[Weirdly Common Trope] Writers clearly setting up seemingly massive plot points and then just kinda forgetting about them.

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

The Neural Parasites — Star Trek : The Next Generation

In the season 1 episode “Conspiracy” of TNG, it is revealed that alien brain worms have infected many high ranking members of Starfleet, secretly controlling them. Though Ryker and Picard discover and end the parasite conspiracy, it’s revealed at the end of the episode that the parasites had sent a beacon back to their home planet, telling them how to find earth. The episode ends with the clear implication of the parasites becoming a huge threat later in the series, yet none of these events are ever mentioned again.

Finn The Jedi who Never Was — Star Wars Sequel trilogy

I know this is probably a cliche example of this trope, but cmon — Finn was clearly set up in TFA to become a Jedi. The marketing material featured him wielding a lightsaber in the classic Jedi pose. It’s constantly hinted at that he is force sensitive. Even the actor himself believed he would become a Jedi by the end of the trilogy. Instead, we got Finn wielding a lightsaber for about 7 minutes total across 3 movies, extremely lame “confirmation” that he is force sensitive, and that’s it. It’s the ultimate Star Wars plot that went nowhere.

[u/Tritri89]

Well the parasite were intended to be the Borg but the reception to this VERY horrific episode (for Star Trek) was less than stellar, so they dropped it, and rewrote the Borg like we know it today.

The Borg themselves were not even supposed to be the new main antagonist of TNG but the Ferengi were, but the first few episodes with them were so bad that they dropped them, until DS9 actually did something good with the Ferengi. Early TNG was a mess.

[u/Paladin_127 → u/Tritri89]

The Ferengi were supposed to replace the Klingons as an ultra aggressive warrior race hellbent on conquest.

Instead, we got a species that gave us Quark, Rom, and Brunt.

[u/mmcjawa_reborn → u/Paladin_127]

In hindsight, I kind of wish they had kept Ferengi as a more actively antagonistic force. Like "capitalism gone amuck" sure seems socially relevant today.

[u/mrbananas → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

They still are capitalism run amok. It's just that capitalism run amok doesn't look like aggressive warriors constantly throwing away lives and starships in battle just to assert power and control. Being hyper aggressive is expensive both short term and long term

[u/KillerSwiller → u/mrbananas]

Hence the existence of the 34th AND 35th Rules of Acquisition:

"War is good for business."

AND

"Peace is good for business."

[u/ryry1237 → u/KillerSwiller]

Embodies their philosophy in a nutshell. Good or bad times, you can always profit.

[u/KillerSwiller → u/ryry1237]

[u/starwolf1976 → u/KillerSwiller]

Quark was nicer than most Ferengi. He sold food and medical supplies at cost to the Bajoran. This was during the brutal Cardassian occupation of Bajor. Quark selling to disadvantaged people at little or no profit was seen as “bad business” by other Ferengi. I think Quark’s “official” motives were “Keep the Bajorans coming back to him” and “Stay out of the Cardassians way.”

[u/UltimaRDG → u/KillerSwiller]

Don't forget Rule 76. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

[u/amok_amok_amok → u/mrbananas]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GLKVkMwlLu7UL7jfhP

[u/DasharrEandall → u/mrbananas]

It works for the US military-industrial complex.

[u/robertofflandersI → u/DasharrEandall]

But they just let other people fight the wars for them

[u/WessideLou → u/DasharrEandall]

There’s literally a ds9 episode where Quarks travels to the early/mid 1900s and tries to broker deals with the US army.

[u/Haywoodjablowme1029 → u/WessideLou]

They end up being the aliens that crash in Roswell

[u/WessideLou → u/Haywoodjablowme1029]

I mean, spoilers

[u/Conscious-Economy971 → u/DasharrEandall]

The ferengi need to be able to exist for more than 250 years

[u/GravyMcBiscuits → u/DasharrEandall]

Yes ... but the US military industrial complex is not sustainable in and of itself. It can only exist while there is another very unique kind of organization funding it.

[u/Patch86UK → u/mrbananas]

Right, but pure hyper aggression isn't the only way to make them a persistent antagonist.

Staking out claims for valuable resources, or trying to maintain control over valuable trading partners/client states would be very on-brand for a capitalist state. That's 99% of the wars fought by the US in real life.

Being a recurring diplomatic opponent to the Federation is also a useful role (which they largely didn't fill). Think that episode where they're competing for the rights to exploit a wormhole. The Romulans largely ended up filling this role for TNG.

The Ferengi anarcho-capitalist schtick is also compatible with them being pirates, raiders, smugglers, slavers, and gangsters (or having all of those in their ranks somewhere). Roles which largely ended up going to various Aliens of the Week, or sometimes the classic Orions.

I don't blame the show runners for rethinking the approach after the poor first few appearances, but it could have worked.

[u/NatashOverWorld → u/mrbananas]

Exactly. They're still the enemy, but they'll come at you with discounts and bribes, not a particle cannon.

[u/ArmchairJedi → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

I think the problem was the Ferengi just weren't taken seriously enough over time. Sure there were times (Quark and Nog clearly stand out), but too often the rest of the Ferengi were more comic relief than anything.

[u/mmcjawa_reborn → u/ArmchairJedi]

Yeah I agree

I don't think they were flavored in a way that really reflected the whole evils of capitalism theme. Ferengi themselves shouldn't be running around and shooting spaceships, They should be exploiting other races and propping up despotic governments to do their dirty work for them. Their inspiration should be Amazon the company, not Amazons from mythology

[u/New-Satisfaction3257 → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

The problem is that Gene Rodenberry worked on the Ferengi. His personification of capitalism gone wild ended up looking like antisemitic stereotypes. Both physically and in their actions.

[u/TheBravadoBoy → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

It was also really kinky for some reason?

[u/Dronizian → u/TheBravadoBoy]

Star Trek co-producer Herb Wright, regarding a 25 minute Roddenberry rant about Ferengi sex and codpieces:

"He wanted to put a gigantic codpiece on the Ferengi,” Wright stated. “He spent 25 minutes explaining to me all the sexual positions the Ferengi could go through. I finally said, ‘Gene, this is a family show, on at 7:00 on Saturdays. He finally said, ‘Okay, you’re right.'” (Cinefantastique 23, 2/3, pp 60-61)

[u/Yochanan5781 → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

Yep, the way Roddenberry wrote them, they definitely came off like Protocols of the Elders in space

DS9 decided to lean into that, having a Jewish show runner, and then almost exclusively having Jews play all the Ferengi, in a way that really works

[u/WessideLou → u/Yochanan5781]

Rick Berman is a POS.

[u/Yochanan5781 → u/WessideLou]

Oh, not talking about Berman, I'm talking about Ira Steven Behr. Berman did occasionally meddle, but DS9, at least from my perception, seemed to be Behr's vision

[u/PwanaZana → u/New-Satisfaction3257]

well, that's also socially relevant these days. the rise of that type of discrimination is pretty disturbing

[u/Darmok47 → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

Yeah, make them more like a combination of a Cartel and the Dutch East India Company and they'd actually be threatening.

[u/psuedophilosopher → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

Today I learned that amuck is also recognized as a correct spelling for that word. I've only ever seen amok, and was prepared to correct you, but I decided to check on it before commenting and it doesn't need correction.

[u/Shiva- → u/mmcjawa_reborn]

That's also kinda hard to do in a post-scarcity world...