Ruined Forever / Literature

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• Academics tend to whine that whatever books are selling more than the books they want to have people read will ruin literature FOREVER. Usually it's the fault of academia in the first place, when they write and print books only for the wealthy and privileged then complain about the unwashed masses not reading the "True Art" books. Some good examples, look at the reviews of True Art academic literary critics for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, often considered now to be a great example of nineteenth century literature, and The Lord of the Rings, whose reviews by the literati were not only absolutely disparaging but in many cases were by people who plainly hadn't read the book.
• Harry Potter got together with Ginny instead of Hermione? Instead of Luna? Instead of Draco? Instead of me? Ruined FOREVER!
  • Ties into Fanon Discontinuity as well: many simply pretend that the Epilogue (or even the last two books) never happened, and instead read Alternate Universe fics focusing mainly on the romance. Rowling has gotten death threats over this, and even has been told that she doesn't know the characters like they do, and that she has to "read between the lines". You know, the lines she wrote.
  • And don't get fans started on J.K. Rowling's late-2010s political statements.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events is Ruined FOREVER at the end of the thirteenth and final book know as The End when not all the mysteries of the series were solved that were introduced at the end of book five The Austere Academy; this includes the fates of the characters.
• The Elder Scrolls novels ruined The Elder Scrolls FOREVER! On one level the novels were announced the same day Bethesda said that the next game in the series was a long way away, so it could be Pavlovian, however people complain about things in the book, claiming they ruin the series FOREVER, even though those things were major parts of the games, especially Morrowind.
• 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 existence 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.
  • An interesting point for non-haters and haters of Twilight alike, they seem to agree that Breaking Dawn ruined the series forever.
• There were people who were not happy about there being a sixth book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by a new author and declared Fanon Discontinuity before it had even come out.
  • Although considering the amount of Negative Continuity and Continuity Snarl the series as a whole suffers from, that probably doesn't matter.
• The ink was barely dry on the first Kevin J. Anderson - Brian Herbert collaboration before it was declared Dune had forever been ruined.
• It's a specialty du jour in The Hunger Games fandom. Mockingjay disappointed, soandso died, Gale got the boot, Jennifer Lawrence looks like a blonde cow. It never ends. And then there are those who complained about the casting of Rue, Thresh and Cinna.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians got this reaction by fans when the Sequel Series The Heroes of Olympus was announced. It turned out to be a pretty decent series.
  • The Heroes of Olympus has a vocal minority of people who believe that the revelation that Nico di Angelo is gay and has feelings for Percy for most of their acquaintance ruined the series, saying it had no other relevance than to be part of the author's liberal agenda and is inappropriate subject matter for the target audience.
• V. C. Andrews fans have a few different opinions on this. Either when the real Andrews died and Andrew Neiderman took over for the books, after the Casteel series ended and Neiderman began the Cutler series (The first series not started by Andrews herself), after the publication of the Orphans miniseries with the change in format, when they did away with the stepback covers, or when Neiderman stopped doing family sagas all together.
  • Dollanganger fans had a field day with the Christopher's Diary series, and the reveal that Cory was alive.
• Harper Lee's "lost" novel, Go Set a Watchman (a 'sequel' to To Kill a Mockingbird) has the transformation of Atticus Finch into a bitter bigot trying to stop the desegregation of the Deep South, which has already tarnished the novel's legacy.
• August Derleth's additions to the Cthulhu Mythos. Notoriously, these included a good vs. evil element for the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, due to how much it oversimplified the characters in question by substituting black and white, human morality for Blue-and-Orange Morality. It's still a subject of intense debate for some Lovecraftian Horror fans to this day, and was notorious enough that Call of Cthulhu, which originally included the mechanic, scrapped it by the fifth edition.
• According to the comments section and reddit, every chapter of Wildbow's works apparently find some new way to RUIN the story FOREVER, particularly when said things ruin the things that they had previously complained about but now liked having seen what it was setting up.
• When the minor Wings of Fire character Anemone was revealed to be gay in the second series, a few fans complained that it was ruined. Not just the second series, but the whole franchise.
  Reviewer:...my happy fandom crumbled...
  • Sundew, a main character in the series' third arc was revealed to be a lesbian and had a girlfriend. Cue to anguished cries of hundreds of parents and readers who declared that the author was pushing her "liberal agenda" on children and that they would never read another Wings of Fire book ever again.
• Redwall was RUINED FOREVER when Brian Jacques decided to make every installment Strictly Formula.
• Animorphs got hit with this after Rachel’s death and Jake and Cassie’s breakup at the series’ climax. Ending the final book on a cliffhanger didn’t help either. K.A. Applegate took them to task in a letter, saying she didn’t want the series to end painlessly and wanted to show the real effects, after effects and sacrifices of war.

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