What does ”それが” mean in this context?


So I came across the following phrase: それが、どうしてこんなことに…… and I feel like the
second part of it means something along the lines of "How did it get like
this?" (I could be totally off of the mark, I'm far from sure), but what I'm
most curious is what the それが means in this context. There doesn't seem to be
anything before the phrase comes up in what I was reading that gives any clue
to what それ could be referring to, and in fact the phrase seems to be something
that stands on its own. Also, what is suggested by the に at the end? I realize
it's an incomplete sentence, but does it seem like the next part of the
sentence should be obvious? Thank you very much for any advice.




To "answer" without further context, something had to be going right or as
planned in the story. 「それ」 refers to that whole situation where things were
good.

Then, something had to happen to prevent things from going right and you are
now wondering how in the world this could have happened. Correct? The phrase
in question could not mean anything else.

「それが、どうしてこんなことに・・・」

What is left unsaid at the end would be along the lines of
なったのか、なったのだろう、なってしまったのだろう、なってしまったのか, etc.

If one speaks Japanese, one will know with no effort that 「なる」 is hiding there
as a key verb. Thus, one does not have to say it and chooses to end the phrase
with 「に」. It just looks smarter ending the sentence that way when the readers
will know what is left unsaid.




To "answer" without further context, something had to be going right or as
planned in the story. 「それ」 refers to that whole situation where things were
good.

Then, something had to happen to prevent things from going right and you are
now wondering how in the world this could have happened. Correct? The phrase
in question could not mean anything else.

「それが、どうしてこんなことに・・・」

What is left unsaid at the end would be along the lines of
なったのか、なったのだろう、なってしまったのだろう、なってしまったのか, etc.

If one speaks Japanese, one will know with no effort that 「なる」 is hiding there
as a key verb. Thus, one does not have to say it and chooses to end the phrase
with 「に」. It just looks smarter ending the sentence that way when the readers
will know what is left unsaid.

