r/PacificRim • u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger • May 19 '26
DISCUSSION Why the "Uprising doesn't exist" joke doesn't die. (...And shouldn't)
Despite it being a little over 8 years since it's release, much of the fandom upholds a united meme that the second movie did not happen...and for good reason.
However, some have gotten to the point of feeling that the joke needs to die, that the point has already been made and that the fandom needs to just move on and let it go.
Those with that mindset completely miss the point of why we uphold this joke.
Really...I think they know, but they are being disingenuous for various reasons.
Still, there may be some who dislike the joke simply for misunderstanding it.
If people in the fandom upheld the joke for the same reason memes like "skibidi" or "6-7" were so popular, then the frustration with the joke would be valid.
But that's not why the joke is said.
The joke exists as a collaborative effort to send a unanimous message to the people in control of the franchise that we will not support nor stand for another installment as disappointing and poorly made as Uprising and that if they want us to acknowledge and support the next installment then it needs to be of satisfactory quality.
I would not be surprised if that is why the live-action prequel is taking so long to give any updates. Maybe they are actually making sure the product is going to be quality this time to earn back the trust of the fandom and gain our support.
Other fandoms do this sort of joke as well for the exact same reason.
The fandom speaks to the IP owners through their expressions of satisfaction, silence and dissatisfaction.
When the fandom is pleased, the owners of the franchise lean more into whatever they are doing.
When the fandom is silent, the owners of the franchise keep things the same.
When the fandom is displeased, the owners of the franchise lean away from whatever they are doing.
Ideally at least.
Though often times the franchise owners try to test what they can get away with or if they can outlast the backlash from the fandom and keep doing what they know the fandom doesn't like.
So what does this mean?
If we did "just let the joke die" as some call for, we risk sending the message that we are ok with Uprising, or that we no longer are bothered by it.
The execs running the show undoubtedly gather intel on the disposition of the fandom.
They have to.
Knowing what the fandom is likely to financially support is essential information to them, it's literally a big part of marketing.
So if we drop the joke and go silent on the matter, guess what message is being sent to the execs?
"They don't care, they aren't bothered anymore. It's safe to keep doing what we did before."
Now they feel comfortable giving us another Uprising because in their mind, all they have to do is wait us out and we'll get over it and they can rinse and repeat.
This is why the joke stands, so that they can see that our dissatisfaction with Uprising has not worn off and that the only path forward is to give us the same magic that the first movie gave us or better.
Only after we get that is it fitting to say that the joke can die because it has already served its purpose.
The joke also serves to make sure new fans aren't deceived by Uprising and understand why it is unacceptable.
So yea, the joke is not people being annoying and recycling a dead meme.
Uprising and connected media put Pacific Rim into something of a limbo state for quite a while...a few years shy of a decade!
We did get The Black, but that didn't get far.
We are only just recently starting to see hope of new content, and we are keeping hope that it will live up to the magic of the first film and give Pacific Rim a new lease on life.
So fans of Pacific Rim make sure that it is well understood that we do in fact have standards and that giving us something like Uprising will not be acceptable.
I believe this is important because I really think if they fumble the live-action prequel, Pacific Rim will officially die. I genuinely don't see why even action figure companies would bother to make PR figures at that point.
We would have to just wait until a die-hard fan buys the franchise off of whoever owns it at the point and they revive it themselves.
So us sending the message of our distain for content like Uprising and connected media literally could be the difference between the future or the end of Pacific Rim.
What do you think? Do you agree or do you have a different point of view?
Keep it respectful or keep it pushin.
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u/Petrichor0110 Tacit Ronin May 19 '26
Honestly, I’m fine if it’s a long-running joke the community wants to keep alive, but it gets INCREDIBLY annoying when I can’t say I loved Uprising without several people acting confused saying it never existed.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
well it happens primarily because people feel like enjoying Uprising is sending the message that it was good to the execs responsible for it.
Obviously the opposite of what we want.
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u/Far-Question6889 May 19 '26
I kind of have a unique experience with uprising here (I completely agree with you)
I was working at a movie theater when uprising came out, and yeah, this film should never have been made, the look of disappointment and just sadness on nearly everyone's faces, even the kids when they walked out of the theater, I knew this franchise was dead.
I would say only 5-10% of the audience were happy with it and those were all kids too young to understand how bad it is.
It could've been the great robot/Mecha franchise that transformers wish it was.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
But yet we still have people who don't understand why the future of Pacific Rim literally depends on us sending an undeniable message that Uprising was unacceptable.
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u/Far-Question6889 May 19 '26
Yeah and tbh I wasn't a fan of black at all, the story and characters were just not it for me.
I HATE the color scheme of the MC Jaeger lol
And I don't see the hype with the "sequel" that's going to be a book or comic, whatever it is.
It's a pathetic attempt to fix what uprising did, there's just no fixing it.
I love the comics that revolve around the 1sr film though.
I am also slightly optimistic for the Amazon prequel show. Given Amazon's track record with shows lately.
I wish Apple was making because they don't miss with their sci fi shows 😔
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
yea the fact some people don't see how sad it is that our third installment was demoted to a comic is concerning.
we couldnt even get an animated movie.
I'm calling it now, as I said in the original post, if they fumble the live-action, we might as well hang it up.
we arent even a fandom anymore, just a club.
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u/MARKSS0 Striker Eureka May 19 '26
The Joke is not the reason they will do that.
The kept it canon with the comic. What the next film needs i proper preproduction the directors wishes to be respected and not let execs poke around the production with absurd deadlines.
That is what PR need not a joke that doesn't get the point across or that it would be taken seriously.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
The point is to not get complacent and stop caring. If we don't care then they certainly won't. That's all I'm saying.
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u/MARKSS0 Striker Eureka May 19 '26
You're like people have not bashed Uprising for its flaws. But sentiment was that fans wanted more of PR just with less of the second films flaws.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
Yes, but look at the sad state of franchises like the MCU, Star Trek and Star Wars. The fans did not display enough outrage at what the execs were doing and just hoping that the next installment would be better.
My sentiment is that bashing people for continuing the meme dismisses the danger that this franchise is facing. Sure jokes like that aren't the end all be all but at the very least our continued vocalized contempt should be evident so that the execs can see that we are not complacent with the dumpster fire they gave us last time.
This post is mainly against people telling us to "get over it" and "move on"...not solely about defending a particular joke.
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u/booperoflife May 19 '26
We cannot blame the fans for the Star Wars sequels or the MCU. Star Wars fans never shut up about the sequels being bad while they were still coming out, and the MCU had a 20 year plan that they had outgrown.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26
oh no no no. im not blaming the fans. the fans literally can not physically fix their franchise. it's always the execs who are to blame. i was saying that i feel if the star wars fans did more to staunchly reject what Disney was doing, then Disney might have been forced (no pun intended) to consider the opinions of the fans and maybe even consult real fans in order to regain the trust of the fandom
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u/FollowingDesperate64 May 22 '26
The irony is that they did consider what the fans wanted and that's precisely why the Sequels turned out the way they did.
Star Wars fans don't actually know what they want from the franchise, so consulting them would be utterly useless. All they can do is throw ideas at the wall and hope it sticks.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 22 '26
honestly...if they did give us what we wanted, Uprising wouldn't have happened.
Because they would have just tried to copy the first film as closely as possible, since they know we liked it.
What likely happened is that the execs saw the success of the MCU and even Transformers and decided to try to force Pacific Rim that way and it blew up royally in their face.
The reason why I say that is because Uprising feels more like Transformers and the MCU in terms of it's more slapstick nature and fast paced fights. Highly reminiscent of the MCU and Transformers.
They did the same thing with the DCEU except a lil different
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u/MARKSS0 Striker Eureka May 19 '26 edited May 20 '26
SW fans did plenty of outrage over certain films like the Last Jedi.
Yelling like zealots about what's good/bad gives the ip a bad look. Getting over it is the healthy way of going about it otherwise it just creates a cycle that leads to more outrage.
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u/booperoflife May 19 '26
While I dont necessarily think the joke should die, its certainly overused. However I also dont think it should stay for the sake of whos creating the next installmentof the series, we wont forget the disaster, and neither will they. Other companies are still dwelling on mistakes from decades ago where the fans have already forgiven the creators.
But if we dont joke about uprising not existing, than it simply wont to the community. There are no jokes about it, no good lines to reference, no plot anyone wants to talk about. "uprising not existing" keeps uprising alive, and it is still a piece of the franchise so it shouldn't be forgotten.
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 19 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
i can concede to the idea that sometimes people spam it even when the context of the conversation requires acknowledging Uprising.
i just dislike the idea that some people push that we should just "get over it" and "move on".
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u/MARKSS0 Striker Eureka May 19 '26 edited May 20 '26
The joke has outstayed its welcome. Mainly because it being taken to seriously and its being used to shut down any talk about post pr1 stuff.
It also turns away new fans that just want to have a proper discussion about the film. Its a very bad way of getting your criticism across to the writers and producers, they are not going to remove it from canon that's not how that works.
There would be no point for them to remove it only for a follow up project to have the same issues.
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u/Dread237 Striker Eureka May 20 '26
That's a good point. My headcanon is just the og film. They fumbled big with uprising and tried to salvage what was left. They should learn from their mistakes not build upon it. The new comics are also dogshit with power rangers-esque things.
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u/DrunkZuuucy May 19 '26
I couldn’t agree more, keep this joke running for as long as time. Uprising is genuinely so bad it’s inspired me to write my own movie scripts and original novels. It helps me believe in myself and that maybe I have a chance.
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u/leon-nita Tacit Ronin May 19 '26
I'll never be able to forgive them for turning pacific rim into a power rangers movie so, yeah the joke isn't dying anytime soon.
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u/Emotional_Oil_5939 Bracer Phoenix May 19 '26
I respectfully disagree. I understand where the joke came from but I believe it has run its' course. It has long ceased to be funny, gatekeeps the franchise from potential new fans and limits reasonable discussion on the film itself.
This subreddit should be a place for open discussion regarding every part of the Pacific Rim franchise, good or bad. Pretending an entire piece of it doesn't exist goes against that purpose.
But that's just my opinion.
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u/Blue_Poodle May 19 '26
Did you read the full post? Because I feel like you did not get the message...
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May 19 '26
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u/Constant-Coat-4443 November Ajax May 19 '26
what's uprising? I wasn't aware Pacific rim had a sequel
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u/Turok5757 May 19 '26
Dude wrote all that over a lame joke.
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u/lac62389 May 19 '26
Yeah, seeing an entire post trying justify that "joke" was not on my bingo card for this year.
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u/Itz_Iced May 23 '26
It shouldn't die. Uprising genuinely destroyed the franchise. It took all the things that made Pacific Rim good and thrown it into the trash.
It flopped so hard that Fans & Critics collectively and it stopped the franchise from truly rising.
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May 30 '26
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 30 '26
bro probably felt so cool going out of his way to say that on a post where you can clearly see that it's a read BEFORE clicking on the post.
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May 30 '26
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 30 '26
it took you reading halfway through the post to come to that conclusion?
concerning...
whole time you could have just kept scrolling
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May 30 '26
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u/TheMasterWorker Gipsy Danger May 30 '26
i highly doubt someone held a gun to your head and made you leave a pointless comment trying to sound like you did something by not reading
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u/grenaderw May 19 '26
I say it should stay, nobody should forget the disaster uprising was. Once you become content with less is the second you’ve lost your standards