Discussion Main / TorchTheFranchiseAndRun

Im wondering if this page should have examples reogranized into sucessful and unsucessful attempts

What's the source of the page image?

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Why is Family Guy not included here?

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Why does it say Ed Boon is trying to Torch the Franchise and Run with Mortal Kombat X?

I'm not sure if the Iron Man 3 and Winter Soldier examples should stay on this page. This trope is for a writer deliberately destroying their own franchise before it's taken from them. Iron Man 3's ending and Winter Soldier's conclusion to SHIELD were down with the full cooperation of the studio, and sometimes the idea even came from heads like Kevin Feige. That runs counter to this trope's definition, which is about writers rebelling.

Edited by 76.246.238.50

Are fanworks really franchises even though they are non-canon? I'm primarily referring to those fanworks that aren't making any money for their creators since franchising involves making money via licensing.

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I think a related trope to this would be Torch The Franchise and Take Over.

This would be where previous writers leave a franchise ... and it's the NEW writers who trash everything. They kill off characters, destroy the setting, make the lives of everyone a living hell, and do their best to make sure that the characters (those who aren't dead) have no way to get back to the previous status quo outside of reboots or something that might be an even bigger threat to Willing Suspension of Disbelief than the initial torching.

This is done so that the new creators can recreate the franchise in their own image. Never mind the fact that the franchise had lots of fans who liked it as it was and will be really upset to see their favorite characters killed off (especially if done in anticlimatic and/or mean-spirited ways, the setting and/or premise trashed, and the series generally being changed beyond recognition. But the new creators figure they'll get new fans for every fan they alienate.

This is likely to lead to Fanon Discontinuity.

And of course, like Torch the Franchise and Run, it doesn't always work. If there's enough negative reaction, the changes might end up being undone anyway, causing the writers (or the ones who take over from THEM) to jump through all sorts of hoops to fix all the damage.

Offhand, I can only think of three examples.

One would be Avengers Disassembled. Brian Michael Bendis took over the Avengers, and one of the first things he did was a story where Hawkeye, the Vision, and the second Ant-Man were killed off, Avengers Mansion was destroyed, the Scarlet Witch went insane, and the Avengers as they were before disbanded. They were replaced by an almost completely different team.

Then there was New X-Men, formerly New X-Men:Academy X, in the wake of House of M/Decimation. It started out as a series about young mutants in a school for mutants. But then the editorially-mandated Decimation happened, depowering most of the mutants in the Marvel Universe and banishing several potential stories to What Could Have Been Land. The original creative team was booted from the book, replaced by a new creative team. The new creative team teased us that most of the now-depowered mutant characters would only be Put on a Bus, thus leaving things open for them to return. Instead, some were literally put on a bus ... and then the bus blew up, killing them all. And then two of the main characters from series were killed, for no reason other than to change the series from being about a mutant school to being a violent action series where Anyone Can Die.

The most notorious example in comic books, however, would be Emerald Twilight, where, under a new editor and a new writer, Green Lantern Hal Jordan went crazy, brutally beat and maimed several fellow Green Lanterns (and directly KILLED one of his closest friends in the Corps), killed most of the Guardians, and de-powered all Green Lanterns outside himself. The last surviving Guardian Ganthet then gave a power ring to a completely new character, Kyle Rayner. This outraged many fans, who came up with all sorts of possible retcons to explain away Hal Jordan's Face–Heel Turn. It was not until many years later, under a different editorial regime, that Hal Jordan's actions were revealed to have been caused by 'a yellow fear monster', and the Green Lantern Corps were restored.

So, are these enough examples to put this in YKTTW or wherever new tropes are suggested these days? Because I'm sure others can come up with more examples of Torch The Franchise and Take Over, the related trope.

Edited by ChrisLang Hide / Show Replies

Probably not an example. There are no details given, here or in the article which is at Mostly Harmless. What we need is Word of God cofirming it. It's most likely a reference to the sour Downer Ending in the book — Word of God puts that one down to the author having a bad year while writing the work.

• Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy: See: Mostly Harmless.

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I've been wondering whether Ultimatum, aka 'Jeph Loeb Destroys the Ultimate Marvel Universe' fits into this trope.

Jeph Loeb didn't create the characters or the universe. Yet everything I've heard about Ultimatum makes it sound like the intent was basically to trash everything. So many characters are killed off that it's almost impossible to return to the status quo or the original premise.

As a result, basically Ultimate Spider-Man is all that's left of the Ultimate universe. I don't really know the behind the scenes story. I mean, since Jeph Loeb didn't create the Ultimate universe, then clearly one of three things happened.

1. The editors approved.

2. The editors demanded this (which may make this an example of Torch the Franchise and Run).

3. The editors weren't really paying much attention.

All in all, I'm not sure if Ultimatum fits this trope, or if it's another trope entirely.