Aborted Arc: Difference between revisions
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When [[An Arc]] disappears off the face of the storyline without warning, never to be heard from again.
For a long while viewers will likely be under the impression that the disappeared major [[Plot Point]] will pop up any minute
Why did this happen? It's anyone's guess, most of the time. Maybe the fans complained. Maybe a crucial cast member quit the show. Maybe [[Executive Meddling|the powers that be]] didn't like it. Maybe the writers just realized it was a lousy idea. Maybe [[They Just Didn't Care]]. This weighs rather heavily on the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]], but [[Tropes Are Not Bad|sometimes]] the best way to execute an [[Author's Saving Throw]] and get rid of an element that isn't doing the story any favors is to just [[Canon Discontinuity|pretend it never happened]].
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Mainly a series trope; writers will usually avoid this if they can, and you can always go back and edit a stand-alone work before publishing, unless the deadline is really pressing. At best, it's a gross violation of [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]; at worst, this is done for no reason whatsoever and rends the plot asunder to create a fresh new [[Plot Hole]].
Cases where there ''is'' a resolution eventually, no matter how trite or sudden, aren't this
Compare with: [[What Could Have Been]], [[Kudzu Plot]], [[The Chris Carter Effect]], [[Creator Breakdown]], [[Franchise Killer]], [[What Happened to the Mouse?]], and [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]. See also: [[Dummied Out]], [[Left Hanging]], [[Cut Short]] and [[The Resolution Will Not Be Televised]].
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** Hal Jordan met a rogue Lantern named Malvolio, who used a [[Batman Gambit]] to get Hal to replace his own ring with Malvolio's and leave. What this was supposed to accomplish was never followed up on, though many fans pointed to it later as a way to press the [[Reset Button]] on Hal's badly done [[Face Heel Turn]]. (In the end, the Button was pressed a different way.)
** Another example is Gerard Jones' characterization of the Guardians of the Universe. Throughout his 45 issues on the book, Jones planted many clues that related to his plans for the Guardians. When [[Executive Meddling]] changed the plans, many of the odd behaviors of the Guardians (and characters' observations of same) were left dangling and unresolved.
* For readers versed in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[
** The ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' also featured Gimmix, a relative of the original Merry who used a hilariously low-budget version of the identity, but ''still'' didn't follow up on Mary Kramer.
* ''[[Elf Quest]]''
** Several storylines used to be published in an anthology title from 1996 to '99. ''Future Quest'', taking place some 900 years after most other stories, was put on hold indefinitely to avoid spoilers for other planned stories. Then the anthology was discontinued for financial reasons. ''Wolfrider'' wrapped up neatly in the trade paperback. ''Mender's Tale'' and ''Wavedancers'' had additional chapters been made available online in 2008, partly in script- or unfinished form; ''Wavedancers'' still has no conclusion.
** Similarly, the Summer Special ''Recognition'' was meant as a teaser for a new trade paperback, but then DC Comics bought the publishing rights for ''Elfquest'', and did not want to pick that title up. Additional parts are available online now, but there is no conclusion yet.
* ''[[X-Men]]: The End'', was an attempt to bring each and every one of the seemingly hundreds of aborted arcs introduced over the decades. So the Arc to End all
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Doctor Who Magazine|spin-off comics]] a lengthy planned character arc for [[Dark Action Girl]] turned companion Destrii was dropped when the TV show was revived, and it was decided that the Ninth Doctor comic strips would be tied strictly into the TV continuity.
* In 2010, the ''[[Transformers Timelines|Transformers Collector's Club]]'' dropped their "Nexus Prime" plotline which had been running for about five years across [[The Multiverse|various continuities]], after Hasbro ''themselves'' took charge of stories regarding the thirteen original Transformers.
* In ''[[The Death of Superman]]'' arc, Doomsday was originally supposed to be an escapee from an intergalactic insane asylum. You can see hints of this origin in his first few panels, where he commits random acts of violence with maniacal laughter drawn in. When mental health advocates caught wind of this and protested the treatment of the mentally ill as dangerous lunatics,<ref>Where were these people when every [[Batman]] villain ever was introduced?</ref>
* As a [[Long Runner]], ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' gets this a lot, but two memorable aborted arcs include the mystery of [[Kid Appeal Character|Tails]]' destiny as the "[[Chosen One]]" (a prophecy of him being a bigger hero than [[The McCoy|Sonic]] or [[The Spock|Knuckles]] combined that faltered several times, due to arguments over exactly ''what'' that was supposed to mean), and the Eggman-backed Dingo invasion of the Echindas' homeland (which petered out when the story shifted to an equally-aborted arc regarding a civil war in the Dark Legion). Both stories were hyped up something fierce, but disappeared so quickly and completely that even the ''writers'' have no idea [[The Chris Carter Effect|how exactly they were supposed to end]].<br />[[Kid Appeal Character|Tails']] "[[Chosen One]]" destiny was resolved either when he stopped Mammoth Mogul from destroying [[The Multiverse]] or when he was used by [[AI Is a Crapshoot|A.D.A.M.]] to gather all the Chaos Emeralds in the galaxy in one place and fuse them together. And the Dingo invasion/Dark Legion civil war stories were interconnected (as the latter allowed the former to gain more ground), and were both brought to an end when [[The Spock|Knuckles]] was tricked into becoming [[Physical God|Enerjak]].
* In ''[[52]]'' the original Booster Gold/Skeets arc involved the duo fixing the time-stream after it had been damaged during the [[Infinite Crisis]]. Several issues into the series, after Skeets had already noticed discrepancies between events as they happened and as they were recorded in the future, the writers decided that this plot was overused and too generic. They switched to a new malevolent threat that intended to manipulate time and reality for its own gain {{spoiler|and this leads to the return of Mr. Mind, who had appeared in the early issues}}.
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* 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 [[
* ''[[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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* Julianne Moore notably has prominent billing in the film of ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'', [[Billing Displacement|despite her lack of screentime]]. This is because the original plan was to have her be a romantic interest for [[Harrison Ford]]'s character after his wife's death, but the film ended up having a faster-than-expected pace, and such a relationship made his character seem callous.
* Both ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]: The Final Chapter'' and ''Friday the 13th: A New Beginning'' set the character Tommy Jarvis up to be Jason's replacement as the main villain of the series. These plans were canceled due to the unpopularity of ''Friday the 13th: A New Beginning'' and Jason [[Lightning Can Do Anything|was brought back to life]] in the very next film.
* ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]] 4: The Return of Michael Myers'' has Michael's young niece Jamie Lloyd seemingly inherit whatever evil drove him to kill, as at the end of the film she stabs her stepmother with a pair of scissors in a manner almost identical to how Michael killed his sister Judith in the original film. The prospect of Jamie replacing Michael as the main villain of the series was abandoned by producer Moustapha Akkad, much to the disappointment of [[Danielle Harris]] (Jamie) and Donald Pleasence (Doctor Loomis). In the fifth film Jamie is back to normal and is [[
* The ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' film builds up Sammael as a basically undefeatable enemy due to his [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|ability to duplicate himself every time he is killed]]. If you ''don't'' kill him then he lays eggs all over the place, which hatch into even ''more'' clones. By the end of the movie there are at least dozens of Sammael-clones and more
* ''[[The Room]]'' loves this trope so much it uses it at least three times: In one subplot, Denny has a brief run in with a drug dealer; In another, Michelle's boyfriend Mike are shamed by Lisa and Claudette walking in on him with Michelle in Johnny and Lisa's living room; and another one - and here's the kicker - has Claudette telling Lisa that she has breast cancer, something that NOBODY ELSE MENTIONS. Not even CLAUDETTE HERSELF. All of these subplots are introduced and immediately forgotten.
* In the third ''[[Halloweentown (film)|Halloweentown]]'' movie (''Halloweentown High''), the main point of the plot is Marney trying to get humans and the Halloweentown denizens to integrate, culminating in a scene where the humans discover the true identities of their real friends, and they decide that it [[Not So Different|doesn't matter that they're different]]. In the 4th movie (''Return to Halloweentown''), Marney (now played by a different actress) is off to magical college, with absolutely [[Continuity Reboot|no reference]] to the integration of the worlds. Plus, both her and her mother seem to have lost all [[Character Development]] they got in the first three movies.
** There's a vague [[Hand Wave]] where Marnie says that she can't be open about her magic because "a few people" still have [[Fantastic Racism]], but other than that, nothing. The [[Hand Wave]] is more about it being the first-year creatures other than witches are allowed at the university, and therefore not all creatures have magic and it wouldn't be fair for witches to use their magic to do work. The reason for other creatures being allowed is because lots of witches were going to college in the human world and there weren't enough students for the university. This could work to make humans finding out about other creatures the whole reason for the story, but since the portal was opened in the second movie so they could leave their world anyway, it's still an aborted arc.
* In the end of ''[[The Ghost of Frankenstein]]'' the Monster is given Ygor's (late Dr. Frankenstein's assistant, played by [[Bela Lugosi]]) brain, enabling the Monster to speak once again. This portrayal was supposed to be continued on ''[[Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man]]'', but the negative reaction from the test audiences made the executives to cut out all the Monster's dialogue and returning him to the [[Man Child
* In ''[[The Final]]'', when the outcasts are setting up their torture chamber, they mention how they are rigging the place with webcams in order to send a message to high school students all across the country. This is never brought up again.
* The opening scene of ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'' establishes that the protagonist needs to do [[One Last Job]] in order to have enough money to afford an expensive "procedure" that he can have done to restore lost childhood memories. This charachter motivation sets the rest of the plot in motion, but the importance of needing money for the procedure {{spoiler|and needing the procedure itself to restore the protagonist's lost memories}} is abandoned as soon as the scene ends.
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== Literature ==
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' novel ''Queen of Slayers'', capped off with Buffy becoming psychically pregnant with an embryo that was the composite daughter of both Spike and
* ''[[Wild Cards]]'' had some plots abandoned, presumably because some creators left, probably taking their copyrighted characters with them. Tachyon's infection with the Typhoid version of the virus is treated as something that can be cured by another character who disappears from the series. Tachyon is also jumped into a different woman than his girlfriend, a Chris Claremont creation.
* The ''[[Animorphs]]'' once encountered a new type of Controller called the Garatron, which was incredibly hard to defeat given that it could run ridiculously fast. After finally managing to defeat one after an entire book they comment there's a good chance they'll be fighting more of them soon. They never do.
* K.A. Applegate's series ''[[Remnants]]'' suffered major [[Chris Carter Effect]], meaning many arcs were left
* A major hazard of the multi-author format of the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series. Perhaps most notable were the arcs dealing with the Insiders, a conspiracy set up by the heroes that was to keep [[La Résistance]] going even if the Yuuzhan Vong destroyed the New Republic, and Tahiri's possible destiny as a half-human half-Yuuzhan Vong [[Dark Messiah]], but smaller arcs were dropped as well.
* ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' ends with the revelation that some dinosaurs have escaped to the Costa Rican mainland. Once Site B is introduced, no mention is made of them. This is briefly discussed in the second book, where on character mentions that they tried to look for them and found nothing, but the jungles of Costa Rica are dense enough that they could easily remain hidden there.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* From ''[[The Bill]]'': Very near to the end of Paul Marquess' time as executive producer of the series (2005), there is an episode where WPC Kapoor and PC Valentine work together to uncover the corruption of a uniformed Sergeant over at Barton Street nick. The episode even ends with a [[Sequel Hook]], with PC Valentine informing her that he'll support her if she chooses to follow-through with her allegation, although it will likely drag both of them through the mud (coppers who grass on other coppers, even ones who are genuinely in the wrong, tend to be looked on very unfavourably by their colleagues). Given the heavily serialised nature of the programme at that stage, you might have expected this storyline to be followed up in further episodes, exploring the fallout of this affair. But it wasn't. It was dropped completely. The (off screen) outcome did get a belated mention in WPC Kapoor's final episode three years later, though.
* The fourth season of ''[[Charmed]]'' where Phoebe becomes impregnated with the [[The Antichrist|Son of the Source of All Evil]] had such potential for exploring the morality of killing a child (albeit a [[Fetus Terrible|psychopathic killer baby]], which is such an awesome plot point in itself: imagine them attending school) to prevent future evil, or even an [[An Aesop|Aesop]] about redemption (or lack thereof). Instead the child is disowned, [[
* ''[[Highlander the Series]]''' first season made frequent mention of The Gathering as in the films. It was the very reason Christopher Lambert's Connor came to see Duncan in the first episode with that very title. The murder of Darius and the Watcher/Hunter storyline took over from this, and the emergence of new Immortals in later seasons seemed to belie a final battle being close at hand.
* The disjointed, episodic nature of ''[[Sliders]]'' made it easy for them to follow up good ideas or drop bad ones with each new reality. They could even tease an interesting idea by giving a glimpse of it in an upcoming world or one our heroes just escaped, but never have to flesh out the details. Many abortive arcs came from [[Executive Meddling|the network shooting down]] creator Tracy Torme's attempts to inject continuity into the
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' ended its second season with Lister (a male character) falling pregnant to his female ''[[Alternate Universe]]'' counterpart. The writers had planned to spend an entire episode on it, but found their proposed script was misogynistic
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'''s transgression had Jerry and Elaine get back together at the end of Season Two, then started Season Three with them apart (with no explanation). Creator/executive producer [[Larry David]] had always hated the idea of the two of them being together, and had only written that episode that way because he thought it was going to be the series finale.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'', the archetypal Arc show, had several of these over the years, usually as the result of actors leaving the show. To their credit, the important parts of those arcs were relocated and reassigned to other characters.
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* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''
** The episode "Conspiracy" introduces a race of mind-controlling slugs that threaten to infiltrate [[The Federation]]. The episode ended with the revelation that the aliens had sent out a homing signal into deep space, presumably as a prelude to a full-scale invasion. They were never seen nor heard from again in any TV series (though they showed up in the non-[[Canon]] novels as being tied to the Trill). They were intended to be a way of introducing the Borg, who were later introduced by other means. The [[Star Trek Expanded Universe|expanded universe]] goes back to this one sometimes; in the comics, [[The Engineer|Geordi]] stumbles on their second invasion attempt, they're trying to start slower by going after a less-advanced race. In the Shatnerverse, Captain Raddison explains to Kirk that her super-secret division exists to protect [[The Federation]] from things that would keep even him up at night. Among her list of incidences, "Parasites of unimaginable power that have three times tried to take over the Federation from within. Ask [[The Captain|Picard]] to tell you about the time he knows about."
** And speaking of those other means, the Season 1 finale involved outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone being mysteriously destroyed, with each side at first thinking the other was responsible. The Borg were meant to be this new threat, but that doesn't track with their debut appearance the following season. In "Q Who?" it's explicitly suggested, if not outright stated, that the Borg destroyed the Neutral Zone outposts. On the other hand, later Borg [[
** There were also the extradimensional abductors in the episode "Schisms", who released a probe into "our" universe which the ''[[Cool Starship|Enterprise]]'' lost track of in an obvious attempt to establish them as a continuing menace. They were never seen nor mentioned again (although these guys, like the above-mentioned parasites, were followed-up upon in the comics).
** Also, there was the whole "warp drive damages reality" problem they introduced in the sixth season of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', and then only mentioned once the following season. This had the potential to be either really cool or really stupid, but we will never know which. [[Word of God]] says that the "variable geometry pylons" on ''U.S.S. Voyager'' were [[The Federation|the Federation's]] stopgap solution to the problem, thus explaining why the ''Enterprise''-E and other ships produced thereafter has fixed pylons. Was later retconned to having to due with a ''Star Trek TOS'' episode involving the federation trying to make an omega molecule and it destroying subspace in the entire sector. And by the time of ''The Next Generation'' it's a closely guarded secret in the hands of only a few that the federation destroyed this entire sector of space's subspace field.
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* In ''[[Strange Luck]]'', Chance's brother mentioned that he'd made a friend in the FBI who could help them. His name was Mulder. The series was canceled before this crossover could happen (although a character suspiciously similar to Chance Harper later appeared in the ''X-Files'' episode "The Goldberg Variation").
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' is infamous for introducing characters, races, and enemies that are never seen again. Examples: Nem (an advanced alien who befriended Daniel in the first season), Nyan (a man who supposedly became Daniel's assistant), the Re'tu faction (who supposedly wanted to wipe out all humans), and the general idea of the great alliance introduced in the "Fifth Race" (Asgard and Ancients get their share of plot, but Nox are never to be seen after helping free Skaara; the Furlings are more a running gag than anything). All planets whose Stargate has been lost/destroyed have not been mentioned again even after the SGC started building ships (such as Heliopolis, on which the "meaning of life" machine is housed).
** Forgetting Nem becomes infuriating in the later seasons. Nem's entire motivation was to find out the fate of his wife, Omaroca, who is revealed by Daniel to have been killed and torn apart by Belus. If this sounds familiar, it's because Belus and Omaroca are also known by the slightly less obscure names of Marduk and Tiamat. In show, Marduk is a Goa'uld who has spent the past five thousand years locked in a ziggurat, and the Eye of Tiamat is part of the same set of [[MacGuffin
** Strangely, though the Re'tu are never seen again, they are ''mentioned'' practically every instance when someone is attacked by something invisible or when there is a threat of unknown origin.
** Jonas Quinn did get a proper send-off and even [[The Bus Came Back|turned up in a later episode]], but it had been hinted, especially in "Prophecy", that his brain was special in some potentially plot-important way, and it was never revealed what this was or what it had to do with anything. His brain was special because [[Instant Expert|he could memorize all Jackson's notes in between seasons]]. If they ever explained ''why'' it was special, but as for ''how'' it was special, his super-learning made him a good [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]].
*** His planet gets a guest appearance on SGU, he doesn't. Blink and you'll miss
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' was far from better. What effect did Sheppard's "Blending" with an ascended being have? None. What about the {{spoiler|last Asgards?}} Or the travelers after their brief help in fighting the {{spoiler|Asgards}}. Or what about Lt. Ford, whom Sheppard was convinced had survived? Or that Ancient-worshipping cult that hoarded a ZPM? The list goes on...
** On the subject of the {{spoiler|Asgard Outcasts}}, The heroes have {{spoiler|a [[Magical Database]] containing all of the achievements, both scientific and cultural, of the mainstream Asgard race, something that could be used to negotiate an alliance with those [[Jerkass]] Asgards who have been reduced to using vastly inferior technology to their extinct mainstream counterparts. There could have been a whole plot on the rebirth of the Asgards.}} Presumably the series just ran out of time to tell it.
* ''[[So Weird]]'', the [[Disney Channel|Disney Channel's]] version of ''[[The X-Files]]'', took this a step
* ''[[The Dead Zone]]'' television series started an arc concerning the villain from the book of the same name, Greg
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' is notorious for this, resulting in glaring [[Plot Hole|plot holes]].
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''
** It was planned for the Shanti Virus to be released in the middle of Season 2. When the WGA strike cut the season short, the show runners decided that they didn't want to leave the virus arc unresolved. The ending of episode 11 was reshot to have Peter destroy the virus, and the cliffhanger ending was changed from {{spoiler|Nathan collapsing from the virus during a speech thanking the people of Odessa for having the courage to quarantine themselves}} to {{spoiler|Nathan getting shot during a speech intended to reveal the existence of super powers just before he was going to say that he can fly}}.
** When season 3 degenerated into a [[Random Events Plot]] this happened so much. Sylar is a killer because his Intuitive Aptitude gives him a hunger. {{spoiler|So, when Peter goes to the future and obtains the Intuitive Aptitude, he's pretty fucked because he now has the hunger to open up people's skulls, despite the fact he absorbs powers by proximity. Next episode, just Peter is starting to unleash his inner [[Big Bad]], Arthur takes away all his powers, including Intuitive Aptitude.}} Speaking of the hunger, Sylar was trying to override it {{spoiler|until Noah tells him Angela and Arthur were lying to him, and then he just drops all pretense of being good and instantly becomes evil again.}} There's also the ''entire'' arc about the twelve villains that were supposed to be the worst villains ever, but all the characters stopped caring after Arthur came back to life. Then the Eclipse mini-arc, which was dropped almost as quickly as it was picked up. Adam was dug up, because Angela said he was the key to everything; {{spoiler|turns out that was a lie as well, since nobody even bothered looking for him after Arthur killed him.}} Knox said that all he thought about during his time in level five was revenge on Noah, the man that put him
** There's also the issue of Peter's season 2 girlfriend Caitlin, who got lost in an alternate future that no longer exists. They kind of completely forgot about her after that, and Peter doesn't seem too concerned with getting her back. (In an interview, one of the writers jokingly said that no, Peter didn't really care, then backpedaled and said that she was originally meant to be rescued in the second half of season 2. "But sadly that will never happen...")
{{quote|'''Aron Coleite:''' ... So we're going to have to find another way to rescue Caitlin from a future that doesn't even exist anymore.}}
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*** When Divatox is "purified" in "Countdown to Destruction", she's wearing an outfit identical to Dimitria's, which is as good an answer as we're ever going to get about the twin sister thing.
*** Turbo also left the identity of the Phantom Ranger and his apparent budding relationship with Cassie up in the air.
** The original MMPR Productions version of Ninja Storm would have continued the mythology of a Ranger Alliance first mentioned by Wes in ''Reinforcements from the Future'' and shown in ''Forever Red.'' Head writer Amit Bhaumik had elaborate plans for both Tommy and the Phantom Ranger dashed, like the season, by [[Executive Meddling]]. Upon announcement of Tommy's return in Dino Thunder, some [[Big Name Fan|well connected fans]] made showrunner Doug Sloan aware of those plans and they were incorporated into the broader backstory of Dino Thunder. A subverted case of [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]], as Bhaumik would not have left the Ranger alliance intact by season's end. Still would have been nice to see most of the Ranger teams on Earth lose their powers as Hayley mentioned, though. [[Word of God|Had Sloan continued on for another season]] we would have gotten that very same mythology used as the backstory of SPD, making this a TWICE
** In ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder|Dino Thunder]]'', Devin was originally planned to become a [[Sixth Ranger]], but this was aborted when it was clear his intended powers were in fact a power up for Red Ranger.
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'' we never hear about Mari's hairdressing again and in ''[[Kamen Rider Kabuto]]'' {{spoiler|Hiyori being a Worm}} is also dealt with rather quickly.
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* 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 the revised ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'':
** 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]]
** Bulldog's mysteriously one-off
* ''[[NCIS]]'' spent a few seasons setting up a plot in which Director Jenny Shepherd learns that {{spoiler|her apparently dead father was, in fact, still alive}} (despite the fact that {{spoiler|he'd shot himself in the head and '''she was the one who found his body'''}}). Just as she's beginning to accept it may be true, {{spoiler|she's killed in a gun-battle related to one of her first cases as an agent}}, and so the whole story is now apparently done, with no resolution either way.
** This was actually explained in a blink and you'll miss it scene. Midway through the season Abby speculates that this was a plot by someone (most likely from the CIA) to make Director Shephard look mentally unstable. Leon Vance's remark that Abby is smarter than she looks is about the only answer we'll ever get. It is believed that the reason this plotline was swept under the rug was due to Donald Bellasario stepping down as showrunner and his successor deciding to drop the arc quickly.
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* ''[[The West Wing]]''
** In a second season episode, the White House is politically out-maneuvered by the Republican Majority Leader's new Chief of Staff, played by Felicity Huffman. The episode ends with White House staffers realizing that the majority leader is running for President, with Huffman's shrewd, capable character set up as a major antagonist. Then Huffman took a role on [[Desperate Housewives]], and the majority leader's presidential bid was later dispensed with in a cursory fashion.
** ''[[The West Wing]]'' was somewhat notorious for
* Many times in ''[[Glee]]''. One example is the Sam/Mercedes romance arc that was left as a cliffhanger in 2x22 was dropped. Sam's actor left the show and Mercedes got a new boyfriend.
** This plotline may actually be resuming, with {{spoiler|[[And the Fandom Rejoiced|Sam's return to New Directions]].}}
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== 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 [[WWE]], 2007's "Who Killed [[Vince McMahon]]?" was abruptly halted when
** 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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** This one actually ended. WWE.com had a [[Kayfabe]] [http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/unsolvedmysteries/ page] on this and similar arcs. [[Smart Mark|Smarks]] know the man was Drew Hankinson.
* 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
* The Katie Vick angle of 2003, involving [[Triple H]] and [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]], was more-or-less hastily ended after near-universally negative reviews. The angle was innocuous enough: the heel [[Triple H]] – hoping to play mind games with Kane (in the midst of his tortured soul/sympathetic face persona) – claimed that he had evidence that Kane had killed a young woman named Katie Vick, with whom he had an unrequited crush; said accident happened as Kane was driving Katie home. The angle began going south after [[Triple H]] showed video footage of "Kane" having sex with Katie's corpse. Actually, [[Triple H]] was dressed as Kane, and making out with a mannequin.
* One 2007 episode of Smackdown featured Krissy Vaine debuting after a match with Torrie Wilson and Victoria and beating the crap out of Torrie. She had one backstage segment next week and was never seen again. Behind the scenes she decided wrestling wasn't the right career for her and promptly left. Of course she also injured Torrie's back while training and that resulted in Torrie having to retire from wrestling completely.
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** It was allegedly supposed to push Barrett vs Taker at Wrestlemania 27 but it was aborted when [[Triple H]] came back.
* Now we have the Anonymous Raw General Manager storyline to add to the list. For months on end, an anonymous General Manager was making matches on Raw through a laptop at the side of the ring, next to the commentary tables. The storyline has apparently been ditched without the audience ever discovering the GM's identity.
** A similar but far worse case would be the "GM-less" era. Back in December
* WCW never did reveal who [[Diamond Dallas Page]]'s mystery benefactor in the white gloves was.
* Speaking of WCW, the mystery of the Hummer driver went on so long, it seemed like it would eventually wind up here, until finaly they did reveal who it was, but so far after the fact that no one really cared anymore.
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** The Vashj'ir storyline, and the war between the naga and Neptulon's forces. Toward the end of the storyline, Neptulon is forced to retreat to the Throne of the Tides, and at the end of the Ozumat encounter, he is abducted by Ozumat again after players reduce Ozumat to around 10% HP. There was going to be a 5-man dungeon in the Abyssal Maw, in which players would go inside the third ancient of Vashj'ir, and among other enemies, fight the Battlemaiden they had been controlling in the past visions quests. Blizzard scrapped the Abyssal Maw zones, deciding that Throne of the Tides was the conclusion to the storyline.
* No less than two separate examples of this in ''[[Breath of Fire IV]]'':
** Thanks to Capcom's [[Bowdlerization]] of non-Japanese, non-Playstation versions of the game, there is an
** Game designers were intending to kill Yuna off in the original script. In fact (according to [[Word of God]]) they had not one but ''two'' proposed methods: Mauling By Fou-Lu's Foo Dogs, or General Rhun killing
** The ''manga'' adaptation of ''IV'' gave some satisfaction on one end, and Much Cursing Ensued on the other. The manga adaptation of the scene between Fou-lu and Soniel {{spoiler|features Fou-lu literally backstabbed and run completely through--with Fou-lu manifesting an energy sword and decapitating him whilst ''still having the Dragonslayer sticking through him''; Fou-lu then shoves this out by hand. Truly a [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Crowning Moment of Awesome]].}} Yuna, on the other hand,
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]: The Lost Frontier'' gave Daxter a [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Dark Eco-powered Evil Side]] just like his buddy Jak. It had interesting story potential since {{spoiler|the [[Exclusively Evil]] Dark Makers were Precursors [[The Corruption|corrupted]] by [[Psycho Serum|Dark Eco]], and Daxter was revealed to be a Precursor in the third game}}. Of course, this proceeded to go absolutely nowhere.
* The [[All There in the Manual|bundled documentation]] of ''[[Escape Velocity]] Nova'' mentioned TCTLIDS, and its use to create a [[Fantastic Drug]] called FATE. The game's FAQ reveals that TCTLIDS was supposed to stand for "The Creature That Lives In Deep Space" before being removed from the Nova universe during its development.
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** The 2008 Advent Calendar was put in a similar limbo. The 2009 calendar dedicated much of its time with making up for it.
* Furry webcomic ''[[Fuzzy Things]]'' had an ongoing subplot about spoiled sparrow Shiva trying to find the whereabouts of her old teacher. Eventually, kid genius Rex was able to get her access to a restricted database that contained the answer she was looking for. This subplot is then never brought up again.
* In order to keep the self-imposed PG rating, ''[[Housepets]]'' decided to drop the catnip arc early. Considering the one comic that he put up in the extras section was especially [[
* ''[[Nedroid]]'' often has story arcs that quickly dissolve and quietly buried.
* ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' had a time travel segment that dropped suddenly. Two girls travel to the 1800's and are getting caught up in a cult and prophesy. Then their comrade from the present alters time at the moment they steal a time-pot
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== Web Original ==
* Given that the basis of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' is for characters to be killed off, this tends to happen a good deal. Many a character has died before fulfilling every goal their handler wanted to achieve with them. Outside
** For example, Madelaine Shirohara (of the first game) was originally supposed to be killed by [[Psychopathic Manchild]] Cillian Crowe, then his handler abruptly disappeared. The arc that replaced this one, though, was arguably one of the best in SOTF history, so it isn't all bad.
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' was full of aborted arcs, thanks to its multiple-author nature and [[Creator Breakdown]].
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** Andrea Treschi's capture by the crew of the ''EFS Schaumburg'' was originally supposed to lead to both groups being forced to become anti-Federation rebels and go on the run together. The plan was aborted when the authors involved couldn't agree on a coherent plan for how to go about it. The various [[Author Avatar]] characters among the crew quietly drifted off to other assignments and other plot threads.
** The mysterious Mr. Agli as supposed to tempt Erich Von Shrakenberg into rebelling against the Federation with warnings of an even worse plot to topple the Grand Council. The author involved couldn't make the plot work, so it was quietly dropped shortly thereafter in favor of trying to stop another character's planned overthrow of the government through different means.
*** Which led to another
** The entire ''Tech Infantry: Exodus'' spin-off project was aborted when the authors involved got too interested in world-building and map-creation and suddenly realized they'd forgotten to come up with a plot or characters to place in this 'verse.
** 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 in ''[[Valenth]]'' involved mysterious interdimensional entities known only as "the Presences" appearing and causing havoc, bringing hordes of imps with them. [[It Got Worse]] very quickly, with the near-extinction of several major species and a prominent NPC [[Hulking Out|turning into a giant nightmare monster]] and [[Rent-A-Zilla|going on a rampage]]. After one of the Presences was captured by [[Mad Scientist
* [[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.
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* The season one finale of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' features [[The Hero|Aang]] meeting the potent character Koh the Face Stealer, who ominously says "We'll meet again," as Aang leaves. They never did, but it can be easily [[Fan Wank|fanwanked]] that Koh was talking about a future Avatar.
** [[All There in the Manual|In a series of flash games]] that take place between seasons 2 and 3, they do meet again and Koh is more than a little eager to pay Aang back for escaping the last time they met.
** {{spoiler|[[Deuteragonist|Zuko's]] mom}}, who was brought up several times ({{spoiler|even in the epilogue of the final episode}}), has not been heard of. Even with the implication that {{spoiler|she}} might not be dead. Then again, this may be less of an
** In one episode of the third season, {{spoiler|Iroh reveals that Zuko is descended from Avatar Roku}} and gives him the crown Sozin wore when he was a prince. What comes out of it? ''Nothing''. The incident is never spoken of again and the crown is never seen again.
*** The incident is never spoken of again, but when {{spoiler|Zuko ascends the throne in the finale}}, you can see him wearing it.
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