Canon is the enemy.
If you aren't familiar with the word, that might be because you're a functional adult. For the rest of us, it's the idea of an official lore in some narrative structure, usually from children's media that adults can't get enough of. For example, after the first Star Wars was in theatres, but before Empire, there was a book written that took place in between. It had Luke and Leia hook up, because the idea of them being siblings hadn't been thought of yet. This book is now non-canonical, meaning it isn't officially part of the story.
For almost any narrative, some level of canon is essential. Without some kind of bedrock for the structure to rest on, it falls apart. The problem is, it's tempting to get too bogged down and completely hem yourself in.
An example of this is Adventure Time. One of my favourite cartoons of the last 15 years, or at least it was for the first few seasons. The entire premise was a boy had a magic dog, they were bros, and they went on adventures. The world around them was whatever it needed to be for the purposes of that story, and was set up in such a way that the creators were only limited by their imagination. Skip ahead three or four years, and the original creative team wants to move on to other projects. The show is still doing well, so the network wants to keep it going. New writers are brought in once the originals are gone, and these new writers have a different understanding of the material; that of fans, rather than creators. See also The Simpsons, from Armen Tanzarian onward.
You don't necessarily have to understand something to enjoy it. Adventure Time is pleasant to look at, the dog farts, and silly things happen. The intended audience of children might not ever notice anything has changed. A manchild like me will, though. Ideas that served their purpose as vague explanations of why the world they were in was so strange were put under a microscope, picked apart and labelled until all the mystery was gone.
Star Wars is another example. A series trapped by it's own backstory, unable to tread new ground for fear of alienating fans with something different and losing the hundreds of millions of dollars invested.
I guess what I'm saying is less Tolkien, more Moebius. Anyway here's more scrawlings.
This will likely be a motherfucker to paint.
Still have back issues of Heavy Metal on my mind, as evidenced by Upsetting Hooters.
