The original post: /r/television by /u/DankMemer2020 on 2025-06-01 18:06:08.
It’s subtitles, hear me out now
I used to binge watch anime a few years ago, and inevitably, I got bored of them and took a break from all television until a few months ago, but one thing stuck, subtitles. Out of habit I started putting subtitles on everything I watched, youtube videos, the games and even shorts, even if I spoke the language that it was in, even if it was my native language. Eventually I got back into watching shows and movies when Arcane season 2 came out, it reignated that flame again and I started watching copious amounts of media, but nothing got me excited, it all felt dull, even though they were unarguably good shows with some of the best writing I’ve seen, it just didn’t do it. At first I thought that Arcane had skewed my expectations, but that changed when I was forced to watch a mediocre movie without subtitles, I actually enjoyed watching again, even though the writing and the acting were noticeably worse than what I had previously watched that month, it just felt right.
I have no idea why this is, but upon rewatching some other shows without subtitles, I can confirm I enjoyed them a lot more without them, even if that ment rewinding every now and then to understand some words. My best guess is that I can get more immersed now, and even if I know the outcome, I can still feel the emotion in the scenes. I got so used to reading subtitles that I didn’t even listen to the actors, I just acted like I watched it on mute.
Tl;dr: I got used to putting subtitles on everything and it ruined the immersion, leading to me being bored while consuming media, after being forced to watch something without them, I realized I enjoyed it way more