History WhatHappenedToTheMouse / Literature

* In Creator/AstridLindgren's book ''Literature/MioMySon'', the evil of Sir Kato is so pernicious, such a blight on body, mind and spirit, that the mere mention of his name causes the sky to darken and men and animals to weep. The little prince sees a number of butterflies lose their wings. [[spoiler: When Kato is defeated, the land, animals and people are all healed and one of Kato's servants who died to help the children even comes back to life. We can ''assume'' that the butterflies were healed too, but the author doesn't mention it.]] ----

----

** ''Literature/TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.[[spoiler:The mouse lived to the age of 60 years - twenty times the normal lifespan of a mouse.]]

* In GeorgeOrwell's ''AnimalFarm'', the cat (who never did anything of import while he was present) ceases to exist about halfway through the story. Orwell just stops mentioning him. This could be intentional, as the cat was already mentioned to be mysteriously missing every time the animals needed to get work done, and disappears right when the pigs are beginning to institute their crazier forms of tyranny.

* In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse this is extremely common between series due to the [[DependingOnTheAuthor varying focuses on different characters]]. It is occasionally resolved later on but just as often isn't.

** ''Literature/TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.[[spoiler:The mouse lived in the age of 60 years - twenty times the normal lifespan of a mouse.]]

* In the original British printing of ''Literature/GoodOmens'', it is never revealed what happened to Warlock the false antichrist after he is taken to the fields of Megiddo by the forces of hell and revealed as a sham. For the American edition the authors added about 700 extra words revealing that he is alive and well, understandably perplexed by his experiences, and heading back to America thanks to some reality-manipulation by Adam.

* In the first ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "A Study in Scarlet", Watson mentions that he "keeps a bull pup" before moving in with Holmes. Once he moves in, the bull pup is never mentioned again. Maybe it died between two adventures? Though there is an explanation that's seen print is that "to keep a bull pup" is slang for "to have a short temper"--or that [[http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/StanleyHopkins2006/Hopkins100806.html it's a revolver]].

* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' raises numerous mouse questions, as might be expected of a semi-historical narrative with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. To quote the book's 17th-century editor, "A beloved commander, a beloved son, lost for the sake of a woman... but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened to lady Zou?]]""

* Literature/TomRobbins' ''Still Life With Woodpecker'' hangs a lampshade on this, when Leigh-Cheri's reaction to the story of the Princess and the Toad is "Whatever happened to the Golden Ball?" (that the princess was chasing when she first found the Toad.)

* Dan Simmons' ''Literature/{{Illium}}/Olympos'' cycle. What happened to that mice colony? What happened to that humongous tentacled brain? Where did Caliban go? Did moravecs manage to get rid of those 768 black holes? Can the remaining firmaries be turned on or not? Why didn't anyone care for more than seven years? Who the hell was Quiet and did (s)he actually do anything? Has the quantum stability problem been solved? If yes, then how? Aaargh, so many questions...

*** Even though in the movie [[spoiler:Sirius was dying as he fell]], in the book it's obvious that [[spoiler:the fall through the arch is what killed him]]. So, it's fairly clear what lies behind the arch, especially when you take into account what Harry heard from it. Luna's comments to Harry at the end of the book would seem to confirm this theory, but then again, [[CloudCuckoolander consider the source]].

* In Thomas Harris' ''Literature/BlackSunday'', Lander gave his pregnant ex-wife two tickets to the Super Bowl. No mention is made on if she went or what happened to her.

* Early in Creator/TomClancy's ''RedStormRising'', Iceland is conquered by the Soviet Union to allow their submarines and bombers a clean shot at convoys ferrying war material and American reinforcements to Europe, where the ground war is raging. In the course of this operation, the ship carrying the Soviet invasion force is Harpooned and strafed by American fighters, seriously wounding the captain. Much buildup is done about whether or not the captain will survive. As soon as the ship is run ashore (most of the line handlers had been killed, so it couldn't dock) the General of the invading army takes him below to the surgeon, thinking "Maybe there's still enough time." The captain is never mentioned again, leaving the reader to wonder as to his fate.

* PamelaDean's ''Literature/TheSecretCountry'' has a "What happened to the relatives" in it: The older cousins, with whom the game was usually played, had emigrated to Australia: the younger cousins were left in Illinois with other relatives while ''their'' parents were spending the summer in Australia without them, and thereby hangs the tale. At the end, [[spoiler: after the Illinois children show up in Australia via a magic mirror, their parents decide to accompany the children back to the Hidden Land. It's a one-way trip; they know they'll never come back. The parents cook up plausible explanations for their "disappearance", pretending they're going to emigrate to Australia also and then "just lose touch". In the middle of all the preparations, no one suggests that the Illinois relatives might like to know how the kids disappeared from what was supposed to be an afternoon trip to the library, and how they got to Australia.]]
* There's a tragic example in RobinMcKinley's ''Literature/{{Deerskin}}''. After being raped by her father Princess Lissla flees, badly wounded and pregnant with his incestuous child. She is later healed by a goddess, apparently losing several years of memory in the process. No further mention is made of her pregnancy until near the end of the book, when she confronts her father again, and reveals that she miscarried after five months and suppressed the memory.
** It is mentioned. During the period where she's living in the hut and dazed, she experiences a particularly bad night which results in a huge bloodstain on the floor.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/BlackColossus", the princess is in command because her brother the king is being held captive and might be either ransomed or handed over to their enemies. While discussing what to do, the ''first'' point brought up is whether to enlarge the offer of ransom; only then do they discuss the attacking army, and that, partly because the captor won't take them seriously while they might be overrun. But they deal with the army, and the captive king is never even addressed again.

* In the TortallUniverse, it was because of this trope that author TamoraPierce eventually wrote a short story about what happened to the tree that became man as a result of the mage Numair turning his EvilCounterpart into a tree in the second book of the Immortals quartet.
* Early on in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' novel ''The Vor Game'', Miles is assigned to Kyril Island as the new Weather Officer. The officer he is replacing has been there so long that he has developed a "nose" for predicting the weather, especially the deadly wah-wahs, which is far more accurate than the available equipment. Miles is briefly terrified that everyone else will notice a sudden drop in the accuracy of reporting when he takes over, but soon has a major confrontation with the commanding officer and is transferred off the island. Presumably the poor patsy who replaces him will be no better at predicting the weather than Miles, but the island is mentioned just once more in a later novel, a decade later in book time, and it's implied that nothing has changed there.

* In the first ''Literature/MaximumRide'' book, the main characters (who are winged humans, part bird, part human, created by some MadScientists) have gone years without seeing another genetic experiment like them. When they get to a secret facility in New York, they find several expiriments caged up. Naturally, they set them free. You'd think they'd want to talk to them or interact with them, maybe help them find a safe place, but it never goes anywhere. Over 5 books later, said experiments don't even get a passing mention, they're never thought of again, so it's a plot thread that went nowhere and contributed nothing to the story.

* In The Nightmare Factory, Dan is scarred by a creature called a Septaurus and slowly begins to transform into one (basically a family-friendly version of FaceFullOfAlienWingWong ). Oran gives him a potion that suppresses this transformation, even though it tasks terrible. In the sequel, Rise Of The Shadowmares, there is no mention of this transformation whatsoever. There isn't even any mention of the potion, despite the fact that some of the time intervals Dan has to spend between drinking it would [[Main/MagicAIsMagicA canonically be long enough for him to start transforming again.]]

** The blind Varden soldier who misteriously turns able to see magic energy disappears after being put in under vigilance from Du Vrangr Gata and is never mentioned again, not even in the saga's GrandFinale.

* W.E.B Griffin's The Corps series has many viewpoint characters simply vanish from the narrative, especially when the series timeskips into Korea. While a couple are at least given some resolution, many simply vanish between books.

* Literature/TrappedOnDraconica: After serving [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom his role in the plot]], Yusef disapears and is never heard from again.

** ''EatenAlive'': [[spoiler: D'Vouran is in another part of space being stumbled upon by spacers.]]

** ''TheSwarm'': two ExplosiveBreeder bugs are on the heroes' ship, though ''that'' is maybe more a nuisance since as fast as they breed, they can only produce ten eggs a day and will be noticed before it gets dangerous.

* In the TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe, the animals having a dinner party before being turned to stone by the Witch (leading to Edmund's HeelFaceTurn) are never mentioned again. Aslan being omniscient and all, or perhaps Edmund told him, he probably gave them a visit to restore them, but who knows?
** Lewis got a WhatHappenedToTheMouse letter from one of his readers (or the reader's mom) and hastily wrote back a WordOfGod that ''of course'' the animals at the dinner party got turned back, just not on stage, and he was very sorry the child was distressed about the issue.
* {{Dragonlance}}:

* In AndreNorton's ''[[Literature/{{Warlock}} Ordeal In Otherwhere]]'',

* In Creator/RaymondChandler's first Literature/PhilipMarlowe novel ''Literature/TheBigSleep'', all of the various murders and crimes are explained, except that of the Sternwoods' chauffeur, Owen Taylor. During filming of the [[Film/TheBigSleep 1946 film adaptation]], director Howard Hawks and screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman sent a cable to Chandler, who later told a friend in a letter: "They sent me a wire... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either."

** There's also Jebra, the seer who first appears in ''Stone Of Tears''. In the final trilogy, she's brought to the heroes by Shota to tell them about her experiences being caught in city conquered by the Imperial Order[[hottip:+ :surprisingly, she manages to avoid [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil the usual fate of women]] in such situations]]. Shota leaves her there, but in the next book she's mentioned as having wandered off, and there's almost no effort made to find her, and she's never referenced again.

** Test readers of the book were so distracted by the potential plot relevence of some money being hidden as a relatively minor plot point that the finished novel uses illicit cookies for the same plot purpose to avert this trope.

** An odd [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. While never the answer is never given in either of the books - as Dodgson meant for the riddle to be a riddle without an answer - but enough of his fans pestered him about the riddle that he made up an answer: [[spoiler: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat, and it is 'nevar' put with the wrong end in front". (Among other suggested answers, Sam Loyd's "Poe wrote on both" is probably the best-known.)]]

* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'' and its adaptations, whatever happened to Valjean's sister and her kids that he stole bread for in the first place? Granted, 20 years have passed and he's now on the run, but one could imagine he'd find some way to check up on them if he could. They are given some mention later on -- Valjean gets some news that reveals that all but the youngest kid are gone, the sister works constantly to support them, the little boy trudges to school every day and waits for it to open, and in winter a kind lady who lives near the school lets him come in and sit next to the stove to warm up until it opens. Beyond that, they don't come up, and Hugo says he will not mention them and doesn't know what happened to the rest of the children.

** In a very early book in the series, just before losing consciousness, Prince Alloran manages to gasp out a warning that the Yeerks are infiltrating the Andalite home world. To quote Cinnamon Bunzuh, "Well, there's an extremely crucial piece of information that we will never, ever hear mentioned or discussed again." The author admitted in a later interview that she forgot about it.

* In Peter F. Hamilton's ''Literature/NightsDawnTrilogy'', a fairly major character in Book 1, Kelven Solanki, vanishes without a trace at the end of the book after being promoted and assigned as a liaison and advisor to Admiral Meredith Saldana on his flagship. Despite Saldana and his taskforce playing major roles in Books 2 and 3, Solanki is nowhere to be seen. The author later admitted in a Q&A on his website that he had simply completely forgotten about him, but his overall importance to the story had been fulfilled. Given that the ending was so comprehensive that even the fate of a minor car thief who appeared for one paragraph is wrapped up, Solanki's abrupt disappearance seems a bit unfair to the character.

* Early in Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/RedStormRising'', Iceland is conquered by the Soviet Union to allow their submarines and bombers a clean shot at convoys ferrying war material and American reinforcements to Europe, where the ground war is raging. In the course of this operation, the ship carrying the Soviet invasion force is Harpooned and strafed by American fighters, seriously wounding the captain. Much buildup is done about whether or not the captain will survive. As soon as the ship is run ashore (most of the line handlers had been killed, so it couldn't dock) the General of the invading army takes him below to the surgeon, thinking "Maybe there's still enough time." The captain is never mentioned again, leaving the reader to wonder as to his fate.

* Dragonlance:

* In the sixth book of the ''[[Literature/The39Clues 39 Clues]]'' series, [[spoiler:Isabel Kabra]] mentions that [[spoiler:Amy and Dan's parents visited, among other places, Karachi, Pakistan, and also thought Amy and Dan visited there, although they never did.]] This does not go unnoticed by Amy and Dan, but it is soon forgotten and never brought up again. [[spoiler:Though with three books still left in the SequelSeries, and suspicions of Isabel being a member of the antagonistic group of said sequel series, Karachi may still be brought up again.]]

* Dragonlance - specifically the end of Autumn Twilight. It's revealed early on that hoopaks are a kender's birthright (implying they inherit them from their parents) and Tasslehoff's fighting style incorporates the hoopak heavily. He uses it booth as a weapon and a distraction. Then, in the Tomb of Kith-Kanan, he says he loses it and leaves it behind in the tomb, and vows to return to get it. The sequel, Winter Night, takes place a few months later, yet for the rest of the trilogy (and the following trilogies) the hoopak is never mentioned again.
** On a related note, the sword of Kith-Kanan itself. Tanis comes by the sword in a very fantastic way (apparently the skeleton of Kith-Kanan "gave" it to him), yet the sword doesn't do anything extraordinary in Autumn Twilight, and then when the fellowship is broken in Winter Night Laurana makes a choice to leave the sword behind with the elves so she can carry the dragon orb/ dragon lance. About sixty years later, in Lost Star, Laurana raids the Qualinesti treasury and pulls out another CoolSword, Lost Star. What happened to the Sword of Kith-Kanan?
* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'' and its adaptations, whatever happened to Valjean's sister and her kids that he stole bread for in the first place? Granted, 20 years have passed and he's now on the run, but one could imagine he'd find some way to check up on them if he could.
** They are given some mention later on -- Valjean gets some news that reveals that all but the youngest kid are gone, the sister works constantly to support them, the little boy trudges to school every day and waits for it to open, and in winter a kind lady who lives near the school lets him come in and sit next to the stove to warm up until it opens. Beyond that, they don't come up, and Hugo says he will not mention them and doesn't know what happened to the rest of the children.

** At the end of the flashback section of ''TheDarkTower/WizardAndGlass'', Roland's mother gives him a belt. He promises to tell his ''[[TrueCompanions ka-tet]]'' the story of how he lost the belt, "for it bears on my quest for the Tower." Whether he tells the ''ka-tet'' or not, he never tells the reader; the belt is never mentioned again either in the main series or in any of the side materials.

** The ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'' trilogy ended with [[spoiler:formerly enslaved Imperials stealing their fleet back from the Yevetha and heading for the Empire's backup capital, [[ComicBook/DarkEmpire Byss]]]]. They then completely disappeared from the canon, a state of affairs only rectified in ''The New Essential Chronology'' which stated that [[spoiler:the Black Fleet ended up at Byss]] to discover [[it had been obliterated by the Galaxy Gun. The fleet fractured, with some ships defecting to the New Republic, some heading for the Imperial Remnant, and SSD ''Intimidator'' disappearing. The New Republic ran across its wreck a few years later.]]

* In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse this is extremely common between series due to the [[DependingOnTheAuthor varying focuses on different characters]]. It is occasionally resolved later on but just as often isn't. This was recently resolved with [[XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]] due to the book Mercy Kill for example but earlier the fate of most of the members of the squadron and what they had been doing for the past couple of decades was left up in the air.
**

** ''TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.[[spoiler:The mouse lived in the age of 60 years - twenty times the normal lifespan of a mouse.]]

* In ''SingYouHome'', Zoe and Vanessa are fighting in court against Zoe's ex-husband Max in order to acquire the frozen embryos that Zoe and Max made in IVF treatments during their marriage. Max, who becomes a born-again Christian, plans to give the embryos to his brother and sister-in-law (who he also happens to be in love with), who are infertile. In the last chapter, Max starts contemplating just letting Zoe and Vanessa have the embryos, since he doesn't want to see his brother and wife happy together, knowing he can never be with his sister in law Liddy. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Max did give the embryos to Zoe and Vanessa, and is about to marry Liddy. This still leaves many questions unanswered. When did Max get together with Liddy? How did the court decide to give Zoe and Vanessa the embryos? Is Max still a Christian?

* In the first ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "A Study in Scarlet", Watson mentions that he "keeps a bull pup" before moving in with Holmes. Once he moves in, the bull pup is never mentioned again. Maybe it died between two adventures? Though there is an explanation that's seen print is that "to keep a bull pup" is slang for "to have a short temper."

* Early in TomClancy's ''Literature/RedStormRising'', Iceland is conquered by the Soviet Union to allow their submarines and bombers a clean shot at convoys ferrying war material and American reinforcements to Europe, where the ground war is raging. In the course of this operation, the ship carrying the Soviet invasion force is Harpooned and strafed by American fighters, seriously wounding the captain. Much buildup is done about whether or not the captain will survive. As soon as the ship is run ashore (most of the line handlers had been killed, so it couldn't dock) the General of the invading army takes him below to the surgeon, thinking "Maybe there's still enough time." The captain is never mentioned again, leaving the reader to wonder as to his fate.

* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'' and its adaptations, whatever happened to Valjean's sister and her kids that he stole bread for in the first place? Granted, 20 years have passed and he's now on the run, but one could imagine he'd find some way to check up on them if he could.

* In the TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe, the animals having a dinner party before being turned to stone by the Witch (leading to Edmund's HeelFaceTurn) are never mentioned again. Aslan being omniscient and all or perhaps Edmund told him, he probably gave them a visit to restore them, but who knows?

** ''TheGreenMile'', there's a literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" when Mr. Jingles runs away after Eduard Delacroix is executed. Stephen King wrote in the afterward that even ''he'' forgot about Mr. Jingles until his wife asked him the question, so he wrote in a resolution.