uh.. i could write an essay on this, and i am, i will.. but i won't here.

another piece of media that changed me is the petz franchise from the 90s (not to be confused with the console games later on). that's what got me into building websites and finding online communities. the games were bundled with a rudimentary website builder. here's an article about the online petz community :)

[anglade]

There was a manga I read in high school called GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class. It's a your usual fare for school life 4komas with a focus on an art school, and not particularly popular. However. I read the entire thing in a week right before moving out of my childhood home, which I'd lived in for 15-odd years at that point, and its ending provided to me the much needed lesson that nothing lasts forever, and we need to balance treasuring our memories with moving on to the future. It's now one of the only two manga I own physical copies of in full.

[TheFrugalGamer]

Star Trek (TOS-TNG), definitely. Watching it made me feel more hopeful about the future while also giving me a better understanding of humanity. And myself. I share/have shared some of my less ideal traits with Spock (And Data, actually), so it's very interesting seeing how those characters develop either late into their respective series, in movies, or in books. Strangely enough, they also make me feel less like an alien <:O) despite neither even being completely human if at all.

I feel this way too, and I feel like watching it also made me a better person myself. It helped me to develop empathy for people no matter what they look like or how they act, and asked a lot of good questions, like all sci-fi does.

Also, I feel like I've shared this story elsewhere, but it fits so I'll tell it again. Back when Sims games came with manuals, I used to read through them constantly for fun. One of the last chapters in the back had a part on how to get better at the game, and it said, "How do I keep my sims happy?" The advice it gave was, "Remember this: eat, sleep, poop, and polish, in that order." I never forgot that and used it prioritize my bills when I got older, and it's never failed me. So I guess you could say the Sims is a big part of how I've handled my money as an adult.     

[shevek]

Mass Effect 1-3 at around 2015. At the time of my life, I came out to myself and proceeded to break up with someone I was dating. Playing it with Commander Shepard as a lesbian and just letting that be my ingame life drove the point home to me that this is how I want things to be outside of the game, too. It normalized it too, and made it okay. Touchable, doable.
The overall arc of overcoming hardship, working together, the professional conduct, loyalty, etc. also meant a lot to me. In vulnerable moments, I've often told myself to just act how (Paragon or mix) Shepard would act.

Starting in 2016, books about stoicism helped transform the relationship I have towards my thoughts and mental health; since CBT is inspired by it, that makes sense. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Epictetus' Discourses and Selected Writings (or the Enchiridion for the short version), and The Daily Stoic as a handy reminder each day for the things read and learned in the aforementioned works. The only drawback is that it can be very male-centric and can be misused in a toxic way; the important point to consider is to not use it to make yourself an unfeeling, isolated blob who cannot relate to others.

In 2020 and onwards, Codependent No More by Melody Beattie made me understand a lot about my upbringing and how it manifested in my romantic relationships and my expectations for platonic ones, and how I choose the people around me. It was a turning point in understanding what went wrong in past platonic and romantic relationships and how to do better in the future. The book has some religious elements and mainly focuses on relationships with people who have substance abuse issues, and neither applies to me, but it helped regardless.

In a similar way, The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk was the latest transformative work in my life from last year. It validated a lot of what I experienced and connected the dots on some things. Helped me realize how to view myself with compassion, gave me hope that there are ways out, and reminded me to treat myself kindly all around. A fitting quote I saw somewhere else was "If bullying yourself into it is effective, it would have worked by now"; that fits pretty well. It was also my foray into more content critical of psychiatry and the DSM, and loosened my strong division between mental and physical health issues, or the division as me as the brain and the body as just this vessel I am in. It let me see myself in a more holistic view, and that exercises for mental health can help me physically, and physical exercises can help me mentally. Most importantly, it helped me get an overview for what services and treatments I can consider in regards to some of my mental and physical illnesses instead of just throwing painkillers, antidepressants or some talking blindly at it.

Musicwise, probably the lyrics and in-song world/character of Qveen Herby. I prefer music now that is about treating yourself and others well and not dwelling on the negative, and viewing yourself as something to be adored, and not being afraid of seeming narcissistic or selfish just by not hating yourself.

[strawberry]

ah this is a good question!

i know this probably makes me sound super ~basic~, but..

embrace the "basicness!" it's not the nicheness of something that makes it impactful, but your environment, experiences, and needs at the time of getting into an interest that mix with the media to make it powerful and impact for you  it's such a special alchemy, and whenever i like something that makes me feel cringey, it's a nice reminder that nothing is cringe if it makes me feel empowered and excited! :') paul mccartney is also one of my role models as a musician/songwriter, so i feel this. it is the most inspiring thing on planet earth to see a man so rich with songs for literal decades - like, the guy wrote hit after hit but also wrote some absolutely nuts stuff without fear of cringiness, and through those crazy songs would continue to spur more and more creativity and more and more albums. my ex partner and i once had a date where we exclusively listened to paul mccartney for almost 8 hours and there was not a single song that didn't SLAP hahaha. also, obsessed with that video you linked, i think his goofiness matched with his insane skill just creates such a magical thing. would love to see any other of your favourite vids/songs of his! :3 my current favourite song by him is this one, because of this amazing cover one of my friends shared with me.

As for mine - there are so many pieces of media that have changed my life and i'm gonna make a buncha shrines for them on my website, but the one coming to my head fastest is the soundtrack to cave story. i was in grade four and in love with one of my best friends who was the biggest nerd i knew, and i was doing everything i could to make him think i was cool. he was really into cave story and the portal series (which is also one of my absolute favourite childhood hyperfixations haha) and i was learning piano at the time, so i printed off all of the piano sheet music i could find and took them to my piano teacher down the street to learn them. it's one of the biggest things that got me into piano and music in general, and it still blows my mind every time i hear of game developers who also write all of their own soundtracks. just a phenomenal and inspiring skill to me! i still have all of the sheet music and have been getting back into learning the ones that were too hard for me as a kid :') i never even finished the game (because i was 10 and a dumbass) but the soundtrack was a huge part of my life and inspired my passion for music.