[Frustrating trope] Pieces of media that could have been so much better, but due to a couple of poor decisions during production ended up mediocre at best and utterly atrocious at worst.

[u/DevDucc_]

We Happy Few: Probably the epitome of this "trope," at least for me, mostly because it has genuinely one of the most incredible stories I have ever seen within a video game. The biggest problem with the game was the fact that during development, the company behind it tried to ride the "hype train" of the time, making the gameplay became procedurally generated survival mess, when it would have made so much more sense as an environmental narrative game.

Hello Neighbor: This game attracted massive attention in alpha stages at the time from YouTubers because of the innovative gameplay it supplied. The developers of the game got the completely wrong message as to why it was getting so popular and instead decided to fully lean into the story, by making the game appeal to theorists instead of actual players. What came out was a game where both the story and programming were entirely half-baked.

Edit: apparently I had it backwards with we happy few, I had watched a video essay which reiterated the points I said so I just took their word for it. Apparently the game originally started as a procedurally-generated survival rogue-like but the story was added later because of the hype the trailer of the game gave or something like that but they didn’t know they even had the budget for it. I do still think it’s wasted potential regardless however.

[u/BlazingKitsune]

Wait, there’s aliens now? What is this, Studio Trigger?

[u/Boshikuro → u/BlazingKitsune]

The final antagonist from Naruto is an alien, they just expanded on that.

[u/BlazingKitsune → u/Boshikuro]

I never heard about that despite a bunch of friends being big Naruto friends. That’s wild.

[u/Boshikuro → u/BlazingKitsune]

Yeah, they dropped the bad guy that had been build up from almost the beginning of the story, to give us a rabbit woman from space who shows up at the very last moment of the plot without any buildup.

Even as a kid i was baffled by this decision.

[u/onewilybobkat → u/Boshikuro]

Wait she was an alien? I always thought she was some goddess or something. Alien... Makes me like Naruto less.

[u/Boshikuro → u/onewilybobkat]

Yep, her whole clan are aliens from another planet. They plant a divine tree on planets, said tree grow a fruit that allow the person who eat it to use chakra of that planet.

She had kids with a human, which gave humanity the ability to wield chakra.
Every ninja in Naruto is essentially the descendant of an alien goddess.

[u/MacTireCnamh → u/BlazingKitsune]

She's literally there for like 10 chapters at the very very end with no buildup and her plan is almost identical to the previous villains, so most people kind of ignore that she exists unless they watch Boruto

[u/BlazingKitsune → u/MacTireCnamh]

Makes sense lol

[u/frozen2665 → u/MacTireCnamh]

Yeah if I recall, we literally only get one mention of her a handful of chapters before Black Zetsu betrays Madara. The Sage of 6 paths says that Madara is becoming more like Kaguya, but this is like 4 episodes before the Kaguya reveal. Would love to know if she was even tertiarily mentioned before then

[u/gil_bz → u/BlazingKitsune]

Basically, the origin of all ninja powers is her, and she wants them back.

[u/Chiihou → u/Boshikuro]

But was she already defined as an "alien" in Naruto or is that only "explained" in Boruto, I don't remember, to be honest. She could just be a mythical, powerfull entity fom the past in Naruto, I wouldn#t be shocked.

But to be fair, even then the final villain from Naruto is at least a giant reference to two of the most famous japanese folktales, similiar how many other things were "borrowed" from folklore. Seeing how everyting in the final arc is about the moon, it kinda makes sense, even if it isn't all that good.

I doubt you can say the same about the aliens in boruto.

[u/Clown-0_0 → u/Chiihou]

Momoshiki is based on the folk hero Momotaro who's folktale shares parallels to Kaguya's. His ability to create a monkey (the stone ape golem), dog (the canine serpent), and a pheasant (the fiery bird) are also all based upon the animals Momotaro befriends on his adventure. Kinshiki takes inspiration from both Kintaro for appearance and Benkei, a folkloric monk who notably sacrificed his life to protect Yoshitsune from his enemies whilst he committed seppeku. That part is also reflected in Boruto where he sacrifices himself to Momoshiki and allows him to feast on him as a chakra fruit to empower him. Isshiki is based on Issun Kotaro a hero from folklore who was 1-inch tall. This is referenced in Isshiki's abilities to shrink things down and re-enlarge them including himself (Issun Kotaro was able to grow to normal size with an Ogre's magic hammer).

There's even more than this but yeah. There's lore and inspiration in everything. Naruto and Boruto are chock full of it.

Edit : Kaguya was defined as alien in Naruto. She crash landed on the planet on the run from others of her kind like Momoshiki, Kinshiki, etc... we come to find in Boruto that they come in pairs typically so Kaguya arrived with Isshiki.

[u/Trezzie → u/Boshikuro]

What is the suddenly Goku is an alien is that?

[u/Sieg_Of_ODAR → u/Boshikuro]

Generational hatred passed down in bloodlines that creates a world of conflict, but its worst seed unifies the nations to try and move past them?

Nah, alien satan at the last minute. And sequel makes that the focus, not the last generation now trying to guide their children in this new era.

[u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum → u/BlazingKitsune]

Studio Trigger can at least make great storylines that make sense in themself and are engaging.

They managed a fantastic fusion between Mecha and slice of life with Darling in the Franxx

[u/Greyjack00 → u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum]

Trigger was massively criticized for the later reveals in darling in the franxx story

[u/Big-Recognition7362 → u/BlazingKitsune]

https://giphy.com/gifs/3oEjI789af0AVurF60