Plot Tumor: Difference between revisions

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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]].

== Anime and Manga ==

* Duel Monsters in the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' manga was just supposed to be a one-shot deal, but eventually became [[Merchandise Driven|more and more important to the plot]]. The same thing happened to Kaiba, who went from [[Monster of the Week]] to [[Big Bad]] to [[Anti Hero]] and finally to [[The Rival]].

* Duel Monsters in the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' manga was just supposed to be a one-shot deal, but eventually became [[Merchandise-Driven|more and more important to the plot]]. The same thing happened to Kaiba, 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|Alternate Dimensions]] full of monsters, and eventually into a power that's [[Older Than They Think]] and is part of ''the Earth itself''.

* [[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.

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== Comic Books ==

* In the [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'' comics, Kryptonite went from a simple [[Achilles Heel]] to a rainbow of [[Green Rocks]] that could do anything, and were present in ludicrous quantities. This was toned down [[Post Crisis]], but ''[[Smallville]]'' seems to have taken it back up.

* In the [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'' comics, Kryptonite went from a simple [[Achilles Heel]] to a rainbow of [[Green Rocks]] that could do anything, and were present in ludicrous quantities. This was toned down [[Post-Crisis]], but ''[[Smallville]]'' seems to have taken it back up.

** 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.

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** 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 [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]].

** 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]]''.

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* Pretty much every single ''[[Transformers]]'' series since about 1992 where Takara (the Japanese toy company that shares the rights to the ''Transformers'' brand with their American partner Hasbro) had a major say in the direction of the toyline/story development has over-emphasized the role of Convoy (better known as Optimus Prime outside Japan) and his derivatives (Hasbro, on the other hand, despite also putting an "Optimus"/"Prime" character/toy in every series whenever possible, puts a little more emphasis on character diversity). This is particularly glaring in short-lived toy-only lines with no television show to back them up, which will often start with a new Convoy toy... then ''maybe'' a different character as the second toy if they're really lucky, or ''another'' Convoy-related toy of they're not so lucky... and then the line ends and gets replaced by a new line that starts with the next Convoy all over again. The most noteworthy example would be the "Robot Masters" line from 2004, which, during its 25-toy-run, had no less than ''seven'' toys with the word "Convoy" in their names (including redecos). One of these "Convoy" toys was even a retool of a ''Megatron'' toy and was intended to actually ''be'' a form of Megatron.

** Prime's role can be over-emphasized in America, too; The most recent [[Transformers Film Series|movie]] had a villain who could only be defeated by a Prime.

** A more notable example in the Transformers mythos: The Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The term "matrix" originated with Optimus's "creation matrix" in the comics, in which it was simply used to create new <s> characters</s> [[Merchandise Driven|toys]]. It was then introduced into the movie with its current title, serving only as a [[MacGuffin]] to defeat Unicron (note that prior to Unicron mentioning it, Megatron had ''absolutely no use for it''); it quickly became the central [[Green Lantern Ring|do-anything power source]] and all-purpose [[MacGuffin]] for the cartoon. Several series have even had Megatron and other Decepticon leaders dip into [[Motive Decay]] by having them all lust after the Matrix. In ''All Hail Megatron'', Megatron's acquisition of the Matrix was treated as "game over" for the Autobots, and [[The Starscream|Starscream]] was able to win over the ''Decepticon'' army just by possessing it.

** A more notable example in the Transformers mythos: The Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The term "matrix" originated with Optimus's "creation matrix" in the comics, in which it was simply used to create new <s> characters</s> [[Merchandise-Driven|toys]]. It was then introduced into the movie with its current title, serving only as a [[MacGuffin]] to defeat Unicron (note that prior to Unicron mentioning it, Megatron had ''absolutely no use for it''); it quickly became the central [[Green Lantern Ring|do-anything power source]] and all-purpose [[MacGuffin]] for the cartoon. Several series have even had Megatron and other Decepticon leaders dip into [[Motive Decay]] by having them all lust after the Matrix. In ''All Hail Megatron'', Megatron's acquisition of the Matrix was treated as "game over" for the Autobots, and [[The Starscream|Starscream]] was able to win over the ''Decepticon'' army just by possessing it.

** Considering that in everything except the G1 cartoon, Beast Wars and Beast Machines, the Matrix contains part of the essence of the Transformer god and creator, Primus, it's understandable that the Decepticons would want it. Still though...

** For that matter, the Primus/Unicron conflict. In G1, Unicron was "merely" a humongous planet-devouring Transformer, who got defeated in the very movie he appeared in. Eventually, however, he was retconned into a "multiversal singularity" existing ''in every Transformers continuity at once'', along with his good counterpart, who was introduced into the mythos even later. Eventually, fans got so sick of Primus and Unicron that ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' very pointedly avoided mentioning either of them.

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* 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 a Link To T He Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'', however, and it's the [[Cosmic Keystone]] of the entire ''Zelda'' universe with omnipotent wish-granting and reality-warping powers. The significance of the Triforce mark was also different. From ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' onward, the Triforce mark on one's hand signified which piece of the Triforce one had and would glow when its power was being used. The first appearance of this mark was in ''[[Zelda II the Adventure of Link (Video Game)|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'', and it showed up on Link's hand before he even had the Triforce of Courage. It just marked him as the hero destined to claim it.

** 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 ~~Plus One~~ Sword|Biggoron Sword]].

*** 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.