They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot Cleanup

Not a Friends fan, will try regardless.

• First one needs more explanation. Is there a specific aspect of its execution that indicates it was rushed and not just followed through?
• The Kathy one is kind of on the way there, but it sounds like complaining about shipping, as it doesn't make a good enough case for what specific plot elements were wasted. Maybe if it was framed more around how they didn't get enough time as an actual couple?
• I actually think the Chandler's parents one looks fine. It brings up how an interesting backstory wasn't given much focus, and even when it was, it focused mostly on one angle rather than the various other bits mentioned before. However, I don't know if the parts complaining about potential for "drama" gel with the show's tone — do they take things like Parental Neglect seriously that way? I think it's still an example if they don't bring it up whenever his parents appear after alluding to it several times, though. Not sure about the Values Dissonance complaints either (they're fine VD entries, but do they belong in this entry?). Also maybe this is more Character than Plot.
• Phoebe one sounds fine, similar to the above.
• The "dial the Control Freak personality back" one sounds like reading too much into one gag, and leans into wish-fulfillment for me.
• Ben one is more Character but it sounds valid to me. ("Just a Plot Hole due to Ben being Put on a Bus" actually sounds like it makes it more valid to point out as a wasted opportunity).
• The Green daughters one is too focused on meta wish fulfillment, not plot.
• Cut the UFC one. I assume it's something in-universe but IDK.
• The Phoebe wrestling one might be onto something with "never explored the Hidden Depths," but A) it really rambles about nothing more than anything substantial and B) isn't it common for sitcoms to make characters interested in something for one episode even if they don't really come up again?
• Construction one is wish-fulfillment that apparently contradicts the episode.
• Sounds valid.

Edited by mightymewtron on May 3rd 2022 at 12:11:57 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Thanks! Then I'll proceed as follows:

• Will rewrite the first three examples to clarify how the plots were wasted and remove complaining.
• Will move the example about Ben to They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character.
• Will cut the examples that we agree are misuse.

Regarding the Hisagi example and the Aborted Arc / TWAPGP discussion. My thinking was more along these lines:

I think it's more a case that ill-health forced Kubo to wrap up the TYBW arc so abruptly and prematurely that it fell foul of Left Hanging: a lot of plot threads were left dangling. The novels tried to address it to a certain extent, Aborted Arc certainly factors in there, but singling out Hisagi when the issue is much bigger than that, and the fan reaction is much broader than that, is cherry-picking. By that I mean the fan reaction is being cherry-picked, not just the scale of what's been left hanging.

The entry should probably be how the entire plot of TYBW arc was "wasted", citing several examples of how it was wasted, of which one cited example would be Hisagi. I think that would be a more accurate entry.

Edited by Wyldchyld on May 5th 2022 at 10:33:44 AM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Eeehhhhhh...

I feel like the spirit of the trope is that the writers could have done a more interesting story, but did not. In the case of Bleach, Kubo actually wasn't able to do the more interesting story due to ill health. As such, it's not right to say the plot was "wasted".

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But saying this completely fails to address the elephant in the room that is where to draw the line of "okay, now this is just making up a completely different story."

Hi. I was editing Justice League (2011) and realized I'm having a little trouble distinguishing between this trope, Aborted Arc and Left Hanging. Can I get some help?

• I used Aborted Arc to describe two plotlines that were set up, but not concluded before the work was cancelled: "The Amazo Virus arc ends with the titular villain vowing to escape and infect Luthor. Additionally, the mysterious party who had been behind Luthor's assassination attempts decides to take matters into their own hands. Neither plotline is resolved by the time Johns leaves the book."
• I used TWAPGP to describe two storylines that were set up, but abandoned in a way that prevents them from ever being revisited:
  • The issues before and after the Throne of Atlantis event show the Outsider recruiting Cheetah and making plans to do the same to Scarecrow and Black Manta. This ultimately goes nowhere, as the Legion of Doom plot is dropped in favour of the Trinity War.
  • When Captain Cold joins LexCorp during the Amazo arc, he ominously confides to Mirror Master that he is setting up the greatest heist ever. This storyline never receives any follow-up and is forgotten by the time the Darkseid War begins. Unlike other plot threads that Geoff Johns Left Hanging, this one is unlikely to be explored in later comics, since both Luthor and Cold were reverted to their old characterizations in DC Rebirth.

Are these examples valid? Should I move them to some other trope? Thanks in advance.

An example I found on Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019)

• Many fans were hoping to see Lena meet her Smallville counterpart Tess Mercer (who dies in the series finale but comes Back from the Dead in the sequel comics) and compare notes about their lives and relationships with their respective brothers and superhero acquaintances. These hopes came to naught, as Tess doesn't appear in the crossover.

Does this seem like a valid example?

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

I thought I'd given an opinion on this example before... maybe it was a very similar one? "Doesn't actually appear in the work at all" is an instantly disqualifying factor for Wasted Character, and IMO should be for Wasted Plot as well.

Actually, I feel like I discussed it before as well. I think I brought it Is this an Example thread. Then I forgot about it due to a real life tragedy. So since they don't actually appear I should be good to cut correct?

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

I was on the side of cutting this thing outright, but looking at this thread, I can see a viable article coming from it. However it is still unclear where the distinction between this and Aborted Arc lies, and the name invites speculative troping. I could see a four-way division being made, between Aborted Arc, a trope about plots being resolved offscreen, important elements that are set up but never used, and maybe a YMMV item about audiences being disappointed by unused plots (even ones the writers didn't mean as such).

I would also like to ask about these on YMMV.Final Fantasy VIII, which I feel are not about plots:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The game leaves a lot of the motivations of its villains implied at best rather than exploring them in depth; Seifer's "romantic dream" of being the knight to a sorceress, though mentioned on several occasions and presented as the main means by which Ultimecia manipulates him, isn't described in detail, and Ultimecia's reasons for wanting to compress time are left almost entirely up to the player's interpretation of a few lines delivered at the end of the final boss fight. While I agree with this, I think this is more a matter of presentation that plot: the villains have motivations, but are given little focus, and I don't see anything that is present but wasted.
  • Also, Ultimecia's Bad Future, in which she has devastated most of the world is sadly left almost entirely to the player's imagination, since the party immediately arrives at Ultimecia's doorstep to fight her. The game could have easily made a parallel with Final Fantasy VI by allowing the player to fully explore the Bad Future as a sort of Dark World, being able to visit all the locations they've previously seen throughout the game ravaged and twisted by Ultimecia's influence. Leaving aside why I don't think this would be feasible, it's about the world not being explorable rather than anything plot-related.

Edited by Reymma on May 6th 2022 at 6:00:50 PM

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.

I've been reading the Ultima pages recently, and thinking about The Spoony Experiment's retrospective on the series. When Spoony gets to Ultima VII, he makes the point that story would have been much stronger had it omitted the introductory scene where the Guardian appears on the screen and proclaims how he is evilly taking over Britannia through his human agents.

In the game as it exists, the player knows full well that there is a giant red demon doing bad shit behind the scenes, and it's pretty clear he's connected to the Fellowship. Had this scene been absent but the rest of the game unchanged, the story would instead have been a gradual buildup, one where the player might well think that the Fellowship is on the level until the evidence accumulates.

I think this sort of thing, where the story suffers from revealing too much too soon, would also fit under the TWAPGP umbrella. You know, if we keep the trope.

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We most certainly are, since we need TRS to cut it and we decided to send it here first as a compromise. We can't talk about changing it right now.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

The Crisis on Infinite Earths one is textbook "wish fulfillment" misuse. If the character doesn't appear in this work, then the plot never was even hinted at.

Not as sure about the Final Fantasy ones.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

From YMMV.Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness:

• Trailers prominently showed Wanda saying to Strange "You break the rules and become a hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair." Many assumed she was referring to Strange's actions in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but she's actually referring to when Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone in Infinity War. However, Wanda's comment would have been much more effective if she had been talking about No Way Home, where Strange disobeyed Wong and used a dangerous spell to tamper with the fabric of the multiverse for the sake of Peter Parker's personal benefit. That is much more comparable what Wanda wants to do in this film than giving Thanos the Time Stone is, which gives more leverage to her pointing out the hypocrisy and double-standards with how people treat her actions in Westview versus how they treat Strange's actions in No Way Home. As-is, Wanda's words come off as pushing Informed Wrongness on Strange, and means that she's trying to claim that Strange giving Thanos the Time Stone as part of The Long Game to defeat him is morally comparable to her desire to kill an innocent girl so she can travel to an alternate universe and perform a Kill and Replace on a variant of herself and steal their family.^note While this may be because this film was originally intended to come out before No Way Home until the schedule was changed, it is still a miss opportunity to make a more poignant point on Wanda's part.

I am not sure if this counts but if it does, does it need to be 253 words. Especially when the note explains it away.

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

Figured I should run this by the thread just to be on the safe side. From YMMV.Lonelygirl 15:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Grand Finale. It had great build-up: A Total Eclipse Of The Plot, a mysterious prophecy, the prospect of an encounter with Lord Carruthers, somebody doing something called "The Ascension". Then, during the finale, Sarah calls Jonas "the one" and that the Order needs him to fulfill the prophecy somehow, and... absolutely none of this is paid off. The eclipse, the prophecy, and the Ascension are all barely mentioned, much less explained, Sarah never elaborates on Jonas' significance to any of it, Lord Carruthers remains The Unfought, the climactic action sequence takes about three seconds and has the weak payoff of Sarah and her dad yelling at each other a couple times, and then it all ends with everybody just going home. Many fans feel this completely wasted the great setup the episode had.

Re-reading it, I guess it might be a little complain-y in spots and the first sentence might need work. Thoughts?

This is on YMMV.Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion. How much of it is valid?

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • It's not uncommon for people to compare the story mode to that of a fanfic. We have the protagonists of many, many Cartoon Network shows, fighting all of the villains who teamed up, but the villains make some... Rather questionable area decisions (Vilgax in Marzipan City, for one), along with the reveal that the villain of the game is the remote control of the Narrator, which, while done in the manner of many of Cartoon Network's signature comedies, is entirely out of place in a Crisis Crossover, and one could argue that any of the villains in the game could have been better as the Big Bad.
  • Despite being a Crisis Crossover between several of Cartoon Network's iconic and fan-favourite shows, Ed, Edd n Eddy and Courage the Cowardly Dog get no representation whatsoever, and their absences have been cited as a flaw in the game's roster. In addition, this game was released a year after both Adventure Time and Regular Show premiered and they both are absent as well.

Avatar by Butterscotch Arts. Used under license.

The first sounds like "dissatisfied with the plot and wants this instead despite it not being present from the get go" and the second is "these characters didn't appear" misuse. Both just wish fulfillment.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Any feedback on my post here? The Bleach part was discussed, but not the RWBY part.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

From Psych

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The episode where Juliet's brother was the culprit and escaped ended with a sequel hook that was never resolved. The movie seems to imply that this may, in fact, be resolved should another movie be greenlit. May be valid, but the entry implies that this plot point could be resolved in the future
  • Despite the Yin Yang episodes being especially darker compared to other episodes, no major character dies. This could have been a great transition for the show to get somewhat Darker and Edgier and cemented Shawn's character arc as a detective. Shawn having to go head to head with someone arguably as brilliant and cunning as he is could have made for a great recurring conflict but this never gets spotlighted. Headcannonny. How would this have helped a show that runs on being fun and lighthearted?
  • Neither Karen nor Carlton have had an opening flashback centered around them. While the latter showed up in one as a joke, Karen is a no show, which is a wasted opportunity since it is very likely that she and Henry worked on the force together. I added this one, but in retrospect, this is probably incorrect use of this trope, due to being "something I wanted to see this show do"

1. sounds more like Aborted Arc.

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Is that mutually exclusive with TWAPGP though? It seems like one variant of it, if the fans like where the arc was going.

I agree the other two episodes are misuse.

Edited by mightymewtron on May 21st 2022 at 1:10:12 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

So I wanted to ask about the examples of TWAPGC that are basically "The character was not used after their initial episode." As I just found this in The Simpsons S 6 E 2 Lisas Rival.

Which it seems it shouldn't fit. Although there is another episode with Ruth Powers daughter, fan favourite, and also has a TWAPGC in The Simpsons S4 E8 "New Kid on the Block"

Which I think I may be biased as maybe she could count. Mainly because people thought her chemistry with Bart is good, and would probably be a better couple for him in the future (which could be an actual issue, due to the episodes set in the future).

Edited by ElBuenCuate on May 21st 2022 at 7:28:13 AM

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, maybe?

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Maybe examples like those could be moved to the show's main YMMV page, since it's about how their role wasn't used much after their debut?

Yeah, I don't see why they wouldn't count as TWAPGC, which I'm pretty sure is about how interesting characters don't get much screentime and elaboration.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.