: But yes, when you love a franchise, and that franchise wants to make as much
: money as possible, it can often lead to heartbreak. I started to get
: scared when I found Halo underwear at a Target after Halo 3 came out.
: "This isn't going to end well, is it?" I wondered to myself as I
: stared at 200 different pieces of crap with STAR WARS pasted on it
: scattered throughout the store...

There's nothing wrong in my book with commercial merchandise, as long as it doesn't affect the actual canonical content. Paris is still beautiful despite the tacky gift shops. It's when it created a feedback loop with actual content that it becomes a problem (the equivalent of tourist traps, e.g. Cars 2).

The feedback loop can take one of two forms. One is that bad stories are told just to keep the franchise going. The other is that the actual content of a story is modified to better merchandise.

I'm not too worried about the latter (REAP-X notwithstanding) - the toy/apparel market be marginal for as long as the Halo games aren't kid-friendly. The former is a problem inherent to having a dedicated franchise department even without merchandising. And for that, Cody Miller's point below holds (though I'd have said it differently.)