ALL: Storylines That Didn't End How You Wanted

[Mr. Vixen]

So I have been thinking about this, and there have been quite a few storylines that IMO started off well, but took a turn along the way that kind of ruined it for me.

So I thought I would ask, are there any storylines like this for any of you? If so, which ones? And how did YOU want them to end?

I'll start with the one that comes to my mind first.

GH:

Ethan's paternity. When Ethan came on the show, I really liked the character. I thought he was fun and different. Sure he reminded me a bit of Luke, and I liked their earlier interactions. But when it became apparent that Ethan was probably going to end up being Luke's son, I was not a fan. For me, it was just another [!@#$%^&*] YOU to all of the Luke and Laura fans.

I had rather hoped that Ethan would turn out to be Robert's son. It could have been more fun, IMO. When Ethan first came in, I kind of liked him with Lulu. I thought their scenes together were fun, and I thought they could have been a fun, adventurous couple. And IMO, Robin needed a sibling more than any of the spencer clan. Robin doesn't have any, other than Maxie who is LIKE a sister to her.

I could have scene Robin and Ethan growing close. At first Robin is reluctant to accept Ethan as a brother, but eventually wants a relationship with him, and they grow close. As they become closer, Ethan tells Robin that he has nowhere to live, and that he's been living in his car. Robin takes pity on her new brother, and moves her into the guest room.

Patrick objects at first, but eventually warms up to the idea, since he is Robin's brother. Of course Ethan and Patrick wouldn't get along, and Robin could have played mediator there. And as things got worse I could have seen a scene where Robin snaps and yells at Patrick saying "You're asking me to choose between my family and my husband. And you if you push me any more, you won't like my decision".

They would decide not to tell anyone about Ethan's paternity until Robert knew, knowing that he should be the first to know he has a son. They don't want to give him this kind of news over the phone. They call him, and he says he can't be in Port Charles for 3 weeks, but he will get there as soon as he can. Of course Robin, Patrick, and Ethan agree to keep the paternity/living arrangements under wraps until Robert knows.

Of course Mac would become suspicous after he sees Robin and Ethan in public together more than once. He brushes it off, hoping they are just friends. But after he sees Ethan going into Robin's house late at night while Patrick is away, he assumes the worst. The next day he confronts Ethan, warning him to stay away from Robin, who is happily married. Ethan assures Mac that nothing romantic is going on between himself and Robin. Mac believes him, but when he sees them together again, he is again doubtful of what's going on.

He goes to see Robin at her house, and begins talking to her about the consequences of infidelity. Robin is completely clueless as to what he's talking about, and just as Mac is about to say that he knows about her and Ethan, Robert walks in. Robin jumps up at the oppurtunity and pulls her father into the kitchen to talk to him. She asks Ethan to join them.

She tells Robert, who is thrilled to find out he has a son, and they return to the family room and share the news with Mac, who is relieved to find out his suspicions were wrong.

Then, I could have seen Robin getting Ethan a job as a paper-pusher at GH, since there would't be anything of interest for him to steal there. Obviously, that would have put him in the midst of characters such as Elizabeth, Maya, Epiphany, Steve, Lisa, etc. And would have allowed him to have friendships and romantic relationships with people there.

For me, this would have been better. I like Ethan still, but I always seem to like him more when he's interacting with people other than Luke. I like his interactions with Tracy, but I like him with Maya and people like that. I even liked his brief interaction with Bobbie.

I don't know...I just thought that would have been better than making him Luke's son. Luke had enough kids to not give a crap about.

[DRW50]

Where do you start?

Among many...

The rapemance on OLTL. I don't know if this story could have ended more offensively, aside from having Marty say Todd had loved her and she wanted to be with him. Most pathetic was the KAD killer saga, whose main purpose seemed to be, according to RC, reminding people that not just Todd had raped Marty.

Mitch Laurence's return -- both times, but the last one bothered me a lot because whereas his first return started out poorly and only got worse, his second return actually started out quite well and then it became obvious they had no idea what to do with him. Most annoying was Pamela's death and then the sicko, completely unnecessary scenes of Mitch planning to rape Jessica. Leading to the truly pathetic Teen Jess nonsense.

Who Killed Melinda? More like who cares, and what a surprise that this story has nothing to do with anyone Melinda actually had story with.

[applcin]

GL

The total ruination of Edmund. All because TIIC had such a hard-on for Bradley Cole. Edmund could have followed in the vein of Roger Thorpe and not been turned into a cartoon. Subtlety and nuance don't seem to have a place on soaps anymore.

OLTL

Jared & Natalie. He's dead (at the hands of the #1 character I never wanted to see back on the show, no less) and she's pregnant by Brody or John? Whatever. I left when Jared did.

GH

I really liked the beginning of (amnesiac) Felicia's romance with Ryan Chamberlain. I thought KW and JL had great chemistry. Then they turned him into a serial killer who stalked her and they stuck her in a boring relationship with Mac.

RH

The original Joe and Siobhan. I liked them together. Then they got recast. This is where my dislike of seeing Roscoe Born onscreen began.

EON

This story initially got ruined for me then was made even better:

Raven and her husband faux-Sky (aka Jeff Brown) had actually fallen in love with each other. Then he decided he had to kill her because she knew he was a fake but he ended up getting killed by Damien Tyler. Then the real Sky shows up, gets into a boring relationship with mousy Valerie but finally ends up with Raven. I was boohooing the day they killed off faux-Sky because I thought Larkin Malloy was permanently off the show and I loved he and Sharon Gabet together. I always wondered how far in advance that was the plan--to kill off Jeff and let LM be the real Sky Whitney...or even at what point they decided to make the first Sky faux-Sky.

[DRW50]

AW

Donna and Jake slept together while she thought Michael had cheated on her and left her. This story should have provided a lot of drama, but for some reason too much focus went on Stacey Winthrop, due to her own hurt over her young daughter's death, blackmailing Donna in order to steal custody of Donna's and Michael's son and give him back to his parents even though he had basically been abandoned by his parents. And then, as if that wasn't unpleasant enough, Michael went around town sucking on his teeth in anger and judging Donna for her sins, yet bedding down with Stacey, who casually stole his child!

Years later, Michael and the teeth-clacking returned, this time dying of leukemia for about a month. During this time he seduced Donna, who was about to marry Matt Cory. After they had sex, he told her, oops, never mind, I just wanted a roll in the hay. Donna then lost both Matt and Michael, in a tacky triangle where, as often happened when JFP was producer, the woman always lost while the men strutted around town. And if that wasn't bad enough, JFP planned to kill Donna off not long after this story.

[quartermainefan]

Kendell woke up from her coma.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!

[Soapsuds]

Any storyline by Jean Pissy and Chris Goutman.

[DaytimeFan]

Y&R: 2007-present. Not one bloody storyline has gone the way I've wanted them to. Not. One.

AW: Donna & Matt, oh how I wanted those two to make it work and end up happy together. They were adorable together.

[Gray Bunny]

GL: Reva's stalker, 2002-2003. It turned out to be Alexandra because Ellen Weston took over the show as headwriter and rewrote it. It was originally supposed to be a vengeful Jonathan.

It also would be nice to know how they would've originally written out Alex in early 2003. Since Joan Collins' take as Alex was supposed to be a 6-month run, that meant Alex would've left Springfield in March 2003. Since Collins left 3 months early and Marj Dusay resumed the role, they had Alex stick around (and thus the dumb re-write as her of the stalker as well)

Gus and Harley's non-reunion. I stopped watching by then, but it sucks that both actors were frustrated and left, having Gus die and Harley go away. They were supposed to be paired back together the year Ehlers left.

DAYS: Rex and Cassie being Roman and Kate's children instead of Marlena and Tony. The whole story was pretty bad to begin with, but to have them be Roman and Kate's even though Kate wasn't in the Salem/DiMera orbit of action in the 80's just so that Roman and Kate would be linked up in 2003 was dumb. And boring.

[MichaelGL]

Any storyline that Hogan Sheffer penned during his time on DAYS. From Shawn/Belle/Phillip(and Tyler Kiriakis) to EJ/Sami/Lucas, all ended badly IMO, yet had so much potential.

[DaytimeFan]

It WOULD have been really interesting to see how Alex would have been written out of the show in 2003 had Joan stuck around in the role (I think it was for the best that she opted out of the second half of her contract, the writing was atrocious afterward!)...I would think that GL would have crafted a surprisingly decent confrontation between Alex and Reva that would have played to the strengths of Collins and Zimmer. Oh what could have been!

Interestingly, a lot of the soap press buzzed that Zimmer and Collins loathed one another, but the truth of the matter is that it was because of the stalker storyline that the two rarely, if ever, appeared onscreen together and that, in actual fact, Collins liked Zimmer a lot (though she may have made a crack about Zimmer looking more like Josh's mother than this lover...ahh Joanie!)

[Paul Raven]

Y&R Patty's return

An intriguing set up with Patty's long awaited return as the mysterious Mary Jane(terrible name btw)So many possibilties completely trashed by turning her into a psycho.

[DRW50]

Speaking of Y&R, how can we forget Phillip's return from the dead after two decades. Years of potential story thrown away in about two weeks.

[quartermainefan]

well wait a second. The Chloe/Brady/Nicole story ended just the way a fairytale story of that sort should have ended, with the villain defeated and true love conquering all. Brady screaming for Chloe on the airport runway was the stuff corny melodrama is made of. I loved the hokiness of it and found it very charming in a way.

[JackPeyton]

Yes. So right.

Gosh, he really is the worst HW days ever had, and that is saying A LOT!