It Gets Better: Difference between revisions

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Contrast [[Action Prologue]]. In [[Video Games]] the endgame version is [[Disappointing Last Level]] (although a game can suffer from both). No relation to [[It Got Worse]], which is about the events in the story and not the quality thereof. Also not related to the [[It Gets Better Project]], although it is an example.

== Anime & Manga ==

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** There is the possibility that they didn't want to go over material that was already discussed in length in the 2003 anime unless it was absolutely necessary, such as {{spoiler|Nina Tucker and Maes Hughes'}} respective deaths. And in some cases, when ''Brotherhood'' did feature material that was seen in the 2003 anime, it was more faithful to the source material, such as the introduction of Izumi and Sig Curtis, which happened much earlier in ''Brotherhood'' than it did in the 2003 anime.

* [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]: To transcribe the average reaction:

{{quote| '''Episode One:''' [[Seen It a Million Times]]. [[Nightmare Fuel]], [[Scenery Porn]], but [[So Okay ~~Its~~ Average|otherwise meh]].<br />

{{quote| '''Episode One:''' [[Seen It a Million Times]]. [[Nightmare Fuel]], [[Scenery Porn]], but [[So Okay It's Average|otherwise meh]].<br />

'''Episode Two:''' Oookay, little [[Darker and Edgier]], but whatever.<br />

'''Episode Three:''' [[Wham Episode|HOLY]] [[HSQ|SHIT]]!<br />

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* [[Sergio Leone]] has said ''[[Once Upon a Time In The West]]'' is supposed to reflect the process of death, slow-paced with breaths of amazing (usually duels). Well, some people can get bored.

* ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' begins with a grand tour of the boredom of circus life, with the only effect on the second and third acts being the audience knows of the main character's mother's condition.

** Well, there's also all the visual callbacks, extra significance for the [[I Know You're in There Somewhere Fight|I Know You're In There Somewhere Juggling]], actual established relationships with the parents...a sense of real-world consequences and the instability of such a life, rendering it all the more precious when threatened and regained...

** Well, there's also all the visual callbacks, extra significance for the [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight|I Know You're In There Somewhere Juggling]], actual established relationships with the parents...a sense of real-world consequences and the instability of such a life, rendering it all the more precious when threatened and regained...

* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' starts off slowly. The first Evil Ex doesn't appear until about 40 minutes in, making it seem like nothing more than some hipster comedy about a dweeb's love life. This is [[Justified Trope|justified]], though, as it's necessary to establish how uneventful Scott's life is before his [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]] Ramona shows up and turns everything into chaos.

* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' is fairly pedestrian and slow-paced for the first fifteen-to-twenty minutes, with a couple of good lines, until we get to The War Room and suddenly it becomes hilarious, and stays that way for the rest of the film.

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* All ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' books are like this, but some more than others. The first book takes almost half of its (short) length for Harry to actually get to Hogwarts, the rest being spent on exposition. The fourth also contains several long-winded scenes about the Quidditch World Cup before that happens as well (admittedly they are crucial to the plot, but readers won't know this at first).

* [[Tad Williams]] loves to take his time. His [[Memory Sorrowand Thorn]] trilogy (the fourth book was so long it had to be cut into two 800 page books for the paperbacks) took 150 pages for the action to start; everything up to that was mystery, backbiting, and intrigue. Arguably, the entire first book of his Shadowmarch series is intro. The central mystery of his [[Otherworld]] series is introduced in he opening chapters of the first book and barely even merits mentioning until it's wrapped up at the end of the fourth doorstopper. The only book he's written that got things going in short time also wrapped up quickly, that being his stand alone novel [[Tailchasers Song]].

* This is a common problem with 18th and 19th Century novels. Because of the wide use of the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]], many novels start with long, irrelelvant introductions about the literary agent and how he acquired the novel. (The fact that many if not most authors back then were paid by word count [[Money Dear Boy|probably had something to do with it]].)

* This is a common problem with 18th and 19th Century novels. Because of the wide use of the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]], many novels start with long, irrelelvant introductions about the literary agent and how he acquired the novel. (The fact that many if not most authors back then were paid by word count [[Money, Dear Boy|probably had something to do with it]].)

* The first third of ''[[Skylark Series|The Skylark of Space]]'' is rather low-key. All the action occurs on Earth and is mostly the subterfuge of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|DuQuesne]] trying to steal [[The Hero|Seaton]]'s technology. Then they finally do get in space, and after a few jaunts to various planets, the [[Lensman Arms Race]] eventually comes in full force.

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** Hell, ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' does the same thing. You start out in a tiny island with no weapons, and once you finally get your sword and shield and you head off to rescue your sister, you lose your equipment and have to spend about an hour doing a [[Stealth Based Mission]] before you finally get your stuff back, and then you have to spend ten minutes sailing to the next town. By the time you actually start the first real dungeon, you're at least two hours into the game.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' doesn't have required tutorials, but there are [[Info Dump|several long cutscenes]] and a fairly pointless quest in Kokiri Village (to get a sword and shield) before Link can begin the first dungeon.

** The creators took complaints about the opening sections into account when they made ''[[The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]''. While it's still an hour or so before the main quest begins, most of the tutorial stuff is optional, and the main focus of the intro (the Bird Races) is still pretty exciting on its own.

** The creators took complaints about the opening sections into account when they made ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]''. While it's still an hour or so before the main quest begins, most of the tutorial stuff is optional, and the main focus of the intro (the Bird Races) is still pretty exciting on its own.

** ''[[Spirit Tracks]]'' parodies the trope. It starts out with a big chunk of back-story, told with text and still pictures, just like the beginning of ''[[The Wind Waker]]''. Once it ends, we see that the player-character got bored and fell asleep while an old man was telling the story.

*** ''[[Phantom Hourglass]]'' did the exact same thing [[Older Than They Think|first]].

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** Especially the low level Barrens for the Horde. The zone is as exciting as it sounds, and it's extremely big, with plenty of quests that have you scour large areas to find those elusive kodos that [[Twenty Bear Asses|just don't drop quest items as often as they should]]. Even one of the quest [[NPC|NPCs]] is constantly moving. And ganked repeatedly by the Alliance.

** Enormous areas of the game were made this when an expansion came out. Azeroth, the original two continents, were nearly totally abandoned when the Burning Crusade came out and everybody went to Outland. Only low levels and bank alts were left. Then the Wrath of the Lich King came out, and Outland was abandoned.

** Blizzard actually acknowledges the issue and throughout the second expansion was constantly improving it. They have cut the amount of experience needed for levels 1-60 several times, added XP gain in battlegrounds, introduced the whole new system for random dungeons which made it far easier to gather a party for them, ''and'' gives more loot and finally added several moderately challenging dungeons which awarded loot on par with lower level of previous raid tier. While the last addition removed the need for new players to farm several tiers of raids to finally get into actual content, it got hit with [[It's Easy So It Sucks]].

** Blizzard actually acknowledges the issue and throughout the second expansion was constantly improving it. They have cut the amount of experience needed for levels 1-60 several times, added XP gain in battlegrounds, introduced the whole new system for random dungeons which made it far easier to gather a party for them, ''and'' gives more loot and finally added several moderately challenging dungeons which awarded loot on par with lower level of previous raid tier. While the last addition removed the need for new players to farm several tiers of raids to finally get into actual content, it got hit with [[It's Easy, So It Sucks]].

** ''Cataclysm'' takes it a step further. Most of the classic zones have been redesigned (the Barrens for example were split into two more manageable zones), the talent trees are completely revamped (and now give you first [[Signature Move]] for a chosen specialisation at level 10 instead of around 30), dungeons are readjusted for new level ranges, etc. [[So Cool Its Awesome|It is very awesome.]]

* ''[[Baldurs Gate]]'' is extremely unforgiving to begin with, as you are at level one (see the D&D entry above) and have barely any HP, combat ability (whether you are a fighter, mage or other class) or special abilities (where applicable). You can only really start to actually do anything interesting without being slaughtered after gaining a couple of levels, half-decent equipment and a party.

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== Western Animation ==

* The animated part of ''[[Gertie the Dinosaur]]'' comes when the film is about halfway done. Of course, the whole thing is less than fifteen minutes long. Despite this, there was still a version made that cut the non-animated first half out.

* While they probably stand out compared to G3 and 3.5, which by popular admission are pretty terrible, one could argue that the first two ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episodes are heavily clichéd and predictable. While these two episodes certainly aren't ''bad'' exactly, it's the later, slice-of-life episodes that are the real gems of the series.

* While they probably stand out compared to G3 and 3.5, which by popular admission are pretty terrible, one could argue that the first two ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episodes are heavily clichéd and predictable. While these two episodes certainly aren't ''bad'' exactly, it's the later, slice-of-life episodes that are the real gems of the series.

* ''[[Avengers ~~Earths~~ Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' begins not with the founding of The Avengers, but with about two hours' worth of shorts detailing how each of the first eight members fought crime ''before'' becoming part of the team. Regardless of whether you watch each short one by one, or watch the five episodes compiling them, they make a rather disjointed introduction to the show.<ref>The individual shorts were released in an order that caused the heroes' exploits to constantly interrupt one another, while the episodes compile them in a manner that sometimes fails to give each hero equal prominence.</ref> Even after the Avengers get founded, it takes six ''more'' episodes for all eight of those superheroes to join. However, a number of the episodes detailing the team's founding and early expansions became regarded nearly as highly as those that followed, if not more so.

* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' begins not with the founding of The Avengers, but with about two hours' worth of shorts detailing how each of the first eight members fought crime ''before'' becoming part of the team. Regardless of whether you watch each short one by one, or watch the five episodes compiling them, they make a rather disjointed introduction to the show.<ref>The individual shorts were released in an order that caused the heroes' exploits to constantly interrupt one another, while the episodes compile them in a manner that sometimes fails to give each hero equal prominence.</ref> Even after the Avengers get founded, it takes six ''more'' episodes for all eight of those superheroes to join. However, a number of the episodes detailing the team's founding and early expansions became regarded nearly as highly as those that followed, if not more so.