Can I get a bit emotional for a second. Next year it's going to be 10 years since I got into Sam&Max and it's like... Lately I feel like my taste for many things have changed, I don't necessarily stop liking things I liked but I do think I'm a very different person... and that's good! And I still like many of the things I have always liked but like yeah, I have grown and my taste is different and this is good, but I do find comfort on the fact that I do still really like these two characters.
These two are like my biggest hyperfixation even when I'm not hyperfixated on them. They still make me laugh (crack me up), they still make me overanalyze a funny franchise and somehow in a strange way I still see a little bit of myself on them (their awesome neurodivergency and aromanticism at least, maybe not so much everything else)
I know this is a small franchise that doesn't have much going and most people tend to enjoy it and then kind of move on. This is normal and happens all the time, you can't really "abandon" a franchise cause that's not how pieces of media work. You still like them even if you're not playing the games everyday or make fanart all the time. I myself don't spend my every moment invested only on this franchise believe it or not. However, Sam and Max are characters that are with me a lot and as years go by I still visit the franchise and focus on it a lot, even if I know it's old and there are many new things out there... sometimes it's nice to relax with a silly franchise when the world is so overwhelming all the time.
That's not to say this franchise is perfect, not AT ALL. It is a franchise I have always been pretty critical of. It has so many issues that I despise and if I am such a huge fan of the characters I have to be the first to acknowledge these problems and call them out.
Sometimes it's not exactly the games, or show or comics themselves that I'm obsessed with it's just... Sam and Max themselves. The concept of what they are. The style of humor, the way they talk, the way their world works, their personalities and of course, their relationship. Sometimes that and the version of them that I have in my head is what I truly think about 24/7 for months.
But I can also look at the franchise itself critically and enjoy the actual good things about it. It is always so important to remain critical of the things you enjoy and as much as I enjoy this franchise, I will always remain critical of it.
Despite all of its issues, when it is good it really IS so good and I want it to be this good in the future. I want it to improve and for only the good things about it to remain if we ever see more of them. I want to continue to see these characters, for people to talk about them, to laugh at the good jokes, to critize the problems, to make cute gay fanart, to overanalyze everything and make complex analyses... all of that. That's something I'll definitely keep doing myself, and it's just nice.
