History Main / StoryArc

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has four story arcs. The first one is the Xord arc, where the heroes first leave their attacked hometown and have their first encounter with a talking Face Mechon. The second arc, the Prison Island arc, continues their search for Metal Face, the Mechon that destroyed their hometown, climaxing with a battle at the titular Prison Island. The third is the Egil arc, when the heroes infiltrate Mechonis to fight against Egil, the leader of the Mechon. After the Mechonis Core event, the final arc is the [[spoiler:Zanza]] arc, where [[spoiler:the Monado[=/=]Zanza takes over Bionis and threatens to destroy everything]].

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' had a couple of these:
** One arc first introduced in Series 3 was the idea that Brittas and his NumberTwo Laura may have feelings for each other, which gets more focus in Series 4 and 5.
** Series 5 had Brittas preparing to leave his job at the leisure center for the role of European Commissioner in Brussels, which lasts the whole season.

** Throughout several stories, there is an arc involving [[TheConspiracy The Forge]], an organization dating back from at least WW1, performing secret experiments during that time frame, including [[spoiler:turning people into vampires against their will]]. 6th Doctor and Evelyn encounter the remnants of their experiments as well as a member of their's in "Project: Twilight", while the revived in modern time Forge is revealed in "Project: Lazarus", before the 7th Doctor has much more active involvement fighting against them, especially due to his new companion's, Thomas "Hex" Schofield's, mother being involved in the organization during 6th Doctor's encounters with them.

** Much more long term is an arc involving [[TheConspiracy The Forge]] an organization dating back from at least WW1, performing secret experiments during that time frame, including [[spoiler:turning people into vampires against their will]]. 6th Doctor and Evelyn encounter the remnants of their experiments as well as a member of their's in "Project: Twilight", while the revived in modern time Forge is revealed in "Project: Lazarus", before the 7th Doctor has much more active involvement fighting against them, especially due to his new companion's, Thomas "Hex" Schofield's, mother being involved in the organization during 6th Doctor's encounters with them.

* ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini'': The game's first half has the three main playable characters (Juno, Vela and Lupus) head towards Mizar's Palace to defeat the leader of the insectile Drones responsible for the BugWar in the galaxy; in turn, each character goes to the intended destination by completing their own roadmap, dealing with different events as situations as they face gthe Drone army along the way. The second half, which starts with Mizar's first defeat, is a quest to repair an ancient ship to intercept the villain's meteor to prevent its impact against planet Earth.

* Creator/JKRowling has stated that, unlike the first five books of ''Literature/HarryPotter'' which are thematically autonomous while still carrying over the overall continuity of the universe, the last two books (''Half Blood Prince'' and ''Deathly Hallows'') are meant to be two volumes of the same arc, which is evident not only through the fully interwined link between the end of the former and the start of the latter, but also through the plot devices that both books share; they also heavily reference the events of the past five books to solve any pending plot point and then settle the climax of the story.

* Several games with multiple playable characters provide a complete campaign for each of them, in which not only there might be unique storylines, but also aspects that are benefitial to the gameplay (i.e. the character has special abilities or weapons that have to be exploited to tackle their corresponding levels or chapters). ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini'', for instance, has Juno's, Vela's and Lupus' routes, followed by a quest to repair an ancient ship, and then the FinalBoss battle.

** Year 1 (Issues #1-#12) features the ''Sonic'' characters rebuilding after the events of ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', dealing with Eggman's army coming under the control of [[spoiler: [[DragonAscendant Neo Metal Sonic]]]], and unraveling the mystery of where Eggman himself disappeared to.
** Year 2 and most of Year 3 (Issues #13-32) together form the lead up to, body of, and epilogue to the [[ZombieApocalypse Metal Virus Saga]], as Eggman returns and unleashes a plague that turns the infected into mindless robots under his command, only to eventually have to [[EnemyMine team up with the heroes]] when the [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld Deadly Six]] usurp the plan from him.
** The remainder of Year 3 (Issues #33-36) is the "Chao Races & Badnik Bases" arc, a semi-standalone arc starring Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, and Team Dark as they try to repair Omega, meeting new character Belle along the way. The end of this arc is set to close the book on the last unresolved Metal Virus-related plot thread (at least on the heroes' side), fully restoring normality to the lives of Sonic and co.

** ''Franchise/PrettyCure'', as a whole, has spanned ''eighteen'' series, but only two of them are sequels to previous series.

* ''ComicStrip/Tumbleweeds'' sometimes would go out of Grimy Gulch [[PutOnABuss for weeks at a time]]. He'd often get lost, meet tertiary characters and have characters back in town wondering about him. Eventually Tumbleweeds would return to [[TheBusCameBack town weeks later]].

* The first three books of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' focus on the War of the Five Kings, while the following two books deal with its aftermath. The disconnect was originally going to be even starker ([[{{Pun}} heh]]); ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' is filled to the brim with so much climactic and shocking events, as well as many plot-relevant deaths, because it was written to be the final entry before a five-year TimeSkip. Hence why the book ends with Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Daenerys in relatively comfortable places (Jon being made the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Sansa serving as Littlefinger's BastardUnderstudy in the Eyrie, Arya going to Braavos to train as an assassin, Bran receiving a helping hand from Coldhands in his adventure, and Daenerys choosing to reign as queen of Meereen), as the idea was for them to quietly grow up and train as badasses. But Martin decided that he couldn't just leave all of the character developments offscreen and abandoned his plans for the time skip.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'''s MythArc is divided by three seasons, which are titled "books". Book 1 is Water, Book 2 is Earth, and Book 3 is Fire. As the names suggest, each arc deals heavily with Aang mastering the elements involved. Also, while Book 1 was more or less one whole arc, each half of Book 2 and Book 3 could be divided into arcs: the Earthbending Training arc, the Ba Sing Se arc, the pre-Solar Eclipse Invasion arc, and the pre-Sozin's Comet / Firebending Training arc.

* As the longest-running manga ever, ''Manga/OnePiece'' has naturally had plenty of arcs (and that's not even counting the [[OvertookTheManga anime-only ones]]). For convenience, these have been grouped together into sagas:

** The Rapper Bob Arc - [[JerkAss Bob]] has [[FaceHeelTurn betrayed his friends]] to finally become a successful rapper, including [[KickTheDog ending his friendship]] [[BreakTheCutie with Fishy Boopkins]], it's up to Mario, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Saiko]] and the gang to end his rapping career once and for all.
** The Anime Arc - After [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Bob]] accidentally destroys Peach's castle using [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku's]] blast, Anime is banned from the Mushroom Kingdom, including Saiko (who is a real life anime character), the gang bands together to unban anime with the help of Axol, later on after [[spoiler:anime is unbanned, [[BadassInDistress Meggy]] and Axol]] were kidnapped by [[spoiler:[[EvilNerd Francis]]]],who wants to make an island of waifus with the inklings ink, so it's up to the gang (including [[TheRival Desti]], of all people) to save [[spoiler:Meggy and stop Francis.]]

** Season One focuses on Robin, with [[ManipulativeBastard Slade]] as the BigBad; the story is mostly about how the two characters are and aren't NotSoDifferent.

* MentalHealthRecoveryArc

** ''Series/Batwoman2019'': Season 1 is built around Kate learning to be a superhero while engaged in conflict with the terrorist known as [[PracticallyJoker Alice]], who is really her [[LongLostRelative long lost sister]] Beth.

* ''Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers''
** [[CerebusSyndrome The Waluigi Arc]] - [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Waluigi]] gets rejected from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' again, causing him to embrace the power of rejection and use the power to turn everyone into T-Pose zombies and cause an apocalypse on the Mushroom Kingdom.
** [[LighterAndSofter The Rapper Bob Arc]] - [[JerkAss Bob]] has [[FaceHeelTurn betrayed his friends]] to finally become a successful rapper, including [[KickTheDog ending his friendship]] [[BreakTheCutie with Fishy Boopkins]], it's up to Mario, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Saiko]] and the gang to end his rapping career once and for all.
** [[DarkerAndEdgier The Anime Arc]] - After [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Bob]] accidentally destroys Peach's castle using [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku's]] blast, Anime is banned from the Mushroom Kingdom, including Saiko (who is a real life anime character), the gang bands together to unban anime with the help of Axol, later on after [[spoiler:anime is unbanned, [[BadassInDistress Meggy]] and Axol]] were kidnapped by [[spoiler:[[EvilNerd Francis]]]],who wants to make an island of waifus with the inklings ink, so it's up to the gang (including [[TheRival Desti]], of all people) to save [[spoiler:Meggy and stop Francis.]]
** [[GrowingTheBeard The YouTube Arc]] - [[BigBad SMG3]] has gotten his production studio destroyed by [=SMG4=], which caused the former to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil return to villainy]], afterwards he gets his own crew which are [[EvilCounterpart copycats]] of the [[FanNickname Glitchy Gang]], who will help him to [[spoiler:[[RetGone erase [=SMG4=] and the gang]] (sans Mario) [[RetGone from existence]].]]

* While most ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games have a single story through the quests and rank chapters, the G expansions (''Monster Hunter G'' / ''Freedom'', ''Freedom Unite'', ''3 Ultimate'', ''4 Ultimate'' and ''Generations Ultimate'') have at least two: The original story of the games they're expanding upon, and their own arc that is spanned through the added High Rank quests. For example, ''3 Ultimate'' starts with the original story of ''Tri'' about finding and defeating Lagiacrus to get rid of the earthquakes (and later Ceadeus when it is revealed to be the true responsible), then continues with the quest for the Ultimate Mask and how to give back its power; ''4 Ultimate'' starts with the original story of ''4'' about chasing Gore Magala and stopping its spread of the Frenzy Virus (for which Gore's evolved form, Shagaru Magala, has to be defeated as well), then adds the new story of Dundorma and its hunters continuously stopping the attacks of Kushala Daora. And so on.

* The chronology of ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' is divided into four arcs: The original story where Samus storms the base of the Space Pirates in Zebes (''VideoGame/{{Metroid 1}}'' / ''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]''), the Phazon incident (the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' sub-series), the story where Samus has to exterminate all Metroids except the one she spared and then rescue it from the Pirates (''[[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus Return of Samus]]'' / ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''), and the story telling the consequences of the Metroids' near-extinction plus the dubious ethics of the Galactic Federation (''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]'').

** The fic has an overall plot of Harry readjusting to life as the son of Thor, while Lucius Malfoy allies with HYDRA and the {{Necromancer}} Gravemoss to destroy the Avengers and TakeOverTheWorld.

** [[CerebusSyndrome The Waluigi Arc]] - [[JerkassWoobie Waluigi]] gets rejected from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' again, causing him to embrace the power of rejection and use the power to turn everyone into T-Pose zombies and cause an apocalypse on the Mushroom Kingdom.

** [[DarkerAndEdgier The Anime Arc]] - After Bob accidentally destroys Peach's castle, Anime is banned from the Mushroom Kingdom, including Saiko (who is a real life anime character) so the gang wants to unban anime with the help of Axol, later on after [[spoiler:anime is unbanned, Meggy and Axol]] were kidnapped by [[spoiler:[[EvilNerd Francis]]]],who wants to make an island of waifus with the inklings ink, so it's up to the gang (including [[TheRival Desti]], of all people) to save [[spoiler:Meggy and stop Francis.]]