History Main / CosmicDeadline

* ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows.'' After too many pages detailing a camping trip and other hairsbreadth escapes, suddenly the Trio arrives at [[spoiler: Hogwarts]] and [[spoiler: Horcruxes are destroyed lickety-split (even ''offscreen'')]], ''truckloads'' of important, nay, essential information is revealed, and the plot relevant (or irrelevant) deaths start cropping up all over the place.
* This occurred often in the early Discworld books, with a plot being set up in the first 200 hundred pages, and then resolved in five.

* BrandonSanderson is known for what his fans and editors call "the Brandon Avalanche" - most of the book is spent with various characters [[ThirtyGambitPileup setting up the dominoes]] until ''someone'', by decision or accident, sets the entire thing off over the last five chapters.

** In [[TheStormlightArchive The Way Of Kings]], Sadeas betrays Dalinar and abandons him to die.

->''Sometimes we have a deadline for writing these songs.\\
Five minutes left to write this one... la, la la, la la, la la la.''
-->--'''FiveIronFrenzy''', "Superpowers"

* This happened to a 1999 Brazilian drama named ''Brida'', a loose adaptation of a novel by Paulo Coelho. Most of the network's employees went on strike because of ''really late'' paychecks, [[CaptainObvious including the actors]]. So what did the writers do? The 52th episode ended with [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue narration summarizing everything that would happen in the ending with matching character shots.]]

** In [[{{Mistborn}} The Well of Ascension]], Vin and Elend threaten Straff Venture by burning [[LimitBreak duralumin]] and [[EmotionBomb bronze]] at him.

* The late fourth season of ''BabylonFive'' had to wrap up some plot threads more rapidly than JMichaelStraczynski had planned, because renewal for a fifth season was still up in the air when the scripts were written. (To be fair, most of these episodes are pretty darn good regardless; general consensus is it's the ''fifth'' season that suffered, from most of its planned plotlines being stuffed into the last half of season four.)

* BrandonSanderson is known for what his fans and editors call "the Brandon Avalanche" - most of the book is spent with various characters [[ThirtyXanatosPileUp setting up the dominoes]] until ''someone'', by decision or accident, sets the entire thing off over the last five chapters.

* Slasher films are like this. It's perfectly reasonable to guess how much longer the movie will go by knowing how many people were introduced in the TwentyMinutesWithJerks part of the film and how many of those are still alive.

** And if the pre-DLC forced choice at the very end hadn't been such a WallBanger.

* ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows.'' After too many pages detailing a camping trip and other hairsbreadth escapes, suddenly the Trio arrives at [[spoiler: Hogwarts]] and [[spoiler: Horcruxes are destroyed lickety-split (even ''offscreen'',)]] ''truckloads'' of important, nay, essential information is revealed, and the plot relevant (or irrelevant) deaths start cropping up all over the place.

* ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows.'' After too many pages detailing a camping trip and other hairsbreadth escapes, suddenly the Trio arrives at [[spoiler: Hogwarts]] and [[spoiler: Horcruxes are destroyed lickety-split (even ''offscreen''), ''truckloads'' of important, nay, essential information is revealed, and the plot relevant (or irrelevant) deaths start cropping up all over the place.]]

As the end of the story nears, antagonists suddenly start dying at an incredible rate, {{McGuffin}}s that eluded the heroes for the whole story are recovered, and mysteries are quickly wrapped up. Now this can be normal for a story as it reaches its climax, but in this case the rate is so absurdly high compared to before that it's almost as if some invisible cosmic author realised that he has one hundred pages left of a thousand-page book to write and has yet to resolve most of the stray plot threads.

* NightsDawn ends in between 50 and 100 pages, after taking more than ''3000'' to get to that point.

* All of Richard Hooker and William Butterworth's ''M*A*S*H Goes to...'' sequels are subject to this, more pronouncedly as the series continues. The books have six to ten plots and subplots that get more and more convoluted and intertwined until roughly page 170. Then suddenly ''everything is resolved'' (happily for the protagonists and the young lovers, of course) in the space of 10 to 15 pages.

* ''{{Psychonauts}}'', thanks to rushed development, is much faster paced and less well-written toward the end. This complaint was also leveled at BrutalLegend, though TimSchafer does not have development time as an excuse for that one.

* ''CodeGeass'' - after getting a whole extra season to play with, the plot suddenly races off around the 20th episode of the OddlyNamedSequel. It probably didn't help that ExecutiveMeddling moved the show to a new time slot, changed the staff's original plans and forced the first several episodes to basically recycle the plot for the new audience though.

* [[AuthorExistenceFailure Morbid though it may be to comment on]], ''Knife of Dreams'', the eleventh book of Robert Jordan's ''{{Wheel of Time}}'' and the last one the original author completed before his death, resolved more subplots than the three previous books.

** That didn't stop him from making every single one of those books at least 300 pages longer than they needed to be.
** This is somewhat standard for him sadly, a lot of hi books tend to have great build ups..and endings that just kind of fizzle.

* Just about everything by Neal Stephenson.
** Have you ever read the Baroque Cycle? No such problem there. If not, I really suggest you do.

** Same goes for ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': endless romantic subplots and Quidditch nonsense, before one explosive night which sees the death of a main character. Lord Voldemort is depressingly predictable, always planning his schemes for June.

** Not just the early ones, sadly. If it says "A Tale of Discworld" on the cover, or is called ''Monstrous Regiment''... OTOH, "Going Postal" is an example of this done right.

* ''Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible'' (which is VERY short) has [[spoiler: Jaina Solo killing Caedus in a duel and then recovering at a medical facility, while the plot wraps up off-screen - it is being recounted by Han and Leia later. Only partially, since it's never mentioned exactly how the war ended.]]

* This arguably worked out for the best for PointPleasant. When it became evident that the show was going to be cancelled the writers started rushing to resolve things, and the results were actually kind of thrilling. Prior to this the show had featured demon-sponsored dance-off with the characters facing the horror of...a disco ball coming unscrewed.
* The second season of ''Series{{Heroes}}'' suffered from this. The writers' strike hit halfway through production of the season, and the writers were basically forced to end the season in about half an episode, instead of another 11 or so. This caused several plot lines, which eventually would have been woven into the main thread, to be left completely hanging, most notable being Peter stranding Caitlin in a horrifying alternate future, never to escape according to WordOfGod.

* Jeane's backstory in NoMoreHeroes is literally fast-forwarded in game to get to the "final" boss. Not only a cosmic deadline, but a cosmic limitation. The characters seem to believe theres a limit to how much messed-up stuff they can say before the game gets cancelled/delayed. If the scene is replayed at a slowed rate, the story becomes understandable.

* [[StarOcean1 Star Ocean]] is well paced at first, but when you expect you're halfway done, you get sent to an AssPull final dungeon and introduced to a new (final) villain who monologues, explaining what would have been the second half of the game.

[[folder:Webcomic]]

* Lampshaded by Belkar in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html this]] OrderOfTheStick strip, though the plot slows down again after that burst of accomplishment.

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