Revisiting the Roots

Once upon a time, there was a series. And it's now been going on for a quite a while. Inevitably, this has resulted in the series drifting away from its initial premise to some extent (for better of for worse). When a creator, for whatever reason chooses to Revisit the Roots, it involves taking the franchise back to the format that it had in its earlier incarnations.

Compare Truer to the Text, Retool or Running the Asylum. This usually pops up in Long Runners, with various ideas of what the "roots" are.

Note: This is not an opinion trope. Depending on one's preference, all praise or scorn about this should be taken to the YMMV pages.

Examples of Revisiting the Roots include:

Anime

• Dragon Ball GT attempted to return to the franchise's roots by adopting a more comedic tone akin to that of the early Dragon Ball manga and anime. Unfortunately, this (combined with Goku being turned back into a child by Emperor Pilaf) only resulted in viewers tuning out en-masse and the show was ultimately cancelled the following year.
  • Dragon Ball Super was another attempt at this, but opted to merge the action and the comedy instead, being generally regarded as quite successful.
• After the Darker and Edgier Beast Era, Robots in Disguise returned Transformers to the light premise of robots with vehicular alternate modes. It even brought back 2-D animation instead of CGI.

Audio

• The First Doctor Adventures from Big Finish Doctor Who brings back the purely historical adventures alongside sci-fi outings whereas previous First Doctor audios had shied away from pure historical stories, opting for the "aliens mucking in Earth's past" approach or having the historical stories take place as a side-quest of a televised sci-fi adventure.

Comic Books

• Superman:
  • Kryptonite Nevermore tried to return Superman to his 1938 power levels and characterization. Readers didn't much care for this, and the idea was very quickly abandoned.
  • Superman Red Son revisits the earliest roots of the character through his origin of being a hyper-evolved human from the last moments of a dying Earth.
  • While in many ways a radical departure from the norm, Absolute Superman brings the character back to his earliest roots as an Anti-Hero immigrant champion for the working man rather than the champion for law and order he's been written as since the 1950s.
• Star Wars: Darth Vader revisits the character's Early Installment Weirdness from A New Hope, presenting him as a high-ranking and hot-blooded Imperial, but not The Dragon of the whole show. Over the course of the series, he evolves into his characterization from The Empire Strikes Back onwards.
• Though it features several aspects from later parts of the franchise, the 2019 Transformers comic revisits several aspects of the original Marvel comic, or at least its backstory, such as the Decepticons being a legitimate, if critically-viewed, political party and Optimus (though taking on his later name of Orion Pax) as a powerful political figure.

Film

• Casino Royale goes back to the roots of the spy genre after Die Another Day's heavy focus on sci-fi gimmicks.
• The Dark Knight Saga was an attempt to do this, returning Batman to a realistic Badass Normal status and downplaying the wackier aspects of the character, such as a lack of overtly bat-styled gadgetry.
• The Force Awakens for Star Wars, returning it to the La Résistance vs. The Empire set-up of the Original Trilogy with a Used Future feel and focusing on a Power Trio as opposed to the "two giant superpowers going at it" set-up of the Prequels.
• Rocky V was an attempt to return the franchise to its gritty and realistic roots. It wasn't very popular to the point that everyone, even Sylvester himself, lambasted the film.
• Man of Steel, while keeping Superman's more traditional level of power, returned the Big Blue Boyscout to his original characterization as an unapproachable outsider whom authority figures regard with fear and mistrust. Even the Signature Scene wouldn't have been out of place in a 1930s comic.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past brought back some of the comic's less realistic aspects such as the Sentinels and Professor X's hoverchair.

Live-Action TV

• Season 5 of Arrow returns it to the realistic Darker and Edgier tone that defined its first two seasons. It even brought back the List.
• Doctor Who:
  • After a few seasons of the Third Doctor solving Monster of the Week problems on Earth, the Fourth Doctor returned the show to bouncing around time and space. There was even a randomizer built into the TARDIS to recreate the First Doctor's poor steering.
  • When the Ninth Doctor debuted, he recreated the First Doctor's initial characterization as a bitter refugee who was unable to return home.
  • After the RTD era introduced Cybermen from an Alternate Universe, the Steven Moffat era brought back those from N-Space, presenting them as emotionless and sterile as they were depicted as in the Second Doctor's run. They even brought back the Cyber-Planner.
  • The Twelfth Doctor era got a kick out of this, with each of his series recreating the dynamics of his first three selves. Reviews even flagged this, highlighting Twelve's incorporation of his past traits, and the fresh spin he put on them, as something that made him one of the greatest Doctors.
    • Series 8 starred a 55-year old man as the irritable Time Lord, had a focus on Coal Hill school and had two teachers and one student as the companions (to varying extents), directly homaging the initial companion trio of Ian, Barbara and Susan.
    • Series 9 had Twelve actually dressing like the Second Doctor, mainly his trousers, several "Base Under Siege" storylines and ends on Gallifrey with a memory wipe.
    • Series 10 saw the Doctor, now embracing what it means to be a Cool Old Guy, stuck on contemporary Earth to fulfill a duty, despite how much he wants to leave, and semi-regular appearances by the Master, who's fully returned to being a Friendly Enemy.
    • Even Twelve's regeneration was brought on by the Cybermen, the same baddies that triggered his first regeneration. In fact, it's brought on by the same variant of Cyberman. Twelve's last story is him literally doing this trope by meeting the First Doctor.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor's era, even her comics, returns the show to the half-historical/half-science fiction approach of the Hartnell era.
    • The Master that the Thirteenth Doctor faces off against brings back the Tissue Compression Eliminator that he used in the Third Doctor era.
• The Netflix shows are this for the pre-Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe. While there are jokes here and there, the shows are mostly serious. The shows don't feature constant Continuity Porn and (with the exception of Iron Fist and The Defenders) they have a more-or-less realistic approach, harkening back to the setup of Phase 1. Even Claire Temple and Turk Barrett, in many ways, resemble Phil Coulson pre-Avengers.
• After the sedentary and war-heavy Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager once again focuses on a Federation starship exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy IX brought things back to the four-player set-up and a medieval setting, much like the earlier games after the changes of VI, VII and VIII.
• Much of Mass Effect: Andromeda harkens back to the original game, having a heavy focus on exploration and resource recycling.
• Need for Speed:
  • As evidenced by its name, the 2010 reboot of Hot Pursuit recreates the dynamics of the original 1998 Hot Pursuit and its 2002 sequel featuring un-customizable cars in the beautiful countryside and bringing back the option to play as the police.
  • The 2015 game was meant to be this for the Black Box era.
• New Super Mario Bros marked the plumber's return to 2D gameplay.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, after Ratchet: Deadlocked, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, returns the franchise to the classic adventures that defined the PS2 era.

Western Animation

• After Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Ben 10: Omniverse returns to the Denser and Wackier tone of the original, along with the Omnitrix mis-transforming Ben with greater regularity and brought Grandpa Max back to the forefront.
  • The 2016 reboot took things even further, reimagining the initial set-up of a ten-year old Ben and Gwen travelling America with Grandpa Max.
• Though it features a good number of Slice of Life episodes that were the hallmarks of its immediate predecessors, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic brought back the epic adventures from the original specials.
• After 3Below was a sci-fi show, Wizards brings the Tales of Arcadia back to the fantasy genre.
• Transformers:
  • While in many ways one of the most radical departures from the norm, Transformers Animated brought back the G1 cartoon's old position that the Autobots were Cybertron's civilian and artisan caste while the Decepticons were the military.
  • After years of media that either downplayed it, or took place afterwards, Transformers: Cyberverse brings the Great War back to the forefront of the story. It also has the Ark crashing in Mount St. Hilary (though this time, the ship is still flyable) and the Quintessons as one of the Big Bads of Season 3.
  • Transformers: War for Cybertron seems to harken back to the original cartoon's idea that the Autobots and Decepticons are two separate races, with Alpha Trion having brought freedom to Cybertron.