History WhatCouldHaveBeen / FanWorks

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': The author talked about several instances of this in the AO3 comments section and on her Tumblr.

* The author of the five-chapter ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''[[Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama Legacy]]'' sketched out a sixth chapter but abandoned it for various reasons, primarily because he thought it would overshadow [[TheReveal Heather's revelation]] at the end of Chapter 4, which is the story's dramatic climax. The author later posted the Chapter Six sketch, which interested parties can access from the work's [[Trivia.LegacyTotalDrama Trivia subpage]].

* ''Fanfic/TheVow'': The author had originally intended the story to be a crossover between ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'', but decided against it to better suit the story's purposes. In addition to that, the author pondered between two alternatives to title the fic; "The Vow" and "China Moon".
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4107185/1/Ariel-s-Melody Ariel's Melody]]'' was originally a script for a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', which the author hoped would be accepted by Disney (it wasn't). Also, as it was written before the actual sequel came out, Melody was originally named Ariadne.
* [[Tropers/{{Kenyastarflight}} Kenya Starflight]]'s ''Franchise/StarWars''/''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' crossover ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1734634/1/Centaur-of-Attention Centaur of Attention]]'': In the author's notes at the end of the fic, it's mentioned that the author's original plans for a ''Star Wars'' and ''Xanth'' crossover revolved around Jango Fett and a five-year-old Boba Fett crash-landing on Xanth and having to find the Holey Grail, a vessel full of holes that turned ordinary water into powerful healing elixir, in order to repair their ship. The planned villain was Darius Dracotaur, a dragon/centaur Magician. The concept eventually morphed into a Luke and Vader story, with Darius as the only surviving plot element, though Boba Fett would go on to feature in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2421185/1/Catacombs the sequel]].
* ''FanFic/TheLostKing'': When the story was announced, the author mentioned she was thinking about using either Garon or Arete as viewpoint character, and would base her decision on what the readers wanted. In the end, they asked for Garon.

* ''Fanfic/AManOfIron'':
** At the end of Book 1, Mr. Chaos admits that an early idea was to make Varys the equivalent of ComicBook/TheKingpin, but he quickly realized it was a bad idea, being based entirely on his appearance and not fitting his personality at all.
** He went through a few ideas on which Marvel character to make [[spoiler:the resurrected Sansa, including the Phoenix and Enchantress, before just making an original character]].
** Mr. Chaos admitted that he originally planned to have Catelyn believe the Lannisters' offer to [[spoiler: return "Sansa" for Jaime]], leading to a fight that dissolves her marriage with Ned, and results in him marrying Margaery Tyrell. He threw this all out for making no sense.
** He's also mentioned some half-formed ideas that have been tossed over time, like Jaime becoming ComicBook/IronFist or Drogon being Fin Fang Foom.
** He had a very hard time figuring out how to include the Hulk, and was seriously considering leaving it out entirely before a scene in ''Fanfic/AndTheGiantAwoke'' gave him the idea of [[spoiler: Brienne becoming ComicBook/SheHulk]]. And beyond that, he wasn't going to include Bruce and certainly not as the Hulk beyond a brief mention of the source of the powers, but came up with a new idea for a role he could play in Book 3 literally while he was writing the backstory.
** [[spoiler: Sansa escaping the Night Queen by permanently warging into a resurrected Lady]] initially wasn’t going to happen until Book 4, but got pushed to the end of Book 2 when he again came up with an idea for how to use it in Book 3 in the middle of writing the chapter.
** [[spoiler:Steve]] was going to reveal his entire backstory in his first appearance in Book 3, until Mr. Chaos realized the exposition was getting far too long and decided to split it up.
** Jory Cassel was originally going to be the story's version of the Punisher, marrying a Riverlands girl and having a daughter in Book 1, then seeing them killed at the end and coming back as the character in Book 3. Then readers started suggesting [[spoiler:it could be Ned due to the Weirwood tree on his breastplate looking like a skull]], and Mr. Chaos liked the idea enough to change it.

* ''Fanfic/FallenAngel'':
** As shown in the ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1380896/1/Fallen-Angel-Director-s-Cut Director's Cut]]'', Sarah (then called "Sarah [=McGregor=]" not "Sarah Arella") was originally a bit character. She was Amy's roommate that Amy had met after being refugees. Sarah originated from another unreleased fanfic, where she was a girl being interrogated by a robotnik. She was supposed to just cameo in ''Fallen Angel'' as Amy's roommate who was being robbed, but the writer liked her too much after writing a flashback scene to how Amy met Sarah. As a result the fanfic became about their friendship. One other change was that, unlike in the final product, [[spoiler:Sarah's parents died]], explaining why she roomed with Amy.
** The ''Director's Cut'' shows a few rewritten and cut scenes. For example, Metal Sonic was meant to appear and there was an unused scene where Amy vents her anger at Sonic by destroying her scrapbook of him.
* In ''Fanfic/FireAndShadow'', Fireheart's original AdaptationNameChange was "Firestorm", not "Firefang".
* The trilogy ''Fanfic/RainbowBriteAndTheWarOfDarkness'' started out as a 24-episode outline for a second season of ''Rainbow Brite''. The writer had wanted to send it to Hallmark but the division had closed down by then. It then turned into ''Rainbow Brite and the Quest for the Past'', a story about the origin of various elements of ''Rainbow Brite'', before being turned into its finalized form (a sequel series to the cartoon).

* ''Fanfic/UnbreakableRedSilkenThread''
** The beginning of the story was going to be shorter, and the fifth chapter was going to be the third.
** Sierra was going to be on Cody's team in 'Frontline Warfare: Duty of Metal Honor Calls, although was replaced with Izzy.
** Noah was going to be in a relationship with Eva instead of Emma.
* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', which takes place before the events of ''Infinity Train'' Book 3, Chloe was going to originally encounter Simon. However, the ending of Book 3 in which [[spoiler:Simon went insane and then turned to ash by a Ghom]] made the author scrap the plan.

* ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'':
** The second Whiplash was originally going to be the bastard child of Justin Hammer, named Sasha Hammer, who was volunteered by her father into Centipede. This was scrapped because the author found it to be too cruel an act even for someone like Justin Hammer to do.
** ''The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk'' was originally going to be a pseudo-prequel/sequel to Darthkvzn's other Avengers crossover, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11236939/1/Beating-the-System Beating the System]]''.
** Early on, Spider-Man was going to be more heavily rooted in his Creator/AndrewGarfield incarnation, with said version of Spider-Man being from another of Darthkvzn's crossovers, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11186406/1/First-Contact First Contact]]''. But after watching and being, for lack of a better term, [[JustForPun amazed]] by Creator/TomHolland's take on the character in ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', he decided to base Spider-Man on that version. Though there are still carryovers from said original plan, such as Peter's connection to [=OsCorp=] via his parents and his relationship with Gwen Stacy.
** ''Close Encounters of the Gem Kind'' was originally planned as being a one-shot and was actually completely separate from the rest of the series before the large response it gained spiraled it into being a longer fic and integrating it into TheVerse.
* ''Fanfic/FateGrandEroge'' is a ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' fic where Ritsuka Fujimaru meets and befriends all the Crypters before the ill-fated First Order mission. The author intended for all the Crypters to survive and experience AdaptationalHeroism as a result of their friendships. However, when the British Lostbelt was released and Beryl Gut's atrocities were revealed, the author was so disgusted that they decided in an author's note to kill him off in the Chaldea bombing.

* ''FanFic/AnEntryWithABang[=!=]'': The starting authors had to decide whether to go with the Earth of Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/JackRyan'' universe or the RealLife 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, [[ArchivePanic if you dare brave them]], also have older versions of posts that made it to the Story Only thread. One of these had ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' explicitly show up, but it was rejected in favor of a less blatant ShoutOut.
* Fanfic/ArcVedProtagonists was originally suppose to be 4 one-shots, featuring duels of Yugi V Yuya, Yuma V Yuto, Yusei V Yugo and Jaden V Yuri... However, Kurimaster decided to scrap the Jaden V Yuri duel, as he couldn't see a way to [[PseudocanonicalFic uphold Arc-V cannon]] without Yuri beating Jaden, which he didn't believe was the best way to go about it. He then decided to have Yuri and Jaden duel other people in different one-shots, with Jaden's being turned into a mini-series when people wanted more.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', Creator/AAPessimal has taken the sort of threads and hints Terry Pratchett left in his novels and expanded on them; one-shot or one-line cameo characters get whole stories, for instance. It has been noted that a handful of hints, random pointers and one-line jokes in the early Discworld books, that suggested an Australia-like place existed there, eventually blossomed into fruition as [[Literature/TheLastContinent a whole novel]]. Pessimal noted the books have just as many hints, one-liners and pointers to the existence of a South Africa-like place on the Disc. Indeed, on his death, Pratchett had an outline novel sketched out that would have explored the Discworld "Africa" in at least as much detail as he gave to Australia. Discworld's "South Africa" is realised more fully in Pessimal's world. Indeed, the whole of the "African" continent is visited by travellers in the tale ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12321109/1/Gap-Year-Adventures Gap Year Adventures]]'' - a fair stab at the ground Terry P might have covered in the never-now-to-be-written ''The Dark Incontinent''.
* ''FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire'': The author originally planned for Veis instead of Vili to join Clan Gully. 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.
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': The author once mentioned that he had played with the idea of writing the real sequel. Unlike the non-canonical, controversial side-story it would narrate the conflict foreshadowed in the last chapter of TS and it would not be a crossover. But he never got around to do it.
* The ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' fanfic, "Toward the World's End" apparently was - in the final installment of its second series - to feature a confrontation on an alien world where the protagonists became stuck in the crossfire of an alien war, ending with an alien commander appearing, who happens to look exactly like protagonist Arthur's long dead childhood friend
* ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'': Originally, Alvin Earthworm had plans for a ninth episode, but only part of it was actually released because, [[http://alvin-earthworm.newgrounds.com/news/post/70182 'It was cancelled before Alvin could even finish the whole episode'.]]
* ''FanFic/TheNuptialverse'': WordOfGod has listed multiple changes that were made to the series from the original plan as time went on:
** Chapters for both Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadance were written for ''Post Nuptials'', but the author felt they would have detracted from the subject of Twilight's friends walking out on her. They have since been released as the standalone stories "Metamorphosis" and "Honeymoon", respectfully.
** ''Post Nuptials'':
*** The author decided against shipping Rarity with Fancypants and Fluttershy with Iron Will, because both seemed unnecessary and his readership was against them.
*** Pinkie's chapter in "Post Nuptials" was planned as a BreatherEpisode wherein Pinkie would have been too distracted with the reception to fret over Twilight and [[InteractiveNarrator the narrator would have tried in vain to keep the story on its angsty track.]]
*** Shining Armor's chapter would have had him speak with Cadance instead of Twilight.
*** The story would have ended with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie moving Applejack and Rarity into the same bed as a prank. A similar ending showed Twilight's friends finding Octavia and Vinyl Scratch sleeping in Twilight's bed while Twilight slept with Celestia. Both were nixed to keep the story friendlier for younger audiences.
** ''Families'':
*** The story was planned to be focused only on Spike, and went as follows: Spike learns of a magic pool that will let him see anything asked of it. He wants to see his parents, but Twilight forbids him from going, so he runs away. As Twilight searches hopelessly for him for a month before finally giving up, Spike finds the pool guarded by a character who would become the main story's Keeper. He asks to see his mother, and what does the pool show him? [[spoiler: None other than Twilight.]]
*** After the above was changed to the plot that was actually used, the story was going to have a scene at the end where Applejack realizes that Pinkie's right and she ''does'' have a crush on Twilight. This would have led into a story focused on AJ dealing with it, with tragic results due to Twilight [[IncompatibleOrientation being straight]]. However, the author decided to scrap that idea, and the scene wasn't included.
* ''Fanfic/{{Betastuck}}'': In-Universe, what the Horrorterrors essentially were, a group of bosses that would have been fought throughout the game. They were sealed off in the far edges of the game so you shouldn't have been able to interact with them.
* ''Fanfic/SonicGenerationsFriendshipIsTimeless'': Chapter 7, which represents ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', uses the Lost World and Windy Valley stages. The author claims he was considering adding Twinkle Park, and one scene he had in mind involved the HallOfMirrors Amy goes through in her playthrough of the stage, where Sonic and Tails would have seen their classic selves in the mirror and the ponies and Spike would have seen their G1 counterparts instead of their normal reflection ([[MythologyGag which could have led to a joke about Twilight's mother looking similar to G1 Twilight]]). This idea was scrapped because, according to the author, it "wasn't as good an idea", however, a similar scene was later used in the ''Adventures on the Friendship Express'' spin-off.
* ''Fanfic/TwilightsList'' starts off with Twilight making a list of positive and negative traits for each of her friends to find someone compatible to go on a practice date with. She gets a certain thrill when she notes Applejack's athleticism, thinking about some possibilities there if it wasn't just for practice. Indeed, she comes very close to choosing Applejack, noting that the pair had a huge amount of compatibility, and only at the very last moment decides to go on a practice date with Rainbow Dash instead.
* ''Fanfic/TheGodEmpressOfPonykind'': The author had said that he originally wanted to conclude Celestia's purge of Changelings from Fillydelphia with a scene where a young Chrysalis (who by WordOfGod was in the city during the battle), found Queen Metamorpha's body and swore revenge. The idea was scrapped because it would have made the chapter needlessly long, and that he wanted it to be ambiguous if Chrysalis was simply missed by Celestia's forces--and implicitly [[WouldHurtAChild would have been killed if found]]--or [[WouldntHurtAChild spared for being a child.]]
** The first fight with Discord would have ended with Celestia delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Discord, and later Celestia and Luna would face off against Discord and his army of Changelings with the first of the Legionnaires.
** Also, Cadence was originally Luna's daughter, but this was cut for pacing issues and [[WifeHusbandry potential issues with her relationship with Shining Armor.]]
** The Siege of Canterlot had a few changes made in development. For example, originally the kindly priest Celestia met prior to the battle was supposed to perform a HeroicSacrifice to protect her, and the Loyalist Lunar Knights were to use the crystal caves underneath the city to attack the Traitor Legions from behind.

* ''Fanfic/{{Equestrylvania}}'': Originally, [[FauxAffablyEvil Marble]] was going to [[spoiler: turn out to just be [[WickedWitch Actrise]] in disguise]], but so many readers saw this coming that the author changed it [[spoiler: so she was only ''[[DemonicPossession possessed]]'' by Actrise]], taking the opportunity to flesh the character out in the process.
** Originally, Shatterstorm was going to be killed off rather early on, instead of becoming a main character.
** Pinkie Pie was supposed to be the one that Shatterstorm and Spike ran into during their stroll through town, but for the sake of fleshing out the plot, it was made Rarity instead.
** Soarin's first appearance got pushed back for pacing reasons.
** The chapter that introduces Baldwin and Vinyl was meant to be an interlude during the portion of the story when Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm are dealing with [[spoiler: [[TheCaligula Rose Blade]]]]. However, it ended up moved to be published afterwards.
*** Upon consolidating the volume into a single book, however, the chapter was moved to its originally planned position.
** The author's decision to consolidate the series into a single volume means that all plans for a multi-book style series have been scrapped.
** While consolidating the story, the author came across a set of old notes for the story, and then [[http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/434592/equestrylvania-the-lost-notes published in a blog]] some of the more notable changes between the original idea and what was written.
* The ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'':
** [[BadFuture Dark World!]]Twilight's Half-Light Noon form was originally going to debut during a FreeFallFight with [[DaddysLittleVillain Fluttercruel]], instead of in the Duel of Tears against Traitor Dash.
** Alexwarlorn originally wasn't going to write ''any'' of the ''7 Dreams/Nightmares'' chapters, but had to write Bright Eyes' story when he lost contact with writer originally assigned to it.
** Chapter 36 of Dark World originally had scenes of [[spoiler: Amicita restoring [[RetGone Neo Stream]] to existence and healing/redeeming [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} the Emperor of Man]]]]. However, complaints from [[spoiler: Neo Stream]]'s owner in the former case and pressure from critics in the latter case forced Alexwarlorn to remove both scenes.
** According to WordOfGod, [[GeneralRipper General-Admiral Makarov]] was originally only going to be in the Shining Armor Arc for ''half a chapter'', but somehow spun out to be BigBad of a whole saga. Reviewers have commented that he seems to have done his job as a {{Parody|Sue}} BlackHoleSue a little ''too'' well.
* According to both Emman and Marcos via Messenger, the reasons why the first attempt to cross paths with ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' (especially with ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'') got scrapped because Emman wanted to use ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', of all things instead. The reason is if the thing became real, then Emman wanted to insert influences from media that [[GrowingWithTheAudience the target audience who are now in their High School, College and University years]] for ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'' would be more familiar with media that's both old and aimed at an older audience, such as ''Series/MiamiVice'' (in which had tons of elements that would feel out of place in a MagicalGirl show, such as both Criminals and Policemen dressed up like Gentlemen in Colored suits while at the same time, acting more dangerous to each other), ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' (not only he made a Furry Expy of Kenshiro, but also his proposed SequelSeries and Video Game sequel are confirmed to take Influences from this franchise), ''Film/Scarface1983'' (complete with a more tamer version of the [[SignatureScene SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!!!!!]] scene where the Blood and Swearing are omitted) and such, in which Toei Animation would be very afraid to frighten young girls with a Tony Montana Expy (even if they {{Bowlderize}} to an Expy of [[{{Badbutt}} this man]] (namely because thanks to Japan's more stricter Censorship laws in which they would definitely disallow more brutal and bloodier moments (especially for young MagicalGirl(s) like Chibiusa and Emman said that Sailor Moon is too Idealistic, Feminine and LighterAndSofter to have some elements from Scarface being implemented, albeit in a more tamer way) like having a Tony Montana Expy planning to defeat Chibiusa/Sailor Chibi-Moon as Toei is very afraid to make younger girls feel sad, even though Sailor Moon Crystal also appeals to Young Adult Women as well), Emman would [[CreatorBacklash become really unhappy]] of the thing that Toei's employees did to make it more fitting for a MagicalGirlWarrior show (although the Irony would be an Expy of Tony's defeat would be more humorous and comedic than his defeat in his 1983 appearance) whereas he with Disney while using one of their franchises focusing on a WorldOfFunnyAnimals on the other hand, would be the opposite, given the fact that he intends his Goof Troop game to be a [[GenreThrowback throwback to the 1980s in General while taking inspiration from the 3D Universe era of Grand Theft Auto games such as San Andreas and Vice City]] and as well as the late Michael Joseph Jackson). However, it got [[RefittedForSequel refitted]] like twice (with the second being his version of the Three-part Gravity Falls GrandFinale, the Weirdmageddon Trilogy).
* ''FanFic/ShadowsAwakening'': According to WordOfGod, the author scrapped his idea of having Shendu be a secondary antagonist after his beta reader pointed out that Shendu needed ALL his Talismans to undo the stone curse, not just the Rat (though he only needs the Rat after that).
* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'': Jade's father Shen wasn't originally going to show up in the story. The events of the Mexico City chapter were going to lead directly into [[spoiler: Jade abducting Viper to brainwash and transform her.]] That got pushed back a chapter in order to give Jade a chance to [[CallingTheOldManOut call the old man out]] first.
** Also, the author was originally going to have the Shadowkhan be a separate race that had been enslaved by the Oni, but scrapped that.
** [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Courageous Conrad]] was conceived and added to Chapter 17 late in the chapter's development. Also, Jade originally was going to go along with her ambush and first unveil her homunculus there, but the ambush was cut and the reveal pushed back to the fight in the cave.

* ''[[Darthwiki/NewDawn New Dawn]]'' went through a couple alternate {{Big Bad}}s before Nebiros was picked.
** Shuuji's father, who is instead dealt with right before a WhamEpisode.
** Silmarill was delayed to book II.
** Ein Woe was initially set to be the BigBad, and even has a lot in common with Nebiros.
* ''FanFic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria'': The series was originally only supposed to be composed of ''Mare of Steel'', which after the second arc would have dealt with Rainbow Dash/Supermare and the rest of the Mane Six fighting off [[spoiler: Comicbook/{{Darkseid}}]], with the fallout of the battle causing Dash to go into self-imposed exile. After a TimeSkip, this would have led to adaptations of ''Film/SupermanReturns'', ''WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite'', and ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', before the story finally ended. However, the author decided to write an entire series of DCU crossovers, so all this was scrapped, with ''Mare of Steel'' ending after the second arc.
** Speaking of ''Mare of Steel'', the Red Kryptonite side story was supposed to have a scene of Twilight also tinkering with ''Pink'' Kryptonite, but that was cut.
** ''Mare of Steel'' was originally going to have a third SequelHook, with Batpony calling a meeting with Rainbow Dash and Diana (who would have met offscreen) that lays the groundwork for the Justice League. However, due to wanting to avoid EndingFatigue (and having not written the crossover story that had Batpony and Supermare meeting yet at that point), this was scrapped.
** ''Dark Knight Over Trottingham'' had some story issues, since it technically is the first story in the universe (aside from the [[GreatOffscreenWar War in Heaven]] backstory), particularly over Blueblood's [[spoiler: capture by Zod]]. The author wasn't sure how to make the story work in that timeframe, and even considered retconning the dates. However, thanks to a fan suggestion, he found a way to harmonize the timeline so he didn't have to change the dates.
* ''FanFic/AShadowOfTheTitans'':
** The author's original collaborator wanted the Jade/Cyborg [[OvernightAgeUp age]] [[FountainOfYouth swap]] chapter to involve Cyborg being a {{Jerkass}} to Jade beforehand (thus making the swap karmic), and also wanted some of the chapter to be from mini-Cyborg's POV. However, the author didn't like either of those ideas, so ditched them, using Jade's DreamWalker experiences to pad out the remainder of the chapter.
** Slade's entry into the story was pushed back a chapter for pacing purposes.
** The author wanted to do a horror-themed chapter, with Jade and Titans encountering Shadow Children from Japan. But after the process dragged on for months, the author ultimately realized that he couldn't do horror, so he scrapped the chapter, taking the few bits that worked (Blood's encounter with Tarakudo in Jade's mind, and Slade's twin cameos) and combining them with the Super Jinx chapter.
** The original collaborator wanted the [[spoiler: [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood Star Chan]]]] situation to be a mini-arc several chapters long. The author couldn't make this work, so compressed it all down into a single chapter.
** The original collaborator also originally wanted Jade to immediately be able to summon her own Shadowkhan after [[spoiler: her EmergencyTransformation]], and use them to commit robberies during her time in Gotham, while renting out a luxury villain lair bunker. However, the author felt that that wouldn't fit the story's flow, so Jade getting her own Shadowkhan was pushed back, she ended up having to make a living on her own thievery skills, and she ended up living in [[EldritchLocation Buried Bricks]] instead.
* ''FanFic/HarmonysWarriors'':
** A blog post put up around the time the author started the rewrite of ''Iron Mare'' suggested that Rarity's mother Pearl was going to be the BigBad, presenting her as a KnightTemplarParent who arranges Rarity's kidnapping in order to force her to get in line with Pearl's ideas for how she should live her life. Needless to say, this isn't how the story ended up going.
** In ''Soar'', Comet Trail was originally going to be Daring Do's son, but the author realized that wouldn't work without [[RetCon rewriting large chunks of the story]].
** ''Spectacular Spider-Colt'' was originally planned as part of Phase One, with Pip to be joining in the action of that Phase's CrisisCrossover finale. However, the author realized that he couldn't fit Pip into that story, so moved when events happened, and put it on hiatus until Phase One's completion, marking it as the first Phase Two story.
* In ''[[FanFic/PokemonMysteryDungeonReflectingBalance Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance]]'':
** In Hercules the Heracross' [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]] chapter, the writer mentioned that Hercules was originally only going to be a minor character who didn't appear much, and the dojo would be visited in a later chapter after the first [[PlotCoupon crystal]] had been retrieved. However, the writer then got the idea of making Hercules the mentor and [[TheConfidant confidant]] to one of the main characters, namely Blitz the Shinx, and thus Hercules ended up being promoted to one of the major supporting characters. This also resulted in the first visit to the dojo being pushed forward to chapter 5, and a scene which was originally going to be in chapter 5 was used in a later chapter.
** Azure the Marill joins the main characters' rescue team in chapter 20, however, she was not originally going to join their team until much later in the story. However, with how Azure's CharacterDevelopment was going, the writer felt it was only natural for her to join them sooner.
* ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'': WordOfGod is that originally the story was going to be set in the first season rather than the second, with Jade becoming Phobos' minion. However, the author decided that it would be too OOC for Jade to willingly serve an EvilOverlord, so scrapped that idea and started over.
* ''FanFic/TheWalkingDeadRealMonsters'': Has its [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheWalkingDeadRealMonsters own page]] of things that could've gone differently.
* ''FanFic/BadFutureCrusaders'':
** WordOfGod is that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's first encounter in the story was going to be when Scootaloo [[EyeScream lost her eye]], but the author thought that was too dark and moved back when she lost the eye.
** WordOfGod also states that Apple Bloom was originally going to have been raised by humans, but felt that the presence of humans completely changed the nature of the story, so changed it.
** Originally, [[MookLieutenant Merrilay]] was going to be part of a TerribleTrio of R.E.A.F. officers, who would balance out [[CoDragons Lightning Dust's]] more aggressive, psychotic personality. Except that the author realized that that would be too OOC a leap from Lightning's personality on the show; combined with being unable to cram in that many new characters, Merrilay's comrades were cut, and she was given the [[AxCrazy psychotic personality]] opposite Lightning's more sympathetic character.
** One off-hand comment mentioned that [[StepfordSmiler Sweetie]] [[AntiVillain Belle]] was originally planned to be a full-fledged villain.
** Originally Chapter 39, rather than having the escape by {{Magitek}} truck, was instead a slow stealth-based escape. After having wrote it, the author scrapped it in favor of "[[PersonAsVerb Michael Baying the hell out of it]]."
* [[Fanfic/TheWizardInTheShadows The Shadowsverse]] has elements of this, with [[Creator/NimbusLlewelyn the author]] stating that the sequel, 'From Out of the Shadows', is a DeadFic, with his attention having moved to a mixture of RealLife and ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm''. Mooted plot developments were:
** The BigBad of the second book being Morgoth.
** OriginalCharacter Emrys would become TheHero, with Harry settling back into a more Dumbledore type role.
** Emrys would have developed into a PhysicalGod and spent the rest of his very long life teetering on the edge of becoming a FallenHero and a FallenAngel of a sort (his grandfather, Merlin [[spoiler: wasn't merely a Maia. He was the son of two of the Valar, who'd incarnated in mortal form out of curiosity and had been surprised at the results when they hadn't used protection]]) as a result of something Morgoth did to him at the end of the ''From Out of the Shadows''.
** Speaking of Merlin, he would have become a recurring character and TheChessmaster.
** The third book would have focused, in part, on Harry and Ginny's young children and Emrys' desperate struggle to control his dark side, with him finally succeeding at the end, just as Miriel, his TrueLove announces that she's pregnant.
** This would have been followed by two more books, one starring the main cast's grown up children, the second set at least a millennium later and starring a descendant of Aragorn's who was the victim of a usurper and protected/guided by a disguised Emrys, who by now probably qualifies as the bitterest man in Middle Earth, his wife having been poisoned (the poisoner was aiming for Arwen and got it wrong). This resulted in Emrys entering a state of TranquilFury and going on a [[DisproportionateRetribution truly epic]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge rampage]] before pulling a SaltTheEarth on the city of the man responsible. This book would have led to Emrys finally being able to reach his eternal rest and the end of the series.
* By the same author, ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' probably has quite a few of these, since the author has cheerfully admitted that he's adding/removing characters and chopping and changing things all the time. The only one that has been revealed is that the story was originally intended to be about 100,000 - 150,000 words, cover all seven books, then end with a Harry/Sif ship. Needless to say, with [[DoorStopper the first book]] being over 800,000 words long, making it longer than ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy]]'', the sequel being over 750,000 words long after 51 chapters and [[Creator/NimbusLlewelyn the author]] casually mentioning at least three ''volumes'' and over a dozen sequels planned and partially written, along with spinoffs, prequels and the odd AU, things have changed considerably. Revealed examples include:
** After the Harry/Sif idea was chucked (very early on), it was going to ship Harry/Ginny, something repeated with increasingly less conviction as time went by, before the author finally mentioned somewhat cryptically that he'd 'managed to write himself out of a corner' on that particular score.
** Vague mention was also made of Harry/Gwen Stacy, but that also seems to have been shoved firmly aside, in relation to a significant chunk of the later fic (as in, 200,000 words of story, notes, and ideas) being outright deleted, including TheReveal that chief MagnificentBastard Doctor Strange was, in fact, a future version of Harry. Why this was discarded isn't entirely clear, but WordOfGod claims that it got too complicated and outright depressing to write - which considering that this is a writer famous for his ComplexityAddiction, is really saying something.
* ''Fanfic/RevengeOfLavan'' was supposed to have the main characters of ComicBook/ArchieComics and Webcomic/TwilightSparkleAndTheBigCity, but the latter's comic coming to an end and copyright concerns involving the former caused the idea to be scrapped and Archie being replaced with VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog.
* The author of the five-chapter ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''[[Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama Legacy]]'' sketched out a sixth chapter but abandoned it for various reasons, primarily because he thought it would overshadow [[TheReveal Heather's revelation]] at the end of Chapter 4, which is the story's dramatic climax. The author later posted the Chapter Six sketch, which interested parties can access from the work's [[Trivia.LegacyTotalDrama Trivia subpage]].
* In ''Fanfic/BackgroundPony'', Lyra Heartstrings is under a curse that causes any being to instantly forget about her as soon as they look away from her, and all evidence of her existence, even her writing, automatically disappears. In the original plans, Trixie would have been immune to the curse due to her MasterOfIllusion abilities. Her friendship with Lyra would have triggered Trixie's HeelFaceTurn. Eventually, Lyra would have been cured at the cost of forgetting all of her experiences while under the curse, leaving Trixie the only one to remember.
* The entire story for ''Fanfic/SuperSentaiVsPowerRangersTheLiveblog'' would have been a straight MST with other characters snarking on the story, ''Fanfic/SuperSentaiVsPowerRangers'', throughout; and they would have been freed from a dimensional rift that trapped them. When Sean Akizuki cleared out some errors, changed scenes, and deleted several chapters and rebooted others, the idea was scrapped.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13715856/1/Fate-Grand-Eroge Fate Grand Eroge]]'' is a ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' fic where Ritsuka Fujimaru meets and befriends all the Crypters before the ill-fated First Order mission. The author intended for all the Crypters to survive and experience AdaptationalHeroism as a result of their friendships. However, when the British Lostbelt was released and Beryl Gut's atrocities were revealed, the author was so disgusted that they decided in an author's note to kill him off in the Chaldea bombing.

** The Mother's Day special originally was going to have a DownerEnding with [[MuggleFosterParents Azusa]] finding out about Godzilla Junior's supposed death in the first chapter with Dimension Tide sucking him and five other kaiju into a black hole. This was cut to avoid any DarknessInducedAudienceApathy and give a [[EarnYourHappyEnding upbeat]] ending to what typically amounts to a happy holiday.

** The author intended for Deag Nilox to survive the fic so the events of the second game could play out like normal before changing their mind and having the Doom Slayer kill him early.

** Originally, it was going to ship Harry/Ginny, something repeated with increasingly less conviction as time went by, before the author finally mentioned that he'd 'managed to write himself out of a corner' on that particular score.
** Vague mention was also made of Harry/Gwen Stacy, but that also seems to have been shoved firmly aside, in relation to a significant chunk of the later fic (as in, 200,000 words of story, notes, and ideas) being outright deleted, including TheReveal that chief MagnificentBastard Doctor Strange was, in fact, a future version of Harry. Why this was discarded isn't entirely clear, but WordOfGod is something along the lines of the fact that it got too complicated and outright depressing to write - which considering that this is a writer famous for his ComplexityAddiction, is really saying something.

** Author GamerJay originally intended for Ruby and the Slayer's first encounter with Blake to go differently, with her having just survived a village of deranged cultists who scraped hellish runes on her body and the three of them heading back to the village. This was scrapped due to not wanting to write any of Team RWBY in a victimized fashion.

* ''Fanfic/RevengeOfLavan'' was supposed to have the main characters of Franchise/ArchieComics and Webcomic/TwilightSparkleAndTheBigCity, but the latter's comic coming to an end and copyright concerns involving the former caused the idea to be scrapped and Archie being replaced with VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog.

* ''FanFic/AShadowOfTheTitans'': The author's original collaborator wanted the Jade/Cyborg [[OvernightAgeUp age]] [[FountainOfYouth swap]] chapter to involve Cyborg being a {{Jerkass}} to Jade beforehand (thus making the swap karmic), and also wanted some of the chapter to be from mini-Cyborg's POV. However, the author didn't like either of those ideas, so ditched them, using Jade's DreamWalker experiences to pad out the remainder of the chapter.

* Before settling on the final version of ''Fanfic/ANightInTheSculptureGarden'', the author considered setting it in a sauna. In that version, Molly Hooper would also have been naked. The basic premise would have been the same with Irene Adler asking her to deliver a message to Sherlock and Molly steadfastly refusing to do so. Irene would then get her revenge on Molly by stealing her clothes and possibly even trapping her in her locker. [[spoiler:The author ultimately came to the conclusion that Molly should get the upper hand and scrapped the sauna scenario entirely.]]
** Another version would not have involved Molly at all and instead have been a ''Rocky Horror'' crossover. It would have depicted a meeting between Irene and Dr. Frank-N-Furter [[spoiler:and would have ended with him literally turning her into a statue via the Medusa device.]] The author decided against it since he had already used Frank in ''Fanfic/TheStoryToEndAllStories'' and wanted to write for characters he had not written for before.