God Does Not Own This World: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"...I have a territorial instinct that exhibits a kind of knee-jerk negative reaction to seeing other people controlling the destiny of my characters. (That's the main reason why ''Goliath Chronicles'' was so painful for me to watch.)"''|'''[[Greg Weisman]]''', creator of ''[[Gargoyles]]''}}

So the author of thisa work is considered to be theits ultimate authority of this work,- maybe hethey isare the creator, director, and/or producer of this fictional work. He, had the initial idea offor this fictionalthe work (or at least thisits current version of it) andalongside most ideasof arethe his,ideas notthat towent mentioninto thatit, heand/or is the considered final authority regarding [[Canoncanon]]. HeSo they must "own" this fictional work -- rightwork—right?

#The author is subject to [[Executive Meddling]] and can't do anything about it, losing histheir absolute creative control of the work.

#If "the work" becomes successful thanks to histheir input, even if the company gains a fortune thanks to it, the author won't be able to becomeearn richany himselfof orit earnbeyond moretheir moneysalary, beyondlet hisalone salaryshare in any of the windfall themselves.

#The author won't be able to use histheir work independently without executive approval - and even if the author gets permission, theto authoruse willtheir work and creations, they'll most likely be obliged to pay royalties for using his own work/creationsit.

# The author's [[Wordinterpretations of God]]canon canare be demotedsubject to [[Fanchange Fiction]], whileby the executives, who can even simply [[Armed with Canon|armhire someoneanother else with canon]]creator to change the work]] or [[Depending on the Writer|"interpret it differently"]].

* The creators of ''[[W.I.T.C.H.|WITCH]]'' were screwed out of their comic only halfway through the first arc, leading the story to go in a very different direction than what was originally intended.

* This is why it took so long for ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]'' to be published -- Sergiopublished—Sergio Aragones did not want Groo to be owned by anyone else but him, but in the late '70s, the default assumption was that comics had to be "work for hire". It was only with ''Destroyer Duck'' and the advent of "creator-owned labels" that sprung up in the wake of [[Steve gerberGerber]]'s protests over Marvel's ownership of ''[[Howard the Duck]]'' that Aragones found an imprint that he could feel comfortable publishing Groo with. (Ironically, ''Groo'''s longest-running imprint was actually a subdivision of Marvel, their creator-owned "Epic" imprint.)

== Films[[Literature]] ==

== Literature[[Music]] ==

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' hasn't been owned by its original creators in well over twentythirty years, ever since Gary Gygax had control of TSR wrested from him in the mid-1980's. Strangely enough, despite being the [[Trope Codifier]] for the entire RPG concept, Gygax has had very little effect on advancing the game's canon since it was first created. He created the original ''[[Greyhawk]]'' setting, but was involved very little with it afterwards before eventually leaving the company because of massive [[Executive Meddling]]. Very few gamers would actively prefer Gygax's game mechanics to what is produced today, though there is a certain flavor in classic adventures like ''Temple of Elemental Evil'' and the ''Tomb of Horrors'' made during his tenure that make for fun throwbacks.

** Likewise, the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' setting was originally created by Ed Greenwood and became known to public via series of articles in TSR's [[Dragon (magazine)|''Dragon'' magazine]] in the late 80's1980s. TSR eventually bought the rights to the setting outright, publishing it in a comprehensive campaign boxed set. Since then, it had been a playground for authors like R.A. Salvatore to publish mostly original novels based in the setting's backdrop, almost turning it into an [[Expanded Universe]]. And then continuity editing decayed until it became nonexistent, while Jeff Grubb (the man who put together cohesive multiverse of AD&D1-2 era as we know it and helped to make ''FR'' a game setting) lost influence and eventually left. As for the ''FR'', Greenwood continued to have some gradually decreasing input, or at least the right to complain, while TSR/Wizards/Hasbro ends up sitting on a ''huge'' pile of material it buried - during about two decades - behind NDA.

*** ...all the way until the release of 4th Edition, where the Spellplague and other interdimensional weirdness caused [[The End of the World as We Know It]] - [[Executive Meddling|against explicit objections]] of both Ed Greenwood ''and'' R.A. Salvatore (whose series, obviously, were one ofthe main cash cows and promotional materials in ''FR''). Essentially making [[In Name Only|effectively a new setting]] that tries to capitalize on the notoriety of ''Forgotten Realms'' and recycles some names from it (Ed Greenwood is good with names, which seems to be in short supply). It doesn't help that the setting itself looks like there was little effort put into it beyond tearing apart old ''FR'': it has most of the distinctive features removed and introduced little material not obviously "borrowed" from elsewhere (like rebranded dragonmarks from ''[[Eberron]]'' or the whole totally-not-''[[Exalted]]''-ripoff jumble with "Primordials"). Naturally, [[Fanon Discontinuity|this wasn't received well]].

** ''[[Dragonlance]]'' is currently owned by [[Wizards of the Coast]], and not by Tracy Hickman, [[Margaret Weis]], or Jeff Grubb, all three of whom (Amongamong many) who contributed greatly to the setting.

== Videogames[[Video Games]] ==

* [[Don Bluth]] never really owned the rights to any movie he made (save for perhaps ''[[Banjo the Woodpile Cat]]''), resulting in both the [[Sequelitis]] of his more profitable films, and the [[Executive Meddling]] of his films in the 90's (which were made [[Lighter and Softer]] and played [[Follow the Leader]] with Disney). Bluth still gets [[Mis BlamedMisblamed]] for it.

[[Category:Trivia Trope{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:CanonTrivia UniverseTrope]]