What's a brand/franchise you think should be put to rest?

[DaBigJ]

Originally wanted to make this a status update, but I feel like this could work as a topic to discuss and debate (IN A CIVILIZED MANNER) about things you think lasted too long.

This could be a gaming series, a television based series, or a multi media series. The sky's the limit.

 

Personally, I have to nominate SpongeBob SquarePants. Yes, maybe the show's currently good, but in my opinion the legacy of it has been, and dare I say continues to be, tarnished by majorly bad decisions (like the spin offs) and it'd be better to let it end with the small amount of dignity it has left. Viacom has relied on it for long enough, they need to try something new.

 

[GX -The Spindash-]

The problem I fundamentally have with this question is, there are no good answers.

There are only two possible types of ways to respond to it, and it's "this thing annoys me personally" or "this is actively problematic," and I can't really say the former feels like a justification to fire a proverbial orbital laser at it, and the latter feels outside the spirit of the exercise.

I just prefer compartmentalize. I have the things I like in the times that I like them. If it continues past a point where I enjoy it, well, I still enjoy the parts I enjoy. If a brand's reputation is hurt by something done later in its lifespan, who cares? It's a brand, it can't get its feelings hurt.

[DaBigJ]

19 minutes ago, GX -The Spindash- said:

The problem I fundamentally have with this question is, there are no good answers.

There are only two possible types of ways to respond to it, and it's "this thing annoys me personally" or "this is actively problematic," and I can't really say the former feels like a justification to fire a proverbial orbital laser at it, and the latter feels outside the spirit of the exercise.

I just prefer compartmentalize. I have the things I like in the times that I like them. If it continues past a point where I enjoy it, well, I still enjoy the parts I enjoy. If a brand's reputation is hurt by something done later in its lifespan, who cares? It's a brand, it can't get its feelings hurt.

This is all a matter of opinion, really. I mainly made this topic to hear from others what things they enjoy/used to enjoy went well past expiration date, so to speak. You do raise a very good point though, didn't really consider that when making this thread.

Also, that mindset you have about things you enjoy is a very good one, kind of wish I was able to follow it. 

[GX -The Spindash-]

XD I'm a Sonic fan, compartmentalization is core to my survival.

[MGA_Gamer]

Probably NASCAR for me. At it's peak in the early 2000s it was the world's biggest motorsport outside of F1. But since then, so many great names have left the sport, upper management have made so many poor decisions (Playoffs, Stage races and the dangerous Gen 7 car) and inefficient V8 engines fly in the face of environmentalism and the rise of EVs.

And it shows. Ratings and race attendances have plummeted and sponsorship money is drying up. Sure, there are moments like Ross Chastain's "Hail Melon" that go viral and the Daytona 500 is still one of the biggest races on the motorsport calendar, but overall, NASCAR is no longer the motorsport juggernaut it once was.

[jungle_penguins]

Teletubbies, because they somehow made them creepier. But then again that is a win in a way.

[DaBigJ]

33 minutes ago, jungle_penguins said:

Teletubbies, because they somehow made them creepier. But then again that is a win in a way.

Jesus that's unsettling, where'd you find this?

[jungle_penguins]

9 hours ago, DaBigJ said:

Jesus that's unsettling, where'd you find this?

A catalog (which makes the Teletubbies staring even funnier, since the purpose is for TV people to view show premises). You be surprised at the amount of properties still alive.

https://issuu.com/wildbrain_official/docs/wildbrain_-_distribution_catalogue_mipcom_2022/11

[batson]

As others have said, it's difficult to say that you want a franchise to end and describe your reasons in an "objective" way (as in "having this franchise continue is objectively a bad thing because... (insert reason)). But on a purely personal level... The Simpsons.

The Simpsons was in my opinion the best television show of all time. And it would indeed be objective to describe it as one of the most influential and critically acclaimed shows of all time. Researchers of modern popular culture have often said that the show managed to influence basically an entire generation of members of the western civilization regarding what they find funny and how to tell a joke, even people that never watched the show (as the show in turn influenced other comedy media (shows, movies, ect) that in turn influenced people that watched those media). The subversie, self-aware style of jokes that the show made mainstream eventually even snowballed into the dadaistic, ultra-self-reflective kind of comedy that internet memes are an example of. It's entirely possible that what we nowadays call "gen z humor" that is essentially the same as what we used to call "millenial humor" (albeit with the more modern gen z variety taking the "the joke is that there is no joke"-approach a lot further than millenial humor usually did) would not have existed in it's current form without The Simspons turning self-reflective humor up several notches from how it had ever been done before and due to it's sheer explosive popularity making that kind of comedy go from avant-garde to every mans property. Here in Sweden we even call those who were the primary force behind comedy in the 1990's "the ironic generation" (yes, that is a well known and established term here, not just among pop-culture hyper-nerds). Every generation since then has turned out even more ironic than the last, but the term accuretly describes how some of the comedy writers that were in their prime precisely during the 1990's made irony mainstream. And while the term here in Sweden denotes a general trend that happened both in Sweden and elsewhere, in a cultural shift that suggests that somehow after the fun but shallow 1980's all of the wetsern cultural sphere was somehow in a state where cynical irony was the next inevitable step, I don't think anyone denies just how important The Simspons in particular was when it comes to showing comedy writers how to maximize their self-reflective writing in regards to sheer hilarity. "How do we point out in the funniest way possible that we are just as aware of the tropes of storytelling as the audience are?". That question was answered by many different comedy shows, movies, and other comedy media in many different countries, but I can't think of any singlar force more significant than The Simspons.

...

I think I got a little of topic. This was supposed to be about why The simpsons should end, not about why it was great to begin with. Sorry. I got carried away...

Well to put it simply, The Simpsons as of the last 20 years or more have been a lazily written, un-funny show that does nothing but make the youngest generation question "why are all the boomers always praising this show so much?". And that is a very fair question if your image of the show has been painted just as much (or more) by the episodes produced in the current millenium as by the episodes produced in the last millenium. The garbage modern episodes simply make the show as a whole seem overrated by people too young to make a crystal clear distinction between the classic and the modern episodes. And that sucks.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Mario. They should have ended it in 1991. Or at the very least right now before the upcoming movie gets better reviews than Sonic 2.

 

[batson]

On the subject of Mario, to me it's the franchise that always first and foremost comes to mind when I think of franchises that keeps delivering amazing and innovative new content year after year, decade after decade. Mario is such a unique enigma of a franchise, and when the day finally does come when we have to say "the Mario series has really gone downhill" (as all good things have to come to an end sooner or later) it will be a genuinly sad day.

[Iko]

I know it sounds unoriginal because people are already discussing Mario, but to me the franchise that needs to be put to rest the most is Legend of Zelda.

I know, Breath of the Wild was a big hit (even though I didn't liked it), and a sequel is just coming out as we speak, but still... the series stopped being original after the N64 generation and a little bit later; We had Windwaker which was a love letter to the N64 games and expanded the lore a bit, but then after that it became just recycling of old ideas, capitalizing on some contemporary trends and turning the franchise into something else that was not supposed to be in the first place.

Splatoon (if I remember well) started out its development as a Mario spin-off, probably based off Mario Sunshine but this is just me making connections due to the similarity of the fluid gimmick. At some point they decided to turn it into its own separated franchise, and it was the correct move to do... Splatoon is now another best seller of Nintendo, has a lot of fans, and feels like a fresh series (I honestly don't like it much either, but still).

Breath of the Wild and the open world Zelda games could have been a different series too, they don't need to be Zelda games. You can take more creative freedom, build new stories, new lore, interesting stuff and surprises if you start from scratch. Zelda's "lore" feels like a stretch, it's honestly bad since after the multiple timelines theory (which was brought in by some youtubers back in the early days of You Tube, and for some reason Aonuma decided to make it canon even though it makes absolutely no sense at all) became a thing.

It's not just that, it's that the universe feels now bland and repetitive. Fairy tale elements are being left out (literal fairies, magic in a traditional sense, dreamy-like feel, etc. there's less each time of that stuff) to leave space for that generic magi-technology that we already see in every JRPG and other fictional universes, all samey and uninspired. The characters, forces, and world building elements are always the same, maybe sometimes they're twisted a bit but they're still the few elements we already seen in ALTtP and OoT, and multiple other games; and when they are not the same, they're so much random that you hardly take them seriously... like whatever Spirit Tracks and Triforce Heroes' stories were. The franchise reached a state where really it feels like nothing matters anymore as long as it sells and makes profit; I can't see the originality and passion it had beofore anymore... it's still going strong but it completely lost its soul, and by a lot of years now, not a recent thing.

Pokèmon also feels like it would benefit of a rest of some years from now, even a decade maybe. I don't follow it because I'm not a fan, but still it seems like they've ran out of ideas and the quality is going down despite it still selling well.