That moment you notice a huge plot hole in the story

[DrunkOnEstus]

It's not really a plot hole, but Death Note -

Spoiler

Light's big plan around the second act where he forgets he ever had the death note on purpose...that plan required the planning of exact people performing exact actions and saying exactly what he intended on them doing in order for his plan to actually work out the way he intended later. I know he's supposed to be a mastermind and there's a whole lot of "I know that you know that I know" going on, but that plan seemed a bit nonsensical to me that it actually worked out perfectly for him at the time.

 

[happyninja42]

Pacific Rim. Do I even need to say it?

Spoiler

The sword. Seriously? WHERE WAS THAT ALL THOSE TIMES YOU WERE GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED? Why did you ONLY use it ONCE??? They don't even TRY to justify it's absence up until that one scene in the movie or after the fact. The movie is already written like a mediocre anime, but that one scene just plunged it into bad anime territory for me. If I wanted gratuitous robot violence with baffling plot points, I'd watch G Gundam, because at least it's hilariously nonsensical.

Wasnt that just something to do with getting their blood every where which was toxic? I know, that would make sense until you realise they never use the swords when fighting in the water. Anyway the biggest plot hole is that the world is getting their arse kicked by the monsters. Except we know they all come through the same rift in the ocean. So why not have a load of the robots stationed near the rift that can kick the crap out of every monster as soon as they appear. Why do they wait till they are near cities?

They don't use the sword in the water, but they use the blaster gun in the water. Again making a very bloody splash.

As to why they don't have robots sitting underwater, the pilots can only stay linked up so long. If you mean automated turrets, then yeah I'm on the same page as you, why not do it? Waiting until they're near the shore I think is to provide the robots with ground to fight on, but not being in the middle of the city.

I don't subscribe to the "can't get kaiju blood anywhere cause it's baaaaad" reason to explain the various plot holes in the movie, because multiple times they clearly don't care about the blood being exposed to stuff. Still enjoyed the movie though xD

 

[Vivi22]

Second:

Spoiler

Hydra, during its revolution, only has three helicarriers to its name. Yes they are formidable weapons which would kill a lot of people, but they also would not be able to kill all their targets in the US before being shot down, let alone the world (at peak efficiency, it would take 3.7 months of continuous fire to kill all their targets, and that's assuming they are killing at peak efficiency while on the move). 70 years of planning for that? What a waste.

You seem to assume that they needed to kill all of their targets immediately in order to achieve their goals and take over. That's a bit of a silly assumption though since they already had control of SHIELD, had agents highly placed in government, and were also launching their helicarriers over Washington. They were in a prime position to take out a significant number of government targets while also crippling the intelligence apparatus of the US. By the time any other branches of government or the military were even able to realize what happened and figure out they might want to shoot down the helicarriers, they'd likely be so up to their necks in bodies and left without a functioning chain of command that it would be extremely unlikely they'd be able to mount an attack on them with any degree of success.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

blah blah blah.....move along. Nothing to see here in this failed comment. lol

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

They don't use the sword in the water, but they use the blaster gun in the water. Again making a very bloody splash.

As to why they don't have robots sitting underwater, the pilots can only stay linked up so long. If you mean automated turrets, then yeah I'm on the same page as you, why not do it? Waiting until they're near the shore I think is to provide the robots with ground to fight on, but not being in the middle of the city.

I don't subscribe to the "can't get kaiju blood anywhere cause it's baaaaad" reason to explain the various plot holes in the movie, because multiple times they clearly don't care about the blood being exposed to stuff. Still enjoyed the movie though xD

Also, when they kill them on land and that gangster guy takes them apart to sell, the blood goes everywhere. Also you wonder why there are no submarines or warships around. Or why not drop mines everywhere around the rift. Or maybe a massive spike above the rift that impales their brain when they rise out of the rift. Yeah lots of holes but a really fun movie. xD

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Are there really 143 pages of this or is Escapist just bugging?

Anyways, God of War II has a big plot hole, and I'm not very observant to storyline holes, so this one must have been huge for me to see it.

Kratos spends the entire first game, trying to atone for all the sins he committed in his past life, almost committing suicide towards the end of the game over the fact that he isn't allowed to forget the atrocities he's committed.

In the second game, he wants to get back the power he had in the first game, which Zeus took away. He seeks out the Fates, hoping to alter the strands of time to change the past...In order to get his power back to mess Zeus up.

Like, what? Why not go back to before you killed your family, or before you had to summon Ares to save yourself in battle? You made a lot of huge mistakes but all you wanna do is go back a couple weeks to kick Zeus in the ass?

Screw you Kratos, if you're that stupid you deserve to be miserable.

Well, Kratos is practically a meat-headed crazy person with an attention span of about 8 nanoseconds holding an absolute contempt for everything and anyone. I don't think he was really thinking about anything beyond "KILL KILL KILL SMASH RAAARGH!!!" Making someone crazy is practically an easy button for writers, because you can explain anything with "dem crazies be crazy, aight!"

 

[scorptatious]

Are there really 143 pages of this or is Escapist just bugging?

Anyways, God of War II has a big plot hole, and I'm not very observant to storyline holes, so this one must have been huge for me to see it.

Kratos spends the entire first game, trying to atone for all the sins he committed in his past life, almost committing suicide towards the end of the game over the fact that he isn't allowed to forget the atrocities he's committed.

In the second game, he wants to get back the power he had in the first game, which Zeus took away. He seeks out the Fates, hoping to alter the strands of time to change the past...In order to get his power back to mess Zeus up.

Like, what? Why not go back to before you killed your family, or before you had to summon Ares to save yourself in battle? You made a lot of huge mistakes but all you wanna do is go back a couple weeks to kick Zeus in the ass?

Screw you Kratos, if you're that stupid you deserve to be miserable.

That's pretty much what I thought when I first played the game. Would have made for a somewhat more compelling conflict and character development. Hell, even have a multiple ending scenario.

Then again, I'd imagine even if he tried to either save himself or his family, he would lose all the powers he acquired and still have to deal with either the barbarians or Ares. Then AGAIN, he didn't lose the equipment he acquired in 2 when he went to fight Zeus, so that point may as well be moot.

I hate when game stories attempt to shoe horn time travel, it rarely works.

 

[Asclepion]

Why did I immediately think of Evangelion 3.0 again? Please, make it stop!

The difference between plot hole and just stuff left unexplained is a bit foggy with these, but a few of them are legitimate plot holes.

Spoiler: #1 The biggest one

Why in the name of cheeseburger Jesus doesn't Misato IMMEDIATELY go after Rei once Rei's taken Shinji in her custody? It's not like she doesn't have a reason to, know exactly where he's being taken, what he's going to be used for, and all the means to do it.

Spoiler: #2 The earliest one.

Why won't Misato explain anything to Shinji? It's not like she doesn't know what Shinji can inadvertedly do, have him by the nads with an instakill device strapped to his neck, and a pretty big fucking reason to keep him as calm as possible.

Spoiler: #3 Kaworu

Just... Kaworu. He's been hyped up for 2 movies, and has tons of screen time devoted to him and his relationship with Shinji. But I've seen 3.0 twice, but can't for the life of me figure out what his importance to the plot was at all. Getting Shinji to pilot Eva again and making... whatever Impact we're on at now? All well and good, but since that never happens and Kaworu ends up DEAD we never know what the stakes were or how it was supposed to affect anything. Also, he's an angel, and can seemingly take the kill-collar off with no effort at all, but in the end lets it kill him because... why?

Spoiler: Not really plot holes, just stuff I'm most confused about

Why haven't Asuka and Mari matured at all? They've spent the last 14 years in post-apocalypse, gotten out of their teens and are pushing 30 now. And yet they still are the exact same people they were last time, except Mari's kook factor, which was kind of interesting in 2.0, has in this film gone over 9000 and she's become nothing but a fanservice object with behavior so utterly inhuman I wouldn't be surprised if she was held in a padded cell when off duty.

Spoiler: Rei Q and Misato

Why doesn't Rei Q crush the fuck out of Misato as soon as she appears?

Rei Q is a different clone than Rei from the first 2 Rebuild movies, who apparently doesn't have any memories of her other incarnation. Rei Q is tasked with rescuing Shinji from the AAA Wunder. She boards the vessel and is opening her palm to Shinji when the enemy commander enters, holding a weapon at him.

Rei Q has no reason to patiently wait for them to argue while Shinji is being threatened. Unit Mark.09 could have just smashed Misato like a fucking bug, giving her no chance to detonate the DSS Choker.

Spoiler: Mari

So Mari's allied with (what was originally) Nerv now? After the last movie where she is some kind of agent with her own agenda that we never find out? And hijacks one of their Evas?

There's no explanation!

 

[Kolby Jack]

Pacific Rim. Do I even need to say it?

Spoiler

The sword. Seriously? WHERE WAS THAT ALL THOSE TIMES YOU WERE GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED? Why did you ONLY use it ONCE??? They don't even TRY to justify it's absence up until that one scene in the movie or after the fact. The movie is already written like a mediocre anime, but that one scene just plunged it into bad anime territory for me. If I wanted gratuitous robot violence with baffling plot points, I'd watch G Gundam, because at least it's hilariously nonsensical.

That is super easily explained: The sword is a shitty backup weapon that isn't very effective.

The Jeagers all fight with a strategy. Crimson Typhoon cut the Kaiju to pieces. Cherno Alpha beats them to death. But Gypsy Danger and Striker Eureka beat them until they slow down the monster enough to have an opening and then use short range finisher weapons. The plasma gun reduces a Kaiju to a hollow husk in a few shots. Cutting weapons were far less effective, as we saw with Crimson Typhoon - their successful cutting attacks hardly phased the Kaiju. I mean, later on they literally stab a Kaiju though the head with the sword and it was basically only effective at pinning it down while they burned it to death on a thermal vent.

Just because the sword was tactically ideal in that one exact moment does not mean that it is a god smiting super weapon with no flaws. It is a subpar weapon that they only use when they can't use their guns. They were out of ammo when they used it the first time, they were under water where their guns would not work later.

Bull. Shit.

That sword sliced CLEAN THROUGH that Kaiju. And it was HUGE. Most of the movie they use their robot fists! How is that "tactically superior" to a SWORD in ANY situation? Even if some of the Kaiju are armored (which I don't think any of them were, at least over any other one seen), the concussive force from a GREATSWORD would FAR outweigh any damage a fucking fist could do. Except in a bad anime (which this movie is). And I don't even remember them using their gun, which highlights just how big of a role that thing played in the fights.

Wasnt that just something to do with getting their blood every where which was toxic? I know, that would make sense until you realise they never use the swords when fighting in the water. Anyway the biggest plot hole is that the world is getting their arse kicked by the monsters. Except we know they all come through the same rift in the ocean. So why not have a load of the robots stationed near the rift that can kick the crap out of every monster as soon as they appear. Why do they wait till they are near cities?

It does also bring up the question why they have a huge, populated city so close to the portal. Seems like the whole radioactive blood problem would be avoided easily by just evacuating everyone. But then they don't seem to care much about all the blood that was spilled directly into the ocean. Or the blood that got all over the place when that baby kaiju ate Ron Perlman.

 

[VyseRogueKing]

I've recently started playing the Phoenix Wright games, and I found one:

Spoiler: In the First Game, Third Case

The defendant, an actor, is accused of murdering his co-star. The end result is that the victim drugged the defendant, stole his costume (which completely hides the person wearing it) and attempted to kill the producer who was blackmailing him regarding his involvement in the accidental death of another actor years earlier, while framing his rival. In the end it is revealed that the producer killed the victim in self defense, then moved the body in order to frame the defendant.

The plot hole arises in that the producer was never in any real legal danger prior to framing the defendant, she had a witness who saw the victim attack her, and later helped her move the body. She could have admitted to justifiable self-defense (accidental self-defense at that) with a witness to collaborate her testimony. Justifiable Self-Defense is even mentioned in the later game as a viable plea to avoid prison. The producer doesn't even have a reason to frame the defendant, he was just a convenient target since he didn't have an alibi (the game outright states 'there was no motive'). The knowledge of her blackmail and the producer's prison sentence could have been completely avoided if she didn't try to unnecessarily frame the defendant.

In response to your plot hole

Spoiler

I believe it's to avoid police asking too many questions. It's made fairly clear that she wants to be of little importance to the investigation as possible. Even if she pleas self-defense there still has to be a case surrounding whether or not it truly was self-defense. This means a thorough investigation would be placed on HER determining if and more importantly how and why the guy attacked her to justify her fighting back. When someone tries to kill another there normally is a reason after all. Not to mention the game is based on Japanese law, killing someone is a pretty friggin' big deal. If self-defense is shaky then off to the slammer you go. Plus she's the producer if an actor commits a crime and there's controversy surrounding him, oh well looks like we're gonna recast and/or kill him off in the show a la Charlie Sheen. She's still gonna make that money. If she's even suspected of murder she's gonna lose her job and/or the show is gonna take a big hit because of all the bad press around it if she stays. Framing the actor with no alibi while creating a scenario that would have been impossible for her to be a part of would have kept her crystal clear. No investigation, no dirt. Keep makin' dat cash money.

OT: Friggin' Watch_Dogs. Most of the shit that happens could be easily avoided if:

1) If Aiden showed himself to be the calculating mastermind he's supposed to be mustering up a bit of a plan rather than running headlong into each situation without thinking of repercussions. Rock the boat Aiden. Bluff a full house when a high straight is on the table. Guess what'll happen? They're gonna make sure that you KNOW they truly have you where you want them. They're gonna make life worse for you. So go ahead, bluff your sorry ass off. Keep telling them that you're going to get them. It's gonna work out fine!

2) Something "untraceable" keeps getting traced every time someone googles something.
3) Someone tries to negotiate a hostage trade AFTER the hostage has been rescued.

4) Why the hell is Maurice supposed to be in the game? He ends up being held prisoner for info all the way to the end when Aiden doesn't even bother with the dude after he's captured in the first 5 minutes of the game? Just reveal conspiracy with an unrepentant shooter, kill his sorry ass and move on to the puppet-master.

5) No one, and I mean no one has back-ups of sensitive data in separate drives.

I beat the game a couple weeks ago and still I lie in bed thinking to myself, what in the actual hell?

 

[MarsProbe]

Pacific Rim transcends your puny mortal concerns about "plot holes".

Anyway, there was one thing that bugged me about Outcast, which for those don't recall was a PC game that was likely most notable for it's use of voxels instead of polygons. Anyway, if there one thing that always bugged me about that game, it was the cloaking device that you picked up at some point. As one would expect from a cloaking device, it makes you invisible. However, like the cloaking devices used in a certain other popular franchise, you couldn't use you couldn't use your weapons while cloaked. I am of course referring to Star Trek and you could at least find a way to explain it in that context (I'm not sure if it was ever explained officially): the cloaking device would use up so much energy to run, they wouldn't have anything left to put into weapons.

However, in Outcast, your weapons were basically just regular firearms for the most part. Unless I'm much mistaken, portable firearms tend not to require an external power supply. Not only that, but you couldn't even use your fists while cloaked. OK, so it was clearly done that way to avoid the game becoming too easy, but it still irked me that there was no in-game explanation as to why you couldn't even engage in fisticuffs while cloaked. Though I suppose, it was the 90s..

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It's not really a huge plot-hole but I was reading up on some character bios within the Harry Potter wiki (shut up) to see if I could glean any more information about certain characters. Like why James Potter was filthy rich! Anyway, I read a bit about him and it mentioned how he was Head Boy during his seventh year in Hogwarts...but...in Order of the Phoenix Sirius and Lupin mention how James wasn't made a Prefect. I thought that to be made a Head Boy or Head Girl in Hogwarts one had to be a Prefect first...unless of course he was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team which apparently is the same as being a Prefect (only not).

 

[smartalec]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Spoiler

Potter's name comes out of the Goblet. He's selected as a second, unexpected competitor for Hogwarts. He doesn't want to compete, none of the teachers want him to compete, and his school already has a champion.

So why not just... not compete? Just have Harry say, 'no, I don't want to, this is a misunderstanding, I didn't put my name in there'. Harry could have refused. What are they going to do, force him? And bam the whole of the bad guy plan falls apart in an instant.

 

[Lilani]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Spoiler

Potter's name comes out of the Goblet. He's selected as a second, unexpected competitor for Hogwarts. He doesn't want to compete, none of the teachers want him to compete, and his school already has a champion.

So why not just... not compete? Just have Harry say, 'no, I don't want to, this is a misunderstanding, I didn't put my name in there'. Harry could have refused. What are they going to do, force him? And bam the whole of the bad guy plan falls apart in an instant.

I don't remember he particulars of it, but there was something about the contract being with the goblet itself, which is a power that neither the school nor the ministry has control over. I don't remember the consequences for not participating, but there was definitely something said about the goblet being a binding contract of some sort.

 

[smartalec]

That's certainly there, but it's never actually said what happens

Spoiler

if they disobey the Goblet. Does Harry explode? Presumably not. Everyone in that room, Harry included, knows something's gone wrong and the Goblet's been messed with. This is a room full of master wizards, I'm pretty sure they could find a way to fix things so that Harry doesn't explode.

 

[Illesdan]

Spoiler: Skyfall

Oh there are so many problems with this damn car being in the film. Sure it worked as fan service, seeing the Daniel Craig Bond with the classic James Bond car, but it broke the story so much. The one thing that everyone just kind of went with when it came to James Bond was that his face would change as the actor would change and that no real explanation was needed to say why, and as the films went on, the tech would change to suit the release date and everybody would just go with it. Then they added in the DB5 into Skyfall and everything broke. How old is James Bond? That car was released in 1963, and he must've been at least 18 to drive that thing, so that makes him 50, but when Sean Connery played Bond when the DB5 first appeared he was 34, so that would make Daniel Craig's Bond 66. But isn't Craig's Bond a reboot? Well seeing as this car exists, it puts that into question too. The only real explanation that I can think of is that James Bond is in fact a Time Lord, because otherwise nothing makes sense and it makes my head hurt.

Have you ever heard of the theory that 'James Bond' is actually the name given to every agent who happens to be a 007?

If you look at it that way, A LOT of things begin to make sense.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Also from the Harry Potter series...

Spoiler: just in case anyone hasn't read it yet...

Veritaserum.

The very existence of that stuff made so many things in the series make no sense...

Harry knows about it from the middle of book 4, doesn't offer to take a dose and tell his story of how Cedric died while under it's influence.

Heck, Dumbledore-possibly the most brilliant wizard of all time is standing right there when the Minister of Magic dismisses Harry's story and never suggests the use of veritaserum to confirm it.

Sirius in all the time he was in prison never tells anyone "I didn't betray James and Lily, give me some veritaserum and I'll tell you the truth about what happened!"

A lot of Death Eaters got off the hook by claiming they had only done the things they did because they were under the influence of the imperius curse... ministry never uses veritaserum to confirm any of their stories....

Even if the stuff was really hard to produce, given it's applications the ministry should have had a dozen expert potion makers brewing the stuff night and day!

 

[Vault101]

I don't remember he particulars of it, but there was something about the contract being with the goblet itself, which is a power that neither the school nor the ministry has control over. I don't remember the consequences for not participating, but there was definitely something said about the goblet being a binding contract of some sort.

kind of like having a three headed dog in your school or a deadly enchanted forest just off the grounds

because in the wizarding world lawsuit and liability have no meaning!

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't remember he particulars of it, but there was something about the contract being with the goblet itself, which is a power that neither the school nor the ministry has control over. I don't remember the consequences for not participating, but there was definitely something said about the goblet being a binding contract of some sort.

One would have to believe the Wizarding World to be so completely, utterly incompetent that it couldn't figure out a way to do such a thing without endangering an innocent person. There isn't any way to stop someone from putting your name in against your will otherwise. I mean, Harry got drawn because it was tricked into thinking there was a fourth school of one person, but even still, this seems easy to bypass and especially problematic given the lethality.

Then again, the Wizarding World does seem utterly incompetent. I'm convinced this is the only reason Harry could be the chosen one.

kind of like having a three headed dog in your school or a deadly enchanted forest just off the grounds

because in the wizarding world lawsuit and liability have no meaning!

I always snickered at the thought of Dumbledore being pissed that the Dementors were on school grounds in the third book. Apparently, only he (and his subordinates) can get away with reckless endangerment and disregard for the safety of students.

Hell, I'm surprised they even considered closing the school in Chamber of Secrets. I'd think it'd be more like "Oh, children are dying? How sad."

And when you consider Dumbledore's end goal...*shudder*

Also from the Harry Potter series...

Spoiler: just in case anyone hasn't read it yet...

Veritaserum.

The very existence of that stuff made so many things in the series make no sense...

Harry knows about it from the middle of book 4, doesn't offer to take a dose and tell his story of how Cedric died while under it's influence.

Heck, Dumbledore-possibly the most brilliant wizard of all time is standing right there when the Minister of Magic dismisses Harry's story and never suggests the use of veritaserum to confirm it.

Sirius in all the time he was in prison never tells anyone "I didn't betray James and Lily, give me some veritaserum and I'll tell you the truth about what happened!"

A lot of Death Eaters got off the hook by claiming they had only done the things they did because they were under the influence of the imperius curse... ministry never uses veritaserum to confirm any of their stories....

Even if the stuff was really hard to produce, given it's applications the ministry should have had a dozen expert potion makers brewing the stuff night and day!

Not to mention the impact it would have on Death Eaters.

Have you ever heard of the theory that 'James Bond' is actually the name given to every agent who happens to be a 007?

If you look at it that way, A LOT of things begin to make sense.

Except in the series, they've had at least one instance of Bond played by one actor referencing his actions in another movie.

I like the theory, but you have to ignore things for it to work.

It's still better, though less fun, than the "Bond is a Time Lord" theory.

 

[Vault101]

[
Then again, the Wizarding World does seem utterly incompetent. I'm convinced this is the only reason Harry could be the chosen one.
.

thats kind of what I find so funny about the series...because they not?

you could argue the Wizarding world has no concept of "DON'T PUT OUR KIDS IN DANGER" because....its just how things have always been

as you said their governemnt is so incompetant WIZARD HITLER takes over and no one seems to notice, their racist and predjudiced (as seen moreso in the books) and so ass backwards that as pointed out by a cracked article no one has any "real world" skills,or desire to have real world skills in order to even bother with muggle society, Goblins own the banking industry and just how many jobs are there in the wizarding world?

in fact when you think about it compared to "muggle" society wizard society is a complete mess....its almost as if Rowling was making a statment against the "kid being wisked off to a world of whimsy" genre