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alt title(s): Schrodingers Shark 
Clearly gets used a lot.
God, No! A moment has happened in a fictional series, TV or otherwise, that you don't like! A new character appeared out of nowhere! Or your favorite character got the Idiot Ball that week! Or there is a Musical Episode not written by Joss Whedon!
The shark has been jumped over! Your show is now Ruined FOREVER!!!
...What? Ruined forever?! Get A Hold Of Yourself Man!
Sure it might have been a Wall Banger, but how do you truly know until the series has run its course? What if the new character turns out to not be The Scrappy, as you feared? What if your favorite character is never handed the Idiot Ball again? What if that plot was Just For Fun, and the rest of the series sticks to what it does best?
The show isn't made by gods (despite what some Wild Mass Guessing may assume). People make mistakes. Shows can have low points but still have high quality throughout the run.
Just take a few deep breaths. You may think you have seen a clear Jumping The Shark, but those are rare moments. Take the actual Jumping The Shark from Happy Days. That moment was clear for at least two reasons:
- It was completely against the premise of the show, which was a loving homage to the last generation.
- Fonzie was no longer the Ensemble Dark Horse who was a role model to some; now he had mutated into a full-fledged Canon Sue.
And even with those points, it was still identified as the bona-fide Jumping The Shark moment upon retrospect 20 years later. How could the show fix that without ignoring the episode completely?
There are others, but those are rare diamonds of crap, in the rough of crap. Most of the time, it's hard to tell when a show has jumped the shark until after the fact. The variety of the votes on Jump The Shark are a testament to that. Worse, if people are just rushing to declare jumping the shark for any moment they don't like, it comes across as Complaining About Shows You Dont Like.
Even worse than that, there are folks who feel the series is Tainted By The Preview - the show doesn't even have to be released for someone to declare it Ruined FOREVER. The same goes if the show has only been on for a couple of episodes before people start making dramatic statements of this nature; if the show's just started, that usually means that the producers are still seeing what works and what doesn't, so any reasonable viewer might have to allow for a few stumbles at least.
And there comes a point (especially with adaptations) that fans believe the current storyline or incarnation will somehow retroactively destroy the "purity" of the earlier work. Authors should not listen to these types of fans.
So if you don't like a moment, don't like it. But shows have survived worse.
This trope is named for the " Ruined FOREVER" page at the Transformers Wiki. Note that it includes pretty much every Transformers incarnation, and complaints levied against the incarnations are usually either unfounded or exaggerated. Also, most new incarnations end up with a sizable fandom made from those who previously panned it, while there are always those few who continue to hold their 25 year old Optimus Prime figure, mumbling "My precious..."
Frequently a side-effect of They Changed It Now It Sucks. Also known as Schrödinger's Shark, as its status as a shark jump can be very subjective.
If the fans are screaming "Ruined Forever!!!" and then blindsided by a development no one can complain about, then you have a Cue Cullen.
Keep in mind that this here is an Audience Reaction Trope, folks, and some of these series may have actually Jumped The Shark. The point of this trope is noting how suddenly and over-dramatically this call will be made and the lack of actual shark-jumping the object of the viewer's complaint actually has. And for that matter DO NOT list examples where you think it has genuinely stopped being good.
Examples of people complaining a show is ruined:
open/close all folders
Actors
- After Patch Adams, the public's opinion of Robin Williams went from "He's funny, we love him!" to "HE'S SO ANNOYING, KILL HIM WITH FIRE!".
- Pretty much any comedy actor (e.g., Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, etc.) who decides to do a more serious film falls under this. It's pretty much guaranteed that at least one person will decry said comedian's choice and whine-"He's ruining his career!"
- Many people can't take Tom Cruise's acting seriously after the Oprah couch-jumping incident and the promotion of Scientology. It's just too hard to see him as his character and not as the crazy guy who's constantly rumored to be insane. Slightly averted with his role in Tropic Thunder, but that may be too little, too late.
- If a comedian is going to say anything about Mel Gibson, anti-Semitism will always be brought up.
Anime
- Fans of the original Suzumiya Haruhi light novels cried foul when the Anachronic Order of the books was different from that of the show; never mind that it was still out of order, the climax was still at the end and it still worked from a storytelling point of view. Then again, they were also in shock that their beloved obscure light novel series was now a Cash Cow Franchise loved by millions.
- The Endless Eight arc... the screams are still ongoing.
- It's certainly likely to hurt DVD sales... oh who are we kidding, they'll still be laughing all the way to the bank.
- First Endless Eight DVD sold 14K units or so, and the second sold 12K units on behalf of Kyo Ani... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ...which is actually a significant drop, especially when you compare it to the first season (To put this in perspective, the first DVD sold 90K units in Japan.). It's amazing to see how masochistic the otaku are.
- Digimon Frontier: What the?! The Chosen Children in this series transform into the Digimon?! And there's no real partner dynamic?!
- Naruto: Most commonly Sasuke being the focus of an entire arc (especially the part about Itachi being a good guy). Honestly, it has such an Unpleasable Fanbase you can find someone that thinks the series Jumped The Shark at any moment, usually in the form of "(Character X) hasn't done anything in months, it's ruined!" Additionally, there's also a segment of the fandom that has said the Time Skip was when they stopped liking it, even if most of what they're complaining about didn't happen until quite a while after or had been happening for a while before the time skip itself and they more or less seem to just be trying to focus their scorn on something important.
- Then there's - "Sai told Sakura Naruto loves her... WHAT ABOUT HINATA?!?"
- The instant revival of everyone who died during the Invasion of Pain Arc pissed off many fans. Of course, the fans were also pissed when everyone died so now they're thought of as unpleasable.
- The announcement that Naruto Shippuden would air on Disney XD has obviously not been taken well in certain parts of its fandom. Despite the fact that Viz Media will still be releasing uncut DVDs, so even if it does turn out to be a Macekre there won't be that much reason to complain. As can be seen with Marvel below, just being associated with Disney is prone to bring in the ruins.
- Pokémon the anime got this with Misty being Put On A Bus and fan backlash against May solely for filling the obligatory girl role Misty had. There are still some militant fans claiming this long after Dawn took over the girl spot, though most have left the fandom of their "ruined" franchise.
- The dubbing of the show also got this claim after it went in-house, mainly due to the resulting voice actor switch. Yes, that's right, 4Kids losing the rights to the show ruined it FOREVER. Wonders never cease.
- That had less to do with 4Kids itself than with the jarring changes made to the voices of characters that fans had become adjusted to. That said, it still fits this trope to "T".
- Most of the fans still with it really don't even give a damn anymore. The voices changed every season anyway.
- And now for something not related to the voice actors: OMG they changed the "TO BE CONTINUED" text! And the title of the episode was written in English instead of Japanese with English subtitles! So were the credits! The anime is ruined FOREVER!
- To expand on that, parts of the online fandom of any given anime tends to say that any anime that gets dubbed into English (no matter how faithfully), is "ruined", despite the fact that no one's ever going to force them to actually listen to the English audio.
- Even though the Ghibli dubs are generally respected, there are some so-called "true fans" who insist on hating them simply because they're by Disney, and they object to any change to the dialogue, music, that may have been done to these films, stating that these movies have all been destroyed; an argument which is totally fatuous considering that Miyazaki and Ghibli were both involved with the creation of the dubs. If they don't think their works are ruined, who are such "fans" to say otherwise?
- Made even more ironic considering Miyazaki himself stated that for quite a few of his characters he was forced into a form of "Accent Adaptation" due to the lack of any dialect he felt fit the characters within the Japanese Language. A prime example he named is the Witch of the Waste in "Howls Moving Castle"
- Speaking of that one: Disney let the younger siblings of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers sing the theme song of the English dub of Ponyo On A Cliff By The Sea? Cue building nerdrage via The Barney by proxy.
- And on the flipside, with the anime industry scrambling to salvage itself and still turn a profit while still trying to license a diverse bunch of shows, several "niche" shows are being released sub-only. You know, the kinds of shows that put even a large studio like Geneon out of business because the dub cost so much the show didn't turn a profit. Anime is now ruined FOREVER because the industry is "discriminating" against dub fans. Strangely, nobody thinks the industry is ruined FOREVER because of the ongoing recession.
- The Pretty Cure fandom is apparently the Distaff Counterpart of the Transformers fandom or something, judging by the Internet Backdraft that occurs every time the premise of the next series is revealed without fail, complete with one subset that everything needs to go back to the way it was in
1984 2004. When your fandom complains about Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star for being an Alternate Continuity, then complains about Yes! Pretty Cure 5GoGo! for not being an Alternate Continuity...
- It appears to be very common in mainstream mecha anime. Fans have found something to complain about in every single episode for Code Geass, Macross Frontier, and Gundam 00, with the amount of ruin escalating the higher the episode count is.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Yes, even this! Kamina's death is proclaimed this by some sects. This sentiment usually disappears after they see the rest of the series, and some have since even considered it the point after which the show got BETTER. Hells yeah.
- Many Fruits Basket fans cried this when it was revealed that Akito is female, which sunk ships everywhere and created a generally hilarious explosion because we all know that Het Is Ew and they totally ruined the character for ever and ever.
- "What's this, the upcoming Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha sequel manga will have a male protagonist? OUR LESBIAN DREAMS!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Note that the new protagonist has his own love interests, so he can't interfere with the main characters from the previous series anyway...
- Fans have different opinions on where this happened in Bleach.
- 1.) When Hitsugaya (presumably) beat Halibel there was a sudden influx of "Bleach is ta lose!!11one!" When it was revealed that he hadn't even scratched her, very few of those who declared the series ruined came forward to retract their previous assessment.
- He DID beat her. Wonderwyce rescued her before the Christmas Tree could finish her off
- 2.) Since the start of the Soul Society arc.
- 3.) Since the END of the Soul Society arc, and into the filler Bount Arc that seemed to go on forever.
- 4.) Almost any point after the start of Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra.
- Many readers following the chapter releases online actually embraced the whole thing and started to enjoy the many inventive ways the author can come up with to "ruin" his manga. The most ridiculous the development, the better! Kubo himself stated that he really loves designing characters and admits to creating new ones as a way to get himself out of writer's block.
- Special mention should probably also go to Yammy's Reveal as the 0 Espada, which tended to be viewed as a) wall-bangingly stupid, b) hilarious, c) awesome, or d) some combination of the above depending on who you ask.
- Code Geass R2 has ruined the series FOREVER at least once per episode, according to some Fan Dumbs.
- Some people say that L's death did this to Death Note.
- Some sections of the Umineko No Naku Koro Ni fanbase tend to think every new and irritating bit of Adaptation Decay in The Anime Of The Game (which there is admittedly quite a lot of) has Ruined the series FOREVER. Particularly cutting out all the real-world parts of EP4 after George and Jessica kill each other to give more time to the Meta-World sequences and backstory for a somewhat Wesley-fied Ange.
- A second season for the anime Kuroshitsuji was announced....featuring an original new protaganist and Butler not from the previous season or manga, and not Ciel and Sebastian. Cue the wailing of thousands of yaoi fangirls around the internet.
Card Games
- Very, very bad in Magic: the Gathering. It's gotten to the point where "Magic is dead!" has essentially become Memetic Mutation.
- This is the reaction of many fans to every release of a new Magic The Gathering set. Even a single card, to many, can spell the doom of the game - witness the reactions to Tarmogoyf, Remand, and Umezawa's Jitte, to name a few prominent examples. Keep in mind that a new set is released every three months; that each year brings a new block (meaning cards from the previous block are no longer relevant in block-format tournaments or drafting); and that Wizards of the Coast has made a Banned/Restricted list for cards that break the game too hard. Even when Wizards brings back old cards, fans will decry some choices as being The End of MtG - even though they didn't break the game the first time around.
- This is not necessarily an unjustified claim, because it's very rare than a card all by itself will break the game. Much more often, it's combinations of cards which cause the breakage. For example, Wizards of the Coast (Wot C) releases card A, and fans discover that when card A is used in conjunction with card B, it's always an insta-win. Wot C acknowledges this, and then bans A. Wot C then releases card C which initially appears to be unrelated to anything mentioned so far. Wot C then releases card D which somehow nullifies the A-B combo, and so Wot C feels that it's safe to unban A. Lo and behold, the fans discover that A combined with C is a new game-breaker, which D does not nullify.
- Recently Wizards of the Coast have updated the offical rules to make the game more accessable to more casual players. You know what that means...
- Magic always has been, and always will be ruined forever. That’s part of what makes it such a great game.
- Chaos heroes ruined Yu-Gi-Oh! forever!!!!
- No the pyramid of light ruined the game forever!!!!
- The kid's toy duel disc system ruined the game forever!!!
- Synchro-monsters ruined the game FOREVER!!!
- The newest ban list ruined the game FOREVER!!!
- All the donks have ruined poker FOREVER!!!!
- ESPN has ruined poker FOREVER!!!!
Comic Books
- Comics were always better when you were a kid. Every age since then has been a Dork Age.
- In DC Comics, Final Crisis saw the return of Barry Allen to the main DCU, as well as the Flash Rebirth miniseries in 2009. Cue cries about how the impact of said character's original death has now been rendered completely meaningless and that this is proof that DC hates change and panders to the Silver Age.
- There is a number of fans who called this trope when Young Justice folded into the Teen Titans, and then Identity Crisis occurred, exacerbating the situation. This has lead to said fans declaring that most, if not all, of the titles by DC have been stopped as of June 2003. While there have indeed been horrible plots and decisions by DC in recent years, declaring that they consider most of DC's Modern Age discontinuity because of that is just bewildering. The first bullet on this folder sums up what the situation really is.
- Marvel hasn't escaped this either, most notably a similar reaction to the aforementioned example concerning the return of Colossus to the X-Men lineup, and even earlier, Jean Grey and the whole Phoenix Isn't Her Ret Con (as though not having her being a mass murderer was bad thing, and wasn't all a dream like Dallas). Of course, there have been more than a few genuine Wall Bangers in their history.
- And the amount of people who hate the Scott Summers/Emma Frost relationship to the point of vowing never to enjoy/read X-Men again until Jean returns and gets back with Scott is quite large (which is less ruined forever and more ruined until it gets set right).
- Two words: Civil War
- M-Day and Utopia have perverted the entire premise of X-Men.
- Though Spider-Man and Marvel have had to weather any number of these moments with varying levels of justification, One More Day seems to have been the mother of them all.
- There are some who thought the revelation that Gwen Stacey and Norman Osborn slept together and had two super-powered, illegitimate children completely ruined Gwen's character forever. People also thought the fact that Mary-Jane knew but didn't tell Peter made it all the worse.
- The Watchmen fan community had some rumblings of this over the movie.
- Though to be fair, that's Alan Moore's personal reaction to every film adaptation of one of his comics ever.
- Disney just bought Marvel and it's already RUINED FROVEER!!
Film
- The very concept of "Nuking the fridge". This was coined barely a week after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out. The thing was the coiners actually claimed they had found a "new" kind of jumping the shark, just for movies instead of TV (and even spammed YKTTW with it). Not only is "jumping the shark" not media-specific, but that term was coined years after the episode aired, not days.
- Daniel Craig as James Bond. He's blonde! He can't drive stick! He wore a freaking life-jacket on a boat to the press conference announcing he was Bond!. Oh, wait, Casino Royale was the best Bond movie in years. My bad. Can't wait for Quantum Of Solace. Wait, Craig cut off part of his fingertips? Oh, dear god...
- Epitomized by the website Daniel Craig Is Not Bond, which garnered some media coverage when even the press jumped on that bandwagon. Even when the press and most of the fans declared him a fine Bond and Casino Royale was profitable and well-received, the site never once gave him an inch. To the point where Daniel himself commented on it and said he wished they'd all just hurry up and decide if they liked him or not and quit their bitching.
- Quantum of Solace is eerily similar to Licence To Kill in this respect.
- Every single Star Wars film, novel, game, or any product ever. While this sounds like an extreme exaggeration, if one could kindly direct themselves to any large Star Wars message board at the time of the release of a new installment, one would witness hordes of supposed fans screaming that Star Wars is ruined and that nothing can ever save it, generally leading to someone threatening to kill George Lucas- regardless of how much he was involved in the project. These same fans usually shut up after a while, if they don't leave the fandom entirely.
- Knights Of The Old Republic managed to avoid this, except for the canonical gender of the Exile.
- The Old Republic, though, suffers from this with too many examples to keep track off. Graphics, animation, combat, dialog, lore, all are being listed as ruining the game FOREVER. The true irony in this? The game isn't even out yet. Imagine that.
- Wookieepedia copied Transformers Wiki's Ruined FOREVER page and applied it to Star Wars.
- Star Wars The Clone Wars has probably gotten more than its fair share if only because it was a television production upgraded into a feature film, an entirely different medium. The series itself has gotten a lot more supporters because it is being looked at as a television show, not a film.
- It still gets a lot of hate for apparently contradicting previous canon. Or more often, fanon. Even in a franchise where canon is as well-defined as Star Wars, fans seem to have trouble telling canon and fanon apart.
- New Buffy movie reboot... WITHOUT JOSS WHEDON?! BLASPHEMY!!!! (Admittedly, in this case; it's not so much that it's not Joss Whedon, it's that it is Fran and Kaz Kuzui, who own and "ruined" the first movie and had no actual creative input on anything past that.)
Literature
- Every time anything happens in the Warrior Cats series (which is all the time), at least a quarter of the fanbase is going to scream this.
- To be more specific, some "fans" insist the series was Ruined FOREVER at the beginning of the second arc, and some believe it was the middle of the second arc, and some... Ah, forget it. The series has apparently been Ruined FOREVER at the beginning, middle, and end of every arc except for the first one.
- Twilight. According to some people, the series's existing means vampires (and maybe literature) are ruined FOREVER AND EVER.
- Note that exactly the same complaints were lodged when Anne Rice's vampire literature became popular as well. Apparently stories based on mythology that's Older Than Print can crumble when a single person writes a book about them.
Live Action TV
- 24 fans swore up and down that if SecDef Heller survived his Season 5 plunge into the Pacific (a Heroic Sacrifice to keep the BBEG from using him as a hostage), that would be one suspension of disbelief too many; a sign that the 24 producers just stopped caring and neither should we. He survived.
- The calls that 24 had been "ruined forever" started as early as the first season, when Teri Bauer fell out of a moving vehicle that exploded and was affected by short-term amnesia (which made her do some incredibly stupid things, like go back to the house where an assassin was stationed). Of course, this all stopped when Teri died in the first-season finale.
- The build-up and early days of the new Doctor Who series saw plenty of this, to the extent that one couldn't help but wonder whether the producers were taking some kind of sadistic glee in prolonging the hardcore fanboys' constant whining about the subject. Paul McGann isn't starring? The show now sucks. The Doctor's wearing a leather jacket? The show now sucks. Billie Piper's the companion? The show now sucks. The new logo? Sucks, as does the rest of the show now. But perhaps the nadir of this was a thread on The Doctor Who Forum decrying the new series and the fact that the producers obviously Just Didn't Care... based on shots of the new TARDIS looking slightly different from the old one and having slightly bigger windows. This last one was referenced directly in the series itself. Of course, even after the show had started airing, constant threads about how this episode was the worst one ever and that the producers should be fired continued for a long, long time.
- "Continued"? Past tense? Seriously, in the year 100 Trillion, when all that's left is a planet called Malcassairo inhabited by the remnants of humanity, huddled together for warmth, one of them will still be complaining that David Tennant isn't as good as Colin Baker, and Russell T Davies ruined the series by bringing it back and making it the most watched show on a Saturday afternoon.
- This is made even more ridiculous when you realize that there were at least three different "old" TARDIS props to compare it to (four if you count the one in the telemovie which, let's face it, people who complain about this kind of thing probably won't) that had all been used in the old series and the new one looked more like an actual police box than any of them.
- People were moaning that the RTD-era TARDIS didn't look like a real police box several years on. Then they got a look at the Steven Moffat-era TARDIS... and a whole /new/ round of moaning began. Now that Moffat has gone from being the cool alternative to the official head writer, expect him to inherit RTD's Scapegoat Creator - ness.
- Ever since the show's earliest days, fans have cried foul whenever a new Doctor is announced. The show is always ruined forever after your favorite Doctor's tenure ended. Interestingly, some of them repeat - current 11th Doctor Matt Smith is being criticized for being "too young", a complaint also lodged at David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, and even Tom Baker. Similarly, the departure or introduction of a new companion will be met with outrage. Just to show how much of a Broken Base this show has, The Doctor Who Forum often had long threads that mocked the more extreme reactions with good humor.
- Here is a partial list of the times Doctor Who has been Ruined FOREVER. You will note that some of them are the reversal of an event that ruined it in the first place.
- Star Trek has had this following the first series. While the fans have been more willing to accept some changes then other (more rabid) fandoms, it is still prominent.
- Star Trek The Next Generation had "Star Trek is about Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Not these recycled people." However, with time, a much bigger budget, talented actors (most notably Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Gates McFadden, although all of the main cast was exceptional) and a network that cared about demographics, The Next Generation eventually escaped the shadow of the original series in critical and popular acclaim, if not popularity.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine - "What's this about a space station? Star Trek is about strange new worlds!"
- Star Trek Voyager had many complaints of pushing the Reset Button too often, which was not entirely unfounded.
- Star Trek Enterprise had fans yelling "asspull Ret Cons, it screwed up my fanon..." at it more than probably any production in the history of the world. The commercial and critical failure of the show didn't help either.
- The eleventh movie is getting plenty of this right now (even though it's getting almost unanimous praise from critics). Production images and other things are to be expected, but probably the biggest complaint is the "Younger and Sexier" vibe, having some people call it Star Trek 90210.
- Criticism and praise don't seem to be attributable to a certain demographic; there are older Trekkies and younger Trekkies of both opinions.
- The backlash would probably have been far worse if it hadn't been established at the very beginning of the movie that the movie takes place in an alternate timeline that later Star Treks love oh-so-much.
- It's already happening in the discussion boards regarding Trek XII, even though no official details besides most of the current cast is still under contract have been released yet... only vague comments from some of the producers that have no official backing.
- In Supernatural, every time a new recurring female character shows up, the fans go batshit insane. When Jo showed up in Season 2, the fans complained that she was annoying, so Eric Kripke left her in some random bar. The fans—most of whom are female—complained about Bela and Ruby in Season 3, so they Dropped A Bridge On Bela and NthDoctor-ed Ruby. But when the sexy male angel, Castiel, showed up, the fans SQUEED so loud that research scientists in Antarctica probably heard them. Gee, I wonder why everyone likes him so much?
- Lost fans haved claimed the series is ruined forever due to the "introduction" of time travel in season 5, though this plot element had already been introduced two seasons earlier, although there were certainly people who complained about it then, too.
- Another inexplicable thing that some fans claimed ruined it FOREVER is...the introduction of new characters in seasons 4 and 5. Because, apparently, it's "too late" to spend time on...characters who generally have huge links to the plot and are introduced far more naturally than, say, Nikki & Paulo. Characters who have all received Character Development and made connections with already-introduced characters. On fan favorites like Daniel, Miles, Lapidus and Ilana.
- MST3K was accused of this with every single cast change, but especially when Joel left. Both cancellations would pull old Joel fans out of the woodwork to blame the casting of Mike for the show's failure.
- The funny thing is, in interviews Joel pretty much said that he would have asked Mike to host the show in the first place had he been there from the beginning.
- The DVD Extras from Red Dwarf include a tale from one of the production staff in which, after the reintroduction of the Time Drive into series seven episode Tikka To Ride, he arrived at a convention and was bluntly told that the new time drive had ruined the show forever.
- There is some logic to this, in that the drive in this episode seemed capable of taking the characters anywhere in time and space (despite a good joke in the previous season pointing out that it could only do time travel, which was pretty useless in deep space), when the series' whole premise was their being stuck together on a ship with the ostensible long-term goal of getting back to earth.
- Dimentional anomolies made the cargo bay 300% bigger, it stands to reason the time drive became a time and matter drive. although Kryten's subsequent "jabbing at it too hard" may have dissuaded the crew from ever using it again.
- The Price Is Right... especially the start of the Drew Carey era, where some viewers would pick apart every change and everything Carey did that Bob Barker didn't do, and swore that this would surely be the end of the show. This gained intensity after Roger Dobkowitz's tenure as producer ended at the conclusion of Season 36, the first Carey-hosted one.
- Kamen Rider Hibiki was Ruined FOREVER in the eyes of execs due to the fact it had a female rider on TV, something that is considered "taboo" with Kamen Rider (most females who had to transform had to rely on an "anybody can use a Transformation Trinket" or is a rubber monster). Needless to say, the exec associated the failure of the later season of Hibiki with a female rider being one of them. Kamen Rider Kiva was when the producers felt ready to allow the women to wear a rider belt again.
- That's weird, considering Kamen Rider Femme was a prominent character in the earlier Kamen Rider Ryuki movie.
- It's more a fact that while Toshihiko Inoue likes to promote more women wearing a rider belt (Save Agito, Faiz, Hibiki starting at episode 30 and Kiva), Hibiki was the first true attempt to place a female rider on TV, something that hasn't been done since Tackle. Unfortunately, it was done during post 30 (when Executive Meddling sent everything to hell) which had the unfortunate association that Shuki was responsible. Hence none of the series not directed by Inoue had a woman using a rider belt. A bit of a fear by the executives.
- It should be noted that said female Hibiki Rider eventually got a much fairer treatment in Kamen Rider Decade until the Rider War begins. She's not alone in that part, though. Which leads us to our next bullet point...
- Every single thing that happens in Kamen Rider Decade doesn't just ruin itself, it destroys the entire 38-year Kamen Rider franchise. The Alternate Universe versions of the Riders being less than perfect, Yuusuke being the comic relief, the costume designs for Decade and Diend... yup, Kamen Rider is dead. Don't even try to debate it. It's dead.
- Ironically, Decade's mission is to stop the entire Multiverse from being Ruined FOREVER in the most literal fashion possible...
- The Office (the American version) inspired this reaction when it was revealed in the final episode of the last season that Pam got pregnant. Common lore holds that when a baby is added to the show, it always jumps the shark. So without any sort of proof or indication of actual decline, the fandom has already called this. Despite otherwise loving the last season.
- Within hours of the notoriously destructive Torchwood episode "Children of Earth, Day Four", fans were already declaring the series Ruined FOREVER and refusing to watch unless Ianto was brought back to life. Russell T Davies may have hit the fanbase's Berserk Button, seeing as Torchwood fans can be a pretty chill bunch.
- Heroes was declared Ruined FOREVER after the Season 3 finale, which saw Nathan killed and replaced by a Brainwashed Sylar. Notably, this development managed to piss off both fans and haters of Sylar, the former because Sylar's screentime will presumably be reduced now he's Nathan; the latter because they think Sylar's The Wesley and this is just a cheap way to keep him on the show.
- Super Sentai fans pretty much despised the appearance of the Battliser from Power Rangers SPD in the non-canon crossover movie Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger vs. Magiranger, some to the point of threatening to boycott the franchise.
- Obligatory Buffy example; this trope was brought up by fans of the series every time a major change was made, despite most of them being either necessary or for the better. For example, when another slayer was added, when said slayer died, when another slayer became a recurring character, when Willow began to train as a witch, when the show stopped being about high school, when Angel and Cordelia left the series for their own spinoff (which was Ruined FOREVER from the beginning), when Buffy got a human love interest, when Buffy got a little sister, when Buffy's human love interest left, when there was a musical, and so on and so forth. Worth a special mention is when Oz left the series, to be replaced with a new love interest for Willow, Tara. Fans violently hated the change in Willow and and Tara herself, with innumerable fans declaring the show Ruined FOREVER because of her mere presence. The same fans then proceeded to declare the show Ruined FOREVER when Tara was killed off several seasons later.
Music
- Any new pop star (Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Justin Timberlake, etc.) ruins the genre of Pop forever. Don't believe me? Read the itunes reviews of the songs.
- This is actually an subversion in some cases. Many people use the similarity betweens popstars as proof that pop is terrible in the first place, dispite the fact that since they play/sing the same genre, they're bound to be somewhat similar.
- This is the fan reaction to just about any indie band/Christian band that signs to a major label. That's why, to many fans, bands like Death Cab and Underoath flat out suck now. Because, apparently it's impossible to make good music once you're in the industry.
- Entertainingly, this is also true at the opposite end of the spectrum from Christian music - Black Metal (those crazy church-burning ones)is notorious for claiming only the most amateurishly-produced and listener-unfriendly music as "true Black Metal". Even then, it's preferable that the band should be inactive because a) they've killed themselves or b) half of them are in prison for killing and eating another band/the other half of their own band, c) they've been too busy to tour due to a five-year drinking binge in some remote part of Norway.
- Metallica released an album without Cliff Burton? Metallica is Ruined FOREVER! They released an album that was closer to old-school heavy metal instead of thrash metal? Ruined FOREVER! Death Magnetic isn't a bland copy of Master of Puppets? Ruined FOREVER! Seriously, no matter what, Metallica is never going to catch a break from it's so-called "fans".
- Pretty much any band that changes its sound is accused of "selling out."
Professional Wrestling
- For many wrestling fans, the question isn't if Vince McMahon ruined wrestling but how may times he's done it. He's been declared the Antichrist ever since he bought the World Wrestling Federation from his father, when Bruno Sammartino and most of the old guard accused him of making a mockery of their sport with his theatrics. Of course, before Vinnie came along, wrestling was full of nothing but liars and con men determined to make their paying customers believe everything they were putting on was real authentic competition.
- The announcement that Hulk Hogan will be joining TNA has caused many smarks to proclaim the inevitable doom of the company. The fact that he, Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff are now working for the same company has only made the doomsayers even more frantic, and add to that the recent announcement of a 2 hour special on MONDAY NIGHT, not only do you have fans of the company crying doom you also have WWE fans saying this proves the end is near.
Tabletop RPG
- Tabletop games in general tend to suffer from this over time, partly because of a very simple dynamic. If a game gets some success, fans tend to like its traits. The designers may not: they probably had numerous kludgy hacks and flaws that irritate. Regardless, a 2nd edition usually expands and smooths over game. Designers will then beocme somewhat less tolerant of the things they couldn't get rid of previously. A 3rd edition will become somewhat more complicated in ways which often mystify players but also overly-simplify many of the more fun aspects of the game (frequent and often over-used nerfing tends to occur). A 4th edition often sees the designers (possibly an entirely new crew) rip out the entire game and rebuild it. This can utterly change the game, and the dynamic is not always improved by the fact that the later designers often started as fans of the game.
- Major examples include Dn D, Shadowrun, and World of Darkness.
- Every time Dungeons And Dragons changes editions, a large amount of the fanbase decides to rise up and complain about how everything has been ruined. This is more true for the changes from 2nd Edition on up, but people complained about the switch between the first and second editions as well. The most recent one- 4th Edition- has prompted more shrieks of "D&D IS DEAD" than ever before due to an extreme case of They Changed It Now It Sucks fuelled by pure Internet Backdraft. All that said, this isn't the place to discuss whether it has in fact been ruined, or not. Please Take It To The Forums.
- Battle Tech has had many of these. Depending on the specific fan, these include (working roughly backwards):
- The entire setting of Mech Warrior: Dark Age (but this is all complaining about a game they don't like)
- The Jihad (oddly, the same folks who previously decried the unrealistically small armies in the universe screamed the loudest when one Genre Savvy faction went ahead and built a large force)
- The Fed Com Civil War (specifically, its end, with both nations remaining separate)
- The Twilight of the Clans and the destruction of Clan Smoke Jaguar (at least for the Smoke Jaguar fans, even though the Clan had been set up as clear bad guys)
- The breakup of the Federated Commonwealth (some folks just wanted a winner, even though it'd mean that the storyline would've effectively ended)
- The loss of the rights to the "Unseen" images (despite a major legal battle that established several precedents in copyright law. Also, this complaint has effectively disappeared — one hopes — now that the Unseens have been licensed again and are available for use in Battletech artwork.)
- The Clan Invasion (despite it being planned by the original authors from the very beginning, and very clearly foreshadowed)
- The "timejump" of the Twenty-Year Update (mostly in retrospect, and despite new material being produced for that time period)
- The Fourth Succession War (though it was the lead-off storyline)
- The rebranding of the game from "Battledroids" to "Battle Tech" (despite that it only existed as the former for about six months, and the threat of legal action from George Lucas)
- Most perplexing, some fans decry events that only occurred in the off-screen backstory, such as the destruction of Clan Mongoose or even the Amaris Civil War, even though the latter is the entire foundation of the universe
- Considering, that the tabletop version of Battle Tech is dead, and wasn't doing well for years before that, it's safe to say, that the ruination indeed happened at one or more of these points.
- Every time a new army is released in Warhammer or Warhammer 40K, cue cries about how said armies rules are ridiculously unbalanced, how every other army is now worthless, how their upgrades are so incredibly unfair and, yes, how Everything Is Ruined Forever. Because gods forbid you might actually have to rethink your strategy for once.
- Or there's the second time they changed the rules of 40K. The first time, WH 40K was a niche title with a rulebook named Rogue Trader. The second time, 40K was a TV-advertised product which therefore had a sizable fanbase. The ensuing drama has probably caused a dimensional rift somewhere.
- Space Wolves have ruined 40k forever.
- Toughness 6, 6 wounds a piece Monstrous creatures with regenration abilities, one of which has 4 boneswords that get around 5-ish Instant Death attacks reguardless of toughness, while Others can Deep Strike Burrow right on you, and, what worse, can re-burrow and pull a Swooping Hawk. TYRANIDS HAVE RUINED 40K FOREVER.
- Shadowrun 3rd Edition to Shadowrun 4th Edition. Several forums had to rewrite the rules to stop the rampant rant-threads.
- New World Of Darkness - especially Mage and Werewolf.
- Even before nWoD, this was happening - notably with the revised edition of Mage and Kindred Of The East.
Video Games - General
- Video games in general have been absolutely ruined by the newest generations actually trying to expand the market.
- Particularly "Dumbing down" the games by making them more something that people would play.
- They have also been "Dumbing down" every games by removing obstacles.
- Save points.
- Health regenerating.
- More fair challenges and less Fake Difficulty.
- Less emphasis on Multiplayer.
- More emphasis on Multiplayer.
- This happens with literally every main shift in demographic, or with every new demographic that entered the market.
- Gaming has been ruined for decades...it was dead on arrival at the Arcades, because all sorts of faux gamers who didn't have access to the restricted computers in universities got to play video games.
- The Atari, Intellivision, and Colecovision were going to ruin games forever because they weren't that different from each other and all their games were stagnant. It turns out that was one of the lesser things that caused the Crash Of 1983.
- The NES and the Sega Master System (as well as other competing systems like the MSX) ruined the market because they had all sorts of "Kiddie nonsense" and they censored everything.
- Nevermind that the lack of censorship is why games like Custers Revenge and Beat Em And Eat Em were allowed to be on the market in places where kids could see them - oh wait, it's censored so it sucks.
- Then the Sega Genesis, SNES, and better computer technology were going to ruin gaming forever because they didn't even bother to care about gameplay at all. They only cared about "Blast processing" and "Faux 3D Graphics", and now it brought about all sorts of kids who never even knew what Pac-Man was until it recieved its 95th port to the SNES or Genesis. Therefore they were not "real gamers". It seems a lot of them don't acknowledge how simply having more buttons on the SNES and Genesis, as well as the keyboard and mouse made it way more complex than the "Dumbed down" messes some of these people complained them to be.
- Then the next generation brought about even more faux gamers who were just graphics whores, and now being catered to their desires. Now everything had to be like Final Fantasy VII or Ultima, because that was the cool thing to do - those guys weren't real gamers. Then the RPG backlash started to wear off because now everyone started to view them as fandumbs full of fanboys, and gaming was further ruined because they brought about even more gamers who joined at this generation, and systems like the Playstation brought about all sorts of MTV-style Faux Gamers.
- The Playstation 2 was also going to ruin gaming forever because it had all sorts of stuff like a DVD player and people had bought it because it was cheaper than the current DVD players on the market. Dear god - NOW WE HAVE PEOPLE BUYING VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS TO NOT PLAY VIDEO GAMES ON THEM!! It's Ruined FOREVER!
- Then the Xbox ruined gaming forever by not only trying to be more PC like, but also bringing in even more MTV-style-Faux-Gamers. Now the shooters are full of faux gamers who're nothing but hot air and testosterone, while the RP Gs are nothing but faux gamers who play it to masturbate at the feminine emo character models (once more, ignore how many shooter fans don't even touch multiplayer or RPG fans never even thought of masturbating to their games).
- Now that we have the Wii and DS around, they will ruin gaming by bringing in all sorts of "Casual gamers" who are not "Real gamers".
- As for the PC gamers? The jump from DOS to more Plug-and-play-style games ruined gaming forever because now people didn't need to navigate the clunky interface of DOS.
- Then the Consoles ruined gaming forever because they committed the sin of making money.
- If you ask some people, it's not developers who are ruining gaming, but the gamers. A lot of gamers seem to have this overdeveloped sense of Entitlement...which is kind of sad, considering magazines and blogs encourage King Customer Mentality and this kind of behaviour. This is perhaps the only medium in which you will be considered a "non-gamer" because you played something that is not considered a "game" by the shadow council of cabalists who declare what games are. And sure enough...any game that's popular is not a game, nor is it anything that isn't something completely and utterly new.
- There's also piracy, which can be more or less summarized like this.
It is not a mischaracterization to say that conversations with the hardcore PC community about software theft follow these tenets:
- There is no piracy.
- To the extent that piracy exists, which it doesn't, it's your fault.
- If you try to protect your game, we'll steal it as a matter of principle.
Video Games - Specific
- The infamous "Celda" art style for The Legend Of Zelda The Wind Waker. This was declared the ruin of the series about a year before the game even came out. The game was met with enthusiastic reviews and led Twilight Princess to be greeted with this very cry for returning to the older realistic style and not repeating Wind Waker's. It once again returned to being scorned when the new Spirit Tracks for the DS was announced. In other words, no matter what style Nintendo chooses, they have ruined Zelda forever.
- It's worth noting that there was actually a group of the fanbase that derided Twilight Princess's look because the realism was bland and uninteresting.
- There's a large group of people pissed at Spirit Tracks because it features a train. This is the same group of people who used to be pissed at Wind Waker for featuring a boat, but now love that same boat.
- There's also still a die-hard faction that refuses to acknowledge anything post-Link To The Past as a good game, let alone a good Zelda game.
- That leaves what? Three games? This sounds like Complaining about series you don't like.
- Most of that group would throw Link's Awakening with the old group, so it's more like four games. The point remains. The first three Zelda games were so radically different from each other that it shows just how dumb that argument is. Link to the Past has more in common with Ocarina of Time than with Zelda I, and every game in the series has more in common with each other than Zelda II, but Zelda II gets a pass for its massive genre breaking because it was the second game.
- Just about every time a new feature or gameplay difference was announced for Super Smash Bros Brawl, to the point of some claiming "Grabbed the Smash Ball" is the equivalent of "Jumped the Shark" or "Nuked the Fridge".
- Case in point: the "real" Brawl fans so hated all of these, in perspective, fairly minor modifications, that they hacked the game to create Brawl Plus, which is basically Melee with Brawl characters and levels.
- Actually, while the project did start out with the codename Melee 2.0, it intends to combine the good things from all three Smash installments thus far while making the metagame more universally balanced. Besides, if it were "basically Melee," then people would still be going, "NO ITEMS, META KNIGHT ONLY, FINAL DESTINATION!11!!1"
- The announcement of the Rune-Keeper class in the MMORPG video game Lord of the Rings Online, a class that is structured around the lore, built around the lore, and even spoken by the developers of the game to be lore-driven, but has invoked a fury from players claiming to be scholars of Tolkien's work that insist that the class is impossible, despite the video game company's resident and certified Tolkien scholar saying otherwise.
- For the uninitiated, the Rune-Keeper is essentially a Wizard. In the LOTR universe, traditionally, there are very few literal, magic-using wizards (as they are literally demigods descended to earth.) The creators of the game admit that this is a stretch of the Tolkien universe's rules, but feel that an MMORPG just isn't quite complete without a wizard class. They still went through the trouble of clearing it with the Tolkien estate and doing as much as possible to make it make sense, even though it's essentially a Hand Wave.
- Well, there are some who think LOTRO in general is an instance of Ruined FOREVER. Because it's all approved by Tolkien Enterprises (who bought most of the rights to adaptations away from the professor in the 1970s) and not by the Tolkien Estate (which is run by JRR's son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien) it's all illegitimate creation, in their mind. The Rune-Keeper was just seen as the last straw by quite a few people (regardless of the lightning-summoning, Ent-controlling, fireball-throwing class that the game already included).
- That is not entirely true. The elves have some ... inherent abilities, which are not quite Functional Magic, but surely supernatural. For example Glorfindel, Luthien or the King of Mirkwood.
- Fire Emblem. The classes and characters in every subsequent game are an insult to the ones in the past. Not to mention when Nintendo finally decided to start releasing them outside of Japan, they immediately start to suck because now people besides importers were playing them.
- Final Fantasy XIII getting released on a non-Sony console. Outrage ensues!
- Not to mention the Fan Dumb reaction of PS3 owners boycotting the game now... despite the fact that all this will accomplish is proving Square Enix's point that PS3 exclusives can't be sufficiently profitable, and leading to more multi-console jumps.
- To put this in perspective, many gamers thought Final Fantasy was dead (RUINED FOREVER) when it was finally released on a non-Nintendo console... back in 1997.
- Every single new Final Fantasy game is the one that ruined the franchise forever, and this is obvious the second they announce the title. Which means the most virulent critics will line up to buy it on day one.
- Every game after Final Fantasy VII (especially Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XII, because they're based on medieval times) has been accused of not "looking like a Final Fantasy game" despite that fact that: a) each of the worlds that appear through out the series have no continuity with each other and thus never look alike and b) Most (9 out of the current 12) FF games have been in a medieval setting (what fans are criticizing).
- Their complaints seem particularly egregious when one considers that FFIX was meant to be a throwback to more 'old school' Final Fantasy (at least in terms of setting), and FFXII is take place in an updated version of the same setting used in the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The latter may have its detractors, but both IX and XII specifically resemble previous Final Fantasy games... in a series where resembling previous games isn't popular...
- Samus Aran's non-Suit appearance in the Metroid Prime series. The first Prime game had Samus' first appearance in 3D and they chose to use a more realistic and older appearance that had actually never been used in the series before. In Prime 2, her look drastically changed to her Zero Suit look based on Metroid Zero Mission that was more standard with her other appearances in the series. Fans cried that Samus looked like a plastic Barbie doll, clashed with the overall realism of the rest of the game, and was bastardized by "animu", therefore ruining Metroid FOREVER. Metroid Prime 3 still used the Zero Suit look, just better rendered, so the complaints didn't end either. You can compare the different suitless Samus endings in this video.
- Now some people are pissed off at her new look in Metroid: Other M. Now it's been Ruined Forever x 2 (more if you complained about everything Metroid has done since Metroid Prime).
- It's Team Ninja, for god's sake! The ones responsible for the SIXAXIS-controlled jiggles in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 *, as well as creating every Dead or Alive game! That's just what we need — jiggly Samus jumping around like a ninja doing ridiculous finishing moves. Hands off Metroid, Team Ninja, you tossers!
- Before that, Metroid Prime being first-person.
- Everyone went batshit over Metroid Prime 2 and Hunters having multiplayer. It turned out to be pretty damn harmless.
- There's also the group that believes Samus is not a real female role model anymore because of Nintendo's depiction of her in her Zero Suit for Brawl. Never minding that even the original Metroid showed her in a skimpy bikini (Nintendo has actually added clothes to her since then).
- When they're not complaining about that, they're saying that makes it a Halo ripoff, which is wrong because 1) it's not even the same genre, 2) Space Marines have been canon since Metroid II, 3) Metroid came out in 1986, and 4) tons of great games are ripoffs of a ripoff of a ripoff.
- Don't forget that Metroid Fusion ruined Metroid forever by changing everything.
- The Pokémon was always better before (insert current generation here). Usually either centered around complaints that new Pokemon are not as "cool" looking as older ones, or complaints that adding extra evolutions have ruined that Pokemon forever. Diamond/Pearl also had the usual complaints, plus claims that a dramatic re-balancing of all the moves (creating "special" and "physical" categories) ruined competitive battling forever.
- The main reaction to HeartGold and SoulSilver seem to be "OMG they replaced Kris with Soul! Ruined FOREVER!
- OMFG the grass looks slightly different! Ruined FOREVER!
- The game has more detail?! It's RUINED 4EVER!!!
- Whitney's Miltank is one level lower in HG/SS?!?! EPIC FAIL GAMEFREAK
- Perhaps a little conspiracy theory to go with it? "JUNICHI MASUDA IS BLACKMAILING THE ALMIGHTY TAJIRI-SAN TO TAKE OVER POKEMON! IT IS RUINED 4EVER!"
- The remake of Metal Gear Solid for the Gamecube. Fans cried Ruined FOREVER seeing that Naomi and Mei Ling losing their accents and how Snake can pull off superhuman bullet time moves during cut scenes.
- God forbid Asians might speak fluent English.
- Not only that, but her backstory (including in the original game) has her being raised from a young age, if not born in the United States.
- Raiden. "OMG Snake isnt in teh new game. Metal Gear Solid is Ruined Forever!!11one." Take you pick from any Metal Gear Solid 2 or Metal Gear Solid: Rising board.
- With the Wii being a huge success, motly by appealing to a casual market, many of a hardcore gamer's favorite outcry is "Causal gaming is killing the hardcore games! Nintendo ruined gaming FOREVER!!!"
- And Nintendo itself has been getting this every single time something doesn't please the so-called hardcore crowd.
- E3 2007, Wii Fit? Nintendo is doomed!
- E3 2008, Wii Music? A bunch of idiots on stage? Nintendo is doomed!
- E3 2008, No hardcore games for the holidays? Nintendo has failed!
- E3 2009, Super Mario Galaxy 2? Same as the first! Metroid: Other M? Not like other Metroid games! Zelda Spirt Tracks? Why is there no Zelda Wii!? WORST E3 EVER!! (And this was supposed to be a Cue Cullen moment)
- Nintendo has/hasn't announced a new sequel to an old franchise? Nintendo has failed!
- And then they wonder why Nintendo has "abandoned" them in favor of the casual crowd.
- Many hardcore Prince Of Persia fans consider the most recent entry in the series (simply dubbed "Prince of Persia") the mark of the franchise's utter ruin, with the developers having changed almost everything about the game, though the main gripe is that the "no death" mechanic of Elika saving the Prince's butt from anything makes the game too easy, despite the theory being that if Elika saves you, you died.
- Now, if only they'd played through the game on the PS 3 and found the game-breaking bug that prevents the game from being finished...
- The City Of Heroes community has a hobby of mocking this even while obeying it, as "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" This became especially popular just before the Inventions system was introduced. There is even a threat level system (DOOMCON) to judge the level of "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM".
- Sonic The Hedgehog fans are always doing this. Currently it's the graphics and the presence of the Homing Attack in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (judging from a measly 5 seconds of in-game footage) that's ruining it, before that it was another hedgehog in the series, before that it was gunplay added to the series, before that the change of voices to the 4Kids VA's, before that it was the addition of an angsty hedgehog, before that was the Werehog, and pretty much anything and everything announced since as far back as Sonic 2 had someone grumbling about it. None of this has been helped by the franchise having smacked into the Polygon Ceiling to some extent.
- World. Of. Warcraft. Any and every change to any gameplay mechanic, class, dungeon, mob, weapon, talent, or artstyle will be greeted by copious amounts of this trope, and at least 20 people declaring that they are cancelling their subscriptions, with 50 more breathing a sigh of relief.
- Not mention whenever someone is killed by several people at once. Copious doesn't even begin to cover how much this trope applies to World of Warcraft.
- Special mention to Wrath of the Lich King, which featured tons of shifts in gameplay plus reusing a raid instance that very few people got to experience, a decision both praised and sneered at.
- The release of the first one-minute teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2 prompted quite a few fans to conclude that the budding franchise is Ruined FOREVER.
- A list of things that will ruin Mass Effect: A darker and edgier story, FPS style combat (ie. no weapon skills any more), FPS style health regeneration, heavy weapons (including mini nukes), new vehicles, more allies (and no old allies from the first game), a better cover system, a loyalty system with allies, and robotic enemies. No, not those robotic enemies. New ones.
- Some fans have also taken the fact that your old squad (probably) won't be playable in ME 2 as proof that ME is Ruined FOREVER. (New info has revealed that Garrus and Tali will both be possible companions, still leaving plenty of room for others; once again, people are shouting before anything is certain)
- Ace Combat 6 is on Xbox 360 instead of PS3? Big No!
- When the fourth Ace Attorney game came out, starring a new protagonist and basically turning the old one into a hobo, most fans embraced the changes, but there are many who believe the series has now been Ruined FOREVER.
- BioShock 2 won't have Big Daddies in it? New enemies? A different conflict? Giant squid? What, this is far too original for a sequel, 2K has ruined Bio Shock FOREVER! Of course, none of those rumors are actually true. Bio Shock is actually ruined forever because of the sequel's mere existence.
- A number of fans have also claimed that having a multiplayer option in BioShock 2 has, despite the fact that it is being developed by an outside developer and the fact that it is completely separate from the main story, destroyed the "single player"-ness of the game, and thus Bio Shock is Ruined FOREVER.
- For that matter, Bioshock supposedly ruined System Shock forever by containing a similar plot twist to System Shock 2, having less character customization options, and making permanent death impossible. Given that this is the sort of Ruined Forever that creates a best-selling, critically acclaimed game that increases awareness of the previously obscure original series, there are probably many developers hoping they can similarly "ruin" their own franchises.
- Some of this isn't so much Ruined FOREVER as it is people not seeing a sequel as entirely necessary, given that the appeal of the first game's story would be hard to replicate.
- The players can actually survive by trying to use their weapons instead of saving every bullet? Stuff happening in DAYTIME!? Resident Evil has been ruined FOREVER!
- A lot of PKers in Rune Scape considered the game Ruined FOREVER after Jagex removed PvP, due to real-world trading. However, Jagex did introduce PvP worlds... So Yeah.
- Every update introduced to stop RWT ing was met with this reaction, the 12/10/07 ones were just met with the most of it. Actually, scratch that, Every update EVER will have at least a few people complaining the game has been ruined forever, like the WoW example above. Sometimes, the complaint is just that it wasn't a specific update a person wanted, and that person or people will complain endlessly about every update that is NOT the update they want.
- Eve Online has an Unpleasable Fanbase to begin with, but even so. Every time something is changed/balanced, be it the mechanics of a weapons system, putting breaks on 3/4 of kilometer-long battleships going 10+ kilometers per second, or making the game a bit easier to get into, Eve has inevitably been Ruined FOREVER. As EVE has roughly two expansions and numerous major and minor patches per year, it has been Ruined FOREVER scores of times since release.
- In light of news that Team Fortress 2 may or may not have weapons drop with random stats in the future, this sentiment has been loudly expressed all over the internet.
- Again when one of the heavy's unlocks was revealed to be a sandwich for regaining health.
- And again when one of the sniper unlocks was a jar of pee to be thrown at enemies, which got to the point where fans petitioned to have it removed.
- And... You know what, let's just say that EVERY major update (and a few minor ones) has invoked cries of Ruined FOREVER
- "Lego Rock Band? OH NOES, not only has the series lowered down to Guitar Hero-level whoring, but it has become KIDDY and EASIER!"
- Never mind that. Rock Band was already ruined when they announced Country and hip-hop DLC. What is this, Country Band? For the uninitiated, every week some songs are added to the RB "music store". You can buy the songs you want and not buy the songs you don't. Thus, these country songs don't appear in your game unless you buy them. Where was I? Oh yes. Ruined FOREVER!
- And never mind the fact the Lego Crossover Games are divisive on their own, with many of its detractors not even having played the games.
- Purple is legendary?? RUINED FOREVER!!!
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Some seemed so convinced that Rare killed the franchise with its Unexpected Gameplay Change that they wanted the developer to crash and burn for it. Also addressed in their letter page:
(After being asked about the possibility of B-K TV show)" Never say never to a TV show – VP transferred pretty well – but you must realise that if people thought chucking some cars and planes into the mix was akin to us taking a lead pipe to the Banjo franchise then stamping and urinating on the broken pieces, there would probably be some kind of localised internet apocalypse if Banjo and his fellow freaks started enunciating proper words in human voices."
- "Left 4 Dead 2? Announced less than a year after the first game and still no signs of a SDK? Crap, Valve have sold their souls to the money-printing machines!"
- Of course the SDK was in open beta at the time of the announcement and came out of open beta two weeks later, with cross-compatibility into Left 4 Dead 2 no less. The fact that this was an actual complaint only further underscores the general ignorance of the boycott movement.
- The boycott with more than 40,000 users. Enough said.
- Of course, when Left 4 Dead has sold, as of May 2009 (several months before the second game was launched), 2.5 million copies... 40,000 complainers doesn't really add up to much.
- Complainers, by the way, who were complaining about not being able to download stuff with points they got by playing games and would instead have to spend actual money on a full game. Yeah, Valve is the greedy one, here.
- Deus Ex 3 will have regenerating health? That will ruin the game! It DESTROYS any strategical thinking the original had! Deus Ex is RUINED FOREVER!!!
- As soon as it was revealed that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up will have Rabbids as Guest Fighters, fans were far from optimistic to this trope, believing that Ubisoft is wrecking the 25th anniversary of the Turtles with their favorite Spotlight Stealing Squad who arleady drove Rayman off his own series. For them, it has hit The Problem With Licensed Games because of three cartoony hares that you don't even have to play as, never mind about the actual gameplay.
- For others, it's The Unexpected fighters appearing in the game, such as the Fugitoid, Nightwatcher, and Utrominator; special mention about the Fan Dumb complaining there are no 80's characters in the game).
- Valkyria Chronicles 2 is going on a handheld where it might actually turn a profit?! RUINED FOREVER! It must be on the PS 3!
- Never mind how Dragon Quest IX offers Character Customization and averts Fight In The Nude. Never mind such tiny matters as gameplay, plot, presentation or actually being fun. No, Dragon Quest is surely RUINED FOREVER because the ninth game is being released on DS and happens to have a single save slot.
- Crash Bandicoot after they turned Tiny from a giant beast into a scrawny pacifist. Oh hell, everything after the PS 1 series (when Naughty Dog left the series to publisher Vivendi Universe), it just went downhill and started numerous cry's of Ruined FOREVER by purists.
- No LAN support in Star Craft 2!? OH TEH NOES!!!1!1
- And it's split up into three separate games, each with it's own gameplay mechanics! You can still make maps where all three sides are playable, but still, DOUBLE DOOMED!
- And every other video game sequel ever. This trope might be why sequelphobics exist.
- Fox has a GIRLFRIEND?!? NOOOOOO NOW HERE COME TUH FURRIEZ!!!.
- Square Enix is publishing Modern Warfare 2 in Japan!? Now the series is tainted by the gay emo girly men that are gay and have gay spiky hair! The series is DOOOOOOOMED!
- Forget that, they don't know how publishing games outside of their home country works. The real example here is is the lack of dedicated servers in the PC version. However, there's at least a more sensible explanation to the feelings of ruin as, compared to most other examples here being petty changes affecting only a single series, the PC gamers fear that this act, if it catches on with other developpers, could effectively change all of online PC gaming. Hell, even the developers of the Battlefield Series are shocked with that decision.
- Bethesda can't release a game without this refrain. Fallout was Ruined FOREVER, and so was every The Elder Scrolls game since Arena.
- No more online play in Backyard Sports? THE SERIES IS OVER!
- Hideo Kojima likes Twilight? He's not a godly game designer anymore, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will be doomed because it's a vampire game!
- Total War has several examples:
- Rome: Oh no! The engine has been changed! RUINED FOREVER!
- Medieval II: Its The Same So It Sucks
- Empire: Naval Battles are broken! BAWWW! And there's less focus on close combat! Big No!
- Hi there, are you a fan of Lufia II? Well, allow me to introduce you to the DS remake. Take as much time as you need getting all the complaints out of your system.
- Mega Man 10 has an easy mode, some people are rather pissed about this, because it's "ruining" the game, um, did anybody tell them it's completely optional?
- What makes this even funnier is... Mega Man 2 had an easy mode, and everyone loves Mega Man 2! (Okay, technically it had a "Normal" and "Difficult" mode, but Difficult mode was equivalent to the only difficulty of the Japanese game, so Normal mode was really easy mode.)
- It doesn't matter if it's optional! How can we be expected to have fun playing the game with the knowledge that somewhere out there in the world, someone else is playing the game incorrectly and ENJOYING IT?!
- The Wing Commander movie is often accused of killing the franchise. Never mind, of course, that the entire genre of space sims was in a decline, in terms of sales, at the time for various reasons.
- Likewise, Electronic Arts buying Origin Systems Inc was cited as the doom of WC (and other Origin titles), even though it was EA's money that made the switch to FMV possible, spawning three of the best selling individual titles in the entire series and boosting Origin out of the "niche provider" position they were holding (and not that strongly, fiscally speaking) prior to that point.
- Er, when's the last time you saw a new Wing Commander - aside from the asinine Xbox Live Arcade game. For that matter, where's Origin Systems?
- Poor Mega Man Star Force fell victim to this trope; being Darker And Edgier apparently wasn't enough to keep the fans of the prequel series from crying foul, mostly due to the difference in gameplay and the perceived simplification of the old chip system. While the first game did well enough, 2 was absolutely hated, and despite a much-improved 3, the series seems to be finished, making it the shortest Mega Man spin-off series of all time.
- Some Street Fighter fans complained that SFIV was ruined because it was 3d. Other, better-informed fans pointed out that the hitboxes were still 2d, meaning the gameplay was effectively the same.
- "Touhou is on CNN? Nooo, it's gonna become MAINSTREAM and SUCK!" (Seriously, just read the comments on the link.)
Western Animation
- Because Transformers fans never appear to be satisfied, almost anything past G1 is considered Ruined FOREVER to at least somebody.
- Static Shock and the "Hoop Squad". Were the super-powered basketball players absurdly dumb? Yes, of course they were. Did their appearance mark the show's all time lowest point? Almost unanimously. Was it one of the worst uses of guest-stars ever? Quite easily. Did the show actually get any worse after that? Not really.
- As soon as it was anounced, The Fairly OddParents's fandom was torn over whether or not Poof's birth was yet another shark to jump. Most believed that the show was Ruined FOREVER.
- GI Joe seems to be undergoing its own version of this right now. While one of the smaller hardcore fanbases out there, the vast majority of said fanbase seems adamantly determined to apply this trope to the live-action movie. Primarily because it dares to suggest that GI Joe might not strictly be a Real American Hero.
- The G.I. Joe Sigma Six cartoon was under a considerable amount of flak by the fanbase as well, because of the use of a Japanese animation studio. Comments such as "The Real American Hero shouldn't be an anime!!!" were common during its run.
- The humorous "DETH OF TEH LINE!!1" originated from overreaction to changes in how the G.I. Joe franchise was being handled some time in 2005, is regularly used by some G.I. Joe online forums when some react negatively to new releases or change of plans. It's sort of the Joe equivalent of "RUINED FOREVER".
- Many fans of Strawberry Shortcake, both the 80's version and the newer version, are up at arms about how the changes to the series that will take place in 2009, including new character designs and a new home in Berry Bitty City, will be the end of the series. Some have even declared the series to be dead to them because of this.
- An ironic form would be The Spectacular Spider-Man, people were angry about the style, mainly the fans of the 90s show and comics, who thought the show would be kid-oriented, but after watching a few episodes, it became very well thought of by comic book fans, but some will still try to discredit the show.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went a very specific instant of this. As soon as the 2003 animated series was released, fans of the 80's cartoon complained because it was so drastically different in tone to what they had watched 20 years prior (dark, stylish and character driven as opposed to outright cheesy, goofy and with little motive to enhance the plot beyond a single episode). Thus, complaints were made to bring back the ORIGINAL Turtles. The irony of this, is that the 2003 series was based on the original Mirage comics that started from 1984, as opposed to be much more lighthearted cartoon that first aired in 1987 and that one of the Turtles' co-creators (Peter Laird) was actually involved in the production of the 2003 series.
- Needless to say, they looked very foolish and less biased fans of the Turtles received the newer series well.
- This is made even more foolish when you realize the 1990 live-action movie also had more to do with the comics and little to do with the series.
- Of course, partly in response to this the series was retooled into "TMNT Fast Forward" where the Turtles are transported 150 years into the future; the series was dumbed-down and made more kid-friendly. The poor response to that change led to the following season (which turned out to be the final one) seeing the Turtles returned to the present-day, and darkened yet again.
- Also, similar to the Disney/Marvel example above, Peter Laird selling the TMNT franchise to Nickelodeon.
- Laird had his own "RUINED FOREVER!" moment, apparently, over the character of Venus de Milo in The Next Mutation. The moment he bought total control over the property, he ordered any and all mention of her in every other continuity of the media excised without in-story explanation, with the other characters seeming not to notice. The character was such a Berserk Button for him that anyone coming on board the creative staff was advised to never even say the name around Laird, even as a joke.
- People are preaching this about Iron Man: Armored Adventures soley because Tony is a teenager in this adaption. Granted, perhaps they do remember the actual teen Tony from the comics...
- Total Drama Island has a sequel? And they practically killed off most of the couples? RUINED FOREVER!
- The second sequel is called Total Drama, The Musical? EPICALLY RUINED FOREVER!
- Even before the upcoming movie was announced, Avatar The Last Airbender was declared RUINED FOREVER during initial airings by young anime fans. How dare they make a western series that resembles the obviously superior art of Japanese animation!
Webcomics
- Many claimed that Ctrl Alt Del Jumped The Shark after Lilah's Miscarriage, pretty much since the day it happened. Then again, since half the people complaining never liked the strip in the first place, it's hard to tell if that was really the strip's actual fans that felt that way, and the notoriety of the storyline seems to have just given them something specific to vent their rage on.
- As a minor note, the strips in question were complained about not just as Wall Banger material, but also for having possible Cerebus Syndrome material mixed in, which is not a good junction to be at.
- For a while, the Gunnerkrigg Court fandom had a distressing tendency to project that the future of the comic would be exactly the same as the latest page or two, and then use this as the basis to declare that they didn't like the new direction the comic was taking. In every case, said "new direction" was more like a brief detour. For example:
- Some fans complained that post-Chapter-14 Annie had undergone Character Derailment... upon seeing the very first page of Ch 15.
- Some fans complained that the brief "Metal Gear Theater" interlude was a sign that the comic was descending into a mess of Dadaist nonsense and pop-culture references.
- Note that any such comments should be taken with a grain of salt since most of the comments tend to be a bit on the snarky side.
- While there is a fair amount of disagreement about exactly when or why Dominic Deegan Jumped The Shark, be it the Super Greg arc, the vacation arc, or the current March on Maltak arc, a consensus seems to be that the comic was Ruined Forever by Mookie's characterization of Siegfried after his death and transformation into a demon lord's servant and has only gone downhill since then.
Web Original
- Yahtzee beat the fans to the punch when he unveiled the new musical intro to Zero Punctuation, noting at the end of the video that "I'm certain some of you pricks are already putting this down as my shark jumping moment". They were. (The update to his website that week was titled 'You Changed It, Now It Sucks'.)
- Of course, Yahtzee's own reviews often sound like this, with each new game heralding that the industry is even more ruined for even more forever.
- Lots of fans were angry when Ben Leffler came out with Ex Mortis 3, the third of a trilogy of flash games. Problem was, this time you had to pay $20 to get the full version, where the first two had been free online games. Granted, there was a free demo version, which was nice, but was composed only of the first level and revealed none of the plot. Fans who weren't willing to cough up 20 bucks were not happy.
- The Transformers Wiki timeline, as quoted in the page above, has such gems as:
"13500000000 BCE: The Big Bang creates the universe as we know it. The protons, neutrons, and electrons that will eventually compose Transformers are formed, thereby ruining the Transformers franchise forever."
"1964: Hassenfeld Brothers introduces G.I. Joe, the first "action figure." The action figure industry is simultaneously born and ruined forever."
"July 1, 2011: Transformers 3 is currently scheduled to ruin Transformers forever by opening on this date."
Other
- Game Maker has announced a new logo for version 8, chosen from contest entries. It looks like the Awesome Smiley. People are now threatening to boycott the new version.
- Notably, two weeks later, they caved into complaints and chose a different logo. RUINED FOR 12 DAYS!
- Anytime the administrators make any change to Facebook, a large number of groups claiming to want to "Save Facebook from these horrible changes" pop up.
- The funny thing about it is that they are all begging for Facebook to go back to the old layout. The one they were complaining about six month prior.
- Though, very, very few of the people who complain bitterly about changes to Facebook have stopped using it. Cue 90% of the "bring back teh old facebook !!11!!!!1!" groups having devolved into a hive of bizarre censorship conspiracy theories because they're becoming "too popular, and can no longer be ignored!" with every group swearing that once they hit X number of members that the old Facebook will come rushing magically back.
- And now, they're all rushing You Tube for the same reasons. Odds are the yelling will prove useless on Sept. 30.
- Almost every Internet site is a victim of this trope when they change the layout of the site.
- The same thing is happening to Stumble Upon with their new interface.
- My Space suffers from this as well, granted, their version 2.0 profile layouts really are considered inferior for most users. Unused spare 1.0 profiles have become a hot commodity among the Myspace RP scene. Most agree that they began to Jump The Shark once they started copying Facebook.
- Neopets, when it went through a site overhaul and the pets got re-drawn so users could put clothing and stuff on them without giving the artists a headache. Yes, there IS now a degree of sameness that takes some of the fun out of the pets (the Meerca no longer stands on its tail, the Usul no longer looks demonic when angry/upset), and every new change introduced thereafter has sparked outrage and threats to leave across the boards.
- Ironically, the posters at the 'official' Jump The Shark site demonstrate a tendency to do this; it seems that, for most (if not all) currently running shows, every week something happens to have its fans cry that the show has now jumped the shark (when it seems that they actually mean this trope). There have even been instances of people logging on immediately after the very first episode of a particular show to bemoan how something they didn't like is a clear evidence of a shark being jumped, despite the fact "jumping the shark" is supposed to be a moment when a show makes some radical departure from the original cast/premise/tone/etc., and the first episode is by definition the original cast, premise and tone.
- Even more ironically, Jump the Shark itself was said by almost everyone to be ruined forever when TV Guide decided to remove the ability to post and stripped about 95% of the site's content.
- The ink was barely dry on the first Kevin J. Anderson - Brian Herbert collaboration before it was declared Dune had forever been ruined.
- This wasn't entirely unfounded. KJA had been consistently proved to be a horrid writer in every universe he'd attempted before, to the extent that other Star Wars writers retconned his work and even Star Craft (videogame fans, mind you) didn't like his work in their universe. Since his Dune novels were published, all opinions were proved true when the books he wrote blatantly contradicted a plot point established in the first book, on the first page, the first paragraph, the first sentence. You can't ruin a franchise any worse than that.
- Being retconned in the Star Wars Expanded Universe isn't really a sign of fault on the writer. The Prequel trilogy retconned an incredible amount of the Expanded Universe on its own.
- Such blatant fanfic could only ruin a novel if anyone took it seriously...
- When Game FAQS.com and Game Spot.com merged their forums, everyone lost their minds, positive that this would instantly fill every board on Game FAQS with flaming, trolling, innumerable spelling errors, and just general horror. While it's true that for a while after the merge, you could click on just about any abysmal post's poster and be told that they were, in fact, a Game Spot user, the general idiocy levels only increased slightly overall, and it wasn't long before terrible posts were as uncommon as ever and you'd find interesting and insightful posts from Game Spot users as often as from Game FAQS users. Nonetheless, many Game FAQS users still quote CJayC as saying that he'd never merge Game FAQS with another site.
- Yeah, cause Game FA Qs wasnt like that before...
- Ruined FOREVER? Of a site that spawned the LUEser?
- When the license for Marvel Comics toys went from ToyBiz to Hasbro, fans declared that the toys were Ruined FOREVER. Some even sold off their entire collections in "protest." The fact that Hasbro's first series of Marvel Legends had been designed and created by the ToyBiz crew, and would in fact have been ToyBiz's next series if the licensed hadn't transferred, didn't seem to matter to these folks. The only change was the name printed on the card, and that was enough.
- Many anti-furries complain about their entire childhood being ruined forever after seeing fan art of old cartoon characters. Even if the art isn't sexual, they'll complain as long as the artist is a furry.
- Gaia Online, anytime the slightest change is announced. Boy, and how the users do whine. And yet they never leave the site...
- I left after I realized that the only cool and fun items were going to come from ridiculous amounts of gold or by shelling out for Gaia Cash.
- Tobacco Ban.
- If you didn't think tropes can pop up in the most unexpected places, learn how people believe heraldry gets RUINED FOREVER:
I wrote a paper several years ago entitled “New Directions in Heraldry”, the thesis of which was that of all the modern innovations and introductions of new charges, etc. that we see in heraldry today are not a new phenomenon at all, but that the field of heraldry has always added new stuff to its repertoire from its earliest days to now.
The stimulus for writing the paper was the disputes I would sometimes see between heraldry enthusiasts in one or another of the internet newsgroups, where someone would protest that this or that innovation or the grant of a modern charge (for example, a locomotive) was almost an affront to the purity of the field.
- The inception of Ruined Forever has ruined this page forever.
- deviantART has been missing on this page? Dear god, with each change, I hear everyone screaming "it's ruined forever!". I even did this myself with the change to v6.
- And the new membership system, dear God, everyone complained how it made them look like beggars because it said "Needs Premium Membership" on their page (although they had stamps saying "I wish I had a subscription so I could use this stamp) and that it also displayed who donated a membership and what not... DA RUINED MEMBERSHIP STATUS FOREVER!!
- And how about that Critique system? You know, the one where you can't get critique of your own art unless you get a membership, and yet you're subject to receiving messages of your watchers giving critique to OTHER users and vice-versa and with no way to actually turn this off no less!
- The massive overreaction when it was announced that The You Tube was making deals with major studios to put movies and TV shows on the site. I'll just let this oft-mirrored video speak for itself. This was from April 2009, and aside from some unrelated layout changes, very little has changed as of October.
- Granted, that might actually be because of the widespread 'Ruined Forever' outcry generated by that very video, as well as news which was leaked onto various online articles at the time. It's possible that Youtube decided not to go through with the changes after the criticism, or, that they're only going to go through with the changes much more gradually now.
- As soon as you become old and cynical enough to see through all the silly hype around Christmas, it seems it is ruined FOREVER and it "has become too commercial" all of a sudden.
- Professional and college sports has more than its fair share of RUINED FOREVER moments. Any major mishap or miscue, particularly regarding roster or management changes, can lead to fans screaming about how their team will never win again. For example, the 2009 signing of Allen Iverson by the Memphis Grizzlies NBA club had fans hoping for a rejuvenation of what was arguably the worst team in all of basketball. Then, when Iverson and the Grizz dissolved their contract mere weeks later, fans were almost literally screaming "Ruined Forever!!"
- The whole concept of Jumping The Shark has clearly been Ruined FOREVER by you TV Tropes types.
- TV Tropes itself was declared Ruined FOREVER after the cutting of I Am Not Making This Up.
- Also by getting rid of their own search engine and relying on Google's.
- Speaking of TV Tropes, life has been Ruined FOREVER by TV Tropes, because TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life. Nice job ruining our lives, TV Tropes.
- Planet Earth was Ruined FOREVER when they killed off dinosaurs. Stupid, boring, squishy mammals...
- The universe was such a nice calm place. Then came that big bang thing...sigh...
- Websites like Bauer Radio's, which fans have seen the quality of go downhill since 2005.
- When Fark.com did a site redesign back in 2007, many claimed the site was Ruined Forever. So many in fact were claiming it sucks, change it back, that a moderater came on and said 'you'll get over it'.
- My Anime List now has a new layout and navigation page. Cries of "Ruined FOREVER!" were shouted almost immediately after these changes were announced. There's even a club at the site demanding MAL to change back to the side panel.
- Facebook. They changed the front page again! OH NOES!!!1!1!˝
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