Broken Premises can Damage Stories

Hi, so this is an experiment with writing out some of my takes over making them all into video form. I think the first one will be for all but afterwards I might move it up to three dollar Patrons, sorry :( 

These might one day become scripts but as of now they are just for my wonderful patrons; though as a result expect them to be a bit less structured than my usual fair. 

So what is a broken premise? 

Well, to my reckoning its when a series introduces its premise, IE its cast, world, how it functions and the general overview of what we can expect from it. Then radically changes things to the point where the initial premise is no longer applicable. 

Just to be clear, this is not talking about 'twists' in the traditional sense, this is more like a steady evolution of genre and premise and its not always bad. 

A good example would be RWBY, it gives us a world, a cast, a general framework for them to operate within and explore as well as challenges to face. 

The story evolves organically to reveal greater scope threats and overarching storylines, but the core premise remains true. 

Ruby's silver eyes are only situationally useful, no one has become a Maiden, Maidens can still be defeated by a team of normals. 

The world hasn't radically evolved to the point where the current world is unrecognizable to the start of the series.  The core structure of the series premise remains solid. 

In contrast there are two shows I will use as examples of broken premises that either I don't think worked, or that drove me away from a show before even engaging with it. 

In the latter case this is not a commentary on the shows quality, or other drama surrounding it, merely the impact what I read in the outline had on me as a potential viewer. 

Naruto (Which I watched) & Attack on Titan. 

Naruto started out as ninja kids in a ninja world doing ninja missions. 

The MC had a demon sealed inside him but it was unclear at first what that would mean and his rival had some kind of dark backstory. 

The first major arc involved confronting the realities of their career, the reality that Shinobi are dehumanized and the world can be quite brutal. 

The series sort of persists with this in the Chunin Exams, though its tone often struggles with its world building (Looking at you Hyuga Slave Brand) and the introduction of increasingly OP ninja stuff due to Shounen escalation. 

But it mostly kept to its original premise even as the main characters lives got more complicated and the story more about them over how they engage with the world. 

Then Shippuden comes out and the MC is cloaking himself in demon Chakra and obliterating landscapes, pretty much the entire plot revolves the personal drama of the MC & his rival. Or is tied to ideological super ninja with layers upon layers of conspiracies and a strong focus on a vaguely defined concept of pieces or apocalyptic Shenadigans. 

Pretty much all the stuff introduced at the start of the series had either faded to the point of near total unimportance (Shinobi missions, politics, money, their treatment) and the battles had mostly become theatrical super powered duels where people argue life philosophy. 

We had 'some' of that in the Wave Arc, but it was very circumstantial. 

So overall the series became harder and harder to recognize. This wasn't just an evolution but it felt more like a total shift from one series to another. 

Attack on Titan was, at first, advertised as a sort of grim but exciting setting. Where massive monsters called titans would invade cities and eat people and were ought by steam powered parkour sword wielders who Spiderman all over them. 

That's an awesome premise and knowing there's unique forms of Titans out there gives the potential for the world to open up more over time. 

Buuut, the MC was devoured in fairly short order, and then seemed to become a Titan, or fleck mech as I call it, and it feels like an abrupt shift in premise. 

Again I haven't watched it so I can't say for sure, but the knowledge this happened was enough to make me lose interest all on my own. 

Cos you see, the premises alone were strong, they didn't need to radically evolve into something else cos you could already tell amazing stories with that set up. 

RWBY again is in this situation, if the writers had wanted to they could have had season villains, or multiple different arc villains and not introduced Maidens or Relics and the overall premise and function would still be held to and could still be great. 

What differentiates it to me is that RWBY's evolution into a sort of post apocalypse of a high fantasy is that doing so didn't radically change how the series works or its premise, while it does so for other series. 

Honestly, I wonder if this is why Pokemon has such staying power? 

Its a rock solid premise and the writers never felt the need to shake it up, twist it around or turn it into something else and it works. It might be a bit repetitive but its still going. 

So yeah, that's my thoughts on the matter, feel free to share your own!