general media Most Confusing Plots?

[mars 4,863]

What movie, tv show, or video game plot confused you the most?

For me, I'm going to say the entire plot of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. It got so insane: new characters, new twists, and such; it made me so confused. I was such a huge fan of the series, but if someone had asked me what the games were about I'd have no idea what to say. I ended up having to watch an entire documentary on the plot of Kingdom Hearts for me to say, "OH, Okay. Well, that makes sense I guess."

[Discordian 6,021]

I've never considered Kingdom Hearts to be all that confusing as long as you've played all the games and are paying attention. People think the side games are just that: side games but they are pretty important to the plot. Some more than others.

[mars 4,863]

I've never considered Kingdom Hearts to be all that confusing as long as you've played all the games and are paying attention. People think the side games are just that: side games but they are pretty important to the plot. Some more than others.

I've actually played every single game in the franchise, and still had no idea what it was about. xD;

So maybe it was just me.

[Moonlight 7,291]

Madoka Magica: Rebellion was fairly confusing to me when I first watched it, and it's x5 more confusing when describing to someone who's never seen it before. 

And I guess Bioshock Infinite's plot can be considered confusing since I had to look up a video to see what the ending even meant. 

[Spartan 433]

this show called Fooly Cooly (FLCL), it took me watching it twice to get what the hell was going on..

 

still kind of confused on what was going on, but its a decent show

[Something Floaty 1,334]

I can't think of any that I find overly confusing, but I have heard from a lot of people that Twin Peaks can be hard to follow. As a huge fan of the show, I can understand that, though I don't have that problem. Lynch has that effect on people.

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

If you've ever watched a movie called "Rubber", you will understand the meaning of confused with that. Terrible movie, but me and my friend were super bored at the time.

[Blue Moon 6,345]

I second Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story; it took me a couple of watches to understand what the heck was going on. Plots that use multiple timelines tend to be confusing and Madoka Magica is no exception.

 

I don't know if it counts or not as the plot is very abstract and not much of a plot at all, but the game: Yume Nikki is really confusing, and to this day; I still don't know what was going on in that game.

 

I also found Ergo Proxy's plot to be really confusing. I had no idea what was happening or why, so I gave up on the series unfortunately.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Blue Moon

[Golurk 468]

The basic storyline of the BlazBlue games is pretty easy to understand, but once you branch out (and there are A TON of branches), it gets pretty confusing pretty quick. It doesn't help that until ChronoPhantasma it had a multi-verse thing going on where most storylines are completely irrelevant to the main one. It's to the point where the game has a devoted section just to help the player understand key points(and is confirmed non-canon, so even *it* is another alternate story with no relevance to the main plot).

[N.W. 3,619]

The 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R games had some pretty confusing points, but if you played all three and payed attention to the events it was great,probably my favorite plot-line of any media outside of a book.

And dear god, those guitar tracks <3

 

 

 

 

[Tanos 179]

I would say KH #1

Second I think is the movie inception (at least the first time you see it)

[Yamato 1,348]

If you've ever watched a movie called "Rubber", you will understand the meaning of confused with that. Terrible movie, but me and my friend were super bored at the time.

That movie's excellent. You just gotta remember what the guy says at the beginning, "No reason."

 

As for me, while I can't say a plot has ever tripped me up, the event sequencing in Choro Q HG4 completely threw me for a loop. Despite its claims of a "robust RPG adventure", it never gives you any clear instructions for anything and things just seem to happen for the sake of happening rather than have some underlying purpose.

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

That movie's excellent. You just gotta remember what the guy says at the beginning, "No reason."

 

As for me, while I can't say a plot has ever tripped me up, the event sequencing in Choro Q HG4 completely threw me for a loop. Despite its claims of a "robust RPG adventure", it never gives you any clear instructions for anything and things just seem to happen for the sake of happening rather than have some underlying purpose.

I think you are the first person I have met other than my friend who has actually watched that movie. The movie was interesting, but incredibly stupid, not my type of movie I guess.

[Megas 28,146]

Metal Gear Solid is the king of confusing plot lines

[GreyScholar 1,584]

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles (Warning MAJOR Spoilers!!)

 

 

The real "Syaoran" is the son of the reincarnation of his own clone! In a verse where reincarnations are visually and possibly genetically identical to their previous life, no less. His mother, by the way, is his girlfriend's clone's reincarnation. Now taking bets on whether or not he himself is going to father yet another of himself. Also factor in possible parents and grandparents given the multiple RetCons of the Clow royal family and what we know from Cardcaptor Sakura.

 

 

 

An explanation of the plot by Evilgidgit on deviantart:

In Clow Country, Princess Sakura (based on the heroine from Cardcaptor Sakura) likes to hang out with her best friend Syaoran (also from CCS), an archaeologist who is investigating ancient ruins nearby. Sakura lives with her big brother King Toya and the kingdom’s high priest Yukito (both from CCS), her father Clow Reed (a prominent figure in the CCS universe and this one) being dead. Sakura loves Syaoran and intends on confessing to him. However, things go weird when Sakura is drawn to the ruins and her soul materials as a pair of wings. Syaoran saves her but the wings explode into feather and scatter across the multiverse of CLAMP’s works. Syaoran is sent to modern day Japan by Yukito, where he meets Yuko the Witch of Dimensions, a main character of xxxHolic. Yuko can grant wishes at a certain price of equal value – think equivalent exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist.

 

At the same time of Syaoran and the comatose Sakura’s arrival, Yuko is visited by the story’s other main characters – Kurogane, a grumpy swordsman who wants to return to his home, another version of Japan called Nihon, after being banished by Princess Tomoyo (another CCS character) to learn what true strength is; and Fai D. Flowright, a cheerful magician who fled from his world to avoid the king Ashura since they have a history together. Yuko explains that Sakura’s feathers contain her memories and scattered to different worlds and alternate dimensions. Since all three have goals involving world hopping, Yuko sends them all off together at a price – Kurogane gives up his precious sword, Fai surrenders a magic tattoo that suppresses his immense power, and Syaoran gives up the memories Sakura and he have. Yuko gives the trio Mokona Modoki, a talking rabbit creature that can cross dimensions and sense Sakura’s feathers. Mokona also has a twin that stays with Yuko and used to communicate with her.

 

Sakura begins to regain her memories as the group travel from world to world to find her feathers, which has caused significant changes in several dimensions. Eventually, the story’s first major plot twist occurs. The group go to post-apocalyptic version of Tokyo which is being slowly destroyed by acid rain, with the only drinkable water available at the bottom of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, protected by one of Sakura’s feathers. The plot twist comes – a second Syaoran appears and it is revealed the one we’ve been following so far is actually a clone. The original Syaoran was captured long ago by the story’s antagonist Fei Wong Reed, also responsible for Sakura’s feather scattering and events related to Kurogane (killing his mum) and Fai (see below). Clone Syaoran was made with half of the original’s heart, and it was only a matter of time before the original Syaoran broke lose. Clone Syaoran loses his heart and becomes an emotionless puppet obedient to Fei Wong, abandoning the group to find the remaining feathers. Beforehand, he rips out one of Fai’s eyes which are the source of his magic, letting him use magic.

 

The real Syaoran’s backstory is revealed – he comes from the universe of Magical Knights Rayearth and crossed dimensions to save Sakura from being captured by Fei Wong. The price to cross worlds was paid by his parents, assisted by Sakura Kinomoto (protagonist of Cardcaptor Sakura), who gave her magic wand to Yuko. Syaoran’s plan failed and he was captured, though later turns out to be false. Fai was aware that Syaoran was a clone all along, and begins to wear an eyepatch. Fai is severely wounded by the loss of his eye, and has to be turned into a vampire, a process aided by two vampire brothers named Subaru and Kamui, and must drink Kurogane’s blood to live. Sakura wishes to save the Clone Syaoran, with her friends accompanying her.

 

The travellers eventually end up in Fai’s home world where it is revealed Fai is actually an alias. His real name is Yui and Fai comes from his dead twin brother. Twins born in Fai’s world brings bad omens so King Ashura put both in a tower while he went on his annual slaughter of his people. Fei Wong offered to free one of them. The real Fai asked him to save Yui, so Fei Wong tossed him out a window and let Yui/Fai live, but altered his memory so that he believed he sacrificed his brother to save himself. Fai is also hexed with two curses - one that will make him murder anyone who is magically stronger than he is, and the second will cause his magical powers to destroy his own world. Ashura killed people to grow stronger and eventually eliminate Fai’s first curse. Ashura fights the group but Kurogane kills him. As the world begins to collapse, Fai uses his magic to send everyone to another dimension with the intention on staying in his dying world. Kurogane is having none of it and drags Fai into Modoka’s portal by chopping his own arm off to do it.

 

The group arrive in Nihon, Kurogane’s world, where they meet Princess Tomoyo. Kurogane is given a prosthetic arm by a pair of brothers named Fuma and Seishiro, who are hunting the vampire twins across the worlds. Fai has to give up the last of his magic to Yuko for Kurogane to use the arm. Sakura is rendered unconscious beforehand, being stabbed by Fai as part of his curse, her body and soul are split apart, with the latter appearing in a dream world. In the dream world, Sakura encounters Kimihiro Watanuki, the protagonist of xxxHolic who works for Yuko and has a connection to the Syaorans. The Clone Syaoran arrives in the dream world, leading to a fight between both Syaoran. Sakura jumps in the way of their attacks and is killed, destroying her soul. However, she reveals she is in fact a clone herself and the real Sakura has been a prisoner of Fei Wong. Fei Wong then steals Sakura’s body to use its stored power.

 

Here is where it gets really complicated. The group set out to find and rescue the real Sakura and end up in Clow Country, which is stuck in some sort of time loop. They discover from Yuko that Fei Wong lives in an alternate version of Clow Country, based in a different timeline which was altered by him. In that timeline, Syaoran left his world and went to Clow Country after his mother foresaw him doing so, where he met Sakura, whose parents are Nadeshiko and Fujitaka (who is Syaoran’s adoptive father in the current timeline) and Clow Reed was not related to her. Sakura had a death seal placed on her by Fei Wong which would expire within seven years, until Syaoran was offered by Yuko the chance to rewind time at the cost of his freedom. Syaoran agreed, and became Fei Wong’s prisoner. Fei Wong captured Sakura too, and replaced both with their clones. Syaoran could never return home as a result, and Kimihiro Watanuki was created to fill the void of Syaoran’s absence.

 

Fei Wong’s goal is revealed. Long ago, Clow Reed and Yuko created Mokona together, but Yuko eventually began to die. Clow wished her for an instant to open her eyes, but the power behind his wish was so strong it caused Yuko to become trapped in a frozen state between life and death. Clow eventually died but was reincarnated as Eriol Hiiragizawa and Fujitaka Kinomoto respectively, both of whom exist in the Cardcaptor Sakura universe. Fei Wong wishes to break Yuko’s frozen state to prove himself superior to Clow Reed. He intended on using the magic of Sakura’s memories and body as they travel across time, space and different dimensions to achieve this. Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai, and Mokona confront Fei Wong, and learn Clow Country is actually a future form of the post-apocalyptic Tokyo they visited before.

 

Clone Syaoran arrives and betrays Fei Wong, but is killed by him. In another twist, both clones appear trapped in a glass container, alive and unharmed. It is revealed that Yuko and Clow Reed were aware of the two clones and paid prices for them to be reborn – Clow paid possibly with his life while Yuko paid by letting her death draw closer. The two were reincarnated in the Magical Knights Rayearth world, reunite, and via a paradox, become the parents of the original Syaoran. Realising they would create an endless time loop, they seal themselves in the glass container until the time is right. Now wielding the magic of Clow Reed, the two break out and confront Fei Wong. Fei Wong uses the original Sakura’s body to achieve his dream, saving Yuko , but it causes the fabric of the universe to collapse. Kurogane kills Fei Wong while the clones undo the damage to the universe. However, Fei Wong uses a final trap, sending both Syaorans and Kimihiro into a void from which they are not meant to escape from.

 

Both of the clones disappear, leaving Syaoran and Kimihiro. They decide to split the wish payment to escape, but it has dire consequences for both. Kimihiro’s payment is to remain in Yuko’s shop forever. Syaoran returns to Clow Country where he reunites with his friends, learning the original timeline has been restored. However, Syaoran decides his payment must be to travel through dimensions until he finds a way to revive the clones/his parents. Kurogane, Fai and Mokona agree to accompany him whilst Sakura remains behind in Clow Country. Before departing, Syaoran and Sakura confess their love to each other, and reveal they actually have different but identical names – Tsubasa.

 

Edited November 17, 2014 by EquestrianScholar

[Discordian 6,021]

I've actually played every single game in the franchise, and still had no idea what it was about. xD;

So maybe it was just me.

The best way to describe it is

It's a battle against Lord Xehanort. Everything in the series leads up to the point in Dream Drop Distance when Xehanort reveals that everything was planned from the beginning and that he had used time travel to see all events.

 

 

None of that goes into each game's individual story though. Every game has it's own little plot, each level even sometimes, that plays into the whole but can stand alone as well.

 

 

this show called Fooly Cooly (FLCL), it took me watching it twice to get what the hell was going on..

 

still kind of confused on what was going on, but its a decent show

That's what happens when you make an anime to be one giant metaphor.

 

 

I second Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story; it took me a couple of watches to understand what the heck was going on. Plots that use multiple timelines tend to be confusing and Madoka Magica is no exception.

 

I don't know if it counts or not as the plot is very abstract and not much of a plot at all, but the game: Yume Nikki is really confusing, and to this day; I still don't know what was going on in that game.

 

I also found Ergo Proxy's plot to be really confusing. I had no idea what was happening or why, so I gave up on the series unfortunately.

 

I never finished Ergo Proxy. Only got about halfway in. They throw you right into things at the beginning from what I remember so it's easy to get lost. I gotta rewatch the series and actually finish it.

 

The basic storyline of the BlazBlue games is pretty easy to understand, but once you branch out (and there are A TON of branches), it gets pretty confusing pretty quick. It doesn't help that until ChronoPhantasma it had a multi-verse thing going on where most storylines are completely irrelevant to the main one. It's to the point where the game has a devoted section just to help the player understand key points(and is confirmed non-canon, so even *it* is another alternate story with no relevance to the main plot).

I love BlazBlue's stories. Canon or not they are all great. I haven't finished the story in Continuum Shift but the joke endings are hilarious as hell.

 

 

I would say KH #1

Second I think is the movie inception (at least the first time you see it)

Of all the games in the series the first one is the least complicated, except maybe Coded.

 

@@EquestrianScholar, Another anime I never finished. I read a good ways into the manga but don't remember enough about it. CLAMP is amazing at storytelling though and their self referencing is awesome. I wonder if the anime and manga end the same way.

[Thunder Tinker 659]

I have to say The Evil Within. The confusing story dragged the game down very much.

[Tanos 179]

Lol exactly, I've been a fan of KH ever since I was like 9 years old and got to dream drop and literally had no clue for 90% of it

[Discordian 6,021]

I have to say The Evil Within. The confusing story dragged the game down very much.

From what I've heard that's kinda the entire point of the game. You aren't supposed to know what's going on.

[GreyScholar 1,584]

@@EquestrianScholar, Another anime I never finished. I read a good ways into the manga but don't remember enough about it. CLAMP is amazing at storytelling though and their self referencing is awesome. I wonder if the anime and manga end the same way.

I would recommend the manga over the anime, as a good part of the story is missing from the manga in the anime. More, it adds one large arc that has nothing to do with the manga.

[Virgil 686]

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey , after watching it I was like, "what just happened for the past 2 hours?!" And this is coming from someone who watches the strangest shows and movies quite frequently.

[shy0wl 484]

I just saw Interstellar last night and I'm trying to make half sense of it 

[Discordian 6,021]

I would recommend the manga over the anime, as a good part of the story is missing from the manga in the anime. More, it adds one large arc that has nothing to do with the manga.

So the anime takes a large story arc out and puts in a totally random one? Weird. I'd probably still go for the anime and read the manga later.

 

I also gotta watch/read xxxHolic. Same deal with that one. I got pretty far into it and stopped reading it.

 

This was all like ten years ago, mind you, so I'm sure there's a LOT I've missed.

I just saw Interstellar last night and I'm trying to make half sense of it 

This pleases me. I wanna go see that one and I was hoping it wouldn't turn out to be just pretty visuals.

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey , after watching it I was like, "what just happened for the past 2 hours?!" And this is coming from someone who watches the strangest shows and movies quite frequently.

Oooh that's a good one, took some research to finally figure out the ending.

[~Sassy Dashie~ 712]

A movie I watched recently...I forget the name, but really, it made my whole head buzz like a beehive with confusion.