History Main / HyperlinkStory

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Trilogy of Error" has three interlinked plotlines - Lisa taking Linguo the grammar-correcting robot to the science fair, Bart and Milhouse finding a stash of illegal fireworks, and Homer getting his thumb cut off... all converging at the end.
** The episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" was similar: while trapped in a cave the Simpsons tell each other stories, often with more stories within them, that eventually collide when [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext Homer, Moe, Mr. Burns, the Rich Texan, and Snake all wind up in the cave looking for the gold]]]].

* ''Film/PulpFiction'' contains various stories about the lives of people orbiting the gangster Marcellus Wallace, incorporating a story about two rambling hitmen, a story about Marcellus's wife, a story about a boxer trying to steal money from Marcellus, a story about two young robbers and a storyline about the guy who cleans up evidence after Marcellus's murders. These stories are presented in an anachronic order.

* Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Manga/{{Phoenix}}'' was supposed to finish in this style. [[AuthorExistenceFailure He died before doing so.]]

* The Creator/MichaelMoorcock comic ''Multiverse'' seems like a fairly uncomplicated AnthologyComic from the outset, telling three stories of entirely different genres - a dimensional OrderVersusChaos naval war with the entire universe at stake, a supernatural {{Noir}} detective story, and a medieval HistoricalFiction. Towards the end of its run, these three begin to merge together and ultimately conclude as one.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Trilogy of Error" has three interlinked plotlines - Lisa had Linguo the grammar correcting robot, Bart and Millhouse went on an adventure, Homer got his thumb cut off... all converging at the end.

** The episode "Twenty Two Short Films about Springfield" is all about this, with many short segments all connecting with one another.

* ''Series//{{Traffik}}'', doubly impressive in that the Channel Four TV miniseries was made in 1989, years before "hyperlinks" became common phenomena.

* ''{{Traffik}}''

* ''Literature/HaltingState'' and ''Literature/RuleThirtyFour'', both by Creator/CharlesStross, are presented this way. Each book has three different characters getting drawn into events and gradually finding their paths intersecting by the end. While the three characters (a beat cop, an accountant, and a computer programmer) in ''Halting State'' were all WorkingTheSameCase, ''Rule 34'' changed this up a bit by having the three characters run the sliding scale of law vs crime, with a detective, a petty criminal, and a black marketeer who only becomes more charming as we learn more about him.

* ''Literature/HaltingState'' and ''{{Literature/Rule34}}'', both by Creator/CharlesStross, are presented this way. Each book has three different characters getting drawn into events and gradually finding their paths intersecting by the end. While the three characters (a beat cop, an accountant, and a computer programmer) in ''Halting State'' were all WorkingTheSameCase, ''Rule 34'' changed this up a bit by having the three characters run the sliding scale of law vs crime, with a detective, a petty criminal, and a black marketeer who only becomes more charming as we learn more about him.

* Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' is this.
* ''ComicBook/SinCity''.
** [[TheMovie The film version]] even more so.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'' is composed of many separate (anachronological) stories strung together into 3 distinct stories that are in turn connected to each other by characters and events.

* ''VideoGame/BrokenAge'' at first glance appears to be two stories following two teenagers who's only link a common theme of coming of age and escaping the roles forced upon them by their parents. [[spoiler:In actuality Shay is unknowingly in control of the monster that is attacking Vella's world.]]
* While the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' was fairly straightforward in how its cases were connected (they were all linked to the same international smuggling ring), the sequel's first four cases seem completely unrelated at first glance. An assassination attempt on a foreign president, a murder inside a prison, an unsolved case that was the last one Edgeworth's father took before his death, and an assault and a murder during Edgeworth's Prosecutor Investigation Committee hearing. It's only once you get to the fifth case that it's revealed they all link to the BigBad in some way. [[spoiler: The killer of the third case was the BigBad's father, who abandoned him and fled the country. He ended up in an orphanage, where he witnessed the assassination of the president of Zheng-Fa, arranged by his body double. The body double is the president you met in the first case, having replaced the real one. The owner of the orphanage and a corrupt prosecutor were in on the assassination and helped cover it up. The orphanage owner went on to become the prison warden you meet in Case 2, and the corrupt prosecutor is the head of the PIC and the killer of Case 4. Every previous murder except Case 3's was [[TheChessmaster orchestrated]] by the BigBad to bring the conspirators he witnessed to vigilante justice.]]

** Issue #90 of the [[ComicBook/TheSimpsons tie-in comic book series]] had the first story, "Homer's America", ubvolve Homer, chaperoning Lisa's class's field trip, take over driving the bus after driving Otto insane with his singing, and takes them on a tour across the country, telling them history lectures he makes up about the founding of the USA (such as George Washington slaying redcoat vampires and that Mount Rushmore was made to scare off aliens), all of which greatly annoy Lisa. It gets a CallBack in the same issue's second story, a Krusty the Clown-centered store, where at the end Krusty takes off for a vacation and Lindsey Naegle needs a replacement since they're out of reruns (as they used the master tapes to record a ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'' [[LongRunner marathon]]). Bart's idea for a mid-season replacement is ''Homer's History Corner'', where [[HyperlinkStory Homer tells his made-up history facts to the kid studio audience]], much to their amusement (and to Lisa's annoyance, of course.)

AnotherSideAnotherStory can be the video game equivalent. Compare PlotLineCrossover, which is just a brief intersection between unrelated plots. WorkingTheSameCase is a subtrope. HeroOfAnotherStory, TheMoorcockEffect, RashomonStyle and YouAllShareMyStory are {{Sister Trope}}s. See also ArcWelding.

* While the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' was fairly strightforward in how its cases were connected (they were all linked to the same international smuggling ring), the sequel's first four cases seem completely unrelated at first glance. An assassination attempt on a foreign president, a murder inside a prison, an unsolved case that was the last one Edgeworth's father took before his death, and an assault and a murder during Edgeworth's Prosecutor Investigation Committee hearing. It's only once you get to the fifth case that it's revealed they all link to the BigBad in some way. [[spoiler: The killer of the third case was the BigBad's father, who abandoned him and fled the country. He ended up in an orphanage, where he witnessed the assassination of the president of Zheng-Fa, arranged by his body double. The body double is the president you met in the first case, having replaced the real one. The owner of the orphanage and a corrupt prosecutor were in on the assassination and helped cover it up. The orphanage owner went on to become the prison warden you meet in Case 2, and the corrupt prosecutor is the head of the PIC and the killer of Case 4. Every previous murder except Case 3's was [[TheChessmaster orchestrated]] by the BigBad to bring the conspirators he witnessed to vigilante justice.]]

* Creator/JohnFord's final western, ''Cheyenne Autumn''. The protagonists are a group of Cheyennes forced off their reservation and most of the action follows their exodus. Parallel plots concern a Quaker woman who helps them, and a US Cavalry led by Richard Widmark who tracks them, other sections concern real life senator Carl Schurz (played by Edward G. Robinson), an interlude featuring Creator/JimmyStewart as Wyatt Earp that is absolutely unconnected to the main plot.

AnotherSideAnotherStory can be the videogame equivalent. Compare PlotLineCrossover, which is just a brief intersection between unrelated plots. WorkingTheSameCase is a subtrope. HeroOfAnotherStory, TheMoorcockEffect, RashomonStyle and YouAllShareMyStory are [[SisterTrope Sister Tropes]]. See also ArcWelding.

* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'': What started as different themes based on which Legos the author possessed, became an attempt to fill up the crossover table before becoming a full-fledged MythArc.

** "500 Keys" had the Simpsons use a collection of keys for their own individual adventures, with Homer going on a trip to the Duff Brewery, Bart getting into mischief (which backfires on him), Marge and Maggie chasing a runaway toy train, and Lisa discovering the school's dark secret. Lisa's conspiracy storyline soon gets big enough for the other storylines to get embroiled.

** The episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" was similar: while trapped in a cave the Simpsons tell each other stories, often with more stories within them, that eventually collide when [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext Homer, Moe, Mr. Burns and the Rich Texan all wind up in the cave looking for the gold]]]].

-->'''Quagmire''': Mort's is closed.
-->'''Dr. Hartman''': Oh, oh yeah. ({{beat}}) [[LampshadeHanging Cool tie-in with the other story, though.]]

* The episode "The Unkindest Cut" of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' involves Quagmire trying to adjust to life after having his penis bit off by a shark while Stewie and Brian try and look for Mort as there is a $10,000 bounty on him. By the end of the episode, Quagmire manages to get his penis surgically reattached and Dr. Hartman tells him to go to Hartman's pharmacy to get a prescription for presumably painkillers.

* The Creator/JackVance short story "The New Prime".

-> ''"For me, really, I felt that the world was the main character. Yeah...you can point to any one of the characters and kind of make your case for them being a lead...I’ve gone in in my own right and pitched TV shows and [the executives] always want to know to know, ‘Who are we following? Who are we following? There’s got to be a central character? Who are we following?’ Still. And what’s amazing about Thrones is you’re not following anyone person. You’re following who you want to follow. But really, this world you’re in -- Westeros, Dorne, Narrow Sea, this fantasy world -- that’s the main character. Which is very hard to do. In a way, the art department is the main character."''