History Main / TwoLinesNoWaiting

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' employs it often. First, it was Red Team and Blue Team. Season 3, after a brief [[FourLinesAllWaiting fragmentation]], eventually split between the Reds and Blues and villain O'Malley. Season 4 returns to Reds and Blues (though there, for a short while a Blue was actually in the Red plot), and it remains that way until the mostly single plot Season 6. Season 7 started with Reds and Blues, but then split into those who went to the desert and those who stayed. Season 8 went for protagonists\antagonists once those that travelled returned. [[Machinima/RedVsBlueTheProjectFreelancerSaga The Project Freelancer Saga]] had flashbacks with Project Freelancer sharing time with the Epsilon recreation of the Reds and Blues (season 9) and the present day events (season 10). Season 11 started with Reds\Blues again, merged them in the final episodes, and Season 12 started with a single plot that got more fragmented as time went on.

* A Finnish comic novel named "OM" did this in a decidedly {{Mind Screw}}y way. The A Story (or at least the one it opened on), being the adventures of the eponymous samurai rabbit, was interrupted abruptly by the B-story of the surreal JustForPun adventures of "li'l Piggybear". The B-story, in turn, was ostensibly the dreams of one of the characters in the C Story, a real-world relationship drama. The connection (if any) between the stories was never in any adequate way explained, giving the comic an overarching "what the... ?" -kind of feel. Ostensibly, the C Story, which was introduced last, could be seen as the "main" story, but that is all open to interpretation... It could just as well have been AllJustADream of the samurai protagonist who was, if memory serves correctly, mortally wounded at the time.

* The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' storyline "Leaves of Grass" has an A-plot about Batman trying to stop [[{{plant person}} Floronic Man]] from getting everybody in Gotham high on super-marijuana (also ComicBook/PoisonIvy's there). The B-plot follows Tim Drake, the current [[{{sidekick}} Robin]], as he tries to keep a friend of his from smoking marijuana and dealing with the fallout when his friend doesn't listen.

* ''ComicBook/{{Annihilators}}'' follows both a main plot revolving around the titular team, and a side plot about the adventures of Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Its sequel series, ''Annihilators: Earthfall'', follows the same formula.

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' at first appears to just have 7 stories which don't have any direct relation to each other, until the player figures out that [[spoiler:each chapter's main antagonist is a variant on "Odio", suggesting a connection. Then after the completion of the secret [[WhamEpisode Middle Ages]] chapter, a TimeCrash occurs, bringing all 7 main protagonists together to discover that they were fighting incarnations of the Demon King Odio.]]

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' switches rapidly between two interplanetary superpowers and how individuals from both interact and how those interactions influence other interactions and so on.

* "Spoiler Alert" by Music/TheyMightBeGiants tells two stories, one sung by Flansburgh, playing a truck driver who, in a fit of exhausted delirium, believes his truck can drive itself, and one sung by Linnell, playing a writer distracted with writing a story who thinks he has more hands than he does. Presumably, they collide at the end.

* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest''. One for [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters every. Last. Character.]] Of course, there are intersections, but essentially every character has their own story. Some of the time, these stories are ''part'' of ''another'' character's story.

* All of the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' installments after the [[Film/SawI first movie]] fit this plot structure. The A-storyline tends to focus on the plot (including the aftermath of most of the games featured), while the B one is usually centered around the movie's main game. The movie jumps to Line A whenever something {{Gorn}}[[{{Crunchtastic}} tastic]] happens in Line B, and to Line B after some plot development happens in Line A. Some of the movies spend more time in Line A (''[[Film/SawV V]]'', ''[[Film/Saw3D 3D]]'' and ''[[Film/Spiral2021 Spiral]]''), and others spend more in Line B (''[[Film/SawII II]]'', ''[[Film/SawIII III]]'', ''[[Film/SawIV IV]]'', ''[[Film/SawVI VI]]'' and ''[[Film/{{Jigsaw}} Jigsaw]]''), which often relates to how gory a given installment is. Most of these plots meet up in some fashion at the end.[[labelnote:Details]]''Saw II'' - Line A: Eric and Jigsaw, Line B: The Nerve Gas House. ''Saw III'' - Line A: Lynn, Amanda and Jigsaw, Line B: Jeff. ''Saw IV'' - Line A: Jigsaw's Past, Line B: Rigg. ''Saw V'' - Line A: Hoffman and Strahm, Line B: The Fatal Five. ''Saw VI'' - Line A: Hoffman and Erickson, Line B: William. ''Saw 3D'' - Line A: Hoffman and Jill, Line B: Bobby. ''Jigsaw'' - Line A: Logan and Halloran, Line B: The Murderers' Trial. ''Spiral'' - Line A: Zeke, Line B: The various individual tests.[[/labelnote]]

* The newer ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games have this, with the game switching between the viewpoint of two main characters(and occasionally a third character for a single mission). In the Modern Warfare games, The American character is usually engaging in some big urban battle while the British character is doing some kind of special ops raid, more or less at the same time. Though [[spoiler:the American plotline usually finishes up partway through the game and the British one goes all the way up to the end]]. In ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar World at War]]'', however, there is no connection between the two characters, one in Russia and one in the Pacific; the plot just switches between them every few missions presumably for a change of pace. ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps Black Ops]]'' does this with Hudson and Mason's roles in the story and even once going through the same level from different starting points (Mason sneaking into the Soviet base to kill Steiner, Hudson and a group of American soldiers going into the facility another way to rescue Steiner. The two plots join up in the end, the final cutscene of both being the same scene from different points of view, which is also the final clue that Reznov [[spoiler:isn't there; in Mason's portion, Reznov appears to punch out Steiner a few times before drawing a pistol, declaring "[[MyNameIsInigoMontoya My name is Viktor Reznov!]]", and shooting him dead - then, in Hudson's portion, Reznov isn't there and ''Mason'' is declaring himself to be Viktor Reznov before killing Steiner]].)
* ''Front Mission'' shows this through ''2'' and ''4''.

** In ''VideoGame/FrontMission4'', the story begins under the eyes of former French Army pilot Elsa Eliane, who now is in the employ of the multinational research organization known as Durandal. Several missions after the Durandal are sent to investigate an attack on a German base, the story switches to USN sergeant Darril Traubel in Venezuela. Both of these stories only interact with each other explicitly only once and never directly merge at any point in the game.

* The first two ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' games have the separate gang storylines entirely independent. Which lead to characters involved in them only appearing in one of the three, as [[spoiler:they frequently get injured or even killed]] and the game has no way to determine in which order you've completed missions up until the final stretch. ''The Third'' changed this around a bit, where missions overall follow one plotline, and most times where you have a choice of two or more missions they're just one of your lieutenants asking you to play an activity.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/CliveCussler:
** The Kurt Austin series do this. Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are plot A, Paul Trout and his wife Gamay Morgan-Trout are Plot B. Then because of various reasons there will be parts where Austin will work with Trout while Zavala and Gamay work together. Which gets humorous when Kurt and Paul have to sneak around because Trout is nearly 7-feet tall.
** ''Literature/{{Sahara}}'' has two plots running side by side, interlinking with each other. It eventually then focuses exclusively on one, with the other only coming back just when the audience has forgotten about it.
* Peter F. Hamilton does this quite a bit. His ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'' follows something like seven plots all at once, and they'd each be enough for a book of their own. ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' has three major plots going at once. There's a ''reason'' his books are so thick.
* Several Literature/{{Discworld}} novels feature two parallel plotlines that occasionally interact, finally uniting near the end, for example ''Literature/ReaperMan'' (Death's retirement and Windle Poons's "afterlife", with slightly different [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} typefaces]] to distinguish them) and ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' (Death taking the Hogfather's role; Susan stopping Teatime).
* Author Creator/HarukiMurakami is good at this.
** His earlier novel ''Literature/HardBoiledWonderlandAndTheEndOfTheWorld'' was, as the title suggests, two separate stories. One is a cyberpunk neo-noir thriller (Wonderland) and the other is a magical fantasy (End of the World). The two stories have the same protagonist, though - and they can't both have happy endings.
** The MindScrew book ''Literature/KafkaOnTheShore'' features two completely different stories alternating every chapter. The odd numbered chapters have a mostly realistic (at least until the end) story of a teenage runaway, and the even numbered ones are about a guy who can talk to cats and is convinced he has to fulfill some destiny to keep evil from taking over the world. The two stories impact on each other from time to time without ever quite intersecting.
* Creator/NealStephenson is especially fond of this trope. Nearly all of them feature at least 2 plots, although they almost always intersect by the end.
** ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'', for example, has a plot following Lawrence Waterhouse and Alan Turing breaking Axis cyphers in 1942, Bobby Shaftoe in service at the Navy around the same years, and Randy Waterhouse setting up a business operation in the present.
** ''The Confusion'' deserves special mention for being presented as two separate novels mixed (or "confused") together (the other volumes in ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle'' contain three books, but present them one at a time). Both novels have a couple of strands to them.
** ''Literature/SnowCrash'' has Hiro Protagonist and YT as major viewpoint characters. They work together and spend much of their time together, but during the story have completely separate conflicts. It turns out that they are heading towards the same plot climax, but from two completely different directions.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** In the first book, it starts with three plots - basically one following Eddard Stark, one following Jon Snow, and the third following Daenerys. Over the course of the first book the characters end up getting really spread out and by the second book there are a huge number of interwoven plots, plus Daenerys who has spawned no other point of view characters and has really had minimal interaction with the rest of the cast. The plot is incredibly convoluted with dozens of characters and more than a dozen different point of view characters. Of course, given that Daenerys has gotten so much time, and yet is on the other side of an ocean, we all know something very important is going to happen with her in the last book...
** Daenerys is an odd example, because the actions the characters on Westeros actually have a constant impact on her life--it just sometimes takes a while to cross the ocean and get to her. The first example that springs to mind would be the time [[spoiler:Robert Baratheon sent an assassin after her, after hearing about her marriage to Khal Drogo. And by the time the assassin and Dany meet, King Robert (and Khal Drogo) were already dead]].
** It looks like Dany might be moving into the main plotline, or the main plotline might be moving to Daenerys--preview chapters from the next book strongly indicate that she'll be joining forces with [[spoiler:Tyrion Lannister]] in the future.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' the later books fragment into ''several'' plotlines. One book in fact is Book B to the previous. This either creates a vivid, appealing world or makes the books hopelessly convoluted, depending on the reader.
* Creator/MercedesLackey - in her ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Mage Storms]]'' trilogy, the main plot gets interwoven with machiavellian scheming in a distant and uber-powerful empire. The B plot gives the readers insight into one of the major characters as well as answering several questions that any smart reader would be asking and couldn't be properly answered any other way. Same goes with ''Literature/TheObsidianTrilogy'', which has the main plot with the main characters and another equally important plot happening back in the city.
* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' does this with around 4-5 lines. Book 2 and 3 even happened at exactly the same time.
* Creator/SandyMitchell's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/DarkHeresy Scourge The Heretic]]'' breaks into two [[TheInfiltration infiltration]] plots: One for the smugglers, one for the Chaos cult.
* The defining characteristic of the Victorian multiplot novel. For example:
** Wilkie Collins, ''Literature/TheWomanInWhite''
** W. M. Thackeray, ''Literature/VanityFair''
** Creator/GeorgeEliot, ''Literature/DanielDeronda'' and ''Literature/{{Middlemarch}}'' (more than two in the latter).
** Creator/CharlesDickens, ''Literature/BleakHouse''
** Creator/AnthonyTrollope, ''Literature/TheWayWeLiveNow'' and most of his other novels
* After the first book, ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' breaks down into two stories for most of its run: Frodo & Sam on one hand, and the rest of the Fellowship on the other. Even then, there are sub-divisions in the rest of the first book for a good deal of the time, such as the two views of the march of the Uruk-hai--one from Merry & Pippin, the other from Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. The early parts of the third book, "The Return of the King", fragment this a little more, as we get separate views on Pippin & Gandalf in Minas Tirith, Merry with the Rohirrim, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli on the Paths of the Dead. All this is in addition to Frodo & Sam's part of the story, which eventually leads to the re-merging of the disparate threads.
* The ''Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons'' series of children's novels by Arthur Ransome follows several families of children who only meet in their school holidays. After the fifth book in the series (''Coot Club''), there are often two plots running concurrently in different novels, and the characters even send postcards to friends who don't appear. The thirteenth book would have united characters who had never met, but Ransome never finished it.
* The latter half of ''Literature/DarkLordOfDerkholm'' ping-pongs between the adventures of Derk and those of his children, Blade, Shona, and Kit, as they lead a party through the "game."
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' has Odysseus attempting to get home, and Odysseus's son Telemachos's attempts to find his father.
* In Mike Lee's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Literature/HorusHeresy novel ''Fallen Angels'', Nemiel's and Zahariel's stories.
* Creator/TimothyZahn does this ''all the time'' in his Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse and [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]] novels. All of his [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many protagonists]] have plotlines that weave and diverge and intersect and merge constantly. In ''[[Literature/StarWarsAllegiance Allegiance]]'', chosen for an example because it has a smaller cast, the plotlines belong to Mara Jade and her mission to follow a pirate/corrupt Imperial connection, Daric [=LaRone=] and the Hand of Judgment with their efforts to do good and [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife figure out what to do next]], Luke Skywalker and Han Solo fumbling with Han's reservations about the Rebellion while on a mission, Leia Organa and her quest to keep bits of the Rebellion together, [[Literature/HandOfThrawn Villim Disra's]] gambit to get more power, and Captain Ozzel with his increasingly desperate attempts to hide the fact that five stormtroopers defected from his ship. And all of these plotlines forms its own narrative, but is related somehow to all of the others. They rarely [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse get forgotten]], either. Zahn's awesome like that.
* The multi-author ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' series. It's loosely based on ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', with Luke and his son exploring strange places and meeting exotic force-using organizations. But, there's also a murder trial, a power struggle between the government and the Jedi Order, a conspiracy right out of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] ''Julius Caesar'', a little girl [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]] who gets into trouble, and a big sub-plot about slavery. [[OncePerEpisode Each book shows]] some Jedi falling into a paranoid psychosis and causing trouble. Can you remember all of these?... Well, the authors have ignored the investigation into Jacen for a new plot involving an EldritchAbomination for several books (though they still visit strange places/groups), and a group of Jedi got sent out to fight slavery, only to be ignored the next book.
* ''Literature/{{Holes}}'', by Louis Sachar, alternates between the story of Stanley Yelnats' life at Camp Green Lake, the story of Stanley's "pig-stealing" great-great-grandfather Elya, and the story of schoolteacher Kate Barlow in the Old West town of Green Lake and how she became a feared outlaw. The connections between the three stories become ever clearer throughout the book.
* Creator/BrandonSanderson:
** ''Literature/{{Mistborn|TheOriginalTrilogy}}'': The first book starts with Kelsier, Vin, and Elend as viewpoint characters. When their plots diverge, each of them tends to be given a chapter at a time, which helps things move smoothly along. The even spread of viewpoints chapter-by-chapter becomes very noticeable by book three when several secondary characters have become viewpoint characters and they all have their own plots.
** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' also does this. Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar are the main characters for the first 3 books (the ones published so far), and each book has them pursuing their own plot lines with significantly more intersections as time goes on. Several side characters like Szeth and Lift also have their own plot lines that get less focus but still weave into the overall narrative.
* It's SOP for ''Literature/NancyDrew'' books to start with two seemingly unrelated mysteries that turn out to be the same thing by the end of the story.
* ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'', by Creator/ScottWesterfeld, has two plots like this. The first tells of Aleksandar Ferdinand, who is on the run after the assassination of his father, Franz Ferdinand. The second is about Deryn Sharp, [[SweetPollyOliver a girl who dresses like a boy to get into the British Air Service.]] About 2/3 through the book, their two stories intersect when [[spoiler:the ''Leviathan'' crashes on the glacier outside of Alek's [[strike:bolt hole]] bolt castle, he goes down to help, and is put into custody]].
* Creator/{{Ken MacLeod}} has used this, most notably in ''The Sky Road'' and ''The Stone Canal'', two novels in his Literature/FallRevolution series. He was also credited by his friend Creator/IainBanks for suggesting it as a way of bringing together the various ideas and storylines that became ''Literature/UseOfWeapons''.
* The story in Nick Hornby's ''Literature/AboutABoy'' is told alternately by the two Protagonists, at the beginning of the book both plots are separated, as the story proceeds they get somewhat mixed up a little, owing to the time they spend together.
* ''Literature/{{Interworld}}'' gets a bit weird about this. The book is divided into two halves. The first half is about a guy by the name of Tom Dunjer searching for a sample of something called [[MacGuffin linzetium]], which has been stolen. It's mostly pretty sensibly laid out, except that at the end of each chapter, there's a section in ALL CAPS from the point of view of Klox, a robot who starts off not knowing where he is or what he's doing. At some point in the second half, Dunjer meets Klox. After that, chapters start alternating between those following Dunjer, and some written in ''italics'', told from the point of view of another Dunjer in a ParallelUniverse. Both the Dunjer and alt-Dunjer chapters still include the Klox sections at the end. The final chapter constantly switches between the Dunjer and alt-Dunjer sections, with the Klox section running along on another trajectory which intersects with both.
* ''Literature/{{Ragtime}}'' features three families living in the early 20th century. While each has its own story ranging from following the American Dream to [[KnightTemplar avenging your baby mama's death through terrorism]] to adjusting to the New Music, they find themselves interacting to an almost ridiculous degree, in an amount of detail that would make Creator/JRRTolkien envious. At the end the surviving main characters become one family.
* ''Literature/SpocksWorld'' alternates between a history of Vulcan and the present as the heroes try to stop the planet from seceding.
* Several of Creator/JaneAusten's novels have this. ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'' has Elinor and Marianne as the main characters. Each sister has her own plot.
* ''Literature/EasternStandardTribe'' has two converging storylines that mix with HowWeGotHere.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'' story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn", Valerius and LaResistance; Conan himself; and Salome, the BigBad.
* Ian Irvine's ''Literature/TheThreeWorldsCycle'' does this regularly. The first book, A Shadow On The Glass, opens with two separate plot threads from Karan and Llian, which later converge, and over the course of the quartet the action often switches between different characters in different places, who tend to come together for the final events of each book only to separate again in the next one. It all comes to a head with the third series, the Song Of The Tears trilogy, where all the keysurvivng players from the entire series join forces to deal with the overarching threat.
* Jonathan Safran Foer gets a lot of mileage out of this practice.
** ''Literature/ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose'' alternates between Oskar's journey to cope with his father's death and letters from Oskar's grandparents detailing how they met and their eventual separation.
** ''Literature/EverythingIsIlluminated'' provides 50% more threading. There are 2 plotlines - the protagonist's search for his ancestral home in the Ukraine and his grandfather's life and escape from there - but the first thread is narrated in turns by the protagonist himself and by his tour guide.
* Creator/SpiderRobinson's ''Mindkiller'' has two plotlines, told in alternating chapters -- odd-numbered chapters are in third-person, through the eyes of college professor Norman Kent, and even-numbered chapters are told in first-person by Army-vet-turned-techie-burglar Joe Templeton. It's not until at least two-thirds of the way through the story that it's made explicit that [[spoiler:the book has only one POV character]].
* ''Literature/WatchersOfTheThrone'' follows three characters: Aleya, on a mission to reach Terra and seek revenge for her fallen sisters; Valerian, who has to deal with riots and unrest on Terra; and the Imperial Chancellor, who tries to navigate the byzantine Imperial politics.
* For the the first two books of ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsTheNewProphecy The New Prophecy]]'', the second [[MythArc arc]] of ''Literature/WarriorCats'', the point of view switches between Leafpaw, a medicine cat apprentice watching as the forest crumbles around her, and one of the six journeying cats, who are on a quest to find a way to save the forest.
* Sharyn [=McCrumb=]'s Ballad novels typically have one plot following the investigations of Sheriff Spencer Arrowood in the present, and a parallel case from the past which is connected in some fashion.
* Literature/TheRiftWarCycle's first book ''Magician''. by Raymond E Feist. Has no less than separate plots following 3 major plot lines and 2 secondary plotlines. Primarily, Pug, Tomas, Arutha's main lines. Carline, Roland and Martin. making up subplots but relating to the over all story. Further books in the series extend this further.
* ''Principles of Angels'' by Jaine Fenn shows us Kesh City from two viewpoints; a [[TheArtfulDodger street kid]] who wants revenge for his mother's death and a musician who's [[FishOutOfWater visiting the city from elsewhere]], on a reluctant mission for aliens. The perspectives start off in alternating chapters, and while it quickly becomes clear there are definite connections ([[spoiler: Taro's mother's killer is the bodyguard of Elarn's only apparent friend on Kesh]]), we don't realise how linked their missions are until the WhamLine at the end of Chapter 19. Starting in Chapter 22, the storylines start coalescing, although Taro and Elarn only meet briefly near the end.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/AfterDoomsday'', two separate ships, one of men and one of women, try to survive after the Earth's destruction -- and find other humans to reproduce with.
* In ''Literature/WelcomeToNightVale'': Diane is trying to find her missing co-worker Evan, and Jackie is trying to learn more about King City. Their stories seem unrelated at first until [[spoiler: they discover Evan is from King City]] about halfway through the book, before then Diane and Jackie are unaware of each other's mission.
* The novels in Amitav Ghosh's ''Ibis Trilogy'', set during the early 1830s, cut between five or six plots running simultaneously in different countries. All of them come together in the end.
* In Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes book three ''Heirs of Empire'' the story alternates between Emperor Colin and his wife facing a dangerous plot on Earth and their kids trying to survive on a remote planet Pardal.
* In the ''Literature/ImminentDangerAndHowToFlyStraightIntoIt'' series, the second book, Chasing Nonconformity, is structured like this. The main plot continues to follow Eris and Varrin as they evade authorities and attempt to recover their ship, however a second plot emerges in the form of Trystan and Sebara's attempts to track them down.
* ''Literature/TheObituaryWriter'' centers around the lives of two women: Claire Fontaine in TheSixties and Vivien Lowe in 1919. These narratives are interconnected by the shared themes of grief, guilt, love, and loss. [[spoiler:As well as the eventual revelation that Claire's mother-in-law Birdy is Vivien.]]
* Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/TheClocks'' features two concurrent plot threads: one involving the murder of an unknown man, and one about espionage. However, the two cases barely have any connection to each other, aside from the fact that they take place in the same location.
* Each of the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' books intercuts the present storyline with a second storyline of {{flashback}}s to the Bastards' upbringing that relates in some way.
* Creator/PhilipKDick tended to do this - in his last interview he flat-out says he usually makes two outlines for every novel, then slams them together.
* ''Literature/BeautifulLosers'' flips back and forth between the disjointed story of the narrator and his relationship with F. and his wife in the midst of the Quebec separatist movement in the 1960's, and the story of the life of Katherine Tekakwitha, a 17th century Iroquois saint.
* Philip Wylie's 1951 novel ''The Disappearance'' begins with all the females on Earth simply vanishing. In a parallel Earth, all the males vanished. The novel alternates between describing how the world continues without women, and without men.
* Most ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' novels involve multiple, interwoven plots. ''Salamandastron'' and ''The Long Patrol'' are possibly the most convoluted in this respect.
* All of the ''Literature/OutOfPosition'' novels have Dev and Lee's subplots affecting one another. In the first two books, whatever Dev did usually affected Lee's storyline; the following books reversed this, and everything Lee did (especially regarding Vince King's suicide) affected Dev.
* Terry Brooks almost always does this in his ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' books, when [[LetsSplitUpGang the parties split]]. Normally one half fights some epic but largely mundane battle, while the other party (with the main protagonist) goes off to kill the BigBad. This is probably in deliberate imitation of LOTR.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
** The series is constantly using this usually by introducing a side plot loosely connected to the main plot at the beginning but letting it go its own way instantly. Sometimes they intersect again at the end but not always. Klaus {{lampshade|Hanging}}d it when he was TheNarrator for his grandson and introduced the Steve subplot while the focus was on Stan and Francine ice skating.
** ''Finances with Wolves'' is an episode with Five Lines No Waiting, with Francine, Roger, Klaus, Hayley, and Steve each get plots with equal merit.
** Also played with in a Steve focused episode where Stan and Francine had a B-plot that takes place entirely off-screen (something about an idea for a cell phone app). About half-way through the episode, they arrive home and Stan begins expositing the bizarre plot they encountered on their way to a meeting about the idea, [[BreakingTheFourthWall but gets fed up half-way through]] and [[AnimatedActors storms "off-set" as he complains about how poorly written their story-line is]] especially since [[ShowDontTell the exciting part wasn't even shown]].
** In "Stan and Francine and Connie and Ted," Barry ends up accidentally going off his meds and turning evil. Then he gives an AsYouKnow speech to Steve summarizing the plot of "With Friends like Steve's" that explains him being evil when he's off his meds. Then he confuses Steve by also summarizing the B plot of "With Friends like Steve's" for no reason.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has the episode "Feeding Frenzy" which has Jake trying to stop [[ItMakesSenseInContext a shark from flooding the United States and taking over the world]] while his father and grandfather try to get to a family reunion (actually, the latter is trying to stop the former from reaching it so he [[ItsALongStory doesn't find out his wife is a dragon]]).
* Juggled with striking parallelism in ''{{WesternAnimation/Archer}}'', when episodes switch from story A - typically the field agents on the current active mission (Archer, Lana, Ray) - to story B - whatever's going on back at the office with the support staff (Pam, Cyril, Krieger, Malory). As the switch between stories occurs, the first line in the new scene typically has relevance to the outgoing scene, even though it occurs s different story. For example (from season 4's "Un Chien Tangerine"):
-->'''Malory:''' Now, what do you want? I'm extremely busy.\\
'''Pam:''' To be a field agent!\\
'''Malory:''' I'm sorry?\\
'''Lana (voice):''' You should be!\\
''(Cut to Archer and Lana in Tangier.)''\\
'''Archer:''' How was I supposed to know it was gonna make him do ''that''?\\
''(Large dog in their tiny car farts loudly.)''\\
'''Lana:''' Stuffin' him full of street-kebabs?!
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' regularly utilizes Aang and the Gang for "A" story, and Zuko and Iroh as the "B" story, to emphasize the [[MirrorCharacter similarities and flaws]] between the main protagonist and the main antagonist. Though Zuko served as a source of conflict for the heroes initially, his own separate stories became much more frequent and gained ''much'' more depth after his character was developed, eventually earning him ADayInTheLimelight in the second season to delve in his backstory by means of a WholeEpisodeFlashback.
* ''WesternAnimation/ClassOf3000'' often has a main plot and a sub-plot in each episode. The two plots usually tie in together some way in the end.
* Some ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' episodes focus on main character Danny handling his own affairs while the B plot takes a look at the ongoing of his best friends Tucker and Sam. The two plots usually join up as one by the end. Many episodes also have two separate plots covering what goes on in high school, and what goes on with the ghosts. One good example would be "Parental Bonding"--high school dance coming up, and a ghost amulet that turns the wearer into a dragon.
* Almost every ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode had two different stories ongoing, usually not intersecting with each other, with different subsets of the main cast. Like just about everything else in the show, this has been Lampshaded a couple of times, once by Toot who, following a battle with a live action cow, was thankful that she "was in the other story", and again by Captain Hero, whom the show had begun focusing on in the second season onwards:
--> '''Captain Hero''': Hey subplot, outta my way. Main story comin' through!
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' used to do this sometimes in its first three seasons; became less frequent post-cancellation. Many episodes focus on just one plot, but a couple of them ("Stuck Together, Torn Apart" comes to mind) had a pair of unrelated main plots going at the same time.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Some of the episodes have two plots, each of them focusing on one of the young Pine twins (Dipper and Mabel).
* ''WesternAnimation/ItsPony'': In just about every episode, there is a main (and titular) plot which involves Annie and Pony, and a secondary one which involves Annie's parents. Take "The Giving Chair" as example: Annie and Pony are trying to find a copy of George's book, while Helen is trying to figure out what is wrong with her chicken.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
** The episode "Let's Play Hot-Cold" has a plot where Kaeloo tries to find someone to play with her and a side-plot where Stumpy tries to make himself look attractive.
** Another episode has a plot revolving around Kaeloo forcing Mr. Cat to see a psychotherapist and another plot where the rest of the cast gets into a fight.
* ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'' is fond of this, to the point where episodes where it ''doesn't'' happen are the exception. Generally, the point of this seems to be making sure everyone's in the episode, though the extent to which anything can be rationalized on that show is debatable.
* Done in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', as most episodes contain a supervillain plot and something from Kim's normal life.
* Quite a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' do this. Often one plot focuses on the humans while the other plot focuses on the pets.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** Almost every episode features an "A" plot about the title characters (usually building something amazing) and their sister Candace (usually trying to bust them), and a "B" plot in which their pet platypus Perry [[AnimalSuperhero works as a secret agent]] against the local MadScientist [[CardCarryingVillain Dr. Doofenshmirtz]]. The standard format is for the "B" plot to often physically affect the "A" plot at the end of the episode (the most common is Doofenshmirtz's machine taking away/destroying the boys' invention [[ResetButton before Candace can get their mom to see it]]), but the plots are (usually) thematically unrelated. Phineas and Ferb never become aware of the "B" plot, at least not enough to discover Perry's secret.
** One of the only episodes to break the pattern, "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted," focuses only on the boys and their sister's plotline until Perry and Doofenshmirtz are needed, at which point they [[NoodleIncident suddenly appear fighting on top of a mechanical spider]]. Which is made weirder when [[spoiler:it all turns out to be ''Perry's'' dream]], calling into question why ''that'' was the plot to get so much focus.
** There's also "Road to Danville", in which Perry and Doof were stuck in the desert. The whole episode focused on them, because Phineas and Ferb were making a quilt. At the end of the episode, Buford says he had fun, but as he leaves the rest of the kids agree that quilting was boring and vow to never do it again.
** And then there's ''[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension Across the 2nd Dimension]]'', which kicks off when the "A" and "B" plots finally intersect.
** Played straight in "Primal Perry" in which the entire episode involves Perry battling an Aussie platypus hunter that Doofensmirtz hired. While Phineas and Ferb play badminton. The episodes do not interconnect. Averted completely in another episode involving Perry doing a mission in Canada with a human partner. There is no second plot. The title characters only make brief cameos, and even then you only see the Flynn-Fletchers from the neck down.
** The "A" and "B" plots intersect again in "Night of the Living Pharmacists", where one of Doofenshmirtz's inventions accidentally causes people to start turning into mindless clones of him, and the characters try to find a way to undo it all before the entire town (sans Doof himself) is transformed.
* The episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' often have two plot-lines in the same episode. Often, these two plots will collide.
** "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" had a sub-plot of Mitchell wondering why Mindy appears to be floating, this being his first appearance on the show.
** "A Kid's Guide to Mars" had the main cast go to Mars to update the information on it in Carrot and Celery's guidebook, while the side-plot was Face 9001 visiting and having a rivalry with his brother, Face 9000.
** In "Sunspot's Night Out", while the main characters search for Sunspot, Mitchell looks for Cody, who has also gone missing. [[spoiler: Sunspot and Cody were actually missing for the same reason - they were both involved in an animal choir.]]
** In "The Grandest Canyon", Mindy and Lillian dig a hole in the sandbox while the rest of the characters go to Valles Marineris.
** "Mindy's Weather Report" has Mindy give pretend weather reports while chaos around the neighborhood ensues as misinformation spreads.
** "Solar System Bake Off" and its sister episode "Kid-Kart Derby" both have subplots involving Mitchell spying on the main characters and trying to get information about their contest entry.
** "Mindy Pet-sits" has two plot-lines: Jet, Sydney, and Sean going to space with Carrot (!!!) to try and find the Northern Lights, and Mindy pet-sitting Sunspot, unaware that he is planning a surprise for her.
** In "Mindy's Mystery", the main characters try to find out what kept Mindy up at night. At the same time, Mitchell is trying to find the source of an annoying light that bothered him. [[spoiler: They both have the same source - the moon. (The smell that kept Mindy up at night was moonflowers).]]
** In "Jet's First Halloween", the main characters go trick-or-treating. At the same time, Mitchell investigates to solve 3 mysteries involving weird-looking pumpkins, a flying saucer, and a green alien head.
** In "The Mindysphere", Jet, Sean, and Sydney go to space to fly past the heliosphere, while Mindy, who has recently been given permission to go out farther into the neighborhood, proceeds to explore her new boundaries.
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the A-plot is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy putting on a Christmas pageant, and the B-plot gets set in motion when Jet hires Mitchell to find the Spirit of Christmas. Mitchell's plot involves [[spoiler: the revelation that he acts like a jerk to hide his loneliness, and him wanting to be friends with the main characters]]. These two plots collide when [[spoiler: Mitchell takes over Sean's role in the play after the latter gets PerformanceAnxiety]].
** "I Feel the Earth Move" has a very strange B-plot - Sunspot riding Mindy's bounce house all over town, causing the ground to shake.
** In "Endless Summer", the main characters go to Australia to experience summer, while Mindy stays on Earth to take care of Carrot, who has a cold.
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" has the A-plot of Jet, Sean, and Sydney trying to figure out what to do with Jet's giant pumpkin, and the B-plot of Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian going trick-or-treating.
** In "Total Eclipse Block Party", Sunspot had his own sub-plot involving him trying to teach the Earth animals about eclipses so they won't sleep during the eclipse.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", ain one is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy meeting Ellen and hanging out with her. The subplot is Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Skelley, and Dr. Bergs panicking over Ellen's impending visit. When Ellen helps revise Jet's rocket chair, this inspires her to use the same solution with the DSA project.
** The main plot of ''[[Recap/ReadyJetGoOneSmallStep One Small Step]]'' is Sean and Mindy looking for Jet and Sunspot after the latter two went missing, and the other one is Sydney and Jet 2 fixing the super saucer. There's also a tiny subplot involving Mitchell doing his spying as usual.
* Done a lot on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', usually with one story about the adults and one story about the children, although later episodes seem to have become exclusively one story affairs.
** Still associated enough with the show to occasion a LampshadeHanging here and there. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Lisa is envious of Bart's newfound success as a jazz musician, and also adopts a pet tiger that maims him.
--->'''Lisa:''' I feel so terrible. I just wanted to save those animals while Bart became a drummer, but I never thought the two stories would intersect.
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the episode with Bart's vision of the future: "Why is there a story about Homer and Lincoln's gold in my vision?" "I guess the spirits thought the main vision was a little thin."
** Newer episodes are more fond of a version of HalfwayPlotSwitch -- a plot hook is set up in the first five minutes, and then promptly dropped when something even wackier comes along. Sometimes invoked ''in the same episode'' as Two Lines No Waiting, giving an A plot, a B plot, and an "aborted" plot.
** In the HD era (Season 20-24), the "aborted" plots usually take up less time because of the four-act structure the episodes have now.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' used to do this every episode (or close to it). It still happens on occasion. Usually one plot influences or causes the other in some way but they aren't necessarily tied back together:
** In "Krazy Kripples", Timmy and Jimmy joining the crips is directly caused by Creator/ChristopherReeve's appearance in South Park, but they never end up meeting him.
** In the commentary, the creators said that they originally felt they had to do two or three stories every episode and found this very tiring. They eventually started doing only single-story episodes, and found these to be much funnier and generally better episodes. They try to keep it simple these days, though they do handle multiple story lines on occasion.
** The episode "Trapper Keeper" plays with the idea of converging plotlines when, after the Trapper Keeper absorbs Cartman and heads off to Cheyenne Mountain, we return to the "class president election" subplot to see Mr. Garrison look out the window and starts acting like a monster is approaching the school. It turned out ''not'' to be the Trapper Keeper, but instead Rosie O Donnell, who Mr. Garrison still treats like a monster until he is told about who she is.
* ''WesternAnimation/TootAndPuddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas'' has an A Plot with Toot visiting his grandmother in Scotland for her 100th birthday and a B Plot (though just barely B) of Puddle remaining home in Woodcock Pocket and preparing for Christmas with their young cousin, Opal. The two plots eventually draw together as Toot struggles to get home in a snowstorm. The special is notable for its fairly rapid frequency of scene changes, such that generally no more than two minutes is spent within the A plot before jumping back to the B plot and vice versa.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' did this in one episode. Story A had Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime's head facing off against the Headmaster armed with the rest of Sentinel. Story B was Sari angsting over her non-(legal) existence with Bumblebee and Bulkhead trying to comfort her.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' does this often with two stories going on at once that come together near the end. This is due to Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick often writing separate stories and slamming them together near the end. "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II" plays the disjointedness of the two lines for laughs. The episode starts off all the main characters having a mummy-themed adventure together. Dr. Venture escapes back to his house and promises to return and save everyone, but he almost gets sidetracked by an unrelated side-plot instead. This becomes the A plot, and the show occasional jumps back to the other characters to show them dealing with the [[IntendedAudienceReaction much more exciting]] B plot.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' has been doing this more and more, as the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters cast expands]]. If the A-plot is talky and character-driven, it's a good bet that the B-plot will be more action focused.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples:

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' usually goes with an A-story centering on Dick and a B-story featuring another character.
* Perfected by ''Series/TwentyFour''. After all, it ''is'' the {{Trope Namer|s}} for TrappedByMountainLions.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Season 2 indulged in this a fair amount midway through its run, as Angel would fire Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn from Angel Investigations so he could fight off Wolfram & Hart, Darla, and Drusilla by himself without being tethered down by their objections to his underhandedness. As a result, several episodes feature plots of Angel dealing with whatever the law firm had planned while Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn continued to [[WeHelpTheHelpless help the helpless]] without him, with the two groups rarely intersecting outside of a single scene at a time. This is rectified in "[[{{Recap/AngelS02E16Epiphany}} Epiphany]]" when Angel realizes that he had been going at things in the wrong way and sets out to make amends with his friends.
** The latter portion of Season 3 would dip into this after Wesley gets kicked out of the group for stealing Connor, with much of his screentime spent on the developing relationship between him and Lilah Morgan. He begins to interact with the group again at points in Season 4 (as seen when he rescues Angel from the bottom of the ocean or helps Fred in her vendetta against her old professor) before he rejoins the team officially midway through the season.
* ''Series/{{Awake}}'' does this as part of the show's premise: the main detective character lives in two realities that constantly react to each other. Thus whenever he starts a case in one reality, another case (somehow linked to the first one) starts in the other, resulting in at least two plotlines per episode.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': This trope was so prevalent on the show that episodes with only one plot line really stand out, whereas at times the viewer could get up to an ''F'' plot to keep track of. One big example of a single plot episode is the fourth season episode "Intersections in Real Time," which focused exclusively on Sheridan [[spoiler: being tortured by [=EarthForce=]]].
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' always has at least three storylines, and sometimes as many as five.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': After Amy and Bernadette joined the cast, there were several episodes that featured one storyline for the men and one for the women with little if any overlap.
%%* ''Series/TheBill'' often does this.
* This became the standard for ''Series/BlakesSeven''. With several main characters the writers needed to find something for all of them to do, and so the plot would often split up into two lines: the first for the ones who make planetfall Down There, and the other for the ones who run into trouble Up There on the ''Liberator'' (and later on ''Scorpio'').
* Happened quite a lot in ''Series/BostonLegal'', as different characters are taking different cases, usually with one case being the serious one with a CharacterFilibuster or AuthorFilibuster in it, and the other case being the slightly light-hearted one (usually involved Denny Crane).
* In ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', most episodes had an A plotline with Cory, Shawn and Topanga and a B plotline with Eric (and Jack starting in season 5 and Rachel starting in season 6), though this varied a good bit. In many of the later season episodes [[MoodWhiplash one plotline was serious while one was comedic]].
** In ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', the A plot is about Riley, Maya, Farkle, and Lucas and the B plot about Topanga and Auggie; Cory could be in either one or both.
* ''Series/BurnNotice'' does this in practically every single episode. One storyline will involve tracking down the people who burned Michael or, in season 5 [[spoiler: whoever framed him for murder]]. This will invariably bring Michael one step closer, but won't result in a major development unless the episode is a season finale. The other will be generally involve saving an innocent victim from the MonsterOfTheWeek. Seriously, this formula is used so consistently, one has to wonder how none of the characters ever [[GenreBlindness seem to notice that its happening]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has this as well. The A Story centers around the crime drama, and the B Story centers around Richard Castle's family drama.
* Very common in ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' - the A story revolved around Chuck, Sarah and Casey, while the B story revolved around Chuck's friends at Buy More.
* Most episodes of ''Series/TheCloser'' have the investigation as the A plot and something involving Johnson's personal life as the B plot. Usually they're tied together thematically and/or the B plot provides the weekly EurekaMoment. In addition, the B plots often stretch for more than one episode.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' sometimes has subplots spanning every member of the study group. If there are two friends in an A plot (say Jeff and Britta), some of the other members (Abed and Troy for example) will have a B plot together.
* ''Series/CornerGas'':
** The series has two or three storylines per episode, which is merely one of the reasons it's often compared to ''Seinfeld''. Its larger main cast (more than four) divides up pretty evenly among the storylines. This is most interesting when the divvying of the storylines ''doesn't'' happen according to the common pattern (the two police officers, the old married couple, the gas station workers--Hank functions as a wildcard, who may have his own storyline like a Good Hair Day).
** "The Littlest Yarbo" where Hank discusses his plot, and Brent randomly starts talking about his own:
--->'''Hank''': Maybe Series/TheLittlestHobo was the first ever reality show, did you ever think of that?\\
'''Brent''': Hold on here! If I can see my logo, then her logo is on the outside all the while giving her free advertising!\\
'''Wanda''': Come on, guys! I can only handle one weird obsession at a time!
* Lampshaded on ''Series/CougarTown'' which usually sticks to A and B-plots but occasionally works in a C as well. When they are trying to think of a name for Bobby's (landlocked) boat, one suggestion is ''The Sea Story'' because "everything that happens on this boat is kind of a [[{{Pun}} sea story]]".
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has done this on a few occasions, most notably in "Damaged" when the main story saw Morgan, Prentiss and JJ help Rossi solve his cold case, with the "B" story featuring Hotch and Reid interview a serial killer looking for a way to stave off execution.
* This device is used in the various ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows (although much more often in the original than the spinoffs), and others in the current crop. Occasionally the characters will find out halfway through the episode that the [[WorkingTheSameCase crimes they are investigating are tied together.]] Some episodes pull this off better than others.
* Season 2 of ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'' is pretty evenly split between the Punisher and Elektra storylines.
* The Canadian drama series ''Series/DaVincisInquest'' was cancelled in part because of this trope. At the end of the series, the main character, a coroner living in Vancouver, successfully announces his bid to become the Mayor of the city. In the spin-off/sequel, ''Da Vinci's City Hall'', the story balances the problems he has while in office, his quest to get a "red light district" up and running, his bid to create safe-injection sites for drug users, the trials and tribulations of his former partner working at the city morgue, events happening at a police station...if you missed one episode, you were lost. The show suffered in the ratings, and was cancelled as a result (although there may have been other motives).
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' always had more than one storyline but for much of the post HighSchool 5th and 6th seasons (especially the latter), interaction between the storylines was minimal, or non-existent.
* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' usually has 5 plots running simultaneously; one for each of the four main housewives and one involving the season's BigBad or creepy/mysterious neighbor. These plotlines will mesh in the big catastrophe episodes, but generally stay apart.
* Very recurring on any sitcom on Creator/DisneyChannel does this:
** ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'' consistently used Lizzie and her friends as the "A" Story, and her little brother Matt doing something for the "B" Story.
** ''Series/ShakeItUp''. Usually there is one plot with Cece and Rocky, and Rocky's brother Ty, Deuce and Flynn have a plot. They may or may not intersect, and minor characters Gunther and Tinka may appear in both.
** ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Raven, Chelsea and Eddie in the A-Plot and Cory and Victor in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/HannahMontana'': Lilly/Hannah in the A-Plot, Jackson and/or Rico in the B-Plot. Oliver and Robbie Ray can be in one or both.
** ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': Teddy and Ivy in the A-Plot. PJ, Gabe or Bob in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' has Alex and Harper and Justin in the A-plot, and Max and the parents in the B-plot.
** ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' have Zack and Cody in the A-plot, and London and Maddie in the B-plot. The twins are joined by Marcus and Woody in the A-Plot, whereas London and Bailey are in the B-plot on ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck''. Moseby and Carey can be in either one.
** ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'': Sonny and Chad and/or Tawni in the A-Plot, [[ThoseTwoGuys Grady and Nico]] in the B-Plot. Zora may intercede in either, or just spend the time being weird.
** ''Series/ZekeAndLuther'': The title characters plus Kojo and Ozzie in the A-plot, Ginger in the B-plot (before she left the show), when she's not the antagonist in the A-plot.
** ''Series/ImInTheBand'': The only consistent was that Tripp is in the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': Jessie and two of the kids in the A-plot; Bertram and the other two kids in the B-plot.
** ''Series/ANTFarm'': Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher in the A-plot; Cameron or Angus in the B-plot. Lexi can be in either one, and Paisley is almost always in Lexi's plot.
** ''Series/AustinAndAlly'': Almost always Austin and Ally in the A plot, with Trish and Dez in the B plot.
** ''Series/LabRats'': Tends to vary. Usually, it's one plot for two of the Rats and another for the third Rat and Leo. With the adults it's usually Donald or Douglas in one plot and Perry in the other.
** ''Series/KickinIt'': Jack and Kim are the A-plot; Jerry, Eddie, and Milton are the B-plot, and Rudy the C-plot. After Eddie left, the standard formula was Jack/Jerry/Kim and Milton/Rudy.
** ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'': The title characters are the A-plot; Cleo and Amanda are the B-plot. Pesto can be either helping out the boys in the A-plot or crushing on Amanda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/MightyMed'': For season 1, the plots were mostly Kaz/Oliver A-plots and Skylar/Alan/Horace B-plots. Gus tended to be either one or the other. Season 2 had Kaz and Oliver occasionally separating and having separate plots.
** ''Series/KirbyBuckets'': Kirby, Fish, and Eli in the A-plot and Dawn and Belinda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/KCUndercover'': The plot is usually KC and Marisa in the A-plot and the rest of the cast in the B-plot; with another character (usually Ernie) making the jump to the A-plot when necessary.
** ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever'': Cyd and Shelby in the A-plot, Barry and Naldo in the B-plot, the twins are usually just causing hijinks and are more likely to be with the boys.
** ''Series/GamersGuideToPrettyMuchEverything'': Conor is in the A-plot. The other three kids bounce back and forth between the two plots.
** ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'': Paige and Frankie are the stars of the A-plot, while Dirk and Amelia are in the B-plot. Bernie is usually bouncing back and forth between the plots. After Dirk left, Bernie became more often than not in the B-plot with Zane and Rodney in the wild-card slot.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]: The Doctor and Rose split up early on, and the plot follows the two of them simultaneously during their encounters with Nancy and Captain Jack Harkness respectively.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] switches between Missy's execution in the past, and the situation with ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore The Veritas]]'' in the present. [[spoiler:Or, rather, the Doctor watching the recording of the last several hours of the Prophets of Truth's most recent simulation while guarding the Vault in the present day.]]
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon Fugitive of the Judoon]]" splits up the Doctor and the companions early to incorporate two plots. The Doctor has the A plot, where she gets info about the titular fugitive. Graham, Ryan and Yaz have a B plot, where [[spoiler: Jack Harkness returns and kidnaps them]] to give the Doctor cryptic information.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' works and develops its story arc and characters this way. Even exposed in the [[WordOfGod writer's twitter]] as we can see [[https://twitter.com/ELEMENTARYStaff/status/351808007094550529 here]].
* Exception: ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' is unique in the sense that every episode followed one storyline, there were no subplots. Yet it was still very successful and ran for nine seasons. They did have minor inter-episode stories as running gags, such as periodically reverting to the arguments between Marie and Frank (over things like what constitutes something as "fork-split", who will die first and what the remaining one will do, etc.) throughout the episode.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'' generally had an A-story centering on the children and a B-story centering on the parents. However, being a KidCom, the children's storylines were predictably far more interesting than the parents' storylines.
* ''Series/FantasyIsland'' juggles three or more plotlines per episode. In fact, the plotlines even have separate titles in the credits, and usually different writers. In fact, when it was offered up in syndication, the series had two formats, the original one hour episodes as well as an EditedForSyndication half hour format featuring only one story and Roarke's opening greeting "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host" dubbed to "My dear guest, I am Mr. Roarke, your host".
* In documentary TV, each ''The First 48'' episode tracks two murder investigations, each in a different city and having nothing to do with each other.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
** The majority of the episodes have this structure. Typically, there's the main A plot and the secondary B plot, one of them focusing on Frasier and the other on one of the four other major characters. The main plot isn't necessarily about Frasier, though: Niles especially gets plenty of A plots as his character becomes more rounded.
** One episode ("Death and the Dog", Season 4) hanging a lampshade on it. The events of the episode are being told as a WholeEpisodeFlashback to a caller, and Roz wonders why Frasier is telling the caller about her date in the episode.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' does this quite often, usually preferring the three-storyline model. The relationships between the characters allowed some fluidity in the pairings.
** "The One Where They're Going to Party" - Ross, Chandler, and Joey in Plot A, Monica and Rachel in Plot B, and Phoebe in Plot C.
** "The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know" - Ross and Rachel in Plot A, Monica and Phoebe in Plot B, and Chandler and Joey in Plot C.
** Particularly in later seasons, episodes frequently split along with the {{Ship|ping}}s: Ross and Rachel, Chandler and Monica, Phoebe and an outside cast member or love interest (Duncan, Eric, Mike, and so forth.)
** "The One with the Routine" had Monica, Ross, Joey, and guest character Janine in Plot A, with Chandler, Phoebe, and Rachel in Plot B; "The One with the Blackout" had Chandler by himself in Story B, while everybody else was in Story A.
** "The One Where They're Up All Night" featured a whopping number of four storylines: Ross and Joey, Chandler and Monica, Rachel and Tag, and Phoebe vs. the fire alarm.
* Invoked and enforced in the China-produced ''God of War Zhao Zilong'', which attempts to spin a new take on ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' with the focus on Zhao Yun, basically turning it into a typical idol drama running parallel with ''Romance'' since Zhao Yun shouldn't be in the corresponding chapters of ''Three Kingdoms'' yet. The best example would be the three masters who trained Zhao Yun before heading to the war front, joining the armies of Yuan Shao, and sadly [[TheWorfEffect falling in combat against Hua Xiong.]] After word of their death reaches Zhao Yun, Hua Xiong ends up facing [[UnderestimatingBadassery a certain newcomer to the war front by the name of Guan Yu...]] [[CurbStompBattle and word of the result of that reaches home a little faster.]] Zhao Yun learns from all this just how much further he has to go, and how much tougher he needs to be.
* ''Series/GoOn'' does this in most episodes, generally with one plot centering around Ryan King, and another plot focusing on someone else from the support group.
* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' does this in a way similar to ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' but usually a lot less contrived and there is almost always a real struggle with morality that Meredith references when she does the voice over in the beginning and end of an episode. If the plots are too separated, the writers link it together with a more broad aesop... like "trust your closest friends" or something. Clever!
* On ''Series/{{Haven}}'', especially in seasons 1 and 2, there typically was an A-plot with Audrey and Nathan investigating a Trouble(superpower) related crime and a B-plot with Duke, sometimes intersecting with the A-plot (often Duke would find himself involved in the Trouble somehow), and sometimes a C-plot involving finding Audrey's past. As the other characters were fleshed out more, there started being a C-plot involving the Teagues, Dwight and/or the Guard. In season 5, there usually is an A-plot with one character and [[spoiler: Mara]] and a B-plot involving the other characters dealing with a Trouble.
* After the first few series, ''Series/{{Heartbeat}}'' always divided its episodes between an A plot of the police investigating something serious and a comedy B plot of whoever the LovableRogue was at the time (Greengrass, Vernon or Peggy, or occasionally their supporting cast if they weren't in the episode) getting involved in some sort of light-hearted shenanigans.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** In its first season, the series does a very interesting bit with this in the long-[[StoryArc arc]] scenario. It has multiple long arcs -- Nikki/[[FanNickname Ikkin]], Petrelli Bros., The Bennets, Hiro's Quest, and Sylar (roughly) -- with an encapsulating long-arc. Each sub-arc gets some screen time every episode, with the emphasis (length) shifting from arc to arc. Less obvious is the title names for each episode. They're metaphoric and (usually) can apply to any and all events that occur in a single episode.
** Later seasons tried similar juggling, but [[KudzuPlot balls got dropped]], and things [[RandomEventsPlot sprang out of nowhere]] and ''didn't'' always connect to the other threads. The last season got back on track (though not ''quite'' as adept - there wasn't room for ''everything'' to prove terribly important, and characters went absent longer than they would in S1, but it was a marked improvement), but not in time to save the show.
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** The series often has this (particularly in the last few seasons), where plot A is the current medical drama and there's usually one or two sub-plots concerning House messing with his team and/or Wilson and/or Cuddy (or vice versa). Less frequently, an episode would have two medical plots: one case involving the entire team, and another that House would solve on his own. The second type becomes more common in the first few seasons where House has a minor recurring clinic case that often provides him with the inspiration to solve to main case.
** "One Day, One Room" has no medical mystery. Instead, it follows House treating a pregnant rape victim who refuses an abortion, while Cameron tries to help a dying homeless man who refuses treatment.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** The A Story usually runs through Ted, while the B Story tends to involve the stable couple of Marshall and Lily. Barney and Robin sometimes end up in their own plotlines, but are more often part of the A Story or B Story.
** Season 5 places the main focus away from Ted more often than not; Barney and Robin's romantic subplot takes up most of the first half of the season, Robin and Don take up the second half, with Marshall and Lily's attempts at having a baby the standard B-plot. Ted himself rarely stars, but is always the FramingDevice.
* ''Intervention'' follows two families coping with addictions, cutting back and forth.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' usually begins with the gang getting to an argument and then splitting off into two or three groups with different objectives as the result of the argument, which form the plots of the episode. The entire concept is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "The Gang Exploit the Mortgage Crisis" which begins with Dee and Frank explaining their individual schemes and the rest of the gang actually voting on which plot they want to be a part of.
* ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' would quite often have two separate plotlines that Bertie Wooster got involved in. This was due the screenwriter, Clive Exton, often combining two different short stories into one episode.
* ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'', a season of Franchise/KamenRider with RuleOfThree as its central premise, would often advertise its unique concept of ''Three'' Lines No Waiting across every two episodes, complete with a PreviouslyOn segment recounting "these three things" - as the series went on, they would often separate a plotline's cause and effect to make up the number.
* One particularly memorable ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode actually screwed with the long established premise of one case, one episode, by showing a day in the life of the police officers and their relations with the [=DA=]s. Rather than the one case followed from crime to verdict, one principal case is brought up, and several other minor cases crop up to plague the detective's concentration.
* Most episodes of ''Series/LieToMe'' involve two different investigations going on at the same time. In a standard episode Cal and Ria will be investigating a death or a murder while Gillian and Eli are investigating a scandal.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** The series does a variant on this in every episode: one {{Backstory}}-revealing plot told in a series of {{FlashBack}}s, usually thematically related to the primary "present day" plot. By the first half of the fifth season, the flashbacks are gone and instead the episodes are split between the group of people on the island and the Oceanic Six. The second half retrieves the flashback format, but abandons the "two present day stories" for, at-episode 10, 12, and 13 are centered on only a single plotline, 11 only features a brief scene from another, and 14's b plot is only a few scenes at the start and end.
** In a number of episodes, there's not only the FlashBack and the "present day" plot but also a ''secondary'' "present day" plot that's more lighthearted and features the leftover characters. There have been cases of people playing golf and table tennis, and Hurley & Sawyer tracking then squashing a noisy frog (seriously).
** Most of season six has three plot-lines per episode: two of the Island groups are featured, along with a story set in an alternate universe where 815 never crashed.
%%* ''Series/TheLoveBoat''
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' did this every episode, typically with three storylines running at once or more. The most common one was the A Story being about Malcolm and one other family member, and the other stories revolving around the other family members and Francis always had his own story, until he [[DemotedToExtra became a part-time cast member]].
* This became increasingly common in later seasons of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', with some members of the cast getting involved in their own side adventures away from the main plot.
* The delicate balancing of sitcom hijinks and medical/war drama seen throughout ''Series/{{MASH}}'' appeared to be a little too much for the writers to handle in the last few seasons, so instead every episode was given two storylines, one funny and one serious. It was rather obvious that they were putting all their effort into the serious storylines and the "funny" storylines tended to fall flat as a result.
* Used in nearly every episode of ''Series/TheMentalist''. Plot A follows Jane with the murder mystery and whoever happens to be his sidekick this week, usually Lisbon or Cho. Plot B follows the more exciting cop business with Rigsby and his sidekick of the week. Sometimes the plots are related, and sometimes they're not.
* ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' usually had a B story involving Angela's parents, thanks to child labor laws (Clare Danes and Devon Gummersall couldn't be in every scene of the show).
* Over in non-fiction land, ''Series/MythBusters'' does this too. Partially justified in that a single myth is generally too short to provide a sixty minute (including commercials) show. However, it is the presentation of each myth in parts that qualifies ''Series/MythBusters'' as an example.
* Every episode of season one of ''Series/NaturallySadie'' would have one 'Sadie' plot and one 'Rain' plot, except one where the plots merged. This was less common for the second and third season.
* This happens pretty often in ''Series/NewTricks''. Sandra normally goes off with one other member of the team about a quarter through the episode, with the other two members going off on their own plotline as well. Sometimes there are even three plotlines in one episode.
* Recurring on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} shows:
** ''Series/ICarly'': Carly/Sam/Freddie A plot, Spencer (and later Gibby) B-Plot. Formula for dozens of episodes. Occasionally one of the trio jumps into Spencer's plot whilst the other two deal with the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori in the A-Plot, and a B-Plot which uses cast not required for the A-Plot. Trina is often what the b-plot revolves around.
** Carly and Victorious have later a crossover special, leading to an epic 10 Lines, No Waiting: Carly's time with Steven, Tori's time with Steven(which later intertwine), Andre and later Kenan trying to catch the panda, Robbie/Rex in an epic rap battle, Cat having to use a headband to talk, Trina babysitting for Lane, Sikowitz trying to scare Beck, Spencer, Beck, Jade and Sikowitz in the hot tub, Sinjin video game surfing, and Gibby trying to find his mole. Eventually all the plots build into one another leading to everyone singing karaoke.
** ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': The titular brothers in the A-Plot, Megan in a B-Plot when not directly involved in screwing up the A-Plot for the boys.
** ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'': Same thing as Victorious except Zoey in place of Tori.
** ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'': A-plot with the main character that may involve one of his friends, and a B-plot that involves the other friend (or two B-plots when Ned is alone in the A-plot).
** ''Series/TheThundermans'': Phoebe and Max in the A-Plot; Nora and Billy in the B-Plot. The parents can be in either one, but tend to more often be in the B-plot. Occasionally Phoebe and Max are in separate plots, with Phoebe almost always getting the main plot in that case and Max interacting with his younger siblings. For the supporting cast, Cherry is always in Phoebe's plot, Dr. Colosso in the Max or Nora/Billy plot, and Chloe in the Nora/Billy plot.
** ''Series/HenryDanger'': Henry/Ray/Charlotte A-Plot; Jasper/Piper B-Plot. Schwoz is usually involved providing support in the A-Plot and Henry and Piper's parents in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/NickyRickyDickyAndDawn'': The plot usually split the quadruplets four ways, with Dawn usually being in the A-Plot and the rest varying.
** ''Series/GameShakers'': Usually has Babe and Kenzie in the A-plot, Trip and Dub in the B-plot, and Hudson going back and forth between the two.
* ''Series/NorthernExposure'' typically has three or four plotlines per episode.
* This was the basic storytelling method in the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime''. Every episode featured a story in the cursed community of Storybrooke and a story in the past of the Enchanted Forest, with the flashback story usually shedding narrative light on the characters in Storybrooke. The second season added a [[ThirdLineSomeWaiting third plot thread]].
* HBO's ''Series/{{Oz}}'' featured several continuing plotlines in more of a serial format (starting and ending with the season), as well as single-episode plots.
* ''Series/PieInTheSky'' is about a semi-retired police detective who runs a restaurant when he's not being obliged by his old boss to go and solve some mystery or other. Most episodes have a plotline focussed on his policework and another focussed on goings-on at the restaurant.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' usually only has one actual murder mystery per episode, but there are other personal plots for the characters to deal with at the same time. In some of the later episodes, two of the main characters would investigate the case while the others had something else to do.
* Often seen in the British mystery series ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey''. A typical ''Rumpole'' episode involves two plots: the case of the week Rumpole is defending, and a plot involving either some intrigue back in chambers or some intrigue in Rumpole's household.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' does this often, and tries to tie them together in a central theme at the end. "It's hard living life... whether it's giving birth on a sinking submarine... eating a fellow doctor's testicles... or just plain sitting around at home in your jammies, smearing baked beans on the TV."
** In "My Waste of Time", J.D. {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this practice by saying his moral out loud in front of others after having an epiphany:
--->'''Dr. Cox:''' What in the hell are you talking about?\\
'''J.D.:''' Oh, I'm just doing this thing where I use a slice of wisdom from someone else's life to solve a problem in my own life.\\
'''Jordan:''' Seems coincidental.\\
'''J.D.:''' And yet I do it almost every week.
** In some commentaries and interviews on ''Scrubs'' DVD sets, it is mentioned that Creator/BillLawrence's parents found it hard to keep up with the multiple storylines.
** "My Lunch" has a high drama factor. The A plot deals with organ transplants to several patients, almost all of whom won't survive without immediate surgery. The B plot consists of [[MoodWhiplash Carla and Elliot trying to convince Todd that he should admit to being gay, leading to him harassing both male and female characters from that point on.]]
* ''Series/{{Seacht}}'' seems to be doing this with Decko, whose interaction with the rest of the cast has so far been minimal.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' perfected this tactic, with a twist. The two story lines would turn out to be physically (not just thematically) interrelated through some absurd coincidence or twist. Creator/LarryDavid has mentioned in several DVD commentaries that he had the idea to interweave the separate plotlines early on in the show's run, but didn't perfect the practice until Season 4.
* ''Series/TheShield'' usually runs three police plots (the Strike Team, Dutch and Wimms, Danni and Julien), plus Macky's private and Aceveda's political lives, with plotlines crossing and merging.
* Very common in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' spin-offs.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s early seasons suffered badly from a sense that the writers felt ''obligated'' to have multiple plotlines, and events that should have been the centerpiece of an entire episode were relegated to the B-story (''e.g.'', the re-introduction of the Romulans). Through the remainder of the series there was usually one plot line where the Enterprise was in danger even if it only came up in a few scenes.
** A later-season Next Generation example is the episode "Disaster", which leaves various characters stranded in different parts of the ship and unable to communicate and each dealing with their own problems, leading to five distinct storylines:
*** Troi, Ro, and O'Brien on the bridge, trying to solve the crisis without the ability to communicate with the rest of the ship.
*** Data and Riker trying to reach Engineering. (This would eventually intersect with the bridge plot, the only two storylines in this episode to do so)
*** Picard trapped in a turbolift with three schoolchildren
*** Beverly and Geordi in the cargo bay
*** Worf treating patients, including a laboring Keiko O'Brien, in Ten-Forward
** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Silent Enemy." The A plot is a strong, tense plot where the Enterprise is face with an enemy that outclasses their ship in every way. The ship is boarded, lives are lost, and in order to even survive, the Enterprise has to risk blowing half the ship apart. The B plot is centered around Hoshi finding out Reed's favorite food (pineapple). HilarityEnsues, despite, you know, the ''ship endangering crisis'' going on. Needless to say, the A plot is horribly undermined by the thematic discontinuity, and gross stupidity, of the B plot.
** This structure is seen in ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with the notable exception of [[GrowingTheBeard the late-first-season episode]] "Duet".
** Also used in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. Oddly, the movie's title came from the "B" plot.
* In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', most episodes revolve around two plots: A MonsterOfTheWeek and some real-life challenge for one or more of the main characters. In many cases, the two get interwoven, with the everyday plot ending up teaching one of the Rangers a [[{{Anvilicious}} valuable]] [[AnAesop lesson]] which then becomes instrumental in defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'' is setup like this. The main story is usually focused on Sookie and Bill. Sam and Tara have their own subplots which cross with each other and Sookie's from time to time. Lafayette and Andy show up regularly with their own problems, but not as much time is dedicated to them. Meanwhile Jason is off doing his own thing.
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has seemingly switched to this in Season 3. With the addition of Jinks, the pattern (so far) is that Pete and Myka search for artifact A, Claudia and Jinks search for artifact B.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'' does this a lot, and also frequently juggles three or more storylines per episode.
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'' utilized this during its first season, showing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's stories concurrently [[spoiler: even when they were happening ''decades'' apart]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]

* All of the movies in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series (except [[Film/SawI the first]]) fit this structure. Line A is mostly about the plot/suspense, while Line B is more about horror/{{Gorn}}. The movie jumps to Line A whenever something {{Gorn}}[[{{Crunchtastic}} tastic]] happens in Line B. It jumps to Line B after some plot development resolves in Line A. Some of the movies spend more time in Line A (''Film/SawV'') and some spend more time in Line B (''Film/SawIII''), which directly relates to how gory a given installment is. These plots always meet up in some fashion at the end. [[labelnote:details]]''Film/SawII'' - Line A: Matthews and Jigsaw, Line B: The house of traps. ''Film/SawIII'' - Line A: Lynn, Amanda and Jigsaw, Line B: Jeff. ''Film/SawIV'' - Line A: Jigsaw's Past, Line B: Rigg. ''Film/SawV'' - Line A: Hoffman and Strahm, Line B: The Fatal Five. ''Film/SawVI'' - Line A: Hoffman and Ericson, Line B: William. ''Film/Saw3D'' - Line A: Hoffman and Jill, Line B: Bobby. ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' - Lina A: Logan, Eleanor, and Halloran, Line B: John's first trap.[[/labelnote]]

* ''Series/TheWitcher'' utilized this during its first season, showing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's stories concurrently [[spoiler: even when they were happening ''decades'' apart]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' regularly utilizes Aang and the Gang for "A" story, and Zuko and Iroh as the "B" story, to emphasize the [[NotSoDifferent similarities and flaws]] between the main protagonist and the main antagonist. Though Zuko served as a source of conflict for the heroes initially, his own separate stories became much more frequent and gained ''much'' more depth after his character was developed, eventually earning him ADayInTheLimelight in the second season to delve in his backstory by means of a WholeEpisodeFlashback.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesHajimariNoKiseki'' has three separate plot arcs that ultimately converge together in the final chapter. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesZeroNoKiseki Lloyd's route]] has him trying to win Crossbell's freedom, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Rean's route]] has him cleaning up the mess left behind [[LateArrivalSpoiler by the world war in the previous game]], and new character "C"'s route has him going undercover of why there's a Rosenburg doll sent to him. The routes do meet up with one another and at one point, the players can fight characters in the other route with the players actually controlling both teams with the perspectives switched mid fight.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* ''Film/CloudAtlas'' has *six* lines, across different eras in the past, present, and future.
* ''Anime/{{Digimon|Adventure}} the Movie''. In Japan, it was two short [=OVA=]s about the original cast and one longer movie about the season two newcomers. To make it a theatrical feature after the first season and an introduction to said newcomers, a bit of narration was used for ArcWelding, and Diaboromon and Kokomon were said to be affected by the same virus, and given the same voice actor and a couple catchphrases in common. ("Don't interfere!" "[[ArcWords Go back to the beginning.]].") Connecting Diaboromon to the Willis thing actually made Diaboromon a much more sympathetic character than the original GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere, but the longer ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' really [[CompressedAdaptation loses a great deal of plot]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'' does this during the prologue of the game, switching between Takeshi and [[NoNameGiven The Kid]]. It drops this shortly into the game, at which point the player is locked into one of the two characters. [[spoiler: This trope returns during [[GoldenEnding Coco's path]], which begins switching back and forth between the two characters again]]
** ''VisualNovel/{{Remember11}}'' has its prologue set up the same way, with Kokoro and Satoru being the viewpoint characters. While this game does force the player into one of the two characters after the prologue finishes, it continues to use this trope throughout its entirety during the [[FreakyFridayFlip personality transfer phenomena]], resulting in part of each story being seen no matter which character the player is.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* It' SOP for ''Literature/NancyDrew'' books to start with two seemingly unrelated mysteries that turn out to be the same thing by the end of the story.

* Literature/SpocksWorld alternates between a history of Vulcan and the present as the heroes try to stop the planet from seceding.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' does this during the ''Bloody Hell'' arc of the sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past''. It is evenly split between this verse's take on the ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' book ''Literature/DeadBeat'' (which sees [[TheStarscream Voldemort,]] [[TheAgeless Selene]], [[ReformedButNotTamed Magneto]] and [[BarrierMaiden Wanda Maximoff]] getting involved in the fight for control of [[AGodAmI the]] [[PhysicalGod Darkhallow]]), and another plot line focused on Harry and a group of allies trying to stop Dracula and his Grey Court from [[spoiler: ritually draining Carol's blood]] in order to [[spoiler: become immune to sunlight]].