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Franchise Original Sin: Difference between revisions
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Rule of thumb: if you can imagine a reboot without the element in question, then it qualifies. If you can't, then it isn't a Franchise Original Sin. Secondary rule of thumb: If it wasn't visible in previous good episodes, it's an [[Ass Pull]] or a [[Retool]] gone bad, not a Franchise Original Sin.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In [[Naruto]], even in early episodes you could already see that Sasuke was going to be really important and tips about how the Uchiha clan's [[Myth Arc]] is key were dropped. Then Sasuke became [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|really important]], and the Uchiha clan's [[Myth Arc]] [[Plot Tumour|swallowed the plot]], to the complaints of many.
** [[Broken Base|It's a sore spot between fans whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between.]]
* Many of the things that would cause [[Bleach]] to be criticized during the Arrancar saga first showed in the Soul Society arc. The decreased focus on Ichigo and his friends (Much of the arc revolves around the intrigue among the Shinigami, as opposed to Ichigo's mission to rescue Rukia, Chad is taken out easily by Captain Kyoraku, and Ishida and Orihime disappear for a large part of the story) the feeling of [[Arc Fatigue]], and Aizen's hard-to-shallow level of planning and his ability to easily take out anyone in his way are all things that would become much worse in later arcs.
== Comic Books ==
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* A lot of the current problems with ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' started with [[Chris Claremont]] doing [[Kudzu Plot|too many things on the fly and not often planning ahead]]. But at least he didn't force those [[Running the Asylum]] now to take his older plots as canon gospel. That is their own fault.
** The X-Books arguably have another big problem. Originally, the handling of the concept of mutants and the theme of racism was edgy and interesting. But over time, the presence of these topics has increased more and more. At this point, the franchise has turned almost entirely inwards: most stories revolve around the "mutant problem", anti-mutant attacks and sentiments - and since ''[[House of M]]'' - the survival of mutants and the reactivation of the X-gene. The X-Men don't even seem like superheroes anymore. Certainly, they don't fight much crime anymore, and spend most of their time reacting to the various attacks and agendas of others.
* A lot of the criticisms of the current Kid Flash, Wallace West, are almost the exact same that Bart Allen got when he became Kid Flash during the 2000's [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] run, primarily Wallace's constant complaining about his daddy issues, his frequent hitting on his female teammates, and his taking the place of '''the''' Flash, Wally West. However, Bart had several factors that made these flaws very easy to miss. First, Bart's promotion to Kid Flash was due to [[Executive Meddling]], over the objections of writer Geoff Johns and Bart's creator, Mark Waid. Tellingly, Johns took a jab at the change in the run's seventh issue and quietly demoted Bart down to being in the background, rarely giving Bart prominent roles. Second, Bart had expressed interest in Rose Wilson, and did have internal thoughts showing attraction to his female teammates, but the amount of times he did this was rare and he always treated the females with respect. Third, Bart did occasionally mention that he didn't have a father, but he often talked more about his abusive mother and the mentions were so rare that it would be extremely easy to miss. Wallace by contrast, was explicitly written as a biracial Wally West, had his daddy issues turned into a central focus of his character, and he often had a tumultuous love life, having a brief, but widely criticized romance with Raven, and later on, heavily sexualizing his female teammates in an audio diary, which was made into a major subplot. With all of these traits made a major part of Wallace's character, and none of the factors that made it more forgivable with Bart, Wallace fell severely into the [[Replacement Scrappy]] dump, to the point it was not until recently that he began to start getting more positive depictions.
* DC has recently fallen under harsh criticism for how the Batfamily treated Damian Wayne after Alfred Pennyworth's death, depicting the Bat family treating him as a villain in waiting, being highly neglectful and failing to comfort him after Alfred's death, which Damian blamed himself for which contributed to a time where Damian nearly became a villain. Many of these problems have their roots in the [[Injustice 2]] franchise. In that franchise, Damian and the Bat family went through a similar arc, where Damian accidentally killed Dick Grayson and was pushed into becoming a villain. However, while it is still depicted negatively, there were several points that prevented the Injustice franchise from becoming too egregious. First the Injustice timeline was an alternate universe, not meant to be taken as canon. Second, Damian did accidentally kill Dick Grayson, meaning it was his fault and he afterward became a villain fully of his own will. Third, Damian in the Injustice franchise had hardly any interaction with any of the Batfamily outside of Bruce, which meant their own opinions on Damian were never shared and the issue was between Bruce and Damian, which meant that Bruce, who already had a history of bad behavior that readers were aware of, was often the issue, not the Batfamily as a whole. By very stark contrast, Alfred's death and the Batfamily's horrible mistreatment of Damian occurred in the main universe, meaning it was supposed to be canon. Second, Alfred was killed right in front of Damian when he was trying to rescue him, which meant it was not Damian's fault at all. Thirdly, when Damian runs out of the funeral for Alfred in tears telling everyone he knows they blame him for it, none of the Batfamily go after Damian and tell him otherwise, behavior that was predictable for Bruce {Dick Grayson does not count, as he was under an alternate personality at the time), but completely out of character for characters like Barbara, Jason, and Tim {Tim and Jason have rivalries with Damian, but Jason in particular would usually never let a child carry around that belief). Barbara is especially bad as she confronts Bruce for letting Damian run off and yells at him to go after Damian and tell him that he isn't at fault, but she makes no effort to do the same thing herself, making her come off as a massive hypocrite. Not surprisingly, the entire event has led even some of Damian's most harshest critics to have a strong [[Alas Poor Scrappy]] considering many felt the Batfamily went way too far, with many even wanting a storyline where the Batfamily has to confront how badly they handled Damian's guilt and seeing him harshly call them out on how he treated them.
== Film ==
* ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' was merely the fruition of everything that went wrong in ''[[Batman Forever]]'' (no Michael Keaton, the bat-nipples, the [[Lighter and Softer]] angle, the return to [[Batman (TV series)|Adam West-era]] [[Camp]]). ''Forever'', while silly, still felt Batmanish, so it wasn't as bad; ''B&R'' had no such redeeming elements.
** This started way back in [[Batman (film)|the 1989 film]], although not as obviously. The first film was pretty much "''Batman:'' [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|starring]] [[Jack Nicholson]]." [[Batman Returns|The sequel]] was similar—its [[Villain Team-Up|two villains]] combined have more screen time than Batman. Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer both left the series because they felt that the movies were more about the bad guys than Batman. This led the way for the sequels to become overcrowded with villains and the same "Villain shows up, teams up with other villain, they fight Batman, Batman wins" plot repeated in every sequel.
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* All the problems with the Roger Moore and [[Pierce Brosnan]]-era [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] movies—the over-the-top gadgets, the [[Hurricane of Puns|bad puns]], the overly elaborate [[Evil Plan|villain plans]] and [[Bond Villain Stupidity|death traps]]—are visible in ''[[Goldfinger]]'', where they were still reasonably in check.
** That these elements were not necessary to the franchise is demonstrated by ''[[Casino Royale]]''. Of course, the reboot—particularly the sequel to ''[[Casino Royale]]'', ''[[Quantum of Solace]]''—has led to the criticism that [[Daniel Craig]]'s Bond isn't actually Bond, but just a reskinning of [[The Bourne Series (film)|Bourne]] with all of the Bond names.
* As much fun as ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Return of the Jedi]]'' is, some things left ominous signs for what would happen in the [[prequel]]s and the [[The Force Awakens|sequel trilogy]]. The Ewoks were actually the least of these (they were going to be Wookiees until Lucas decided to make Chewbacca a main character).
** Taking it one step further, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120126041647/http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-rethinking-1977-lpalm.php this writer] claims that the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies kicked off all of the worst trends of not only the later films, but the entire [[Blockbuster Age of Hollywood]].
{{quote|"...as fun (though certainly not ageless) as the first two ''Star Wars'' entries remain, what the [[George Lucas|Lucas]]-logic wrought ([[Cash Cow Franchise|franchise-think]], privileging technological [[Spectacle]] [[Just Here for Godzilla|over storytelling]], characters as stand-ins for [[Merchandise-Driven|cross-promotional merchandise]]) set foot for the worst habits of big studio filmmaking to come."}}
*** That was but one of countless hit pieces. Those were appearing in droves between the Prequel Trilogy and acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney (at which point the press involved coincidentally all "independently" decided to turn about and berate everyone who dares to not adore Disney Star Wars and pay money for it). If you want something less forgettable and more boldly "out of it", check ''“Star Wars” despots vs. “Star Trek” populists'' (but no call for guillotines… yet) by [[David Brin]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120130010946/http://www.salon.com/1999/06/15/brin_main/singleton in Salon.com] — "[[Red Shirt]]s? I didn't hear of no red shirts".
*** In the [[The Force Awakens|sequel trilogy]], some criticised the casting of black actress Lupita Nyong'o as [[Little Green Man|Little Orange Woman]] [[Space Pirate|Maz Kanata]], as she is one of the few women of colour in the franchise and they used a [[Serkis Folk|Motion Capture]] technique to portray the character. However, black women have usually been cast in the role of aliens in the Star Wars Franchise, beginning with Femi Taylor as [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Twi'lek Dancer]] Oola in [[Return of the Jedi]]. This continued in the [[prequel]]s which featured Gin Clarke and Lily Nyamwasa as [[Rubber Forehead Alien|Tholothians]] Adi Gallia and Stass Allie, as well as Mary Oyaya as [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Luminara Unduli]]. But these alien characters in the older films were much more minor non-speaking characters, and were also portrayed by [[Rubber Forehead Alien|actresses in prosthetics and makeup]] rather than in [[Serkis Folk|CGI]]. Maz is just the first ''main character'' to be an alien portrayed by a black woman.
* Many of [[Seltzer and Friedberg|Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg]]'s trademark writing traits ([[Shallow Parody]], [[Narrow Parody]] parodies depending more on references and audience recognition than actually making fun of the target, regardless of how well the reference works with the movie itself) are fully visible in their earlier, funnier movies, ''[[Spy Hard]]'' (which was barely saved by some of its clever bits, including its theme song by [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]) and ''[[Scary Movie]]'' (which was saved by having four other writers). Then, the duo dived head-first into directing their own movies, with every problem that plagued the last two movies amped [[Up to Eleven]] and creating some delicious [[Snark Bait]] in the process.
* The [[Transformers (film)|Transformers film series]] had all of the problems with the later movies evident in the first one, including the crude sex jokes and [[Human-Focused Adaptation|too much focus on the humans instead of the robots]].
* Applied to genres rather than franchises: in his ''Intermission'' editorial [https://web.archive.org/web/20130805153852/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/9521-Consequences "Consequences"], [[Moviebob]] names four great movies that he feels started some of the more annoying and/or problematic trends in various film genres, and in the medium as a whole.
** ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'''s revolutionary use of digital color correction technology to create its old-fashioned sepia tones, which would later be abused to create the [[Orange-Blue Contrast]] that is now omnipresent in nearly every major studio release.
** ''[[Star Wars]]''' [[Bowdlerise|sanitization]] of the [[Space Opera]], which removed most of the female presence in science-fiction outside of familial figures. Of course, this one was quickly corrected.
** ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' threatening to send comic book adaptations, and [[Summer Blockbuster|summer blockbusters]] in general, down the same [[Darker and Edgier]] road that [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|comics themselves took]] in [[The Nineties]]. So far, the success of the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]], with its embrace of the more fantastic elements of superhero comics, seems to have put a ceiling on this trend with comic book properties, though it's still present elsewhere (''[[Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li|Street Fighter the Legend of Chun Li]]'' is cited as an example of this not working).
** The ''[[Evil Dead]]'' series, particularly the sequels, popularizing the idea of [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror|"horror as comedy"]], leading to a succession of horror films that became more about [[Bloody Hilarious|slapstick humor]] and [[Gorn|FX gags]] than about scaring the audience. In turn, this made it harder to take horror movies seriously, creating a generation of moviegoers that laughs during legitimately scary films/moments because they think they're supposed to.
== Literature ==
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Mega Man 5]]'' was the first game to not make any substantial change to the series formula (''[[Mega Man 2]]'' had items and eight bosses, ''[[Mega Man 3]]'' had Rush and sliding, and ''[[Mega Man 4]]'' had the charged buster shot and the [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]). The series became notorious for repetition not long after.
** It was also the first game to repeat the "twist reveal" that the [[Big Bad]] was Dr. Wily all along and make it completely unsurprising. ''4'' had the element of Wily supposedly dying in the previous game while introducing a completely new antagonist in Dr. Cossack, making the twist somewhat surprising. For ''5'' to suggest that Proto Man had suddenly undergone a complete [[Face Heel Turn]] for no real reason, most gamers could easily guess how it was going to turn out.
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** Another, and earlier, likely Original Sin may have been [[Resident Evil (film)|the film adaptation]], which was, at the time, one of the most action-packed zombie movies ever made, and certainly more action-heavy than the games that preceded it. Its sequels [[Actionized Sequel|only further amped up these elements]], to the point where the ''RE'' movies are now described strictly as action films with zombies in them. The success of the film series likely [[Ink Stain Adaptation|colored people's expectations of the games]], leading to later installments of the latter, such as ''RE4'', incorporating more of the former's stylistic elements.
* ''[[Metroid]]'', after eight years in rest since ''Super Metroid'', was revived with two well-received games, one of them being ''Metroid Fusion''. Despite the positive reception, a point of criticism from fans was its stronger focus on a story, it was even the first time Samus interacted with another character. This was seen as a turning point for the entire series to shift towards more plot-driven games, which may not have affected too much games like ''Metroid Prime 3'', but by the time of ''Other M'', it has become an important concern for the fanbase (particularly due to how the latter characterized Samus Aran).
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' suffered from this greatly, a problem which stemmed from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. While ''Mass Effect 1'' ended with {{spoiler|Commander Shepard looking for a way to stop the impending Reaper invasion}}, ''Mass Effect 2'' advanced absolutely nothing about this. Instead, it {{spoiler|chooses to kill Commander Shepard, scatter his allies and undo almost everything Shepard fought to accomplish}}, something that's not productive at all in terms of overall plotting. ''Mass Effect 2'' even ends with {{spoiler|Shepard stating that they'll find a way to stop the Reapers, that is to say, ''the same exact thing they were going to do when ''Mass Effect 1'' ended''.}} All of this went unnoticed, however, because of truly excellent character writing and dialog, alongside very memorable moments and relationships. The problem takes the spotlight with ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', a game that has to contend with a prequel which didn't bother to develop much of the main plot, leaving barely a skeleton of a plot left. Seamus Young has a [[Doorstopper|novel
== Other ==
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