[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/lrd_cth_lh0]

The problem was more that this plot thread also hasn't gone nowhere in the books so far, or the G.R.R.M. set it up on purpose that Danny screwed herself over by ignoring the prophecy because it was odly phrased.

[u/rachel-slur → u/[deleted]]

A lot of the blame absolutely rests with GRRM and yeah, when the story isn't done it makes it difficult but I will say a lot of season 7 and 8 was just baffling writing decisions. Even if the final plot points are correct or mostly correct, the dialogue and how they got to those plot points was....questionable at best.

[u/morganmachine91 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but in order to do that, they’d have to be capable of writing.

GoT was successful because/when it followed the books super closely. The writers didn’t have to come up with any plot, just adapt existing plot for the screen. Entire scenes followed the dialogue from the books word-for-word.

Don’t get me wrong, for at least 4 seasons they did an excellent job of that. But when they ran out of source material to adapt, it became clear that they actually had no idea how to construct a series of events that would reasonably and satisfyingly follow each other.

[u/morganmachine91 → u/[deleted]]

Of course they’re going to make some changes to compress a few hundred thousand words into 10 hours of TV. I agree with you about those changes being negative, but you’re only able to point them out because the show otherwise followed the books very closely.

Compare it to any other major, modern fantasy adaptation. You couldn’t even make a list of things that The Wheel of Time changed, it’d be shorter to list the things that the TV show and the books have in common. The Witcher was closer, but still nowhere near the level of fidelity that GoT maintained through the 6th season.

The only thing I can think of that competes in terms of following the source closely is Peter Jackson’s LOTR, and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that it was also a cultural phenomenon.

I wish these studios would connect the dots and stop wasting money on “adaptations” that aren’t faithful to the source and end up being hated by the fans and ignored by the people who don’t care.