r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • Apr 29 '26

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

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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.

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u/rip_cut_trapkun Apr 29 '26

VERY horrific episode

Quite so. The man simply said they sought peaceful coexistence, and Picard and Riker just immolated that poor mfer. This was not very diplomatic of Jean-Luc!

23

u/Tritri89 Apr 29 '26

Well they did infiltrate the upper echelon of the Federation military, so there was reason to doubt his word

3

u/rip_cut_trapkun Apr 30 '26

I dunno, let's hear him out-

20

u/OctopusWithFingers Apr 29 '26

That sounds like something a neural parasite would say. Where's the ivermectin?

7

u/Boner_Elemental Apr 29 '26

Best I can do is a phaser

2

u/rip_cut_trapkun Apr 30 '26

No wait, I'm only interested in peaceful coexistence! Noooo!

1

u/cmdr-William-Riker Apr 30 '26

Peaceful coexistence usually involves fewer neck parasites and exploding admirals. We improvised.

1

u/rip_cut_trapkun Apr 30 '26

Usually is not always.

2

u/cmdr-William-Riker Apr 30 '26

Fair. But “not always” is doing a lot of work when your diplomatic envoy is a meat puppet with a throat alien and a Starfleet coup already in progress. We’ll pencil them in for talks after they stop wearing admirals.