Not every story needs a sequel

[@mistahsusan2650]

for aprilfools you should do a sequel to this video

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@mistahsusan2650 I like the way you think. In Spanish countries, today is the equivalent of April fool's

[@geert574]

'Not every sequel needs a story' was James Camerons mantra for Avatar 2 😂

[@leehunts4327]

He didn’t need the first one either

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

There was an Avatar 2?

[@marbellaotaiza801]

9:39 why even call The Lion King remake "live action" if it's all animated anyway?

[@DVSPress]

I guess it's the closest term to approximate what you see. "Photo realistic CGI" but it looks like garbage.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@DVSPress oh I didn't meant why you did it, I meant Disney. It's kinda false advertising.

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

I expect Disney to make Cassim and the Magic Lamp as a prequel to Aladdin one of these days. They'll make up some BS about why Cassim found Genie before Aladdin. It'll give Will Smith another post-Bad Boys job, too.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@SirGuy-Hunk they'll prolly keep making bad boys movies into the retirement house. They'll team up with Mad Uncle Marty there...

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

@@marbellaotaiza801 I'm wondering when Jazzy Jeff is going to pop into one of these movies. Bad Boys of Bel-Air sounds like a box office hit waiting to happen.

[@5BBassist4Christ]

I've always had the opinion that Pirates of the Caribbean should have been a stand alone movie. Although I can admit the brilliance of the second and third movie, to me the first is such a strong stand-alone movie that I prefer to keep it that way. As for my own writing, I've got about 6 book ideas (all separate worlds), but only one of them is going to be a "franchise". Yes, that "franchise" series is my most passionate project I've ever worked on, but everything else is best as stand alones. I like stand alone stories. It's nice to have simple scenarios or poignant themes to flesh out.

[@lukecage99]

Unbreakable comes to mind. Absolutely no need for sequels to that masterpiece.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@lukecage99 specially not one where the dude dies 🙄

[@DVSPress]

Breakable

[@marbellaotaiza801]

I would have liked a sequel to The Last Air Bender though. I never saw the anime, so I went in unbiased and didn't hate it one bit

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

I don't even bother watching Split and Glass. As far as I'm concerned Unbreakable is a standalone movie.

[@ab-gail]

Split works as a standalone anyway. Glass is the only one we don’t acknowledge.

[@hardwickebenthow]

"Go Set a Watchman" was actually a first draft for "To Kill a Mockingbird", and even has some of the same events. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is much better; Harper Lee had reimagined and improved the story quite a bit from what it was in the first draft. "Go Set a Watchman" is interesting as a curiosity (sort of like Bram Stoker's notes for "Dracula"), but shouldn't really be marketed as a true sequel. As for Henry Cavill's Highlander movie, it could go either way. Cavill seems like a smart guy and has openly pushed back against the media's "toxic fans" smear tactics. But on the other hand, he has had terrible luck with the projects he signs on to. A bunch of them ("Enola Holmes", "Argylle", "The Witcher", etc) are essentially bait-and-switches that use him to get viewers, then have have him be essentially subservient to the female characters. Chad Stahelski (who directed the John Wick movies) is the director, so the action will probably be top-notch. Stahelski has already announced that the remake will re-use Queen's songs from the original movie. I think a lot of how the movie turns out will hinge on who gets cast as Ramirez. Personally, my vote is for Antonio Banderas. I couldn't imagine a sequel to "Eyes in the Walls" or "Demon Ex Machina", but I'd like to see a sequel to "Voices of the Void". That one left me wanting more.

[@Jared_Wignall]

Some stories benefit from more than one film, show or book, while others are best left alone.

[@SoundEngraver]

Asimov destroyed his Foundation universe with his sequels and prequels. He published these 30 years after his trilogy. Whether he even wanted to or not, I'm not sure. But the series is a classic example of leaving a good story alone.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

I liked Foundation's Edge, and the prequel where Hari Seldon knocks down an emperor by suggesting him something related to taxes. I guess I like the atmosphere of decadent Trantor, but it's not on the same league as the original trilogy. I haven't read the other prequel, and Foundation and Earth is literally "The Girl Who's The Key To Everything", which is cringe, but I enjoyed the weirdness of the discoveries they make along the way...

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

Sounds like what happened to Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Harris. Both authors were more or less coerced into writing new stories for characters they had stopped writing about because of popular demand. Sherlock Holmes was brought back after falling to his death and Hannibal Lecter got a pointless prequel.

[@SoundEngraver]

@SirGuy-Hunk so unfortunate.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@SieGuy-Hunk he actually wrote in a letter to his mother how he despised Holmes because he kept him from writing "serious" stuff, like his historical novels than no one remembers and, if memory serves, she was one of the first who scolded him for the literary murder. On the other hand, he killed him on a secluded location and with no witness like, seriously? He was totally leaving a door open there.

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

@marbellaotaiza801 Yeah, probably as a failsafe in case he had to make up a new Sherlock Holmes adventure. It's probably a good idea to leave the door open a little for popular characters. Good thing Doyle didn't hit Holmes with a stick of dynamite, because he'd have had a worse time thinking up a way to bring him back.

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

Thank you for the video. I've been watching you for years now and I always enjoy what you have to say. My focus is shorter fiction that I collect into volumes, a la Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser style. I love how those shorts are collected into a series of novels, and yet each story is technically a stand alone, yet they all come together to create a larger narrative of their adventures. Conan the Cimmerian is much the same, sticking with Howard's originals, of course.

[@DVSPress]

Thanks for watching. Lots of Michael Moorcock books are that way, too - 4 stories collected into one book.

[@laristokrato106]

If you think Highlander 2 is 'peculiar' wait 'til you see what Anne Rice did to her vampire stories...

[@DVSPress]

I don't remember which book I stopped reading them. Maybe 6?

[@laristokrato106]

@@DVSPress Don't waste time reading the books; they're trash. If you're really curious, simply find a summary somewhere. I'll just mention that Anne Rice heard about Zeist and said, "Hold my beer!"

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

I recently rewatched Highlander 2 after many years. The Renegade Cut is actually pretty decent and removes the Zeist alien nonsense from the movie. Not only that, but the scene where the bum asks for a light and gets fried by the flying birdie immortal makes Highlander 2 a major win for me. The Highlander series is also peculiar in that each sequel performed worse than the previous entry, yet still kept getting greenlit. The Chronicles of Riddick series is probably giving it a run for its money, since they're still making those, too.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Henry is definitely one of our guys, and I’ll 100% trust any movie if he has any kind of control over it, because I know he’ll stick to the lore & wont create an abomination.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

This is why manga is so great, the mangaka makes a story, ends it & starts a completely new different story, whereas with comics they milk the same characters forever to the point now where it’s a complete jumbled mess & they have to reboot it every 10 years because the stories & timeline have become so convoluted. Although there are some manga where I wish it did have a sequel, like Claymore, the story has a nice ending but there could be so much more done in that universe.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

See I knew I've seen you here...

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@InfamyOrDeath-__- Some anime like Dragon Ball never seems to end. Others, like Cowboy Bebop, had the wisdom to stop at the top. Evangelion I think overstayed it's welcome with the rebuilds. Then there's weird cases like Gantz, than made just 26 episodes while the manga went for at least 200 that I knew of.

[@ab-gail]

Certain comics do have beginnings and ends. Superhero mini series and such. There’s also regular graphic novels from the US and Europe. Manga doesn’t have the monopoly on this.

[@ab-gail]

@@marbellaotaiza801 Some manga goes on for as long as it makes money. There’s been times when a story is stretched out just so readers will keep buying. That’s only the super popular stuff though.

[@jl8858]

There are some shows and movies that you can tell were supposed to be stand alones but made so much money they were basically forced to do sequels. I sometimes ignore sequels and additional seasons to shows so the original isn't ruined in my head cannon.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

The only 2 movies that I can think of that the sequel actually lived up to or even surpassed the original are Aliens & Terminator.

[@CeePea]

For franchises as well as shows and movies. Once I understood what was happening back around 2014 I terminated contact with Star Trek and Star Wars and have been able to maintain a love of both series while my friends and acquaintances talk about losing their love for things that were important to them all their lives. I never considered watching the Wheel of Time, Witcher, or LotR shows, though I love those franchises. I think we have to be very cautious about the intention of the producers; if it is made for any reason other than making a great product, avoid it. At best, it will poison your mind with their message. At worst, it will ruin something for you. Just don't participate.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

​@@InfamyOrDeath-__-and then they got greedy...

[@jl8858]

@@InfamyOrDeath-__- don't forget Shrek 2!

[@jl8858]

@@CeePea yes I am with you there. I haven't gone to see a new movie in many years because of this

[@theoldman5896]

I wish Tolkien had left it at The Hobbit.

[@gamera9774]

I was joking with some friends over Christmas about a prequel to 'A Christmas Carol' showing Marley back when he was alive and the co-owner of Scrooge's business. The really scary part is someone here is going to tell me one actually exists...

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@gamera9774 at least someone here should tell you that it's a neat idea and that he's gonna write it.

[@Caenef]

@@gamera9774 speaking of unnecessary sequels, lolcow and hefty occasional writer Patrick S. Tomlinson actually wrote a... alleged crime thriller sequel to A Christmas Carol, where a grown-up Tiny Tim goes on a murder spree to avenge the wrongful death of Scrooge. (Un)fortunately, no publishers seem to watch to touch his manuscript. Maybe by next Christmas...

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

Hollywood would do this in a second.

[@Runicen]

Well said. Think it's a question of what you want your story to do. Nothing wrong with the sort of "pulp serial" approach with a weekly adventure for characters, but this insistence on turning EVERYTHING into that means we get no big, impactful moments. There's also the "be careful what you wish for" angle for the audience. Yeah, who didn't see the end of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and think "Man, I'd love to spend more time with those characters?" Now, show of hands for how many people thought that and were even remotely pleased with what we got decades later. Could have ended the arc as a trilogy and it would have been a beautiful send-off for characters who had a great start, middle, and end. Now, the best we can hope for is damage control to unbreak what was broken by continuing.

[@dougchick8685]

I would love to read a 'Voices of the Void' sequel. Lol

[@jl8858]

@@dougchick8685 same, it was such a great story

[@OmniusDWorgen]

The Deep Time book was actually one of your best in my opinion

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@OmniusDWorgen ironically, that one was supposed to have a sequel or become a series...

[@cubiehole]

Many times a story is complete.

[@jrcrash4644]

A Highlander 2 review would be awesome. I'm genuinely curious if there's any kind of redeeming quality to it, because it seemed like such a chaotic mess of a story. I'll admit I'm such a fan of the first Highlander movie that I probably will go see the remake. Honestly there's a lot of room for improvement on the first film since so much of the lore isn't really explained. (What powers do immortals receive during a quickening exactly?) and a lot of the characters feel a little underdeveloped. Like why does Ramirez want to train MacLeod to begin with? Then you have the Kurgan who unlike the other immortals wants to resolve this destiny that they have that there can be only one, and despite being evil he has a lot of respect for the rules (even getting pissed at Connor when he wants to fight on holy ground) it seems like there was a lot more to his character, but the movie kind of just portrays him as a cackling psychopath.

[@jjohnson3469]

dun want Cavill's Highlander, some stuff should be left alone

[@iivin4233]

Well, that's funny. I thought Shallan didn't progress. I never expected her to feel better, but she does have a hard time accepting obvious facts. Although what she's dealing with is by necessity, repetive.

[@ChodeEllis]

Hey David, nice vid and totally agree, hope you and your family had a nice Christmas holiday. Just curious, have you played FF7 Rebirth/Remake and if so, what are your thoughts on it (I'm playing it now and completely torn, enjoying it for nostalgia and what it's worth but hate some elements of it and more importantly, what it represents).

[@georgebarrett2132]

Comics and YA series are the top choices for the modern age mega corps.' entertainment tentantacles to exploit. There is a virtual bottomless well of source material, mostly quota fill but enogh good also. This especially true from the nearing century old comics market. These also being the cheapest choices for these corps. since they command most of those segments' individual IP copyrights. Most importantly, their appeal is by far attracted by the most input vunerable demographic. Again, this truest of comics. in the motion picture industry this was fine until near a decade, with even all of the mcu's phase1 and the original dceu's initial installments having still been content acceptable for g and pg children.

[@bizzy5439]

This was my problem with Le Guin's earthsea cycle after the 3rd book. She regressed Ged to make political statements and it turned me off of the whole thing. Those first 3 books are wonderful tho

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Yea the Gladiator 2 movie was the stupidest thing I ever seen, and I seen in a clip they flooded the coliseum with water and had sharks in it, that couldn’t have possibly be done in reality in Rome could it?

[@Caenef]

I don't know about sharks, but supposedly they did have a system to flood the Coliseum so they could do ship battles, but that probably wasn't something they did too often.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

Not without the help of aliens of course. LoL. The sharks might be poetic loicense though...

[@SirGuy-Hunk]

They should round out the trilogy with American Gladiator. That's the only way I'll consider these sequels legit.

[@TheWolfgangGrimmer]

The flooding things did happen, and multiple times. The sharks, no. They can't survive outside of the water. There's A LOT more wrong with that film than just the shark thing, however.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

@@SirGuy-Hunk now that's an idea I can get behind. I'd love to see an Apache fight a lion at the circus maximus with one of those giant q-tips...

[@univeriseman8008]

Streaming franchises and overall verses are for profit and ip milking, the end even though this is a bigger gamble when most dont sell (case point Marvel and DC). Prose books are different. Novellas between novels and prequels are more times than not purpseful. Than theres epicsodic novels that have like 30 of those titles.

[@BrandonHainsworth]

Look I'm not saying the original trilogy was without it's flaws or the films were masterpieces, there is some ridiculous acting and moments, but they are atmospheric and exciting especially The Empire Strikes Back to watch, the prequels are filled with overly melodramatic performances, overused CG, hyperactive action scenes while the better qualities like eg Christopher Lee as a Star Wars villain, Darth Maul, Liam Neeson as Qui Gonn, the beginning of The Phantom Menace before the forest stuff and Jar Jar begins, The lightsaber fight between Maul, Obi Wan and Qui Gonn Jinn, the decoy and chase around Naboo not the Gungan stuff though feel like they belong in much better movies, there's flickers of potential but what if Star Wars (despite being numbered IV V and VI) had just stayed a trilogy?, and the less said about The Sequel Trilogy the better.

[@Zarumee]

Do you mean specific sequels, or would you also count new movies/books/games in the same franchise but different story and character? CDPR came out with a trailer for The Witcher 4, but I'm not really interested in Ciri as a protaganist. She's a good character in the books and games, but I just don't really see her as a protag. But I also don't want more Geralt because his story is over, it's done, it's complete, let the man rets. I like the world, but I'd prefer they'd do something else with a completely different character. Same thing with Mass Effect, Commander Shepard's story is over, let him rest. And Master Chief.

[@MatthewFishwick]

Some of the Zelda games have felt like that, in a sense the GameCube era collection of games for the TLoZ were complete... whether or not they represent the whole series at this point I probably would've been that teen who criticized Wind Waker but at this point, it could've been one of the series last entries (Twilight Princess was pretty mixed) Ocarina was just that impactful in laying the ground for the next two games by early 00s.

[@obscur_artiste]

I'd argue STAR WARS should've been a standalone, too.

[@minabee369]

And I'd argue that the world is a better place with its six films and the video games, comics and the expanded universe, the parody use and the fan films. When the fans got to play on the sandbox Star Wars, and live on in our imaginations that's where it should have stopped

[@jl8858]

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