Halfway Plot Switch: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Any plot which is dropped halfway through an episode in favor of a brand new one. Often involves [[Genre Shift]].

 

 

If the plot switch occurs while [[Wrap It Up|wrapping up]] the story, it's a [[Gainax Ending]]. A [[Sacrificial Lion]] may fail to survive the switch. Can seem similar to [[First Law of Tragicomedies]], but that only applies to a specific change in tone (comedy to tragedy), where the plot is unaffected.

 

Compare [[Developing Doomed Characters]], which is about the time spent examining the mundane lives of the characters before something extraordinary happens that starts the "real" story.

 

== [[Anime and Manga]] ==

 

 

 

== Literature ==

** Most of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s longer stories tend to have this structure to some extent, though not quite as tenuous.

** ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' is arguably the same thing in reverse.

* ''Double Image'' by David Morrell - A photographer takes pics of something in Bosnia that really pisses off a Big Bad. As soon as that plot line is resolved, said photographer becomes obsessed over a mysterious woman in some pictures he finds.

* Happens in a couple of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episodes, including the Series VIII finale: the first half is about how Lister & Kryten playing pranks on each other turns into a potentially lethal situation... then halfway through they discover that a virus is eating the ship, most of the crew evacuates, and our heroes have to cross into a mirror universe to find the antidote. This ''was'' set up at the very beginning of the episode, but most of the events from the first half have no effect on the second half.

** In the episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II" it happens ''twice''. First the crew is being chased by a rogue Space Corps police probe... this leads them to crash onto a Gelf moon, where they have to deal with the locals to fix their ship's oxygen system... this leads them to being back on the ship with the titular emohawk on the loose. Apart from the connections mentioned above, none of the previous parts have any effect on each new plot.

** "Justice" begins with the crew finding a stasis pod drifting in space. They determine that it came from a [[Prison Ship]] and contains either a living human woman or an insane, murderous simulant - and it will open automatically in a matter of hours. They go to the prison station to learn more, only for the prison's AI to scan their minds and find Rimmer guilty of causing the accident that killed Red Dwarf's crew. Most of the episode is then devoted to getting Rimmer released. That done, they decide to head home...

{{quote| '''The Cat:''' Come on, let's get out of here. I don't know what made us want to come to this hellhole in the first place!<br />

* "Charming Weather" from Lionel Monckton's ''The Arcadians''. It starts off obviously leading into a marriage proposal - until {{spoiler|they realise they aren't alone}}, and it turns into {{spoiler|banal smalltalk}} for the chorus. Unusual since, being music, it can ''do it all over a second time''. Youtube has a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2_mEwNq86M rather badly performed recording of it].

* Katrinah Jospehina by [http://www.universalhallpass.com Universal Hall Pass]. The first half of the song is the tale of a girl (the eponymous Katrinah) who decided to explore beneath the earth. The second half consists of a twisted, echoing beat accompanying backwards-sounding fragments of the lyrics. This change is never really explained, but it's heavily implied that {{spoiler|Katrinah is either mentally ill or trapped in hell... or both.}}

* [[Gorillaz]]'s Empire Ants song, in the new Plastic Beach album. It starts with 2D singing, backed by sweet almost lift-like tropical tunes. Then, full stop, and it starts what appears a new song, with electro-techno sounds, bass, and even new vocals, from guest artist Little Dragon. And it's awesome.

* "Miserable Lie" by [[The Smiths]] seems constructed out of ''three'' separate songs, opening with a slow, gentle, serious introduction that seems to represent the end of a relationship. The song then turns on a dime to an uptempo number with a series of bitter, (yet comical) stream-of-consciousness lyrics. This shift in tone gets escalated to a manic level in the final part of the track, as Morrissey switches to a falsetto voice, howling about his perceived inadequacies in life and love. It can be argued that the ''theme'' of the lyrics stays constant, but then again, said theme is dominant in most of The Smiths' songs, as well as Morrissey's solo work.

 

== Webcomics ==

* In the popular ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', an entire story arc (part 2 in a 4-part mega-arc) is based on this storytelling format, to the extent that it is called "I Told You That Story So I Could Tell You This One". The stories concerned are the titular main character's dilemma when every person he ever killed returns as a zombie to plague him, which leads into an exploration of his family and his sidekick's family when he leaves his sidekick to stay with them instead of bothering him.

* ''[[Yu Me Dream]]''. Goes from a very typical [[Coming Out Story|coming out story]] about a girl named Fiona who goes to a Catholic high school and falls in love with another girl called Lia, to {{spoiler|finding out that it was [[All Just a Dream|all a dream]], Lia is 900 years old, has been captured by the Queen of Dreams and now Fiona, a bear called Mrs Butterfield, a woman with a removable head, Fiona's conscience, a blue haired girl called Clandestine, and a bisexual male called Don must travel through Fiona's dreams to get her back.}} You... you have to read it to wrap your head around it.

{{quote| '''Puggsy''': [[Wham Line|"The name is Puggsy.]] [[Suddenly Voiced|What's yours?"]]}}

** Most of the rest of the plot is about helping a [[Heartwarming Orphan]] escape her [[Rich Bitch]] aunt and find her long-lost [[Adventurer Archaeologist]] father.

* ''[[Sonic Underground]]'' used and invoked this in "Wedding Bell Blues." Since Queen Aleena didn't show for her forced marriage to Robotnik, they'll instead crown Sonia queen in her stead—with Robotnik as the real power.

 

{{reflist}}