Plot Tumor: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A single plot element that was once a minor part of [[The Verse]] swells in importance as the series progresses, growing more in focus and elaboration to the point that it becomes the focus of major arcs and plot development. As a result, the
Typically this occurs when the creative reins pass on from one writer to the next, as writers forget the original quirks of the element or their creative juices enable them to actualize the untapped story potential of taking a small but notable aspect and expanding on it. However, it's most visible in [[Derivative Works]], where a single element that was important in the source material's success becomes the major focus of the adaptation, especially if late-to-the-party fans or non-fans of the original don't realize the
Keep in mind, however, that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] and [[Fan Wank|fandoms expound on minor details]] just as much as canonical writers; sometimes with the latter [[Ascended Fanon|ending up into the former]].
Compare: [[Adaptation Decay]], [[Flanderization]], [[Romantic Plot Tumor]], [[Never Live It Down]], and [[Motive Decay]]. A [[Malignant Plot Tumor]] is the single-plot counterpart, where a minor plot at the beginning crowds out the other plots at the climax. Contrast [[Adaptation-Induced Plothole]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Duel Monsters in the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga was just supposed to be a one-shot deal (originally named "Magic and Wizards"), but eventually became [[Merchandise-Driven|more and more important to the plot]]. The same thing happened to Kaiba (the villain in "The Cards With Teeth" story, where the game was introduced), who went from [[Monster of the Week]] to [[Big Bad]] to [[Anti-Hero]] and finally to [[The Rival]].
** The mystical aspects of the game has also become this; originally just a bunch of dark magic from Ancient Egypt that the game's creator was tricked into bringing back through the game, it eventually evolved into an entire ''series'' of [[Alternate Dimension
* [[Ki Attacks]] and powering up in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. At the beginning of the original Dragonball, there were no [[Ki Attacks]], and the first of them, the [[Kamehame Hadoken|Kamehameha]], didn't appear until the middle of the first arc. Even then it sort of the trump card, and wasn't played terribly often. As the series progressed though, the KameHameHa became a more standard attack, and Ki Attacks became more and more prominent. Then DBZ came along and it became the main premise behind practically everything the fighters did. They could fly, teleport, power up, etc., all based on Ki manipulation. [[Ki Attacks]] eventually led to [[Beam Spam]], and the ability to power up that was introduced early in DBZ became the method by which nearly every [[Big Bad]] but the last one was defeated, by digging just a little deeper and becoming just a bit more powerful.
** It's also interesting to note that ''[[
* The Uchiha clan in ''[[Naruto]]'', and Sasuke in particular, have done nothing but become more prominent in the story as time passes. It's gotten to the point where the Uchiha clan is responsible for the entire plot of the manga. Sasuke started out as merely [[The Rival]] to Naruto (though he clearly had greater story importance than other such rivals due to also being Naruto's teammate) who wanted to avenge his clan, but as the Uchiha presence expanded, so has his. He's arguably had more face time in the manga than the actual protagonist (he hasn't, though he's had more than every other character despite being largely absent for the first three arcs of Part 2). [[Broken Base|It's a sore spot between fans whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between.]]
* Yukito Kishiro derailed ''[[Battle Angel Alita]]: Last Order'' for a two-volume gothic vampire story which acted as last-minute background for "Fata Morgana" (a nanotech super-program). It would appear the Fata Morgana became such a
* More or less the same thing has happened to ''[[Bleach]]'', with the early substitute shinigami stories fading into endless tournament-like fight arcs.
** Given the amount of panels and empty surrounding space they receive, the speech bubbles themselves have been ballooning into strangling whatever plot they were supposed to be driving, extending any event by months or even years. Plot carcinogen?
== Comic Books ==
* In the [[Silver Age]] ''[[
** Currently, it was brought back in the comic books as well.
*** [[Lampshaded]] in an issue of Superman/Batman where Superman is almost accidentally killed because it was cheaper for a film company to use real kryptonite rather than make a prop.
* ''[[X-Men]]'' has dined out for years on the idea of [[Fantastic Racism|prejudice against mutants]] - to the point where its the major thread of nearly every adaptation and any attempts to even ''tone down'' "Mutant Hysteria" (much less eliminate it) have been swiftly written out. When it was first conceived, anti-mutant prejudice was based on fears of mutant supremacy: that mutants like Magneto would eradicate/replace normal humans as the next stage in evolution, especially since anyone's child could be a mutant. As currently written, the [[Fantastic Racism]] is apparently so ingrained that it's become even stronger in the face of the mutant population being [[Brought Down to Normal]] in the Decimation arc.
** It's gotten to the point that much of the fanbase, and occasionally several of the ''writers'', honestly root for Magneto.
** One might also look at [[Wolverine Publicity|the entire character of Wolverine as a Plot Tumor]]. Moving from a loner and a minor member of the team till gradually we find that he is the main character of the movie series (with the team leader gone for nearly two entire films), and his name in the title of a new series.
** Another
* [[The Flash]] and the Speed Force. The Speed Force started as a way of [[Arc Welding]] all of the unrelated super-speedsters while providing them with a universal [[Hand Wave]] for the ways that they make physicists cry. It eventually gained enough properties, applications, and relevance that it now dominates the Flash mythos.
** This happens to a lot of heroes with power sources that can be even remotely anthropomorphized, with the power source becoming used in more and more story elements instead of just being left in the background. For example, a lot of recent [[Shazam|Marvel Family]] stories are more about the Wizard and/or the gods who empower Captain Marvel and less about the Captain himself, [[Green Lantern]] comics are frequently dominated by the Guardians and Lantern politics rather than heroics, and [[
* In one issue of ''[[The Authority]]'' Swift has a one night stand with Grunge from ''[[Gen 13]]''. Later this become source of drama between Grunge and his girlfriend in ''[[Gen 13]]''.
== Film ==
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** Yet another example: Saying "I don't believe in fairies" causes a fairy ''somewhere'' to die, and you have to actually believe what you're saying. A lot of recent adaptations seem to assume you can shout this at specific fairies to kill them and you don't have to really believe your own words, just say them.
*** This was actually subverted in the movie ''Hook''. When Peter yells "I don't believe in fairies" at Tinkerbell, she pretends to drop down and play dead, he panics, and starts clapping furiously to bring her back. Meanwhile, Tinkerbell is basically just screwing with him, and it's possible that the fairy-death-by-lack-of-belief thing is just a myth.
* When J.R.R. Tolkien was writing ''[[The Hobbit]]'', he was also [[World Building|designing the fantasy world of Middle-Earth]] in his spare time, just for fun. For his own amusement, and to flesh out the world of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' a little more, he put a few references to Middle-Earth into the book, but he wasn't seriously thinking about adding hobbits to his private [[World Building]] project. However, when he decided to write a sequel to ''[[The Hobbit (
** Another, perhaps even more surprising, Tolkien example: The One Ring (and Gollum). In Tolkien's first version of The Hobbit, Gollum ''willingly handed over'' the Ring to Bilbo as a prize for besting him in the riddle contest, it was just a plot point to give Bilbo the invisibility powers. Tolkien had to back and make Gollum far more sinister and un-sportsmanlike about the whole thing AND add in that he freaked out about losing the Ring, considering that the follow-up to the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings,the importance of the Ring has swollen so much that the story pretty much entirely revolves on the corrupting power of the One Ring and Middle Earth is inadvertently ''saved'' because of Gollum's need to have his precious.
* In the [[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]], Manpower Incorporated, a genetic slavery organization, was originally a minor background detail, with the focus of the series being on the increasingly escalating war between the protagonist Star Kingdom of Manticore and the antagonistic People's Republic of Haven. Starting around the tenth book in the series, however, the Mesa system, which is both home to and arm-in-arm with Manpower, became the [[Big Bad]] of the [[Verse|Honorverse]]. The shadowy cabal that controls Mesa was eventually revealed to be closing in on the end of a centuries-long plan to control the known galaxy via long-term political and military manipulation of every other government, all so they can reintroduce widespread genetic engineering to the galaxy and eliminate any opposition to it.
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** In the sonic screwdriver's original appearance in ''Fury from the Deep'', and later in ''The War Games'', it was used ''for unscrewing things''. It only gradually became a do-anything device.
*** It was actually written out of the show because it was becoming a [[Deus Ex Machina]], before being reintroduced for the Eighth Doctor... and becoming a [[Deus Ex Machina]]. It got so bad that they had to introduce a ''second'' [[Deus Ex Machina]] ("deadlocking") to counteract it. And now it doesn't work on [[Weaksauce Weakness|wood]] either.
* The Kromaggs on ''[[
* When Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet, then character on her sit-com, ''[[Ellen]]'', did the same. It had been stated that the show would continue normally and that her being gay would not take over the show. However, in the fifth and final season, half the episodes focus on it.
* The surreal comedy episodes of ''[[
* Archie Kennedy in ''[[
== Machinima ==
* The Freelancer program of ''[[
== Multiple media ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' across its many incarnations and writers has had a lot of these.
** The "Brain Bugs" from ''[[Star Trek II:
*** Incidentally, [http://stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/BrainBugs.html "Brain Bugs"] is sometimes used as an interchangeable term for Plot Tumors; whether or not this is influenced by ''Wrath of Khan'' is up for question.
** The Jefferies Tubes started out as fairly realistic maintenance tunnels that the odd tool or piece of equipment were in. This is realistic because sometimes with complicated engineering not everything is within arm's reach. These mutated over generations to labyrinths of tubes where everything important was kept - Fair to say no engineer would design something [[Malevolent Architecture|this malevolent]].
*** The ''[[Star Trek
*** Parodied and Lampshaded in ''[[
{{quote|
** The Borg started out as technophiles who were only interested in stealing interesting technology and ignored life forms unless they became a danger, but they gradually mutated into ''Night of the Living Dead''-style zombies. The first trip aboard a Borg Cube showed that Borg reproduced naturally and put implants into their infants. Meanwhile Picard was chosen to become Locutus as a mouthpiece for the Borg to announce their intention to conquer and enslave humanity. By ''First Contact'', they were able to assimilate on the fly, injecting nanites directly into people to begin the assimilation process (though full assimilation was more involved). By the time ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' encountered them, they were primarily interested in assimilating life forms regardless of their technological level, and eventually the Borg were revealed to be unable to actually understand ''anything'' without assimilating it.
** The Vulcans have also gone through this. One of the complaints about the Vulcans on ''Enterprise'' was that they were portrayed as capable of deceit and underhanded behavior, the complaints arising because people took one character, Spock, who was in fact notably ''atypical'', and used him as the archetype for an entire species. However, when you look at how Vulcans were portrayed in the canon, you saw Vulcans acting in quite un-Spockish ways, even as far back as his "wife" in the original series who manipulated things to get out of her arranged marriage.
** Transporters were created as a last-minute cost-cutting cop-out to prevent expensive effects shots of shuttles landing on planets, but soon became a rich source of plots, with whole episodes centered on [[Teleporter Accident|the zanier aspects of their operation]], even though the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130727140908/http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/trek/7.html unintended applications] make them outrageous and are best ignored to begin with. See [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]].
** Perhaps the biggest one was the way the Prime Directive grew in importance until ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' was doing an episode where the [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] was that the only moral thing to do was to stand by and let an entire species of advanced, peaceful aliens die out when you could easily save them. Worse, the Prime Directive didn't even exist at the time that series was set. That species was allowed to die out because the character had somehow got it into his head that [[You Fail Biology Forever|"evolution" is some kind of omniscient God who must not be disobeyed]].
** Klingons as [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Space Vikings]]. The movies and ''TNG'' portrayed them as possessing a much more nuanced culture that happened to have a warrior past. By the time Worf started as a regular on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'', every Klingon went everywhere with his sword, and no woman ever held a position of power.
** The entire Dominion War arc that practically ''was'' ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has several examples. It can be argued that [[Energy Weapon|lightsaber]] combat qualifies, as it was never paid that much attention in the original trilogy compared to the prequels (and in the [[Expanded Universe]], there are seven ''forms'' of lightsaber combat, each explored in detail). However, a more glaring example is the evolution of Boba
** The [[Star Wars]] video games, having a relatively limited amount of iconic canonical material to draw on, have become almost comical in the way various memorable elements of the movies show up over and over again in different, unrelated games. For instance, there are now, in the non-canonical parts of the EU at least, at least five different sets of Death Star plans that have been stolen five different and mutually exclusive ways by five different heroes or sets of heroes.
*** In turn, writers who try to make sense of EU have come up with the explanation that the Empire did not keep a full set of the plans in any single location, but that several stolen pieces were necessary to put together a complete picture of the Death Star and learn about the vulnerabilities.
** See also how thanks to the video games' endless reliving of the Battle of Hoth, what was, in the movies, a one-time, fairly cool longshot that happened to pay off - the snowspeeder managing to trip the AT-AT with a tow cable - has now become the de rigeur, recommended means for killing AT-ATs.
*** This was nicely subverted in one of the [[X Wing Series|X-Wing novels]], where it is demonstrated that real starfighters find AT-ATs target practice, even without using single proton torpedoes to blow them to bits. Of course, this also causes the [[Fridge Logic]] to attack since Luke's X-Wing was sitting around doing nothing on Hoth...
** Not to mention Force Lightning: It's used six times in the six movies - three times by Palpatine (''Return of the Jedi'', twice in ''Revenge of the Sith'') and three times by Dooku/Darth Tyrannus (all in ''Attack Of The Clones''). Both major league Sith Lords. In the games, anyone who has a smidge of Dark Side can throw lightning around with impunity [https://web.archive.org/web/20140807012225/http://jediknight3.filefront.com/potd/40774 and on a vastly greater scale, too].
*** In ''Jedi Starfighter'', Jedi can use lightning with no karma meter to speak of. Timed correctly, you can destroy five fightercraft at once with it!
** The planet Tatooine is a particularly malignant plot tumor in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]]. Initially introduced as a thoroughly unremarkable backwater world ("If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet it's farthest from"), it's since been featured with varying degrees of prominence in almost every [[Star Wars]] game and, in the end, appeared in five of the six films. Its appearances in the [[Expanded Universe]] may even outnumber those of Coruscant, ostensibly the ''capital planet'' of the galaxy.
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* Few people realize that the comic strip [[Beetle Bailey]] was originally about the title character attending college. Him joining the army (in 1951) was originally going to be just a one shot story. He was in college for only ''six months'' before leaving forever.
* ''[[Blondie (comic strip)|Blondie]]'' was originally about a flapper girl from the twenties of the same name. After the Great Depression hit, the focus of the comic turned to her inept comically-oversized sandwich-eating husband, Dagwood Bumstead.
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* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', starting with the Ember Trial, seems to force one quest on the player after another, leading to the question "Whatever happened to going to the Jerro Estate?", it takes most of part II for the answer to that question
* The Insult Swordfighting in ''[[Monkey Island]]'' was meant to be a parody of the [[You Fight Like a Cow|witty banter]] found in high adventure movies, but by the time ''Escape from Monkey Island'' came around, there's apparently an Insult version of nearly every sport available floating around the Tri-Island Area.
* Sometimes the earlier games in ''Zelda'' series seem to be set in an almost separate universe than the more modern ones. Originally, the Triforce was a mysterious triangle that granted magical abilities, and there were only two of them, not three. Come ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** Likewise, the Master Sword being the only sword able to kill Ganon is a relatively recent idea. In its first appearance in ''A Link to the Past'', the Master Sword was a powerful weapon to defeat evil, but in order to kill Ganon you had to stun him with the Master Sword, then actually harm him with a Silver Arrow. After ''Ocarina of Time'' the relationship has been reversed, and the Light Arrows are needed to stun Ganon so you can harm him with the Master Sword. Sometimes you don't even need the arrows at all. The Master Sword meanwhile has been given increased importance, and it's a Comic Keystone just as important to the world of Hyrule as the Triforce now.
*** Although, in ''Ocarina of Time'', it was required only to seal him away; you're able to harm Ganon with the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Biggoron Sword]].
* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' games were once about bipedal nuclear tanks but ever since ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' introduced the Patriots, everything, even retroactively, has something to do with them.
** In the earlier games, [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]] was handwaved by the fact that the weapons were keyed to their users via [[Nanomachines]] and won't function for anyone else. In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', the entire plot revolves around the weapon-identifying nanomachines (hence the subtitle) and the computer system that regulates them.
* In the first ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* Dragons were mostly background lore in the ''[[
* The Cerberus group in the ''[[
* Legendary Pokémon. Gen I:
* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'': In ''Blood Omen'', the "Heart of Darkness" was just a setting-appropriate take on a heal potion, albeit with cool flavor text (an enterprising fledgling could amass a full 99-stack). By Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, it was the [[MacGuffin|Dingus]] Raziel had to chase down before everybody else.
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' has had a couple of these, thanks to being [[Kudzu Plot]] incarnate.
** The Dimension of Pain was originally just a concept that fueled roughly a week's worth of strips. Then Pete Abrams decided to make it a [[Running Gag]], having the Dimension of Pain demons show up each Halloween to claim Torg's soul. Each Halloween arc got longer than the last, and eventually the demons caught on so much that they were made the stars of their own [[B
*** Although Pete Abrams has stated he knew the demons would be invading the Dimension of Lame when he left them a potential means to do so, right in the first story.
** There's also Bun-Bun's grudge against Santa Claus. At first there were just a handful of strips around Christmas each year where Bun-Bun would try (and fail) to kill Santa Claus. The feud kept escalating, however, with more and more side characters (the Easter Bunny, Santa's black ops elves, aliens with a weakness against Nerf) getting involved, until it eventually exploded into Bun-Bun amassing an army and going on a holiday killing, world conquering rampage in the three month long "Holiday Wars" saga (which itself launched the even longer "Oceans Unmoving" arc).
** Both of these Plot Tumors, however, seem to have been successfully removed. The Dimension of Pain has not been seen for years, ever since "That Which Redeems" concluded. And, while Bun-Bun still makes the occasional attack on Santa Claus, holiday figures and black ops elves have long since ceased to play a prominent role in the story.
*** Although with the 4U city mutants and the mutagen causing squid on a stick, the Dimension of Pain looks to be moving back towards being important. Timeless space also managed to be fit in.
* ''[[Concession]]'' started off as a comic strip about a bunch of anthropomorphic characters who worked at a concession stand at a movie theater (The author actually based it around the stupidity he experienced, working in customer service is a good way to get material for comic strips). But if you look at the most recent comics...you'll not really see that much about an actual concession stand. For awhile, the actual concession stand was more or less put to the side, and until it got wrapped up in the massive
* In ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]'' the original comic was mainly a slice of life style that was mainly a gag a day style. Then ninjas were added. And a demonic refrigerator. After that, things got weird. Now the whole story revolves around the weirdness and the weirdos and pretty much every arc has ninjas in it due to Sam becoming the Ninja Emperor.
* The "Patriarchy" in ''[[Sinfest]]'' during fall of 2011 quickly grew to overtake the strip, turning the focus to the actions of Trike Girl and the ramifications of said actions on the world. As of early 2012, things seem to have calmed down a bit. [[Sinfest]] runs into this trope a lot, due to the author [[Writing By The Seat Of His Pants]]. "Patriarchy" is notable for taking over so much in such a short time period, but there are plenty of other examples:
** Possibly the first was the Devil's "crisis of faith", which spun so far out of control that the author didn't know how to end it. Big D was AWOL for several real-world months before it was revealed that he just went on vacation.
** The "Reality Zone" was introduced for a one-off Sunday strip, then became a recurring plot element.
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