History Main / KudzuPlot

** Creator/StevenMoffat's era, Series 5-10, quickly gained a reputation for this sort of thing. For instance, Series 5 left all sorts of dangling plot threads, like who the Silence is, who [[spoiler:took control of the TARDIS]] in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]], who River Song is, and why [[spoiler:the TARDIS blowing up would destroy the Universe]] (which even the Doctor admits he's not sure about). He resolved almost all of these in Series 6, only to raise even ''more'' questions. This pattern continued throughout his tenure with each series bringing in more outlandish situations, some of which will likely never be answered -- such as how, post-Series 9, [[spoiler:Clara Oswald returns to her final death]]. ''Sometimes'' he would take the opportunity to resolve something that's been dangling for several series out of the blue. The ChristmasEpisode post-Series 9 explained [[spoiler:the circumstances of River's last night with the Doctor on Darillium]], which had been hanging since Series 4. The Series 10 SeasonFinale revealed [[spoiler:what happened to the Harold Saxon Master after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] and how he regenerated into Missy from there]]. And then [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls that same episode]] left dangling [[spoiler:the fate of Nardole and the solar farmers (who apparently are doomed to forever fight Cybermen on a giant spaceship caught in a black hole), whether Missy was able to survive being killed by Saxon, whether Bill ever meets the Doctor (whom she thought dead) again, the fates of those she knew on Earth, what became of the Vault beneath St. Luke's and the Doctor's teaching job]], ''and'' of course the origin of the spaceship that left the fuel puddle that transformed Heather back in the season premiere! Twelve's GrandFinale, [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], only wrapped up ''three'' plot threads: [[spoiler:what became of Rusty the Dalek, the Doctor's inability to remember Clara Oswald, and his guilt over Bill's fate]], though the {{Novelization}} also revealed [[spoiler: the (happy) fates of Bill and Nardole]].

** Creator/StevenMoffat's era, Series 5-10, quickly gained a reputation for this sort of thing. For instance, Series 5 left all sorts of dangling plot threads, like who the Silence is, who [[spoiler:took control of the TARDIS]] in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]], who River Song is, and why [[spoiler:the TARDIS blowing up would destroy the Universe]] (which even the Doctor admits he's not sure about). He resolved almost all of these in Series 6, only to raise even ''more'' questions. This pattern continued throughout his tenure with each series bringing in more outlandish situations, some of which will likely never be answered -- such as how, post-Series 9, [[spoiler:Clara Oswald returns to her final death]]. ''Sometimes'' he would take the opportunity to resolve something that's been dangling for several series out of the blue. The ChristmasEpisode post-Series 9 explained [[spoiler:the circumstances of River's last night with the Doctor on Darillium]], which had been hanging since Series 4. The Series 10 SeasonFinale revealed [[spoiler:what happened to the Harold Saxon Master after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] and how he regenerated into Missy from there]]. And then [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls that same episode]] left dangling [[spoiler:the fate of Nardole and the solar farmers (who apparently are doomed to forever fight Cybermen on a giant spaceship caught in a black hole), whether Missy was able to survive being killed by Saxon, whether Bill ever meets the Doctor (whom she thought dead) again, the fates of those she knew on Earth, what became of the Vault beneath St. Luke's and the Doctor's teaching job]], ''and'' of course the origin of the spaceship that left the fuel puddle that transformed Heather back in the season premiere! Twelve's GrandFinale, [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], only wrapped up ''three'' plot threads: [[spoiler:what became of Rusty the Dalek, the Doctor's inability to remember Clara Oswald, and his guilt over Bill's fate]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade|Chronicles1}} [[VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX Chron]][[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 icles]]'' [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 series]] uses a Kudzu Plot in a very different way, with most of the unanswered plot threads spanning across the multiple games rather than the Kudzu Plot being self-contained to each game's story as in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'', [[spoiler:as each individual game is a tiny piece of a huge epic spanning a multiverse despite the individual casts and locations having practically nothing to do with each other]].

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' and ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' both fall into this, though they tie up most of their loose ends. This is in part because their storytelling makes [[AnachronicOrder a mockery of chronology]] and in part because they are both adaptations of ongoing light novels (though the extra episodes clear up some lingering questions). They're still positive examples of this trope.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. [[ExpandedUniverse More precisely]], "''The Franchise/CompilationOfFinalFantasyVII''." The original game was a pretty simple SavingTheWorld storyline; any MindScrew elements were [[JigsawPuzzlePlot resolved by the end of the game]]. The sequels and prequels, on the other hand, made everything way more complicated than it had to be. Characters got [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] as some games got new viewpoint characters or allowed outside characterization to creep in. There's also now at least six different versions of what happened at Nibelheim, making this the video game equivalent of ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''; Creator/SquareEnix basically gave up and [[AscendedFanon said that this was officially the case]]. When ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' was announced, the entire ''Compilation'' was stated to have happened in BroadStrokes in an attempt to stray away from this trope. [[spoiler:Even then however, the big lategame twist that ''Remake'' is actually a StealthSequel to ''FFVII'' by means of AlternateTimeline seems to have rendered this null, as it's that suggested a post-''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'' Sephiroth is trying to change the sequence of history to prevent his original defeat and there are several aspects of the game [[ContinuityLockout that heavily rely upon knowledge of other Compilation entries]].]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. [[ExpandedUniverse More precisely]], "''The Franchise/CompilationOfFinalFantasyVII''." The original game was a pretty simple SavingTheWorld storyline; any MindScrew elements were [[JigsawPuzzlePlot resolved by the end of the game]]. The sequels and prequels, on the other hand, made everything way more complicated than it had to be. Characters got [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] as some games got new viewpoint characters or allowed outside characterization to creep in. There's also now at least six different versions of what happened at Nibelheim, making this the video game equivalent of ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''; Creator/SquareEnix basically gave up and [[AscendedFanon said that this was officially the case]]. When ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' was announced, the entire ''Compilation'' was stated to have happened in BroadStrokes in an attempt to stray away from this trope. [[spoiler:Even then, the big lategame twist that ''Remake'' is actually a StealthSequel to ''FFVII'' by means of [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] [[AlternateUniverse theory]] rendered this null, as it's suggested a post-''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'' Sephiroth is trying to change the sequence of history to prevent his original defeat and there are several aspects of the game [[ContinuityLockout that heavily rely upon knowledge of other Compilation entries]].]]

* ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' takes place in two different time periods, and frequently jumps to new characters in each to serve the overarching MythArc of averting the apocalypse that occurs between the two. However the new characters don't always have their storylines tied up at the end of their strips, and this combined with frequent switching between the [[FourLinesAllWaiting many, ''many'']] storylines going on at the same time, and the fact that the MythArc's been going [[ArchivePanic since ''2001'']] makes it incredibly hard to follow even reading through the archive.

* ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'', surprisingly for a comic without many vast mysterious conspiracies, left plot threads hanging all over the place. In one case, a villain's comeback was left hanging for so long that she was physically almost unrecognizable when she finally reappeared because the comic's art style [[ArtShift had changed so much]] in the meantime.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series slowly became infamous for this. The [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original game]] had a very clear plot: monsters are coming from the darkness of people's hearts and invading Creator/{{Disney}} worlds, and the current wielder of a giant key that cuts hearts has to fight them, while he looks for his friends whom he lost. [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Then came Organization XIII]], a new enemy that raises some questions. These are answered in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' -- [[TheChrisCarterEffect while raising]] ''[[TheChrisCarterEffect many]]'' [[TheChrisCarterEffect more questions in the process]]. It all kept snowballing from there. There's a whole ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell web series]]'' on Website/YouTube designed just to try and explain the games' plot. Series director Creator/TetsuyaNomura has admitted to basically WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.

** NoExportForYou makes it even more annoying. For example several plotlines in the originally Japan exclusive ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' were introduced in ''Kingdom Hearts II [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]]'': [[spoiler:Xemnas and the Chamber of Repose, the Lingering Will's origin, etc.]] Not to mention ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'', a now-defunct mobile game that not only acts as a prequel to the entire series, but becomes crucial to the current storyline as of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. Thankfully, the Final Mix version of ''II'' (as well as the ones for ''I'' and ''Birth by Sleep'') later became available internationally through a series of {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, and the cutscenes and other story information from ''χ'' are easily available to look up online.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series slowly became infamous for this. The [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original game]] had a very clear plot: monsters are coming from the darkness of people's hearts, and the current wielder of a giant key that cuts hearts has to fight them, while he looks for his friends whom he lost. [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Then came Organization XIII]], a new enemy that raises some questions. These are answered in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' -- [[TheChrisCarterEffect while raising]] ''[[TheChrisCarterEffect many]]'' [[TheChrisCarterEffect more questions in the process]]. It all kept snowballing from there. There's a whole ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell web series]]'' on Website/YouTube designed just to try and explain the games' plot. Series director Creator/TetsuyaNomura has admitted to basically WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.

* The Franchise/KingdomHearts series slowly became infamous for this. The [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original game]] had a very clear plot: monsters are coming from the darkness of people's hearts, and the current wielder of a giant key that cuts hearts has to fight them, while he looks for his friends whom he lost. [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Then came Organization XIII]], a new enemy that raises some questions. These are answered in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII KHII]]'' -- [[TheChrisCarterEffect by raising]] ''[[TheChrisCarterEffect many]]'' [[TheChrisCarterEffect more questions]]. It all kept snowballing from there. There's a whole ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell web series]]'' on Website/YouTube designed just to try and explain the games' plot. Series director Creator/TetsuyaNomura has admitted to basically WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.
** NoExportForYou makes it even more annoying. Several plotlines in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' were introduced in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]]'': [[spoiler:Xemnas and the Chamber of Repose, the Lingering Will's origin, etc.]] Not to mention ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'', a now-defunct mobile game that not only acts as a prequel to the entire series, but becomes crucial to the current storyline as of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. Thankfully, the Final Mix version of ''II'' (as well as the ones for ''I'' and ''Birth by Sleep'') later became available internationally through a series of {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, and the cutscenes and other story information from ''χ'' are easily available to look up online.

** [[spoiler:Everyone was the offspring of a talking slice of Watermelon living with [[{{Music/Rush}} Neil Peart]] called Walter Melon.]]

* ''[[Machinima/YogscastMinecraftSeries Shadow of Israphel]]'' was CutShort, but in the meantime, it definitely went this way. We have a character who's supposed to be dead (and has ''two'' graves) but is [[spoiler:haunting Old_Peculiar for even longer than he's supposed to have been dead]]. We have ''sand'' as the greatest threat to the world, except it's really [[spoiler:a prison for an evil robot army]]. And we have no explanation for N-Comm Systems (supposedly [[spoiler:from the future]], the Turtle God, [[spoiler:the Sentinels]], the Templar Kings, and how Shiplord_Hubert wound up in the Desert.

* The Franchise/KingdomHearts series slowly became infamous for this. The [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original]] ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' had a very clear plot: monsters are coming from the darkness of people's hearts, and the current wielder of a giant key that cuts hearts has to fight them, while he looks for his friends whom he lost. [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Then came Organization XIII]], a new enemy that raises some questions. These are answered in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII KHII]]'' -- [[TheChrisCarterEffect by raising]] ''[[TheChrisCarterEffect many]]'' [[TheChrisCarterEffect more questions]]. It all kept snowballing from there. There's a whole ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell web series]]'' on Website/YouTube designed just to try and explain the games' plot. Series director Creator/TetsuyaNomura has admitted to basically WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** The series slowly became infamous for this. The [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI original]] ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' had a very clear plot: monsters are coming from the darkness of people's hearts, and the current wielder of a giant key that cuts hearts has to fight them, while he looks for his friends whom he lost. [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Then came Organization XIII]], a new enemy that raises some questions. These are answered in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII KHII]]'' -- [[TheChrisCarterEffect by raising]] ''[[TheChrisCarterEffect many]]'' [[TheChrisCarterEffect more questions]]. It all kept snowballing from there. There's a whole ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell web series]]'' on Website/YouTube designed just to try and explain the games' plot. Series director Creator/TetsuyaNomura has admitted to basically WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.

* ''WebAnimation/UnforgottenRealms'': Will Sir Schmoopy and Eluamous Nailo be able to [[RandomEncounters defeat the dangerous, non-optical illusion ogre?]] Will Sir Schmoopy [[BalefulPolymorph ever get his human body back?]] Will the show ever stick to a plot instead of [[LampshadeHanging introducing a lot of random storyline elements]] [[SelfDeprecation and never explaining them?]] This starts as early as episode five and snowballs from there.

* A common criticism ''VisualNovel/OokamiKakushi'' faces is that while the main mystery of the series is solved, several others -- such as [[IllGirl Kaori's mysterious illness]] and [[spoiler:her eventual role as a White Wolf Kanon]] -- are left to the imagination of those who did not read the VisualNovel.

* {{Parodied|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' with a character ''named'' Kuzdu. Specifically, [[spoiler:Durkon's son with Hilgya]], who shows up long after one could be forgiven for forgetting the setup.

* ''Webcomic/TheMansionOfE'': Almost every time known characters venture into a new area and meet somebody there, those somebodies get their own plot thread. Sometimes one for all, sometimes one ''for each of them''. Even mentioning a character (like Ace, the brother of two central characters) may create a separate thread for him. Which leads to FourLinesAllWaiting. The story does seem to have set goals, but with its insane amount of characters and worldbuilding the progress is glacial. 9423 strips in, it's still day 2, and there are events scheduled 2 weeks later.

* ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''. There was even a website dedicated to attempting to decode its plot.

of battles.

A Kudzu Plot occurs when a story leaves so many dangling PlotThreads that it's extremely difficult to follow and needlessly complicated. A story arc may be resolved, but it will usually create more unanswered questions in the process. This can also happen [[NestedStory multiple times within the same story]].

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' is so complex that it basically requires multiple viewings to be able to get everything.

** Showrunner Creator/RussellTDavies tied up many of the loose ends he left but there's still a lot unexplained from his tenure, including the exact means by which Rose came back from a parallel dimension, and pretty much anything to do with her in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft "Turn Left"]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade|Chronicles1}} [[VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX Chron]][[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 icles]]'' [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 series]] uses a Kudzu Plot in a very different way, with most of the unanswered plot threads spanning across the multiple games rather than the Kudzu plot being self-contained to each game's story as in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'', [[spoiler:as each individual game is a tiny piece of a huge epic spanning a multiverse despite the individual casts and locations having practically nothing to do with each other]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'': The saga spans five different games. Any resolution leads to new mysteries. The mythology and universe were set about 4,000 years in the future and dealt with everything from lost Earth, competing philosophical ethical systems and morality, religion, A.I., and {{order versus chaos}}. While the series does a good job of eventually wrapping up the main storylines, not all of the questions are answered and the post-game credits reveal that there is even more unknown.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade|Chronicles1}} [[VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX Chron]][[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 icles]]'' [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 series]] uses a Kudzu Plot in a very different way, with most of the unanswered plot threads spanning across the multiple games rather than the Kudzu plot being self-contained to each game's story as in Xenogears and Xenosaga, [[spoiler:as each individual game is a tiny piece of a huge epic spanning a multiverse despite the individual casts and locations having practically nothing to do with each other]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'': The saga spans five different games. Any resolution leads to new mysteries. The mythology and universe were set about 4,000 years in the future and dealt with everything from lost Earth, competing philosophical ethical systems and morality, religion, A.I., and order versus chaos. While the series does a good job of eventually wrapping up the main storylines, not all of the questions are answered and the post-game credits reveal that there is even more unknown.

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', the [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual Predeccessor]] to ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', is tied up in several ongoing plot strands at once with multiple factions and backstories that need to be understood in order to keep straight the current conflicts. Part of this complication is due to the fact there is a large importance on certain [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] (particularly "That Man", one of the individuals responsible for the creation of the living weapon known as "Gears"), which can be hard to track in a fighting game where the focus would normally be placed on key playable characters each with their own agendas and goals. The main plot is arguably simple enough (mankind created Gears as the next step in human evolution > the Gears TurnedAgainstTheirMasters and began [[GreatOffscreenWar the nearly century-long Crusades]] > humanity tries to recover as the protagonist attempts to track down That Man while dealing with both a post-war GovernmentConspiracy and his own dark past as [[spoiler:another contributor to the Gear Project]]), though even that can get bogged down as each new game [[{{Revision}} adds more details and context to the overarching story]]. ''Guilty Gear 2'' is infamous for a MagiBabble-heavy narrative that seems to be only tangentially related to what's shown in ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearTheMissingLink GG1]]'', ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearX X]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearXX XX]]'' (which can be boiled down to "a plot to [[SealedEvilInACan unseal]] the leader of the Gears", "the daughter of the Gear leader is discovered, inciting an international incident", and "That Man's [[TheDragon Dragon]] tries to hijack the GovernmentConspiracy to eliminate perceived threats to her master", respectively), whereas ''Xrd'' took these same elements and [[ArcWelding welded them together with the events of the previous games]].