A work, creator, or genre is Condemned by History when Hype Backlash makes it go from hugely popular to almost universally hated, to the extreme point of being a pariah, with little to no chance of ever making a comeback. This is the most important criteria. However, there are many ways that this can happen.
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Gimmicks
Relying too much on the Dancing Bear can backfire in the long run. A film, TV show, or video game that was created to show off new special effects, technologies, or techniques can suffer from this once these elements become old news or, worse, outdated, especially if they have nothing else to fall back on. A work that was acclaimed as a great story in its own right and which just so happens to also be a landmark in the development of special effects is far more likely to stand the test of time. This is why we are still talking about Citizen Kane, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park as classic films to this day, and Super Mario 64, Baldur's Gate, and Half-Life as classic games. On the other hand, a technological showcase that, even at the height of its popularity, is subject to complaints about bland characters, an undercooked script, and (in the case of games) boring gameplay is likely to be forgotten in just a few short years and/or consigned to the bargain bin at your local FYE, Best Buy, or GameStop. It might be respected by enthusiasts and students of the medium, if only for its technical qualities, but everybody else is likely to say "huh?" when the work is brought up.
Technology isn't the only gimmick available. A work can also attract audiences by showing controversial content or addressing hot-button issues. If there is little else underneath, audiences in later years can wonder what the big deal is, because that content is no longer considered edgy. Again, stories like The Catcher in the Rye, Night of the Living Dead (1968), All in the Family, Watchmen, and Doom, while known for being landmarks in terms of breaking taboos in their respective genres and mediums, are still watched, read, and played nowadays because they had other merits in addition to their transgressions against the norms of the time.
Sometimes, the gimmick is just some kind of novelty. These works are particularly susceptible to becoming Condemned by History once the novelty wears off. Compared to a then-impressive technological showcase or a work that genuinely broke taboos back in its day, people are far less likely to respect stuff like "this artist is represented by an annoying frog-like creature."
Technology isn't the only gimmick available. A work can also attract audiences by showing controversial content or addressing hot-button issues. If there is little else underneath, audiences in later years can wonder what the big deal is, because that content is no longer considered edgy. Again, stories like The Catcher in the Rye, Night of the Living Dead (1968), All in the Family, Watchmen, and Doom, while known for being landmarks in terms of breaking taboos in their respective genres and mediums, are still watched, read, and played nowadays because they had other merits in addition to their transgressions against the norms of the time.
Sometimes, the gimmick is just some kind of novelty. These works are particularly susceptible to becoming Condemned by History once the novelty wears off. Compared to a then-impressive technological showcase or a work that genuinely broke taboos back in its day, people are far less likely to respect stuff like "this artist is represented by an annoying frog-like creature."
Changing times
Values Dissonance can kill a work or creator's reputation in the long run. Audiences at the time of a work's creation might embrace something as wholesome, or even ahead of its time, while changing societal norms can cause people in later years to reevaluate it and find all manner of problematic material that the original fans might never have noticed, or even seen as a good thing if they did. At worst, a work or creator could be seen, years later, as a symbol of everything that was wrong with the mainstream viewpoints of the time. Racial, religious, and sexual stereotyping are some of the most common victims of this. Harsher in Hindsight can also come into play when a real-life event that the creators had no way of predicting makes the original work hard to partake in without wincing. While real-life events can produce Values Resonance, other times they can make it much more difficult to appreciate something with the cloud of those events hanging over it.
On a temporal level, there is the good old-fashioned Unintentional Period Piece. A work or a musician can sometimes wear too much of the time of its popularity on its sleeve, to the point that people in later years may find it difficult to appreciate these works or creators beneath all the dated fashions, music, and pop culture references. This can be especially jarring if key plot mechanisms, lines of dialogue, jokes, gameplay mechanics, or lyrics don't work in later years, having been made outdated due to changes in how the world works that leave future audiences without the cultural reference points that people at the time might have taken for granted.
On a temporal level, there is the good old-fashioned Unintentional Period Piece. A work or a musician can sometimes wear too much of the time of its popularity on its sleeve, to the point that people in later years may find it difficult to appreciate these works or creators beneath all the dated fashions, music, and pop culture references. This can be especially jarring if key plot mechanisms, lines of dialogue, jokes, gameplay mechanics, or lyrics don't work in later years, having been made outdated due to changes in how the world works that leave future audiences without the cultural reference points that people at the time might have taken for granted.
More to compare with
On an artistic level, a work that spawned a revolution in creativity in its medium could easily be outdone and consumed by the works that came in its wake. What was once a radical new take on an old plot device could become a Discredited Trope or a Dead Horse Trope in its own right. Later works may take the same story and do it better, causing the original to be forgotten. A good deconstruction of a genre's conventions can cause people to reevaluate their enjoyment of even the better works in that genre, causing these works to go from acclaimed to reviled. Sometimes, a creator can do this to themselves with a sequel or Spiritual Successor that turns out to be even better than the original was, completely overshadowing the original's merits and makes its flaws stand out more.
Alternatively, copycats can simply run those conventions into the ground and cause people to get so sick of them that even the acclaimed works that popularized these conventions see their reputations suffer. People can tune into a Trope Maker to see what all the fuss is about, after watching the copycats, only to end up disappointed when the work in question is inferior to their expectations, or even worse still, the original points out the genre's flaws before they even had a chance to be set in stone. This causes people to view the entire genre with a more critical eye.
Sometimes, the work is not innovative but came out at a time when nobody else made the work of its genre/type, despite the demand. Once the genre was revived and new works for the genre were created, the work responsible for the revival started to look bad in comparison, especially if the work had previously overlooked flaws. Alternatively, the work could have been, in its time, a successful comeback that saved or revitalized its creator's career or the network it aired on. If the creator or network's comeback proves to be sustained, then fans looking back might be less kind to it.
Alternatively, copycats can simply run those conventions into the ground and cause people to get so sick of them that even the acclaimed works that popularized these conventions see their reputations suffer. People can tune into a Trope Maker to see what all the fuss is about, after watching the copycats, only to end up disappointed when the work in question is inferior to their expectations, or even worse still, the original points out the genre's flaws before they even had a chance to be set in stone. This causes people to view the entire genre with a more critical eye.
Sometimes, the work is not innovative but came out at a time when nobody else made the work of its genre/type, despite the demand. Once the genre was revived and new works for the genre were created, the work responsible for the revival started to look bad in comparison, especially if the work had previously overlooked flaws. Alternatively, the work could have been, in its time, a successful comeback that saved or revitalized its creator's career or the network it aired on. If the creator or network's comeback proves to be sustained, then fans looking back might be less kind to it.
Rot and decay
Another common cause for something becoming Condemned by History is when a work becomes completely and irredeemably rotten over time, to the point that the decay spoils even the "good old days" of the franchise.
One common way this happens is for a franchise to do something which is widely rejected by the established fandom, and fails to allow it to pick up a new audience. Falling victim to The Chris Carter Effect is one of the easiest ways for this to happen. Fans' memories of earlier seasons, books, films, or games become tainted by the realization that the plot that they had spent years following is going nowhere, is being made up on the fly with little forethought, and isn't likely to be resolved. Consequently, the now-former fans tell newbies not to bother. Another way for this to happen is to try and catch younger audiences by using fads. The changes can leave longtime fans outraged, while failing to bring in the new audience that was hoped for. Finally, the franchise becomes too bleak, causing fans to have nobody to root for as the Eight Deadly Words start to take over. In a nutshell, the work enters an Audience-Alienating Era that it never gets out of, Jumping the Shark so badly that it rubs off on when it was still good.
This goes doubly so if there is a Franchise Original Sin involved. Fans may look back on earlier installments and notice that the seeds for the Seasonal Rot were there all along, having simply not flowered yet or having been held in check. If this happens, memories of the work's Glory Days may be tainted even further, as it becomes clear that things were going wrong right from the start and that it was probably doomed to turn into the mess that it became later on.
If the work is very dependent on the ending to tie all the loose ends up, then ending a work on a widely disliked or at least base-breaking note is another way to do this. A work may be unable to tie enough plot threads, it may not have an ending at all, or it may be considered overtly mean-spirited, mind-boggling, nonsensical, predictable, pointless, or just unimpressive, which ends up turning off former fans and any potential new audience members.
Alternatively, It's the Same, Now It Sucks! can come into play. If a creator's output or a long-running franchise starts to grow stale, fans can turn against them, seeing them as having run out of things to say or do. In extreme cases, fans can turn against earlier installments from the creator or franchise as well, seeing the work which they once loved as having always been lacking in creativity once the mechanisms of its Strictly Formula nature became apparent. This is less likely to happen if the formula was part of the appeal from the beginning. For example, AC/DC was a band that built its entire identity around simple, old-fashioned Hard Rock to bang one's head to, with the band's lead guitarist Angus Young having once proudly joked about having "put out twelve albums that sound exactly the same." However, if a key part of a creator or work's appeal was that it was innovative or revolutionary, watch out.
One common way this happens is for a franchise to do something which is widely rejected by the established fandom, and fails to allow it to pick up a new audience. Falling victim to The Chris Carter Effect is one of the easiest ways for this to happen. Fans' memories of earlier seasons, books, films, or games become tainted by the realization that the plot that they had spent years following is going nowhere, is being made up on the fly with little forethought, and isn't likely to be resolved. Consequently, the now-former fans tell newbies not to bother. Another way for this to happen is to try and catch younger audiences by using fads. The changes can leave longtime fans outraged, while failing to bring in the new audience that was hoped for. Finally, the franchise becomes too bleak, causing fans to have nobody to root for as the Eight Deadly Words start to take over. In a nutshell, the work enters an Audience-Alienating Era that it never gets out of, Jumping the Shark so badly that it rubs off on when it was still good.
This goes doubly so if there is a Franchise Original Sin involved. Fans may look back on earlier installments and notice that the seeds for the Seasonal Rot were there all along, having simply not flowered yet or having been held in check. If this happens, memories of the work's Glory Days may be tainted even further, as it becomes clear that things were going wrong right from the start and that it was probably doomed to turn into the mess that it became later on.
If the work is very dependent on the ending to tie all the loose ends up, then ending a work on a widely disliked or at least base-breaking note is another way to do this. A work may be unable to tie enough plot threads, it may not have an ending at all, or it may be considered overtly mean-spirited, mind-boggling, nonsensical, predictable, pointless, or just unimpressive, which ends up turning off former fans and any potential new audience members.
Alternatively, It's the Same, Now It Sucks! can come into play. If a creator's output or a long-running franchise starts to grow stale, fans can turn against them, seeing them as having run out of things to say or do. In extreme cases, fans can turn against earlier installments from the creator or franchise as well, seeing the work which they once loved as having always been lacking in creativity once the mechanisms of its Strictly Formula nature became apparent. This is less likely to happen if the formula was part of the appeal from the beginning. For example, AC/DC was a band that built its entire identity around simple, old-fashioned Hard Rock to bang one's head to, with the band's lead guitarist Angus Young having once proudly joked about having "put out twelve albums that sound exactly the same." However, if a key part of a creator or work's appeal was that it was innovative or revolutionary, watch out.
Backlash
There's also simple backlash against some aspect of a work or its creator. Its fans may be seen as overly annoying and obsessive, causing people to hate it simply to avoid being associated with them. It might become a victim of public mockery. Its target demographic may outgrow it and look back on it as childish. It might have been the brainchild of a creator whose works are now seen as toxic. A work may be subject to Magnum Opus Dissonance. Even if the work is generally considered good anyway, a creator can lose his or her goodwill by talking it up too much. It may have been the perpetrator of an Award Snub, earning it a substantial hatedom from fans of the work or creator seen as having been snubbed, especially if the other work's reputation continues to grow over time. The work facing backlash may be a sequel, reboot, or adaptation that was popular when it first came out, but is later regarded as a disgrace to the original work, with closer attention paid to its flaws when compared with the original. A creator may have gotten involved in a controversy or trouble with the law that badly tarnished their reputation in a way that rubbed off on their previous work. A famous actor, director, writer, musician, or Show Runner may have torpedoed their career in one shot with a Box Office Bomb or a similarly despised work that did the same. A work may suffer from Mainstream Obscurity, winning acclaim and constantly being referenced without actually being watched, read, or listened to by the general public.
Either way, people came to see the work as overrated.
Either way, people came to see the work as overrated.
Revealed inauthenticity
Perhaps the quickest way (sometimes even overnight) for the audience to turn their opinion against the work or a creator is when new information reveals that the work isn't as authentic as it was first claimed to be. The obvious example is when it turns out that a previously beloved work has outright stolen assets and parts from another creator. This often causes the stolen work to gain recognition and popularity, but the work that stole from it is likely to see its fans quickly abandon it in favor of the original article.
Plagiarism is not the only way for the work or franchise to be condemned by inauthenticity. For example, that prank channel? It turns out later that all the pranks were staged. That award-winning investigative documentary? It turns out that their investigative methods were dodgy at best and the results were fabricated. The creator posting speedruns? It turns out that all the speedruns were spliced. That pop star? They were lip-syncing the whole time. And so on.
Such condemnation can be avoided if the creator is honest about this work from the beginning.
Plagiarism is not the only way for the work or franchise to be condemned by inauthenticity. For example, that prank channel? It turns out later that all the pranks were staged. That award-winning investigative documentary? It turns out that their investigative methods were dodgy at best and the results were fabricated. The creator posting speedruns? It turns out that all the speedruns were spliced. That pop star? They were lip-syncing the whole time. And so on.
Such condemnation can be avoided if the creator is honest about this work from the beginning.
Early access cancellation
Games in early access are often given leeway when it comes to having missing features and being unpolished. The more innovative or novel the game is, the more forgiving the audience usually is, and a game in early access can be beloved even when it is in very rough state. However, should such games be abandoned and outright canceled, the audience's opinion can turn against the work. The more abrupt and unreasonable the announcement of cancellation of the work is, the more likely is the nosedive of the game's reception.
