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Franchises which have strayed too far from their roots?

DragonSJG

DragonSJG

Banned
Mar 4, 2019
14,338
Which ongoing franchises do you think have strayed from their roots? For me,one example that comes to mind is Tom and Jerry. We're getting crazy movies like Tom and Jerry and the Magic Ring, Go to Mars, Meet the Wizard of Oz or even a race featuring a bunch of crazy characters like some undead hell king who sounds like Mandark. Like, none of this has anything to do with a cartoon cat and mouse chasing each other and getting involved in slapstick
 
jml

jml

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Mar 9, 2018
4,783
I started drifting away from Archer when it started doing all of the gimmicky themed seasons
 
Prince Abubu

Prince Abubu

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Jul 13, 2019
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Straying from the roots is one of the most appealing things about having a long-running franchise to me.

Batman is a great example. So many completely contradictory takes on the concept over the years. Adam West, the Burton movies, the Animated Series, the Schumacher movies, the Nolan movies, the Brave and the Bold cartoon...it's all over the fucking place, and it's glorious.
 
Trickster

Trickster

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Oct 25, 2017
6,533
Dragon Ball is so far from what it used to be. It just feels like a completely soulless money grab at this point.

WoW is a game that has completely lost much of what made it such a special experience in it's early years.

Dead Space started off as this cool claustrophobic space horror game, and by Dead Space 3 EA had turned the series into a co-op shooter with barely any real horror left in their usual misguided attempt at maximizing short term profits over the longterm health and viability of their franchises
 
lazygecko

lazygecko

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Oct 25, 2017
3,628
A lot of it is probably going to be arguable depending on your perspective on things and not everyone is going to value the same property for the same reasons. For instance the King of Fighters series kind of lost me with the entries from 99 onward when it started leaning way too heavily into weird anime shit (a trend tied with the trajectory of 2D fighters at large) rather than the trashy 80s/90s martial arts roots.

I stopped watching Agents of SHIELD once it started focusing exclusively on the inhumans stuff rather than the espionage angle of the earlier seasons.
 
Kcannon

Kcannon

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Oct 30, 2017
5,661
DragonSJG said:
How so?
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Original comics were real dark and violent, with the turtles being actual assassins.

The 80's series has more or less changed that perspective, and since then it's all about those pizza-loving dudebro mutant turtles fighting other mutants, aliens and some Japanese ninja leader.
 
Weiss

Weiss

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Oct 25, 2017
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Kcannon said:
Original comics were real dark and violent.

The 80's series has more or less changed that perspective, and since then it's all about those pizza-loving dudebro mutant turtles fighting other mutants, aliens and some Japanese ninja leader.
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The very first TMNT comic was a parody book lampooning X-Men and Daredevil.
 

Deleted member 25600

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Fast & Furious, I guess? I've never watched any of them, but I was talking to a colleague about them yesterday and how very, very different the first movie is the the current movies.
 
Kcannon

Kcannon

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Oct 30, 2017
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By the way, I nominate Rambo.

From a psychological thriller about the horrors of war to the quintessential war action series.
 
Master Of Illusion

Master Of Illusion

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Mar 18, 2019
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Mass Effect.

Who in the hell had the audacity to look at Andromeda, play it for even a very brief amount, and say "Yeah, we can release this."?
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Alien, Predator and Terminator.

At least the Genesis was kind of enjoyable in a dumb, "Huh, wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be," way.

Alien and Predator are just fucked.
 
Gilver

Gilver

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Nov 14, 2018
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The Alien franchise. We should have gotten a cosmic horror small scale movie by now (with a different creature) instead of Halo movies.
 
GreenMamba

GreenMamba

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Oct 25, 2017
10,289
Definitely Jurassic Park. The Jurassic World films have deified the dinosaurs so much that they no longer come across as animals, Blue and the T-Rex are basically superheroes, not even going to touch the genetic mutants in World and Fallen Kingdom. And there's an extended sequence in Fallen Kingdom where Chris Pratt gets into fistfights with armed mercenaries. They've just completely lost the plot.
 
Loxley

Loxley

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Oct 25, 2017
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The Fast and the Furious. I have no idea what is even going on with that franchise anymore. I legit feel like we're two steps away from a movie where Dom n' the gang try to pull off a heist on the International Space Station, while grumbling about family.

Get back to street racing you lunatics.
 
Bradbury

Bradbury

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Oct 28, 2017
1,855
Loxley said:
The Fast and the Furious. I have no idea what is even going on with that franchise anymore. I legit feel like we're two steps away from a movie where Dom n' the gang try to pull off a heist on the International Space Station, while grumbling about family.

Get back to street racing you lunatics.
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Fast and Furious got trully great when they jumped the shark. Gimme a street race on space while pulling a heis on thr space race with my familia
 
Don Fluffles

Don Fluffles

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Oct 28, 2017
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Fate series Then:
A twisted exploration of heroism and sacrifice with unique twists on mythological and historical icons.

Fate series Now:
ALL historical/myth figures are Dark-Alter-Sexy-Christmas-Pedobait Mk. 2 for our trashy, P2W gacha title! Please take our story and incomprehensible power levels seriously, guys!
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

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Oct 27, 2017
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shpachinko-625x350.jpg
 
Fevaweva

Fevaweva

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Oct 30, 2017
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Loxley said:
The Fast and the Furious. I have no idea what is even going on with that franchise anymore. I legit feel like we're two steps away from a movie where Dom n' the gang try to pull off a heist on the International Space Station, while grumbling about family.

Get back to street racing you lunatics.
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I don't feel like Fast & Furious is the right fit for this thread. Yes, it is very far removed from what the franchise was initially 'about' but it is so much better for it.

And I would watch a Fast & Furious film set in space.
 
Excuse me

Excuse me

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Oct 30, 2017
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MacGyver. I mean the og show started to stray off the path around S4 but the new show was really awful. I don't know if it's canned already.
Also, Escape Plan. Ok, it's only three movies but first one was surprisingly entertaining. But second movie was pretty much poor man's martial-arts action flick.
 
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MasterYoshi

MasterYoshi

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Oct 27, 2017
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I'm gonna nominate Halo, but I think Halo Infinite may steer the series back in the right direction.
 
MrConbon210

MrConbon210

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Oct 31, 2017
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I'm gonna go with Once Upon a Time

The first few seasons were really good. Especially the first season. The show brought fairytale characters into the real world but they've forgotten who there are. Every episode cuts back between the past with them in their fairytale land and the real world.

At the end of season 1 all the characters remember who they are and magic is introduced in the real world. Season 2 then allowed us to see how the characters had to cope with who they really are and created really interesting character interactions.

Then the show sort of just keeps going...They began using every season as 2 arcs. The arcs were usually about a specific person or fairytale. The show quickly ran its course and would be the same thing over and over.

They also ruined all the fairytale characters later on. The fairytale characters were iconic such as Snow White, Prince Charming, Pinocchio etc. They all had a unique backstory and weren't just the DIsney versions. But then later on new characters were introduced that were clearly the Disney characters.

Anna and Elsa from Frozen show up and it's so bizarre. They aren't unique and are exactly the same as they are in the movie. Same with Merida and Hades. They also then began introducing some weird fucking plots such as Dr. Frankenstein and Walt Disney's magic pen.

I've never loved a show so much to despising it quicker than OUAT.
 
Roygbiv95

Roygbiv95

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Jan 24, 2019
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- There was a time when a huge part of the appeal of Jurassic Park was knowing you were watching a cinematic representation of dinosaurs that was up to date with current paleontology and stuff.

- Resident Evil 4, but mostly in a positive sense, at least until RE6.
 
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Deleted member 9035

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,686
Mario used to be a simple platformer about breaking blocks, squashing turtles and eating mushrooms.

Now it's about fashion, r/c cars, giant mech centipedes and possessing a cartoon steak.

Best game ever.
 
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