History Main / StoryArc

* AtopTheFourthWall has had these ever since Mechakara's introduction.

* Everything except filler in ''ElGoonishShive''. Also has a MythArc, though it has spent the past few years lurking in the background.

** The site named the final arc "Bitter End". [[ItGotWorse Kinda apt, considering what happens here.]] Even more MindScrew with a side order of HighOctaneNightmareFuel. The part that made the franchise famous.

** The site named the final arc "Bitter End". [[ItGotWorse Kinda apt, considering what happens here.]] Even more MindScrew with a side order of HighOctaneNightmareFuel. Basically, the part that made the franchise famous.

* Probably the oldest one in television is ''ILoveLucy'', which featured several long-running arcs. The most famous is of course Lucy's pregnancy, which took up a full season from her first learning of it to giving birth and bringing Little Ricky home. Subsequent seasons followed the Ricardos and Mertzes on long trips through Europe, the US, and a stay in Hollywood.

** Season Four begins to really wrestle with the MythArc, with the boys [[spoiler:trying to prevent Lilith from breaking the 66 Seals and the rise of Lucifer]], not to mention introducing [[spoiler:angels, Dean's own destiny and Sam's growing demon powers.]]

**Season 2 revolves around [[spoiler:Dexter's victims' bodies being discovered. Miami Metro Homicide names the mysterious serial killer the Bay Harbor Butcher and, with the help of the FBI, begins their hunt for him. Of course this means Dexter needs to be a step ahead of his team at all times, particularly Doakes, who already suspects him. Paralleling the story is Dexter's relationship with Lila, his sponsor at Narcotics Anonymous.]]

* The ''Kirby'' series had a StoryArc nicknamed the "Dark Matter Trilogy" consisting of ''Kirby's Dream Land 2'', ''Kirby's Dream Land 3'', and ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' because all three deal with Kirby and his animal friends dealing with the threat of Dark Matter on Popstar and its solar system. It should be noted that these games were not produced by Masahiro Sakurai but Shinichi Shimomura. This is noticeable because all three share a puzzle-solving structure instead of the more combat-oriented structure of the other games.

** A truly epic arc concerning vampires, which began with the introduction of an Alternate Universe Future Badass version of Flandre Scarlet and came to its conclusion with the defeat of none other than The Lord of Evil, Dracula himself.
** Not to mention the more over-arcing Are machines sentient? arc, which began with the freeing of Dee and her sister Bit.

** The SequelSeries, ''BeastMachines,'' has some of the [[ContinuityLockout strongest continuity]] of any cartoon ever aired. The whole thing is basically a series of Arcs.

* [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender's]] MythArc is divided by it's 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.
* TheSecretSaturdays basically has this:

** Season Two focuses on Beast Boy and even moreso on [[spoiler:{{Sixth Ranger Traitor}}]] Terra, who is [[spoiler:manipulated by Slade to become TheMole and ultimately TheDragon]].

** Season Five focuses on the team as a whole and their efforts to stop [[LegionOfDoom the Brotherhood of Evil]] from wiping out an entire generation of superheroes.

* TheNostalgiaChick's had a few, the most obvious being the Dark Nella Saga.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* The {{Epic Tales}} series Shadow Hawk has an ongoing arc about Shadow Hawk wanting to get revenge on the Shapeshifter, who killed his father. It also has a subplot arc about how he got a girl pregnant in the first story.

* WebOriginal/TheNostalgiaCritic's had a long-running, slightly YoYoPlotPoint one about his love/hate relationship with his job.

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* Everything except filler in ''ElGoonishShive''. Also has a MythArc that has possibly been abandoned at this point.
** Nope. It just takes [[WebcomicTime LONG]].

* The ''SonicTheHedgehog'' series has had a three-game StoryArc dealing with Shadow. It started in ''SonicAdventure 2'', continued in ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' and resolved in ''ShadowTheHedgehog''.

* ''{{Transformers}}: BeastWars'' had arcs a-plenty. The first season often leaving a viewer wondering WhatHappenedToTheMouse, until, several episodes later, just when they'd almost forgotten, it was revealed. The second and third seasons, however, are more serialized. Skip an episode, and you'll miss at least one thing that's worth knowing later. You won't be left completely hanging, but you won't get what's going on as well as a more devoted viewer, either.

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* Each of season ''WhiteCollar'' revolve around a specific overarching storyline that continues from the last season.

** Season 3: [[spoiler: Vincent Adler's U-boat treasure that the box revealed, Matthew Keller's return, and Neal's commutation.]]

Each of White Collar's seasons also revolve around a specific overarching storyline.
** Season 1: Neal's search for Kate.
** Season 2: [[spoiler:The mystery of Kate's music box, and [[BigBad Vincent Adler]].]]
** Season 3: [[spoiler:The U-boat treasure, Matthew Keller's return, and Neal's commutation.]]

** Season 5 pits Dexter [[spoiler:and his new partner Lumen]] against a gang of serial rapists led by motivational speaker Jordan Chase.

** Season 2: [[spoiler:The mystery of Kate's music box, and Vincent Adler.]]

* AtopTheFourthWall has had these ever since Mechakara's introduction, though each had a similar flow with the exception of the Linkara Lost ark. The villan tries to break him, and then does a direct assault. The arks so far have been Mechkara, Linsano, Linkara Lost and now Lord Vyce. On a side note in lieu of the normal structure, linkara lost consisted of linkra being missing for an extended peroid of time, with guest hosts every week and stingers covering the spread of the ark until the conclusion in the Ewoks #9 review. There are also periodic filler episodes inbetween, so the arc dosen't take over the show.

* You'd be hard pressed to find a ''SluggyFreelance'' strip that doesn't lead up to or follow up on another strip. Most of them do both. Even if you counted sub-chapters (technically called stories, so calling them arcs as well is a bit redundant) or even chapters for "episodes", there are still storylines arcing over those, up to MythArc level. Even the FillerStrips often come in series: The Return of Stick-Figure Week!

* You'd be hard pressed to find a ''SluggyFreelance'' strip that doesn't lead up to or follow up on another strip. Most of them do both. Even if you counted sub-chapters (technically called stories, so calling them arcs as well is a bit redundant) or even chapters for "episodes", there are still storylines arcing over those, up to MythArc level.

* ''ExoSquad'' had not only the primary story arc (the struggle between the Terrans and the [[GattacaBabies Neo Sapiens]]), but it was also broken into smaller four or five episode long mini arcs, with the action typically focusing on a particular theater of the war. On the DVD release, each mini-arc gets its own name in addition to the episode titles.

** ''The E-Space Trilogy'' ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Full Circle]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors Gate]]")
** Following directly on from this was the season-crossing ''Return of the Master'' trilogy, comprising "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E6TheKeeperOfTraken The Keeper of Traken]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis Logopolis]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]]", released as ''New Beginnings'' on DVD as it also took in the Fourth Doctor's [[TheNthDoctor regeneration]] into the Fifth.
** ''The Black Guardian Trilogy'' ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead Mawdryn Undead]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E5Enlightenment Enlightenment]]") - involving Turlough's relationship with the Black Guardian.

** Since the revival, the series has opted for season-long loose arcs, mostly linked together through [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent recurring phrases and motifs]], though usually unnoticed and not really interfering with the episode's main plots. Season 32 has - at the time of writing - seemingly adopted a tighter arc format, though the [[MonsterOfTheWeek episodic format]] doesn't suffer from it.
*** Season 1: [[spoiler:'Bad Wolf' was either mentioned or written in the background in every episode. It was discovered that this was a link between The Doctor and Rose, written through time and space; by the time vortex itself.]]
*** Season 2: [[spoiler:'Torcwood', like bad wolf, was subtly incorporated into each episode, unbeknown to the main characters. It was discovered in the finale double bill that Torchwood was in fact an organisation devoted to anything alien, but fuelled by their eagerness to catch the Doctor.]]
*** Season 3: [[spoiler:Mr Saxon was mentioned in most episodes, once again, not to the attention of the main characters. Mr Saxon was the new, present prime minister; who is also on of the doctors greatest enimies - The Master]]
*** Season 4: [[spoiler: Doctor Donna. Though this arc did not appear as frequently as previous seasons, it was no less important. The Ood, are the first, and only (until it's meaning is later revealed) to use the term 'Doctor Donna'; however this was just brushed off as the duo assuming the race believed they were a couple. We discover that it is infact forshadowing a Human Time Lord metacrisis between the two.]]
*** Season 5: [[spoiler: It was much clearer, compared to earlier seasons, that the arc was based around the phrase 'The Pandorica will open'/'Silence will fall' from the very beginning. It was spoken as a warning from many of his foes/friends. The Pandorica was revealed to be a giant box designed by 'the Alliance' to contain the Eleventh Doctor. It is not entirely clear what 'Silence will fall means yet' due to this being the first NuWho arc to spread over two seasons; we do know it has something to do with an enigmatic religious order called 'The Silence'.]]
*** Season 6: [[spoiler:The Doctors Death and the identity of River Song. The mystery of Amy's pregnancy was bought to our attention at some point in every episode in series one; either by her mentioning it or the doctor scanning her to see if she was positive or negative. It turns out she was taken hostage by Madame Kovarian to give birth to a Time Lord hybrid to defeat the Doctor, and the Amy that has been travelling with them is a Ganger. The season also tells us that River Song is a Time Lord hybrid and Amy and Rory's daughter, who may or may not have killed the Doctor. The series finale should make the mystery surrounding his pre-seen death clear.]]

** ''The E-Space Trilogy'' ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Full Circle]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors Gate]]"

** ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' (Season 23 — the first 12 episodes consisted of three distinct stories with a common FramingDevice, which took over as the main story for the two-part SeasonFinale)

* Though ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' mostly uses stand alone stories, they do occasionally throw in hints of story arcs, such as [[spoiler: Equinox, the Starro story arc and the arrival of Darkseid]].

* The ''Kirby'' series had a StoryArc nicknamed the "Dark Matter Trilogy" consisting of ''Kirby's Dream Land 2'', ''Kirby's Dream Land 3'', and ''Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' because all three deal with Kirby and his animal friends dealing with the threat of Dark Matter on Popstar and its solar system. It should be noted that these games were not produced by Masahiro Sakurai but Shinichi Shimomura. This is noticeable because all three share a puzzle-solving structure instead of the more combat-oriented structure of the other games.

* BritCom AlloAllo might be the most humorously convoluted example of this and certainly for a Sit Com, being a comedy gave the writers numerous excuses to resolve them in absurdist manners.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' has one every season so far, generally building on the previous arc and moving toward the series' overall MythArc.