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Serendipity Writes the Plot: Difference between revisions
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Related to [[Reality Subtext]]. Compare [[Ascended Glitch]], [[Throw It In]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Due to government enforced lockdowns during production, ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!]]'' had difficulty holding auditions. In response much of the secondary cast is made up of characters [[Expy|strikingly similar]] in appearance, personality, deck type, and (of course) casting to ones seen in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS]]'', even if their role in the plot and backstory is different. For example Galixon Tazaki, the father figure of the main characters after their [[Disappeared Dad]] who uses an Earth Machine deck, looks and acts nearly identical to Galian Tazaki, father figure of the antagonist of the second arc of ''SEVENS'' who also uses an Earth Machine deck.
** A secondary bonus to this is that the actual ''Rush Duel'' card game can now continue supporting the existing deck types introduced in ''SEVENS'' instead of continuing the problem [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|the original game]] has where deck types used by secondary (or worse) characters stopped getting support after they ceased to appear in the anime.
* The limits of CGI regarding the [[Uncanny Valley|depiction of organic shapes and natural surfaces]] is the reason [[Pixar]]'s first feature film was about [[Toy Story (franchise)|toys]]. As the technology improved, they worked their way up to [[A Bug's Life|bugs]], then [[Monsters, Inc.|furry/scaly monsters]], then [[Finding Nemo|fish]], and finally, [[The Incredibles|human]] [[Up (animation)|beings]].▼
* Low budget horror movies with no-name stars lead to [[Anyone Can Die]]. ''[[Alien]]'' may be the best known example. A cast filled with great character actors, but none of them are a big enough star to guarantee their character's survival. {{spoiler|Almost everyone dies. The sole survivor is perhaps the [[Sigourney Weaver|least known actress]].<ref>At the time, at least. It became [[Sigourney Weaver]]'s [[Star-Making Role]].</ref>}}▼
▲* The limits of CGI regarding the [[Uncanny Valley|depiction of organic shapes and natural surfaces]] is the reason [[Pixar]]'s first feature film was about [[Toy Story|toys]]. As the technology improved, they worked their way up to [[A Bug's Life|bugs]], then [[Monsters, Inc.|furry/scaly monsters]], then [[Finding Nemo|fish]], and finally, [[The Incredibles|human]] [[Up (animation)|beings]].
* This trope is touched on in the classic black and white movie, ''[[The Bad and The Beautiful]]''.
** A horror movie producer couldn't afford decent special effects for the monster. He teams up with the director to use camera tricks to make the monster into ''[[The Unseen]]''.
** From the trivia in the
▲* Low budget horror movies with no-name stars lead to [[Anyone Can Die]]. ''[[Alien]]'' may be the best known example. A cast filled with great character actors, but none of them are a big enough star to guarantee their character's survival. {{spoiler|Almost everyone dies. The sole survivor is perhaps the [[Sigourney Weaver|least known actress]].}}
▲* This trope is touched on in the classic black and white movie, ''[[The Bad and The Beautiful]]''.
▲** A horror movie producer couldn't afford decent special effects for the monster. He teams up with the director to use camera tricks to make the monster into [[The Unseen]].
▲** From the trivia in the movies Imdb entry, "The scene showing the production of the fictional low budget horror film was based on how [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507932/ Val Lewton] produced ''[[Cat People (film)|Cat People]]'' (1942)."
* [[Steven Spielberg]] couldn't get the mechanical shark in ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' to work very well, so it became mostly [[The Unseen]], with the entire concept of the sailors using barrels to track it as a way to keep filming as though the shark was there. The film is widely credited as working ''far'' better because of the increased tension and the greater impact of scenes where the shark actually ''did'' appear.
** Hooper was originally intended to die in the screenplay. However, some footage captured by Spielberg's secondary crew, of a ''real'' great white attacking a visibly-empty diving cage, was so awesome that the plot was changed to let Hooper slip out of it safely, allowing them to use the shot.
* Originally, [[Godzilla]] was going to be rendered via claymation for the original 1954 film ''[[Gojira (film)|Gojira]]''. However, due to budget and time restraints, he was portrayed in classic
* In the climax of the film version of ''[[From Russia with Love]]'', villainess Rosa Klebb was fighting [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] using a poisoned shoe knife. The script called for her to be accidentally killed by her own weapon, but the director couldn't figure out a way to film it that didn't look ridiculous. Then someone realized that a) there was a gun on the floor from when Bond had disarmed Klebb and b) the heroine, who had been an enemy agent recruited by Klebb before falling in love with Bond, was [[Neutral Female|just standing there watching the fight]]. So the director changed the script to have the heroine pick up the gun, and after some hesitation, shoot Klebb.
* In the ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]],'' the scene with the swordsman involved Indy disarming the man with his whip. But [[Harrison Ford]] was sick with [[The Oregon Trail|dysentery]] at the time, and asked if he could just shoot the man, which the final cut had him doing.
* The opening of ''[[Spy Kids]] 2'' was originally meant to take place at [[Disney Theme Parks|Disneyland]]. However, [[Robert Rodriguez]] discovered that Disney generally doesn't allow movies to shoot in their parks, not even Disney movies (note: The original ''Spy Kids'' films were distributed by [[Miramax Films]], which is owned by Disney, and released under the [[Dimension Films]] name). This led to the scene instead taking place at a fictional amusement park with humorously impossible CGI rides. Rodriguez thinks this is mostly an improvement, although he still would have preferred it if Carmen and Juni had appeared undercover at the park wearing Mickey Mouse hats, but they had to settle for propeller hats.
** Funnily enough, though, the finished film still has Carmen saying the line, "No more Mickey Mouse assignments" when she's annoyed at getting stuck with a mission at an amusement park.
* The scripted climax of ''[[Back to The Future]]'' called for Marty to take the DeLorean to a Nevada nuclear test site and return to 1985 using the power of a nuclear blast. This was beyond the film's budget, so the now iconic clock tower climax was created.
** [[Crispin Glover]]'s refusal to do the sequels impacted the plot heavily. For example, George McFly being dead in 1985-A was originally conceived as just an excuse to not show him very much.
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* The sequence in ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'' where Kimble loses his pursuers in the confusion surrounding the St Patrick's Day Parade was added to the script after the filmmakers realised that their scheduled dates for location filming in Chicago included the day that the real-life parade would be held.
* In the first ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' film, the amphibious duck vehicles in Siberia were included in the movie because the director thought they looked cool. Similarly, the procession of monks was not written in the script, but the procession happened to take place as they were filming and the monks consented to appearing in the movie. In the second film, most of Lara's outfits have long sleeves, because the concealing makeup used to hide [[Angelina Jolie]]'s tattoos in the first movie was not as effective as the filmmakers would have liked.
* The 1941 biographical film ''Sergeant York'' has York capture and use a Luger instead of the 1911 he used in real life because .45 ACP blanks were difficult to use. The problems with .45 ACP blanks would actually persist in the film industry over half a century up till the end of the 1990s. The problem would typically be solved with the use of a 9mm copies of .45 ACP firearms (e.g., ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'') but ''Sergeant York'' was one of the few to change the plot over this.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* Some TV shows do "[[Bottle Episode|Bottle Episodes]]" due to budget limitations.
** One episode of ''[[Friends]]'' did one about the NYC blackout because of budget constraints.
*** Not quite. Although it
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Originally, going down to the planets involved the crew boarding a shuttle and flying down, but the cost of doing landings would have been too expensive, thus, the transporter was created. (Years later, members of the writing staff admitted that they had completely overlooked the even simpler expedient of writing "Send down a team!" followed by a [[Hard Cut]] to "Here we are, on the planet".)
** Inverted with the flat forehead Klingons. Because of low budget, Klingons only had a mostly ethnic makeup in the original series. In the movies and later series, which had better budgets and better makeup technology, they
** Played straight with the model used to depict Romulan Warbirds in the original series. A technician apparently dropped the model before filming, and there wasn't time to fix it or come up with a new one, so they used the Klingon Warship's model instead. This led to the conclusion that Klingons and Romulans formed an alliance, with
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': The TARDIS was originally going to be a big, magnificent vehicle. Except the show lacked the funding, so they said that it can disguise itself as anything it wants. Then ''that'' turned out to be too expensive they broke the chameleon circuit, so it stayed as a police call box.
** In the original script of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S13
* While not a technical difficulty, during series 3 of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', Chris Barrie had complained that between his character on that show and the one in ''[[The Brittas Empire]]'', he was suffering from
* Jane Leeves' second pregnancy on ''[[Frasier]]'' came at the perfect time, plot-wise, for Niles and Daphne to have a
* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' originally was going to have a massive fight scene between the FBI and the central antagonist of the first season, a Terminator called Cromartie. When the budget turned out to be too low for it, the writing team got creative. This resulted in a [[Nightmare Fuel|chilling,]] [[Nothing Is Scarier|minimalistic]] sequence where Cromartie slaughters the FBI agents (mostly off-screen) and tosses their bodies into the hotel swimming pool. All while [[Johnny Cash
* James Naismith, a physical education professor at International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (the YMCA today) was looking for a pair of boxes for the game that he had just recently invented. When he asked a worker at the Y for some boxes, he was told that they didn't have any, but he did have some old peach baskets lying around that could be of some use. [[Basketball|The rest is history.]]▼
* Some historians believe the rule to stop the clock on an incomplete forward pass in American football came because in the early days of the sport, games had only one ball and an old man for the official, necessitating the stoppage while the ball was retrieved.▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', you could not initially wear a cape. In real life this
** By the time ''[[City of Villains]]'' arrived this was a bit of [[The Artifact]]. But Lord Recluse will not let you wear a cape until you
* In ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic 3]]'', there are a few glitches that could get Sonic stuck in a wall or otherwise trapped in, forcing the player to have to reset the game and start the stage over. The testers apparently found these glitches after the team had no time to fix them, so the instruction manual says that Dr. Robotnik placed undetectable traps that the player must bail Sonic out from by resetting the game.
* Fog in video games is usually done because it would be very difficult, or even impossible, to render an entire area all at once. In order to make-up for it, the developers will usually [[Hand Wave]] it in some way. Some examples:
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** ''Spider-Man'' for the PS used the fog as a major plot point. The sequel got around it by having all the rooftop levels at night or dawn.
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto III]]'' has heavy fog that just adds to the overall aesthetic of 'Crappy New York-esque city'.
** The gas zombies in ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'' are accompanied by green fog because it makes it easier to render the increased amounts of zombies.
* As indicated above, multiple disc games often make certain areas
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'': The Unreal Engine would not have been able to handle a fully rendered city with 2000 technology, forcing the creators to [[Hand Wave]] the boxed-in sections in the New York levels with a justification that due to high crime rates, authorities have walled in ghettos and other undesirable areas. In Paris, the boxed-in city is justified with the nation being on lock-down due to terrorist attacks.
** A very eerie example was the lack of the World Trade Center in the New York Skyline. Due to memory limitations, the sections of the skybox including the World Trade Center had to be removed, and the creators justified it saying that they had been destroyed in a terrorist attack before the game started. Keep in the mind that the ''[[Harsher in Hindsight|game came out in 2000.]]''
** A [[Game Mod]] of the game, ''[[The Nameless Mod]]'', boxes its cities in as well and justifies it with a mention that Forum City is on lockdown due to one of the moderators being kidnapped. The maps are bigger than [[Deus Ex]]'s were, but you can see why the boxed-in method was needed if you "noclip" yourself away from the map and try to view it all at once. It can lag or even crash the game.
* ''[[Deus Ex:
* ''[[Donkey Kong]]'': The original arcade game had a chubby, mustachioed Mario (then known as "Jumpman") wearing a hat and overalls due to technical limitations. The technology at the time would not have been able to show Mario's hair sticking up when he fell, a mustache would be easier to show than a mouth at that resolution, overalls were the only piece of clothing that could also been seen with 1981 graphics, and only square hit boxes were possible. These same traits would latter come to benefit Mario again in his
* One of the key traits of ''[[Space Invaders]]'' is how the aliens get faster as you destroy more and more of them. This was originally an unfortunate consequence of the low processing power being choked by the large number of enemies, but the creators liked it and decided to keep it in.
* Probably one of the reasons games that were set [[Recycled in Space|in space]] were probably so popular in the early days of video games was how easy they were on both the part of the developers and on the hardware they ran on. Black screen with occasional white dots is very easy to draw.
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* The first ''[[Dizzy (series)|Dizzy]]'' game made use of an engine for rotating sprites in real time, allowing the hero to roll and tumble. However, the engine worked best on simple shapes, such as circles - and thus, Dizzy became an egg.
* In ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', after a bug involving an item that took [[Global Currency|meat]] away from players (coupled with the ridiculously high [[Cap]] for meat) screwed up the game's economy, a number of "meat sinks" were introduced to deal with the "bug meat", including the Penguin Mafia and the various goods they offered. Much later in the game, a database error that wiped out several days' progress for many players lead to the introduction of a "Time Arc", in which portals through time started opening up throughout the kingdom.
* In the ''[[Monkey Island]]'' games, [[Honest John's Dealership|Stan]] has an [[Unmoving
* With ''[[Metroid]]'', the iconic Morph Ball came into being because the programmers had trouble making an animation of Samus crawling through small passageways. Thus, they made do with a much simpler animation of a rolling ball.
* ''[[Star Fox]]'''s iconic Arwing fighter design was
* In ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'', none of the Qunari had horns although their race is supposed to have them. This was because [[BioWare]] didn't have the time to create alternate designs for all the helmets just so your Qunari party member could wear them, so they opted to not give him horns at all and [[Hand Wave]] it by saying that Qunari born without horns are considered to be destined for greatness, while those who choose to leave the Qun cut off their horns as a way of showing their rejection (all the other Qunari in the game).
* The miasma in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'' is the driving force of the ''entire game'', but it was originally just designed to keep the whole team on screen at all times. Your party has to carry around a chalice that wards the miasma in its radius, and leaving the ward causes you to take damage, so nobody can wander off, so split-screen isn't necessary, so everyone gets to enjoy [[Scenery Porn]].
* ''[[Q*bert]]'' and his enemies were supposed to speak in full English. However, the Votrax speech synthesizer used made things sound almost unintelligible, so this was changed to a sort of alien language that gave Q*Bert his famous [[Symbol Swearing|profanity]]. The only distinguishable sound is "bye-bye" when you get a game over.
* In the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series, the second game ''Soul Reaver'' was much larger during development, which lead to it being an [[Obvious Beta]]. Among other cut content, Raziel's final brother Turel would have been fought, the Human Citadel would have been non-optional and contained a hidden area where the vampire worshipping humans lurked, and the ending was entirely unambiguous, Raziel successfully killing Kain and then activating the Silenced Cathedral to destroy every Vampire in Nosgoth. But the team was running out of time and there was only so much room on the disk, so a lot of content was cut and left out to be included in future games. A definite case of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] though, because the series would go on to have an amazingly complex [[Kudzu Plot]] centering on Kain and Raziel's trips through time, and likely would have been nowhere near as successful and certainly not as deep or memorable if it had ended with ''Soul Reaver''.
* In the original ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', the game developers wanted to add another character; however, space on the game floppy was limited, and a new character could only be created if it was a [[Palette Swap]] of an existing one. After tinkering a bit, the development team came up with a dark copy of the Prince: the Shadow Prince. This later became central to the game's plot, as {{spoiler|the Shadow Prince is generated when the Prince passes through a magical mirror, and the Prince must rejoin his split self near the finale of the game.}}
* The ending of ''[[Saints Row]]'', and the plot of the second game by extension, was changed when a "look at watch and walk away" animation was accidentally used instead of a "desperately running away while injured" animation. This resulted in a complete change to {{spoiler|who set the bomb}} in the game's ending that was kept.
** The name of the franchise, which previously used "Bling Bling" as a placeholder, comes from an early prototype that lacked a proper introduction, making the first thing seen a loading screen that said "Entering Saints Row", as Saints Row was the starting location.
* Tak Fujii (Yes, ''[[Ninety-Nine Nights|that]]'' Tak Fujii) didn't bother to tune his guitar when recording for the song ''The Tragic Prince'' in ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'''s soundtrack ([https://twitter.com/Tak_Fujii/status/1236481421738311680 something he regrets as "lazy"]). The result gives the song a distinctive atmosphere of horror that isn't present in future incarnations of the track.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
▲== [[Web Comic]] ==
* The webcomic ''[[Bob and George]]'' is made of this trope. Originally the comic was supposed to be a hand drawn comic about teenage superheroes. The Mega Man sprite comics were originally just filler material. However, the author, Dave Anez, was a self admitted lousy artist and the hand drawn comic wouldn't pan out. After trying and failing multiple times he gave up. By then the "filler" sprite comic had become so popular that it became the main comic and a storyline was written to bring the title characters into the plot. Subsequent storylines would frequently change direction in order to fill in plot holes.
** Another prominent example is the existence of the Helmeted Author. Originally it was meant to be the normal Author character who was now wearing a helmet because it was impossible to render a helmetless sprite in certain positions. However Dave later accidentally put both the normal and Helmeted Author sprites in one holiday comic. As a result the Helmeted Author went on to become not only a separate character, but a major recurring villain.
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* A music editor decided to make the turrets from ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' sing. Some parts of the song didn't work out well, so the editor made a story about this crazy person who blew up Aperture Science Enrichment Center before he could finish. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZxQiLGDtk Watch it here!]
* The author of the ''[[Chaos Timeline]]'' originally had planned to call the internet of this world "[[Gratuitous German|Weltnetz]]" but found out that German neonazis use this term already for the existing internet, so he changed it to "Weltsystem".
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Similar to the Pixar example above, ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' came into being because the creators were limited to armless, legless, hairless characters thanks to rudimentary CGI.
* ''[[Beast Wars]]'' was an
== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* James Naismith, a physical education professor at International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (the YMCA today) was looking for a pair of boxes for the game that he had just recently invented. When he asked a worker at the Y for some boxes, he was told that they didn't have any, but he did have some old peach baskets lying around that could be of some use. [[Basketball|The rest is history.]]
▲* Some historians believe the rule to stop the clock on an incomplete forward pass in American football came because in the early days of the sport, games had only one ball and an old man for the official, necessitating the stoppage while the ball was retrieved.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Real Life Writes the Plot]]
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
[[Category:
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