Editing The Dark Crystal (section)

=The Series=
In 2019, out of nowhere, The Jim Henson Company and Netflix revived the franchise with its fantastic series ''Age of Resistance'', which gave a completely different outlook on the world of Thra, introduced new characters and lore, but also gave us supplementary hours of Skeksis. When it was aired, a whole bunch of [[4chan]] boards loved it to death, including /tg/, which forgave the uncanny factor of the movie and started shitposting about the series.

''Age of Resistance'' explores the world of Thra before the Skeksis went on a genocidal rampage with the Garthim Wars, serving as a prequel to the film. The action takes place during the Age of Division, a time when all Gelflings were ''allegedly'' divided into seven clans, all of which occupying a different purpose in the society the Skeksis established after seizing full control of the Crystal and corrupting it.

After witnessing his girlfriend getting sucked out of existence and turned into essence thanks to the Skeksis figuring a new way of harnessing energy that rejuvenates them, Rian sets off to spread the word of their Overlord's treason. Meanwhile, Deet notices the beginnings of the Darkening, a plague that will soon consume Thra if not stopped. Meanwhile again, Seladon, first daughter of the All-Maudra, succeeds her mother on the throne as the new sock-puppet of the Skeksis, unbeknownst to her, Brea, her sister, unravels the mystery of their civilization after she witnesses the injustice of the Skeksis front and center.

From there begins the story of a revolt and a conspiracy, an entire species rises against their false idols and rediscovers their world with new eyes, as the evil, dark lords of Thra attempt to sow discord amongsy them and seize control of the whole world. You probably already heard that plotline somewhere else, but in all honesty, what matters more in this series is the writing. Everything just clicks. There's not too much fluff being thrown around, nor is there a lack of new substance for this series that aims at expanding the lore and canon of Dark Crystal.

[[Fail|And then Netflix cancelled it]], [[Heresy|calling the series an "expensive disappointment"]], right after it won an Emmy. That day, [[Khorne|the Blood God on the Skull Throne stood up in anger]] and [[Emperor of Mankind|The Emperor shed a tear]].

Now there may be a multitude of reasons why the series was cancelled. Primarily, it was already in production hell since forever, and there were too many cooks in the kitchen adding flavor to the Dark Crystal cake (which can be observed from time to time in the making-of, the series itself and the official website). There was also a fuck ton of people who worked on it, so green-lighting a season 2 would have required all of these artists to come back for more. And apparently things were already in the works BEFORE Netflix made a decision, but ultimately, the more seasons the series would go, the more expensive the show would have gotten, even though the series was already planned from beginning to end.

After a long production history, Netflix merely gave it its final millions for its completion, and the fact that the series ended up as good as it is is a miracle. After all, Dark Crystal is (and probably will remain) niche. 

But if it the main problem was that the series was too expensive, then one question is left to be asked; what the fuck were they thinking would happen if they unceremoniously dump everything on their platform?

It's not the first time Netflix has done this, after all recently they killed the hype for [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]] by dumping the entirety of Part 6 in a single day. Netflix believes that all they need to do is to dump what they have on their streaming service and then hope that their elusive audience catches it, or that the mysterious algorithm recommends the series. But if you know anything about algorithms and viewership, you know that the average normie will get himself recommended the same exact shit he usually watches. Which means that your grandma gets the old movies she used to watch, your fifty-something mom gets her tele-novellas non-stop, and your dude-bro gets his pop-culture reference filled pseudo-intelligent blockbusters every-time he turns on Netflix. Meaning that shows that don't fit in the popular categories get shadowed by the algorithm, and thus get ignored by execs.

Netflix is also much more interested into funding low-cost shows with cheap franchises that can be made in the shortest amount of time, hence why so many of their shows are mediocre. They're done fast, and Netflix doesn't have the patience (and now, the money) to make great series. Plus, when their scores were getting lower and lower, instead of doubling down on the originality of their shows, [[What|they blamed their financial problems and lacked of success on their animation department]], closed it down, and kept producing mediocre schlocks based on popular IPs.

What didn't help is that ''Age of Resistance'' was BARELY promoted, if not at all. They didn't know who to target the show to; the fans of the films who can be counted on your fingers? Fantasy fans? Neophytes who are all into Game of Thrones because of the dark and gritty tone of the series? Or try to generate interest based on the strange premise of following the adventures of gnomes fighting space lizards on a fantasy alien planet?

If anything, the announcement of its cancellation was the biggest amount of publicity ''Age of Resistance'' ever got because, as it was announced, Netflix was packing all the controversies in the world, all of which would be worthy of their own article if /tv/ had a wiki. The fact that such a show, which had a lot of care and craftsmanship being put into it, was cancelled and not the [[skub|myriad of shitty tele-novellas about ugly teenage girls wanting to get laid]] [[Heresy|along with the other shows which are so skub in their form that their name shan't be pronounced here]], is beyond infuriating.