Not Thriving: Overtook The Series

There was discussion on this topic in 2011 and possible suggestions of a new-name.

Wick-checking, I found:

• Zero-context examples such as:

Anime.Dragon Ball GT:

• Overtookthe Series: Its anime-only continuation after the manga ended.

1 example in Film.Maleficent Mistress Of Evil that is OK, but brief.

An example usage that's OK in Literature.Franklin.

Possible misuse in Literature.Dalziel And Pascoe

Of the 24 links to Series namespace, there were a few short examples in work pages, like Series.Heartbeat, Dirk Gently was a zero-context example, Big Little Lies looked to be the same, for the British mystery series like Inspector Lynley etc. it seems more ZCE is in play.

Four usages in the trivia namespace, but it's not defined as trivia unlike the Overtook the Manga trope.

Western Animation namespace seems OK for usage:

• WesternAnimation.Mini Wolf is a short example, but to be fair I only recently heard of it and this may need clarification.
• Thomas the Tank Engine is more likely to be a zig-zagging use of the trope.
• The rest of the examples seem OK.

In general, it's more often a linked-to trope than used on pages itself.

New names suggested were:

• Ran Out Of Source Material
• Continued After The Canon End
• Outran The Source Material
• Outran The Series
• Outlived The Source Material

In general, there's still confusion between this trope and Overtook the Manga, and one's trivia, this trope isn't.

I'm not sure what else to put this as, so put Not Thriving.

Opening.

I honestly don't get the difference between this and Overtook the Manga.

Overtook the Manga laconic:

"An adaptation of an ongoing work quickly catches up with, or bypasses, the unfinished narrative of the original. Filler or a Gecko Ending may ensue."

I think the difference between this and Overtook the Manga is that this is "original work ended, adaptation caught up and keeps going", while Overtook the Manga is "original work and adaptation caught up with each other while both are still ongoing"

So, the only difference is whether or not the original is still going.

We need to decide if that's distinct enough...or if examples of one fit the other.

Brought up in the TRS metathread when this was first posted: where exactly is the wick check? All there is are results.

IMO "the source material was already complete and we made up new stuff for our adaptation by choice" is distinct enough from "we ran out of source material and had to make stuff up". But is it distinct enough from Adaptation Expansion?

Adaptation Expansion's laconic: "Adding stuff to the adaptation to take up more time or otherwise complexify."

I see a merge incoming into Adaptation Expansion...

I guess I'd be fine with merging.

Hmm, I think it's a little different though. In Adaptation Expansion, the source material and adaptation still start and end at the same point, only the adaptation adds more stuffs in between. Overtook the Series expands the story after the source material's end point, so I think it's more like a canon version of Continuation Fic.

I guess it might work as its own trope, but the name is a bad snowclone to Overtook the Manga.

Merge with Adaptation Expansion. We can expand Adaptation Expansion's definition a bit if we need to.

It would be a bit like what we did when we merged The Gods Must Be Idiots into God Is Inept in this thread from last year.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 18th 2021 at 1:02:21 PM

A merge sounds fine.

Isn't Adaptation Expansion blowing up a too short source material on all ends in order to make it work for a larger adaptation medium? Overtook the Series seems to come from a large enough source where they decide to keep adding stuff after the original concluded. This would make for a reasonable difference in my book but it's hard to say if such a clear distinction between the two cases can be made without a dedicated wick check.

Edited by eroock on May 20th 2021 at 2:41:04 AM

Wait, that's what Adaptation Expansion means? I thought it was "minor/unexplained/unexploded elements in a work are given more details in an adaptation."

The description for Adaptation Expansion states that it's supposed to be when added elements make the adaptation longer ("It occurs when a short, very simple tale is adapted into a medium with much larger space requirements, such as film or serial television. To meet the size requirements, the storyline will have to be padded with some new stuff — a lot of new stuff.").

If it's frequently used for "adaptation has an element that wasn't in the original" without the adaptation being longer than the original, then that would mean that Adaptation Expansion needs its own TRS or cleanup thread.

Just to recap, there seem to be at least three scenarios for how source material can get expanded:

• Overtook the Manga: A faster adaptation medium is filling the gaps between releases of the ongoing source material with new content.
• Overtook the Series: New content is added after the conclusion of the source material to milk the cash franchise
• Adaptation Expansion: A finished work is expanded not at the end but anywhere in the middle (most likely to fit a larger destination medium)

If we want to run with these concepts as separate tropes, a rename and cleanup of Overtook the Series seem appropriate.

Maybe renaming Overtook the Series to something clearer would help. What about Adaptation Continuation or Adapting Past The Ending?

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 22nd 2021 at 8:03:31 AM

I agree with the idea of a rename, though I'm not too sure what it should be.

Re: Adaptation Expansion, I literally just came across Adaptational Explanation while looking to see if we had a different adaptation trope, and its definition is what I thought Adaptation Expansion was supposed to be. It also only has 87 wicks.

...yeah, there's a big mess here.

I don't know about that. Adaptational Explanation is like, "the book never told us how Alice got to Point X so fast, the show explains she hitchhiked in a throwaway line". It doesn't seem like anything needs to be longer.

I agree with this but I wonder if it's the sort of distinction that might break down in practice. If a short story is adapted to the first 2/3 of a movie and the last 1/3 is original to the movie, is that Adaptation Expansion or this? What if it's adapted to a series, and the last 5 episodes are original to the series?

To take some of the examples mentioned in the OP:

• Maleficent was a Perspective Flip of the Disney's Sleeping Beauty, but mostly stuck to the same overall plot, while this sequel is an original storyline. (First film: adaptation, sequel: original)
• Big Little Lies: The first season was a complete adaptation of the source novel, the second season is entirely original to the series.

Are these distinct enough from Adaptation Expansion?

Edited by Synchronicity on May 31st 2021 at 4:03:20 AM

^ The bullet point examples are strongly suggesting Overtook the Series since the creators only started to come up with original ideas after they ran out of source material. If this practice is commonplace enough, it can warrant standing on its own.

I have a script that matches the on-page and Related-page examples of two given tropes to show the overlap. When I run it for Overtook the Series and Adaptation Expansion it shows that both tropes overlap for (are referred to by) 12 works:

• Franklin
• Half Moon Investigations
• The Worst Witch
• Film Reroll: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• Ang Probinsyano (2015)
• Big Little Lies
• Happy Together
• Tales of the Unexpected
• The Flight Attendant
• The Leftovers
• Sera Myu
• Watership Down (1999)

This constitutes 17% of all Overtook the Series examples and less than 1% of all Adaptation Expansion examples. It's a first indicator that most examples seem to fall in either-or category. Howver, as a lumper I'd also be fine with merging both concepts under Adaptation Expansion and save us from any more headaches.

Edited by eroock on May 31st 2021 at 5:58:44 AM

Also as a lumper, I agree.

I think we're ready to crowner this one, anything to add besides renaming and merging with Adaptation Expansion?

Guess not. Hollering to hook.

Apologies for the poor wick check; new to this sort of thing.

I would suggest a rename to Adaptation Continuation or Adaptation Past The Ending, and I see it as this, if we're going by Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions:

• Continuation: A series continues with new original stories after the conclusion of the source material, but this is non-canon and a Fan Fic trope.
• Overtook the Series (renamed Adaptation Continuation or Adaptation Past The Ending): A series continues with new original stories after the conclusion of the source material, but it is Canon.

I would argue there is a degree of difference between Adaptation Expansion and this trope, and that Adaptation Expansion is different, being about an ongoing work, mostly.

Yes, there's some examples that are borderline.

As a snowclone of Overtook the Manga, I agree the name does sound a bit janky.

Adaptation Expansion could do with a TRS as well, good idea.

Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jun 10th 2021 at 12:43:29 PM