OK so context if you read my other article for Morally Gray and know about the Fallout TV show, you know where this is going. Now I started writing without knowing that Bethesda still considered New Vegas canon despite everything that happened in the Fallout show and there’s debate on what actually happened, however, the initial rage I felt still got me to think about all the times that a storyline I followed got cut off out of nowhere because the writers abandoned storylines in ways such as ending on a cliffhanger or just never resolved them.
Now the other franchises I mentioned in my work such as Halo and Warhammer are filled with Storylines that go nowhere. An elite team of ONI (Space CIA) operatives alongside a Spartan 2 (Elite Super Soldier) whose mission is to sow dissent in Sangheili (A species that was originally at war with Humanity until a few of them helped Humans win the war and are now divided), No one know what happened to them in the nearly decade in our world. Apparently there was a joke forum post that said that there was a transportation accident and they all died. The Perfect clone of a Primarch (for non 40k fans, imagine a demigod of war with an army of smaller demigods made from their genetic material) who fell under demonic possession and slew his favorite brother and led his sons to damnation and debauchery now seemingly reborn into a new body who hates his actions under the possession and seeks redemption. Locked into status at a Robot’s Skeletons vault in where he would likely spend all of eternity in there. Halo infinite introduced a new enemy faction that’s apparently worst that the galactic parasite of the flood along with Zeta Halo still having a massive presence of banished still on it with the Chief still leading the fight to return in Single Player DLC, Single Player campaign DLC gets canceled within a year leading us to wonder what’s going to happen to Zeta Halo.
Another time I saw this constantly pop up within my age group was the ending of Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) where the main villain who should be dead and makes no sense for him to be alive (shot in the chest and then left to drown with the only escape being where you came from as you were watching it) comes out of nowhere to drag you away to be brainwashed in a hole. Ghosts wasn’t liked upon release, but in my opinion, this was because Infinity Ward (that year’s CoD developers) were likely forced to make Infinite Warfare in 2016.
One time in recent memory where a storyline filled with abandoned plotlines due to a change in direction (Rest in Peace Monty Oum) was with RWBY from Rooster Teeth. Now I wouldn’t say I probably watched RWBY, only clips, the first episode and two episodes of Ice queendom with online friend and only because I’m a Red Vs Blue fan (another show created by RT), but because of how scuffed Warner Bros. is mixed with Rooster Teeth apparently not making a lot of money, the company as of now over halfway to its execution date right beside every other company they gutted and now if the story is gonna be finished it left into huge doubt. There’s a bunch I’m probably missing but those are some off the top of my head.
In the spirit of things I decided to reach out to some of my fellow Loco Mag members in a survey for their views on abandoned storylines.
Spoilers for the Following, (Moon Knight, Disney Star Wars, Freaks and Geeks, Netflix’s The Witcher)
Aleishka
So for me it was Moon Knight from Marvel. It was a cool story about Marc Spector and Steven Grant alters in this D.I.D system and how they navigated being the avatar for the Egyptian god of Justice Khonshu. The show ends with the two coming to terms with living with each other as a system and they resolve to no longer be the avatar for Khonshu after defeating the bad guy and putting him in a psych ward I think… but then a post credit for the show plays and the bad guy gets shot by plot twist the 3rd alter in the system that they didn’t know about named Jake Lockley who is still working with Khonshu and that’s where it ends with no season 2 in sight. That show was my favorite of the MCU shows and nothing is confirmed for it and it makes me sad.
Jewel Miller
I remember in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, in The Force Awakens they introduced the character Rey, and presented this big mystery about her parents who had abandoned her and who they were. Then in the second film in the trilogy (The Last Jedi) we finally got an answer, that Rey was ultimately just a nobody and her lineage wasn’t anything significant. Personally, I liked this idea, and liked that she didn’t have to be somebody special in order to be a good jedi, but then in the final film (The Rise of Skywalker) they totally abandoned the idea of Rey being a nobody and pretended like they never said it, and instead presented her as a descendent of Emperor Palpatine. This still sticks out to me as one of the biggest abandoned plot lines in history, as it seems like they forgot about most of the plotlines that they established in the second movie and completely changed the narratives in the final movie.
Patrick Hood
Freaks and Geeks was a show about high school students that ran for one season from 1999-2000. In the series finale, we see Lindsay, the main Freak, go off with some friends to a Grateful Dead concert instead of an academic summit. In that same episode, Daniel, another Freak, joins the Geeks in the A/V club as punishment for pulling the fire alarm at school; Daniel later joins them for a game of D&D. These storylines started some interesting character development, and I think it would’ve been fascinating to see where creator Paul Feig would’ve gone with the characters had the show been picked up for a second season.
Sydney
The one story I’m thinking of is the Netflix adaptation of the Witcher. I didn’t finish the show because of the disconnect between the first and second season. I felt like there were a lot of
cliffhangers in the first season that weren’t picked up in the second such as the storyline of Ciri’s parents and her mother’s power. Also the timeline of the seasons is just really confusing.
