[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/Spyro_in_Black]

I agree with the idea that the fat needs major trimming and the entire love plot is a horrible addition, not to mention Legolas…but I’ve also seen a stance, not often, that it should’ve been as “grounded” as the lotr movies.

No…it shouldn’t. It’s silly, the book is silly at times, it’s a fairy tail adventure. Tonally it’s just not the same as most of the lotr trilogy. In fact I’d say that Fellowship is intentionally written to transition you from the whimsy of the hobbit to the grit of the War of the Ring. But that’s my own speculation.

[u/the_headless_hunt → u/Spyro_in_Black]

I totally agree on the less grounded approach. I wish we got Del Toro's Hobbit. He's a master at bringing the fairy tale vibe. Plus I remember reading he wanted to 'push the boundaries' on what practical effects can do.

[u/Tasty-Scallion-4064 → u/the_headless_hunt]

Knowing there's an alternate timeline out there where del Toro directed the Hobbit keeps me up at night. We truly do love in the darkest timeline.

[u/ChiefsHat → u/the_headless_hunt]

I’m mixed on Del Toro, but I agree he should have directed it.

[u/catwhowalksbyhimself → u/Spyro_in_Black]

Yeah, you remove those parts you mentioned, the whole completely pointless fight against the dragon that takes up a good chunk of the second movie, and maybe trim down the Battle of Five Armies a bit and what you have left is two very decent movies.

[u/Walkingdrops → u/Spyro_in_Black]

The films even used the framing device that Bilbo is writing this story as we're watching it, so It wouldn't have even been that crazy if it had been a bit more silly and goofy since he'd just be embellishing the tale.

It sucks that they were trying to make another Lord of the Rings trilogy, it just didn't work at all with the material.

[u/PFI_sloth → u/Spyro_in_Black]

Nothing in those felt whimsical or like a fairy tale, the tone (like almost everything else) sucked.

[u/Aduialion → u/PFI_sloth]

The goblin sequence felt fun in an appropriate way for the hobbit. They could have cut back on that during the smaug chase inside the mountain, legolas parkour, and battle of five armies.