They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot Cleanup

I mean, the whole point of the reaction is that fans expect and want to explore a plot the creators had no intention of following through with.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Yeah, I've never watched anything RWBY-related, but that does look valid.

Ukrainian Red Cross

Cool, thanks for confirming.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

From YMMV.Avenger Of Steel:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Wilson Fisk could have easily served as the Lex Luthor equivalent here, especially since Luthor had a number of similarities to the Kingpin Post-Crisis.

Is this an opinion a lot of readers have about this story or is it just some random guy's opinion? I can't tell and the example doesn't bother to explain.

This appears on The Purge. It's not a They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot entry, but it does read a lot like one:

• Fanfic Fuel: The entire film franchise as of now is a huge wasted potential. The idea of a lawless society for one night, as absurd as it sounds, offers a huge area for further exploration other than the action-horror-political genre we see repeatedly playing in 5 movies. We could have, just for instance:
  • A Black Comedy featuring hedonists
  • A thriller featuring during/before/after Purge Day
  • A Heist Episode that was planned on Purge Day
  • A Courtroom Episode about the mechanics of Purge Day
  • A romantic/comedy/drama focusing on a few people in a neighborhood during/before/after Purge Day
  • ... And more.

This needs to be toned down anyway for complaining, but does it have any merit at all? I know the first film was criticised for being a fairly standard home invasion story, but browsing through the other YMMV pages does seem to show a progression towards exploring the series' premise in more detail, so I don't know if "the films would be better if we got an entire expanded universe covering every genre ever" is valid or not.

I will also note that the bit about wanting a Heist Episode actually seems to have come true, as season 2 of The Purge has that storyline.

Edited by Dramatic on Sep 10th 2022 at 8:10:26 AM

Avenger of Steel: Probably removable. Crisis came out 27 years before Man of Steel; when Man of Steel was released, characters had evolved to the point that Luthor's most direct Marvel counterpart was Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin.

The Purge: Eh, that feels like a reasonable example of Fanfic Fuel.

Ukrainian Red Cross

This is on Pinocchio (2022, Disney), but I feel like it would fit better under They Changed It, Now It Sucks! and is very poorly-worded.

• The concept of Pinocchio staying a wooden puppet. It's not unheard of as the Russian adaptation Buratino also doesn't turn into a real boy in the end, but at least there it felt more organic because the whole story had a different direction with the main character, the opposite to how it's not fleshed out or properly built in this remake, which also added a Fantastic Racism angle with Pinocchio being immediately rejected from the school for being a puppet, thus it just comes off more like the movie spells out a lesson that isn't followed through since it's strongly implied he turns into a real boy anyway.

Doesn't sound like an example of TWPGP or They Changed It, Now It Sucks! to me.

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• YMMV.Hancock: Some critics claimed that the first half of the movie was the best part and that the rest of the film wasted the potential of that plot. Others claim the second half could have been a groundbreaking superhero drama if developed fully rather than wasting the first half of the movie being funny. Yet more feel that both of these criticisms are correct, and that the film suffers from trying to weld together two great, but incompatible premises.

Doesn't mention what "plot" is wasted and feels like a different phrasing of the Uncertain Audience example next to it.

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• YMMV.Spy Kids 3 D Game Over: The film might have been a little better if it had put more focus on Grandpa getting to feel young and powerful again, instead of summing his Character Development up in a little speech at the end.
• YMMV.Spy Kids All The Time In The World: Many Spy Kids fans wish the movie had focused on the older Carmen or Juni, instead of their aunt Marissa and her children.

Sounds like complaining and wishful thinking.

Edited by Amonimus on Oct 15th 2022 at 8:11:21 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

YMMV.Sonic Boom Rise Of Lyric has quite a Wall of Text under this reaction.

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• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Rise of Lyric's plot is such a pitiful mismanagement, it's not even funny. This is supposed to be a new universe of the Sonic series, a chance to start fresh and offer a new take on things. But it seems whomever wrote the story only put the barest minimum of effort into fleshing out the world and it shows. We're dropped right into the game with no given introduction to the main cast or their conflict with Eggman at the start. There's no clue of Shadow's relation to Sonic (only Shattered Crystal addresses this; his role in Rise of Lyric is nothing more then a cameo). The time travel part is, at best, largely glossed over. Random characters show up just to be there, including Sticks, one of the main characters in this series (except in Shattered Crystal, where she's more important). Ultimately, the story can't seem to decide where to really go with itself. There are some legitimately good ideas here, such as the Ancients, the Chaos Crystals and Lyric's apparent fall into madness from studying them, but we're never really shown them; instead only vague hints are given, then dropped to move on with the adventure, which ultimately robs them of context. In the end, enough isn't explained to really get invested in the plot, let alone care about the characters and their plights.
  • Shattered Crystal somewhat rectifies this by having a slightly more coherent plot and a comic prequel to explain some things in the game, but like with Rise of Lyric, it still leaves some things unexplained. It also doesn't help that the game is completely separate from Rise of Lyric^note The game is supposed to take place in between Rise of Lyric and the TV show, but Sonic and Lyric don't seem to remember each other and the events of Rise of Lyric are completely unmentioned., which causes a Continuity Snarl that only adds to the confusion.
  • Sonic was supposed to be a loner in the games' continuity (especially in Rise of Lyric), but other than a few comments and cutscenes (usually between him and Knuckles) that suggest that he doesn't like working with the others (which can come off as just Sonic being his usual cocky self), he spends most of the games being a great team player. When Shadow appears in Rise, he even taunts Sonic for relying on his friends!
  • The opening cutscene begins with an In Medias Res-style no-context scene of Sonic getting blasted by Lyric's robots, falling into a hole, and being buried by rocks, before cutting to a "Yesterday" card and beginning the story, seemingly setting up a How We Got Here plot leading to that event. But when the climactic scene finally occurs, after Sonic is buried and Lyric leaves with his robots, he's immediately dug out by his friends and is completely unharmed, undermining the drama of the scene and causing the In Medias Res intro to only lead to a massive Anti-Climax.

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Some observations:

• The first bullet contains accusations that the writers weren't trying, and reads like a list of transgressions.
• The second bullet focuses more on Shattered Crystal than Rise of Lyric. This might be a relic from when both games shared a page.

Ever wanted to see the most inexplicably horrifying intro to a game ever?

That Spy Kid's one is wrongly placed, anyhow. The 3rd movie does star Juni. (Less so Carmen, as she's like, in a coma or whatever I don't remember).

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I may have mixed the two in the post, they are placed correctly on pages.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

Ah, makes more sense then. Either way, that particular example should probably be cut if the older Juni and Carmen being the heroes wasn't teased.

The stuff about grandpa... well, that's a little different since the third movie does devote time to his arc. In fact, what the example is saying is that they wish it had more time, not that it happened in the first place, so I think that's a different form of misuse.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I think the Sonic examples fit if you just take the last two sentences of the first subbullet.

Ukrainian Red Cross

At that point, would it be possible to merge the first two bullets? The stuff with Lyric and the Ancients is discussed partially in the Shattered Crystal comic.

Ever wanted to see the most inexplicably horrifying intro to a game ever?

Are the entries on YMMV.South Park S 25 E 5 Help My Teenager Hates Me valid?

The things in my dreams wish they could chase me!

"could have gone" is a red flag to me. And "how they tackle subjects" is low-context, so it's not a sufficient example anyway.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

Seconded. They don't seem like proper examples to me either.

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Oct 17th 2022 at 8:33:45 AM

Thirded, they're all speculation, not based on stuff that happens in the actual episode.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Hey guys, first time in this thread. I already ask this question ''Is this an example?'' and somebody suggested this thread to, so here go:

From the YMMV page of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney):

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The movie toys with the idea of the gargoyles being all in Quasimodo's mind, reinforcing just how isolated he is. Unfortunately, there's also moments where they're present without Quasi, even showing them in battle against Frollo's soldiers, which pokes a pretty big hole in that concept.

I hear about this theory before, think is pretty cool. But I don't know is fit as a They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot example.

Valdo

My impression is the wasted plot has to be something that could have been added into the existing story without disrupting anything so it's not an example if it would contradict what happens in the work proper. But I've never heard back on the validity of that litmus test when I asked.

YMMV.Magical Girl Friendship Squad

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A lot of viewers feel that the show would have been a lot better if it had committed to being an affectionate parody of the Magical Girl genre, similar to what Megas XLR was to mecha anime, instead of going for standard "adult cartoon" humor.

This seems misuse as it's the whole series, not a plot/plotline, that's being unused. This is covered by Uncertain Audience already listed there.

Definite misuse, it's asking to change the entire premise and brings up an unrelated work.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

I feel both and (x3) are misused.

At YMMV.Scorn

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A weird example. Players often discuss how the game has a rather sizable amount of cut content, including entire areas, enemies, weapons, and even mechanics. As a result, it's not too uncommon to hear someone expressing disappointment with how much stuff went unused.

If it's not in the final game, then it sounds like wishful thining.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

Yep, that's misuse. We've got Fan-Preferred Cut Content, What Could Have Been and Dummied Out for stuff like that.

Fan-Preferred Cut Content sounds perfect, so moved there.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup