What Could Have Been: Difference between revisions

* [[What Could Have Been/Western Animation|Western Animation]]

 

* The starting authors of ''[[An Entry With a Bang]]!'' had to decide whether to go with the Earth of [[Tom Clancy]]'s [[The Verse|'Verse]] or the [[Real Life]] Earth, settling for the former. Fortunately, the existence of a [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=158593 Non-canon Stories thread] allows for a glimpse at the latter. While some of the posts within will indeed come to pass after enough in-universe time has gone by, others will indeed never make the story's canon. The discussion threads, [[Archive Panic|if you dare brave them]], also have older versions of posts that made it to the Story Only thread. One of these had ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' explicitly show up, but it was rejected in favour of a less blatant [[Shout-Out]].

* The author originally planned for Veis instead of Vili to join Clan Gully in ''[[The Tainted Grimoire]]''. Also, Vili didn't exist in the original plan. The original plan was scrapped and Vili was created because cuttingmoon57 didn't like the idea of altering important canon clans.

 

* A bit more subtle than the other examples on this page. Originally, each new expansion of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' was going to have a new color scheme on the card backs instead of the usual brown and tan—for instance, ''Arabian Nights'' would have been orange and magenta, ''Ice Age'' would have been two shades of blue. This was nixed when the designers realized this would make it too easy for your opponents to identify the cards you have in your hand by their backs, giving them an unfair advantage, so the card backs have remained unchanged since day one. (Nowadays of course, most people have card sleeves...)

** The set "Planar Chaos" focused on the theme of alternate realities. One of the original ideas to express the concept was to present the set as coming from an alternate timeline where Magic has six colors instead of five. The sixth color (purple, by the way) made it quite far in the development process (at least, by the standards of rejected ideas) but was ultimately scrapped. The set was going to feature packaging showcasing an alternate logo style and other changes, though the card back would have stayed the same.

* Did you know that there was an attempt to make ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' into a card game, before the popular CCG we know and love, today? [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Bandai Bandai's version of Duel Monsters] was simplistic, if crammed with [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot|rather bizarre rules and effects]], and was much farther detached from the card game we saw in the anime and manga than Konami's version was. However, it was reportedly rather popular, so imagine if this was the version of the game we got, instead of Konami's version...

 

* When designing 4th edition ''D&D'', the designers decided they wanted to do a [[Shout-Out]] to Narnia and the intelligent animal fantasy concept. So originally, the Dragonborn race from 4th Edition ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' was originally supposed to be a race of [[Intellectual Animal|non-anthropomorphic talking]] ''[[Intellectual Animal|lions]]'' based on Aslan from the ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]''. The idea was dropped because of questions of [[Feather Fingers|how they would handle equipment]] and they were at first altered into dragons (since they believed ''Dungeons & Dragons'' should actually have dragons as a playable race) and then later into humanoid dragons called ''Dragonborn''. (Of course, they weren't called the ''Dragonborn'' in the original concept.)

** Of course, if they ever want to revisit the idea, they could always make the [[Mascot Mook]] Displacer Beasts / Coeurl a PC race since they're anthropomorphic (occasionally) sentient big cats but with tentacles that could double as hands.

* The creator of ''[[Infernum]]'', Gareth Hanrahan, actually said on his twitter that there were formerly plans for a second edition using the D&D 4th edition system, but now says it isn't going to happen.

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'': Games Workshop once found itself having to get rid of one of two unpopular armies: The [[Our Dwarves Are Different|Squats]] or the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranids]]. By the time Third Edition rolled around, the Tyranids were redesigned and the Squats were eaten by the Tyranids. One can only wonder what the grim darkness of the far future would be like today with a civilization of dwarves in the mix...

** [[Dwarf Fortress|Weaponized carp?]]

* While reception for the ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' miniatures game wasn't perfect, it was a pretty solid game and had some great miniatures. However, before it was discontinued, Mongoose Publishing had made some pretty big plans such as the introduction of two new races that were also going to appear in the second edition of the RPG, which was also intended to include more rules for playing Skinnies (The original edition only had one short section and a single Skinny class, with the promise of more later on). Since they lost the licence, none of this is likely to happen.

 

* ''[[The Haunted Mansion]]'' went through several different ideas. Early concepts included a hangout for horror-themed Disney villains, like the [[Lonesome Ghosts]] and [[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad|the Headless Horseman]], having a Raven narrate the ride (abandoned when it was decided the Ghost Host would work better), and a Hatbox Ghost which carried around a severed head as a character (ditched due to the Imagineers deciding it didn't look good enough). Other concepts from the 1950s included several much darker walkthrough attractions, a version where Walt himself narrated, and several very long illusions including a ghost flooding a room.

* There were many locations Disney was going to originally build Disneyland before he decided to locate in California. One of the places he really had his heart set on was none other than... Flagstaff, Arizona (no, really). He loved the weather the place got during the summer, but then he came and visited during the winter, felt the harsh snowy weather, and subsequently changed his mind.

* Disney [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08W5Os-Wnj0 announced] in 2009 that they would try to compete with/catch up to [[Universal Studios]]' Wizarding World of [[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]] by expanding Walt Disney World's Fantasyland with immersive meet-and-greets for Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Tinker Bell. However, they later realized this expansion might not have an audience beyond little girls. They later [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weDcPQ8ontY decided] to keep the most gender-neutral parts of the expansion, move the meet-and-greets into one of the pre-existing Fantasyland buildings, and use the newly opened space to construct a (hopefully universally-appealing) roller coaster through the Seven Dwarfs' mine.

 

* Graphic artist and designer Roger Dean, best known for his work on album covers and stage designs for the progressive rock band [[Yes]], designed several theme park attractions with his brother Martyn which were never used. The sketches appear in his book ''Magnetic Storm.''

* [http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2009/11/d-exclusive-michael-jacksons-peter-pans.html Peter Pan's Neverland], a park [[Michael Jackson]] came up with the initial concept for in the late 1990s. (Scroll down the page to see the article.)

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/user/BIRNKRANT Mel Birnkrant] has done a ton of toyline pitches that could be listed in this category on his [[YouTube]] page, most notably the second wave of Outer Space Men, a line called Invasion that is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], a neat take on the Rock Em Sock Em Robots concept called Gladiators, cool little bobbing toys called Its Alive, the aborted Maxx FX figures, a toy called My Pretty Pony that was beat to the punch by [[My Little Pony]]; but actually is far better designed, and most notably his Creatures line, which [http://bogleech.com/creatures.html sorta got produced] but has a lot of cool figures that never got made. All so damned cool, a shame that none of them were ever made.

** ''My Pretty Pony'' did come out. ''My Little Pony'' was actually a brand extension that proved much more popular.

* Revell-Monogram's ''[[Masters of the Universe]]'' toy line took up enough of the product development budget that another project had to be cancelled. A planned 1/25 scale Dodge Diplomat sedan was thus cancelled - a [[Head Desk]] moment for '80s cop show fans.

 

* ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' was originally meant to parody multiple 8 bit games, such as Metroid, or River City Ransom. But the comic didn't go that route, and stuck to parodying [[Final Fantasy I]].

* Tom Siddell mentioned in [https://web.archive.org/web/20080418094001/http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=1180 an interview] that ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is actually a [[Lighter and Softer]] take on his original idea. If you read much of the comic you'll realize this is saying something.

* Part of the final storyline in ''[[Bob and George]]'' summarizes what would have happened if the original hand drawn comic had run its course: a fairly unoriginal superhero comic.

** An early storyline had George mention some "pesky aliens" that might have followed him to the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' Universe. This was a plot line from the hand drawn comic that Dave intended to integrate into the sprite comics about alien body snatchers replacing people, but it was simply never gotten to. The original idea in the hand drawn comic involved one character getting replaced, then the alien slowly [[Becoming the Mask]]. The other characters find out, but the one who was replaced was such a [[Jerkass]] that no one cared.

* Another from ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', Tsukiko [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0465.html almost reanimated Miko after the Azure City battle]. This seemed more like lampshading than an actual plot possibility though. There are only so many recurring antagonists you can have.

* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' originally had a different template, where a Maiasaurus was a fourth character—she appears in the first two panels instead of the ''T. rex''. Additionally, the pixel art on the characters in the remaining four panels were slightly different, resulting in small yet undesirable details. You can see this early version [http://www.qwantz.com/comics/comic1-1.png here].

* Thanks Christian Weston Chandler's ever-changing fleets of fancy, one could say the entirety of ''[[Sonichu]]'' is full of What Could Have Beens. The most telling is that he left issue 11 unfinished after finishing issue 10 and [[Creator Breakdown|he told his fans to back off and let him make his work whenever he wants to.]]

 

* Glenn Rubenstein has told people various plots that he intended to incorporate into ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' (such as Elizabeth Avery being the woman behind OpAphid), but he left the show due to "[[Creative Differences]]," taking the rights to the OpAphid characters with him.

* The first RP of ''[[Darwin's Soldiers]]'' was planned to feature an interdimensional battle but it was scrapped after the creator, Serris, decided that the potential for [[narm]] outweighed the potential for [[Rule of Cool|coolness]].