Getting Sappier With Age?

[Fappy]

I noticed this about a year ago and it's getting harder and harder to ignore. For whatever reason I think I am getting more and more sentimental as I age. I've always been a bit of a sap (spent most my life around women XD), but there was a long period of time where I was extremely difficult to stir. I could watch the end of a brilliant movie with a tragic end and simply say to myself, "well, that was kind of sad."

These days if something hits the right buttons I have to struggle really hard to stave off man tears, be it tears of joy, despair or both. 99 times out of 100 I am successful in fending off said emotions, but frequently come close. It wasn't until relatively recently that it's been... increasingly difficult to do so. Two recent examples: Telltale's The Walking Dead and the anime Anohana (which I finished last night).

I have never cried because of a video game or an anime until these two. Both were experienced very recently. Strangely enough I had the fortitude to hold back the tears until it was over and I was lying in bed.

I'm a bit of a romantic sap (my girlfriend gives me crap about it all the time XD), but think that's fairly normal, even for guys. But what about getting emotionally bludgeoned by fiction? Is it normal for someone to get increasingly sappy as you age? It kind of seems backwards to me.

So yeah, Fappy's apparently a crybaby now >.>

 

[Andy Shandy]

I kid, I kid. I'm the same sort of situation as you. A couple of years ago, I basically had no emotion to pretty much anything, news stories, video games, TV shows, films etc, besides the occasional laughter at the funny ones.

However, now while I've never actually cried at any of these things so far, I have definitely felt a wider range of emotions whilst watching/playing these things. Probably due to the fact that I was a teenager with the whole "I don't care" vibe, whereas now I've grown out of that.

 

[lRookiel]

The only thing capable of making me shed a manly tear is The green mile. Nothing else has accomplished such a feat.

 

[sky14kemea]

I think I've actually become less of a sap.

Then again, I was a weird kid.... Apparently I once laughed my ass off in a cinema when watching Jurassic Park, and a guy was being eaten.

I've also laughed at Titanic, right at the tear jerker bit. Felt kinda bad when my mum was all weepy beside me. :/

Though I did cry a bit when Bruce Willis died in Armageddon.. >.> but that's Bruce Willis, man!

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

The same has happened to me. It used to take a lot to make me cry. Now I cry at the beginning of the Lion King when Rafiki is holding up baby Simba, (It was the music!), and of course during the Mufasa scene, but that's a given.

I also cried at the end of Okami, when all the characters were cheering Amaterasu on.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I think it goes both ways.

I'm a lot harder to startle now than I was when I was 10 years younger, and I usually scoff at transparent, cynical, and over the top attempts to tug at my heartstrings, because now I'm old enough to see them for exactly that. So in that sense, I've hardened as I've matured emotionally.

However, I'm also now much more able to respond to subtleties than I used to be. Things that would have passed way over my head when I was a kid can now get to me, because I'm old enough to relate to them.

 

[shrekfan246]

You know what part of a movie always gets me to tear up? That one part in the Muppet Christmas Carol where Scrooge is brought to Christmas Yet to Come, and we see Bob Cratchit's house. We see Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog all somber, talking about Tiny Tim, and then the music starts swelling up and the camera pans to Tiny Tim's empty chair, with his hat and crutch. Goddamn it, stop making me feel things!

I don't think I've out-and-out cried at things in media, though. I'm pretty sappy, but I don't think I get that attached to fictional characters. I say "think" because there's always time for that to change.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The Walking Dead

I know that feel bro.

I actually sobbed.

So many feels man, so many feels

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

The only thing capable of making me shed a manly tear is The green mile. Nothing else has accomplished such a feat.

Don't get me started... poor John Coffey (like the drink-- only not spelt the same).

I've always been quite good when it comes to films but one film left me sobbing my eyes out only last year! It was an animated feature called Plague Dogs. It's not a great film but its made by the same people as Watership Down. Seriously guys; I wept like a child at the end. If you love animals (or just dogs) then this film will cripple you emotionally and make you, as Fappy said, a sap.

 

[Hoplon]

I noticed this about a year ago and it's getting harder and harder to ignore. For whatever reason I think I am getting more and more sentimental as I age. I've always been a bit of a sap (spent most my life around women XD), but there was a long period of time where I was extremely difficult to stir. I could watch the end of a brilliant movie with a tragic end and simply say to myself, "well, that was kind of sad."

These days if something hits the right buttons I have to struggle really hard to stave off man tears, be it tears of joy, despair or both. 99 times out of 100 I am successful in fending off said emotions, but frequently come close. It wasn't until relatively recently that it's been... increasingly difficult to do so. Two recent examples: Telltale's The Walking Dead and the anime Ano Hana (which I finished last night).

I have never cried because of a video game or an anime until these two. Both were experienced very recently. Strangely enough I had the fortitude to hold back the tears until it was over and I was lying in bed.

I'm a bit of a romantic sap (my girlfriend gives me crap about it all the time XD), but think that's fairly normal, even for guys. But what about getting emotionally bludgeoned by fiction? Is it normal for someone to get increasingly sappy as you age? It kind of seems backwards to me.

So yeah, Fappy's apparently a crybaby now >.>

You didn't cry during the first 10 mins of Up?

Sappy? your a souless monster. ;P

 

[Fappy]

I think it goes both ways.

I'm a lot harder to startle now than I was when I was 10 years younger, and I usually scoff at transparent, cynical, and over the top attempts to tug at my heartstrings, because now I'm old enough to see them for exactly that. So in that sense, I've hardened as I've matured emotionally.

However, I'm also now much more able to respond to subtleties than I used to be. Things that would have passed way over my head when I was a kid can now get to me, because I'm old enough to relate to them.

I know exactly what you mean. I won't be affected at all unless I am heavily invested in the characters and it's not some cliched "sad" moment.

The Walking Dead

I know that feel bro.

I actually sobbed.

So many feels man, so many feels

That game ripped my heart out D:

The only thing capable of making me shed a manly tear is The green mile. Nothing else has accomplished such a feat.

Don't get me started... poor John Coffey (like the drink-- only not spelt the same).

I've always been quite good when it comes to films but one film left me sobbing my eyes out only last year! It was an animated feature called Plague Dogs. It's not a great film but its made by the same people as Watership Down. Seriously guys; I wept like a child at the end. If you love animals (or just dogs) then this film will cripple you emotionally and make you, as Fappy said, a sap.

Watership Down gave me nightmares as a kid. Way too depressing for children to watch >.>

 

[Ryotknife]

I know that feeling. pre-2000's I very rarely cried at any sad moment in a movie. Now it seems like a tear up whenever anything remotely sad comes along in a game or movie, although very few and made me fully cry. Of the games that made me full blown cry: Valkyrie chronicles, halflife 2 episode 2, xenosaga 3. Im sure there are other games out there that would make me cry like ME3, but i havent played them yet.

Havent played Walking Dead all the way through yet, just finished episode 2. I cant play the game for very long because it makes me feel like such an asshole no matter what i do.

getting older sucks. I cant wait till my body starts breaking down from old age....that will be a swell time in my life.

 

[mechashiva77]

Oh believe me, I am in full agreement with you. I'm starting to cry at a lot more things nowadays. I guess when I was a kid, I really didn't understand what was going on.

 

[Blunderboy]

It's a sign of maturity and being confident in yourself old boy.

 

[Conner42]

I've always been quite good when it comes to films but one film left me sobbing my eyes out only last year! It was an animated feature called Plague Dogs. It's not a great film but its made by the same people as Watership Down. Seriously guys; I wept like a child at the end. If you love animals (or just dogs) then this film will cripple you emotionally and make you, as Fappy said, a sap.

NOOOOO!!!

Thanks for reminding me of Plague Dogs. I was actually having an ok day until you made me remember that movie....

Good god, it's been a long time since I've seen that movie, but......damn........

Ok, I have to go cry now....

Actually, I've caught myself crying over some recent things, but they really have to hit me hard though. Last summer, I re-watched the Iron Giant, and it made me burst into tears for some reason. I mean, it's not like I haven't seen that movie too many times already, how come revisiting the movie at 18 makes me want to cry all of a sudden.

Toy Story 3 made me cry as well, but, who didn't cry at the end of that movie? Does it even count?

Ok, even Wreck it Rhalph made me cry towards the end. Why??? Actually, they were tears of joy....I think.....

The one that hit me the hardest was a Doctor Who episode with Vincent van Gogh.

Spoiler

When The Doctor takes him to the future to see how much his art has mattered over history after going through a time of nobody, not even himself, giving a crap about his art work.....damn....

It's pretty hard to get a reaction out of me though, it has to really hit me hard, or, in a different kind of way I suppose.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

I pretty well lost my emotions when I was a young teenager, and ended up burning out pretty bad and being put on a ton of medications, some of which are no longer used in medicine due to causing permanent damage, I've recently found that some of my emotional connections are working, but mostly, all I can feel is a little sad, or numb, or angry, I can get some feeling of happiness when I'm with my friends, but otherwise, the only time I ever feel any emotion at all is when I get high, and it's not a common occurrance for me, so I just kinda simmer and sit, and think back to how it felt to feel.

Be happy that you can feel my friend, I only wish I were so lucky to not have to fake 90% of the emotional expression required to be seen as acceptable to society.