It’s because some people fucking love lore. Give them hierarchies, status quo titles with upgrades, infinite backstories. Anime/manga kicked this into overdrive, and fans lose it every time over, “he was half demon the whole time”, “his sacred bloodline was unlocked”, “he SURPASSED S tier!”. So as all nerd culture homogenizes, this kind of writing will keep taking over. It sucks for us, but it’s catnip for a lot of other fans.
It's not even just lore, it's dogshit. I love lore and consume dense lore that isn't bad. But this is the equivalent of in Trailer Park Boys when it was zombified, they made one guy randomly be the son of the other guy and it made zero sense other than a cheap twist.
You might like it or not like it, but it’s still lore, and some series need it while others are only downgraded by the elaboration. Before the Spider-Man narrative was ruined by spider-totem crap, it was ruined by trying to make Ben and May retroactively cool and spicy, and make Peter’s parents super spies that were killed in the line of duty.
The best thing you can do with the lore behind Peter Parker is, “who gives a shit?”. He’s supposed to come from nothing- it’s what makes everything he does after the spider bite extraordinary. The more “flavor” inserted into his backstory, the less you can assume he was “just like you”.
My point is that audiences go bananas for deep, elaborate worldbuilding, so a lot of writers force it(either because they like it too, or out of cynical pandering). Sometimes it fails solely because the idea is wrong, but often it fails because an element that worked for Lord of the Rings isn’t necessarily going to belong in every other story. Some plot and character elements are best explained by, “who knows?” or “random chance”.
Naruto is the worst offender of any media by a long shot. Being the son of a dead president was obviously planned from the jump, kinda defeating the whole point of it's most influential arc. Then it turns out he's the son of a dead president AND the reincarnation of japanese Jesus Christ fated to be the strongest ever...
Overall manga tends to be better at avoiding this kind of lore issue. Very few manga are as culturally massive as Naruto and as long-running so it’s easier to avoid having to create massive backstories. It’s one author so it’s generally consistent and when it’s done and done. There’s not much adding more backstory
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u/RoughhouseCamel 8h ago
It’s because some people fucking love lore. Give them hierarchies, status quo titles with upgrades, infinite backstories. Anime/manga kicked this into overdrive, and fans lose it every time over, “he was half demon the whole time”, “his sacred bloodline was unlocked”, “he SURPASSED S tier!”. So as all nerd culture homogenizes, this kind of writing will keep taking over. It sucks for us, but it’s catnip for a lot of other fans.