#dropped plots

[teamfreewill2pointo]

I don't know if I read it on your blog or heard it somewhere else that if "Supernatural" ended with "Swan Song" Sam and Dean would have both jumped into the pit together. Is this true? I know Kripke said in an EW interview that fans would have hated his ending.

The original ending was for Sam to go Darkside saving Dean from hell and for Dean to have to put Sam down like Sam did Madison.

Then the writer's strike happened and they didn't have enough time for Sam to believably go dark enough to be the big bad. Mystery Spot was supposed to be the start of Sam's dark arc.

The end of s5 was supposed to be Dean possessed by Michael with Lucifer possessed by Sam. They would show up to battle to the death, only Sam and Dean would break through with the power of brotherly love and jump into the cage together.

Bobby and Castiel weren't supposed to come back end of s5, but stay perma dead. It was going to be a bloodbath.

Thankfully, Supernatural was renewed for another season, so they made up Adam so that Dean could be alive and not possessed by Michael. Sera requested Bobby and Castiel brought back to life.

Fun fact, s15 was also supposed to have Lucifer and Michael in bigger roles, but they were (thankfully imo) cut down due to covid. Lucifer and Michael were supposed to both die fighting Chuck to buy time for Sam, Dean, and Jack. Eugenie would've had the redemption arc she always wanted for Lucifer.

[lesbianjanetpluchinsky]

Something I don't think we talk about at all as a fandom is that Ess's mother is canonically from Cincinnati, and he grew up there. How did Idri meet her? How long was she queen of Loria? How long ago was it since theres the weird time disparity between earth and Fillory? These are questions I need answered and we're never going to know now, and I, for one, am sad about it.

[badluckkennedy]

[[Mun: SO... I’m working on writing a brief summary of Leon’s game history, and I just discovered yet another discrepancy due to the dropping of the “Underground anti-umbrella group” plot between Code Veronica and RE4. It’s said in 6 that the first contact between Leon and Chris was an official meeting arranged by Claire. HOWEVER, Claire e-mails Leon on Rockfort Island, who is then able to locate Chris and relay Claire’s message to her brother. So Um... “Official” first communication isn’t quite so accurate.]]

[soulsrpg]

What's the 'SA's opinion on people backing out of plots due to muse reasons, or their character doesn't fit with the plot anymore?

Players Backing Out

Sometimes it just happens, honestly! It can be tough to gauge a character’s reaction, especially if it’s a new character or a new kind of plot or just a new experience for that character. Dropping out of a plot for muse or character reasons really shouldn’t be a big deal.

The exception is when it becomes constant — in which case, it’s like any other instance where a player drops out a lot.

The player creates their own reputation. As more players experience or notice their tendencies, they’ll have trouble finding threading and plotting partners, and that won’t improve until they become more willing or able to stick with what the plan. :(

Plotting Styles

It’s also worth noting — sometimes player’s plotting styles don’t really jive. Some players like to come up with an idea and let the roleplay happen toward that idea. Some players like to plot out the idea and each incremental step getting the characters involved from start to finish. Each method of plotting is equally valid, of course — but! If you planned out every step of a roleplaying thread with a more “freeform” preferring roleplayer, or if you don’t plot out enough steps with a more “structured” preferring roleplayer… you might end up with troubles moving into your plot with one player or the other feeling constrained!

This kind of incompatibility is tough because it can often feel like it’s muse or character incompatibility… when it’s really just the way things are structured and planned! Try to come to a compromise that satisfies everyone’s plotting and playing styles. :)

What To Do With a Dropped Plot?

In either case, if things have gone south and someone drops out completely… sometimes you can rescue a plot with a substitution character, a twist that changes things up, etc. Sometimes you can rescue things by going in a totally different direction than you planned — and that can be pretty awesome, too!

Feel free to post in the Help and Questions forum. You can post your specific situation — be polite and don’t name names. You can also post a general “what do you do when” type question as you asked here. Other players may offer suggestions, ideas — even their characters!

[dairuncates]

What was one of your previous plans for the story that got horribly sidetracked and will never see the light of day because of it?

That’s an interesting one. For the most part, plots have been added onto NME rather than dropped and over time I’ve just come to adjust for the inherent fan-navigated nature of some of the plot events. Still, there’s been a fair share of dropped points. Most of them are insanely minor details in a scene that don’t have an over-arching effect on the plot.

For instance, in the next few updates I’ll probably be dropping an idea I had to get a good half of the major cast in one room together, but I had trouble coming up with a way for it not to be a bit chaotic and messy. So, instead I’ll be going for moving the plot along instead. Most of the dropped plot points are like that. Things that just wouldn’t work. Half of them just ended in scene changes.

One plot point that’s fairly consistently side-tracked is Yuko herself though. In general, the audience has come to trust Yuko more than I expected and with that territory also comes the idea that her actual backstory and scenes don’t come up as much. Yuko’s competent and not always terribly funny. So, the audience doesn’t feel the need to check up on her for her safety or anything like that. Whether that’s good or bad, I won’t say, but it’s definitely interesting. Still, like all the major characters, I have a nice healthy helping of backstory and character development ready if people ever demand it.

Takeshi’s sword is another one. People are so inherently distrusting of the sword that it’s barely been allowed to speak. I suppose that’s what it gets for trying to eat his soul.

I’m also, to an extent, surprised how little focus people put on Alice when she’s NOT with Mirai. Despite several people being huge supporters of the relationship between Kiyoshi and Alice, they’ve passed up several opportunities for them to be in a scene together.

Those are pretty much the big ones. There’s a few minor ones here and there too like us never having seen the interior of the Ancient Cursed Burial Ground Cafe. I’d like to do something more with that place some day. Another one is the Demon Girl that Takeshi fought. Since people made up the Shrubular thing to skip that encounter, she never really got to show off anything she can do.

Still, I don’t think it’s impossible that any of these will ever see the light of day. So, I guess, in a way, there’s nothing that’s PERMANENTLY gone that’s significant, but I have no doubt some of them will go by without ever coming to light. After all, if people hadn’t said yes to Chem-chan experimenting on Kiyoshi, they probably would have never gotten her angry outburst that explained her character.

[screenwriites-blog]

what even is this blog.