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Mission Creep
- 80 statements
- 13 feature instances
- 22 referencing feature instances
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A particular group has been tasked a certain mission or project. This group can be as small as a single unit, or even a single man; it can be as large as an organization, an institution, a government, or a group of nations. In all instances, their original purpose was a particular task or mission, and they proceed to carry out that task, and here's the crucial thing, they succeed. At first anyway. Mission Creep is what begins after initial success. You see sometimes, success is not enough, it turns out your original goal was a woefully small part of a larger problem. Alternatively your solution can only solve that problem temporarily but you are unprepared at providing a long-term solution. In this instance, the original group decides to start expanding and takes on other goals and tasks to supplement their original goal. The original goal is still the main story quest for them, but along the way they find some fun side-missions that buttress their original goal. Initially, it seems that the group can handle these tasks and responsibilities but over time, tensions seep in because of the gap between original project and new responsibilities and without some way to address that gap and come to terms with the change from expectations to reality, mission creep can backfire, destroy or finish the group. In short, it's the institutional and professional equivalent of a Greek Tragedy. Complete with promising beginnings, tragic inevitability, hubris, hamartia and resignation. It can lead characters to question whether their original goal and so the effort they expanded in that project was really worth it alternatively, characters may decide that their original idea was too vague and unclearly defined, or simply Entertainingly Wrong based on a non-malicious misreading of a situation, but now they have to adjust with a clearer approach to the problem. Mission Creep is similar and related to Motive Decay, with the difference being that the original motives and goals still exist in some form. In cases where it is closest to decay, the goal becomes The Artifact, but other instances exist of that goal still being primarily the main purpose but now intricately entangled with other related and/or separate goals, new responsibilities and unintended consequences. The Other Wiki has an article on Mission Creep noting that originally it applied to military operations in The '90s which gradually became more and more complicated forcing planners to constantly update and alter initial plans to better serve the original goal but eventually facing up to inadequacy in completing the original task within its current framework. It has since been applied in many non-military situations to describe problems and roadblocks in the life-cycle of any group or mission. Nearly always present in Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot situations. |
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Justice League begins with a group of superheroes teaming up to fight progressively more dangerous threats. To achieve this they build a space station called the Watchtower, their own planes and store alien technology. By the time of Unlimited they expand their roster from 7 to Heroes Unlimited and possess a better space station (with a whole support staff), a fleet of super-jets, and their own BFG in case of emergencies. In the eyes of the Justice League these are merely logical expansions in the wake of Serial Escalation of threats, but this causes problems for them because neutral observers believe they have become a N.G.O. Superpower without any checks and balances, and dangerously close to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and taking over the world. | |
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Assassin's Creed: Discussed many times by Altair, Al Mualim and the various Rafiqs. Altair is told to perform simple tasks (kill 9 Templars) but finds that their motivations and the reasons for killing them, and the connections between the targets hint at something bigger: | |
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Charby the Vampirate: Sadick’s journey to find his runaway little sister and return her and Meerse back home led to him accompanying K’ale to help K’ale find his little brother, acquiring K’ale, Bojo and LaBelle as companions in traversing King Samrick’s lands in search of his sister and eventually entering King Samrick’s employ to irritate his father as it should theoretically make his recovery of his sister legal. | |
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In the backstory of Overwatch, the organisation the game is named after was formed to deal with the first Omnic Crisis. Afterwards, it became a general peacekeeping organisation, but it also gained a secret "Black Ops" division. When these operations were revealed, public opinion turned on it and infighting between the two sections began. Culminating in both of its top leaders apparently Mutual Killing each other after a confrontation, and the UN disbanding and outlawing it. | |
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The Lord of the Rings appoints the Fellowship to carry out a simple mission, escort the Ringbearer (Frodo Baggins) to Mount Doom and drop the One Ring into the lava. But along the way, the fellowship faces setbacks, the temporary disappearance of their wizard mentor Gandalf, the loss of one of the fellowship in battle (Boromir) and the risk that the ring could corrupt other members of the Fellowship into compromising each other. As such to better carry out the mission in complex circumstances, the fellowship breaks up with Frodo and Sam going to Mount Doom alone, while Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas march to rally a movement of resistance to oppose Sauron and Saruman's forces to better distract their attention and draw their gaze away from Frodo and Sam. What starts with a fellowship of nine ends up involving an intricate alliance of human kingdoms, undead armies and eagles, all to serve the same original mission which could never have succeeded had they operated in the way they originally set out to accomplish. | |
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The Empirium Trilogy: At the start of Furyborn, Eliana's main mission is rescuing her mother. By the end, it's to come into her own as the Sun Queen and work towards taking out the Undying Empire. | |
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A Song of Ice and Fire has many examples: Robb Stark's Northern Campaign begins with the initial aim to rescue his father and his sisters who are held hostage by the Crown. To that end, he lifts the siege of Riverrun and captures Jaime Lannister as a hostage to force an exchange. But at that time, King Joffrey impulsively executes Ned Stark. Robb knows that the Lannisters won't exchange Jaime for his sisters, and that at the same time the other Riverlords oppressed by the Crown look to him as the only force to protect them from the Crown. So they appoint him, and he accepts in turn, the offer to become King in the North and Riverlands, with his new aim being to secure independence for both territories from the Seven Kingdoms. Robb's motive of revenge against the Lannisters doesn't change but circumstances provide him additional responsibilities to achieve that, which tragically backfire when he fails to reconcile his original purpose with his new responsibilities. Daenerys' overall purpose is to return to Westeros with her three dragons and reclaim her birthright. The manner in which she seeks to achieve that goal however leads her to take additional goals and ideals along the way, even if she, to her mind, has not changed her original purpose. A need for her own army, leads her to follow Jorah Mormont's suggestion to purchase Unsullied, slave soldiers, whose treatment so appalls her that she spontaneously sets forth on an abolitionist campaign and conquers an entire region of Essos, and ends up becoming ruler of three. However, upon achieving this, she realizes that the consequences of her actions would need her to stay back and rule her conquered territories especially since her control over her dragons starts to weaken, and The Remnant of the slavers seek to send freedmen back into slavery. Robert's Rebellion likewise began with Robert, Ned and Jon Arryn trying to arm themselves to protect them from Aerys II's death warrant. Slowly it expanded to becoming a rebellion to oust a 300 year old dynasty with Robert as King, a position he did not really want, but was more or less expected to accept to better protect the rebels and the soldiers from recrimination. The end result is a long peace managed by individuals with no real ideas on how to run Westeros other than replace one dynasty with other and hope that the rest of Westeros could fall in. This cracks in the Succession Crisis of the War of the Five Kings. It would have all worked out, more or less If his wife hadn't had an affair with her brother |
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Lawrence of Arabia has the titular T. E. Lawrence serving as a British Officer in the Middle East opposing the Ottoman Empire in World War I. To better oppose the Ottomans, he is recruited by his superiors (because of his knowledge of the Arabic language and local cultures) to visit various tribes and recruit their support against the Turks. In the process, Lawrence more or less helps to trigger Arab nationalism, as the various warring tribes try and unite in the hopes of forming a nation, and Lawrence buoyed with success hopes to help them secure independence, only to be told by the English that the Sykes-Picot Territory will once again partition the large territory and that once the Turks are defeated, they hope everyone to go home. Lawrence to the end, hopes to achieve both his goals (loyalty to England, and independence for the Arabs) only to overreach, exhaust and burn himself out, to his own disappointment and that of his friends. | |
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Legasov goes to Chernobyl to assess the damage after an explosion at the reactor. When he gets there and figures out exactly what the problem was, the mission changes to 'desperately attempt to contain the flood of radioactive contamination before the entirety of Europe becomes uninhabitable'. | |
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| Mission Creep / int_c007a111 | type |
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This is one of the main points of the Trespasser DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The eponymous inquisition led by the player character has succeded in its original goal of stabilizing the world and destroying the Big Bad. Now it has become an organisation with the military power and structure of a country in its own right, and the powers of the continent are deciding what should be done about it. complicating matters is the threat of a new enemy, but one who already has influence within the Inquisition. | |
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Assassin's Creed III: Connor's general mission is to protect his village and people, but then he receives Juno's message to join the Assassins and protect the Key to the Temple. Connor took this to mean that joining the Assassins and fighting the Templars would help his people. And later, he interacted with Patriots and came to see his causes (Protect his Village, Serve as Assassin) entangled with American Independence. This taking of additional duties complicates his adventures and eventually leads him to confront his overall failure when two of those goals: American Independence and protecting his village, gets compromised by his duty as an Assassin. In the end, Connor came around to Achilles' way of thinking and realized he was too naive and burdened himself with false expectations. | |
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| Mission Creep / int_f22e6bb4 | type |
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Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott is set during the Battle of Mogadishu which was a Trope Namer when journalist Jim Hoagland described the term when covering the conflict, and it's tragically illustrated in a film about soldiers finding a reality that severely complicates and compromises their brief. The film displays dramatically the manner in which a seemingly normal mission quickly gets severely complicated. | |
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| Mission Creep / int_f7d93e4a | type |
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Assassin's Creed has many characters addressing the issue. While they have been said to exist in some form or the other from before the modern era, the contemporary Assassins descend from the Asasiyun of Masyaf. In a larger franchise sense, the Assassins start out as a secret society dedicated to simply assassinating their targets and opposing the schemes of the Templars. They were originally Warrior Monks who operated in fortresses and specialized solely in assassination. Eventually, the Assassins without losing sight of their goal (opposing Templars and using force as and when necessary), take on additional responsibilities and duties (sponsoring revolutions, helping the local infrastructure, building communities and so on and so forth) that nonetheless creates problems when they try and fail to reconcile the gap between their original purpose and new responsibilities. Assassin's Creed: Discussed many times by Altair, Al Mualim and the various Rafiqs. Altair is told to perform simple tasks (kill 9 Templars) but finds that their motivations and the reasons for killing them, and the connections between the targets hint at something bigger: Assassin's Creed III: Connor's general mission is to protect his village and people, but then he receives Juno's message to join the Assassins and protect the Key to the Temple. Connor took this to mean that joining the Assassins and fighting the Templars would help his people. And later, he interacted with Patriots and came to see his causes (Protect his Village, Serve as Assassin) entangled with American Independence. This taking of additional duties complicates his adventures and eventually leads him to confront his overall failure when two of those goals: American Independence and protecting his village, gets compromised by his duty as an Assassin. In the end, Connor came around to Achilles' way of thinking and realized he was too naive and burdened himself with false expectations. |
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