There seems to be a misunderstanding from tv tropes on just what an aborted arc is they seem to think it's a story that didn't unravel the way they wanted or wasn't addressed the way they would prefer and they also seem very biased making justifications for franchises they clearly liked so the example doesn't apply while painting others to sound worse even outright ignoring actual plot details to better support their perspective.
There is clear favoritism with certain franchises which makes the examples very unreliable.
Edited by Hatari05
From the The West Wing example:
- In a second season episode, the White House is politically out-maneuvered by the Republican Majority Leader's new Chief of Staff, played by Felicity Huffman. The episode ends with White House staffers realizing that the majority leader is running for President, with Huffman's shrewd, capable character set up as a major antagonist. Then Huffman took a role on Desperate Housewives, and the majority leader's presidential bid was later dispensed with in a cursory fashion.
Huffman taking the role in Desperate Housewives cannot be the reason for her not reappearing, as her West Wing episode is from January 2001, long before the show started airing (fall 2004) or would have been cast.
I really don't like when people write under the examples:
Blah-and-blah show is notorious for this. And then give no actual specific examples, not even 1. This is a problem, right? People shouldn't be doing that?
So if anyone knows any Desperate Housewives examples, could they add them in?
Edited by 216.99.32.44 Hide / Show Replies
I don't like it either.
The Nip/Tuck entry also lacks of concrete example.
It's super effective.
- Series 6 of the revival introduced the Silence, a religious order led by mysterious aliens known as Silents. The Silence exists for the sole purpose of killing the Doctor in order to prevent him from reaching "the fields of Trenzalore" where no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer. The First Question, "Doctor Who?", a question that only the Doctor knows the answer to, would be asked and the supposed result would be catastrophic. In the Series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor, the question is asked by The Great Intelligence and answered by River Song... sort of, the audience never actually hear the answer. But throughout Series 7 the Silence is never even mentioned and has no bearing on the events that transpire on Trenzalore. They just seem to have disappeared with no explanation after the Series 6 finale which, given their role as essentially the Eleventh Doctor's Big Bad, is especially egregious.
- We also never get an explanation as to why the TARDIS blew up in the Series 5 finale.
- This arc is not actually aborted yet. When Matt Smith announced his departure he said "When you've got to go, you've got to go, and Trenzalore awaits", implying that the events on the fields of trenzalore will take place in his final episode, the 2013 Christmas special. "The Name of The Doctor" took place on Trenzalore in the graveyard of a battle that still lies in the doctor's future. The absence of the silence can be explained by the Doctor having faked his death in "The Wedding of River Song" they believe they've succeeded in killing him and have stopped trying. And whatever blew up the TARDIS may be waiting for the Doctor on Trenzalore.
- Series 6 of the revival introduced the Silence, a religious order led by mysterious aliens known as Silents. The Silence exists for the sole purpose of killing the Doctor in order to prevent him from reaching "the fields of Trenzalore" where no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer. The First Question, "Doctor Who?", a question that only the Doctor knows the answer to, would be asked and the supposed result would be catastrophic. In the Series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor, the question is asked by The Great Intelligence and answered by River Song... sort of, the audience never actually hear the answer. But throughout Series 7 the Silence is never even mentioned and has no bearing on the events that transpire on Trenzalore. They just seem to have disappeared with no explanation after the Series 6 finale which, given their role as essentially the Eleventh Doctor's Big Bad, is especially egregious.
Part of the followup bullet is speculation, but the bit in italics pretty much disproves why we haven't seen the Silence since "Wedding". Their arc ended when they thought he was dead for good.
As for what blew up the TARDIS. 1. Not being revealed doesn't mean it's dropped, and 2. It's very strongly implied to be connected to the Silence preventing the Doctor from reaching Trenzalore, given the voice saying "Silence will fall", which is part of the Silence's religious beliefs: "Silence will/must fall when the first question is asked."
In the Heroes section... In the examples section, there is this under the live-action series Heroes:
Then the Eclipse mini-arc, which was dropped almost as quickly as it was picked up.Fixing the bulletting of the Heroes section a bit. I got rid of the "When season 3 degenerated into a Random Events Plot this happened so much" bullet point under the series "Heroes" because I don't think those are examples of any aborted arcs. They may have sort of aborted the arc but the writers did so in a way that made sense - they had a person with the "power" to "take away other people's powers" take away Peter's hunger, so Peter only having the hunger for a ridiculously brief period is explained. Same with Sylar stopping fighting his evil urges - it is pretty much explained by the overwhelming feeling of betrayal making him all evil again, when he finds out he was lied to.
Doesn't seem like a really aborted arc to me.
The Brony
If you can think of a real life example that isn't a case of soap-boxing, Strawman Political, or griping, go right ahead.
Being in a Japanese-produced work is not enough of a difference to warrant its own trope.
I read in Made Of Win that someone made a witty comment in that very section. I hope very much it isn't Lost Forever.
Fuhrmann, es kostet dir noch dein Leben
No One of Consequence
Star Trek TNG: the "warp engines damage reality" subplot was mentioned in passing several times during TNG. Admirals giving Picard important missions would say "you are authorized to exceed warp speed limits for the duration of this mission". ST: Voyager opened with one of the characters (Kim, I think) remarking that Voyager was the first starship to use a new engine design that didn't damage the structure of space, at which point the subplot went away.
No One of Consequence
Babylon 5: is there a cite for the "Sleeping in Light" entry? AFAIK the "change" mentioned was a theory put forth by a crackpot fan back when the series was airing. Said fan was one of two mostly responsible for chasing JMS out of the original B5 usenet group (and the subsequent creation of the moderated one).
Lots of examples seem to boil down to the troper not paying attention. I even had to remove an example where the "aborted" arc was resolved in the same episode it was introduced in.