Childhood Nostalgia

[Shamitako]

Oi, hi. I've been nostalgia-ing for the past week and a half and wanted to talk about it. This thread is for talking about the things you enjoyed as a child. There's no requirement for actual talking, just naming things is plenty. I just want to spam people with nostalgia

 

Here, in no particular order, are as many things that effected me greatly before I turned into an angsty teenager as I can remember ATM

 

Bionicle

Spoiler

The defining aspect of my childhood. It's no exaggeration to say that my life was built out of Bionicle parts. I discovered the series when I was rather young, during it's Metru Nui phase, and immediately decided these things were the shit. I began begging for them as gifts. The first I received was Onewa from the grumpy, Visorak-tainted set of Toa. While my family was too poor for me to manage much, I have at least one set from each line after. As well I've got some older ones I got from some guy who didn't want his anymore

 

I'm a bit partial to the Barraki era when in comes to toy designs. The Visorak horde are my favorite enemies (I like any enemies you can call a horde TBH). Although the sheer awesomeness of Teridax is far from lost on me. My absolute favorite character is Gorast, with Glatorian Mata Nui as a close second.

 

The relative depth of the characters and stories are a large part of why I take so much value in storytelling nowadays and greatly influences by RPing. I've often spent time posing my Bionicles in various fights around my room and moving them on slightly each day

 

I was sad but satisfied with the end and quite enjoyed Hero Factory from 2.0 on. Sadly, the reboot hasn't caught my interest (my biggest annoyance actually being the names on the new characters)

Lego Web Games

Spoiler

As one who played with Bionicles and Legos (shaddap I know that's wrong I don't care), it was sort of inevitable that I played related games online. While a lot of these are the crappy advert garbo you'd expect (and even moreso as of late) many of them were quite good. I have especially fond memories of the Bionicle Mata Nui games (I actually have the DL version of the first saved still) and the Junkbot puzzle games. I dedicated many an hours of my childhood to beating Junkbot. There was also Starcraft Crystalien Conflict which I knew all those dank cheat codes for and played a bunch. (Side note: Mars Mission is by far one of my favorite Lego sub-franchises.)

Stargate

Spoiler

I'm on what's probably my eighth or ninth time through the SG-1 series right now, the first couple times through being before the series had ended. I grew up with this show. It's so deeply ingrained in me that it's almost single-handedly defined how I curse I'm partial to Atlantis slightly due to the way the at-home episodes are handled and the presence of my favorite character: Todd Rodney. But it's a very small preference and SG-1 is equally outstanding.

 

As mentioned, Rodney McKay and Todd are my favorite characters, I also really love all of SG-1 (including Jonas and the late-season roster), General Hammond, Dr. Fraiser, Dr. Beckett, Jacob Carter, Baal, and Thor. My favorite enemies are the Milky Way Replicator hordes (see? I like my hordes man), more before they got human-y but still liked them after regardless.

 

This is also the only series/franchise I've enjoyed where I've participated in the denial of canon material. If you know anything about Stargate you probably know what I mean.

Transformers

Spoiler

So while I never really got into the toys, although I did ask for some on occasion, Transformers still wormed its way into my childhood. IDK details but around when Cybertron was airing (I think) Hasbro had a section of there site where you could watch episodes of the show (IIRC mostly Armada/Energon but also possibly RID 2001). After being introduced to the site by my younger sisters (with whom I shared the below interest) I discovered this section and, having had a small interest prior, decided to watch some. At this point I remember very little about it, but because of those somewhat forgotten times I've recently begun to delve back into the franchise (AKA I've seem Prime three times and am currently watching every cartoon through starting from G1).

 

My favorite characters are Prime Starscream, Prime Soundwave, Miko, G1 Wheeljack, Prime Wheeljack, that one human chick from Armada I vaguely remember being kind of awesome and have a shitton of nostalgia towards, and Prime Rachet.

My Little Pony

Spoiler

I spent hours and hours creating complex stories while playing with my sisters MLP toys (I wanted my own but I knew no one would get them for me and besides, Bionicles) another huge influence on my writing. I had a lesser interest in the video stuff they output as well and grew quite attached to some of the characters stored in the DVDs my sisters were sometimes gifted, particularly Minty.

 

Never got into FiM. I had a greater investment in the toys than the media, and imo the FiM toys were ugly in comparison to their predecessors. While I did eventually get over this enough to give the show a chance, it never hooked me and the only thing I really enjoyed was the humor

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

Spoiler

So back when the DS Lite was new, a family friend got me a used GBA and some games. SMB3 was fun but kind of hard and the rest were mostly meh. Then I met some kid who let me try this game. It was so great I just had to get it myself. It then proceeded to serve as my primary source of entertainment for a solid three years. I am fully convinced that chibi Lexi was, at some point, the greatest Kirby and the Amazing Mirror player in the world. I was actually plotting speedrunning routes through individual rooms (although I didn't actually know that's what I was doing, I was just testing how fast I could win). When life gets a little more stable for me, I want to try to regain this mastery and start speedrunning the game for real.

 

To this day it remains one of my favorite games of all time; likely my most played as well.

The Boxcar Children

Spoiler

TL;DR I used to like kids mysteries, and this series really held my attention. Unlike most of this stuff, I don't still like this so I can't rave about it. But still, it holds a lot of nostalgia for me and it would just feel wrong to leave it out entirely

A Large Mass of Stuffed Animals

Spoiler

In addition to MLP, my sisters and I crafted long-running stories around our stuffed animals. Complete  with deeply complex family dynamics and unique superpowers. I still remember many of their personalities.

Clifford, the ornery little dog with super speed. Known for being terrible at faking illness. "Cough, cough. I am sick. I am too sick to go to school. Cough, cough." As well as his love of lemons.

Rory, a lion with a little pull tail that caused him to vibrate. When that broke he could barely move his back legs and was forced to stay inside a house made from a tissue box. It made him very sad to lose his freedom but he became very observant and worked to increase his knowledge. Many came to rely on the wisdom he gained.

Simba and Carnation, a loving cat couple who fought evil side by side. The day they finally married was a beatiful one.

Snake and his tail, Tail, brothers who despite their predicament of being stuck together still managed to live a fairly happy life. Tail was prone to anger at times and his brother had to keep him in check, often resulting in Tail's humorous attempts at storming off.

 

And a whole bunch more

Star Wars

Spoiler

By the time I was five I'd seen the original trilogy more times than I can count. Star Wars has been with me through thick and thin. There's not really anything special to it for me beyond nostalgia. In fact, I usually prefer much harder sci-fi such that were I introduced to it now I'd probably hate it. But because it's one of my earliest memories, I've come to love the franchise. I've read many of the EU books (and will always consider it the superior canon despite the inconsistencies caused by size and time).

 

My favorite characters are Grand Admiral Thrawn, Vergere, and Abeloth. Morally Ambiguous Jacen was cool too.

 

And all that is my childhood. Please do share your own experiences and memories. I've often found nostalgia is more fun with others.

 

With Hope,

Lexi

[IntSys]

A bag full of plastic toy figures

Spoiler

My cousin had this bag of toy figures that he had always brought when I go to his place to play. It had mostly Pokemon figures, but also some cheap superhero figures. We'd play with them hours on end, setting up props and roleplaying with them. It all stopped after my cousin (who is one year older than me) graduated from elementary school. To this day, I still wonder how we managed to keep ourselves entertained so easily for years.

Various racing games

Spoiler

I used to be an avid racing game player, playing several different racing games. My first racing game was Burnout 3. It was a racing game where you crash into your opponents to knock them out temporarily, in the truest reckless driver fashion. The feeling of slugging your opponents' cars flying into the hillside was just so god damn satisfying for me.

Then, I played the Need For Speed series and Forza. They gave me a solid challenge, and young me had a lot of fun trying to beat it.

I also played RIIIIDGE RAAAACER on my PSP. It was that one racing game that I could never beat, due to how much skill it demanded.

Annnd lastly, I played Crazy Taxi. In particular, the minigame where you drive the taxi off an incredibly steep stunt ramp and try to get as far as possible. Boy, that was freaking wild.

 

Pokemon Emerald

Spoiler

My first contact with the Pokemon games. I didn't really know English back then, so I got myself stuck in Dewford for the longest time. I would fish for Magikarp and beat them up with my Marshtomp... which ended up evolving into a Swampert during my time there. I eventually realized that I was supposed to go deep into Granite Cave and find Steven, though. I proceeded to rock the rest of the game with a Swampert and a Tentacruel, even resorting to Struggle against Wallace due to how my PP ran out.

Of course, that wasn't the end of my experience with the game. I fell in love with Battle Factory, and I would desperately try to find a Rental Scizor because it just looked so freaking cool to young me. 

 

Overall, Pokemon Emerald was positive experience for me, and it pulled me closer to the Pokemon series than ever.

The Pokemon Anime

Spoiler

I picked up the Pokemon anime around the beginning of the Advanced Generation. It was one of the few shows that I would regularly tune in to watch. The Groudon and Kyogre climax was especially exciting to me.

When the anime got to the part where Ash was about to fight Candice and get his 7th badge, I was so excited about it to the point where I accelerated my bike and crashed into a fence, wounding my knee, all in order to get my dad to take me home early so I can watch that episode's rerun (the channel that broadcast it only reruns every episode once). I ended up only being able to watch the ending of that episode in time, but the experience does say a lot about young me.

Totally Spies! and Martin Mystery

Spoiler

This is where you might question young me. "Why are you watching women in spandex jumping around and saving the world?" Simply put, I was too pure for my own good. Totally Spies had amazing action sequences and fairly engaging plots per episode, so it naturally dragged me in.

As for Martin Mystery, its appeal to me was the gnarly monsters of the week and their various backgrounds. It was a series where monsters aren't totally jokes. They're able to get a fairly good killcount before going down, so when Martin and Co. managed to defeat them, it was especially satisfying.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Party 2

Spoiler

I used to play the heck out of SSBB with my cousin. 99-stock matches would occupy us for like, a whole hour. It was a shame that we couldn't play the Subspace Emissary for some unknown reasons, though.

We also played Mario Party 2, the world's best party game ever. They say it would ruin friendships, but it did not ruin me and my cousin's! I'd always win against him, purely due to how I excel at playing minigames.

I also played many other titles during my childhood, but this post is probably long enough, so I'll stop right here.

[Wolfox]

Bionicle, that was more of my childhood than music (more on that later). it reached its peak during the Piraka era (I own all 6 of them and Vezon, the seventh). Still, have pretty much all I parts I had as a kid. and for those who wanna know, my first was Toa Nokama (at least from what I remember).

 

Music, I loved music as a kid and still do, not much to be said other than it occasionally giving me a safe place to be myself.

 

Pokemon (anime), need I even explain?

 

Yugioh (Duel Monsters Anime), again, need I explain?

 

Yeah, that's it from all that I can really remember

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Because l can and need an outlet to talk about something.

 

Brigandine. A little videogame l know none of you have heard about unless you've heard me singing it's praises like the mad lunatic l am. lt's a really old tactics game. PS1 era in fact that was pretty limited print so it turned out to be pretty hard to find. lt begin my love affair with the gaming publisher Atlus, as they published the game abroad. Atlus is kinda known for taking chances on all sotrs of wacky Japanese titles and porting them to the states to see how they do. You can thank them for the Souls series catching on over here by the way. They published Demon Souls, the true first Souls game. ((sorry tangent.))

Anyway, Brigandine is a game with a relatively simple premise. Zemeckis, a General of the country Almekia, believes he is to be hung for treason as he is told by his most trusted advisor. Cador comes to him not just to warn him but to encourage Zemeckis stage a bloody coup of Almekia. lt works all to easily and Zemeckis gathers his forces and burns the captiol of Almekia to the ground. He murders the king, and almost kills the sole heir but he gets away. ((with is covered in the Prince's storyline as he's one of the leaders of the playable factions in the game.)).

With this act, Zemeckis plunges the entire continent of Forsena into war. 6 Nations all have no choice left. They must fight to unite all of Forsena or be wiped off the face of the world, and lost to history.

The game has 6 factions, 1 in the original version of the Game being unplayable as they are the main antagionstic force, though in a later Japan only release, The Grand Edition, they are given a whole campaign and do become playable as well. (there is a way to cheat and play them in the original via a cheat code, however they don't have a storyat all. You can only play out the battles.))

The nations as follows:

New Almekia: A Kingdom that has had it's reigns handed to the runaway prince. A Country once known as Padstow, ruled by the Old King Cole. However, Cole senses something he likes in the young prince who fled to his country seeking asylum. He sees the young lad's resolve ((and the secret motive of keeping his overly ambitious son from gaining power from when he passes)), and he hands the reigns to him. New Almekia is born under the leadership of Prince Lance. They are represented by the colour Red.

 

Lead by: Lance

Spoiler

 

Caerleon: A small land by the sea, a place of magical power and strong natural borders. lt is a rather small nation full of spellcasters lead by the Wise King Cai. Early on in the war they make a smart move to further secure their position. Upon hearing of the new nation of New Almekia, they set off to welcome the now refugee prince. They extend a hand in alliance securing their northern border leaving them only one front they must fight on. A wise move by a wise king. They are represented by the colour Green.

 

Lead by: Cai

Spoiler

Leonia: Another highly magical nation that boasts strong borders and the only nation that finds themselves sheltered from the Empire ((more on them later)) a huge boon early on for sure. However, they are a pious nation, full of bishops, priests, clerics, prophets, and a few native tribes of people. They are lead by a young tribeswoman who recently has started having visions. A young girl by the name of Lyonesse. They are represented by the colour Cyan. ((other say they are light blue or green but cyan makes it more clear imo as there is a green nation and a blue nation already... as you'll see coming up))

 

Lead by: Lyonesse

Spoiler

Norgard: Seriously, think the Starks from Game of Thrones. ((msotly joking but it's decently apt, their leader goes by the title "The White Wolf" soooooo... you tell me.)) That is this faction in a nutshell. They are the great northern warriors, mostly featuring physical combat classes. They have the most terriory of the normal nations at the start and the most soldiers as well out of the original 5 playable. Their leader, Vaynard is quite the conquerer, believing the only way to truly unite Forsena is to subjugate all others but Norgard. He tries to make an alliance of sorts with Lyonesse early on but... bungles it by putting his foot in his mouth when he makes his intentions to take her as his queen pretty known. Diplomatic fail of major proportions. Norgard is represented by a dark blue.

 

Lead by: Vaynard

Spoiler

lscalio: What a nation. lscalio is a land ruled by a mad tyrant king you dresses as a clown in full plate armour and runs around with a giant scythe of doom. ((yes really.)) ln fact a lot of the nations knights are dressed as clowns, and other usually pretty unscrupulous types. ((one is a known mercenary, yet they keep him around. etc. etc.)) There's very few stand-up knights in the court of lscalio, with exception of a few. They start off with about the worst positioning in the game having to fight on 3 fronts right off the bat while having one of the smaller armies (9barely bigger than Lances' or Cai's forces.)) The Mad Tyrant Dryst loves a good gamble though, so he's more than willing to b at this much of a detriment. Just makes him look all the more cool when he wins. Seriously this nation is basically the game's built in hardmode arguably harder to play even than the next one l will talk about. They are represented by Yellow or Orange... not sure which. l prefer to say orange.

 

Lead by: Dryst

Spoiler

Esgares Empire: The main big bads of the first release, Esgares is the new nation Zemeckis forges from the ashes of Almekia. He declares himself Emperor and begins his war against Forsena, seeking to take all for himself. ln the Grand Edition of the game, one that provided tons of balance changes and a lot of reworking to improve the game's quality, they gained their own story mode and became a playable nation along with the other 5. Esgares is unique in that they start with insanely powerful leaders and their forces are by far the strongest in the game, however they start smack dab in the middle of the map, leaving them open to a whooping 4/5 nations. Only Leonia cannot directly attack them at the start as a mighty mountain rnage divides them as a natural unpassable border. Esgares also has a unique little problem of not being exactly the most liked group so no knights ever join their cause.Though with acces to the two strongest characters in the whole game, Zemeckis and his adviser Cador the Death Knight... and a whole slew of high level characters, who needs puny allies? Due to their relative might they tend to be able to keep a foothold much better than lscalio due to having more starting resources, making them a lot easier to get rolling. Esgares is probably the intended true hardmode nation. They are represented by purple. (THE COLOUR OF EVlL!!!)

 

Lead by: Zemeckis

Spoiler

Map of Forsena; At game's start:

Spoiler

 

A quick run down of the mechanics.

Each nation has a collection of Rune Knights. These a group of people able to control magic runes and further, use them to control mythical monsters. Rune Knights have a stat known as Rune Power, or a max limiter for howmany creatures they may control. More powerful creatures? The higher the cost of that creature. Dragons, Demons, Angels? Super expensive. Hell Hounds, pixies, ghouls, and little jinns? Super low.

 

The goal is to use your dudes, to attack your enemies fortresses and cities and steal them for yourself. Each fort or city you own gains you mana. Mana is a resource used to purchase and pay the upkeep cost of monsters. The more mana you have the more you can kick your opponents butts.

You may bring 3 knights to a battle. Each Knight brings with them a squad of monsters either using up most of the rune power they have or, a maximum of 6. ((regardless of Rune Cost.)) Battles are won by forcing your opponent to retreat ((which they will if they are losing horribly usually.)) or defeating all enemy rune knights. When a Rune Knight falls all their remaining creatures flee with them as they withdraw from battle to avoid fatal injury. Monster though when reaching 0 HP die FOREVER. So, think of it this way. Your Leaders choose to play Fire Emblem on Casual, but your monster went for classic mode instead. Monsters are for the most part expendable as they are pawns to ehlp protect your own leaders and give you victory, however keeping monsters alive does allow them to gain levels and eventually promote into stronger monsters. ((think Fire Emblem.)) Rune Knights can class up as well, but you never need to worry about permanently losing them as they are only wounded if they fall in battle ((which means in the next round of fights you can't use them.))

 

The game is in two phases. First Organization phase. This is played on the above provided map, though it looks more like this ((the above map is a territory checker to see who owns what land. This one below is the game map.))

Spoiler

You manage your forces and prepare to set up the attack phase. This includes summoning monsters, promoting Rune Knights and monsters that have reached a multiple of 10 to their new class, equipping gear, etc etc... You may move them anyway within your territory so long as it's connected by a road. ((those little dusty brown trails on the map above. They aren't shown on the domain map for some reason.))

Once you get everything set up, you lock in your choices and the game progresses to attack phase! You now have to react to how the enemy moved their forces as well. As a note, unoccupied forts are automatic victories for the invading force. Otherwise you can send any number of knights to attack an adjacent fort attached by a road. However as previously stated, in the actual fight you may only use 3 ((but as many as you like may come along, they jsut don't get to fight. They will be there afterwards though which is important.)) Knights that moved to a different castle during the move phase MAY NOT attack an enemy fort until the next attack phase. ((fictionally, the time the attack is being prepared they are still arriving there so they can't mobilize in time to go out on a mission too. lt's mostly to prevent you from surprise ganking and that you have to more or less make your attack clear by waiting a turn so your opponent can react to mass troop movement.)) They MAY defend their fort if it's attacked by an enemy however.

The game is won by taking ever last fort from your enemies hands. ((ln the case of New Almekia and Caerleon you can leave the other and still win but... where's the fun in that? Muhuhu~))

Battles take place on a battle map, or a hex grid. Every fort actually has a unique map for itself and the terrain around the fort on the world map is actually mirrored in the hex map. Even down to that you also enter the map on the road from the castle you attacked from ((so attacking forts from different forts actually can be harder or easier due to the different terrains on that side.))

Anyway, that's the short version. ((yes seriously.)) there's so much more l could talk about but this text wall is long enough. Feel free to ask me more though! lt's actually still one of my favourite games ever made if not my FAVOURlTE game of all time.~

((#DrystlsTheMan))

[Alaris]

I won't explain every one of them, but here is my little list:

 

- Lego (including Bionicle) toys: especially egypt, harry potter 1-2 and orient expedition sets, as well as the bionicle you could turn into an sphere (I can't remember their name right now).

- Card Captor Sakura anime

- Digimon anime

- Pokemon crystal and -especially- pokemon ruby videogames

- Yoshi's island videogame

 

So... that's my childhood in a nutshell haha

[Felicity]

The best part of childhood is that we had no standards.

[The darn 4th chaos emerald]

Gen 4

Spoiler

I've already said a lot about this, but man do I love this gen. Listening to the music makes me feel so fuzzy inside and takes me back to the best years of my life.

The Pokemon Anime, and CN itself

Spoiler

Lol I remember staying up till 3 a.m. trying to stay up until 6 a.m. to watch the new episode of the anime. I was crushed everytime I overslept, but usually I woke up in time. Back then I also watched shows like Chowder which I've tried to watch again, and while it does bring back nostalgia, yeah, it's definitely for kids. Other shows like Flapjack, TWF, and reruns of the Looney Tunes bring back so many memories.

Youtube Poops

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Ya'll young 'uns probably won't know this, but man back in the days, Youtube Poops were the grade A entertainment. This was back when memes lasted more than 3 days and there were some people who got pretty damn creative.

Fan Theorying

Spoiler

Back in grade school me and my friends didn't have much access to the internet, so we kind of had to go on rumor and speculation. It was incredibly fun just to speculate about things that happened or would happen in anime, shows, video games, etc.

 

 

Quote

The best part of childhood is that we had no standards.

I feel that, bro.

[Busti]

Man, I remember playing Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates for years (2005-2007 or so). I was really good at that. It is a swashbuckling game where pillaging, looting, naval battles, gambling, craftmanship, fighting, etc. are all done with minigames in a very popular MMO. It was great fun, I was captain of a 100+ player crew.

Does anybody here know that game?

Edited August 31, 2017 by Busti

[Star Arcana]

Hmm, let's see...

 

Watching cartoons on Teletoon, Family Channel, and YTV: These channels were my go-tos as a kid, and thinking about certain shows really brings me back. Examples include: Recess, What's With Andy? (shout out to the eppy where everyone in town goes on vacation and Andy goes into prank-deprivation mode), What About Mimi?, Hey Arnold!, PowerPuff Girls, Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers, Looney Toons shorts (notably the episode were Sylvester tries to quit hunting Tweety and goes nuts) , The Amanda Show (Judge Trudy ftw), Dave the Barbarian, Goof Troop, House of Mouse... 

 

The Aristocats, Charlotte's Web, and 101 Dalmatians: These were probably my favourite movies during my early childhood, with the first standing out (I adore cats, so this title was an instant #1). I wore my copies of these VHS cassettes right down, to the point where I broke my copy of Charlotte's Web. I was distraught, and my parents bought a replacement within hours of the tragedy. 

 

Swings: I spent many an hour trying to touch the sky, going faster and faster. Still enjoy a good swing to this day. 

 

Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot for PS1: These games were my life for a little while, especially Spyro. In fact, Ripto's Rage was the first game I ever 100% completed, which was a huge accomplishment for me. I used to go around the worlds making up stories about them and such, just letting my imagination go free... 

 

That Mario/Duck Hunt NES cartridge: Never beat Mario, and went right up to the TV with my gun in Duck Hunt. And yes, my 4/5-year old self got annoyed and tried to shoot the dog after it laughed at me too much...

 

Playing with action figures and making up stories: I did this a lot with my brother. We came up with some really interesting, and sometimes twisted, stuff. 

 

Drawing, without worrying about making everything look good: I used to adore drawing and doodling, until I started wanting to get "talented", making it get really stressful. 

 

Beatrix Potter's tales: My grandma and I used to do silent reading before bed when I slept over, and these stories are the ones I remember best from that time. I never finished the last tale, and it bugs me to this day. Too bad that version of Potter's collected works is out of print... 

 

Baking with grandma: My grandmother was a huge part of my childhood, and baking with her was always a treat. 

 

And of course, Pokémon. I didn't actually get into Pokémon right away, being a 1st grade hipster and disliking the hype. However, once I actually was convinced to give the series a try... 

 

... let's just say I really liked it. Butterfree was my favourite Pokémon for a notable spell, and because of the official art at the time, I used to think Eevee's legs were all stuck together. Good times. 

 

I would say Digimon, but I didn't get into it until I was a bit older. I guess it could still count though, I think I was a tween when I first watched it. 

 

Annnnnd, I wrote a word wall. Geez...  

 

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by Star Arcana

[mar_mar]

Well...as a child I loved to draw. I could do that all day. Also, I liked: 1. Playing bowling, 2. Playing outdoor or indoor games with friends, 3. Playing yu-gi-oh card duels with my brother and my best friend (I was surrounded by boys all the time, so I used to do a lot of not girly things). 

[Alistair]

Star Wars.

Movies, toys, books, games, cartoons... everything Star Wars-related. More than Harry Potter, more than LOTR, SW was THE universe of my childhood. It kind of faded away over time, but I'm still interested in Star Wars stuff. Although I have to admit... TFA was a disappointment. But I digress.

 

Watching cartoons on my TV.

Before going to school, during lunch break, after school... I liked watching cartoons whenever I could. Oddly enough, I have relatively few memories of what I was actually watching, but I do remember spending hours in front of my TV. Ironically, I practically never watch TV anymore.

EDIT: flippin' Cardcaptor Sakura, how could I not think of this one. Thanks to the post just below for reminding me.

 

Playing games and specifically pokémon with my neighbor.

He was 2 years younger than me and I considered him more or less as a little brother back then. We traded many mons, had many duels, and we also started playing Magic together a bit later, when I was about 14 and him 12. He moved elsewhere when I was 15. Sad sad.

 

That one Italian restaurant.

Mom and I regularly met up with Dad at this restaurant located in the same town he works in. Their food was really good, and the staff was nice. I always ordered the same thing and it was a delight every time. Good memories.

 

Watching Dad play point and click games.

Myst, Zork, Runaway, and all kinds of oldie mystery games. Thanks to Evi for reminding me.

 

Books, books everywhere.

I read a lot throughout my childhood and sometimes experienced genuine sadness upon finishing a good book. I don't read nearly as much as I used to, which is something I ought to repair.

 

Having very little to worry about.

Only later did I realize how carefree and oblivious I was as a kiddo. And boy was that great =3

Edited September 7, 2017 by Alistair

[Candy]

I'm not even an angsty teenager anymore but I can join the feels-express.

 

Pokemon

Spoiler

It's the first anime i ever watched, at age 5. I used to watch the first two seasons religiously, but stopped when I moved houses which coincided with Misty and Brock's departure from the group.

I also watched XY because it looked rather epic.

Game-wise, I played Yellow for like two days, and changed over to play Silver (5yo me could just never beat Brock with a pikachu and butterfree/pidgeotto. I've played all gens up to Gen 5 (bc I don't have a 3DS), and some Mystery Dungeon ones.

i have also watched about 1/3 of the movies, mostly the old ones. My favorite was the one featuring Lugia.

 

Cardcaptor Sakura

Spoiler

Had to edit this post bc someone's post reminded me of this show that marked my love of fantasy forever. This was the first magical girl show I watched, and I fully enjoyed the whole thing, though I feel you need a child's innocence to find it cool and less cliche.

 

Animal Crossing

Spoiler

When I was about 10, Animal Crossing (どうぶつの森) was all the hype. Most girls in my class had this game, and we'd play together (visit one another's towns). I played for like two years. I'm excited for the app coming out this year!

 

Candy Candy

Spoiler

This is more about my middle school years, but my mom found one of her favorite childhood TV shows on YouTube, and for about a month we watched it together. I got so into the story (Candy Candy was written to be the epitome of all that Shojo stands for as a genre) that I'd come home as soon as school ended to watch. For some reason however, it doesn't follow the traditional shojo-rute at the end, which in my opinion was the most crucial point to nail. So the ending was so unexpectedly tragic, that to this day I don't think I've recovered fully. And yes, my nickname is taken from Candy, the protagonist, whom I don't entirely like, but still admire for her perseverance, kindness, and funny nature.

 

Storywriting

Spoiler

When I was 10, I got a lovely lavender-colored notebook. It was given for me to keep a diary, but since it lacked a lock to shut it, I didn't feel safe writing my thoughts on it. Instead, i decided I'd give writing a try. On it, i wrote some short stories (about a Jokester's imaginary land, a dog who became human to help his lifesaver, and a spy team who only used cutlery as weapons) that I can no longer read without cringing.

Idk what made me stop, but i did, and i totally forgot about writing until when i was writing my college applications, and had to note down some "intelligent" hobbies. I put writing on there, and thought I should back it up by writing some stories (I do have a myriad occupying my brain anytime). I wrote a short story titled The Purple Dress (which I came up on a whim), and then wrote Under the Mask (which wasn't even one of the stories going on in the back of my mind). Writing is fun, and I'm lucky enough to be able to keep it a hobby, as opposed to having to make a living out of it. That way I have no worries whether ppl read it or not, though I'm rather impressed that some of my stories got read thousands of times, and even got heart-warming reviews.

 

I had a rather lonely childhood, with no one my age living near my house, and moving countries every 4 years (so never developed a strong friendship-type attachment until high school), but I feel like fictional characters and the stories in my head made my childhood quite special. I don't think I would've had it any other way 😊

Edited September 7, 2017 by Candy

[Eviora]

I've played, watched, and read a lot of things. but honestly, one of the things I miss most about being really young was watching my dad play video games and thinking to myself that he was so good. In reality, he wasn't especially talented; I was just bad. xD But it felt super cool to imagine I had a pro on my side, even if it wasn't true.