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KD Since: May, 2009
2025-03-03 21:52:42

Vindicated by History is explicitly clear about this in its second to last paragraph: "Note: For a work to be Vindicated by History, it must go from hated to acclaimed with time based on its own merits. Don't add an example just because a later installment(s) is considered to be worse."

Let's take Monster Hunter for example. (I don't play it, so I have no opinion myself.)

If people think MH Rise is good, then MH Wilds comes out and they say "Rise was better," that is not Vindicated by History.

If people think MH Rise is okay, then MH Wilds comes out, and they say "All the things Wilds does wrong is making us re-examine Rise and appreciate more what it does right", that's still not Vindicated by History because Rise was not hated.

If people at first think MH Rise is bad, and then for any reason, people look back and say "In retrospect, we were being too harsh, Rise is actually good," then that is Vindicated by History.

Since you did say "maybe weren't so warmly received on release", but years later, people appreciate them more, that scenario does sound like Vindicated by History.

Edited by KD
Scorpion451 (Edited uphill both ways)
2025-03-04 11:27:21

What you're seeing in general here is the Popularity Polynomial at work, and a whole constellation of related tropes like Hype Backlash and Critical Backlash.

Basically Sequelitis exists, but there will always be some portion of the audience pulling the Ruined FOREVER alarm because They Changed It, Now It Sucks! while another portion deems the new installment a triumphant return to form compared to the terrible predecessor, and then (often overlapping) portions saying the exact same thing about the next installment while praising or decrying the previous one.

Edited by Scorpion451
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