History Main / RotatingArcs

* ''{{Naruto}}'' filler arcs typically follow this pattern. With Sasuke having left the village and Sakura spending all her time training under Tsunade, Naruto typically goes on a mission with other squads, usually with a different character getting emphasis and development in the arc. For example, in the Mizuki Strikes Back arc, he works with Team 10 and Iruka and Mizuki's past is explored; in the Bikochuu arc, he goes with Team 8 and Hinata's growth as a ninja is explored. In some arcs, like Land of the Sea, the featured characters come from multiple teams. Shippuden follows this to some degree with its arcs (Team Guy in the Gaara arc, Team 10 in the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, and Team 8 in the Hunt for Uchiha arc).

* ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'' is a SliceOfLife series surrounding a king's [[MassiveNumberedSiblings 9 children]] against a backdrop of ElectiveMonarchy. As a result, this series is structured such that every chapter/segment is focused on one or two of the Sakurada siblings[[note]][[HalfIdenticalTwins Misaki and Haruka]] are often featured together, so are Teru and Shiori, who are the youngest.[[/note]]. Other siblings are often brought into the story as story requires, but there're few stories involving ''all'' of the siblings.

* Noticeably averted in ''ComicBook/{{Stormwatch}}'' and ComicBook/TheAuthority, where the teams are really too small to divide everyone up.
** Stormwatch does a LampshadeHanging on this in "Bleed", where, after viewing a parallel world where there are several Stormwatch teams, Winter remarks "You can't put twenty superhumans in the same '''town''' without them picking fights with each another."
*** It can be argued, though, that these comics do a mini rotating arc within the issue by pairing up some of the characters: for example, in ComicBook/TheAuthority, Midnighter and Apollo, and Jack and The Engineer usually work together as well as being romantically linked while Shen and The Doctor alternate between teams/partners or work alone. Oh, and Jenny (both versions) does whatever the hell she likes.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' consists of ten largely self-contained books; while Rotating Arcs is utilized in almost every one of them, the trope mostly applies to the structure of the series. Each book is part of one or more of three overall arcs, and as the series progresses, the arcs start to intermingle and eventually converge toward each other.

* To a lesser extent, LordOfTheRings, particularly ''The Return of the King'' -- the cast herds are Frodo-Sam-Gollum, Aragorn-Éomer-Imrahil, and arguably two or three crystallize around Éowyn and Faramir. They all occur simultaneously but in multi-chapter segments.

* The ''Literature/RedWall'' books are organized like this generally. There's usually 1-3 groups off on the adventure and 1-2 groups dealing with some issue that arises back home while they are gone. At least one Villain group (depending on the number of lead villains) is usually present as well, but they also tend to get less personal attention beyond their actions relevant to the adventurers.
* [[Literature/EarthsChildren The Valley of Horses]] rotates between Ayla and her pets and Jondolar and his brother.

* ''Series/TheBill''. Not only do we have [[CastHerd CID, Uniform and The Brass]], but several sets of external characters. These can be left hanging for months before being rotated back in, putting a strain on viewer engagement.
* In its last two seasons of ''Series/TheWestWing'', the plot went back and forth between the White House and the campaign trail, but most of the StoryArc revolved around the upcoming election. Since the candidates had to comment and respond to the crises the President dealt with and the campaigners were still in touch with the characters remaining in the White House, there was a degree of overlap. It also fits the real political problem of a lame duck politician that is leaving office and therefore not as relevant as before.

* ''Webcomic/FriendlyHostility'' characters can be grouped roughly into "Fox's friends" and "Collin's friends," and tend to appear as such, one group at a time. There's quite a bit of overlap though, and this is one particular comic that likes to see what happens when the separate cast herds meet.
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' uses Rotating Arcs, even though the cast isn't particularly large. Characters and plot threads come and go from chapter to chapter; Antimony is the only constant, and even she gets demoted to the role of a spectator in a few chapters.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' does this a lot. Bun-Bun got his own story arcs and cast of supporting characters in "Holiday Wars" and "Oceans Unmoving." Same goes for Oasis in "Phoenix Rising." Torg has had a number of these, from the "Torg Potter" stories where he's magically transported to a corner of the Sluggy universe populated by Harry Potter parodies, to the "Aylee" arc where he and Aylee were trapped for months in AnotherDimension, to the massive "That Which Redeems" arc where he was in ''Another'' AnotherDimension for months without any of the other cast members (although he did have their AlternateUniverse versions). The other main characters have all gotten smaller versions of these, usually in shorter arcs with a little more interaction from the other cast members.
* The webcomic ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' does this in the "Massively Parallel" StoryArc. The mercenaries of Tagon's Toughs split into four teams while their wrecked ship was in drydock. The first arc covered Elf Foxworthy's struggle to get the ship fixed, while the megalomaniacal Fleetmind pursued its own suspicious goals behind the scenes. The second arc has Schlock and his team sent on a mission that is going toxic. Pieces from the first arc keep getting shown from the other side of the comm system. The third arc has Kevyn and Pi setting up a system of explosives and teraports for an emergency escape system (the requested work, if not what was actually planned). The fourth arc followed Tagon, the Doc, and the remaining Toughs as they worked a gig as Mallcops in a low-gravity orbital shopping center. All four segments come together at the end as they scramble to reassemble and take on an emergency job with a couple personal twists.
** At the end of Tagon's Mallcop Command arc it's pointed out that the story wrapped up a few weeks earlier than the others and the rest of the time was spent enjoying themselves at the mall while working the cushy security gig without incident. This trope is lampshaded as the narrator points out how unrealistic it would be to have all four storylines wrap up at exactly the same time, exactly when the next arc would be starting.
*** In fact, Schlock's team's arc wasn't quite wrapped up yet (the rest of his team were in jail, having been framed for some shady dealings) and as a result they get left behind for the beginning of the next arc.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' starts out moving between its separate protagonists, and gets even more and larger groups as time goes on.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Genesis ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game has three main questlines that all link up at the endgame. Each questline follows a different lead on your brother's murder, and you can track each lead at your own leisure or pursue multiple leads on a single errand. One quest tells you ''what'' happened to Michael and ''why'', one tells you ''who'' did it, and the third tells you ''where'' the BigBad is now.
[[/folder]]

* The Genesis ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game has three main questlines that all link up at the endgame. Each questline follows a different lead on your brother's murder. One quest tells you ''what'' happened to Michael and ''why'', one tells you ''who'' did it, and the third tells you ''where'' the BigBad is now.

* The Genesis ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game has three main questlines that all link up at the endgame. Each questline follows a different lead on your brother's murder.

* The ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'' series focuses on one or a couple of characters in each episode which is helped by the GroundHogDayLoop formula. For example [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Keiichi in Onikakushi-hen]] and [[VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi Rosa in Turn of the Golden Witch.]]

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* ''FruitsBasket'', in the manga's later arcs, as a necessity of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters parents, brothers, sisters, love interests and random passers by]] getting roped into the story. Notable for splitting up the core quartet of Yuki, Kyo, Shigure and Tohru. Kyo and Tohru form an arc unto themselves, Yuki begins to appear only in his own student-council related arc, and Shigure only really has any significance when shown with Akito. And let's not get started on the lives and loves of the other members of the Zodiac, who keep the Rotating Arcs spinning around at warp speed.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' uses rotating arcs ''constantly'' - with such an enormous cast, and people [[PutOnABus leaving]], [[KilledOffForReal dying]] and [[BackFromTheDead resurrecting themselves]] all the time, it's the only way Professor X and Co. can be kept in check... and the only way that readers can keep up with everyone. Even then, the X-Men shuffle teams pretty regularly, just to keep things confusing.

[[AC: FanFiction]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

[[AC:VisualNovels]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* The WhateleyUniverse ''has'' to operate this way, since the main characters are written by different authors. The most obvious example was the 2006 Christmas break, which technically still hasn't finished since some authors are writing new stories for it. Phase had a separate novel where she went home and ran into a serial killer [[spoiler: that was really an unkillable demon from a hell dimension]]. Tennyo had a Christmas adventure with Jinn Sinclair [[spoiler: who was embedded in her stuffed cabbit]], while Jade Sinclair went home with Fey for another holiday [[spoiler: and she was stabbed to death, but she got better]]. And so on. So far, there are seven such stories, two of which haven't finished. And WordOfGod says there will probably be a couple more.

* ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'' is a SliceOfLive series surrounding a king's [[MassiveNumberedSiblings 9 children]] against a backdrop of ElectiveMonarchy. As a result, this series is structured such that every chapter/segment is focused on one or two of the Sakurada siblings[[note]][[HalfIdenticalTwins Misaki and Haruka]] are often featured together, so are Teru and Shiori, who are the youngest.[[/note]]. Other siblings are often brought into the story as story requires, but there're few stories involving ''all'' of the siblings.

* The ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' uses rotating arcs ''constantly'' - with such an enormous cast, and people [[PutOnABus leaving]], [[KilledOffForReal dying]] and [[BackFromTheDead resurrecting themselves]] all the time, it's the only way Professor X and Co. can be kept in check... and the only way that readers can keep up with everyone. Even then, the X-Men shuffle teams pretty regularly, just to keep things confusing.
* Noticeably averted in {{Stormwatch}} and ComicBook/TheAuthority, where the teams are really too small to divide everyone up.

* The RedWall books are organized like this generally. There's usually 1-3 groups off on the adventure and 1-2 groups dealing with some issue that arises back home while they are gone. At least one Villain group (depending on the number of lead villains) is usually present as well, but they also tend to get less personal attention beyond their actions relevant to the adventurers.
* TheValleyOfHorses rotates between Ayla and her pets and Jondolar and his brother.

* This is a staple of the ''LawAndOrder'' franchise, and is especially prevalent in the main show and ''Criminal Intent''. Depending on actor availability or shooting needs, any given season can flip back and forth between two separate sets of detectives investigating cases at different times, or overlapping casts during a crossover event.

* In its last two seasons of ''TheWestWing'', the plot went back and forth between the White House and the campaign trail, but most of the StoryArc revolved around the upcoming election. Since the candidates had to comment and respond to the crises the President dealt with and the campaigners were still in touch with the characters remaining in the White House, there was a degree of overlap. It also fits the real political problem of a lame duck politician that is leaving office and therefore not as relevant as before.

* The ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'' series focuses on one or a couple of characters in each episode which is helped by the GroundHogDay formula. For example [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Keiichi in Onikakushi-hen]] and [[VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi Rosa in Turn of the Golden Witch.]]

* The ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'' series focuses on one or a couple of characters in each episode which is helped by the GroundHogDay formula. For example [[VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Keiichi in Onikakushi-hen]] and [[VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi Rosa in Turn of the Golden Witch.]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' does this. Each book's main group is traditionally either Ridcully and the Wizards, the Witches and Tiffany Aching, Death/Susan, the Night Watch, Moist Von Lipwig, or a stand-alone book who's characters aren't visited again outside of cameos.

RotatingArcs function like one of those revolving doors you invariably get your coat trapped in -- as one character, or group of characters, come in, another is pushed out. While this can happen [[ADayInTheLimelight on a character-by-character basis]], it's much more likely the the writer will make use of a CastHerd.

* ''FruitsBasket'', in the manga's later arcs, as a necessity of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters parents, brothers, sisters, love interests and random passers by]] getting roped into the story. Notable for splitting up the core quartet of Yuki, Kyo, Shigure and Tohru. Kyo and Tohru form an arc unto themselves, Yuki begins to appear only in his own student-council related arc, and Shigure only really has any significance when shown with Akito. And let's not get started on the lives and loves of the other members of the Zodiac, who keep the RotatingArcs spinning around at warp speed.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' consists of ten largely self-contained books; while RotatingArcs is utilized in almost every one of them, the trope mostly applies to the structure of the series. Each book is part of one or more of three overall arcs, and as the series progresses, the arcs start to intermingle and eventually converge toward each other.

* ''FriendlyHostility'' characters can be grouped roughly into "Fox's friends" and "Collin's friends," and tend to appear as such, one group at a time. There's quite a bit of overlap though, and this is one particular comic that likes to see what happens when the separate cast herds meet.

* {{Homestuck}} starts out moving between its separate protagonists, and gets even more and larger groups as time goes on.

* Noticeably averted in {{Stormwatch}} and TheAuthority, where the teams are really too small to divide everyone up.

*** It can be argued, though, that these comics do a mini rotating arc within the issue by pairing up some of the characters: for example, in TheAuthority, Midnighter and Apollo, and Jack and The Engineer usually work together as well as being romantically linked while Shen and The Doctor alternate between teams/partners or work alone. Oh, and Jenny (both versions) does whatever the hell she likes.

RotatingArcs function like one of those revolving doors you invariably get your coat trapped in - as one character, or group of characters, come in, another is pushed out. While this can happen [[ADayInTheLimelight on a character-by-character basis]], it's much more likely the the writer will make use of a CastHerd.

* In its last two seasons of ''TheWestWing'', the plot went back and forth between the White House and the campaign trail, but most of the StoryArc revolved around the upcoming election. Since the candidates had to comment and respond to the crises the President dealt with and the campaigners were still in touch with the characters remaining in the White House, there was a degree of overlap.

* Upon the conclusion of the [[SeasonalRot Johto arc]], the Hoenn arc introduces Pokémon Contests into the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime and a main character to participate in it (May, and later Dawn in the Sinnoh arc), giving it as much importance to the plot as that of Ash's story. This way, Hoenn suffered from less {{Filler}} than Johto (which was infamous for large amounts of filler), giving it much better reception. The following Sinnoh arc, unfortunately, [[ArcFatigue didn't follow suit]], not from too much filler like Johto but for the opposite extreme of [[FourLinesAllWaiting too many plot arcs going on at once and stalling one another constantly.]]

* Upon the conclusion of the [[SeasonalRot Johto arc]], the Hoenn arc introduces Pokémon Contests into the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime and a main character to participate in it (May, and later Dawn in the Sinnoh arc), giving it as much importance to the plot as that of Ash's story. This way, Hoenn suffered from less {{Filler}} than Johto (which was infamous for large amounts of filler), giving it much better reception. The following Sinnoh arc, unfortunately, [[ArcFatigue didn't follow suit.]]

* ''TheBill''. Not only do we have [[CastHerd CID, Uniform and The Brass]], but several sets of external characters. These can be left hanging for months before being rotated back in, putting a strain on viewer engagement.

* To a lesser extent, LordOfTheRings, particularly ''The Return of the King'' -- the cast herds are Frodo-Sam-Gollum, Aragorn-Eomer-Imrahil, and arguably two or three crystallize around Eowyn and Faramir. They all occur simultaneously but in multi-chapter segments.