Poll: Prequels; Can they be good?

[Lightknight]

Of course they can be good. Metal Gear Solid 3 was a particular favorite of mine. Done right, a good prequel can really touch on a lot of character development and give fans a lot of what they want. Done wrong, they're unnecessary drivel trying to cash in on brand recognition.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Are you sure you didn't get this idea from Sesslar's Something? Because he just did a video asking this exact same question, and he summed up my feelings on prequels pretty well. The sense of mystery tends to be lacking from prequels. Now, there are certainly exceptions, and many of them, but a lot of the time the ultimate question of "does this person live or die?" is missing from a prequel. The reason being, of course, because of the fact that if the person is still around in the original, then they can't die. You could put the character in the most hopeless, dangerous, no-way-he's-getting-out-of-this-one situation, but it won't matter because that character can't die.

This is the main reason I stay far away from ANY Star Wars book that is written during the "Prequel" Era. I don't care how good it is, I simply can't find the strength to make myself care. Knowing that the vast majority of these characters will all be dead in a few years just kills any interest I have in their stories. On the flip side, I have read nearly every book that takes place AFTER Return of the Jedi (and several that take place in between the original movies) because those characters' fates have not been decided yet.
That's the only real reason I watch The Clone Wars. Ahsoka's fate is an unknown. She's never mentioned (that's another thing that drives me nuts about prequels--new, important characters who are never mentioned in the originals) and we have no idea what happens to her. So the mystery is still around her. Now if only the writers would actually write about her and stop making her a secondary character next to Anakin and Obi.

 

[klaynexas3]

Birth by Sleep was the best handheld Kingdom Hearts game and one I'd put up with 1 and 2

Spoiler

Look at what you have done! You made her cry! Go back to your corner.

Hey, it had a much better story and better gameplay. I'm sorry Xion, but we both knew where which I'd choose.

 

[Hugh Wright]

Are you sure you didn't get this idea from Sesslar's Something? Because he just did a video asking this exact same question.

Yeah, said I got the ideas form a video, thought it was Casual Friday, but that was the one.

Metal Gear Solid 3
Resident Evil 0
Metroid Prime (is set between Metroid and Metroid 2, so interquel?)
Halo: Reach
Halo ODST

For films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom.

Haven't played any of the games, but always though that Temple of Doom was the weakest of the trilogy (THERE ARE ONLY THREE... don't make me remember the non existent 4th movie).

Given the comments I concede that prequels can be good, so why do they suck as badly and as often as they do?

 

[Auberon]

Grabbing the Tolkien example - technically Silmarillion is the prequel, and it's awesome but suffers from biblically dry start. And Neil is working on Sandman prequel, so it can't suck at least.

 

[saintdane05]

Legend of Drizzt. Fun fact: THe first three books written were not about Drizzt. He was only a supporting character. He only got so popular because people requessted lots of stuff about him, and RA Salvatore wrote a prequel trilogy.

Legend of Drizzt: Book 1: Homeland is one of the greatest books I have ever read.

 

[Olas]

Isn't the Metroid Prime series technically a prequel to Super Metroid?

Not sure if it counts as a prequel, due to it not being the first in the series.
That would be Metroid Zero Mission, but it is set before the older Super Metroid.

And metroid Prime is awesome.

An inbetweenquel?


I like how that sounds, has a good ring to it.

Super Mario World 2: Yashi's Island

Arguably the best Mario game ever is a prequel.

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

MGS3
/thread

 

[Goofguy]

I assume you were watching Sessler's discussion on prequels over at Rev3Games? The whole time he was talking, all I could think of was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's an amazing follow up to the original Deus Ex (nope, refuse to acknowledge Invisible War) and really sets it up well as a prequel.

 

[Phlakes]

No. There is no way a prequel can ever be good. There are absolutely no circumstances under which that could happen. It's completely, unconditionally certain. It has never happened in all of history and never will.

[sub][sub][sub][sub]Why do you even need to ask?[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

No, prequels are always inherently bad.

-_-

Of course they can be good. DE:HR, as mentioned, and a lot of Metal Gear Solids come to mind. The main reason I think prequels have a hard time being good is that people have already established their views and interpretations of things in the original, and defining the backstory in greater detail is more likely to clash with those interpretations than a sequel. For example, character motivations.

 

[00slash00]

metal gear solid 3. i believe this thread is over now

 

[Silvanus]

And Neil is working on Sandman prequel, so it can't suck at least.

He... he is?! I was unaware of this, despite following the damn guy on whatever social networks I can.

This makes me inordinately happy.



OT: I actually find the concept of prequels to be a very satisfying one; gives things a sense of inevitability and nostalgia. Can anyone pass judgement on Skyward Sword here?

 

[The_Echo]

Birth by Sleep was the best handheld Kingdom Hearts game and one I'd put up with 1 and 2

Spoiler

Look at what you have done! You made her cry! Go back to your corner.

From a gameplay perspective, 358/2 Days is easily the worst handheld game in the series. Even worse than Chain of Memories.

 

[JediMB]

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Awesome despite being both a prequel and a movie license adaptation.

I also want to mention Dead Space: Extraction, which was an excellent on-rails shooter.

 

[Da Orky Man]

The usual problem I find with prequels is that they were never planned for, so its more awkward to fit them into an ongoing story without retconning every other event comic style. Sequels tend to be easier simply because our brains are built to think of time as moving forwards, as a brain well uited to time travel is rarely a good evolutionary advantage against sabre-toothed (teethed?) tigers.

 

[DrNick]

It at least partly depends on what definition of "prequel" you're using. The least restrictive definition would include things like KOTOR, which has nothing in common with Star Wars except a shared universe, largely because of the massive distance in time between the two stories. In the most restrictive definition, I would argue that a prequel is only a prequel if it involves either the same characters or the same overarching story as the original. The same logic would apply to sequels. So by that definition, Star Trek III is a sequel to Star Trek II, but Generations is a sequel to neither - it's just another story set in the Star Trek universe.

If you're using that restrictive definition, I think it becomes much harder to make a "good" prequel, if only because the original story has been told. So unless there were plot-significant unanswered questions, it's hard to see what can be gained from a prequel.

Example: The last Star Wars VHS tapes to be released before the (first) special edition came out featured an interview with George Lucas, in which he argued that the "real" story of the original trilogy was the story of "the redemption of Anakin Skywalker," which is why he "had" to make the prequels. But he was wrong - Star Wars was Luke's story, not Vader's. It would be like if Bram Stoker has written a prequel to Dracula that focused on how Dracula started out as a angelic little rascal and eventually became a vampire. And then watched the Death Star being built for some reason.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I thought Prometheus was a decent movie, for a prequel, if only lacking in horror.

Prometheus also severely lacked in honour, respect and coherence.