History Main / ContinuityCreep

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' has generally gone for a HalfArcSeason format, but as it went on, the arc episodes became more numerous, and the standalone episodes got rarer and rarer. The Anubis arc was a particularly notable example, as it lasted for two entire seasons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. The first few games had no continuity, to the point that no one is entirely certain whether the sixth is a ContinuityReboot or not. The next few included characters from and references to earlier games, but it still didn't amount to much. Then we got some serious attempts at world building around the time of the tenth game, and the plots of the games have been increasingly linked since.

* Although the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' games have never had any overarching plot line, they've gradually accumulated enough {{Continuity Nod}}s that there is a clear serial progression between games. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Partners in Time]]'' has the least amount of references to its predecessor, ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'', with a cameo appearance by TheDragon of the previous game being the only significant plot connection. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Bowser's Inside Story]]'' had many more connections, with the aforementioned Dragon becoming the BigBad and the plot of ''Partners in Time'' being mentioned several times in side quests. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Dream Team]]'' has the most connections with its predecessors, with the FairyCompanion of ''Bowser's Inside Story'' filling the role once again, the Block-like Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame revealed to be members of an entire Brock race, Beanbean Kingdom races being prominently featured again, Bowser retaining his leitmotif and VacuumMouth from the previous game, and the RunningGag about Bowser being unable to remember Luigi's name finally getting resolution by the end. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam Paper Jam]]'' dials back some of this but does make reference to games outside the Mario and Luigi series (Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for example), brings back characters that have not appeared for a while (Toadette and King Bomb-omb) and gives some of them a lot of characterisation like the Koopalings (in comparison to past portrayals anyway). The games also have a minor character arc for Bowser where he goes from a HarmlessVillian in ''Superstar Saga'' to the BigBad of ''Paper Jam''.

* Although the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' games have never had any overarching plot line, they've gradually accumulated enough {{Continuity Nod}}s that there is a clear serial progression between games. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Partners in Time]]'' has the least amount of references to its predecessor, ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'', with a cameo appearance by TheDragon of the previous game being the only significant plot connection. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Bowser's Inside Story]]'' had many more connections, with the aforementioned Dragon becoming the BigBad and the plot of ''Partners in Time'' being mentioned several times in side quests. ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Dream Team]]'' has the most connections with its predecessors, with the FairyCompanion of ''Bowser's Inside Story'' filling the role once again, the Block-like Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame revealed to be members of an entire Brock race, Beanbean Kingdom races being prominently featured again, Bowser retaining his leitmotif and VacuumMouth from the previous game, and the RunningGag about Bowser being unable to remember Luigi's name finally getting resolution by the end.

In a comedy show, this trope is often a symptom of CerebusSyndrome, but it can occur independently. In a dramatic or action-adventure show, it's often a sign of GrowingTheBeard. ArcWelding is this trope applied retroactively. "Too much" may result in ContinuityPorn. See also KudzuPlot, when instead of a series sprouting references to past events, it sprouts open-ended mysteries for use in future events. Often more noticeable in a {{Long Runner|s}}. Generally averts AesopAmnesia and StatusQuoIsGod.

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'' began as a series of isolated stories set in various AdventureTowns in time and space (although the characters did evolve throughout the season). However, the second season saw its first major reference to the past in the form of the return of the Daleks, after they had all died, with the HandWave explanation that this adventure took place ''before'' their destruction. This and future seasons saw an increasing number of recurring elements and characters. It wasn't until the seventies that the narratives started to become definitely interconnected, and in the eighties this turned into ContinuityLockOut and ContinuityPorn. The new series, while still containing series and multi-series long arcs (with a few stand-alones) has dialed back on the ContinuityLockOut, if not completely. That is until Creator/StevenMoffat took over New Who in season 5. Since then, all of the seasons have been connected by a long over-arching story about the identity of The Doctor and new orders and secret organizations seeing him as a threat.

*** A (common) moment of genius on the part of Pratchett though - in the earlier books the wizards all had names, and consequently died. Then he introduced the usual suspects, didn't give them names, and they became recurring characters. The only exceptions - Ponder Stibbons (who's too smart and cowardly to die), Ridcully (who's too stubborn to die) and Rincewind (who's too fast to die, and in any case isn't so much a wizard as a wizzard) all, in some way, behave very differently from the standard Discworld wizards.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' had little to no regard to continuity in its earlier years. But extended story arcs began taking shape before so long. And old throw-away gags from earlier days have also been brought back and expanded upon, including Squigley's ability to [[WrongContextMagic fly his couch while high]].

*** A (common) moment of genius on the part of Pratchett though - in the earlier books the wizards all had names, and consequently died. Then he introduced the usual suspects, didn't give them names, and they became recurring characters. The only exceptions - Ponder Stibbons (Who's too smart and cowardly to die), Ridcully (Who's too stubborn to die) and Rincewind (Who's too fast to die, and in any case isn't so much a wizard as a wizzard) all, in some way, behave very differently from the standard Discworld wizards.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' initially had two- and three-part episodes which didn't really affect each other (except for the recurring villains). Then they started throwing in short arcs that built on the plot of previous Franchise/{{DCAU}} series, such as the season two premiere, which was a follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'''s finale. And then, even the completely standalone episodes would still have brief moments suggesting continuity: the slow buildup of {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST between John Stewart and Hawkgirl, and the very subtle bits of foreshadowing pointing towards the season two GrandFinale. Then ''Justice League Unlimited'' went all-out and used overarching plots that took half the season to resolve--CADMUS in the first two seasons, then the Secret Society in season three. It's generally agreed that the growth in continuity was concurrent with [[GrowingTheBeard an upswing in quality]]. In their defense, they on purpose chose to wait until near the end of that line of show's run to get that heavy. No doubt knowing they would lose the portion of the audience due to ContinuityLockout and BrokenBase of why people like super heroes. The last season aims to smooth this with what is essentially a much larger ''Challenge of the WesternAnimation/SuperFriends.'' But here we see their problems, with certain characters off limits and a whole slew of good and bad guys never actually named on screen, which while amazing nerd candy, isn't really going to inspire many new fans if that's all they had to go on. At least not to the extent the old ''Super Friends'' cartoon that really helped bring some of the rouges galleries of the other heroes much more brand value.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' began as a series of isolated stories set in various AdventureTowns in time and space (although the characters did evolve throughout the season). However, the second season saw its first major reference to the past in the form of the return of the Daleks, after they had all died, with the HandWave explanation that this adventure took place ''before'' their destruction. This and future seasons saw an increasing number of recurring elements and characters. It wasn't until the seventies that the narratives started to become definitely interconnected, and in the eighties this turned into ContinuityLockOut and ContinuityPorn. The new series, while still containing series and multi-series long arcs (with a few stand-alones) has dialed back on the ContinuityLockOut, if not completely.
** That is until Creator/StevenMoffat took over New Who in season 5. Since then, all of the seasons have been connected by a long over-arching story about the identity of The Doctor and new orders and secret organizations seeing him as a threat.
** The Spinoff ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' is a much straighter example, starting off with MonsterOfTheWeek style for 2 seasons. Season 4 is the longest single story in the entire Whovian universe. Think about that.

* Creator/BrianAzzarello's ComicBook/''OneHundredBullets'' starts off as a fairly straightforward VictimOfTheWeek series about a shady government agent named Agent Graves, who offers wronged people a chance at taking consequence-free revenge with a handgun and 100 untraceable rounds of ammunition. Initially, Azzarello just uses unrelated standalone stories to examine the moral dilemmas inherent in the concept of revenge, with Graves as the only reappearing character. As the series goes on, though, some of the previous [[VictimOfTheWeek Victims of the Week]] return to become recurring characters, and a sprawling MythArc gradually becomes apparent as the characters figure out their connections to one another and work to uncover Agent Graves' motivations for seeking them out.

** ''Comicbook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' began as a series of random, one-off strips. After a while, the comic evolved so that each issue told a longer story, and a full-fledged Myth Arc was in place by the end. This was deliberate.

* The comic version of ''Comicbook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' started with one-off stories because Tania del Rio (the writer) had orders from her editor to do the stories ''Franchise/{{Archie|Comics}}'' style. However, she slipped in some continuity slowly over each issue. By the time she got a new editor (who also happens to run ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog''), the "Four Blades" plot was already underway.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the between the chapter meta panels in ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}''.

* Creator/GarthEnnis's run in ''Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX.'' The CIA's disastrous attempts to recruit him in "In The Beginning" is brought up in "Mother Russia," and a couple of characters have very important roles in "Up is Down and Black is White", "Man of Stone" and "Long Cold Dark". Yorkie from "Kitchen Irish" crops up again in "Man of Stone" and "Long Cold Dark". "Mother Russia" is a crucial part of later stories "Up is Down and Black is White", "Man of Stone", "Long Cold Dark" and "Valley Forge Valley Forge." The events of "The Slavers" has a bearing on "Widowmaker."
* Creator/{{DC|Comics}} and Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} superheroes can be considered this in general. Back in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, every story was a self-contained plot. Over the years, comics added more and more continuity until the modern soap-opera style of storytelling resulted. This, of course, led to a large amount of ContinuitySnarl, more-so on DC's end than Marvel's, due to DC being an amalgam of characters from a myriad of authors and bought-out companies (most notably Charlton Comics), while nearly all of Marvel's A-list names spawned from the mind of Creator/StanLee (i.e. it was easier for the Generalisimo to recall and/or retcon stuff he himself had written than it was for DC authors who may have had to research character that DC themselves may have not created, like [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]).
* For the first several issues the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' parts of ''Comicbook/SonicTheComic'' were mainly just full one-shots that never really related to one each other. Issue 8 started a sense of plot but it took several more issues of on and off one-shots until it came into full effect.
* Creator/BrianAzzarello's ''[[Comicbook/OneHundredBullets 100 Bullets]]'' starts off as a fairly straightforward VictimOfTheWeek series about a shady government agent named Agent Graves, who offers wronged people a chance at taking consequence-free revenge with a handgun and 100 untraceable rounds of ammunition. Initially, Azzarello just uses unrelated standalone stories to examine the moral dilemmas inherent in the concept of revenge, with Graves as the only reappearing character. As the series goes on, though, some of the previous [[VictimOfTheWeek Victims of the Week]] return to become recurring characters, and a sprawling MythArc gradually becomes apparent as the characters figure out their connections to one another and work to uncover Agent Graves' motivations for seeking them out.

* The EighthDoctorAdventures tie-in novels began in early 1997 with a MonsterOfTheWeek format, albeit, one with lots of references to the show. However, starting with the 6th novel, Lawrence Miles' ''Alien Bodies'' later that year, the seeds of a MythArc were sown, and by the 23rd novel, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum's ''Unnatural History'', published in 1999, the series was in full on ContinuityLockOut with story lines that wouldn't be sort of-tied up until 73rd and final novel, Lance Parkin's ''The Gallifrey Chronicles'', published in 2005.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', which was pretty continuity heavy from the start, but nonetheless took the time to {{lampshade|Hanging}} it (the "simple" beginnings they refer to, in addition to not being that simple, are actually only the first ''week'' of strips):

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* The EighthDoctorAdventures tie-in novels began in early 1997 with a MonsterOfTheWeek format, albeit, one with lots of references to the show. However, starting with the 6th novel, Lawrence Miles' "Alien Bodies" later that year, the seeds of a MythArc were sown and by the 23rd novel, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum's "Unnatural History", published in 1999, the series was in full on ContinuityLockOut with story lines that wouldn't be sorta-tied up until 73rd and final novel, Lance Parkin's The Gallifrey Chronicles, published in 2005.

* The EighthDoctorAdventures tie-in novels began in early 1997 with a MonsterOfThWeek format, albeit, one with lots of references to the show. However, starting with the 6th novel, Lawrence Miles' "Alien Bodies" later that year, the seeds of a MythArc were sown and by the 23rd novel, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum's "Unnatural History", published in 1999, the series was in full on ContinuityLockOut with story lines that wouldn't be sorta-tied up until 73rd and final novel, Lance Parkin's The Gallifrey Chronicles, published in 2005.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' tended to [[NegativeContinuity avoid continuity]] for much of its first two seasons, with the exception of "The Finale"[[note]]an episode which pokes fun at numerous continuity tropes[[/note]]. During the course of Season 3, however, continuity became a regular thing, most notably after "The Shell" in which [[spoiler: Penny breaks out of her shell and [[RelationshipUpgrade starts her relationship with Gumball]]]], altering the status quo for the first time. Since then, the show has had its fair share of {{Call Back}}s, {{Sequel Episode}}s and even some inter-episode {{Foreshadowing}} and {{Cerebus Retcon}}s, but the large majority of episodes still work as standalone stories.

* ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles'', starting about halfway through its second season, when it starts to transition away from [[MonsterOfTheWeek Terminator of the Week]] format.

** The first midseason finale, "The Bridge", reveals that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Centipede]] was the same group controlling Akela Amador via ExplosiveLeash, and they're now using the same technology to control their {{Super Soldier}}s.

* In a way, the "Zenithia trilogy" of ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' (games IV - VI). Despite large differences in the world maps of the games, the lack of connections between the games' plots, and there being very few ties between IV and V and almost none between VI and the other two, fans did argue that there were faint clues that the three games took place in the same continuity (like the Loto/Erdrick trilogy that comprises the first three games). This was even after [[WordofGod series creator Yuji Horii said in an interview that]] the three games were intended to only be linked by the recurring appearance of a heavenly location named Zenithia. However, with the DS remakes, it's now official that the three games do take place in the same continuity, especially with [[spoiler: a bonus quest in VI spelling it out that IV and then V take place in the future after VI]].

* This is true to a certain extent in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. The first few books introduce us to the various factions and old friends of Harry whom we've never met before; but it gets to the point that they can play off each other, and you can have complex stories with multiple enemy factions each seeking something and getting in each other's way.

** But the books were planned as a seven-book arc from the beginning, which meant that many events in the first two books integrated seamlessly into the overall MythArc (the biggest one being Tom Riddle's Diary was actually [[spoiler:a Horcrux]].