Aborted Arc: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* The manga based on the ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel]]'' gameverse starts up a Mint storyline... but then drops it to focus on Ranpha and Milfie, not even ending Mint's plot.
* In the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, the GS Ball was a [[MacGuffin]] that loosely guided the overall plot for about a season and a half, spanning 60 episodes. A Poké Ball that nobody could open, [[The Messiah|Ash]] was supposed to give the GS ball to Kurt, the leading Pokéball expert, in order to discover whatever secrets the ball held. After giving the ball to Kurt, however, neither the GS Ball nor its contents were ever brought up again. The GS Ball was supposed to hold Celebi, a legendary [[Nature Spirit]] Pokémon, that would be the focus of the next arc, but the writers later decided [http://www.pokebeach.com/news/0708/second-pokemon-interview-with-masamitsu-hidaka-many-interesting-points to give Celebi a starring role in a movie], hoping that viewers would eventually forget about the GS Ball. They didn't, and haven't.
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* [[Jonathan Hickman]]'s ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' epic, ''The War of the Four Cities''. The four blocs are the Lost City of the High Evolutionary (tied to Silver Age villain the Mole Man), the floating city of the Universal Inhumans (tied to, well, the Inhumans), the hidden lives of the Cult of the Negative Zone (tied to Annihilus), and the Last Kings of Old Atlantis (tied to Namor the Sub-Mariner)... who kind of... died suddenly. Presumably when Hickman realised that with Namor and the surviving Atlanteans living under [[X-Men|Utopia]] meant there was no way to hold the X-Men off until the [[Grand Finale]]. Never mind, we were then treated to the addition of the Kree to the storyline.
* In a guest-writer spot on ''[[Justice Society of America]]'', Jerry Ordway, author of ''Power of [[Shazam]]'', seemed to be setting up an ongoing storyline about the Shazam characters; it involved Billy and Mary being depowered (undoing the [[Dork Age]] where Billy was the wizard and Mary was evil), the wizard acting irrational, and the introduction of the Rock of Eternity's [[Evil Counterpart]], the Rock of Finality. While Ordway never got the chance to continue this, Edgar Wallace's subsequent ''Shazam'' one-shots seemed content to keep things in a holding pattern until he did, while adding other elements such as the return of Blaze. Then [[Flashpoint]] and the [[New 52]] happened, and Captain Marvel was one of the characters who got completely reset. Not only is the arc aborted; in current continuity ''none of it happened''.
* In as much as there is continuity, one ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic involved Dogbert raising an army of cloned vegetables. It was supposed to be longer, but Scott Adams found it wasn't as funny as he thought it would be, so he actually stated in comic he was ending the arc by "skipping ahead to the big finish." Another arc, featuring the death of Dilbert, was also resolved quicker than planned when Adams ran out of ideas.▼
* A two-week 1995 ''[[FoxTrot]]'' storyline had Paige getting the role of Cleopatra in the school's Antony and Cleopatra play, (with Morton playing Antony, of course). The story ended before the play started, with Roger noticing Paige's name in the play program. After that strip, the story suddenly ended, with no actual strips of the play being performed, and the story was never mentioned again.▼
* In the newspaper comic ''[[Luann]]'', creator Greg Evans had planned a storyline which revealed the reason [[Shallow Love Interest]] Aaron Hill was so uninterested in Luann's (or anyone else's) advances: he simply wasn't interested... [[Coming Out Story|in girls]]. Evans got cold feet, fearing he didn't have enough of a subscriber base to absorb the potential loss of paper slots, like [[For Better or For Worse|Lynn Johnston]] did when she pulled a similar storyline. So he [[Author's Saving Throw|altered the story]] so that Aaron was hiding a relationship with the much older Dianne. Both characters were soon [[Put on a Bus]] after this story was done.▼
* ''[[Doonesbury]]'' decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary year (1990) with a big epic storyline in which all the strips' various [[plot]]lines and characters converged together, with practically the entire cast all ending up at Mike's apartment. Creator Garry Trudeau ended up writing himself into a corner with the arc, which had everyone together but didn't give them anything to do. The arc got weirder when Mike's house was mistaken for a crack den and raided by federal agents. Trudeau decided the whole thing had gotten out of hand, and undid the entire arc by revealing that the last several months worth of strips had been [[All Just a Dream]].▼
* ''[[Heart of the City]]'' story arcs often end suddenly with no further explanation. An example is an arc where Heart's mom agrees to go on a date, which Heart dreads until she learns that the man is a talent agent. After that, the arc ended.▼
* Lampshaded in a [[Peanuts]] strip in which Snoopy is writing a novel. One part of the plot involves a king living in luxury while his people starved. In tying up the plot threads, Snoopy left him out.▼
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* During ''[[Frasier]]'''s 10th season, an arc was slowly built up where it was suggested that Roz had feelings for Frasier and was jealous over his relationship with Julia Wilcox. In the first episode of Season 11, the old writers from earlier seasons rejoined the show and quickly ended the arc by saying Roz's father had remarried and thus she was scared of losing Frasier as a friend. The characters made up, and nothing more was ever said.
* The entire high school element of ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' Season 1, with incomplete arcs involving a mysterious suicide, implications of teacher-student sexual exploitation, and a male student lusting after Cameron, was just dumped with no explanation at all once Season 2 started. [[Word of God]] says that the creators decided that it was unnecessary and that the show worked better if the central characters weren't even trying to pretend to have a normal life. Also there was a writers strike.
* In [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the
** The latter half of Season 3 was going to have a story arc about the Sagitarrons. The [[Word of God|story goes]] that {{spoiler|during the New Caprica arc, the rest of the colonials had run low on food, but the Sagitarrons, being close-to-nature, had grown enough. The Colonial government made the decision to seize their food in order to feed everyone, a kind of reverse ant-grasshopper parable.}} The only remnants of this arc are: the episode ''The Woman King'', and {{spoiler|Baltar whispering to Gaeta during Baltar's imprisonment, which was supposed to tie into this arc}}. The latter was repurposed for the minisodes ''Face of the Enemy''. It might also explain what Tyrol was protesting immediately after the [[Time Skip]]—and given a hint to the decision made by {{spoiler|Apollo in the finale}}.
** Bulldog's mysteriously one-off appearance—originally, the character was intended to recur, but scheduling issues prevented that from playing out.
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* [[David Bowie]]'s 1995 concept album ''1. Outside'' was supposed to be the first of a series leading up to the millennium. However, further albums continuing the "non-linear gothic drama hyper cycle" never appeared. Almost 15 years on it's probably safe to classify this as an aborted arc.
* [[Sufjan Stevens]] has discontinued his "50 states project", which started with ''Michigan'' and ''Illinois''. Looks like there won't be any more.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* In as much as there is continuity, one ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic involved Dogbert raising an army of cloned vegetables. It was supposed to be longer, but Scott Adams found it wasn't as funny as he thought it would be, so he actually stated in comic he was ending the arc by "skipping ahead to the big finish." Another arc, featuring the death of Dilbert, was also resolved quicker than planned when Adams ran out of ideas.
▲* A two-week 1995 ''[[FoxTrot]]'' storyline had Paige getting the role of Cleopatra in the school's production of ''Antony and Cleopatra
▲* In the newspaper comic ''[[Luann]]'', creator Greg Evans had planned a storyline which revealed the reason [[Shallow Love Interest]] Aaron Hill was so uninterested in Luann's (or anyone else's) advances: he simply wasn't interested... [[Coming Out Story|in girls]]. Evans got cold feet, fearing he didn't have enough of a subscriber base to absorb the potential loss of paper slots, like [[For Better or For Worse|Lynn Johnston]] did when she pulled a similar storyline. So he [[Author's Saving Throw|altered the story]] so that Aaron was hiding a relationship with the much older Dianne. Both characters were soon [[Put on a Bus]] after this story was done.
▲* ''[[Doonesbury]]'' decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary year (1990) with a big epic storyline in which all the strips' various [[plot]]lines and characters converged together, with practically the entire cast all ending up at Mike's apartment. Creator Garry Trudeau ended up writing himself into a corner with the arc, which had everyone together but didn't give them anything to do. The arc got weirder when Mike's house was mistaken for a crack den and raided by federal agents. Trudeau decided the whole thing had gotten out of hand, and undid the entire arc by revealing that the last several months worth of strips had been [[All Just a Dream]].
▲* ''[[Heart of the City]]'' story arcs often end suddenly with no further explanation. An example is an arc where Heart's mom agrees to go on a date, which Heart dreads until she learns that the man is a talent agent. After that, the arc ended.
▲* Lampshaded in a [[Peanuts]] strip in which Snoopy is writing a novel. One part of the plot involves a king living in luxury while his people starved. In tying up the plot threads, Snoopy left him out.
== Pro Wrestling ==
Years ago, before the advent of live cable television on Monday nights and the internet, feuds were planned out months in advance rather than week-by-week, meaning that even if an angle were not living up to expectations (e.g., apathetic fan response), it would continue until the earliest opportunity to quietly end the feud. But even in the pre-Attitude/pre-''Monday Night Raw'' era, unplanned events – a wrestler's unexpected death or departure, or a major legit injury, for instance – would often force major changes to a carefully planned storyline, and often force promoters to hastily edit explanations into the already-completed films that were to be distributed to local TV stations.
* In the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], 2007's "Who Killed [[Vince McMahon]]?" was abruptly halted when 2–3 weeks after the storyline began, [[Chris Benoit]] [[Too Soon|killed his family, and then himself]]. It was later explained that "Vince" had faked his death.
** It would've eventually been revealed that Mr. Kennedy was involved.
** A year later, the Raw set was sabotaged, with equipment falling on [[Vince McMahon]]. The perpetrator was never revealed, and it wasn't mentioned again after a week or so.
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** The arc actually did get something of a send-off on Sunday Night Heat, when Glen Ruth (formerly Headbanger Thrasher) displayed GTV footage to acquit Chaz (formerly Headbanger Mosh) in his own domestic violence angle.
* Anyone remember the Fake Kane? Started out as [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] being confronted by someone dressed as his old masked persona, but the whole thing was dropped after about a month of build-up and never mentioned again.
** This one actually ended. WWE.com had a [[Kayfabe]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029064302/http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/unsolvedmysteries
* Not a big aborted arc, but when John Heidenreich debuted on RAW in 2003, he always told people his actions were all done for someone named "Little Johnny". Heidenreich was taken off TV before the identity of Little Johnny could be revealed, but said later in an interview that it would've turned out to be a doll that represented his younger self when he was overweight. He also claimed he could've made the angle work (as people know what it's like to be picked on) but the writers messed it up by making every discussion about "Little Johnny" seem like a [[Double Entendre]].
* In February 2001, The Kat entered an angle where [[Jerry Lawler]] lost a match on her behalf and she was forced to join the Right to Censor group. The next episode of Raw had them forcing her to wear a burlap sack to the ring and it was implied the storyline would continue. However The Kat was released the very next day and the excuse was apparently that Val Venis had slept with her and she escaped out the window. Apparently she ran out into the night and got lost, never to be seen again.
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* The Bandit Ringtail guest comic from ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'' ended with one of these. Bandit meets Sierra and she calls him out on getting into a fight that he couldn't hope to win, and then she kisses him on the cheek. The guy that Bandit fought mocks him for losing, then gets challenged to a fight by a very large, very muscular female boxer. And then it cuts out. There's no scene of the guy getting his butt kicked, no scene of Bandit leaving Malarky County, nothing.
* ''[[Good Luck Eyepatch-tan]]!'' has the ''Pokémon''/''[[Kamen Rider]] Divurtle'' arc, which ended abruptly on strip 48 due to technical difficulties. While Nocchifire, the author, initially promised that it would return, he eventually abandoned that idea and decided to [[Canon Discontinuity|scrap that arc altogether]].
* What's referred to as the Black and White Era of ''[[Voodoo Walrus]]'' aborted what looked to be a [https://web.archive.org/web/20190822151414/http://www6.voodoowalrus.com/?
** [[Word of God]] suggests that this occurred to artistic burnout which quickly led to a year long hiatus for the comic.
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** And many, many more.
* An early scene in ''[[Awkward]]'' has Lester remarking that Ernie's name rings a bell, which Kevin brushes off. This was originally supposed to lead to a confrontation between Lester and Ernie, complete with backstory, but had to be scrapped when Ernie's actor bailed on the project; Jermaine was brought in as a substitute jerkass for Lester to butt heads with and overcome.
* An early plot
** ''Valenth'' itself abruptly shut down in early 2014 leaving every plotline still open at the time incomplete.
* [[MSF High Forum]]: Any time a GM quits, or a character with significant plot lines leaves.
* The plotline about [[Lovable Traitor|Willie's]] other allegiances was dropped midway through in the [[Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society]]. Now subverted, as it's being reposted, albeit very slowly.
* [[The Irate Gamer]] started an arc involving robots and said the next episode will be a finale. However, the next episode was about He-Man, with no mention of the robots.
** Even earlier than that, the end of the [[Aladdin (Capcom)
* [[Behind the Veil]] has several, mostly due to players leaving and never returning. Key mention would be the long-running feud between [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|Kathleen Allan]] and [[Mage: The Ascension|May Lawrence]] which ended when the latter's player disappeared and never returned.
* ''[[Bionicle]]'' web-serial examples:
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