Plot Tumor: Difference between revisions

 

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]].

* Dragons were mostly background lore in the ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series. Come ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' and pretty much anything can be explained (retroactively) via dragons. Liches, zombies, the Blades, an important part of the Empire's history...etc. Even door keys in several dungeons have the shape of dragon claws.

* The Cerberus group in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series. Initially it was just a shady group with a couple of hidden bases. Come ''Mass Effect 2'' they're an almost all powerful organization that are central to the plot. While it may have been planned that they would have such a large role it still felt like a Plot Tumor for those that didn't take part in the optional quest of the first game.

 

 

* ''[[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 Plot Tumor, it didn't even play a role beyond the occasional appearance of a main character who was still employed there. Immelmann has actually ''admitted'' that it's only really about concession stands [[In Name Only]] and centers around the character Joel and his plot, it even says so right in the "About" section.

* 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.

** 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.