Sequels

A couple of weeks ago I was on my computer reading some column by Benjamin “Yahtzee” Croshaw; a revered game critic, who brought up a good point, he said the words,

"Now I want you to imagine something with me, imagine a world where sequels are banned, would this not be a beautiful place? Sure, we’d miss out on genuinely good sequels like: Thief 2 or Half-Life 2 but I think that’s a small price to pay. Every story would be fresh so the writers would have to work extra hard to make the characters relatable, with no sequels there would be no franchises so there’d be less fandom and all the nerds will go off and become doctors and scientists and rid the world of all diseases but best of all endings would have to have some closure. Under this regime all games that end with the ambiguous to be continued BS when they don’t even have any idea if they’re going to make a sequel will be punishable by prison time. Cautions would be given for recurring themes and metaphors and remakes would receive the death penalty."

A good point he made there-- it’s no new news that the entertainment industry leans on sequels the same way a legless man would lean on two flimsy crutches. Now don’t get me wrong, there have been many great movies, books, video games etc. (i.e The Dark Knight, Speaker for the Dead, The Elder Scrolls IV) but roughly 90% of sequels are botched.

The reason being is that while many see their past work as something to live up to, it should really be considered something to augment and improve upon, if all we did was rehash old jokes and story lines without experimenting with something new then we’re pretty much just following in George Lucas’s steps aren’t we?

And another thing that people don’t understand is that due to the context some stories shouldn’t have sequels, would Hamlet be improved if he sprang back to life and went on a journey to mars? (actually that’s not bad...)

Unfortunately we live in an era where writers and producers are too lazy to make anything new and original..

As I said before though, some series benefit from a sequel, it’s a good opportunity to add more depth to the characters and the world around them.

But alas that’s hardly the case.. So for now I’m going to stick around and wait for something truly original to catch my eye..which probably won’t be for awhile.