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[Neonivek]

So I was watching "Ever After High" in order to catch up to what shows people were watching.

And I kind of found that it sets up a lot of interesting concepts and ideas that would be incredibly interesting to follow... but the show is too vapid and simple to ever meaningfully explore them.

Yet this isn't the only time I've seen this. Fiction is rife with interesting set ups without any payoff or with unintentional quirks that bely the simple storytelling.

So for you, what is the most interesting piece of fiction you ever experienced, whether intentionally or unintentionally, but when it comes to the actual plot is as deep as a puddle?

Heck if you have a story that pretends to be simple and vapid but is in fact deep, bonus points as well! (One Punch Man for example)

[Trapezohedron]

The Familiar of Zero/Zero no Tsukaima

I mean, seriously. The IDEA IS ALREADY FRAKKIN' THERE why did you go for harem hijinks instead. Then again, main author passed away before the series could be completed properly, so yeah.

:/

[Neonivek]

Yep...

Let me add Dungeon to the same pile of "Could have been great, but decided Harem Antics were much more interesting"

[Fniff]

To be honest? Even though I like the game, Bioshock Infinite. Specifically, Vigors; in the game, they're basically superpowers in a bottle.

During the viral marketing for that, people were trying to come up with reasons for the existence of vigors and came up with a lot of cool ideas for it. My favorite is probably the concept that it switches out your body with another version in a universe when people can shoot lightening/fire/crows.

My vaguely Prachettian theory was that conventional reality in Colombia no longer exists; there is no reality, only a popular consensus. So, when a snake oil merchant starts peddling some snake oil they call "vigors" and tell everyone that it gives you superpowers... Now everyone has superpowers because they believed the lies.

All this... And they went with the most boring possible result.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The creator of the Vigors stole it from another universe. Not just any universe, the universe of the previous game. Needlessly self-referential and unintentionally highlighting how much better Bioshock 1 was at integrating it's various ideas into one cohesive whole.

[Zangi]

All the anime/manga that could have been good, but end up catering to the lowest common denominator.  Harem shit / protagonist is you('normal' but actually awesome teenage person)

[Tawa]

Does My Immortal count?

I'd probably say a lot of the old Sherlock Holmes stories, although I can't think of specifics. They could have been great a lot of the time, but often they were ruined by a rather unintuitive plot setup; they usually go something like "Watson bumbles around while Sherlock does meaningful things Watson doesn't see/ignores, then Sherlock does something dramatic and tells everybody why he did it, which is invariably at least partially based on reasons the reader never sees."

Spoiler: The Final Problem (click to show/hide)

In the last of the "original" stories (before Doyle brought Holmes back by retconning Japanese wrestling skills onto him,) Watson misses the climax and reads a note explaining what happened, that Moriarty let Holmes write before trying to throw him off a bridge, for some reason. "Yeah! Let's let him leave evidence implicating me!"

I know it popularized the genre, but, really, you'd think he'd at least give the reader an opportunity to solve it themselves. The fun seems to be intended to come from seeing how "brilliant" Sherlock is, rather than by solving the mystery or having other memorable characters.

[Neonivek]

Sherlock Holmes is sort of a different style of detective story.

It wouldn't matter if they gave you extra information because Sherlock's level of deduction is... ridiculous in that what he says is ridiculous.

Would you think a worn out fancy hat means that the guy used to be rich and then became poor? or would you think one of the many other explanations such as
1) The man is frugal to a fault
2) The man bought it from a bargain bin
3) It is his favorite hat and isn't as worn as he says
4) He just likes fancy hats and saved for it.

[Bohandas]

Does Aqua Teen Hunger Force count? They're often this intentionally for laughs, with all sorts of fantastic backstories and lore being set out only to be immediately contradicted or discarded in the next scene (especially in the movie which had at least 4 different mutually contradictory stories about where the Aqua Teens came from (or 5 if you cpunt the long winded story at the beginning that was supposed to explain their origin but actually didn't) as well as having several highly questionable legends recounted by by the malfunctioning Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From The Future)

[Reelya]

To be honest? Even though I like the game, Bioshock Infinite. Specifically, Vigors; in the game, they're basically superpowers in a bottle.

Yeah, I heard some criticism about the crafting system too. In System/Bio Shock series you're on/in a derelict spaceship/city and you scavenge spare parts from bins, which makes sense. You're in a post-apocalyptic scenario and making the most of limited ad-hoc resources.

But Bioshock Infinite is set in a functional city yet you're still a bin-scavenger just because that's what you do in "Shock" games, even though being a tramp who scavenges bins in a perfectly functional city yet also shoots down thousands of cops makes very little sense: "I'm going down the street, armed to the teeth, oh I got in a shootout with the cops! Oh, there's a bin, I better have a quick rummage around to see if there's any cool shit in there!"

So there's this tendency to reboot a series but you absolutely have to recreate all the game mechanics rather than try something new, even if the game mechanics no longer make sense in the new setting.

[Neonivek]

Look Bioshock infinite is MADE out of Nonsensium. May I add that this is the game where the in universe equivalent of the Boy Scouts are a psychotic cult that leave rotten meat and fruit, don't clean, and wear head concealing masks for no purpose then to look evil?

The entire game is made of that.

-Heck a cult by even the universe's standards COULD have been interesting. The fact that they are a public institution and generally accepted by society is dumb.
-A Giant mechanical robot protecting the cities biggest asset is cool! The fact that this bird has no issue killing said asset or destroying the building NOR has the ability to traverse its own environment is dumb.
-Powers being sold or even given away for free along with recharge stations located around the city. The fact that almost no one uses it is dumb.

Bioshock infinite could have been good, but it is dumb.

[scrdest]

To be honest? Even though I like the game, Bioshock Infinite. Specifically, Vigors; in the game, they're basically superpowers in a bottle.

Yeah, I heard some criticism about the crafting system too. In System/Bio Shock series you're on/in a derelict spaceship/city and you scavenge spare parts from bins, which makes sense. You're in a post-apocalyptic scenario and making the most of limited ad-hoc resources.

But Bioshock Infinite is set in a functional city yet you're still a bin-scavenger just because that's what you do in "Shock" games, even though being a tramp who scavenges bins in a perfectly functional city yet also shoots down thousands of cops makes very little sense: "I'm going down the street, armed to the teeth, oh I got in a shootout with the cops! Oh, there's a bin, I better have a quick rummage around to see if there's any cool shit in there!"

So there's this tendency to reboot a series but you absolutely have to recreate all the game mechanics rather than try something new, even if the game mechanics no longer make sense in the new setting.

It actually struck me when I was watching an LP of Infinite - I've been wondering if that was supposed to poke fun at how the protag is literally acting like a murderhobo, but... nope, played straight.

[itisnotlogical]

Monster Musume. Even though it had the obligatory "it's the finale so we have to be serious" last episode, Monmusu was shameless softcore porn from start to finish. On the other hand it also had a lot of funny gags and memorable characters, which is more than can be said for a majority of harem romcom anime.