| 1 | For almost a full season, the plucky folks who [[WeHelpTheHelpless help those in need]] have defeated MonsterOfTheWeek after MonsterOfTheWeek, protected the space-time continuum from invading aliens, stopped an {{Antimatter}} explosion from removing North America from the face of the planet, and saved the [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent President]]. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Now, however, they are vexed by someone who seems to know their strengths, their weaknesses, and everything in between. They're outmaneuvered, outnumbered, and outsmarted. The season ends with the villain gloating over them, saying their most dangerous tasks up to that point have simply been tests he has engineered. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | The Arc Welder cometh. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Arc Welding is a form of ContinuityCreep that occurs when a series which has heretofore been episodic {{retcon}}s itself so that it's all linked in a StoryArc. The most common approach to Arc Welding is when an antagonist, hidden up to that point, is shown to be responsible for all the major threats the protagonists have faced thus far. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Alternatively, several seemingly disconnected arcs might be revealed to part of a larger MythArc. This is rarer, possibly because it's harder to do well, and any works that attempt it may risk being cancelled before they can make the big reveal or retcon. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Arc welding is different from StoryArc or MythArc because it is always retroactive; or, at the very least, the work doesn't make it clear that there is one of these at play until much latter. Similarly to the CerebusRetcon, without WordOfGod, it can sometimes be hard to tell if the emergence of an overarching story was a later decision made because the creators wanted to try something new and/or realized their work had an underlying theme they can take advantage of, or if it was planned from the beginning and all the episodic content was meant to ease the audience into TheReveal. In the absence of confirmation, Arc Welding is YMMV. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Compare CanonWelding, which ties together different series, and InnocuouslyImportantEpisode, which retroactively ties a seemingly unrelated event into an existing StoryArc. See also MetaOrigin, PatchworkStory, PlotLineCrossover, HyperlinkStory. Under the right circumstances, GreaterScopeVillain and GreaterScopeParagon can both come into play as well, especially if the events of seemingly unrelated parts of a story are later revealed to have been caused by or tied to a specific villain or specific hero. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Contrast NotSoEpisodic, which is similar, but lacks the RetCon. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with welding metal using arcing electricity.]] For info on that, go [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_welding here.]] For a minigame on that, go to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption''. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | !!Examples: |
| 21 | [[index]] |
| 22 | * ArcWelding/ComicBooks |
| 23 | [[/index]] |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 28 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Was the plot up to BigBad Aizen's defeat a self-contained arc unconnected to the Thousand Year Blood War? Hell no! Aizen's deeply involved in many of the events that set up the War, but the Final Arc's BigBad was secretly involved in many earlier events as well. While the first arc appears to be a protracted chess game between Aizen and Urahara, the final arc answers the question of ''who had provided the chessboard''. The final arc connects events as disparate as the death of Ichigo's mother, Rukia's execution, Ichigo's substitute shinigami badge, Aizen's hollowfication experiments, Ryuuken's hatred of Quincies, and more. WordOfGod has indicated that the arc welding actually occurred at the end of the Soul Society arc when Creator/TiteKubo realized how to end the story on the basis of what he'd written up until that point. This discredited a fan theory that the length of the Arrancar Arc was a result of Kubo stalling because he hadn't figured out how to end the plotline. Thus far, {{Rewrite}} {{Retcon}}s have been avoided, although several events (most particularly Masaki's death) have had to be {{Revision}}ed. |
| 29 | * ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' ties together the plot arcs of [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Makoto Naegi and the 78th class of Hope's Peak Academy]], [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair Hajime Hinata and the 77th class]], and [[VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls Komaru Naegi and the events in Towa City]]. |
| 30 | * ''Every'' subplot in ''Anime/ExcelSaga'', which were all PlayedForLaughs, actually got tied together in the [[GainaxEnding surprisingly serious finale.]] |
| 31 | * Happened quite a lot in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar''. A few volumes after Kenshiro's TokenMotivationalNemesis Shin was killed off, it is revealed that the reason why he turned on Kenshiro in the first place was because Ken's stepbrother Jagi (a later villain) persuaded him. Later, Shin is revealed to have only faced Kenshiro to build upon the Gosha Stars' lie that Yuria died as a result of her suicide attempt, so that Raoh won't be able to find her. |
| 32 | * This is pretty much the whole reason the ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam'' manga exists: without it, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'' come off as two unconnected stories that just happen to be set in the UC timeline. With it, the stories are tied together into a larger overarching narrative with the Jupiter Empire and its aristocratic oligarchical philosophy as TheManBehindTheMan of both the anime series' {{Big Bad}}s. |
| 33 | * ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 34 | ** A minor example: A {{Filler}} episode of [[Manga/{{Naruto}} the original series]] revealed that Mizuki attempted to steal the kinjutsu scroll on [[BigBad Orochimaru's]] orders. This revelation occurred around episode 160 or so, and Mizuki stole the scroll in episode 1. |
| 35 | ** A major example: Tobi is largely responsible for/connected to the origins of Naruto (he unleashed the Nine-Tailed Fox on the Hidden Leaf Village, forcing the Fourth Hokage to seal it in Naruto), Sasuke (he helped Itachi with the Uchiha massacre), the messed-up state of the Hidden Mist Village in Part 1 (he was mind-controlling its leader), etc. |
| 36 | ** ''Kakashi Gaiden'' was originally just a short prequel arc detailing the origin story of Kakashi. Years later, it turned out to also be the beginning of the origin story for Tobi himself. |
| 37 | ** The Sage of the Six Paths is first mentioned as being the founder of the ninja arts (and the first guy with the [[MagicalEye Rinnegan]]), but is later revealed to be both the ancestor of the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki clans, ''and'' the guy who split the almighty Ten-Tailed Beast into the nine different Tailed Beasts that exist today, creating the MOON in the whole process. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' tends to do this: |
| 39 | ** Both good guys and bad unexpectedly show up in later arcs with gambits ahoy, but ''[=FireRed and LeafGreen=]'' and ''Emerald'' take the cake. ''FRLG'' was a result of all the previous arcs while ''Emerald'' was a direct consequence of ''FRLG''. For reference, ''Emerald'' was the ''sixth'' arc, and Pokemon in general rarely bothers with continuing plots across multiple games/series/whatever. |
| 40 | ** Volumes 29 (climax of ''Emerald'') and 38 (climax of ''Diamond and Pearl'', beginning of ''Platinum'') brought together and resolved so many plot lines from different arcs to the point that the JustForFun/HolyShitQuotient shot up to high levels. |
| 41 | * ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'' did the same thing the manga ''Manga/SailorMoon'' did with Black Hole. Though since ''DX 3'' is mostly non-canon to the series they're connected to, it kinda really doesn't count. |
| 42 | * In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' Creator/DiC tried to do this to all the bad guys that appeared during the second season. Then later [[spoiler:Creator/NaokoTakeuchi did this with the bad guy ''Chaos'' at the end of the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] who was supposedly responsible for the appearance of all the previous {{Big Bad}}s]]. |
| 43 | * The ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' episode "The Trick Race," which is the third to last episode of the series, introduces a gang of spies who say that various other criminals from previous episodes, including "Gang of Assassins" and "The Dangerous Witness," were all members of their organization. |
| 44 | * ''Manga/TenjhoTenge''. Every bad thing that ever happened to anyone turned out to be the work of [[spoiler:the protagonist's dad]]. Even the stuff that happened centuries ago. |
| 45 | * ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' has this with season four, where it is revealed that the release of the Sacred Beasts, the Light of Destruction, and Yubel's schemes were all used by the final BigBad Darkness for...something. |
| 46 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh5DS'', the villains of the first major story arc are Roman Godwin and [[spoiler:his brother Rex]], who are revealed to be responsible for the Zero Reverse incident that severed Domino City in two. The next season revealed Roman's turn to evil was engineered by the AncientConspiracy Yliaster as a plot to destroy Domino City with Zero Reverse. After the three leaders of Yliaster were defeated, the founder of the organization, Z-one, appeared as the final antagonist of the series, picking up the trio's plans to destroy Domino. The final arc also revealed that Paradox, the antagonist of ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime'', was also an agent of Yliaster working on a secondary plan in that film. |
| 47 | * Chapter 170 of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' confirms that [[spoiler:everything that happened in the series was a result of ''King Enma's'' actions. He created falsified reports of demon crimes in the human realm, let evil demons into the human realm, and even brainwashed innocent demons for his Spirit Detectives to finish off, increasing Enma's reputation within Spirit World, since the Spirit Detectives were under his command. This gave Enma the authority to erect a barrier between the three realms, as supposed demon "crimes" would create the illusion that this was a righteous act, and not totalitarian, since the spirit energy unused by humans was a valuable resource to the Spirit World.]] |
| 48 | %%* ''Literature/TheTatamiGalaxy'' is built around this trope. |
| 49 | %%* For many fans, this is the core selling point of Anime and Manga ''Manga/GinTama''. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 53 | * ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'': |
| 54 | ** Dr. Brainstorm [[BlatantLies claims]] to have done this in order to build the {{Doom|yDoomsOfDoom}} {{S|paceStation}}atellite. |
| 55 | ** Played straight in "Our Solemn Hour", [[spoiler:where [[BigBad Holographic Retro]] reveals he was behind the power outage in "Surge", the return of [[{{Technopath}} Electro]] in "Part Three", the "save Aankor" plan in "Invasion", and the FreakyFridayFlip in "Bodyswap" (though he intended it to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase their memories]]).]] |
| 56 | * ''Fanfic/TheDearSweetieBelleContinuity'': The series originated as disparate stories (Rarity's letter to Sweetie Belle, Luna and Shining Armor's affair, the romantic setups of ''Morning Glory'') which the author realized fit together well. He also attempted to tie in another of his stories regarding an AU where Luna took over, [[http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/149948/failed-fics-2-our-darkest-days but that didn't work out so well.]] |
| 57 | * ''Fanfic/FacingTheFutureSeries'': It's revealed in ''A Family Thing'' that [[ArchEnemy Vlad]] was behind Vortex and Nocturne's escape from Observant custody, and their subsequent actions, in ''Hearts and Minds''. |
| 58 | * ''Fanfic/FlaihhsamSSpahkh'' does a fair amount of this. Spock's appearance on Romulus in the TNG two-parter "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E7Unification1 Unification]]" is referred to, and he has since become the official ambassador to Romulus, {{foreshadowing}} his relationship with the Romulans in the ''Film/StarTrek2009'' movie, and spearheads the effort by the Federation to get the cloaking device for the USS ''Defiant'' following the clusterfuck with the USS ''Odyssey'' in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E26TheJemHadar The Jem'Hadar]]". |
| 59 | * ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'': |
| 60 | ** This is doe with a couple of secondary antagonists from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. Recurring crime boss Bartholomew Chang and oneshot relic thief Vanessa Barone are presented as the heads of the Asian and European branches of the Dark Hand, respectfully, despite neither having a known connection to the organization in canon. |
| 61 | ** In his StartOfDarkness chapter, it's revealed that Daolon Wong gained the mouths in his hands (and the ability to extend his life by using them to drain the life-force of others) by cutting a deal with the Jiangshi which the Chans fought in a canon episode. |
| 62 | * ''Fanfic/HarmonysWarriors'' does this to tie together the stories based on the X-Men movies and those based on the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse: Gustav, the BigBad of ''X-Questrians: First Class'', is revealed in ''Captain Equestria'' to have been a member of HYDRA back in the day, serving as Hoity Toity/Red Skull's [[TheDragon Dragon]]. |
| 63 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'' has more than one exemple of this. |
| 64 | ** ''Another Side of the Glimpses'' takes multiple franchises/characters and welds them together. |
| 65 | *** The MCU Deadpool is stated to be the same one that traveled with the Characters/DeadpoolCorps (with WordOfGod also saying that elements of the Joe Kelly & Daniel Way runs and several mini-series are canon to his backstory). |
| 66 | *** Chapter 3 combines, by the way of mentioned events and characters (even if unnamed), several (if not all) of the major continuities of the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise. |
| 67 | *** Chapter 9 takes the official welding that Mr. Mxyztplk got since ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn'' and carries it over in IC. Later, Chapter 11 of ''Counterpart Conferences'' would confirm it and expand it further. |
| 68 | ** A big arc-welding character introduced in the series is [[spoiler: The Wild Card, who is later revealed to be The Pighead, one of the authors. Her presence and meddling with the timelines is used to bring together several previous events (the X-Men and the Thunderbolts existing in the MCU, She-Hulk and the Fantastic Four gaining their powers, Benny Blacktooth bring an enemy of Mei Ling's family...) and explain that it was her doing all along.]] |
| 69 | ** [[spoiler: The Ultra-Humanite, who was responsable for ordering a hit on Supergirl (which succeeded) on ''Fourth of July'', is later revealed to also subtly influence the local Peter Parker into taking interest in Curt Connors' research.]] |
| 70 | ** [[spoiler: In Chapter 3 of ''The Pilot & the Meddler Hit the Road'', the appearences of an unnamed, hoodie-wearing person in the previous chapters of the same series are connected to Pighead's employment in the Hazbin Hotel by revealing that both persons are actually one and the same but also Pighead's future self who came back to the past, wishing to atone for her past misdeeds.]] |
| 71 | * ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures'': |
| 72 | ** [[spoiler:Death]], the BigBad of Series 3, reveals in ''Darkness Falls'' that he was directly responsible for ''everything'' that happened to Simba and his friends throughout the series. |
| 73 | ** ''The End'' reveals that Series 5 BigBad [[spoiler:[[GodIsEvil The Writer]]]] is the UnseenEvil who created every other villain in the series, all for no other reason than [[ForTheEvulz his own amusement]]. |
| 74 | * ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': |
| 75 | ** A single chapter ("The Connection") manages to tie together every arc, story and alternate universe together into a single story of redemption, salvation, hope and change. Specifically, [[spoiler:when the alicorn version of Twilight from the [[BadFuture Dark World]] finishes saving it, she then creates an alternate timeline by blowing herself up (twice) into four beings -- Shining Armor, whose presence would prevent Twilight from creating the Dark World by keeping her own canon from melting down, and the three [[MysteriousWatcher Interviewers]] who've been recording this story and guiding the heroes the whole time]]. |
| 76 | * ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeriesChaosVerse'': The BigBad [[spoiler:Nightmare Phobia]] is revealed to be behind nearly every problem the Mane Six have for most of the show up to "Luna Eclipsed" (excluding Discord) by [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating their emotions]] to make them act in self-destructive ways. |
| 77 | * ''Fanfic/ReimaginedEnterprise'' puts together many different disconnected references and plot points from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' canon into new stories. |
| 78 | * It's [[FandomSpecificPlot very common in the fandom for]] ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' to combine ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' continuity with the original series. Oftentimes, it's used to bring characters from the older games into the new ones, ''especially'' the other dragons. Other times, it's just used to attempt to bring the two alternate plotlines together. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 82 | * ''[[Film/TheHowling Howling VII: New Moon Rising]]'' ''tried'' to do this, and actually did an admirable job. Unfortunately, the director chose to have the exposition delivered in massive {{Info Dump}}s. The Website/AgonyBooth had a field day with it: |
| 83 | --> ''If you do, put this story in several five-minute segments. We wouldn't want to exhaust the poor Inspector, would we?'' |
| 84 | * ''Film/JamesBond'': ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' establishes that NebulousEvilOrganization Spectre [[HijackedByGanon was behind]] the Quantum group from ''Film/{{Casino Royale|2006}}'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', as well as Raoul Silva from ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', and the arc ends with ''Film/NoTimeToDie''. Behind-the-scenes, Quantum was created as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Spectre, as Spectre's film rights were [[ScrewedByTheLawyers legally unavailable]] to Creator/EonProductions for decades. |
| 85 | * In ''Film/Scream3'', the killer, [[spoiler:Roman]], reveals that he was responsible for the events of [[Film/Scream1996 the first movie]] and [[Film/Scream2 the second movie]], being the one who inspired [[spoiler:Billy]] and later [[spoiler:his mother]] to start killing. |
| 86 | * The ''[[Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles Young Indiana Jones]]'' made-for-TV film "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" revolves around Indy and Remy attempting to find a fabled diamond known as "The Peacock's Eye", which supposedly once belonged to UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat; they ultimately [[AllForNothing fail to find it]], with the ending leaving it ambiguous whether the diamond actually exists. But sometime after the film first aired, Creator/GeorgeLucas stated that the diamond from the opening sequence of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' '''is''' the Peacock's Eye, meaning that the two stories were connected all along. |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 90 | * ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'', which is set in the universe of Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson's ''Literature/TheNightLand'', linked this book to ''Literature/TheHouseOnTheBorderland'' by stating that the titular house is the entrance to the House of Silence of The Night Land, but in the past. |
| 91 | * ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series is a major ArcWelding project for the works of Creator/StephenKing, bringing together multiple previously introduced concepts and characters for a SavingTheWorld plot of epic proportions. It had long been established that many of King's works took place in the same continuity (the towns of Derry and Castle Rock were recurring locations, and there were a few characters that appeared in multiple works), but their plots had generally stayed independent from one another before that point. ''The Dark Tower'' reveals that '''all''' of his works coexist with each other, even when they seem to take place in different universes--because his world is [[TheMultiverse a multiverse]] where multiple parallel Earths exist simultaneously, and certain gifted characters can travel from one parallel world to another. To elaborate: |
| 92 | ** The vampires from ''Literature/SalemsLot'' and the "Low Men" from [[Literature/HeartsInAtlantis "Low Men in Yellow Coats"]] are both part of a massive army commanded by the mysterious Crimson King from ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}''. Randall Flagg from ''Literature/TheStand'' and ''Literature/TheEyesOfTheDragon'' is the Crimson King's [[TheDragon Dragon]], serving as his emissary on Earth. |
| 93 | ** The psychics Ted Brautigan (from "Low Men in Yellow Coats") and Dinky Earnshaw (from "Literature/EverythingsEventual") are two of many psychics being systematically tracked down and recruited by the Crimson King's agents so that they can harness their abilities to bring the Dark Tower crashing down. Though never stated, it's presumed that characters like Danny Torrance from ''Literature/TheShining'' and Carrie White from ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' are similar such psychics, and that their abilities could also bring down the Tower if so utilized. |
| 94 | ** The mystical "Turtle" entity from ''Literature/{{It}}'' is "Maturin", one of several Guardian spirits that exists to protect the Dark Tower. Each world has its own Guardian (in Roland Deschain's world, for example, it's a bear called "Shardik"), and they all oppose the Crimson King in his quest to destroy reality. |
| 95 | ** Project Arrowhead from ''Literature/TheMist'' is one of the few agencies ever to successfully discover the nature of the Multiverse, and their theory about the existence of parallel worlds was 100% true. Also, the titular mist was a "thinny", a weak spot in the barrier between parallel worlds that characteristically emits white fog and high-pitched keening noises that can drive a person insane. And the monsters from the mist were creatures from "Todash", the primordial darkness between worlds from which the Crimson King was born. |
| 96 | ** The world of ''Literature/TheStand'', which becomes a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the wake of a disastrous plague, is one of many parallel worlds that exists in the Multiverse. Randall Flagg was trying to conquer that world in the name of the Crimson King, and he wanted to build his own new civilization atop the ashes so that his new subjects could be added to the Crimson King's army. |
| 97 | * ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]: |
| 98 | ** The ''Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures'' novel ''Venusian Lullaby'' takes a lot of the [[RunningGag throwaway one-liners]] the Third Doctor used to make about his adventures on Venus (that the Venusians sing lullabies, play hopscotch, etc.) and makes a coherent alien race out of them (living about a billion years in the past, when Venus might have been habitable). They're radially symmetrical and move by hopping. Oddly, no mention is made of the oft-referenced "Venusian Aikido" (at least by that name), nor how he might have learned it from such odd creatures. |
| 99 | ** The ''Literature/PastDoctorAdventures'' novel ''Divided Loyalties'' establishes that the Doctor was part of a clique in the Prydonian Academy on Gallifrey with the other renegades featured in the original series (the Master, the Monk, the War Chief, the Rani and Drax), Vansell (introduced in the [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish audio drama]] [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho001TheSirensOfTime "The Sirens of Time"]] earlier that year), two new characters (Jelpax and Millenia), and Rallon, who is revealed to have been posessed by the Celestial Toymaker, who used his body in the First Doctor serial by that name. |
| 100 | ** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresOriginalSin Original Sin]]'' establishes that [[spoiler:Tobias Vaughn from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]"]] was responsible for various advanced technologies that plagued the Third Doctor, and also created the glitterguns from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen Revenge of the Cybermen]]". |
| 101 | ** John Peel's Eighth Doctor novel ''War of the Daleks'' does this with the final four Dalek serials of the classic series ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks "Destiny"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks "Resurrection"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks "Revelation"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks "Remembrance of the Daleks"]]), creating a single overarching plot which was promptly ignored by every ''Who'' writer since. |
| 102 | ** ''The Doctor: His Lives and Times'' (a reference book mostly written as an in-universe ScrapbookStory) ties stories together to provide more of a narrative for each Doctor's adventures. Most blatantly, the Seventh Doctor section suggests that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric Fenric]]'s manipulation wasn't just responsible for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire Iceworld]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis Nemesis]]", but for almost everything that happened to that incarnation. |
| 103 | * According to Creator/JRRTolkien, he didn't really hit on how to make ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fit together until he realized that the Necromancer (an [[TheGreatOffscreenWar entirely offscreen villain]] Gandalf was mentioned as going off to fight [[DeusExitMachina to get him out of the picture]]) could have been an alternate identity of Sauron. He also rereleased portions of ''The Hobbit'' to turn the One Ring from a nifty little magic item to an ArtifactOfDoom, justified as Bilbo now telling the ''true'' story after prompting from Gandalf. |
| 104 | * All 7 other of the ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, encompassing epic acts by Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, God and the Devil had this trope. In the last novel in the series, ''Literature/UnderAVelvetCloak'', all of these acts are only minor compared to Nox's (the Incarnation of Night/Secrets) actions (whose actions choose which universes live or die). |
| 105 | * The Larry Niven ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories develop a bad case of this later on, as the hugely successful ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' degenerated into increasingly complex and incomprehensible attempts to produce a Unified Field Theory of Everything. |
| 106 | * Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/RendezvousWithRama'', ''Literature/RamaII'' and ''Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries''. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/LemonySnicketTheUnauthorizedAutobiography'' played this for laughs. Most of the book consists of explaining how everything that had happened up to that point in [[Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents the series]] was related to the VFD in various ludicrous ways. |
| 108 | * The first ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel did this to some episodes of the [[Series/{{Noob}} original webseries]], making it part of the ''[[FictionalVideoGame Horizon]]'' storyline. When an episode of Season 1 needed to show a character doing FetchQuest (which happened three or four times out of twenty often stand-alone episodes) the QuestGiver always happened to be InTheHood and dressed in BlackCloak, something that could easily be normal for the game and/or due to NoBudget. The first novel, chronologically set after the first season, reveals that [[spoiler: the black cloak is actually a trademark for a group that is after the DismantledMacGuffin central to the first novel; some of the pieces were used as decoration for random objects that they sometimes couldn't go get themselves without attracting attention, hence the fetch quests]]. |
| 109 | * ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': It was revealed, in the first of the two stories by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle to directly feature Moriarty, that the master villain had been involved in several of Holmes' cases before, but had simply never been mentioned until then. |
| 110 | * This sort of thing is quite common in ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse'' books: |
| 111 | ** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel ''Q & A'' has every Q-episode of ''TNG'', as well as the NegativeSpaceWedgie encountered in the episode "Parallels", as being part of Q's long term plan to [[spoiler: prepare Picard for meeting the beings that sit in judgement over the universe, and convince them it's worth saving]]. Except "Q-Pid". That one he just did for the hell of it. |
| 112 | ** Similarly, the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel ''Q-Squared'' implies that almost all the temporal anomalies encountered by Picard and his crew were also the work of Q - and goes on the add a relationship between Q and one-shot villain Trelane from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' too. |
| 113 | ** Peter David is quite fond of this. In ''Vendetta'', the planet-killer from ''The Doomsday Machine'' turns out to have been engineered by a long-dead race as their final revenge against the Borg. |
| 114 | ** ''Literature/StarTrekForgedInFire'' ties Sulu's captaincy of the ''Excelsior'' (as seen in ''The Undiscovered Country'' and explored further in ''Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra'') to the Blood Oath plot from the eponymous episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. In other words, Sulu's story arc is now made part of the backstory of Curzon Dax and the Klingon trio of Kor, Kang and Koloth. The novel also ties in the Klingon Forehead arc, from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and ''Literature/StarTrekVanguard''. |
| 115 | ** The ''Literature/StarTrekTyphonPact'' novel ''Paths of Disharmony'' links the ''Literature/StarTrekVanguard'' story arc to those of the ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'' and the post-''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'' line, making it all relevant to the current events of the novel. |
| 116 | ** A rather pleasing example in the ''Literature/StarTrekVoyagerRelaunch'' with the exploits of Kahless, retroactively linking the novel line's Klingon saga to the relaunch in interesting ways. In ''Literature/StarTrekATimeTo'', Kahless had replaced himself with a hologram (equipped with a mobile emitter) and wandered off to Cygnet IV, supposedly to "do whatever (he) felt like". It was also a test, allowing him to give his usual HurricaneOfAphorisms when the ruse was discovered. In the ''Literature/StarTrekVoyagerRelaunch'', though, it's revealed why he was on Cygnet IV specifically. [[spoiler: The secret headquarters of the qawHaq'hoch are located there, and he's keeping the plates spinning in the plan to keep Miral (B'Elanna and Tom's daughter) safe from the fanatics trying to kill her. Further, the mobile emitter for his holographic replacement was created by B'Elanna herself]]. |
| 117 | ** Any Christopher L. Bennett novel in the line (''Ex Machina'', ''The Buried Age'', ''Watching The Clock'') is like this. It sometimes borders on ContinuityLockout, but never crosses the line. |
| 118 | ** The ''Q Continuum'' trilogy ties together three previously unconnected malevolent energy beings from the original series and movies along with the Galactic Barrier (yes, one of them is "God" from Star Trek V), and as an extension explains why proximity to the barrier resulted in the development of telekinetic powers and personality shift in the original series pilot. |
| 119 | *** We also get a bit of patching for one PlotHole with Star Trek V. The barrier was at the edge of the galaxy in the show, and nigh impossible to get through. In the movie, it was in the ''middle'' of the galaxy and they managed to get in easily enough. Well, it turns out there's two barriers. One is keeping something bad in, the other is keeping something much, MUCH worse ''out.'' |
| 120 | * Many ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' sources tie in many of [[BigBad Palpatine's]] and especially [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Thrawn's]] actions as being to prepare the galaxy for [[Literature/NewJediOrder the Yuuzhan Vong invasion]]. The degree to which this is accepted by fans varies-- it's pretty much considered canon for Thrawn's motivation, but most see Palpatine as just using it as an excuse. |
| 121 | ** Jacen Solo's FaceHeelTurn in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' was tied to the BigBad [[EldritchAbomination Abeloth]] in ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'', though the exact connection was unclear. It's later revealed that while Jacen initially became evil to prevent a BadFuture, Abeloth's defeat is the last step needed to fully avert it. |
| 122 | ** Another example is Cade Skywalker's unique abilities in ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy''. His ability to sense vulnerable fractures has been tied to Mace Windu's sense for more metaphorical "shatterpoints" from [[Literature/{{Shatterpoint}} the book of the same name]], and his ability to heal serious injuries and death using the Dark Side is uncannily close to what Palpatine claimed Darth Plagueis could do in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. And considering that other sources hint that Plagueis created Anakin, it may be connected to that too... [[spoiler: though that was {{Jossed}} in the ''Literature/DarthPlagueis'' novel. Anakin was created as a backlash against Plagueis's machinations.]] |
| 123 | ** Back to the subject of Abeloth, the final ''Fate of the Jedi'' novel reveals that she's connected to the Son, the Daughter, and the Father, the living embodiments of the Force first seen in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. She was a mortal woman who became a sort of stepmother in that family, but was corrupted by trying to become immortal like them. Furthermore, the Son and Daughter then directed the [[Literature/DarkNestTrilogy Killiks]] to build Centerpoint Station, a mysterious ancient superweapon introduced in ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'', which in turn constructed the Maw, a black hole cluster featured in the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'', as a prison for Abeloth. |
| 124 | *** The same novel also has the Jedi Council speculating that Anakin Skywalker's refusal to take the Father's place had unbalanced the Force, which thus caused ''almost every other conflict since then''. |
| 125 | * Some ''Literature/WarriorCats'' books have melded two subplots together to make their story through use of a retcon. |
| 126 | ** ''Crookedstar's Promise'' introduces the Dark Forest to the past and shows it influencing the events of book as early as ''Fire and Ice'' through use of Crookedstar's story. |
| 127 | ** ''Yellowfang's Secret'' makes it so that [=SkyClan=] is directly responsible for the rise of Brokenstar, even though they had died out years before his birth. |
| 128 | * ''Literature/EndersGame'' was originally followed by a number of sequels featuring Ender in the far future. The author later returned to the time period of the original novel by writing ''Literature/EndersShadow'', a POVSequel written from the perspective of Bean, one of Ender's friends. This was then followed by a number of ''Shadow'' novels taking place immediately after ''Ender's Game'' and ''Ender's Shadow''. These two sub-series can be read completely independently from one another. However, later books start to get more interwoven, starting with ''Literature/EnderInExile'', a book set between ''Ender's Game'' and its original sequel ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' picking up an unresolved plot thread from the ''Shadow'' series. The two series became fully welded with the release of ''The Last Shadow'', a chronologically final novel that acts as a finale for both sub-series. |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 132 | * Graem Bauer and the "Bluetooth Group" in ''Series/TwentyFour''. The cabal of influential businessmen in the fifth season ordering Christopher Henderson et al. to do their dirty jobs was initially planned to be a shadowy group whose true motives were never explained (and they had no connection whatsoever to Jack or his past). In the sixth season, the previously unnamed head of this group was revealed to "Graem Bauer", and it was explained that he was responsible for most of the government's shady activities going all the way back to the fourth season (when Walt Cummings tried to have Jack killed). Graem is then revealed to be TheManBehindTheMan, as his (and Jack's) father Philip shows up and murders him in his very first appearance. |
| 133 | ** Season 7 does it ''again'', revealing the season's BigBad, Alan Wilson, to have been behind even the Bauers' involvement, and the ultimate authority over the Season 5 conspiracy, being head of a [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness powerful group]] that had been manipulating events for some time and remained at large at the end of the season. Then the storyline [[AbortedArc disappeared without a trace]]. |
| 134 | *** The arc technically got resolved with a HandWave in Season 8. It is mentioned that Alan Wilson’s entire group got discovered and arrested offscreen after the end of Season 7. Quite the anticlimactic end to such a supposedly powerful group. |
| 135 | * As part of the showrunners of ''Series/{{Alias}}''' attempts to course-correct after the debacle that was the series' third season, several elements from those episodes, such as Sloane's Omnifam enterprise and seasonal bad guy group The Covenant, were brought back and retconned into being parts of season four BigBad [[spoiler: Elena Derevko]]'s master plan. |
| 136 | * One of the more explicitly identified examples of Arc Welding comes from ''Series/{{Angel}}'''s fourth season, where Skip notes that everything that's happened to Angel and company for a very long time -- Angel's ensouling, Cordelia's ascension, Fred's being trapped in Pylea, Lorne's banishment ''from'' Pylea -- were all part of a GambitRoulette. (It's known that this was all one big {{retcon}} because it wouldn't have worked without Creator/CharismaCarpenter's real-life pregnancy.) |
| 137 | ** A smaller version then happened in the next and final season: faced with ExecutiveMeddling to be more episodic without any arcs, after finding out the show would be canceled anyway, Creator/JossWhedon spent the last two episodes revealing that many of the villains over the season were part of a group called the Circle of the Black Thorn, then having the heroes kill them all. |
| 138 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' did this extensively in its second half, due to a bad case of WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants which stacked up. Creator Ron D. Moore later admitted that despite the show's initial dependence on meticulously plotted storyarcs, he hadn't actually planned out anything for the show beyond the end of the second season (various ideas like "another Battlestar also survived" or "what if they find a habitable planet that isn't Earth"? had been exhausted). The result was that with a bunch of disparate plotlines that he hadn't planned out, he desperately tried to ''retroactively'' weld them all together as related. For example, he admitted he had no idea ''why'' the much-hyped Hybrid child Hera was important, let alone how it related to the rest of the main plots, until he was writing ''the series finale itself''. At the 2009 Paley Center post-finale panel (videos are on youtube of this), you can see Moore give his bizarre self-justification that he is fully capable of ''retroactively'' welding unrelated storyarcs together in a way that works. Needless to say, critics and reviewers were disenchanted as the show wore on. |
| 139 | * ''Series/TheBlacklist'': |
| 140 | ** From the start, it was clear that [[VillainProtagonist Reddington]] only sent the FBI after people on the Blacklist as part of a larger plan, but it's not until the end of season 1, in the two-part "Berlin" episode, that we start to see what that plan is and exactly how the various Blacklisters fit into it. |
| 141 | ** "The Director, Conclusion" finally puts together all the hints and pieces of Red's plan throughout the first half of Season 3 to undermine [[NebulousEvilOrganization the Cabal]] enough that he can [[spoiler: exonerate the framed Keen, and take down the Director]]. |
| 142 | ** "Mr. Gregory Devry" reveals the existence of Shell Island Retreat, a gathering and alliance of the leaders of the world's most powerful criminal organizations. Aside from revealing Reddington himself as a member, several past Blacklisters are mentioned as having been involved before being taken down. |
| 143 | ** The Season 5 finale, "Sutton Ross", pieces togethers hints and clues scattered throughout the entire series up to that point for TheReveal that [[spoiler: the man calling himself Raymond Reddington is in fact a fake pulling a DeadPersonImpersonation]]. |
| 144 | ** Despite airing years after the Cabal StoryArc ended, the Season 6 episode "Minister D" wraps up a few dangling threads from it, and shows how they tie together into the larger MythArc. Specifically, it's confirmed that Katarina Rostova was an agent of the Cabal in addition to her work for the KGB, and that when Reddington came into possession of [[MacGuffin the Fulcrum]], she helped the Cabal frame him for the treason that sent him on the run [[spoiler: and hired the Red we know to steal his identity after his death in order to further ruin his name]]. |
| 145 | ** "Bastien Moreau: Conclusion" spells out exactly how the chain of Blacklisters from the first half of Season 6 are all linked together in Red's plan to expose a GovernmentConspiracy in exchange for clemency from his looming death sentence. |
| 146 | %%%%%* Series/BurnNotice: Anson, Anson, Anson |
| 147 | * In season two, ''Series/Charmed1998'' established that the girls' mother, Patty, had had a ForbiddenRomance with her [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Whitelighter]], Sam. At the time, this was mostly to create [[GenerationXerox a parallel]] to Piper and Leo's relationship. However, when [[RealLifeWritesThePlot a fourth sister needed to be introduced]] two seasons later, making her half-Whitelighter provided a handy explanation for why she needed to be hidden away until now. |
| 148 | * ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' welded arcs on top of arcs. About midway through the first season everything that happened up to that point was revealed to largely be the result of a CIA splinter group known as FULCRUM attempting to steal the Intersect. By late in Season 2, Chuck has begun to speculate that many one-shot villains earlier in the first season such as Laszlo were actually connected to the Intersect project and FULCRUM. The Season 2 finale reveals that Fulcrum was part of a larger organization called the Ring. The middle of Season 3 reveals that the Ring's direct involvement goes back much further, and that another one-shot villain from Season 2 was actually working for them. When Season 4 rolls around, you learn that yet another one-shot villain from Season 2 was actually working for new series big bad Volkoff Industries, and that the entire history of the Intersect project itself was directly connected to Volkoff himself. Finally in Season 5 you learn that rogue CIA agent Quinn was quite literally behind EVERYTHING--Fulcrum, the Ring, and Volkoff Industries--out of his desire to get revenge on Chuck for "stealing" the Intersect from him. |
| 149 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 150 | ** There was a bit of Arc Welding near the end of its original run, when Ace's involvement with the Doctor between [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire "Dragonfire"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric "The Curse of Fenric"]] (eight multi-part stories over three seasons by that point) was revealed to be part of Fenric's BatmanGambit to trap the Doctor (moral of the story: don't try a BatmanGambit against a {{Chessmaster}}). It also provided a [[HilariousInHindsight bit of disappointment]] for Classic Who fans when the series returned and [[ArcWords "Bad Wolf"]] turned out not to be a returned Fenric. |
| 151 | ** Between the Classic and revival series, the Time War, a cataclysmic war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, annihilated both races for good with the exception of the Doctor. The series eventually connects this event to the Fourth Doctor story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks "Genesis of the Daleks"]], where the Doctor attempted a genocide of the species but failed (which has no serious effects on the Classic series's overarching plot save for [[HijackedByGanon introducing Davros]]) -- reimagining the event as the Time Lords firing the first shot in the war. Similarly, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons "Terror of the Zygons"]] is retconned to also be related to the Time War in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "Day of the Doctor"]] as the Zygons' home planet is stated to be an early casualty of the Time War, driving them to invade Earth and claim it as a new home. |
| 152 | ** In Series 5 of the new series, the startling lack of historical commentary about a big freaking [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E14TheNextDoctor Cyberking]] stomping around Victorian London is retconned to have been another casualty of the cracks in time. |
| 153 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]], the Eleventh Doctor's GrandFinale, concludes virtually all major ongoing plots (the cracks in time, the explosion of the TARDIS, the First Question, etc.) by tying them into the Ninth and Tenth Doctor Time War MythArc. |
| 154 | ** In Clara's first appearance in Series 7, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn "The Bells of Saint John"]], she offhandedly mentions she got the TARDIS phone number from a woman in a shop who told her it was a help line. Flashforward to the Series 8 premiere, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]], where a mysterious ad in a paper reunites Clara and the recently regenerated Twelfth Doctor, after which he brings up the phone incident again, pointing out that someone seems to want them together. Flashforward again to the season finale, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], where it's revealed that that woman was [[BigBad Missy]], who brought Clara and the Doctor together as part of her larger overall scheme against the Doctor. |
| 155 | * A similar event occurred in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', another Creator/JossWhedon show. Although the Reavers and River's torture at the hands of the Alliance are introduced in the pilot episode, the ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' movie later ret-cons them to being linked together. Now, instead of being a group of bloodthirsty savages as a parallel to the American Indians depicted in pulp Westerns, they are analagous to the Infected from ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', and the reason that River is being so strongly hunted by the Alliance is that she knows secrets like this. |
| 156 | * ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' episode 40, which not only turns the Gokaigers' EarlyBirdCameo (a BigLippedAlligatorMoment during the ''[[Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger Goseiger]]''/''[[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger Shinkenger]]'' ReunionShow) a canon event, but also ties into the team's quest of GottaCatchThemAll. |
| 157 | * In the old ''Series/KamenRider'' series, many an evil organization was ruled by a guy called the "[insert this year's evil organization name] Great Leader," always voiced by veteran voice actor Creator/GoroNaya. Welding comes in with the later seasons having the new [Organization] Great Leader often say "oh, yeah, I was behind them all, and those ''other'' organizations from the last couple of series I ''wasn't'' in too!" Not only were all of Naya's "Great Leaders" made one character, with the final enemy of ''Black RX'' voiced by Naya as well, it's theorized that ''every pre-hiatus Kamen Rider villain ever'' is either the Great leader himself or one of his pawns. |
| 158 | ** As for the modern era, he appears in teamups now and again, first voiced by Naya up until his death, and then replaced by Creator/TomokazuSeki, though he doesn't take credit for seasons he wasn't in. However, the NonSerialMovie of ''Faiz'' gave the BigBad three ManBehindTheMan figures, one being played by Naya. This in a series that also has people being turned into monsters. Though far from canon, there's a real case to be made for the Great Leader being behind that series. |
| 159 | ** The more recent series have Foundation X playing the same part: ''Double, OOO'' and ''Fourze'' all had them involved behind the scenes. The "Foundation X Trilogy" culminated in a film where they're finally the BigBad instead of just ''behind'' the BigBad... but the film's villain Lem Kannagi was a rogue member and his defeat was no setback to the organization. They're perfectly capable of saying "Oh, did you think [insert your favorite new villain here] did it alone?" about any series after them (except ''[[CosmicHorrorStory Gaim]]'', perhaps.) On top of ''that,'' Kannagi's final form was a similarly-named homage to that of an old-school villain, and who were all the old-school villains created by, again? |
| 160 | * A great many of the episodes of the revival of ''[[Series/TheOuterLimits1995 The Outer Limits]]'' are retroactively revealed to take place in the same continuity. Unfortunately for continuity, several of those episodes are entirely contradictory. Some of them, however, are stated as taking place in {{Alternate Timeline}}s. |
| 161 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' had two major examples of this: |
| 162 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' revealed that [[BigBad Dark Specter]] was behind everything that happened in the series to that point. Combining the narratives of all the previous seasons ([[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Mighty Morphin]], [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Zeo]], [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Turbo]], and In Space) into one greater arc. |
| 163 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': The crossover with ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' revealed that the BigBad of that season gained his ability to pull weapons from his body from an encounter with three Orgs, the race of monsters the Wild Force team have been fighting. |
| 164 | ** In ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' it is revealed that each plot by the BigBad Lothor was actually part of a very smart BatmanGambit. |
| 165 | * At the end of the first season of ''Series/TheSopranos'', Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero has vanished. [[TitleDrop No one knows anything]]. The writers of the show were just going to let it go at that--people do, indeed, vanish with no explanation, though it's rare. However, when they heard how the fans were wondering what happened to him, they welded Pussy into the story of Jimmy Altieri's being TheMole, with him being a second one. |
| 166 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 167 | ** Two threads in the first two seasons of ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' are Odo's search for information about where he came from, and the gradual reveal of a dangerous empire called the Dominion. The third season arc-welds these two threads together by revealing that Odo's people are the rulers of the Dominion—a decision the writers made between seasons 2 and 3. |
| 168 | ** The second season finale of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' welds together the Supervisors (from the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original-series]] episode "Assignment: Earth") and the Traveler (from ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]''). Y establishing that the Traveler is part of an organization that organized the Supervisors. |
| 169 | * ''Series/{{Stella|US}}'' used [[YouLookFamiliar one frequent actor]] to set up an arc for the series. |
| 170 | * Arc Patching, if not Arc Welding, was done in ''Series/VeronicaMars'', when the season 2 bus bombing storyline wrapped up. The perpetrator was revealed to also have raped Veronica at Shelly Pomroy's party, a storyline thought to be wrapped up in season 1 as being not rape, but mutually drugged-up semi-consensual sex. This explained Veronica's chlamydia, despite her having only two (or, as TheReveal made plain, actually three) sexual partners and presumably using protection, the existence of which was used to paint Veronica as a slut and therefore untrustworthy in the trial of Aaron Echolls. The blatant illegality of delving into her medical records for some reason ''not'' resulting in a mistrial is another debate entirely. |
| 171 | * ''Series/WhitechapelTVSeries'' did this in its fourth season. Up until this point, the team had dealt with unrelated cases, but the fourth season not only introduces the existence of the supernatural, but posits that all the grisly crimes in Whitechapel are the work of a "provocateur" who goads all the murderers into committing their crimes. |
| 172 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'' did this in later seasons, with dormant alien DNA supposedly accounting for much of the apparently Earthbound paranormal activity Mulder and Scully investigated. |
| 173 | [[/folder]] |
| 174 | |
| 175 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 176 | * One of the few examples (perhaps the only one, seeing as concept albums are nowhere near as common as normal albums) occurring in Music: Music/BetweenTheBuriedAndMe do this with their Parallax storyline when it's revealed that Prospect 2 was [[spoiler:the adult male that talked too much in "Lost Perfection", and that he was one of the three lovers of the woman in "Prequel to the Sequel".]] |
| 177 | * Music/MarilynManson's ''Antichrist Superstar'' and ''Mechanical Animals'' were originally thought of as two separate concept albums, as they have different protagonists, plots, and points, plus the entire universe is destroyed at the end of ''Antichrist Superstar''. With ''Holy Wood'' however, the Triptych was revealed, and the plot flows in reverse, from ''Holy Wood'' to ''Mechanical Animals'' to ''Antichrist Superstar''. The protagonist of ''Holy Wood'', Adam Kadmon, the first to rebel against Holy Wood, is the father of The Worm/Antichrist Superstar from, well, guess. Coma (who in the novel, only Chapter 10 of which was ever released, is the daughter of the leader of Holy Wood), is his mother, who after the suicide of Adam Kadmon, falls into rampant drug use and then the aliens Alpha and Omēga fall in love with her. When she herself dies in the song "Coma White", both lose hope, and the song "Irresponsible Hate Anthem", from ''Antichrist Superstar'', is actually performed by Omēga, not The Worm, as proven by the three "live songs". The liner notes for ''Antichrist Superstar'' show that "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" was recorded live on Valentine's Day, 1997. However, the album came out in 1996. The liner notes again say this about "I Want To Disappear" off of ''Mechanical Animals'', an album that came out in 1998, and the song was in fact not actually played at the real Valentine's Day, 1997 show. Finally, "Born Again" off of ''Holy Wood'' is also said to have been recorded on the same day. This song also was not played live, especially seeing as the album it's from came out in 2000. The albums tell the story of three characters. ''Holy Wood's'' Adam Kadmon fights the system, only to get brought into it and ultimately kill himself. ''Mechanical Animals''' Alpha and Omēga [[ShoutOut are space]] [[Music/DavidBowie alien rock stars]], who crashed and were captured and enslaved. Alpha sings the emotional songs on the album, Omēga the vapid, drug songs, however turns against the system due to the death of Coma. The Worm, Adam and Coma's son, idolizes Omēga, and leads his own revolution against the system and wins, only to turn against his mindless, obsessive fans who worship him as a god, and in his rage becomes the Antichrist Superstar and destroys the universe, thus ending the Triptych. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 181 | * Up until the Invasion block of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the storylines of the sets before were mostly WorldBuilding the plane of Dominaria. Then came the story revision, the Weatherlight set, and the Tempest block, which set up an ongoing storyline over the next twelve or so sets that would drastically change the way the game told stories, as well as cobble together all the previous sets into a sort of long-term storyline, which the arc would then deal with. It all came to a head in the Invasion block with the BigBad and his cronies from the previous stories converging on Dominaria to overlay the artificial plane of Rath (introduced in the Tempest bllock) and give the Phyrexians (introduced back in Antiquities, the second-ever set) a new world to ravage. |
| 182 | ** Also, the problems that were dealt with in the Time Spiral block were said to have done things which were major in other blocks, like making the Emperor insane, which convinced him to steal a baby kami, which resulted in the Kami War which made up the Kamigawa block. |
| 183 | * The creators of the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' retroactively Arc Welded its first six adventures together into the Grand Conjunction story arc, using a Vistani prophecy as solder. |
| 184 | * Arguably, the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] settings ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'', both of which were specifically created to allow the numerous other settings of D&D to mix with each other. |
| 185 | * ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'': Invoked by the writers. In the Letters Page podcast, the writers describe the publishing history of the Freedom Five as being originally a series of Monster of the Week one-shots where they were fighting robots or aliens each week. A later reboot took all those robots and retconned them as being Omnitron's drones, and took those aliens and retooled them as Voss's Gene-Bound legions. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 189 | * The ''Creator/ArtixEntertainment'' writers are so guilty of this trope it's not even funny. The most obvious example is their first and flagship game, ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'', which got so bad with this during the Devourer Saga that it was next to impossible for the userbase to keep track of who was responsible for what, or how X arc was supposed to fit into the wider Saga. The spin-off games are a lot better about this, but there's still some welding here and there that can cause crossed eyes. |
| 190 | * The ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' tetralogy of games feature this; ''5 Days a Stranger'' was originally a stand-alone game, as was its distant sequel, but the later titles tie them together to form an encompassing story arc. Appropriately, the major threat of the first two games (and an important story character in the other two) is an insane killer referred to as "The Welder" because of the mask he wears. |
| 191 | * The first four games in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series consist of [[NonLinearSequel largely unconnected stories]] set in the same world. However, the fifth game of the main series, ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', does some Arc Welding which connects the overall stories in its main quest. Specifically, the destruction or removal of a various {{Cosmic Keystone}}s and [[TheTower metaphysical "Towers"]] in the previous games herald the return of Alduin, the BigBad BeastOfTheApocalypse who was [[SealedEvilInACan cast out of the stream of time]] in the past but prophesied to return. |
| 192 | * The four DownloadableContent packs of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' are part of a bigger storyline which lead to the confrontation of the player-character, The Courier with Ulysses, TheRival. |
| 193 | * [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact''. There are side quests in the game called Hangout Events that have MultipleEndings, but the game never says with endings are canon. However, Beidou and Heizou both have branches in their Hangout Events that are connected to one another. In Beidou’s Hangout Event, it’s revealed that the Crux is involved in a smuggling operation to move goods out of Liyue, with Heizou’s Hangout Event revealing that the goods are sent to Watatsumi Island. |
| 194 | * In ''VideoGame/GuildWars Nightfall'', it's revealed that servants of Abaddon were responsible for driving the Charr into human lands in Tyria, leading to all the major background events of the ''Prophecies'' campaign; another servant led to the downfall of Shiro Tagachi, the BigBad of ''Factions''. |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'': Dahlia, Hagatha, Mannanan, and Lolotte all appeared to be generic evil wizards and wicked witches. But then, we hear that the BigBad in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'' is the "brother" of Hagatha and Mannanan and looking for revenge. Then ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVI'' has a single, damning letter alluding to the "Brotherhood of the [[LegionOfDoom Black]] [[TheOrder Cloak]]," who address one another as "brother" and "sister." The letter implicates ''at least three'' of the series villains as members... and could possibly implicate ''all of them'' as members. OhCrap {{Fanon}}, especially the FanSequel and FanRemake games will ''cheerfully'' run with this theory. |
| 196 | * Most ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games, while sometimes direct sequels to one another, are usually episodic. Around ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'', however, past games began to tie in more explicitly to newer ones, with Magolor mentioning how the ancients who built the Lor Starcutter made "clockwork stars" (implying a connection to ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar''[='=]s NOVA), the [[spoiler:Dimension Mirror from ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror'']] being the cause of [[spoiler:Queen Sectonia's [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen tyrannical personality]]]] in ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'', ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot''[='=]s FinalBoss [[spoiler:bearing a strong resemblance to NOVA, even having wish-granting powers and a similar HeartDrive that's fought as a boss]], and ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' making implied connections between the game's antagonists and [[spoiler:Dark Matter from the so-called "[[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2 Dark]] [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3 Matter]] [[VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards Trilogy]]", due to Hyness' MotiveRant and Void Termina's final form]]. |
| 197 | ** [[spoiler:The "Magolor Epilogue" from ''Kirby's Return To Dream Land Deluxe'' serves as a Stealth Prequel to ''VideoGame/TeamKirbyClashDeluxe'' and ''VideoGame/SuperKirbyClash'', revealing how Magolor obtained the very first Gem Apple and ultimately wound up in Dream Kingdom.]] |
| 198 | * ''Franchise/MegaMan'': |
| 199 | ** "Evolution requires sacrifice." Spoken by [[spoiler:Lumine]] of ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' and Serpent of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'', this refers to the evolution of the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Reploids]] into something else... Granted, those two are in a future (and a world) that ''anything's'' possible with the Reploids (or technology in general). And then, in the VideoGameRemake (and possibly ContinuityReboot) ''VideoGame/MegaManMaverickHunterX'', Sigma begins spreading these beliefs himself. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen If the reboot series wasn't axed]], the developers could have elaborated on the concept even more. |
| 200 | ** Meanwhile, in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'', unlike the [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic two]] [[VideoGame/MegaManX series]] that preceded it, there is a different BigBad for the first two games ([[VideoGame/MegaManZero1 Copy X]] and [[VideoGame/MegaManZero2 Elpizo]], who are trying to wipe out Reploidkind and humans, respectively). Then, that novelty just had to be shot down by ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero3 Zero 3]]'', wherein ''that'' game's BigBad, Dr. Weil, can be easily marked [[GreaterScopeVillain responsible]] for the events of the previous two [[note]]he's the one who brought the world to its apocalyptic state and was also responsible for TheCorruption of the Mother Elf into the Dark Elf, which was the key to Elpizo's goals in ''Z2'' as well as the reason for Neo Arcadia's TheGoodKing X going missing (thus leading to the creation of Copy X as a replacement)[[/note]], legibly making him the GreaterScopeVillain for the '''entire''' ''Zero'' series. |
| 201 | ** Wily claims to have orchestrated ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork2'' at the end of ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3WhiteAndBlue Battle Network 3]]'', making the first three games in [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork the series]] one saga about Wily's plots to destroy the Internet (really) culminating with the Alpha plan in ''3''. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': |
| 203 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' was mostly self-contained, despite being a sequel to the MSX games ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear1 Metal Gear]]'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' introduced [[AncientConspiracy The Patriots]], whose operatives were largely responsible for the events in the series. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'''s place in the Patriots arc is [[spoiler: their origin story (as evident by the password Zero instructs Snake to use when he meets ADAM),]] but it's missed by many until ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' spells it out because the Patriots as they exist by the time ''Sons of Liberty'' takes place are [[AIIsACrapshoot very, very different]] than the organization used to be. |
| 204 | ** Further welding is suggested in the ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' novelisation, which adds in things like the technique Ocelot used to become Liquid in ''4'' was the same technique used in the attempt to turn Raiden into Snake in ''2''. |
| 205 | * When it was originally released, the whole ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' (despite the ''Prime'' name becoming the primary moniker for mainline 3D ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games) was designed to be a series of {{Gaiden Game}}s story-wise, not having any major effect on the series' primary MythArc involving the war against the Space Pirates, mostly just showing the status quo being maintained during the Phazon Crisis. The games did not have the "direct" involvement of series co-creator Creator/YoshioSakamoto, but interviews have noted he had to approve the storylines of the ''Prime'' games in order to make sure they didn't contradict the main storyline and is quoted as saying making them completely non-canon would have been "a cop-out." Indeed, Japanese manual for ''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'' did show the placement of the early ''Prime'' games in a timeline on the table of contents. Despite this, the ''Prime'' games could be completely ignored in the grand scheme of the series and didn’t have any major ties to the main lore, serving as something more akin to an expanded universe for a long time. Even ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'', which had Sakamoto's more direct involvement, mostly ignored and glossed over the events of the ''Prime'' series outside of some very light acknowledgement in the form of the Seeker Missiles and some more substantial, but lost in localization acknowledgement via [[spoiler:Project "Metroid Warriors", which shares the same Japanese name as a Pirate Log from ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime Prime 1]]'' involving the space pirates attempting to eliminate the Metroids' weakness to cold and alludes very briefly to the Pirates' own efforts]], in spite of Sakamoto's insistence in interviews that they "took cues" from the ''Prime'' games. This caused some minor ContinuitySnarl with Ridley, as he went from being a near completely cybernetic being to being completely organic again at the start of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' without any apparent explanation, even if we accept WordOfGod at the time of the ''Prime'' trilogy's release that Ridley survived both the first ''Prime'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption Corruption]]'' intact without being too much worse for wear in either case. It wasn't until ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]'', a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus Return of Samus]]'', when the ''Prime'' series was finally connected in a substantial manner with the "primary" arc, [[spoiler:where newly added FinalBoss Ridley appears with his cybernetic body parts after his time in the ''Prime'' trilogy, showing he's almost completely healed at the time of ''Samus Returns'', and a post credits scene showing him having completely discarded the armor and chasing Samus to the Ceres Space Colony, now fully organic and closing the plot hole. The fight even foreshadows Ridley’s confrontations in both ''Super'' and ''Other M'' while it's at it, effectively bringing the entire series thus far together into a singular cohesive narrative. Not to bring up all the other aspects of the greater ''Prime'' trilogy lore that was brought back up in the game, at least the lore that involved the Chozo.]] |
| 206 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' had few [[StoryArc story arcs]] in the first place, but near the end of the game, you find out that [[spoiler: Darkrai was responsible for both [[MadGod Primal Dialga]] and Palkia trying to [[FateWorseThanDeath remove you from time and space respectively.]]]] |
| 207 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 208 | ** For almost 20 years, ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'' was a GaidenGame with no set place in the series' timeline. (Due to the lack of Tails or Super Sonic and the fact it was meant to be ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]]'', most fans just assumed it was a prequel.) However, as of the new remake for Platform/XboxLive, Platform/{{PlayStation Network}}, and iPhones, features were added suggesting (and WordOfGod asserted) that it actually occurred sometime before ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4 Sonic 4]]'', and it's specifically tied to ''Episode II''. |
| 209 | ** ''[[CompilationReRelease Sonic Origins]]'' would later place ''CD'' after ''Sonic 1'', with a newly animated cutscene at the end showing Sonic flying the Tornado away from Never Lake while Amy flips over tarot cards symbolizing Tails and Knuckles bridging the two together. |
| 210 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' takes everything fans knew about the most of the lore and flip it on it's head, with the story providing the origins for the Chaos Emeralds as well as the [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Chao and Chaos]]. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has a number of Arc Welding as it takes everything it can from the TV series, movies, and other sources. Among those: |
| 212 | ** Miral Paris' role as the Klingon Messiah is tied into how the Klingons regain their ridged foreheads between the original series and ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''. |
| 213 | ** [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Near the end]] of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a group of Dominion ships is threatening to invade the titular [=DS9=] by way of the Bajorian wormhole when suddenly they just disappear! [[spoiler:They return in the Featured Episode series "The 2800"]]. |
| 214 | ** Probably the biggest one? The game's true BigBad? [[spoiler:The ''Iconians'', a group of not-so-extinct race that had ruled the galaxy thousands of years ago whose technology had been a real thorn in Picard and Sisko's sides when they encountered them in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Even worse, it's ''them'' who had helped caused the destruction of Romulus and Remus in the backstory to ''Film/StarTrek2009''!]] |
| 215 | ** The Foundry, in turn, has been known to pull this on the canon game, especially with the very episodic and frequently disconnected Federation missions. A prime example is the mission "[[Recap/StarTrekOnlineFoundryDivideUtRegnes Divide ut Regnes]]", which in the process of {{fix|Fic}}ing the much-maligned [[ThatOneLevel "Divide et Impera"]] finds time to retroactively explain two aspects of the mission "Preemptive Strike": why the Romulans are preparing to attack the Federation[[labelnote:*]]They're retaliating for your time-traveling starship hitting one of their facilities to capture an Undine infiltrator and killing everybody (or so they think; it was the Undine who actually did the killing but they have no way of knowing).[[/labelnote]], and how Admiral T'nae knew about it[[labelnote:*]]Your time-traveling future self told her.[[/labelnote]]. |
| 216 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover series of HumongousMecha shows. Many games often do this by drawing on similarities between different series to weave common bonds. |
| 217 | ** The biggest example occurred in the first ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' game. The BigBad has an ''extremely'' long sequence [[MotiveRant where he explains how]] [[TheManBehindTheMan he was behind everything in every series]] that was in crossed over in the game. This created a [[MemeticMutation meme]] in the Japanese fanbase where the villain claims responsibility for just about everything. Then in the second ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' game, the BigBad of ''Alpha'' reappeared and made ''another'' long speech about how he was behind everything. It's fully AscendedMeme. |
| 218 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsUX'': |
| 219 | *** By the way, [[Anime/MazinkaiserSKL the island covered by the gravity curtain was apparently a research center]] for gravity engine cores since World War II (a key plot point to ''The Wings of Rean''). |
| 220 | *** Linebarrel is connected to Demonbane because the latter is also a "[[AMechByAnyOtherName Machina]]" and the [[Manga/LinebarrelsOfIron Katou Organization]] are hunting them down. More specifically, Linebarrel and Demonbane are known as "Deus Ex Machina". Both stories' time loop events are interconnected in ''UX''. |
| 221 | *** [[Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor Tatsumiya Island]] is a part of the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Orb Union]]. |
| 222 | *** Considering the whole Machina idea or rather the meaning behind it is machine god. Linebarrel's Juda seems central to the whole idea of gathering Demonbane, SD Gundam, Machina, Fei-Yen HD and even partially Heroman as a collection of possible Machinas, though obviously not all of them have the idea of a Machina god behind them or rather behind their respective series like Linebarrel and Demonbane do. This would be a reason for Juda and a way to tie in a lot of the story together. |
| 223 | *** Scenario 24 is a mash of the starting battle from ''Sayonara no Tsubassa'' as well as the titular impact of Trailblazer, by mixing in the fact that the Galaxy refugee ships were at Jupiter. Fighting Vajra ships for the first time is only a tease to the real first appearance of the ELS. This also gives the chance for more interactions between Alto and Setsuna, and the final save coming from Tieria in the Raphael. |
| 224 | *** Fei-Yen's plot is tied in with Mazinkaiser SKL, where it is the robot used by the female kingdom. She starts out really reserved, then once you go on SKL/Macross route split she has an encounter with Miku[[labelnote:*]]Note that in game she never mention Miku's name[[/labelnote]] and gets her KYUNKYUN beam, then during SKL finale she goes super mode[[labelnote:*]]which is basically Fei-Yen's original SuperMode[[/labelnote]] when Kiba shows up, and during Fafner TV finale, she gets her Morale boosting special command. [[spoiler:''In the Blue Sky'' and ''Operation Azure''. Sink it for a moment.]] |
| 225 | *** The Tokyo in the interior of the moon, which is from where all the Humanoid Machinas stem from, is also strikingly similar to Shou's Tokyo. Shou and the Dunbine characters are [[spoiler:basically from a previous incarnation of the world]]. [[spoiler:Later on we find out Juda's "view of future" is actually about what happened ''before'', so at least part of the cast are also of the same origin.]] |
| 226 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'': |
| 227 | *** ''[[Anime/ShinMazinger Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!]]'' never got a second season, and consequently never went into the ''Great Mazinger'' storyline despite some foreshadowing. As such, ''Shin Mazinger Zero vs The Great General of Darkness'' is brought in to give ''Great'' some proper representation. |
| 228 | *** The timeline of ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'' and [[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam late UC]] is referred to as the NCC, or New Correct Century, as if it were a singular Gundam timeline, 100 years after the events of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's Counterattack]].'' |
| 229 | *** [[Anime/CrossAnge Draconium]] is derived from the [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter Rays]] and since the Dragons are humans who evolved into Dragons to purify the land from the radiation, they can temporarily make the Shin Getter weaker. |
| 230 | *** [[Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer Aeolia]] is also another member of the [[Anime/CrossAnge Ancient People]] who seeks to overthrow Embryo. |
| 231 | *** [[Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico Ruri]] is another successful [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Ultimate Coordinator]]. |
| 232 | *** [[spoiler:[[Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine Black Noir]] manipulated Embryo, the events involving the male protagonists from the AD Dimension, and a couple other things just to enjoy as a game. When Aeolia learned of Black Noir, the former created Veda as a countermeasure.]] |
| 233 | *** Much of the plot of ''[[Manga/GetterRobo Getter Robo Armageddon]]'' is folded into the plot of ''Anime/ShinMazinger'', such as Great Mazinger and Mazin Emperor G being powered by both getter rays and photonic energy and [[spoiler: Kenzo Kabuto constructing the Shin Getter Dragon.]] |
| 234 | *** [[Anime/Daitarn3 Banjo Haran]] was raised on Mars, meaning he's an [[Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico A-Class Jumper and thus capable of Boson Jumping.]] |
| 235 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsX'' |
| 236 | *** "[[Anime/MashinHeroWataruSeries Soukaizan]]," "[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann The Country of Beasts]] (Kamina City included)," and "[[Anime/CrossAnge The Country of Mana]]" makes the world of Al-Warth. |
| 237 | *** [[Anime/MashinHeroWataruSeries Wataru]]’s own world of Japan is the same as ''Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine'', and the ''Anime/ShinMazinger'' series. With Wataru living in Nouvelle Tokyo City, and himself being friends with [[Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine Tetsuya Yoshinaga]]. |
| 238 | *** Shou Zama is an Area 11 citizen, while Todd Guiness and Marvel Frozen are Brittanians. Also, ''Gundam Wing'', ''Dunbine'', and ''Code Geass'' are part of the same world. |
| 239 | * The individual biomes in the submarine exploration game ''VideoGame/WeNeedToGoDeeper'' appear to have nothing to do with each other, however there is an overarching story behind [[EldritchOceanAbyss the Living Infinite]] and some connections between the areas. |
| 240 | ** The Lair Guardians scattered throughout the levels were placed there [[spoiler: by the crew of the ''Nautilus'']] to stop people from diving deeper, and are made of special metals [[spoiler: taken from the Meteor.]] The glowing green energy that powers them is the same as those of the eldritch shrines, as well as the eldritch staff weapon. |
| 241 | ** The Time Traveler seems like a goofy character added to mix up the gameplay a bit, but he's aware of [[spoiler: the Ancient One]] and became an ally of [[spoiler: Captain Nemo]] as the two worked together to prevent its awakening. |
| 242 | ** A few messages imply that the [[PowerCrystal Life Gems]] which empower the undead creatures in the Cursed Waters originated in the Aurelian Depths. |
| 243 | ** The volcanic turtle enemies shoot the same spike balls as the flowers in the Ancient Abyss, implying the turtles collect them from deeper waters to attack with. |
| 244 | ** Denizens of a few civilizations imply that the biome's boss is actually [[LoadBearingBoss holding back worse creatures from lower biomes]], or preventing anyone from diving deeper [[spoiler: and waking the Ancient One.]] |
| 245 | * Late in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that Zanza, the BigBad from [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 the first game]], was actually the evil LiteralSplitPersonality of the Architect/Klaus, the BigGood of ''2''. The third Aegis, Ontos, is also all-but-stated to be another character from the first game, Alvis. Furthermore, the stories of both games are taking place simultaneously, with the Architect aware that he'll die once Shulk's party kills Zanza.]] |
| 246 | * Near the end of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed'', [[spoiler:the heroes are shown a memory of the original Earth, with a radio broadcast in the background mentioning the Earthlife Colonization Project from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', Dimitri Yuriev from ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'', and Philadelphia-class Motherships from ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', implying that those games exist in the same universe as the main ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' games and formally bridging all of Tetsuya Takahashi's works together.]] |
| 247 | [[/folder]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 250 | * ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'': |
| 251 | ** In both games, [[spoiler:the first four seemingly unrelated cases turn out to have all been part of the BigBad's BatmanGambit. In fact, the main point of the final case is for the player to figure it out. It is, however, subtly foreshadowed from the beginning, and the hints are there if you look for them.]] |
| 252 | ** In the second game, [[spoiler:the Berry Big Circus (focal point of ''the'' most base-breaking case in the series, "Turnabout Big Top") winds up being the place of employment and unwitting facilitator of several plans of that game's BigBad]]. Considering most of the references to non-''Investigations'' games being little more than TheCameo, this one stands out. Meanwhile, ''2'' also ties in the main arc of the first game to an even ''greater'' scale, [[spoiler:due to the Inherited Turnabout prominently featuring playable segments as ''the'' [[PosthumousCharacter Gregory]] [[CrusadingLawyer Edgeworth]] during his ultimately-fatal last case. Due to tying it in with the ''Investigations'' games' MythArc, the events behind his final case against [[AmoralAttorney Manfred von Karma]] are given even ''more'' significance in the grand scheme of things.]] |
| 253 | * In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the ''player themselves'' can engage in a tiny bit of this at [[http://fallenlondon.wikia.com/wiki/Why%3F one point in the "Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name" Story]], where the player character is asked why they persist in their quest despite their assured destruction. You can choose from over a dozen (!) possible responses, and some of them reference Stories that occurred earlier in the game. For example, you can imply that your character has never been the same since, say, their visit to the Iron Republic or being exiled from the Shuttered Palace. |
| 254 | * Despite ''Visualnovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' feeling like a self-contained story, its sequel ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' manages to very successfully connect it to that game's MythArc (and by extension the overall plot of the eventual trilogy) by revealing that [[spoiler:Gentarou Hongou, aka Ace, was a member of Free the Soul, and that Cradle Pharmaceutical and his experiments with the morphogenetic field were funded by the cult. The symbol on the robes Snake was forced to wear in 999 is also used as Free the Soul's coat of arms.]] |
| 255 | [[/folder]] |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 258 | * ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'': It turns out [[spoiler: the King of Callan, who wants humanity/himself to control the source of magic (which is apparently a comet) so badly he tried to ''destroy an entire country and wipe out its people'' when it was their "turn" use it]] was responsible for just about every catastrophe in the comic. |
| 259 | * ''Webcomic/ItsWalky''[=/=]''Roomies''[=/=]''Joyce and Walky''. The entire storyline consists of retconning arcs to weld them into bigger arcs reaching further into the past, culminating in a gigantic "conclusion" arc connecting every character that ever appeared in the comic into a huge overarching plot (whose final resolution ends the comic). |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 263 | * [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2000 SCP-2000]] double-checks the welding around the ''Website/SCPFoundation''. Officially it's all been linked for several real-life years, but in practice it's a massively disparate collection of collaborative stories on a wiki with an extremely loose version of "canon". |
| 264 | [[/folder]] |
| 265 | |
| 266 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 267 | * Various jokes and gags made in the purely episodic first season of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' either return in later seasons to add to the show's overall MythArc, or are [[CerebusRetcon re-contextualized]] to bring more insight into a character. One of the most notable examples of this is the season four episode "I Remember You", which takes an early throwaway gag of Marceline constantly moving all over the Land of Ooo, and explains that the main reason for this is to avoid her now mentally-insane father figure, the Ice King, who took care of her during the nuclear apocalypse but can no longer remember the bond they once shared. |
| 268 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'''s final episode, where the [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Shadowy Board of Directors]] bring together literally every one-shot guest character or celebrity and address them as collaborators. Of course, this was mostly just so the episode could end with [[spoiler:''literally every character ever to appear on the show'' -- except Scudworth -- frozen inside a meat locker.]] |
| 269 | %%* This happens with ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' in its first season. It turns out that Father was behind a lot of the episodes. |
| 270 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Why of Fry" reveals that Fry coming to the future was part of a wider conspiracy, as his lack of delta brain wave made him the only person who could save the Universe from the Brainspawn. Whilst at least part of this was planned from the beginning of the show, the events of "Roswell That Ends Well" (where Fry becomes his own grandfather) were used as an explanation for the lack of brain wave, which was not part of the original plan. |
| 271 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': |
| 272 | ** Most of the middle part of season 2 was already an arc, but then, during the two-part episode "The Gathering", where you see Oberon's Children filing into his castle to be recognized by him back on Avalon--and you realize they're familiar to you. Odin, Anansi, Banshee, Coyote, even Anubis are all his subjects. How powerful, then, must Oberon be? This was already a StoryArc of sorts--though Angela's, Goliath's, and Elisa's adventures were episodic, they were already linked by their method of travel--but now you see it was all part of a second arc as well, to set up the StoryArc finale. |
| 273 | ** Also, many unrelated aspects of the first half of the series were ultimately revealed as part of [[EvilSorcerer the Archmage's]] far-reaching BatmanGambit for world domination. |
| 274 | * Used not in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', but in the show's credits. At the end of each episode, there's a coded message in the credits. Despite their secretive nature, however, the messages are very simple and mostly just are cheap jokes. After Season 1 ends though, Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained comes out, and each short ends with a piece of a secret message that has to be decoded by looking through the season's credits messages. This message was obviously formed after the fact, but allowed for the credits' messages to have actual significance among speculating fans. |
| 275 | ** WordOfGod confirms that the first season's MonsterOfTheWeek approach to episodes were mostly because of Disney not knowing if a mystery show would sit well with audiences. After gaining significant popularity, the show was arc-welded with a conclusive first season ending, that led to a more cohesive StoryArc in season 2. |
| 276 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': "The Stakeout" reveals that [[spoiler:Unalaq, the BigBad of Book 2, was a member of the Red Lotus, the villains of Book 3, and he aided their attempt to kidnap Korra. However, he later turned on them, and his plan to become a Dark Avatar was not the Red Lotus's plan.]] |
| 277 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 278 | ** Throughout Season 4, each of the Mane Six gets a focus episode during which they receive a gift, which at the end is shown giving off a rainbow glow. In the season finale, these are revealed to have become the keys to open the mysterious box which emerged from the Tree of Harmony in the season premiere. |
| 279 | ** Several episodes throughout Season 7 feature stories about various legendary heroes from Equestria's past. The season finale reveals that all of them, along with Starswirl the Bearded (another legendary figure, mentioned repeatedly since Season 2), were part of the same group, the [[PrecursorHeroes Pillars of Harmony]]. |
| 280 | * Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' does this for some plot elements from the previous two seasons: |
| 281 | ** Foxtail, the AntiVillain BigBad of Season 2's P.O.I.N.T. arc, is revealed to have gotten the glorbs she used to illegally power up P.O.I.N.T. Prep students [[spoiler:from Shadowy Figure, K.O.'s ArchEnemy and the series's final BigBad, who's shown an interest in almost every one of his appearances in obtaining these glorbs to sell on the black market]]. |
| 282 | ** Three characters who had previously never so much as appeared in the same episode together turn out to have a very important connection : 1) Laserblast, a PosthumousCharacter who's important to the P.O.I.N.T. backstory and storyline because, among other things, his death was the aforementioned Foxtail's CynicismCatalyst that led to her becoming a WellIntentionedExtremist. [[spoiler:Oh, also he's alive and K.O.'s father]]; 2) [[spoiler:Professor Venomous, Boxman's business partner who has begun to take a more active role in attacking the Plaza and antagonizing the heroes]], and 3) [[spoiler:Shadowy Figure, the aforementioned ArchEnemy of K.O. who tries to steal glorbs and get K.O. to give in to his anger and unleash his SuperpoweredEvilSide]]. This connection is that [[spoiler:all three of them are the same person. Laserblast made a FaceHeelTurn and became a villain, adopting "Professor Venomous" as his new alias; Shadowy Figure, meanwhile, is his SplitPersonality Turbo form]]. |
| 283 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episodes "200" and "201" begin as a follow-up to "Trapped in the Closet" and then tie together the plots in "Mecha-Streisand," "Ginger Kids," "Scott Tenorman Must Die," "The Super Best Friends," "Butt Out," "Fat Butt and Pancake Head," the "Cartoon Wars" two-parter, and "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut," and this does not include the numerous previously one-shot characters who make another appearance in this two-parter. |
| 284 | ** Season 23 has an episode where Randy goes to China. Not long after the season ended, [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] became a thing, and, [[RippedFromTheHeadlines as you would expect]], got written into the show. Guess who PatientZero turned out to be. |
| 285 | * During ''WesternAnimation/RudolphAndFrostysChristmasInJuly'', it is revealed that the "foggy Christmas Eve" from the earlier ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1964'' was caused by the wizard Winterbolt, and Rudolph's nose was gift from Lady Boreal to stop him. |
| 286 | * The ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'' finale has them kidnapped along with Double Wide and put inside K.A.R.R over a canyon while being taunted by their kidnapper who gives them three guesses on who he is lest he drops them in the canyon. Through the whole episode the three call back recent episodes and go over suspects. [[spoiler: Its eventually revealed to be a no name background character whose appearance changed in each encounter with the duo save for his voice.]] |
| 287 | * ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' had Ratchet's war flashbacks; in "Thrill of the Hunt" he flashes back to serving alongside Arcee, and in "A Bridge Too Close" he recalls having served in the war with Omega Supreme, [[spoiler:also the Autobots' ship]], as an old friend. The third season reveals that [[spoiler:Arcee's role as intelligence officer during the war had actually been to carry the activation codes necessary to utilize Omega Supreme, an experimental weapon.]] |
| 288 | * ''WesternAnimation/WITCH2004'': The second season [[InvokedTrope explicitly]] does this via [[TheChessmaster Nerissa]], particularly when she [[{{lampshaded}} reveals]] that [[spoiler:she was posing as multiple characters in season 1 to help LaResistance, and had a child under one of these false identities specifically in order to give the rebels a RebelLeader who could bring them to victory]]. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
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