why *is* the "normal earth kids get superpowers/etc and have to do superhero/etc stuff but also hide it and pretend to be normal earth kids" plotline so common in kids' media, we really dislike it
trying to blend in all the time is exhausting, why would we want to escape to a world that also has that stress
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@VoxSomniator i dunno, off the top of my heads i can think of pokemon and avatar the last airbender that didn't do that at all, and that's probably like a third of the kids' media we could name off the top of our heads
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@VoxSomniator oh i don't think yugioh does it either
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@Felthry Avatar is fantastically good and mostly focuses on war and xenophobia with its conflict, and I'm not very familiar with pokemon hah
To be clear, I think this common focus on pretending to be normal is a failing
@VoxSomniator yeah avatar is incredibly good, i like that people seem to be realizing that kids' media can also tackle tough problems?
the pokemon anime gets its conflict from sports rivalries (pokemon battling is basically a sport) and a recurring team of incompetent bad guys, at least it did when we last watched it like fifteen years ago
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@Felthry Sounds like a common kid fantasy. Doing Cool Important Stuff in your free time but at the end of the day you still have your comfortable life to come back to
"Luca" potential spoilers
That's one thing I love about "Luca". He's a sea monster, but so is the rest of his family, so he doesn't have to hide it from them. Then so is Alberto, so they don't have to hide it from each other. Then
(here comes the spoiler)
at the end of the movie the people of the town find out the truth and come to accept sea monsters as people, so they no longer have to hide it from anyone!
Though the movie is full of tension where they have to hide it from the humans, but it's always with the promise of that happy ending.
@Felthry I think it's used so much because it's a "safe" conflict for kids' media, a lot of superhero adventures would otherwise approach violence or politics or other tricky subjects