Line #77 Main/FormulaWithATwist


1	-> ''"It hasn't an original bone in its body, but it '''has''' mashed together several ideas from prior classics in a '''technically''' original combination and produced the expected result of a perfectly fine game."''
2	-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]]''', on ''Videogame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder''
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4	A StrictlyFormula work can be dull for an audience that has [[RecycledPremise seen it all done before]], but if the formula is a proven moneymaker, why not do it again...but with a unique twist?
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6	For works to qualify for this, the premise, plot and characters have to [[WholePlotReference follow most of the same basic beats]], except for some twist that is ''unique to that work'' ([[FollowTheLeader at least at the time of its release]]). It has to deliberately invoke enough similarities to an established formula that the [[{{Cliche}} intended audience]] ''[[{{Cliche}} instantly]]'' [[{{Cliche}} recognizes what it is]]--the same type of heroes, the same type of villains, and the same general setting and plot progression. (For videogames, it may be all of the above, as well as similar controls, mechanics and gameplay typical of the genre.) Granted, by virtue of whatever unique "gimmick" this work introduces, some of these conventions can be [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] or otherwise [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in relation to said gimmick, but they still ''exist'' in some form or another. This trope is also not for cases where the only "changes" are [[SerialNumbersFiledOff minor things like names, superficial appearances, etc.]], but instead changes that turn familiar ideas on their heads.
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8	Naturally, whether a work succeeds or fails with this structure is [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools based on its own merits]], as some will simply become [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks forgotten derivatives]] and others may [[SubGenre redefine a new formula themselves]]. If they become overshadowed by its copycats, then it may become a case of OnceOriginalNowCommon.
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10	When organizing works on this page or its sub-pages, if the twist itself has become so formulaic that it's become a new SubGenre, then add the SubGenre and any works which created a ''yet another twist'' to distinguish itself, as explained in the description of said work.
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12	Super Trope to DieHardOnAnX and RecycledWithAGimmick. Sister Trope to a WhatIf story. A ClicheStorm is either an extreme version of this trope, or its extreme opposite; either it has so many cliches that it's indistinguishable from others in the genre, or it has so many that it stands out ''because'' of that.
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14	See also MissionPackSequel.
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16	----
17	!!!Examples Subpages:
18
19	[[index]]
20	* FormulaWithATwist/AnimeAndManga
21	* FormulaWithATwist/VideoGames
22	[[/index]]
23
24	!!Other Examples:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Comic Books]]
29	!!! Superheroes
30	* ''ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel'': As per WordOfGod, Adam Brashear/Blue Marvel was created based on the question: "What if Superman had been a Black guy?" Answer: [[RememberTheNewGuy we've never heard of him until only now]] because PoliticallyCorrectHistory was painfully, painfully [[AvertedTrope Averted.]]
31	* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'' was the first major attempt to create an [[AntiHero flawed]] costumed {{superhero}}. After learning that the monstrous ComicBook/TheThing was the most popular member of the ComicBook/FantasticFour, Creator/StanLee decided to push the idea further and make a monster and less than a perfect hero.
32	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Peter Parker/Spider-Man was the first attempt to create a prominent superhero who was also a flawed, but developing KidHero. Creator/StanLee wanted to avoid the practice of making a KidHero into a KidSidekick, and also wanted the character to naturally grow older and wiser. While heroic to a fault, Peter Parker was very much still a teenager with selfish concerns, personal insecurities, and life lessons yet to be learned.
33	* ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' gives the premise: what if the SuperTeam was actually comprised of villains pretending to be heroes?
34	* ''ComicBook/WhatIf'': As the TropeNamer for the WhatIf trope, this comic explores several hypothetical twists on existing concepts.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Fan Works]]
38	* ''Fanfic/JerkInSheepsClothing'' takes the typical "OriginalCharacter joins Mme Bustier's class following the events of Chameleon and immediately sides with [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Marinette]]" plot and twists it by making said OC a ManipulativeBastard who's only trying to lure her into an abusive relationship.
39	* ''Fanfic/RiskItAll'' is far from the first fanfic to be inspired by ''Webcomic/TheGamer'', but it distinguishes itself by having Ren's power progression be tied to [[PopularityPower notoriety]] rather than LevelGrinding through combat. As a result, he can't just punch people to get stronger and bide his time in secret, forcing him to make his super identity known to improve his powers.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
43	!!! Fantasy
44	* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' takes the typical fairy-tale kingdom that you would find in a Disney work and instead casts the ogre as the hero. Most other twists in the plot center around that singular idea, although the sequels flesh out many others.
45	!!! Buddy Cop Genre
46	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' is, at its heart, a fairly formulaic buddy cop movie, where the eager young rookie officer and con artist with a heart of gold work together to uncover a conspiracy. Where it differentiates itself is by playing the WorldOfFunnyAnimals setting straight, complete with prejudices and discrimination.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
50	!!! Action Genre
51	* Ironically, ''Film/DieHard'' began as an ordinary action movie with a standard ActionHero. Throughout its TroubledProduction, Music/FrankSinatra, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/MelGibson and other big action stars were all considered but turned it down. Creator/BruceWillis' {{Everyman}} appearance is what helped shape the film into the RightManInTheWrongPlace story which would later spawn its own derivatives in the DieHardOnAnX sub-genre.
52	!!! Buddy Cop Genre
53	* ''Film/FortyEightHrs'' marketed itself on the novel gimmick of pairing a StraightManAndWiseGuy OddCouple from different ethnicities (Creator/NickNolte and Creator/EddieMurphy, specifically) in an action/crime film. This led to the explosion of the [[BuddyCopShow Buddy cop]] and WunzaPlot sub-genres, especially ones partnering people of different cultures/ethnicities like ''Film/LethalWeapon'' and ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop''.
54	* ''Film/RushHour'' is a late example of a Buddy Cop film that distinguishes itself by making its two stars Black and Asian (Creator/JackieChan and Creator/ChrisTucker) and incorporating elements of a MartialArtsMovie into its DNA.
55	!!! Fantasy Films
56	* ''Film/{{Alice in Wonderland\|2010}}'' created a [[DarkerAndEdgier dark]] and surreal take on the classic ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' tale (which was already plenty weird on its own) and making a story that is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids meant perhaps more for adults than children]].
57	* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' was a live-action Creator/{{Disney}} film that placed the characters from [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon the archetypical Disney story]] in the real world, and then poked fun at and subverted many of the standard tropes you'd find in such a story. At the time, this was a very novel idea, as most movies of its type played the subject matter 100% straight. It kicked off a series of new films, remakes and sequels that did similar things to play with these tropes, such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen\|2013}}'', ''Film/{{Beauty and the Beast\|2017}}'', and ''Film/{{Maleficent}}''.
58	!!! Slasher Films
59	* ''Film/ChildsPlay'' is based on the premise "What if the killer was a kid's doll?"
60	* ''Film/{{Friday the 13th\|1980}}'' copied the Slasher formula almost wholesale from ''Film/{{Halloween\|1978}}'', except set in a forest camp and keeping the killer's identity a mystery. Later entries in the series helped codify the genre with its undead villain, Jason.
61	* ''Film/{{A Nightmare on Elm Street\|1984}}'' created the idea of a slasher villain that could invade dreams and kill his victims when they slept. Said villain, Freddy Krueger, also began the trend of the wisecracking, {{Reality Warp\|er}}ing serial killer later seen in films like ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'' and ''Film/Warlock1989''.
62	* ''Film/{{Scream}}'' is a SlasherMovie in which the characters are fully aware of the rules of a SlasherMovie. This started its own trend of post-modern slasher movies.
63	* ''Film/TheTerminator'' takes the basic slasher outline and gives it a ScienceFiction bend, with the main villain being a KillerRobot sent from the future to hunt down the protagonist, killing anyone that arouses his suspicion along the way. Later installments would remove the slasher elements in favor of a more {{actionized\|Sequel}} take on the premise.
64	* ''Film/WhiteDog'' is an unconventional take on the slasher genre in which the killer is a dog that was trained to kill Black people on sight. The film additionally features a second twist in that the core of the film lies in its character drama, with a Black handler's attempts at reconditioning the dog being contrasted with its continued attacks on Black people as an allegory on the nature of racism.
65	!!! Westerns
66	* The Western was [[GenreKiller dead]] by the late '60s. However there were successful revivals since then, but all put either a minor or major twist on the traditional formula.
67	* ''Film/{{Silverado}}'' was a nostalgic Reconstruction of the Genre using a very familiar storyline and formula. However it had an African American man as one of the main protagonists which was TruthInTelevision and simply did away with Native Americans to avoid all the UnfortunateImplications of the older movies.
68	* ''Film/YoungGuns'' and ''Film/YoungGunsII'' made a notorious outlaw as the main protagonist and an EnsembleCast of teen stars as its’ leads in an attempt to make the Western “cool.” The films were critical and financial successes.
69	* ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' made the Native Americans the good guys and the White settlers the villains in a total inversion of the old formula.
70	* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' is a Deconstruction of the Western and was basically Creator/ClintEastwood retiring his “Man with No Name” films.
71	[[/folder]]
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73	[[folder:Literature]]
74	* ''Literature/AccomplishmentsOfTheDukesDaughter'' has a tax bureau employee wake up in the body of the villainess of a game she played at the point where the villainess already lost her fiancé to the heroine. The reincarnation makes the best of the situation, avoiding the villainess's fate of exile to a monastery and instead getting confined to her family's territory. The reincarnator then opts to use her knowledge of modern economics to change how things are run, making her former fiancé look like a fool for abandoning her for a lower-rank noble.
75	* ''Literature/AestheticaOfARogueHero'' is a combination of both the {{Isekai}} and ExtranormalInstitute tropes in which people from the mundane world are so commonly summoned into other worlds that they then return with new powers which don't allow them to fit back into normal society. They are thus mandated to enter a special school for people with their credentials. The protagonist was a hero summoned to such a world but, after killing the Demon King, respected the man's dying wish by taking his daughter back to his world with him, where she can live a new life.
76	* ''Literature/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'' asks: what happens to all the other Heroes in the world after a Demon King is defeated? Raul is one of the thousands of Heroes who don't know what to do after the war against the Demon King suddenly comes to an end. He thus starts to work at a department store, where he's later joined by the Demon King's daughter as well as others from his past. However, many Heroes never really coped with [[NoPlaceForAWarrior losing their purpose in life]] and have become [[OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety antagonists seeking to ignite a new war]].
77	* ''Literature/ImQuittingHeroing'' begins with the Hero, Leo Demonheart, having already defeated the Demon Queen Echidna and sent most of her army packing and fleeing back to the Demon World they came from. However, when Leo returns to human society, he finds that much of humanity has deemed him as too powerful and dangerous to exist and tries to kill him. Becoming disillusioned with humans, he goes back to Echidna's castle, where she and her top generals are still smarting from the humiliating defeat he inflicted on them mere weeks ago, and asks to join her army instead, much to her outrage. HilarityEnsues.
78	* ''Literature/{{Maoyu}}'' opens as the hero is about to confront the demon king and end the war between humans and demons. However, the demon king ([[SamusIsAGirl who turns out to be a woman]]) convinces him that neither slaying her nor ending the war will actually fix most of the world's problems and that only the two of them, together, can hope to turn things around for the better. Thus, the story actually becomes a socio-political-economic thriller about how the advanced ideas she has envisioned will improve the world. Complicating things is that since [[ForeverWar the war has been raging for centuries]], both the humans and demons have built their entire economies around sustaining the war and thus it takes a lot of effort to transition to a peacetime economy. And powerful factions on both sides ''want'' the war to continue forever.
79	[[/folder]]
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81	[[folder:Webcomics]]
82	* ''Counter Isekai Corps'' asks what happens to Earth while people are being {{trapped in\|AnotherWorld}} or {{reincarnate\|InAnotherWorld}}d into new worlds. Because so many people from Earth are summoned to help other places due to their high heroic potential, there's barely anyone available to protect Earth itself. An organization was formed to help who's left, and since the quickest way to bring someone over is to kill them, they also try to prevent the untimely deaths of mundanes.
83	[[/folder]]
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85	[[folder:Web Animation]]
86	!!!Object Shows
87	ObjectShows are almost always competition {{Reality Show}}s but with {{Animate Inanimate Object}}s as the cast ever since ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'' and ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'' set the standard. As the years went on, new concepts or gimmicks were introduced to distinguish these shows with varying results.
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89	* Giving the GameShowHost various [[RealityWarper God-like powers]], mainly {{Teleportation}}, ThePowerOfCreation and [[BackFromTheDead resurrection]], was an entertaining way to make an object show interesting until that recently became the norm. The same goes for kidnapping the contestants instead of them willingly signing up or the host coming to them by showing up out of nowhere.
90	* There were some object shows that primarily uses {{Living Polyhedron}}s in the cast including ''WebAnimation/ShapeWorld'', ''WebAnimation/BattleForCircle'', ''WebAnimation/ShapeBattle'' and ''Webcomic/QuickUawesomeAmazingDicksbattling''.
91	* ''WebAnimation/BurgerBrawl'' combines the aspects of Joke Shows and Object Camps into a new hybrid sub-genre called "Friend Shows" in which the competition and everything else is played for laughs (Like the former) but the cast consists of Objectsonas[[labelnote:Definition]] An anthropomorphic object representing the online persona of an OSC member[[/labelnote]] based on the creator (Gery)'s real-life friends (Like the latter) with Gery [[ActingForTwo voices everyone]] using his best impressions of them. Other similar shows include ''WebAnimation/GreenysGrandGame'' and ''WebAnimation/MickeyMouseBattleHouse'' made by Gery's friends themselves or the friends in their friend group.
92	* ''WebAnimation/DandelionTheWorldBeginsWithYou'': The show is stylised as an [[{{Retraux}} [=80s=]]] MagicalGirl cartoon.
93	* ''WebAnimation/EpicJungleShow'' focuses on a comically-inept, BrainsAndBrawn duo instead of an EnsembleCast as they navigate their way through a jungle, not a competition show.
94	* ''WebAnimation/FightInFlight'', ''WebAnimation/ObjectsAroundTheWorld'' and ''WebAnimation/ObjectKnockout'' (SpinOff of OATW) had their contests in an airplane flying hundred-thousands of feet in the skies akin to ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaWorldTour'' although OATW is the only one to utilise different locations for challenges.
95	* ''WebAnimation/GalacticConquest'', ''WebAnimation/NonexistentLiving'' and ''WebAnimation/SupernovaSpecialization'' replaced the default [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield grass plains in the middle of nowhere]] for a setting '''[-[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]-]'''. The last of which has its contestants battling for the planet they are standing on.
96	* ''WebAnimation/JeopardizedObjects'' takes the form of a ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''-like quiz show rather than the reality-tv format.
97	* ''WebAnimation/ObjectConnects'' has the contestants working in pairs rather than teams in spite of its large cast of twenty and put a twist on the Object Show cliche of the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} being EvilAllAlong by letting the audience know right from the start as opposed to haphazardly reveal it as an AssPull at the very end.
98	* ''WebAnimation/ObjectLockdown'' had this whack elimination system to spice up its otherwise mundane competition. Basically, there are two teams called the Safe Team and the Danger Team in which any contestant declared to be in the latter are put up for elimination. When a contestant is eliminated, they are "lockdown" into the Danger Team and remain there until three episodes have passed. Only then they are finally kicked out of the show alongside other contestants who were eliminated in that timeframe. Unsurprisingly, the system was so needlessly complicated that the creator ditched it in favor of regular elimination and teams (Before she ditched the series anyway to make ''[[SoftReboot Object Lockout]]'').
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100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Web Videos]]
103	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GolTjZDCwk This video]] from [=WhatCulture=] lists 10 movies that were rip-offs of other movies that didn't work very well, and also mentions a few successful ones such as ''Film/{{Friday the 13th\|1980}}''.
104	[[/folder]]

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