History Main / DashedPlotline

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]", Donna's life [[BrainUploading inside CAL]] is a subversion. It looks like we're only being shown selected scenes that take place years apart, but then it turns out that ''Donna'' is only experiencing those scene changes as well...

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

* The primary continuity of the ''LyricalNanoha'' meta-series thus far spans 18 years of the title character's crime-fighting career, from an underage vigilante in [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha season one]] to a legendary test pilot for the galactic military in ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]''. Though, of course, Nanoha has [[SupportingProtagonist never been the main protagonist]] in any of her shows.

[[AC:FanFiction]]
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6244465/1/Sins-of-the-Fathers Sins of the Fathers]] opens with attack on the Southern Air Temple and explores the lives of Sozin, Azulon, Iroh, Ozai, Lu Ten, Ursa, Zuko and Azula. Not bad for a oneshot.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''{{Closer}}'' skips a good deal of time between just about every scene, with little indication of it besides the dialogue.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* Each book in the {{Foundation}} trilogy is spread out over several years.
* The second duology of ''ArciaChronicles'' is prone to multi-year skips between parts.

* The first half of part two of ''[[ErastFandorin The Death of Achilles]]'', which describes Achimas' life until his Moscow assignment, jumps many years between significant events in his youth, his turn to crime, and major assassination missions.
* The ''{{Belgariad}}/Malloreon'' prequels can skip centuries between chapters. Having main characters who are immortal makes this almost essential -- a biography of Polgara that tried to cover everything would make the Oxford English Dictionary look small, and her father's over twice as old as her.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* ''DowntonAbbey'': each season is stretched over two or three years.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* ''EternalDarkness'' consists of various people (recorded in [[TomeOfEldritchLore The Tome Of Eternal Darkness]]) who've fought against the [[EldritchAbomination Ancients]] at different points in history with...[[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu varying]] success.

[[AC:FanFiction]]
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6244465/1/Sins-of-the-Fathers Sins of the Fathers]] opens with attack on the Southern Air Temple and explores the lives of Sozin, Azulon, Iroh, Ozai, Lu Ten, Ursa, Zuko and Azula. Not bad for a oneshot.

* ''{{Rome}}'', which covers about 20 years in its two seasons, though oddly enough the two main characters, and even more oddly Lucius' kids, still age in real time.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'':
** Going from one memory to the next in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' involves jumps of several years.
** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' does the same, or suggests that the events of one memory sequence took place over the course of months.

* ''ACanticleForLeibowitz''.

* The original ''{{Mafia}}'' game is a collection of various episodes of a long MobWar spread over the years, recounted by the PlayerCharacter.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'':

* In the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Inner Light" the Enterprise finds a probe which takes Picard through an entire lifetime as a member of an extinct civilization in the span of just a few minutes on the Enterprise; this is shown through several timeskips of about ten years each.

* ''TwentyFour'' does it not with episodes (since each episode picks up exactly where the last left off), but with seasons, which are separated by several year intervals.

* Likewise, ''CallOfDutyBlackOps'' is a series of flashbacks of various missions with years between them.

* ''AssassinsCreed'':
** Going from one memory to the next in ''AssassinsCreedII'' involves jumps of several years.
** AssassinsCreedBrotherhood does the same, or suggests that the events of one memory sequence took place over the course of months.

* ''ThePillarsOfEarth''.

* In the ''DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]", Donna's life [[BrainUploading inside CAL]] is a subversion. It looks like we're only being shown selected scenes that take place years apart, but then it turns out that ''Donna'' is only experiencing those scene changes as well...

* In the ''DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]", Donna's life [[BrainUploading inside CAL]] is a subversion. It looks like we're only being shown selected scenes that take place years apart, but then it turns out that ''Donna'' is only experiencing those scenes as well...

A closely related concept (and probably a SuperTrope) is EllipticStorytelling, where non-essential details of the plot, setting, or characterization are deliberately left out for the reader to think up on their own.

* Going from one memory to the next in ''AssassinsCreedII'' involves jumps of several years.

A plot consisting of multiple parts (episodes, chapters, acts, etc.), with large [[TimeSkip time gaps]] (over a year) between them. Good for authors who want to tell a long, epic story while saving narrative space and showing only the interesting bits. Very often combined with ThisIsMyStory, where the narrator only tells about [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail the key points of their adventure or life]].

Distinct from a regular TimeSkip in that a TimeSkip is usually a singular event in an otherwise continuous story, while this is about skipping years of characters' lives ''repeatedly''.

A closely related concept (and probably a SuperTrope) is EllipticStorytelling, where non-essential details of the plot, setting, or characterization are deliberately left out for the reader to think up on their own.
----
!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' consists of six episodes, with 1/20/14/30 year skips between the first five episodes (the sixth follows the fifth immediately).

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''Literature/ThaisOfAthens'' has skips one to three years between most chapters, culminating in a nine year-skip in the middle of the last chapter.
* Each book in the [[{{Foundation}} Foundation trilogy]] is spread out over several years.
* The second duology of ''ArciaChronicles'' is prone to multi-year skips between parts.
* While some gaps are only a few months or less, years-long gaps happen between some works in the ''{{Deryni}}'' cycle:
** In the Legends of Camber trilogy, the third volume (''Camber the Heretic'') takes place a decade after the second (''Saint Camber'').
** In the Heirs of Saint Camber trilogy, there's nearly three years between the first and second volumes and nearly six between the second and the third.
** There's two years between ''In The King's Service'' and ''Childe Morgan''.
** About three years elapse between the end of ''The Quest for Saint Camber'' and the start of ''King Kelson's Bride''.
* The first half of part two of ''[[ErastFandorin The Death of Achilles]]'', which describes Achimas' life until his Moscow assignment, jumps many years between significant events in his youth, his turn to crime, and major assassination missions.
* The ''[[{{Belgariad}} Belgariad/Malloreon]]'' prequels can skip centuries between chapters. Having main characters who are immortal makes this almost essential -- a biography of Polgara that tried to cover everything would make the Oxford English Dictionary look small, and her father's over twice as old as her.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''TwentyFour'' does it not with episodes (since each episode picks up exactly where the last left off), but with seasons, which are separated by several year intervals.
* ''DowntonAbbey'': each season is stretched over two or three years.
* In the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Inner Light" the Enterprise finds a probe which takes Picard through an entire lifetime as a member of an extinct civilization in the span of just a few minutes on the Enterprise; this is shown through several timeskips of about ten years each.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' has a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue, with 1/3/3/2 year skips between them.
* Going from one memory to the next in ''AssassinsCreedII'' involves jumps of several years.
* The original ''{{Mafia}}'' game is a collection of various episodes of a long MobWar spread over the years, recounted by the PlayerCharacter.
* Likewise, ''CallOfDutyBlackOps'' is a series of flashbacks of various missions with years between them.