Franchise Original Sin: Difference between revisions

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A '''Franchise Original Sin''' is the flaw which, in earlier, good installments was under control and didn't seriously detract from it, but in later, bad installments is completely out of control and bringing the franchise down.

It's possible to [[Jump the Shark]] without having an Original Sin; take, for example, ''[[Moonlighting]]'', which couldn't keep up the [[Will They or Won't They]] any longer, and the point at which They Did was [[Shipping Bed Death|the moment all dramatic tension deflated from the series]]. There was no Original Sin there, besides the [[Will They or Won't They]], which was part of what made the series work, so it doesn't qualify here.

It's possible to [[Jump the Shark]] without having an Original Sin; take, for example, ''[[Moonlighting]]'', which couldn't keep up the [[Will They or Won't They?]] any longer, and the point at which They Did was [[Shipping Bed Death|the moment all dramatic tension deflated from the series]]. There was no Original Sin there, besides the [[Will They or Won't They?]], which was part of what made the series work, so it doesn't qualify here.

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.

== 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 [[~~Spot Light~~ Stealing Squad|really important]], and the Uchiha clan's [[Myth Arc]] [[Plot Tumour|swallowed the plot]], to the complaints of many.

* 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.

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* ''[[Batman and Robin (Film)|Batman and Robin]]'' was merely the fruition of everything that went wrong in ''[[Batman Forever (Film)|Batman Forever]]'' (no Michael Keaton, the bat-nipples, the [[Lighter and Softer]] angle, the return to [[Batman (TV)|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:'' [[~~Spot Light~~ Stealing Squad|starring]] [[Jack Nicholson]]." [[Batman Returns (Film)|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.

** 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 (Film)|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.

** The two biggest flaws present in all four of the Burton/Schumacher [[Fan Nickname|Bat-films]] were the semi-obligatory casting of [[Big Star Is Main Character|A-list actors as the main villains]] (whether they were any good in the role or not) and the [[Bizarrchitecture]] (which was reasonably subtle and effective in the first film, but by the fourth film had become an obscene distraction). You'll notice that the Nolan films have been [[Inverted Trope|inverting]] the first trope by [[The Cameo|casting their biggest guest stars in relatively small parts]] and [[Averted Trope|completely averting]] the second by shooting all their outdoor scenes on actual locations rather than soundstages.

** Another complaint leveled at ''Batman and Robin'' is how incredibly campy it is, but there was a certain level of camp present in ''Batman'' that only increased with every new installment.

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* As much fun as ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Return of the Jedi (Film)|Return of the Jedi]]'' is, some things left ominous signs for what would happen in the [[Prequel|prequels]]. 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, [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."}}

{{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."}}

* 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]].

* 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 [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.

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* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' probably would have been better off in the long run if they hadn't had Xena and Gabrielle run into a family of monotheists in an episode clearly inspired by the Abraham and Isaac story. It was an isolated episode and could have been ignored. So was the later 'Giant Killer' episode where Xena helps David kill Goliath. But then comes the opener of the fifth season, where Xena and Gabrielle find themselves meeting angels in a war between Heaven and Hell (as opposed to just journeying through the previously established Greek mythology afterlife featuring the Elysian Fields and Tartarus). And then comes the whole 'Twilight of the Gods' arc in which Xena is basically manipulated by 'the one God' to kill every Greek God who appears on-screen, except for Ares and Aphrodite. The fact that the Gods, previously shown to be very competent and powerful, end up carrying the [[Idiot Ball]] and literally can't kill a [[Badass Normal]] like Xena if their lives depended on it, didn't help. And neither did the whole 'Xena and Gabrielle awake 25 years later' thing. In this case, the original sin would be the Abraham and Isaac episode, done back in the series' otherwise better days.

* The original sin in the BBC's ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]'' was the moment that the writers became more interested in Guy of Gisborne (and specifically, his volatile relationship with Maid Marian) than with every single other character on the show. This lead to more and more screen-time being devoted to Guy and Marian as a potential couple, until the point where the writers (presumably) realized that they'd gone too far with it, and needed to derail it pronto. Their solution was for Guy to {{spoiler|stab Marian to death in a jealous rage}} at the end of Season Two. There are plenty of reasons why [[Seasonal Rot|Season Three]] is considered terrible, but it's mainly because that without {{spoiler|Marian}}, the story had absolutely ''no'' emotional centre. There was simply nothing left to care about, or to look forward to.

** {{spoiler|Marian's death}} also left a place open for the introduction of the despised [[~~Creators~~ Pet|Kate]], but that's a whole other can of worms...

** {{spoiler|Marian's death}} also left a place open for the introduction of the despised [[Creator's Pet|Kate]], but that's a whole other can of worms...

== Video Games ==

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* Everything that some fans hate about the modern incarnations of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, the focus on graphics and special effects to the detriment of gameplay, unlikeable characters made of angst and hair gel, extremely linear "walk here, fight bad guy, watch cutscene" gameplay, the excessively long summons, etc, was very much present in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' too.

* ''[[Resident Evil]]'':

** The fifth installment, ''[[Resident Evil 5 (Video Game)|Resident Evil 5]]'', marked the shift of [[Resident Evil|its series]] from the [[Survival Horror]] genre that it had [[Trope Maker|pioneered]] to the [[Third Person Shooter]] genre, a shift that was met with a relatively lukewarm reception by fans and critics, who felt that the series was [[Follow the Leader|me-tooing]] ''[[Gears of War]]'' at the expense of its roots. All of the complaints that people had with the game -- the focus on nearly non-stop action at the expense of scares, the abundant ammunition supplies that made ammo conservation a much more minor concern (and thus reducing tension), the over-the-top [[Action Hero]] protagonists -- appeared in embryonic form in the previous game, the much-better-received ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''. That game introduced upgradeable weapons and had [[Impossible Item Drop|downed enemies dropping ammo and other loot]] for the first time, as well as featuring such scenes as Leon [[Wrestler in All of Us|suplexing enemies]] and leaping through a laser grid in a manner that would [[The Matrix|make Keanu Reeves proud]]. While these changes were controversial even then, ''RE4'' was still scary enough that longtime fans could ignore them and appreciate the much-needed improvements to gameplay that it made.

** The fifth installment, ''[[Resident Evil 5 (Video Game)|Resident Evil 5]]'', marked the shift of [[Resident Evil|its series]] from the [[Survival Horror]] genre that it had [[Trope Maker|pioneered]] to the [[Third-Person Shooter]] genre, a shift that was met with a relatively lukewarm reception by fans and critics, who felt that the series was [[Follow the Leader|me-tooing]] ''[[Gears of War]]'' at the expense of its roots. All of the complaints that people had with the game -- the focus on nearly non-stop action at the expense of scares, the abundant ammunition supplies that made ammo conservation a much more minor concern (and thus reducing tension), the over-the-top [[Action Hero]] protagonists -- appeared in embryonic form in the previous game, the much-better-received ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''. That game introduced upgradeable weapons and had [[Impossible Item Drop|downed enemies dropping ammo and other loot]] for the first time, as well as featuring such scenes as Leon [[Wrestler in All of Us|suplexing enemies]] and leaping through a laser grid in a manner that would [[The Matrix|make Keanu Reeves proud]]. While these changes were controversial even then, ''RE4'' was still scary enough that longtime fans could ignore them and appreciate the much-needed improvements to gameplay that it made.

** 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 (Video Game)|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).