There is this cancer that is antithetical to the media world, this cancer is: continuation


While this probably always lasted in some form in another in media, products and even ideas that have long lived past its prime. It has reaped some of the most known and visible damage in the narrative mediums that it infests and ultimately consumes. I don't use cancer lightly, it is the perfect analogue. Many will blame marketing but marketing is but one fang of the snake, artist and general audiences have been guilty of planting this poison in everything.


The most clear example I can think of the top of my head is comics. Comics has iconic characters, literally iconic in the sense that they have nickanmes, gimmicky powers, sometimes inherent quirks or traits to grab your eye. Just like Steven Hawking gained popularity not just on the backbone of his own genius but because he has these big, bold traits to him just on first sight,ear and mind in his conversations. 

So do all these characters. Problem is comics rarely move on. It's fucking creepy. No one dies anymore, nothing is consistent. The world just reset or always have some sort of action or event that rewinds or hand waves an impending consequence. It's a festering zombie that is kept alive by marketing and shambles about thanks to its fanatic audience. There is no point in villains or hero clashing, either against each other because NO ONE will die. Not even the by standers whom the company bother to name and if by some off chance they do. It will be all reset.


This creeped into TV too. Look at Doctor Who. An iconic character, an iconic series of traits that make him likable and memorable. I love doctor who but as the years went on he slowly transformed from this genius doctor with doors to our wildest dreams and to weird new wonders into this man that can basically use the same tactic on everything. I don't recall ONE episode that came out in the last 2 or 3 seasons that didn't avert the doctor being immediately shot by a major threat...especially homicidal ones like the Daleks or Cybermen because somehow...they're scared of him even when unarmed. He dosen't ingeniously sneak by or outsmart them. It's all just bluffing and pseudo techno babble with most of its guts spared to ellude to supposedly beyond compression technology. 

They're the fucking daleks. They have no reason, NO reason to not shoot the Doctor on sight. And, sure. There are some exceptions to this when the Doctor does show or announce he has a device or bomb that can stop them. The worst part is that it extends to all his normal female companions.  It undermines actual threats into angry therapist who are aggressively seeking a good chin wag.


In fact it's so bad I KNOW that the characters who I am meant to be invested in WILL HAVE NO EFFECT if it ties to other known /iconic actors. You hope for throw away ideas or characters just so there'd be some actual settled consequence or decisions.

but now it's spreading to games. It undermines your actions because even if it meant to add additional game play, effectively after you do every quest and every story line. After in the story itself you done all this dramatic shit. You suddenly find yourself unable to actually effect this endless cycle of events. It's this weird sort of divide between the game...supposedly you changed the world in your area...but the game is uneffected. It continues on. It dosen't die, it does not compute that you have completed the equation. You are powerless to secure this small area from being attacked by thief apparently but no...killing a demi god or single handedly winning a war. No problem.



I feel like I'm slowly descending into some weird version of hell. Like Satan is preparing me for the torture to come. Where I'll be forced into stimulation deprivation torture by being stuck in endless, repeating cycles of anyting on a screen or paper I can enjoy.