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4->And oh yes, there's this murder mystery plot set up early on. Six different members of a military squad are introduced and established with names and slightly anemic personalities, but then it transpires that there's a traitor among them picking them off. You even have a boss fight with him, his face cunningly concealed by camera angles and bits of scenery. So, do you want to know who the traitor turned out to be? So the fuck would I, because the game kind of forgets about this whole subplot and hopes you do, too.
5-->-- '''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''' on ''Videogame/MetroidOtherM''
6
7When a StoryArc disappears off the face of the storyline without warning, never to be heard from again.
8
9For a long while viewers will likely be under the impression that the disappeared major PlotPoint will pop up any minute now — an impression which will eventually give way to a dawning comprehension that the story has moved on, none of the factors that made this plot point important matter any more and it would be just ridiculous for someone to suddenly recall the whole thing now, after all this time.
10
11Why did this happen? It's anyone's guess. Maybe the introduction of that plot point had fans complaining, so it was quietly discarded to appease them. Maybe a crucial cast member quit the show, and said plot can't be continued without their character. Maybe [[ExecutiveMeddling the powers that be]] didn't like it and demanded it be dropped. Maybe they ''did'' want to continue that arc, but were [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants writing by the seat of their pants]] and didn't know where else to go, or they didn't have the budget to film or animate it. Or maybe the writers just realized it was a lousy idea that was cluttering up the plot, or just lost interest in it. This weighs rather heavily on the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, but [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools sometimes]] the best way to execute an AuthorsSavingThrow and get rid of an element that isn't doing the story any favors is to just [[CanonDiscontinuity pretend it never happened]]. Then again, it's harder to pass the throw if the arc had significant buildup; such buildup retroactively becomes {{Fauxshadow}}ing.
12
13Mainly a series trope; writers will usually avoid this if they can, and you can always go back and edit a stand-alone work before publishing, unless the deadline is really pressing. At best, it's a gross violation of TheLawOfConservationOfDetail; at worst, this is done for no reason whatsoever and rends the plot asunder to create a fresh new PlotHole.
14
15Jokes tend to have this trope in spades, as the whole point is to build up to [[{{Punchline}} an unexpected pun or twist ending by any means necessary]] — then full stop, no closure. People who have NoSenseOfHumor (and people trolling) will then say "[[NowWhat And then what happened?]]"
16
17Cases where there ''is'' a resolution eventually, no matter how trite or sudden, aren't this trope — though ''really'' bad cases of FourLinesAllWaiting, OutOfFocus or SequelGap usually end up emulating the effects for all intents and purposes; when the plot point ''does'' get brought out of cryogenic suspension, fans have long since lost all hope for it or interest in it.
18
19If the arc does eventually come back, that's PlotArchaeology.
20
21Compare with: WhatCouldHaveBeen, KudzuPlot, TheChrisCarterEffect, CreatorBreakdown, FranchiseKiller, WhatHappenedToTheMouse, and TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot. See also: DummiedOut, LeftHanging, CutShort and ConclusionInAnotherMedium.
22
23----
24!!Example subpages:
25
26[[index]]
27* AbortedArc/AnimeAndManga
28* AbortedArc/ComicBooks
29** AbortedArc/TheDCU
30*** AbortedArc/{{Batman}}
31*** AbortedArc/TheFlash
32*** AbortedArc/GreenLantern
33*** AbortedArc/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica
34*** AbortedArc/{{Superman}}
35*** AbortedArc/TeenTitans
36** AbortedArc/MarvelUniverse
37*** AbortedArc/TheAvengers
38*** AbortedArc/CaptainAmerica
39*** AbortedArc/SpiderMan
40*** AbortedArc/UltimateMarvel
41*** AbortedArc/XMen
42* AbortedArc/FanWorks
43* [[AbortedArc/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
44** AbortedArc/DCExtendedUniverse
45** AbortedArc/MarvelCinematicUniverse
46* AbortedArc/{{Literature}}
47* AbortedArc/LiveActionTV
48** AbortedArc/GameOfThrones
49* AbortedArc/ProfessionalWrestling
50* AbortedArc/VideoGames
51* AbortedArc/{{Webcomics}}
52* AbortedArc/WebOriginal
53* AbortedArc/WesternAnimation
54** AbortedArc/TotalDrama
55[[/index]]
56
57!!Other examples:
58[[foldercontrol]]
59
60[[folder:Comic Strips]]
61* In as much as there is continuity, one ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' comic involved Dogbert raising an army of cloned vegetables. It was supposed to be longer, but Scott Adams found it wasn't as funny as he thought it would be, so he actually stated in comic he was ending the arc by "skipping ahead to the big finish." Another arc, featuring the death of Dilbert, was also resolved quicker than planned when Adams ran out of ideas (he also mentioned doing it to shake things up, but the strip was so early that nobody cared). Another early arc involved Dilbert building a robot that became gradually more intelligent before being dropped without comment a few weeks later; the plotline was revisited more than a decade later with a different robot, who went on to become a regular.
62* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip:
63** During Steve Parkhouse's period as writer in the early 1980s, the Fifth and Sixth Doctors had repeatedly clashed with the amphibian alien CorruptCorporateExecutive Josiah W. Dogbolter. After Parkhouse left as writer, this was abandoned, with Dogbolter being a KarmaHoudini for his many crimes (including being responsible for the murder of the Fifth Doctor's comics-only companion Gus). Many years later, in the #500 issue, the MilestoneCelebration strip "The Stockbridge Showdown" finally revived this and gave Dogbolter his [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty comeuppance]].
64** A lengthy planned character arc for DarkActionGirl turned companion Destrii was dropped when the TV show was revived, and it was decided that the Ninth Doctor comic strips would be tied strictly into the TV continuity. As a result the Eighth Doctor and Destrii got an AndTheAdventureContinues ending and the comic switched straight into the Ninth Doctor and Rose.
65* A two-week 1995 ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' storyline had Paige getting the role of Cleopatra in the school's Antony and Cleopatra play, (with Morton playing Antony). The story ended before the play started, with Roger noticing Paige's name in the play program. The play itself was never seen.
66* ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'':
67** At one point creator Greg Evans had planned a storyline which revealed the reason SatelliteLoveInterest Aaron Hill was so uninterested in Luann's (or anyone else's) advances: he simply wasn't interested... [[ComingOutStory in girls]]. Evans got cold feet, fearing he didn't have enough of a subscriber base to absorb the potential loss of paper slots, like [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse Lynn Johnston]] did when she pulled a similar storyline. So he [[AuthorsSavingThrow altered the story]] so that Aaron was hiding a relationship with the much older Dianne.
68** After Aaron was [[PutOnABus put on a plane to Hawaii]], the strip signaled his reunion with Luann in a storyline where she wins a contest flight to Hawaii. What happens when she reunites with Aaron there? She sees him once with another girl, doesn't even bother to confirm she's his girlfriend, and then doesn't speak to him again after that. Aaron's return was teased ''again'' with a strip where he sends Luann a Myspace friend request and a message suggesting he's single now, but nothing came of it after that.
69* ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary year (1990) with a big epic storyline in which all the strip's various {{plot}}lines and characters converged together, with practically the entire cast all ending up at Mike's apartment. Creator Garry Trudeau ended up writing himself into a corner with the arc, which had everyone together but didn't give them anything to do. The arc got weirder when Mike's house was mistaken for a crack den and raided by federal agents. Trudeau decided the whole thing had gotten out of hand, and undid the entire arc by revealing that the last several months worth of strips had been AllJustADream.
70* ''ComicStrip/HeartOfTheCity'' story arcs often end suddenly with no further explanation. An example is an arc where Heart's mom agrees to go on a date, which Heart dreads until she learns that the man is a talent agent. After that, the arc ended.
71* Lampshaded in a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip in which Snoopy is writing a novel. One part of the plot involves a king living in luxury while his people starved. In tying up the plot threads, Snoopy left him out.
72* {{Subverted}} in ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine''. One story arc involving beer can-shaped aliens coming to Earth and Rat making enemies with them gets abandoned without explanation, and then a second one where Pig and Guard Duck travel to space in a cardboard box spaceship has the same thing happen, with the two stranded in space without air. When Rat asks Stephan Pastis if he ever plans on finishing a storyline, he quickly writes a sloppy conclusion to both: the beer can aliens see Pig's spaceship and attack by throwing oxygen canisters, saving them.
73--> '''Rat:''' Tell me they don't pay you for this.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
77* ''Animation/BoBoiBoyMovie2'': The start of the film informs of [=BoBoiBoy's=] positive track record as a TAPOPS member but also a tendency to save those who hinder their missions. After Retak'ka enters the picture as an intergalactic threat, this issue is never touched on again.
78* Because the WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse ended with ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'', a number of plots set up in various stingers will never be followed up on, including [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueThroneOfAtlantis Ocean Master teaming up with Lex Luthor]], [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTheJudasContract Jericho surviving H.I.V.E.'s attempt to kill him]], and [[WesternAnimation/WonderWomanBloodlines Veronica Cale swearing revenge on Wonder Woman]].
79* An early scene in ''Animation/CatCity'', a film about a "race war" between the benevolent mice and evil cats, introduces the kitten Cathy, the daughter of the despicable Fritz Teufel's abused assistant Safranek. She seems to be the only cat on friendly terms with mice, something extremely unusual in the film's world. But this revelation, her relationship with her "pet mouse" and her indirect connection to the main villains lead nowhere and she ends up as a superfluous character. Her inclusion was due to ExecutiveMeddling, as the financiers wanted a positive cat character in the film. The creators reluctantly put her in a few scenes but had no use for her otherwise.
80[[/folder]]
81
82[[folder:Music]]
83* The release of the album "Fangs!" seemed to be something of a new beginning for the experimental rock band Music/FallingUp. It was both a NewSoundAlbum and a ConceptAlbum that was the beginning of a story arc... then the band broke up. The band reunited in 2011, but their album doesn't really continue the story line of Fangs.
84* Music/DavidBowie's 1995 concept album ''[[Music/{{Outside}} 1. Outside]]'' was supposed to be the first of a series leading up to the millennium. Bowie first planned to release one new album for each succeeding year from 1995 to 1999, then cut it down to a trilogy, then scrapped it altogether. Bowie devised characters for a second installment during production of ''Music/{{Earthling}}'', and ''1. Outside''[='s=] producer, Music/BrianEno, considered starting the project back up again during the 2010s, but in the end, further albums continuing the "non-linear gothic drama hyper cycle" never appeared. According to Bowie, the main obstacle was having to scour through hours of jam sessions to find material that he could stitch together into coherent albums.
85* Music/SufjanStevens was initially advertising with the release of his 2005 album ''Music/{{Illinois}}'' -- itself a quasi-follow-up to his 2003 album ''Michigan'' -- that it was the second part of a "50 states project", an ambitious multi-ConceptAlbum project of tackling the history, folklore, and cultural impact of ''all'' states of America. No album following this format has been released since (sans maybe ''Music/CarrieAndLowell'', with some elements believed to have been reworked from an Oregon-themed project). Stevens [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/27/sufjan-stevens-the-bqe came clean in 2009]] that he had no intentions of really doing that much work, and that the claim was just a "promotional gimmick".
86* [[Music/TheyMightBeGiants John Linnell]] intended his 1999 album "State Songs" to be the first part of a trilogy... which has never been continued, and probably never will be. This album was recorded during Music/TheyMightBeGiants' 1996-1999 downtime (their only studio album of this period -- "Long Tall Weekend" -- consisting largely of old, unreleased material), and since then, the group have been much, much busier. The idea of the "State Songs" project was to record fifty songs titled after each of the U.S. States, but he only got to sixteen of them [[note]]One of the album's 16 tracks, "The Songs Of The Fifty States", isn't technically named for a state; However, the album's only BSide, "Louisiana", is[[/note]]
87* Music/TheBeatles:
88** The band had planned to record an theme album about their childhoods with "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" being the first two songs written for this endeavor. "When I'm Sixty-Four" was the next song recorded for the album, though it had been written years earlier, and eventually the concept shifted to a fictitious band putting on a performance, yet with every song being impossible to do live (for them at the time) and thus ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' was born. While the title song and its "reprise" relate to this theme, none of the other songs do.
89** In 1969, the band decided to record some songs together in a studio, and later in an impromptu concert on the Apple rooftop, in what would become the album ''Get Back'', all while filming a documentary about the experience. The GloryDays revival would even be illustrated with an album cover replicating the ''Music/PleasePleaseMe'' one. The whole ordeal wound up just raising tensions and ultimately leading to the Beatles' breakup, but not before they decided to make ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' before calling it quits. Then the ''Get Back'' sessions were submitted to Phil Spector for an orchestral makeover, and the result was ''Music/LetItBe''. The cover was famously repurposed for the compilation ''1966-1970'', aka ''The Blue Album''.
90* Music/LupeFiasco's fourth studio album ''Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album'', released in September 2012, intended on being released as a double disc album. However, Lupe's label Atlantic Records refused to do the arrangement, so the album was divided into two separate projects ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hence the addition of "Part 1" in the album title]]). The second part of the album was intended to be released in the Spring of the following year, but on January 17th, 2013, [[https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/1507627/lupe-fiasco-scraps-food-liquor-ii-pt-2-album-leaves-twitter it was announced on his Twitter that Lupe was scrapping the second part altogether.]]
91* Music/{{Gorillaz}} had set up their most ambitious phase surrounding ''Music/PlasticBeach'', intended to be merely the first of a trilogy of albums surrounding the lore of the band, an extensive multimedia project following the virtual band's plights on the titular island. However, halfway through the album's rollout -- marked by the extensive, lore-setting music video of "On Melancholy Hill" -- [[CutShort the project was abruptly cancelled]], seemingly because it was too expensive to ever keep going (the last word on it was a storyboard to a music video for "Rhinestone Eyes"). Following the band's hiatus for several years, the only definite resolution the plot received [[WrapItUp were heavily-compressed "books"]] serving as pretext to the band's reunion and new status quo, and it's unlikely that the ''Plastic Beach'' saga will ever be finished in its intended glory.
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
95* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Human characters Maria and David were hooked up until the mid-1980s. [[WordOfGod According to Louise Gikow, who wrote for various international co-productions]], the reason why the David–Maria romance angle was dropped was due to health problems involving David's actor, Northern Calloway. Calloway had been battling mental illness since the 17th season began in 1985, and by the time the 20th season ended in 1989, he became so ill and ill-looking and his behavior had become so erratic that he had to leave the show, dying of excited delirium complications only a year later in 1990.
96[[/folder]]
97
98[[folder:Roleplays]]
99* ''Roleplay/BehindTheVeil'' has several, mostly due to players leaving and never returning. Key mention would be the long-running feud between [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Kathleen Allan]] and [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension May Lawrence]] which ended when the latter's player disappeared and never returned.
100* ''Roleplay/CampusLife'':
101** The Scourge VS Sonic arc. Though the Anarchy Berly he brought to the world is still around, Scourge has long since disappeared and Sonic is now rampaging around as [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Dark Super Sonic]].
102** The original B-Plot to the RP where the characters had to deal with the [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slenderman]].
103* ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'':
104** This is the fate of any character's story when their player leaves the RPG. Probably the most infamous example of an Aborted Arc would be Databoard's quest to rescue Stealth, which was left unresolved after Chronicler of Ko-Koro left Dino Attack RPG.
105** Players do not even need to leave Dino Attack RPG for their story arcs to be aborted. For example, [=TakunuvaC01=] had some plans for the [[AlienInvasion Dino Aliens]] that were ultimately aborted with the introduction of Dino Attack RPG's StoryArc formula.
106** The [[WhatIf alternate ending]] ''L.E.G.O.'' was aborted after only two chapters.
107* In ''Roleplay/GreatestHit'' a war with Algeria never materializes, nor does The Moon's BandToon.
108* Happens so often in ''Roleplay/SuperSmashBrothersLifeItself'' due to players leaving most of the time; the missions they made just often get sent to the Sites Archive.
109* Given that the basis of ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' is for characters to be killed off, this tends to happen a good deal. Many a character has died before fulfilling every goal their handler wanted to achieve with them. Outside circumstances -- such as other characters in the planned arc being unavailable, also contribute to this occurring. For example, Madelaine Shirohara (of the first game) was originally supposed to be killed by PsychopathicManchild Cillian Crowe, then his handler abruptly disappeared. The arc that replaced this one, though, was arguably one of the best in SOTF history, so it isn't all bad.
110* In ''Roleplay/TamrielicAdventures'', this occurs twice; both times, it's due to a change in DM:
111** The first DM's plot, involving two secret organizations at war, was abandoned when the second DM took over; this point was hammered home when the characters' ship, en route from Morrowind to Hammerfell, wrecked on the coast of Skyrim.
112** The second DM had planned an arc where the characters travel on the way to the Imperial City to bring the newly-captured fugitive to face justice, and there being conflict within the group as they learn more about his past and that he's actually half innocent. This was dropped when the third DM took over; the fugitive was just brought to the prison in Windhelm (from which he subsequently escaped), and the next arc, involving pirates attacking the city, began.
113* ''Roleplay/WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity'' has had a few.
114** The wiki was initially created to host a war, but said war was abandoned because the Waddle Unity's numbers were too great. This ended up canceling pretty much all war-related storylines.
115** During ''Forgorian Legacies''' run, the R.O.O.N.I. Gang subplot and the Pink Petals, Green Land arc were both left unfinished due to the roleplay dying.
116* In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'' the Warriors sub-arc in Holon lacked a resolution due to the player responsible for managing it losing motivation.
117* ''Roleplay/WeHaveAllBecomePokemon'' has had its fair share of this itself, with arguably the biggest example being the Slak Rock arc, a major arc that ended without resolution when the player managing said arc abruptly abandoned it. The arc ran on fumes for a while until the playerbase gave up and moved on to the next one. Some smaller-scale examples of this include:
118** The epilogue of the Hoard arc was not meant to end at the point that it did, but did anyway due to much of the playerbase [[ArcFatigue having grown tired of the arc by that point]] and wanting to move on from Hoard.
119** The music competition during the Gleamscape arc ended early due to the player managing it having to take a hiatus from the RP.
120** During the aforementioned Slak Rock arc, Marlon the Gallade was tasked with training a feisty Meinfoo named Sho. This plot was abruptly cancelled shortly afterwards when Sho's player decided to call it quits.
121** An ongoing plot about Jani the Diglett needing to evolve into a Dugtrio alongside two other Digletts (Lilly and Tilly, the sisters of Milly, the Diglett Jani became through a FreakyFridayFlip) lest all three's respective mental states begin to deteriorate ended up being put on indefinite hold due to their player finding writing for Diglett/Dugtrio characters awkward (since Digletts are moles that never leave the ground; considerably limiting their mobility and interaction options) and the fact that Jani has become a Purrloin (which Jani did in an attempt to escape the dilemma) and is expected to remain as such for a while (which is partially due to her player admitting to preferring Jani as a Purrloin), rendering Tilly and Lilly superfluous and needing to be PutOnABus until their plot comes back into relevance again.
122** A sidequest involving the aforementioned Jani, Milo the Umbreon, and a host of native Pokémon exploring an ancient fallout shelter deep within a canyon [[WhamEpisode that was intended to have a significant effect on the setting]] was quietly ended without resolution after its GM unexpectedly took a hard indefinite hiatus from the RP and the rest of the players involved could not think of a satisfying way to conclude the plot after multiple IRL months of no progress with it.
123[[/folder]]
124
125[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
126* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' had innumerable half-finished non-runners, especially when it came to details like the end of the world. Most notable was the pathetic Rasputin plotline, wherein UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk was actually a Tremere who had somehow found a way to essentially become Caine, so that God/Karma could kill ''him'' instead, thus averting complete obliteration of the vampire species.
127** In truth, many TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness splats laid claim to Rasputin, not just the vampires. The one that stuck? He's a [[TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion wraithly Puppeteer]] who enjoys bodyhopping various supernaturals.
128** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' has a lot of ''potential'' aborted arcs. The possibility that Anoushka (Vlad Dracula's childe) is The Unholy (superpowered urban legend force of nature) is toyed with again and again, and finally thrown away in the ''Immortal Sinners'' supplement. Thankfully, the in-character artifact clanbooks allowed the various freelance writers to wrap up their pet storylines, with the unfortunate side effect of so many of those favorite storylines being given pat WordOfGod bullshit tie-ups to shut the fans up.
129** The "Glass Armonium" MacGuffin shut down many plot hooks.
130* The pre-revision ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' comics were leading up to the Planeswalker War, but the comic line was cancelled before it could be published. Some of the characters involved, like Freyalise, Taysir and Tevesh Szat have turned up later in modern storylines, but details on what actually went down are extraordinarily vague.
131* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
132** The game is infamous for [[StatusQuoIsGod its plot never advancing]]. Almost all major events or story lines that might have an actual impact on the larger universe are almost never brought up or touched upon after the expansion in which they take place.
133** The "Eye of Terror" summer event from 2003 was billed as having a huge impact on the 40k universe - if the Imperium and their allies won, the Eye of Terror would shrink, the Imperium could expand to entirely new sectors of space, and an upswing of faith could generate new crusades and a (relative) golden age for mankind. On the other hand, a victory for Chaos would hasten the Imperium's collapse, see increased Chaos incursions, and possibly even lead to the fall of the Cadian Gate and a huge resultant tide of Chaos Marines and daemons into realspace. It had the potential to introduce enormous changes to the setting and there were even rumours that significant characters from the losing side could be killed. However, none of this panned out - once the results were in and announced (a minor victory for Chaos - stated in-game to be Abaddon succeeding in gaining a foothold on Cadia, albeit with his fleet in tatters), Games Workshop did absolutely nothing with it before quietly sweeping the whole thing under the rug with a series of retcons a decade later.
134** As of 8th edition in 2017 (said event occurred shortly before the release of 4th edition), status quo has finally been dumped and nearly everything promised back then has actually happened; the Cadian Gate has fallen and Chaos has spread across large parts of realspace, splitting the galaxy in half. Of course, this more than likely brings a couple of decades or so of the new [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]].
135** Creator/GamesWorkshop had reportedly planned an arc that would see the Tau raised as the chosen race to defeat Chaos, with the Ultramarines discovering this fact and opting to ally with them, possibly against other elements of the Imperium. The Tau were even flagged as "Battle Brothers" for Space Marines in the 6th Edition rulebook (the highest tier of alliance, indicating deeply trusted allies). However, possibly in reaction to the negative reception this idea received, the idea was quietly shelved and the Tau-Space Marine alliance capability was reduced in future editions.
136* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' does this on purpose, allowing game masters to run self-written adventures that "fill in the blanks" and tie-into the game's lore.
137* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' had the whole "Empress Wave" MetaPlot arc in ''The New Era'' 3rd edition. Some sort of psychic wave coming from the galactic core that drove psions mad was ''just'' about to reach the Regency...and then Creator/GameDesignersWorkshop went out of business. The next version of ''Traveller'' by a different company was set more than a thousand years earlier, and all the versions that have come after have been set in roughly the same time period as the original game, with no sign of a meta-plot, so we may never find out what was supposed to happen next.
138[[/folder]]
139
140[[folder:Theatre]]
141* The American version of ''Kristina från Duvemåla'' cuts out the significant plot point of [[spoiler:the majority of the immigrants being killed in a Sioux attack after Kristina's miscarriage]]. (Presumably for the sake of political correctness, since the songs are left in their full length but with different lyrics, thus saving no time.) However, the event is still foreshadowed in "Queen of the Prairie"/"Wild Grass" through the fur trader's warnings, leaving it as an unresolved thread to audiences unfamiliar with the original story.
142* ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' begins with the premise that the play is a [[ShowWithinAShow play within a play]] being presented to a drunkard named Christopher Sly, who is being fooled into thinking he is actually a rich and prestigious man as a prank. After the initial set-up, this is never brought up again. Some versions of the story have him appear at the end, planning to go home and deal with his own shrewish wife in a similar way to the story he just heard (though due to his drunkenness he just remembers it as a dream).
143* ''Theatre/{{Rosmersholm}}'', written by Creator/HenrikIbsen in 1886, has an interesting set-up. It begins with a rather political premise, setting up the strife of the times, with the main character positioning himself in the middle. Then the play turns around and gets more and more introverted, putting politics firmly in the background, to focus mainly on the inner struggles of the main character. This can be seen from the beginning of the second act.
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:Theme Parks]]
147* Sometimes, at Ride/DisneyThemeParks, Imagineers will add something to an attraction while it's being built for some purpose, only to eventually go in a different direction, leaving an element in the attraction that leads nowhere. These are also a form of DummiedOut. Some examples:
148** The nods to dragons and unicorns in Disney's Animal Kingdom were hinting towards a land that they ended up never building, Beastly Kingdom, focusing on fantasy creatures. The only things left of that (so far) are a dragon-shaped rock formation near Pandora, a bridge that looks like the entrance to a castle, and the big dragon who appears on the park's logo to the confusion of many a guest. The concept of including mythological creatures into the park was eventually picked up by Expedition Everest's Yeti, but has yet to be paid off in full.
149** The animatronic raven in ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion'' was originally going to be the "narrator" of the ride, which ended up being much better implemented with the "Ghost Host" being piped in through the Doom Buggy's individual speakers. The ravens, however, are still situated throughout the ride, flapping and moving their beaks as if they were saying something, possibly because the Imagineers saw it looked like a creepy effect.
150** In the super-secret-invite-only Club 33 restaurant, several disused animatronic animal heads hang from the wall. Walt had planned to be able to speak through them to his guests. The idea was abandoned because it was deemed too silly for a high-class restaurant, and because of privacy concerns. The idea sort of came to fruition at the shut-down Adventurers' Club in [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney World's]] Pleasure Island.
151** The original vision for Epcot was an aborted arc. Disney's plan was for an actual city (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) where people lived and worked. The Monorails and the People Movers were to be part of the infrastructure.
152[[/folder]]
153
154[[folder:Visual Novels]]
155* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
156** The final chapter of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' makes a big deal about the introduction of jury trials, with the BigBad ultimately being convicted via jury. Come [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies the sequel]], the courtroom is still running according to the rules set up in the old games and the matter of jurists are scarcely mentioned.
157** The anime prologue of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' features Maya being attacked by a rebel in Khura'in in the middle of a phone conversation with Phoenix. Her mobile phone is broken, and Phoenix thinks something bad has happened to her. Not actually, because Nahyuta Sahdmadhi happened to drop by and immobilize the rebel before he could do any harm to her, but Phoenix decides to go immediately to Khura'in to check up on Maya.\
158In the game proper, this assault is never talked about. It's said that Phoenix just went there because Maya was finishing her training to be the Master of Kurain Village.
159[[/folder]]
160
161[[folder:Web Animation]]
162* When Two arrived in WebAnimation/BattleForBFDI, the entire show split and nearly all ongoing arcs were voided like Book's Arc to be a better leader for Taco and Team Ice Cube as a family unit. The only arc carried over to Battle for BFB is Leafy and Firey's Arc, continuing from SEASON 1
163* In the first episode of ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'', Max is trying to escape Camp Campbell and drags his new friends Nikki and Neil with him. After his plan inevitably fails, he swears to the councilor David that he and his new friends ''will'' escape, setting up the main plot of the series... which is dropped after being brought up again in only ''one'' episode. Justified, as in said episode, Max realizes that his problem isn't that he hates the camp... it's that he [[HatesEveryoneEqually hates everyone]].
164* In ''WebAnimation/MurderDrones'', Uzi imposes an exile on herself at the end of the first episode, setting out to kill all humans in revenge. The very next episode not only shows that her exile was not taken seriously at all by anyone at the Worker Drone base -- even her guilty father views it more as her grounding herself rather than anything more serious -- leading to her openly returning partway through, but her desire for a human genocide is shoved into the background in favor of investigating the show's lore and characters' pasts, including the question of what the Absolute Solver is and what the JC Jenson company was really doing on the planet.
165[[/folder]]
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