Genre Turning Point: Difference between revisions

While a [[Wham! Episode]] can change a single series forever... sometimes, something comes out that forever alters an entire genre. It wasn't the first entry into the genre, nor was it the last, but things were never the same after it came out. This often -- butoften—but far from exclusively -- happensexclusively—happens with particularly notable [[Deconstruction|Deconstructions]]s; for example, superhero comics after ''[[Watchmen]]''. If it does happen with a Deconstruction, it generally results in years' worth of both [[Darker and Edgier]] (and possibly [[Contemplate Our Navels]]) series in imitation... and [[Reconstruction]] series in response.

* ''[[Akira]]''. Before it came out, it was distressingly common to see anime films and shows targeted toward older audiences horribly [[Macekre|Macekred]]d so they could fit into the [[Animation Age Ghetto]]. After it came out, people in the West finally got the idea that anime movies didn't have to be targeted towards kids at all.

* ''[[Die Hard]]'' did this for the action movie. Sure, there were smart thrillers beforehand -- ''[[Die Hard]]'' itself could be seen as something of a remake of ''[[North Sea Hijack]]'' -- but—but after it came out, there were far fewer action films that featured invincible, unstoppable heroes (Schwarzenegger, Stallone) whose plots depended entirely on [[Ass Pull|Ass Pulling]]ing solutions out of thin air than there were before. Plus, not many films rewrite the rules for the genre so heavily that an [[Die Hard on an X|entire subgenre]] forms around them.

* [[Sergio Leone]]'s [[Dollars Trilogy]]. These films weren't the first [[Deconstruction|deconstructionistdeconstruction]]ist [[The Western|Westerns]] -- the—the classics ''[[High Noon]]'' and ''[[The Searchers]]'' came out a decade before them -- butthem—but they left a far more lasting impact on the genre than those two films did. All of a sudden, the [[Black and White Morality]] that was nearly omnipresent in the genre vanished, replaced with the grittier, more morally gray attitudes seen in such films as ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'', ''[[High Plains Drifter]]'' and, much later, ''[[Unforgiven]]''. Every single Western made since the mid-'60s owes something to Leone's masterpiece.

* ''[[Star Wars]]''. While ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' is usually regarded as the first modern "blockbuster" movie, this was the one that proved that kids -- akids—a demographic ignored by most 1970s movies -- weremovies—were audience members too, that [[Merchandise-Driven|merchandising spinoffs]] were a potential gold mine, that escapist sci-fi wasn't as [[B-Movie|disposable as once thought]], and that fantasy in general was an untapped resource. The whole [[George Lucas Throwback]] genre originated here, and while [[Follow the Leader]] meant there were many crappy imitators within the years that followed, it did lead directly to [[Superman]] getting [[Superman (film)|a big movie of his own]], thus launching the rise of cinematic comic book adaptations. It was also helped launch the revival of rival series ''[[Star Trek]]''. Indeed, some blame this movie for hastening the end of the "New Hollywood" era and leading to the dumbed-down [[Summer Blockbuster]] mentality of the industry today. Especially once the ''sequels'' arrived...

* ''[[Shrek]]'' ushered in a period of [[Deconstruction]] for fairy tales, resulting in [[Fractured Fairy Tale|Fractured Fairy Tales]]s such as ''[[Enchanted]]'', ''[[Happily N'Ever After]]'', and ''[[Hoodwinked]]''. The genre has recently begun [[Reconstruction]], with ''[[The Tale of Despereaux]]'', ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' and ''[[Tangled]]''.

* [[John W. Campbell]], a popular science fiction writer and magazine editor, is generally credited by Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and other science fiction writers as being responsible for nurturing their talents and for bringing higher standard of storytelling to the science fiction genre, which had previously consisted mostly of [[Utopia|utopianutopia]]n literature, stories of aliens and fantastic gadgets, and [[Spacespace Western|space Westerns]]s. Genre historians often date the beginning of science fiction's Golden Age as being 1938, the year Campbell assumed editorship of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' magazine.

* ''[[Don Quixote]]'' was not only the first "modern" novel, but it also single-handedly killed "knight stories" ([[Chivalric Romance]], adventure stories with a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] as the main character -- thinkcharacter—think [[King Arthur]] & co.)

* [[Aeschylus]] did this for drama -- [[Older Than Feudalism|2500 years ago]] -- when—when he made drama using contemporary, rather than mythical, themes.

* The [[Xbox]] Live service (and its child service, the Xbox Live Arcade) provided two previously rare functions on consoles -- itconsoles—it allowed for the onset of downloadable content expansions to console games, and it allowed for the download of small games directly to a console's hard drive, starting with titles such as Namco arcade games. With the Xbox 360, this eventually allowed for the download of entire Xbox games, but this and several other download networks ushered in a new era of independently produced games, which themselves are sometimes deconstructions and reconstructions of classical video-game concepts. The industry has essentially come full-circle.

* The US Constitution's Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, both of which were first drafted in 1789, are the [[Trope Codifier|Trope Codifiers]]s for the modern concepts of liberal democracy and human rights.