Today I’m here with a special discussion: how important it is to have someone around who’s being exposed to something for the first time.

For context, I’m going to give you a little example. I’m starting a new series soon on my Youtube channel: “Things and Questions” about a particular show. There are a lot of things on my lists, but I’m probably only getting half, if that, of what’s actually in the shows. The reason for this is that I’ve watched Yu-Gi-Oh! for so long and I’ve watched these shows so many times that there’s a lot of things I just accept without realizing it.

The reasoning for some of those things in my brain is just “yeah, it’s Yu-Gi-Oh!” But now, with my dad watching some of the shows as well, he’s starting to notice things too. We can have conversations about GX and ZEXAL, and soon 5Ds as well. He’s talking about things that I just accepted without realizing it, and I’m listening to him explain it and thinking, “wait, he’s right, that actually doesn’t make sense.”

A couple of things on the GX list I wrote down thanks to conversations with my dad, and on the ZEXAL list as well. These are things that I really just stopped questioning or noticing because I’ve watched these shows so many times. My dad’s noticing them because he’s never watched the shows before. He’s viewing the shows through the legit lens of a new viewer.

If you’re constantly exposed to a franchise for years and then someone new comes along and starts being exposed to it and talking to you about it, you really start to see what I mean. When you’re always partly in the world of a franchise, you start to stop questioning things without noticing. You start to just accept certain things without realizing it. 

Having someone new around helps you notice things that you’d stopped questioning. I know it’s certainly been that way for me. Moral of the story: If you’ve watched a show or read a book series for a long time, try to get someone new into that world. They can help you notice the things you’ve stopped questioning.