Lessons I didn’t know I learned from my childhood

I realized awhile back that some of the things I thought were just fun stories when I was a kid were actually filled with good values or what could be seen as a warning for something in real-life.  A couple stand out as of late.

In the cartoon “Justice League Unlimited”, there is an episode dealing with a character named Scott Freeman AKA Mister Miracle.  Scott is a New God, and the New Gods of good and evil have been warring for pretty much ever.  In order to have a ceasefire, they agreed to trade a child from each leader.  Scott was All-Father’s (the good god) child.  Where as Darkseid’s (evil god) son Orion was raised by the good guys and lived in paradise, Scott’s life was made an all but literal Hell.  He was named Scott Freeman as a cruel joke and tortured everyday by the also ironically named Granny Goodness (played by Ed Asner by the way).  Scott spent years trying to escape and was rewarded with greater torture for his failure.  A couple lines stick out in these flashbacks.

Granny: “You think you’re special, Scott.  That you’re different from the rest of Granny’s children, but you’re not.  If anything Scott you’re just a little… slower!  You see, they all learned years ago that their lives were meaningless.  That hope is just a lie.  And you’ve just figured it out!”

Scott: “No, you’re lying.”

We learn that Scott refused to surrender his hope to Granny despite how “perfect” his prison seemed.  He’d rather die than be broken by Granny, but Granny couldn’t kill him because it would violate the treaty.  In time, he escaped.  Now no prison or trap can hold him.  Mister Miracle helped teach my younger self how important it was to keep hope even when things seem hopeless.  There is always a reason you’re still here.

The other that might shock some people here is a video game. “Super Paper Mario” for the Nintendo Wii has a shockingly deep story with heavy themes for a Mario game.  (Spoilers, naturally).  The villain is Count Bleck, whose stated goal is to erase all of existence and recreate it in his image.  He and his minions are actually a lot nicer of people than they seem at first but are so convinced they are doing the right thing.  Bleck however secretly wants to keep reality destroyed when it’s erased because he’s heartbroken at losing the woman he loves (she turns out to still be alive and was with you the entire adventure.)  Bleck’s despair-fueled nihilism is driving him to take all meaning from everyone because all meaning was seemingly taken from him.  But one of his minions, a jester named Dimentio, is really the one pulling the strings.  See, where as all these villains felt like grander versions of radical “reformers” in the real world, tearing everything down to make utopia, Dimentio feels like a Progressive.  He is smug, cold, and he believes he deserves to be the one to kill everything to rebuild it into a world where he is god.  The day it click for me just what Dimentio is was the day I found this Youtube channel called Man on the Internet where this guy and some artists take video game music and add lyrics to it.  I suggest you check them out sometime, especially the Super Paper Mario ones if for no other reason that quick context (and because they are shockingly good), but for now here’s the final boss theme.

So what do you guys think?  This was just on my mind for the last few months and I had to get it out in order to sleep tonight.  Do you have a similar experience to share?