When you were younger, did you tend to watch shows with young protagonists?
Not too long ago I read an article about how the writers of Stranger Things pitched the show to several networks that rejected it. >Matt estimates the brothers were rejected 15 to 20 times by various networks, while other execs had balked at the idea that the show featured four kids as lead characters but that it wasn't TV for children. "You either gotta make it into a kids show or make it about this Hopper [detective] character investigating paranormal activity around town," one told them.
I remembered this article after reading the ducktales criticism thread. I imagined the execs telling the writers >no kid wants to watch an old duck
Blake King
>Matt estimates the brothers were rejected 15 to 20 times by various networks, while other execs had balked at the idea that the show featured four kids as lead characters but that it wasn't TV for children. "You either gotta make it into a kids show or make it about this Hopper [detective] character investigating paranormal activity around town," one told them.
As much as I love Stranger Things, I feel like I've gotta admit the kids are the weakest part. They feel like the worthless child sidekicks shoehorned into old kids shows, except it's not a kids show. I would've loved more Hopper.
The exception is 11, of course, but that should go without saying.
Anthony Morgan
Funny enough I always enjoyed the more adult cartoons growing up. I also liked shows where kids dealt with adult situations. I like goofy comedy but it gets tiring sometimes. I wanna be surprised and shocked occasionally at what I'm watching.
Logan Garcia
Nope. When I was younger, I actually preferred adult protagonists. I found it hard to believe that kids could be competent or capable enough to accomplish anything.
Alexander Gonzalez
Honestly, I enjoyed both. It all depended on the writing.
Elijah Phillips
This. I always felt that adult protagonists were the better by default simply because you could maybe treat them as role models to an extent, somebody you can grow up to eventually become like to an extent when you're older and wiser to do so. Child protags - even 'self-inserts' like Billy Batson or Ben 10 - always struck me as just lucky little shits getting to live enviable childhoods, who could only even manage to do so in the first place because they're generally written as far older characters in a child's body, dealing with relationship drama and other such shit.
Henry Brown
No. I actually didn't like shows with younger protagonists. I loved the shit out of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, etc.
Lincoln Bell
Preferred older protags as well.
One of the reasons I couldn't get into Harry Potter when I was a kid was because I had no interest in reading about kids in school (even if it was a wizard school).
Christopher Wilson
>When you were younger, did you tend to watch shows with young protagonists?
Never really paid much attention to it. I was just a kid. I just wanted to see Wile E's hair-brained schemes. :^)
Sebastian Barnes
Most of the shows I loved had adult protagonists, with kid sidekicks. I preferred it that way, and I honestly still do.
Grayson Sullivan
To be fair, Stranger Things is pretty shit.
Lincoln Clark
For some reason I remember sort of avoiding shows/media that had a protagonist slightly older than me. Teenagers or adults were fine, kids around my age or younger were fine, but like 2 or 3 years older was too much unless I already really liked whatever it was.
I want to say it felt too real or something, since I was like 7-10 and at the point where someone just a few years older seems and looks way older and more experienced. I felt like I couldn't relate, and yet teens and adults seemed preferable because they were even further removed.
Not sure when exactly I stopped feeling this way, but probably some point in middle school when age differences started seeming less pronounced.
Carson Morales
So you both didn't believe in yourselves as kids. That's nice.
As a kid, I always hated adults who looked down on kids and underestimated what they were capable of, and as an adult, I hate them even more. So you could say I've always enjoyed shows with kids and adults equally, provided the adults aren't douchenozzles.
Jonathan King
I never got why they decided to have Ben transform into adult aliens with deep adult voices. That was pretty weird.
Easton Perry
When I was a little kid my favorite show was Ninja Turtles. They were at least a decade older than me at the time.
Aiden Turner
As a kid: Adult protagonists. >I want to grow up to be .
As an adult: Young protagonists. >I want to protect/stick it into .
Eli Wilson
I was the kid who hates the kid side characters most of the time. I preferred at least teens and above main characters. Exceptions being shit like Pokémon or Digimon.
Anthony Morales
supposedly those were ten year old alines of each species (think of it like dog years) so it kinda makes sense
Noah Reed
>supposedly those were ten year old aliens of each species Wait didn't that four armed chick have a crush on his four arms form?
Is she a pedophile? Or does that species have a drastically lower age of consent?
Hudson Hernandez
I tended to dislike child protagonists yes. Probably because I moved a lot before around Elementary school age and I didn't have siblings, so lot of my early social development I was pretty much just around family who were all adults, closest age cousin was still a good 10-11 years older.
So when everyone at school was on the Harry Potter train I was reading Redwall.
David Taylor
No, I never really liked most child characters. I thought adult heroes were cooler and that comic relief (adult) side characters were cooler still.
Alexander Adams
>So you both didn't believe in yourselves as kids. That's nice. What? There's a difference between knowing your limits as a young child with no life experience or comprehension regarding how the world even works, and having low self-esteem. It's not like I was rooting for the adults on KND or anything like some kid-Uncle Tom, it just seemed reasonable to assume that irl children (and by extension, myself) couldn't get away with nearly as much shit as a cartoon child protagonist, who's usually being written as more of an annoying young adult twice their canon age.
Jaxon Jones
As a general rule I disliked studio mandated kid side characters because of pic related and the like.
I seem to remember a quote from one of the head writers of The Real Ghostbusters on why he disliked The Junior Ghostbusters going something like:
>"As a kid I hated Robin because Robin was my age but he could do things that I couldn't. But Batman was an adult. I could grow up to become Batman, but I can't be Robin."
Parker Bailey
if she wanted to fuck human ben, yes, but since that wasnt the case, then no
its contextually fucked up but its a-ok for it to happen
Eli Cooper
As a kid and still now, my favorite combos are a kid and adult duo. Lydia + Beetlejuice, Ralph + Vanellope, Oliver + Dodger, Clementine + Lee, Doc + Marty, etc. I especially love it when the adult doesn't have their life together or has a wild lifestyle and drags the kid into it, it's a nice balance of being able to get into adult situations but still having that spark of innocence thrown in.
Aiden Robinson
>"Lyd *braap* Lydia! I'm gonna need you to take this sandworm and shove it up your butt, Lydia." >"Oh geez. All the way up there? I dunno about that, Beetlejuice."