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The original was posted on /r/characterrant by /u/Animeking1108 on 2023-10-06 23:16:25.

As Obi-Wan once said, “you became what you swore to destroy.” Today, I’m ranting about stories that have done just that.

A good example is Shrek. When Shrek was new, it was considered the Anti-Disney, brought to life by many disgruntled former Disney employees who just wanted Michael Eisner to get eaten by a dragon. It satirized a lot of fairy tale cliches, as well as Disney’s marketing politics. Many credit Shrek for being why animated movies steered clear of unironic fantasy and started a wave of snarky, pop-culture reference heavy animated films throughout the '00s.

At first, the misaimed satire was exclusive to the movie’s marketing. The story mocked how overly corporate Disney was while the executives churned out merchandise. However, the story started to get affected by Shrek the Third. The humor was a lot more safe, the princesses get a Girl Power scene, and the ogre babies just reeked of onions and merchandise bait. By Shrek 4, the writers realized they lost their way and essentially made Shrek’s marketability being the source of his midlife crisis in the story, particularly with “now I’m just a jolly green joke” rant.

Another franchise that went from telling a joke to becoming the joke is Ratchet & Clank. R&C was to sci-fi what Shrek was to fantasy. The games spoofed a lot of sci-fi tropes, Ratchet was less Luke Skywalker and more Anakin Skywalker with less murder, and most of the villains in the PS2 era were either corporate executives or celebrities. Then, once the franchise made the jump to HD, it started taking itself more seriously. Ratchet is retconned into being the Last Of His Kind (you know, despite not being surprised that Angela was a Lombax in the second game), the corporate satire is gone, there’s a Chosen One plot, Clank now a deity or some shit, and Ratchet becomes more and more of a goody two shoes, especially in the movie.

My final example was originally going to be on Evangelion. However, after doing some research for this post, I learned that the dark deconstruction Evangelion was known for was actually an accident. Hideki Anno wanted to tell a more optimistic story, but personal behind the scenes frustrations and depression led to the final product. As time went by, Anno’s depression was under control and he wanted to tell a less depressing take on EVA, which led to Rebuild Of Evangelion. Considering what Anno went through behind the scenes of the franchise, I thought it would be in bad taste to take the piss out of his recovery. But I will take the piss out of the studio whoring the franchise out and turning it into an otaku pandering toy commercial.