Running the Asylum: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

When a fictional franchise has lasted long enough to [[Promoted Fanboy|induct its fandom into the ranks of its professional creators]], the same [[Fan Boy|devotion]] that produces [[Fanfic]] will emerge in the "[[Canon]]" material.

"Indistinguishable" means '''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|indistinguishable]]'''. At some point, the only meaningful difference between "canon" and "fanfic" is a paycheck from the current copyright holder.

 

 

'''<big>These are signs of some of the problems that can result:</big>'''

* Abuse of [[Armed with Canon]].

* Loads and loads of [[Character Derailment]].

* [[Continuity Porn]] for even the most minor things. Writers will revisit old stories, instilling far more self-indulgent detail into the retellings than ever appeared in the original.

* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Dropping bridges on characters they don't like]], and sometimes [[Demonization|making up stuff about the characters]] to excuse why they did it.

* [[Fan Myopia]] dictates most of their choices.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]

* Sneaking [[Fanon]] into [[Ascended Fanon|official sources.]]

* When they aren't [[Pandering to the Base]], they're [[Author Appeal|pandering to themselves]].

* [[Popularity Power]], as well as [[Power Creep, Power Seep]].

* Writers treat the characters they don't like as [[The Scrappy]], even if those characters [[Unpopular Popular Character|aren't thought that way by the fanbase]].

* Writers make the characters they like into the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]], even if those characters [[Creator's Pet|aren't as liked with the fanbase]].

Note that a lot of these tend to show up in fanfiction before this trope makes them [[Canon]], hence the axiom at the top of the page.

 

 

 

Not to be confused with the [[Edgar Allan Poe]] short story "The System of [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether]]" or the video game ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', in which the inmates actually do run the asylum.

* [[The DCU]] has been a prime example since the 1970s, at least, when Roy Thomas got handed an entire ''Earth'' of his own, to play around with all of the familiar tropes of [[Fanfic]].

** Even before then, [[Jim Shooter]] began submitting his own layouts and scripts for DC's ''Adventure Comics'' in 1966 at the age of thirteen, writing stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes, of which he was a fan.

** In particular, Dan Didio, [[Geoff Johns]] and [[Grant Morrison]] made it their mission to retcon just about everything that happened in the DCU since ''Crisis on Infinite Earths''. This includes:

*** Brining back the Multiverse with ''Infinite Crisis'' and ''52''.

*** Returning Power Girl to being Kara Zor-El from Earth-2 instead of the princess of Atlantis.

*** The Big One: Retconning ''Emerald Twilight'' with ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'', reviving Hal Jordan and revealing that Sinestro and an intergalactic fear bug were responsible for Hal becoming Parallax. Of course, even the writer of ''Emerald Twilight'' admitted this was a good move...

**** The primary architects of the Modern DCU (Didio, Johns and Morrison) all are fans of the Silver Age and have made efforts to bring aspects of that era back into the zeitgeist with books such as 52, [[Final Crisis]] and [[All-Star Superman]].

**** There is a joke amongst comics forums (and this wiki) that someday fans, unsatisfied with the re-emergence of Silver Age aspects, will become DC writers and set things "right" by "putting things back the way they used to be before all this Asylum Running", which basically translates to "Someday new writers will run the asylum so that instead of the Silver Age, it will be [[Dark Age]] instead."

** To sum up, every continuity and/or character and/or story element any fan is championing or crying at the loss of or pushing for the return of is the product of someone running the asylum at some point. Silver, Bronze and Dark Age. It's just one big vicious circle.

* [[Marvel Comics]] got into this a bit slower(they started five years later) but is definitely there. Stuff like ''Avengers Forever'' is sometimes referred to as "[[Continuity Porn]]".

*** And he ordered Jean Grey [[Killed Off for Real]] and prevents writers from bring her back. And from some of his own words, including his thoughts that she didn't do anything of merit since saving the universe, Cyclops is "more interesting" without her.

*** Hank Pym is also a widower, after killing off his wife, claiming he's ''also'' "more interesting" without her.

*** Quesada seems to have some major issues with wives (but not with [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|moms]], which is why Invisible Woman, Jessica Jones, and the ''[[Spider-Girl]]'' continuity's version of Mary Jane are spared).

*** Really, just take a look at [[Joe Quesada|his own page]].

* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Cyclops]] is a controversial case; some people think that he's one of the few to show realistic emotions to the things that happened to him, while others considered him an underused, overangsted wuss. Recent writers have cut back on the angst and placed him in the role of a battle general that does whatever it takes for Mutants to survive, which has caused some fans to believe that the writers are now making Cyclops [[Darker and Edgier|go too far the other way]].

** Although as far as many readers are concerned, all of this takes a backseat to Cyclops' tendency to be a [[Jerkass|huge prick]].

* For both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, you can identify the age of many writers by checking what characters are their favorites, assuming they were last famous when the writers were between 12 and 16, and doing the math.

** Brad Meltzer: Vixen, Red Tornado, Dr. Light.

** Robert Kirkman: Onslaught, Cable, Stryfe. ''Dragonball Z'' also has a distinct influence on ''Invincible''.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' is now being written by Ian "The Potto" Flynn, a [[Big Name Fan|somewhat well known fan of the series]], who was even writing his own Sonic fan comic ("Other M") prior to being picked up by Archie. This has been met with a mixed reception that largely depends on where on the internet you go; of course, this ''is'' [[Unpleasable Fanbase|the Sonic fandom]].

** Some complaints include [[Did Not Do the Research]], derailing several characters, some of which to preserve certain relationships (namely Sonic and Sally's). Some things he's gotten a more positive response for however have been [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|his killing off very unpopular characters]], rewriting bad stories, cleaning up unresolved plot points, and offering other related fanservice to the fanbase. One of his most notable contributions has been citing a lot of Sonic internet memes. All he's missing is [[Shadow the Hedgehog|Vector saying "Find the computer room".]]

** Kahvi is Two-Spear's daughter, and magically got amnesia after she fell into a magic pool, and all of the Go-Backs are "cleansed" Wolfriders who apparently forgot to tell Kahvi or their own children or anyone at all about their heritage. Kahvi learns about this from Egg, who was rescued by Two-Edge, and Egg gets a snake for a bracelet. Also, Kahvi desires Cutter to an unhealthy level, so she tries to kidnap him and almost succeeds because all of the elves are suddenly on the wrong continent for no apparent reason. And Tyldak does slapstick.

** When he was a kid, Cutter was a slave for the trolls for a full year, and yet he doesn't know what the caverns he lived in looked like. The reason? They made him wear a blindfold.

** When he was a kid, Skywise met Timmain...and then he forgot about it again.

** There's this really tall white-haired elf in the future named Jinx who has a lot of sex with humans and talks to reptilian aliens and can teleport.

 

 

== Film ==

* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' movies are not canon, but whatever canon characters that appear ending up playing second fiddle to the [[Mary Sue]] protagonist, played by the writer-director's love interest.

** A blink-and-miss newspaper clip of an 'Officer Kennedy' being shot and killed, in any other series, it'd be a joke, but just infuriating when it's clear no one could steal Miss Sue's spotlight.

* The timeframe is relatively small, but the ''[[Death Note]]'' movies arguably fell victim to this. In the film universe, the fan favorite L has a much firmer grip on the plot and greater impact on the ending. Then there's the entire original sequel in which L acts out various scenarios which seem to exist solely to fit the format "wouldn't it be awesome if L saved/met/ate/rode around in a _____?"

* Whit Anderson, the writer for the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' [[Continuity Reboot]], is a fan of the [[Joss Whedon]] series who was the same age as Buffy when the show was first running.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Piers Anthony's ''[[Xanth]]'' series now consists almost entirely of puns and [[Plot Coupon|plot coupons]] taken from reader fan mail. He even gives credits in his Author's Note at the end of each book for each reader suggestion he decided to use.

**** Anthony has repeatedly displayed a great deal of insight into the mind of publishers and the consumer public, and a rather cynical view on it. It's likely he realized that coming up with some characters and a plot outline and having the characters 1) meet someone new every chapter, 2) do a full round of introductions and a story recap to that new person, and 3) just wandering from reader-submitted pun to reader-submitted pun in between was a much easier way to meet his word count and get his paycheck than actually bothering to write a story.

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] actually went off and encouraged fans of his work to do this. In fact, he read most of his fanfiction, and on a few occasions even ''expanded'' off his fanfiction.

** Albeit, this was around eighty years ago and his fanbase was relatively small, so most of his fanfiction came from respectable authors.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** The new series has this from the get-go; [[Russell T. Davies]], naturally, was a huge fan. Current showrunner [[Steven Moffat]] is also an überfan.

** Going by the Appreciation Index for certain episodes from both writers (notably "The Stolen Earth"), [[Tropes Are Not Bad|this may not have been bad]] for the new series.

*** And don't forget the hat-trick of Hugo Awards that Moffat has won. He has consistently written episodes that are not only great episodes of Doctor Who but great episodes of TV and Science Fiction in general, all the while going against some of the elements of Doctor Who that have routinely been criticized over the years (the often very high death-toll).

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'' Paramount and Pocket Books encourage fan-fic writers to aim for more legit careers with the annual ''Strange New Worlds'' short story competition.

*** While Abrams was admittedly a casual fan, his colleagues and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are themselves admitted fanboys.

** Even the original ''Star Trek'' had some of this. Although Roddenberry initially hired professional science fiction authors to write a lot of the early stories, several fan scripts were accepted and produced in the second and third seasons; among them "The Trouble with Tribbles", "The Empath" and "The Lights of Zetar". "Who Will Guide the Blind" by Judy Burns and "Remote Control" by Jacqueline Lichtenberg are well-known fan scripts which their authors would have submitted for a fourth season if there had been one.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has fans, too. The tenth anniversary season, ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'', promoted long-time fan Amit Bhaumik to head writer status. Reactions are split: the season itself is considered abysmal, but that had just as much to do with the cast and showrunner Jonathan Tzachor<ref>who is known for being a fanboy... of the ''[[Super Sentai]]'' source material, mandating that his ''Power Rangers'' seasons [[Shot for Shot Remake|skew as closely to the original Sentai programs as possible]]; a mentality that led to previous head writer Judd Lynn quitting at the end of ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]''.</ref> as the writing staff or anything else. On the other hand, there are the two (completely original) [[Reunion Show|team-up specials]]. The traditional previous/current season cross is considered one of the best the franchise has to offer, as not only does it bring back a very popular cast, it also provides closure for the season's villains, manages to integrate the two teams almost seamlessly, and even provides some [[Ship Tease]]: not only could [[Action Girl|Jen]] and Wes have a happier ending than previously thought, but so could ''TF's'' [[Sixth Ranger|Eric]] and ''WF's'' Taylor. Meanwhile, the tenth anniversary special, despite being a banned topic on many message boards and ripping open plot hole upon plot hole, is still plenty entertaining, between the various [[Continuity Nod|continuity nods]] and well-choreographed fight scenes. Notably, it also features a reference to a fan hoax known as "Scorpion Rain," which Bhaumik helped perpetuate; he noted that he wrote "Forever Red" as if "Scorpion Rain" was in continuity. See the [[Fanon]] page for details.

* The whole ''[[Stargate]]'' franchise, sort of. Some of the people working on it apparently hung out on fan forums and possibly got a lot of ideas there. There were even episodes with alternate universes or time lines in order to throw in some popular relationships or events that don't fit into the normal storyline (most of the characters in SG-1 were in the air force and so could not have romantic relationships). Also fans pointing out mistakes caused things to get changed, such as the steps of the gate room in Atlantis, which displayed Ancient writing with some lines out of order and upside down. It turns out they had already been fixed, but were "fixed" again in response to forum threads and ended up having to be rearranged some more. Who knows if they ever got it right. But after the fans started figuring out how to read the alien text, the art people started hiding messages. This may be more like [[Pandering to the Base]], except that they were in direct contact with the fan community.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* [[ECW]], from Paul [[Drinking the Kool Aid|"Drinking the Kool-Aid"]] Heyman, to [[Promoted Fanboy]] "Loose Cannon of Commentary" Joey Styles. (Although Heyman is generally regarded as a good booker... just a terrible businessman, and Styles is considered a fine commentator, if one with a reputation of not wanting to play ball with the WWE (however justifiably)).

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** In similar vein, the same author has created a near-to ''entirely fanbase spanning'' [[Hatedom]] due to his other creations, namely the Grey Knights Codex. While other codices of his making are simply overpowered or written poorly, the Grey Knights codex introduces what many consider the flattest [[Mary Sue]] the franchise has ever seen, as well as many egregious contradictions to the longest-standing of the universe's fluff.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' does this religiously; multiple current writers for the line got their start creating fan works on the official forums.

** In a case of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], the main block of them (the Ink Monkeys) are often liked ''more'' than the original, professional authors.

*** Not by everyone; a good part of the section of fans that aren't Solar Exalted fanboys are not pleased with what they see as their current [[Creator's Pet]] status.

** Kobolds' draconic [[Power Creep, Power Seep|upgrade]]. Uncalled for, since they already had their cozy little niche and in hands of a good GM were viable [[Not So Harmless|or even dangerous]].

 

== Toys ==

* There are quite a few [[LEGO]] set designers, PR workers and other staff who started out as prolific members of LEGO's large [[Periphery Demographic]]. General consensus is that modern set design is for the most part so much the better for it, and it certainly contributes nicely to LEGO's extensive efforts to keep involved with the fandom and its events.

 

== Video Games ==

* Tom Hulett and Simon Lai, the producers of ''[[Contra|Contra 4]]'' for the Nintendo DS, both admit to being bigger fans of the earlier ''Contra'' games for the NES and SNES than the [[Boss Rush]]-filled later sequels like ''Hard Corps'' and ''Shattered Soldier'', making ''Contra 4'' as a homage to those early installments. Hulett in particular also admits to being a fan of the gag localizations of the early titles instead of the more direct and serious localizations of recent titles, which is why the manual of ''Contra 4'' is written in such a tongue-in-cheek tone similar to Konami's manuals during the NES era and which is why the two new main characters accompanying Bill and Lance are named Mad Dog and Scorpion, [[Mythology Gag|which were the nicknames given to Bill and Lance in the early American versions]]. However, they also retconned the events of ''Operation C'' from being a previous mission of Bill Rizer, to being a previous of the "new characters" Mad Dog and Scorpion.

* A great deal of ''[[Touhou]]'' character interpretation by the fandom is based more on doujin comics and IOSYS music videos than on in-game dialogue.

* The producer of ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' mentioned in a developer interview for the [[Updated Rerelease|3DS version]] that the ''Tales'' teams now include fans who had played the early games, and that though their enthusiasm was good, their plot ideas often have to be gently vetoed.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[The Slender Man Mythos]] actually ''started'' smack dab under this trope. It helps that the Mythos has no real [[Word of God]] to hinge on except as it pertains to individual works.

 

* ''[[Exiern]]'', original creator and writer Drowemos first ''sold'' the comic to fan and author Dan Standing. As one of his first acts in charge, Standing invited fans to submit scripts to become the main writers. The first of these main writers to be selected from within the fanbase is Thomas Knapp.

 

== Western Animation ==

*** This might also explain the increasing frequency of [[Three Shorts]] [[Fable Remake]] episodes.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' got a whole board of writers that were fans with all the references and overly long mythology gags they pack in the show. The most prominent example would be Dave Filoni's favourite character, Plo Koon, which is often mentioned on the SW websites and DVD extras. Other than the overuse of "Bad feeling about this", there is no real difference now that the inmates have control.

 

== Real Life ==

 

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[[Category:Show Business]]

[[Category:Derivative Works]]

[[Category:Sequel]]

[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]

[[Category:Sturgeon's Tropes]]