History Main / JigsawPuzzlePlot

* ''VisualNovel/WonderfulEverydayDownTheRabbitHole'' tells the events of the story from multiple character's viewpoints (Many of them {{Unreliable Narrator}}s) across different chapters, each time revealing a little more about the setting and what's really going on behind all the bizarre events.

* ''VisualNovel/SubarashikiHibi'' tells the events of the story from multiple character's viewpoints (Many of them {{Unreliable Narrator}}s) across different chapters, each time revealing a little more about the setting and what's really going on behind all the bizarre events.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' is a prime example. At first the plot seems fairly straightforward: a crew of Transformers set off on a quest to find the mysterious {{Precursors}} by following an ancient starmap. But soon more and more mysteries and odd events begin appearing and multiple hints are dropped that something bigger is going on. Then the backstories and pasts of the characters and galaxy are slowly told through flashbacks, foreshadowing, subtle dialogue, and background hints (with occasional WordOfGod to fill in less apparent or important things). As the comic goes on, we learn more about how the crew came to be where they are today, with the foggy implication that the crew has ''always'' been linked to each other even before they began their quest. And all of this is told in somewhat AnachronicOrder.

* While the overall plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is fairly straightforward, some character arcs are very subtle. For example, put together Hank always trying to imitate Brock, Rusty fawning over Dean on the twins' birthday, and Hank's general dominance over Dean physically and emotionally, and you have a metric truckload of [[WellDoneSonGuy daddy issues.]]

%%ZCE* ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman''

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' sequel trilogy is infamous for its half-hearted attempt at this. ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', directed by Creator/JJAbrams, introduces several questions about why Rey is so strong with The Force, who her parents are, and the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke.

* The story of Hope's Peak Academy in ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' is... ''labyrinthine'', since among other things, it's spread out across different ''mediums''. Want to know how the first game happened? Read the light novel ''Literature/DanganronpaZero'', which serves as the only means of foreshadowing for a certain character who doesn't appear until late into ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''. What happened to Makoto's family and the world outside Hope's Peak? Play the video game ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' to find out. How does it all end? Watch the animé ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', which itself is split into two sides set at different points in time.

* The story of Hope's Peak Academy in ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' is... ''labyrinthine'', since among other things, it's spread out across different ''mediums''. Want to know how the first game happened? Read the light novel ''LightNovel/DanganronpaZero'', which serves as the only means of foreshadowing for a certain character who doesn't appear until late into ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''. What happened to Makoto's family and the world outside Hope's Peak? Play the video game ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' to find out. How does it all end? Watch the animé ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', which itself is split into two sides set at different points in time.

-->-- ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', riffing ''Film/PodPeople''

* Creator/GrantMorrison writes a lot of these. It's not always a bad thing, though, just seems to be their style. [[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Their run on Batman]] notably had some elements that didn't seem to make sense until the end.

* Jonathan Hickman's run on ComicBook/{{Avengers}} and ComicBook/NewAvengers.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. Through all the stories the characters mix up slowly and in ways that aren't initially obvious and characters that were initially in two panels as a mention become major players later on.
* Creator/JohnByrne's run on Comicbook/SheHulk worked like this. Small two page snippets would later contribute to the storyline. The Greek Gods arguing about Cupid being able to make someone in love with anybody else and then combining this with a conqueror from the future just arriving, for example.

* In the ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Switchblade}}'', the mystery of what happened to Izuku during the week he went missing is given in bit pieces, with every {{Flashback}}, every piece of research into the original Meta Liberation Army, and seemingly-unrelated events all slowly painting the bigger picture.

* As well as following an AnachronicOrder, the story told by the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series is not shown linearly. Flashbacks, including the OnceMoreWithClarity variety, are used frequently. In ''Saw IV'', Jill Tuck says "John's life defies chronology, linear description." The story itself is like a jigsaw puzzle, which is fitting, considering most of the killers are dubbed [[CollectiveIdentity "the Jigsaw Killer"]].
* The 1972 version of Солярис (Film/{{Solaris|1972}}) is an example of what can go wrong when this trope is mixed with adapting from book to film. The film based heavily on a novel which heavily relied on the narrator giving massive {{Info Dump}}s to give backstory and explain things. Given that much of the film adaptation is based on the ''actions'' that take place in the novel, but is bereft of ''any'' narration, meaning that things which made sense (or at least slightly more sense) in the novel, went completely unexplained in the film without buildup, exposition, or closure. Many plot revelations and pieces of characterization were changed to something very different, making the film hard to approach even for those who ''have'' read the book. The film also adds several scenes not found in the novel at all, which are quite trippy, leading to a film which has disturbingly large chunks of its running time occupied by {{Big Lipped Alligator Moment}}s. MindScrew and GainaxEnding do not even ''begin'' to express how weird the whole thing is.

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': Protagonist Leonard has amnesia, and the movie is told in reverse chronological order. As the story rewinds, both Leonard and the audience learn more about how he got this way, what happened to his [[CrusadingWidower dead wife]], and various other smaller details that were initially missing context.

* The Machinima series, ''Machinima/SmashKing'' is very much inspired by anime, so it's no surprise that this series falls under this trope. The story thrusts you into the middle of Bowser's daily life as a trophy without much preamble, while he's gathering teammates for the upcoming Smash King tourney, and many mysteries such as [[spoiler:why Mario and Lucario want revenge against Bowser, Bowser's past, the Twilight Realm, the goals behind Snake's trio, Ridley, and so on]] are thrust upon the viewer with information slowly drip fed about all of them leaving you questioning and trying to figure out what's going on for a long time before you start getting large bouts of answers. The series rewards the viewers who try to analyze every little detail said by the characters as the mysteries slowly get pieced together over time.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. It's surprising how much one can learn about the backstory and the MythArc from reading between the lines and putting together minor details... or by going to Wiki/TheOtherWiki and having it explained to you.