safari invasion

I'm not just talking about literature here either. Whether someone reads something, watches a film, whatever the case may be, the odds are that the person will say it wasn't as good as the first.

Why do you think it is that sequels have a tendency to disappoint? What do you think are some good elements a sequel must have as opposed to things they must avoid?

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tcaptain

Personally when a sequel disappoints (this is mostly for movies, but also happens in books as well) is when you have the strong impression that the sequel was made for the sole reason that the original was successful.

You see that too many times, something makes money so you will be flooded with more of it...usually the creative direction will have been decided not by the creator but by a marketing exec or worse a committee.

GOOD sequels take you back into a world that engaged you, lets you get re-acquainted with characters you loved and lets you get to know them a little more.

That's my opinion at least.

gabriella

I'm not sure what you mean, exactly.

Do you mean like a trilogy, what I expect in the second book and third book? If that's the case, then something major should be accomplished at the end - the Dragonlance Legends does that beautifully. This may be a personal preference, but at the end of the book I want all the subplots to tie together, but the main plot needs to be left hanging so far out that people want to get into a book.

Or do you mean an entirely different plot? If that's the case, then it has to show us things that we didn't see in the first one. Shrek 2, I think, is one of the very few movies where everyone loved the second one more. Sometimes, though, it's better to leave the thing as a solo. Something drastic has to change with the character. In Robin Hobb's The Tawny Man Series, it's a sequel to the Farseer Trilogy. It's a good series so far, because it introduces problems that amounted in the first series... it's not just a new problem the character is facing, but the character still develops in it.

Hope that helps some.

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DawnMorningStar

I think the biggest factor in a sequel's success is whether or not the plot is fresh. In movies that we love, we're introduced to something new. We meet cool new characters, we get to know their world, and there's an interesting, engaging storyline. A lot of times in sequels, there isn't really anything new to peak our interest. Sure, the plot's a bit different, but it's usually written in a way that simply continues the plot of the previous work. Maybe introducing some interesting new characters, adding things to their world that weren't shown before, or providing the characters with a whole new and completely different conflict would help to keep the sequel interesting and prevent it from becoming stale.

Spudley

When a sequel is a flop, it is almost always because of one thing: The characters have already been defined in the original, and there's nothing more the writers could add to them.

Forget about new plots, new revalations or new jokes, if you don't have anything new to say about the characters - if you can't develop them any futher - then there's no point making a sequel.

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Talia_Brie

Spot on. =D>

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stiltzkin

I couldn't agree more. It happens in every form of media - literature, movies, videogames.

The best sequels, like gabriella said, keep developing the characters, usually in an unexpected way - take Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings - compare the character Frodo Baggins in the first volume The Fellowship of the Ring to who he is in The Return of the King - the same goes for all of the characters in the book.

What do I look for in a sequel? Evolution.

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Emma LB

Well, I'm not sure about films, but I think they often disappoint because what makes most films special is that they are somehow different from all the others, but the sequel will be like the first part and so it won't be anything new anymore.
Books are a bit different. In a book you have more time to develop characters and so on, the reader ends up caring about the characters, their city or their country or whatever if it’s done well. So at the end of the book you’re left wanting to know more. In the good sequels I’ve read the characters were already very dear to the reader and so they didn’t mind reading 200 to 300 pages just on the main characters life before the actually action starts. Of course the sequel needs a story that is in line with what happened in the original, but most of all I think it somehow has to continue with the characters/worlds that the reader has started to love (as in not the son of some guy or his love as ‘new’ main characters). I love reading sequels like that.

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Aubrey

In sequels...hmmm. I like to see the return of a favorite character, perhaps. Nothing too overdone. Especially if they are not meant to play a big part in the sequel, just enough for them to do what they have to and then possibly gracefully fade out.

I also like to see new, original characters too. And this goes for both film and books. Well thought out and well read/played characters are an important must for me in the story/movie if I'm to watch/read it.

--Wol

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bbgun

I think that a sequel should add up to its predesesor, but at the same time it should have it's own style. While writing it you should look back on you're previous writings frequently, but not try and copy them.

I try to map out the sequel before I map out the origional in my writing, I find that it gives me something to look foward to.

Ben Beach

Ralizah

Sequels... depends on what kind of sequel.

Most sequels are created to extend an already complete story out further. Art should only be as long as its original intention.

If it's a continuation of a segment incomplete by itself, say like Star Wars or Kill Bill, then the level of quality usually remains on a steady level.

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Havoc

Plain and simple what I want in a sequel:

I want a few good link backs to the original story, its a sequel afterall, not just anohter story with the same characters.

The main characters should be given even more depth then they already had. We have to keep learning from them.

Maybe but the character in a situation he isn't ready to face yet, unlike in the first story...

New characters, new story line and a new plot ofcourse speak for themselfs.

gabriella

On second thought, there's another thing I want mentioned in a sequel - I want a problem to arise from the previous story's ending. For example, I'm reading the Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobbs which is the sequeel to the Farseer Trilogy (never read yet, but I already know most of what happens.) And I know that in the first series, the main character ends up changing his name to live a peaceful life. In the second book, it turns out changing his name wasn't the best thing to do and he misses all his friends, because everybody thinks he's dead, so he can't see them.

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FieryHands

I was reading some Robertson Davies a while back and his Deptford trilogy was setup as a continuation of the same story, but told from different perspectives, looking at the same incident differently. I wish knew where I put the books. But in terms of movies, I liked Toy Story 2 and X2 better than the first. X2 expanded upon the first movie and brought in new characters and followed old storylines while introducing new. The movie engaged and went somewhere. Many movie sequels do not and just rehash the same thing with less heart and more hollywood cliches.

I figure this sequel business boils down to that there has to be some place the story needs to go and more the characters still need to do.

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Mr. Arson

Have any of you perchance read CS Lewis' essay "On Stories". It might provide an interesting perspective for your discussion.

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