Aborted Arc: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* 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.

* [[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''.

 

 

* 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.

** 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.

* [[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.