Halfway Plot Switch: Difference between revisions

== [[Anime and Manga]] ==

* This is a favored tactic of [[Cromartie High School]], often combined with [[Random Events Plot]] or [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]. Rarely will anything actually be resolved. One episode for example ended with:

 

 

* Arguably used in ''[[Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow|Miss Smillas Feeling for Snow]]'' where a routine murder mystery trope dives off the deep-end into X-Files-esque killer bug from space about halfway through the novel.

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''. Though, this is more of a 3/4 way plot switch, which is how long it seems to take the author before she suddenly remembers she was planning on writing a vampire horror novel, not an angsty May-December romance. To quote Cracked.com:

** The same things happen in the other books. In ''New Moon'', most of the book is devoted to Bella recovering from Edward leaving her, finding out about the werewolves, and the werewolves hunting for Victoria. Suddenly, the climax of the novel goes to being about Edward planning to commit suicide via the Volturi, and Bella and Alice having to save him. In ''Eclipse'', most of the story is devoted to the Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle, and only gives focus on the matter of the vampire army and Victoria near the end of the book. In ''Breaking Dawn'', the first two sections of the book (as well as a bit of the start of the third) are focused on Bella and Edward marrying and her having and raising her half-human daughter. Most of the third section is about the Volturi arriving to use Renesmee as an excuse to kill the Cullens, with flavors of a vampire conspiracy and the set up for an epic battle {{spoiler|that never happens.}}

* The children's book ''Mandie and the Secret Tunnel'' starts out as a drama that turns into a mystery/treasure hunt midway through the story.

** The first episode uses this, as well. The first half of the episode is a general snapshot of the routine on board the ''Dwarf'' and an introduction to some of the technology they have. The second half is, well... [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]].

** "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...

'''Lister:''' (staring at the now-open pod) ''I'' do. }}

*** In the end, the key to defeating the new threat is in how Rimmer dealt with imprisonment.

** The [[Lampshade Hanging]] page quote comes from the episode "Simpson Safari", just as the family is about to go over Victoria Falls in southern Africa.

** Lampshaded again in one episode which was about a badger invading the Simpsons' back yard, until Homer tried to call animal control, at which point the plot became about area codes. ''This'' then dovetails into the town splitting into two halves, Homer becoming the mayor of his side of town, and climaxes with a concert by ''[[The Who]]'', of all things. When the badger comes back, [[Ignored Enemy|Homer is able to casually wave it off]] since it is now just interfering with the plot:

** One recent example is Homer being too sick to blow out candles which causes a fire which causes the family to get a fire-proof safe in which the family album is burned which causes them to retake all of their photos in which they take a picture of a celebrity scandal and become paparazzi. * gasp* Not one full storyline, but bits and pieces of several others. Like the extra bits of the cow they sweep off the slaughterhouse floor to make hotdogs.

** "Tennis the Menace" opens with Grandpa winning a free autopsy when he dies. This simply provides the buildup to Homer ''buying a tennis court''.

** A notably clever use of this is the episode "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Bart takes up the drums. At a jazz brunch, he overshadows Lisa's performance, making her envious. To make her feel better, Marge lets her adopt a puppy from the animal shelter. This springboards into her rescuing ''lots'' of abandoned animals, including former circus tigers. Then one of the tigers bites Bart's arm, stopping him from playing the drums again.

** One of the show's most infamous examples of this came when Maude Flanders died. The episode jumped tracks from the Simpsons taking a nature walk to them having a day out at a racetrack, then Maude died in an accident, and the episode became one about Ned coping with his loss. Then ''another'' plot switch came about thirty seconds later, and the rest of the episode was devoted to Homer's wacky attempts at setting up Flanders with a new girlfriend.

** Lampshaded in ''Brawl in the Family'' the first bit involves a social worker fixing the family's problems. By the time they've resolved it, Lisa wonders it was the "end of our series...of adventures". They then meet with Homer's Vegas wife from a few seasons ago.

* Two animated shorts from ''[[House of Mouse]]'' starring [[Goofy]] are like this: One short, called "How to be a Waiter", is actually about Goofy becoming an actor as a result of him being tired of being a waiter (ironically, at the end of the short, it's revealed that the first character Goofy played in his entire film career is yes, a waiter), while another, called "How to Wash Dishes", is actually about Goofy using a credit card to go on vacation as a result of him being tired of washing dishes. However, at the end of the short, Goofy uses up his entire credit card money, and as a result he had to [[Work Off the Debt|make up the lost money by yes, washing dishes]].

* ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie]]'' starts off as an hour-and-a-half long ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoon. But when Puggsy shows up, things start to go downhill...

** 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.

* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]: School's Out [[Musical Episode|The Musical]]'' switches plots, like, four or five times. It starts out about Timmy on summer vacation...okay, then it's about his parents trying to send him to a boring camp, that's still related...but wait, now it's about kid's ruling the world? And ''now'' it's about the Pixies taking over Fairyworld? And half of it's about some business guy who's [[Non-Ironic Clown|actually a clown]]? ''[[Mind Screw|What?]]''