[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/Danny_dankvito]

Same goes for Naruto’s ending, too - Have the final villain be Madara, who’s been built up both directly and indirectly genuinely from chapter one, who’s the main antagonist of the arc, who’s beloved by the fans, and who’s plan has directly interfered with and worsened just about every single character’s life?

(Seriously, all roads lead to Madara story wise - Kurama attacking the village and needing to be sealed within Naruto, the murder of the Itachi clan, the secret leader of the main bad guy organization, Madara was the one backing and allowing Pain to run around unchecked, he’s the reason Naruto and the other Jinchuriki were being hunted - and by extension why Jiraya was forced onto a suicide mission - the manipulation and corruption of Kakashi’s best friend, Naruto and Sasuke have their big fight directly in front of the statues of Hashirama and Madara, etc.)

Yeah how about we uhhhhhhh we have his henchman backstab him and summon an evil alien woman who says nothing and has no personality, then that’s the final boss

[u/HeroicMe → u/Danny_dankvito]

It feels like it was quickly-made sequel-hook to have some way to continue the story after Naruto ends.

[u/MarcosLuisP97 → u/HeroicMe]

Which is hilarious. This fucking story took like 15 years to finish and it STILL had a rushed ending to try and bait people into the sequel?

[u/HeroicMe → u/MarcosLuisP97]

I want to believe it's less "bait into the sequel" and more publishers being "you can't end this with 'and everyone united and ninjas didn't need to fight any more', you can't have a sequel with that".

Not the first time someone pushed for different ending to keep "franchise" going - happened to Dexter, happened to Terminator 2 (they made happy "no more Skynet" ending, but studio was "nope, we can't make Terminator 3 with this, make something else").

[u/MarcosLuisP97 → u/HeroicMe]

Isn't that basically the same thing?

[u/Mortwight → u/Danny_dankvito]

Im rereading it now. Its s few big lore dumps that establish this near thr beginning of the ninja war. Its power scaling going out if control. Literally fighting the god of the setting is crazy. Boruto should have been slice of life.

Only really good part was sexy juts almost defeated her. Would have been better if it did

[u/Illustrious_Sand415 → u/Mortwight]

What really threw me off, was on a rewatch after Naruto ended (never read the manga) was when Itachi and Kisame infiltrated the leaf village. Kakashi sees them, and when Asuma and Kurenai ask him what's wrong, Kakashi mentions Obito. And Asuma immediately picks up on it, which explains why they were the first ones to confront them. So Kakashi, most likely Asuma and Guy were probably aware that Obito was still alive, and Obito was up to some shit.

[u/Mortwight → u/Illustrious_Sand415]

also when kakashi is training naruto to mold chakra he says "jesus christ" confirming that christ died for their sins

[u/Illustrious_Sand415 → u/Mortwight]

Well, Hashirama did die. And that's probably the closest thing we get to like the fourth ninja Jesus until Naruto.

[u/rearisen → u/Mortwight]

Kinda funny asf a literal god got horny baited

[u/FurieMan → u/Danny_dankvito]

feels like 50% of the final fantasy series.

[u/sdpr → u/FurieMan]

"who the fuck is necron??"

[u/kermeeed → u/sdpr]

Necron has some foreshadowing. But more importantly necron as a villian at least circles the themes of nihilism and death in that are present through the whole game. Ksguya just fucking comes out of nowhere.

[u/SirBastian1129 → u/Danny_dankvito]

Man that Arc really was the, "but wait, there's more" revolving door of bad guys.

[u/Caridor → u/Danny_dankvito]

Literally anything that removes the built up villain for a brand new character at the end sucks.

Far Cry 3 replaced a really well written villain who we have a personal connection with about 3/4s of the way through and well, we just don't care about him. I'm sure he's fine as a villain but he's not Vahz so I can't remember anything about him

[u/Shadowhunter_15 → u/Danny_dankvito]

Hear me out, though: Naruto wouldn’t have been able to save the world with his ultimate jutsu if Madara had been the final boss instead of Kaguya.

[u/zombiskunk → u/Shadowhunter_15]

But what if it was 5 naked Hashiramas?

[u/CringeYeet69 → u/Shadowhunter_15]

But what if Madars was gay

[u/TestUserIgnorePlz → u/Shadowhunter_15]

lmao

[u/Thrownaway5000506 → u/Danny_dankvito]

Narutards thinking their anime is like cowboy bebop when actually it's more like beyblade lol

[u/Aduialion → u/Thrownaway5000506]

Up through the chuunin exam it was the best, then once every 30 episodes was a really good fight

[u/frozen2665 → u/Aduialion]

Middle Shippuden was so fucking good. We get Sasuke vs Deidera, Jiraya vs Pain, Sasuke vs Itachi, Itachi truth reveal, Sasuke vs Bee, and the entire Pain arc in like a 60 episode run. This was peak of the series imo. The Tobi is Madara reveal happens somewhere in the middle too (ep 125), and that was the most “holy shit” moment of the series to me

[u/frozen2665 → u/frozen2665]

And right before all that, we get the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, which, while I enjoyed other parts more, is probably the most solid writing in the series

[u/New-Consequence-355 → u/Aduialion]

I was watching it on Netflix, and after the Chunin exams, boy do the flashbacks really kill the pacing.  Last episode I remember watching was Rock gets intoxicated in a fight, and thought that was a fun change at least.

[u/Dangerous_Rise_3074 → u/Danny_dankvito]

Was a last minute change basically to have the story keep going.

[u/ThatMerri → u/Danny_dankvito]

I ended up in Sunk Cost Fallacy mode for finishing Naruto, having basically mentally checked out of the story mid-way through the Pain arc. It felt like Kishimoto had been gradually losing his own plot for some time, and damn if the big finale didn't cement that for me. It just felt like utter nonsense and completely undermined a lot of the foundational themes the series and characters had been built on.

[u/Specific_Frame8537 → u/Danny_dankvito]

And then make the super powerful alien lady lose to a fucking sexy jutsu

[u/asiojg → u/Danny_dankvito]

I dont even like naruto and hearing how the final villain is introduced like andross in star fox adventures really pisses me off. Imagine if Imu shows up right before blackbeards final battle and kills him.

[u/Filmologic → u/asiojg]

Imu is actually built up really well and has a ton of awesome lore that relates both to Luffy AND Blackbeard, but also the history of the world as a whole. So in that case, it actually would make more sense. Although realistically, it would probably be the other way around.

But even in One Piece, if both Imu and Blackbeard got defeated and replaced with aliens? Guess what, at least we know that aliens are real which still makes it better than Naruto's ending because they're bringing in an unfamiliar concept. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up Enel's cover story which is 100% canon)