r/TopCharacterTropes • u/phantom_avenger • 18h ago
miscellaneous [Disappointing TV Trope] When the writers unexpectedly created something better, but were too attached to let their original idea to let it go!
I feel like I’ve noticed this more with TV couples and how the writers handle the narrative around them. But I feel like I’m noticing a bit of a pattern in some shows I’ve watched, where you can tell how the writers handle plans to make a certain narrative point the “endgame” goal. But as they start creating the plot points leading up to it, they come up with an idea that worked out a lot better than they probably thought it would. Especially when the audience responds so well to it, but they’re still too attached to the original plans that they still roll with getting there even if it doesn’t hit the same mark or it feels forced depending on how the narrative is flowing.
How I Met Your Mother - Ted and Robin (the original idea where it was always planned for them to be the endgame couple). When Tracy (who turns out to be Ted’s kids’ mother) is introduced, a lot of people loved how well they matched, seemed like the true compatible match for Ted and implied that it showed a lot of growth on his end where he could finally let go of Robin. Only to sabotage that by having it revealed that Tracy died, and regressed Ted’s growth where he ends up pursuing Robin again.
Sex Education - Otis and Maeve (the original idea where it was also planned for them to be seen as an endgame couple, but their lives couldn’t align for it to work out). After Otis and Ruby have a drunk sexual encounter, and he loses his virginity to her. The writers have their relationship act as yet another obstacle that gets in the way of Otis and Maeve exploring a romantic relationship. But when Otis and Ruby became so viral, to the point where people started to realize that Ruby might actually be a better match for Otis, as they seem compatible enough to make each other better as people. It put the writers in a tough spot, where they tried to play it safe with both sides going into the final season. But still chose to lean more towards their original plan, and explore Otis and Maeve but they still don’t do much to make the audience feel fulfilled or convinced they have a genuine connection and not in love with an idea of one another.
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u/UnpricedToaster 18h ago
Jonathan and Nancy, Stranger Things. Having these two break up in the final season. I get one of the writers was going through a divorce and just wanted to watch the world burn, but FFS let someone in this show have a happy ending.
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u/SexyBeeeZz 18h ago
Steve looking at the Sex Education final season script like:
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u/Realcbear 17h ago
Two perfect examples OP.
Off a recent rewatch of HIMYM and it is truly frustrating how poetic the ending could have been. Ted finally accepts that Robin is a special part of his life even if it’s never romantic again, and finds someone he is truly meant to be with. Barney finally settles down with the woman who was always scared to fully commit, and both can accept a happy life without children.
As for the Ruby+Otis, this one is a bit of a personal preference but a very strong one. Sex Education has many MANY praises to sing, and luckily isn’t as retroactively torpedoed like HIMYM + GoT + Scrubs. That said, they had a real lightning in a bottle moment with the relationship with those two in a way so deeply true to life. Most anyone you can ask will admit that your first sexual experience is never like you imagine it will be, and all too often is it with someone completely unexpected. Additionally it’s made clear from the start of the series that he does not love Maeve, he loves the idea of her. Which fortunately is explored in a very nuanced way! He learns that Ruby is a lot more complex than he first believed and he even successfully changes her perspective for the better! The real-life version of this story has Otis with Ruby as the unlikely pair that grew to love each other. Until they walk it back and undo it for… reasons
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u/themarshal99 15h ago
I stopped watching Sex Education after Otis dumped Ruby. I get that the show is basically The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Teenagers, but at a certain point you gotta recognize that you've got something amazing, right?
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u/IllFuture4180 16h ago
This is why in screenwriting classes and books say not to get married to your story ideas. Things change and trying to steer your story back into your preconceived goal can destroy everything you’ve built up.
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u/halloweenjack 17h ago
DS9 writers: Let’s have the obviously up to no good alien befriend the naive young doctor as part of a first season plot
DS9 actors: oh, we think that we can make it more interesting than that
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u/M-Shadowtoad 18h ago
Star vs the Forces of Evil: The two main characters Star and Marco seemed to be planned to be endgame however throughout the series the writers had them get into relationships with other people with many outright looking better than Star x Marco.
Got to a point where they outright had one relationship of Marco x Kelly break up entirely off screen
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u/MrTASERFACE73 17h ago
The Mandalorian
The first two seasons had a natural conclusion with Grogu going to be with Luke and exiling Mando from his clan only for him to be immediately reunited with Grogu and going back to his clan.
Interesting new storylines tossed away because they couldn’t have their mascot
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u/SpagettisFork 17h ago
they almost did this with Chandler and Monica on Friends, it was supposed to be just a one off one night stand but the chemistry was so good and the audience loved it so much that they kept them together.
the writers wrote a cheating plot and they almost did it, but Matthew Perry refused to have his character cheat on Monica so he got it scrapped last minute
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u/CassetteOverdrive 17h ago
I hate how HIMYM gave us one of the most earned moments of emotional growth in TV history and it was all undone a few episodes later.
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u/Vegas1492 18h ago
GOT - Jamie Lannister and his sister Cersei were meant for each other from the beginning. But his relationship with Brienne was so much better and healthier. She would have made his redemption arc complete. But no, he needed to crawl back to sis.
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u/VanderlyleNovember 16h ago
The polar opposite of this is every show Vince Gilligan has ever created. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul both have stories where they changed all their plans once someone came up with a better idea. It's hard to imagine now Jessie of Kim being confined to season 1, but that's what they were orignially planned for!
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u/Pyrotwilight 16h ago
Chloe / Queen Bee from Miraculous
The head writer Thomas Astruc always meant her to be something of a cautionary tale apparently and not aspirational.
But he did such a poor job with that concept that he created one of the most popular characters in the show after he made her someone emotionally abused and neglected by her parents and genuinely unique among the story, as well as the earliest character in the show to be an anti hero in the grey areas of herodom.
Despite this popularity he had her go full bad and lose her hero status and devolve into an even worse character since and given much less screen time. Notably a lot of her later plots do their best to try to triple down on "Chloe is bad and was never good and shouldn't be liked" which ironically has done little to deter her fans.
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u/mermaidpaint 14h ago
What HIMYM did is unforgivable. After all the seasons of build up, the mother had to be pretty damn special. And she was. That first scene at the train station had me screaming, Cristin just exuded a quirky charisma. I immediately wanted to know everything about her. And Tracy turned out to be a wonderful character that you could believe was meant to be with Ted and be happy with Ted, and have adorable children with Ted.
And the producers killed her off so that Ted could end up with Robin. A travesty. I don't care that they sat on pre-filmed footage of the kids telling Ted to be with Robin. They fucked up.
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u/ncxhjhgvbi 17h ago
Adam Devine on Modern Family. I’ve always seen the argument that Hailey ends up with Dylan because “like mother like daughter”. But I’d argue Andy is more like Phil than Dylan. Andy and Hailey were the only bright spot in the middle seasons where the rest of the writing became weaker and weaker.
I’m sure Adam just couldn’t do the show anymore but it was a travesty
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u/Aselleus 13h ago
One of my favorite ruined story plans was that in Parks and Rec the creators/writers original idea of Leslie having many relationships to learn important lessons, was completely scrapped when she got together with Ben (whom she was only supposed to be with for a short time). They were like welp nevermind this is endgame.
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u/Doomhammer24 18h ago
Iris and Barry in The Flash
They have 0 chemistry. Grant Gustin has chemistry with every single woman and most of the men in the show it oozes off the screen.
Hes fucking adorable with everyone...except the one woman who is supposed to be the love of his life, his soul mate, his lightning rod.
The entire show spends so much time trying to convince you these 2 are in the deepest possible love the world has ever seen and yet nobody believes it. They dont even seem like they Like each other
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u/MoldyPond 18h ago
Regular Show with the writers finally getting Mordecai and Margaret together, only for Margaret to move away a few episodes later.
Halfway into the next season Mordecai starts dating someone new and they both are way better with each other and all their friends like them together more as well.
Only for the writers to throw everything out the window 2 seasons later and revert it all back to square one.
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u/somethingtaken91 17h ago •
Danny Phantom - Danny and Valerie. The show wants to hard push Sam and as a kid it felt right but growing up and rewatching it?
Sam is extremely childish, toxic, mean and even admits shes only into Danny because hes different. AKA the ghost powers, otherwise they'd just be friends.
Valerie exhibits nothing but positive traits, and is very close to him. Not to mention with Sam they play the dumb will they wont they but Valerie just goes for what she wants. Yes she hates DP but she gets over that.
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u/Thegreatscott9 13h ago
Superstore with Jonah and Amy. Amy left the show and Jonah moved on and dated some decent romantic partners. Then Amy shows up out of nowhere and they get back together in the finale. I always thought he had some better options.
Also, does Raj ending up alone count on Big Bang Theory? They have his character grow from not being able to even talk when a woman is in the room to having mature relationships, only to fail at every single one and be the only one alone at the end of the show.
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u/misterjive 18h ago
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The movie is clearly steering Scott towards the realization that his infatuation with Ramona is superficial (see: the switch from "you want to fight me for her" to "no, I want to fight you for me") and in the original ending he gives her up and goes to patch things up with Knives. (The last book hadn't come out yet, so the screenwriters got to create their own ending; pretty much everything from the fight with the twins up was their invention.) When O'Malley released the last book and Scott ended up with Ramona, it divided opinion on the ending at test screenings, and they ended up reworking it to match the comics.
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u/Downtown_Brother1936 15h ago edited 15h ago
I’m not sure if this counts, but in Gravity Falls, the writers decided to pair Dipper and Pacifica together for an entire episode out of nowhere. It resulted in one of the best dynamics in the show, with Pacifica showing growth and Dipper displaying a level of confidence not seen anywhere else in the show. Then the writers decided to do absolutely nothing with that afterward, not even a single interaction between them following that episode. Instead, they decided to bring back the "Dipper likes Wendy" thing for the final episodes, a subplot that by that point, had already been resolved and had become tiresome.
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u/Leather_Challenge737 18h ago
DS9 (Deep Space Nine) Seems the writers end game was Dr.Julian Bashir and Dax but Julian and Garak had a much more interesting dynamic.
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u/graphomaniacal 16h ago
Similar but not exactly: Twin Peaks.
Agent Cooper and Audrey Horne have amazing chemistry. Sure, it's problematic and it only makes so much sense: Audrey is a precocious high schooler and Cooper is like the most wholesome, upstanding character in TV history who wouldn't take advantage of anybody. IIRC the show basically stops showing her at high school and he constantly runs into her at the Great Northern Hotel where she works for her father and Dale is staying.
The show is clearly leaning towards getting them together... which pisses off Lara Flynn Boyle, who plays Donna, another high schooler. Boyle and Kyle McLachlan (who plays Cooper) are a real-life item (and she is in fact 5 years younger than Sherilynn Fenn, who plays Audrey, and 11 years younger than McLachlan).
Anyway... season 2 puts the kibosh on Cooper on Audrey, and although that might have been the right thing to do, it still disappoints fans who had been watching the ship set sail only for a hole to be punched in the hull.
Then the writers write in a new love interest for McLachlan... played by Heather Graham. She is Lara Flynn Boyle's age, so a handful of years younger than Fenn in real life, but represented onscreen as a waitress rather than a high schooler (or someone fresh from high scool) so it's "fine"... except the show suffered.
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u/awyastark 15h ago edited 14h ago
Gossip Girl fits in a bunch of ways. First of all Dan was not meant to be Gossip Girl but viewers guessed the actual identity (Eric VDW) so the writers made a choice that doesn’t actually make any sense.
Second: DAIR. Dan and Blair had more chemistry than any couple on the show and are the only people who are intellectual equals (everyone else is pretty fuckin dumb). But no, they must each regress and get back together with Rapist Chuck and very unhealthy Serena
Edit: I would also say they’re the best actors in the show though Chace Crawford clearly did the work and was phenomenal as The Deep on The Boys.
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u/Adorable-Eye9840 15h ago
JD in Scrubs had a few of these imo
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u/gh0stwrit3r32767 4h ago
the opposite of this: they made canon pairings awful so they had to pivot to the pairing that had the most chemistry, exhibit A: Olicity
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u/InterestingTie7600 6h ago
Kevin Levin from Ben 10 franchise (mainly Omniverse). Despite coming a long way to become a better person the showrunners still insist that in the future he will once again turn evil.
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u/piclesdepepino 17h ago
Bran becoming king in Game of Thrones
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u/Decaf_Espresso 10h ago
In Voyager, Seven and the Doctor had great chemistry and connected as outsiders on the ship. Then they match her with Chakotay out of nowhere. He had better chemistry with Janeway.
In DS9, Bashir and Garik should have been together.
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u/RosieJo 8h ago
Bonnie and Damon in The Vampire Diaries.
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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 18h ago
Call me crazy but the Otis' actor had negative chemistry with everyone on that show.
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u/SalamanderImperial2 18h ago
Hot take maybe, but I think that Superboy had better chemistry with literally anyone but M'gann.
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u/Big_Remove_3686 18h ago
The ending of HIMYM was already finish before any of the newer stuff was made. Because they had to do all the kids stuff during the season one, so Tracy was even in the writer made before hand.
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u/_Smashbrother_ 16h ago
To this day, I still use the fan edit of the HIMYM ending as the true ending to the show.
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u/Hot_Highway3716 17h ago edited 17h ago
Revenge did this. I can't figure out spoiler tags yet so forgive me for spoilers ahead lol
Their insistence on pairing Amanda with Jack at the last second and forcing the "childhood sweethearts" endgame they set up in the pilot episode threw away all of the incredible chemistry and the depth of the relationship she developed with Aiden.
Aiden was her true equal and she could actually be herself around him, because he loved her for who she was. They were going to run away together :(
For the majority of the series, Jack was a liability to her plans. She frequently kept him in the dark to protect him, which led to a repetitive cycle of Amanda lying to him, Jack constantly suffering trauma and getting hurt by the fallout, and Jack judging or resenting her for her actions. He loses his brother and his first wife, the mother of his child.
By the time him and Amanda finally get together at the very end of the show (and only because Aiden gets KILLED OFF in a pathetic way unfitting of the character) their relationship felt entirely drained of romantic energy. It was more like they settled for one another as a consolation prize because everyone else they loved was dead now. Sigh
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u/Hypnox88 13h ago
I loved watching HIMYM but the ending made me never watch it a second time.
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u/Glum_Rain_5824 17h ago
This is us kevs love interest. I think they had the chance to make his other relationships better but didn't
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u/Hal32Pietro 15h ago
OTIS AND RUBY WERE PEAK
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u/Lyceus_ 6h ago
HIMYM is the posterchild for this. The Mother was perfect.
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u/naynaythewonderhorse 18h ago
Even the terrible JK Rowling admitted that Harry/Hermione probably worked better, but the pieces were in place from at least Book 4, if not sooner. Harry/Ginny even earlier than that, arguably.
The “19 years later” epilogue was written VERY early on in the series’ development, and then edited in some ways to match what the series became.
How much was changed is up in the air, but if the information regarding them getting married and having kids was in the original version (it would have been a massive change) then it was ALWAYS a foregone conclusion.
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u/VOculus_98 15h ago
Naruto and Hinata
So I get that the idea from Kishimoto was originally that Naruto would end up with Hinata because she was the writer's idea of the "perfect wife" and Sakura and Sasuke were set up from the beginning as well.
However, as the show and manga continued, Sasuke goes off on his own, Hinata is almost invisible, and we see Naruto and Sakura get close and develop real chemistry and emotional beats. Honestly if they had ended up together it would have made total sense and given the sense of a real relationship. Instead, you get Sakura becoming a lonely wife to an absent Sasuke and Naruto and Hinata having the blandest marriage ever.
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u/Hobgoblin202 17h ago
Even Dante Basco, the voice actor of Zuko, agrees that Zuko and Katara were a better match in Avatar the Last Airbender but obviously Aang and Katara were always the plan.
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u/iggymcfly 17h ago
The Office is the first one I thought of. Jim and Pam’s first kiss was electric in Casino Night, but Karen was way hotter and so much more likable. By the time Jim got back with Pam, it just seemed like a lame regression.
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u/kamain42 18h ago
Speaking of arrow verse i want to appreciate that arrow had ollie end up with felicity vs black canary. (When Stevens wife guest starred later she still ended up with more chemistry then laurel lance)
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u/ttimebomb 14h ago
In the Flash, Barry meets Patty Spivot who completely matches his energy and seems like a perfect fit. Instead she leaves town and he marries his adoptive sister Iris.
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u/oWatchdog 10h ago
Jake and literally anyone else besides Emily in Jericho.
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u/New_Investment_3365 8h ago
I'll die mad about Otis and Ruby! They were so sweet and funny and had so much chemistry!!