History Main / OffstageWaitingRoom

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' avert this in a very simple manner: you play through ''almost every day'' of the timeline in which they take place, with key events happening at various points along the calendar. It's made clear that everyone involved has their own lives and aren't just waiting on you to move the plot along. ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' plays this a little straighter, as there are various stretches where [[PlayerCharacter Joker]] is out of action, and the story picks up from where it left off when he comes back into play.
** Throughout the series, the main character is the only one who can enter the Velvet Room, where he can take however long he needs to readjust his Persona lineup. ''VideoGame/{{PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth}}'' canonizes a long-standing fan joke: while he's in there, the rest of the party really ''does'' sit around and wait for him to come back out.
* In the final boss fight of ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', after [[spoiler:Bowser becomes immune to the Star Beam]], the focus turns to Peach and Twink. They have a small fight against Kammy Koopa, which helps Twink get the power to help power up the Star Beam to the Peach Beam. What are Mario and Bowser doing through all this? They've been glaring at each other for the last 5 minutes.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RobinAndTheDreamweavers'', full-immersion VR is made available to the public, the villainous [[PornIsBad XXX]] puts her plot to enter the real world into motion, and a group of weird cartoon characters put all their hopes to stop XXX into an infant child born from cyberspace who has manifested physically. Then there's a twenty year TimeSkip during which that infant, Robin, grows up into a young woman and... not much else has changed. Every other character introduced at the start of the movie is pretty much exactly where they were before. It took ''two decades'' since VR became commonplace for someone to come up with the idea of a virtual nightclub, for crying out loud.

** According to some literary critics of Old Testament, this is a result of merging two religious traditions into one (mostly) coherent story. (What Website/TheOtherWiki has to say [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis about it]].)

* Averted in the early arcs of ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany''. After the everyone gets [[spoiler: blown into another dimension]], which [[EnemyMine forces focus]] on a larger cast, the creators have been good at justifying it. A simple handwave is that most of them are [[LazyBum Lazy Bums]]. Just as often though, some of the characters will run off to do their own less interesting antics, allowing the story to focus on a few key characters' plot.

* The trope TakeYourTime is more-or-less the videogame-medium-specific variety of this trope. In nearly every game with a player-character-driven storyline, the heroes can go off on whatever side-quests they so choose as villains, hapless {{NPC}}s needing "urgent" help, and even other player-character heroes (such as the massive casts of many ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games) sit back and twiddle their collective thumbs. It doesn't matter how imminent the threat or time-critical the problem is said to be; so long as the player never enters the villain's lair or uses that plot-critical item, the danger will wait around for you to come stop it. And even then, unless there's an ExactTimeToFailure, you can draw out the climactic battle/chase to absurd lengths. \\
See TakeYourTime for notable aversions and subversions.

** The two-and-a-half-year TimeSkip in consisted mainly of a TrainingMontage for the three main characters: Naruto, [[TheLancer Sasuke]] and [[TheChick Sakura]].

** According to some literary critics of Old Testament, this is a result of merging two religious traditions into one (mostly) coherent story. (What Wiki/TheOtherWiki has to say [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis about it]].)

Compare OffscreenInertia, TimeSkip, NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp, and for games TakeYourTime. Contrast TwoLinesNoWaiting. Related to RuleOfPerception.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' avert this in a very simple manner: you play through ''almost every day'' of the timeline in which they take place, with key events happening at various points along the calendar. It's made clear that everyone involved has their own lives and aren't just waiting on you to move the plot along.

* In "Series/TheGoodPlace", the Soul Squad spends a year conducting an experiment to prove that people can always improve and redeem themselves. Because humans aren't supposed to see the scoring system of the afterlife, only Michael (a non-human) is allowed to see the results of the test. The other members of the squad spend the majority of the episode throwing funerals for themselves while Michael proves his case to The Judge.

->''Meanwhile, back at the ranch... nothing interesting happened.''

** Similarly, the New Testament skips most of Jesus' early life, a fact that serves as a major point of discussion in the movie ''Film/{{Dogma}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] it in the episode "Sokka's Master" where Sokka spends a couple of days to [[TookALevelInBadass learn swordsmanship]], and it constantly cuts back to the other characters who are bored to tears and lying around in the dirt doing nothing, having been drained of all excitement with the removal of the team's [[PluckyComicRelief lively comic relief]]. In the following episode, Aang goes on a journey into the Spirit World for a day to learn the backstory whilst the others sit around wondering if Aang has soiled himself.

->''[[Series/{{Bonanza}} Meanwhile, back at the ranch]]... nothing interesting happened.''

* ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' plays with this trope by following the antics of the two eponymous background characters from Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''{{Hamlet}}''.

** Another ''Franchise/StargateVerse'' version comes in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "A Hundred Days". Jack spends the titular hundred days on an alien planet, while the rest of the team looks for ways to save him. Apparently, they did nothing else of interest in those three-plus months. It would've been cool to see the team undertake a mission or two without him, as we know they must have.