History Main / TorchTheFranchiseAndRun

* Ed Boon [[http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/mortal-kombat-8/news/next-gen-mortal-kombat-reaffirmed/a-2007100312233076023/g-20070205122339792042 wanted]] ''MortalKombatArmageddon'' to do this to ''MortalKombat'' so that he can easily reboot the series with a new cast by bringing upon the apocalyptic Battle of Armageddon, a legendary conflict that promises no survivors. When this plan fell through, he proceeded differently: ''MortalKombat9'' does show that Armageddon has killed off nearly everyone... only for a dying Raiden to invoke [[ResetButton a different kind of reboot]].

* GrantMorrison ended his run on the comic book ''Doom Patrol'' by pretty much torching the place down. The leader turned out to be evil, some characters died, others were permanently exiled to another dimension. The writer who took over only had one or two characters to work with.

* Television series LaFemmeNikita, final season - {{retcon}} of key points from previous seasons, EverybodyDies, etc.

* Of all places, Litte House on the Prairie ended with the entire town being dynamited, though the cast was spared.

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* In-fiction example: in Hyperion, the poet Martin Silenus tries to do this with his stories about the end of the earth after ExecutiveMeddling forces him to turn it into a brain dead ClicheStorm.

* PeterDavid left his original run as writer on ''[[Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]]'' under unpleasant circumstances. So he killed off Betty Banner in a sudden, horrific, ironically tragic, yet not really logical way (she'd been married to Bruce for ''years.'' Why did she suddenly wake up covered with radiation burns one morning?), and then wrote his last issue as if it was ''the'' last issue, tying off all the comic's loose ends and giving everyone a very sad but definitive ending. The new writer treated David's last issue as a WhatIf and ignored it (though Betty stayed dead [[ComicBookDeath for a few years]]).

* AkiraToriyama attempted to do this via killing off Goku in the ''DragonBall'' manga. His publishers forced him to continue working on the story for several more years in a complete backfire. Not only that, but they still went on to make another anime of questionable quality without him. Poor Toryiama.
** The mistake here was killing only the hero instead of every lifeform in the franchise. As well as having death as [[DeathIsCheap an easily curable and almost always temporary condition]].

* The final episode of ''HarveyBirdman'' has the titular character being killed in a rather [[DroppedABridgeOnHim anti-climatic way]].

* Television series LaFemmeNikita, final season - main character [[CharacterDerailment out of character,]] {{retcon}} of key points from previous seasons, EverybodyDies, etc.
* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' -- Final season and a half -- CharacterDerailment of a number of people, most of the supporting cast including most of the Greek gods [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off in anticlimactic ways]] or changed beyond recognition, Xena and Gabrielle being forced to sleep for 25 years, and eventually a RedemptionEqualsDeath final episode.

** Interestingly, when his run on the much-higher-profile JusticeLeagueOfAmerica ended, he only wrote out the characters he'd introduced during his run, leaving the same core 'Big Seven' team he started with, and essentially handing the next writer a blank slate. And the only character who ''died'' was one Morrison himself had created, since the character's own commic was cancelled before it had a chance to end properly.

* AkiraToryiama attempted to do this via killing off Goku in the ''DragonBall'' manga. His publishers forced him to continue working on the story for several more years in a complete backfire. Not only that, but they still went on to make another anime of questionable quality without him. Poor Toryiama.

* Akira Toryiama attempted to do this via killing off Goku in the ''DragonBall'' manga. His publishers forced him to continue working on the story for several more years in a complete backfire. Not only that, but they still went on to make another anime of questionable quality without him. Poor Toryiama.

* L. Frank Baum was caught in a situation like this. He desperately wanted to stop writing stories about the Land of Oz, but his publisher and fans wouldn't let him. He had established that nothing dies in the land of Oz, so he couldn't kill anyone off. In the sixth book, he tried to use the LiteraryAgentHypothesis to justify never writing a single thing about Oz again because an invasion caused Oz to become isolationist and totally cut off all contact with the outside world, thus promising to never ever write another story about Oz ever again. When his other books failed to sell as well, he had to begin writing stories about Oz again to pay his bills, backpedaling and explaining that they discovered the radio in Oz that Dorothy could use to broadcast Baum news about Oz.

** The mistake here was killing only the hero instead of every lifeform in the franchise.

See also: KillEmAll, though this is done less for the story and more for the personal or legal satisfaction of the author. Related to WriterRevolt.

* Debatably done with the ''{{Mother}}'' video game series. Itoi wanted the series to end with ''{{Mother 3}}'', so he [[spoiler:destroyed what little else remained of the entire world, and failed to answer the question of [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse how the characters survived that]] - but they all personally insist to the player that they survived and they're happy. [[GainaxEnding Somehow]].]] Itoi said that the original script for the game was even darker, so the original ending was probably meant to KillEmAll.
* L. Frank Baum was caught in a situation like this. He desperately wanted to stop writing stories about the Land of Oz, but his publisher and fans wouldn't let him. He had established that nothing dies in the land of Oz, so he couldn't kill anyone off. In the sixth book, he tried to use the LiteraryAgentHypothesis to justify never writing a single thing about Oz again because an invasion caused Oz to become isolationist and totally cut off all contact with the outside world, thus promising to never ever write another story about Oz ever again. When his other books failed to sell as well, he had to begin writing stories about Oz again to pay his bills, backpedaling and explaining that they discovered the radio in Oz that Dorothy could use to broadcast Baum news about Oz.
* One of the earliest examples is SherlockHolmes' original death. Also backfired.
* In-fiction example: In StephenKing's ''Misery'', the author/main character kills off his ongoing romance character and then is forced to resurrect her by a demented fan (the Kathy Bates character in the movie).

* There was a post-apocalyptic pulp-novel series called ''The Last Ranger''. In the final novel they blew up the Earth.
* ''John Darling'' was a comic strip spin-off from ''FunkyWinkerbean'' by Tom Batiuk that ran about 12 years. Batiuk and his syndicate came into conflict over the rights so Batiuk killed off the title character and ended the strip, leaving the syndicate with a worthless property.
* The Alpha-Omega bomb in the second ''PlanetOfTheApes'' movie. Didn't work, as they made prequels afterward.

* One reason for YoshiyukiTomino's KillEmAll tendencies was a desire to avoid making sequels. It didn't stop [[{{Gundam}} one of his shows]] from becoming one of the biggest franchises in all of anime.
* Television series La Femme Nikita, final season - main character out of character, ret-con of key points from previous seasons, Everybody Dies, etc.
* The final chapter of RPGWorld was basically an extended prose "fuck you" to the readers for their not enjoying his random-events humor over the much more interesting CharacterDevelopment moments.
* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' -- Final season and a half -- CharacterDerailment of a number of people, most of the supporting cast including most of the Greek gods [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off in anticlimatic ways]] or changed beyond recognition, Xena and Gabrielle being forced to sleep for 25 years, and eventually a RedemptionEqualsDeath final episode.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' -- Final season and a half -- CharacterDerailment, most of the supporting cast, including most of the Greek gods [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off in anticlimatic ways]] or changed beyond recognition, Xena and Gabrielle being forced to sleep for 25 years, and eventually a RedemptionEqualsDeath final episode.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' -- Final season and a half -- CharacterDerailment, most of the supporting cast, including most of the Greek gods [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off in anticlimatic ways] or changed beyond recognition, Xena and Gabrielle being forced to sleep for 25 years, and eventually a RedemptionEqualsDeath final episode.

But he doesn't want anyone else being able to handle his property, even though he doesn't legally own it -- and even if he did own the franchise, what happens when his kids get their hands on the franchise after his inevitable AuthorExistenceFailure. The solution? Torch the Franchise and Run. Write one last story that totally wrecks everything. He kills off everyone he possibly can. He makes the lives of all of the characters a living hell before executing them. He makes 100% sure that everyone is dead, and those that aren't have no way of returning to the status quo or main premise of the show.

* Akira Toryiama attempted to do this via killing off Goku in the ''DragonBall'' manga. His publishers forced him to continue working on the story for several more years in a complete backfire. Not only that, but they still went on to make another anime of questionable quality without him. Poor Toryiama - The mistake here was killing only the hero instead of every lifeform in the franchise.

A writer has created a franchise, but he doesn't own the legal rights to what will happen to the franchise, The publisher does. Or maybe he shares the rights with someone else and just doesn't have as much control as he likes. He wants to stop writing it and move on to something else.

But he doesn't want anyone else being able to handle his property, even though he doesn't legally own it - and even if he did own the franchise, what happens when his kids get their hands on the franchise after his inevitable AuthorExistenceFailure. The solution? Torch the Franchise and Run. Write one last story that totally wrecks everything. He kills off everyone he possibly can. He makes the lives of all of the characters a living hell before executing them. He makes 100% sure that everyone is dead, and those that aren't have no way of returning to the status quo or main premise of the show.

* ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': See: ''MostlyHarmless''.

See also: KillEmAll, though this is done less for the story and more for the personal or legal satisfaction of the author. Related to WriterRevolt and EndMyShowWithDignity.