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Like a Story Arc, but longer — spanning the series.
The term originated with The X Files, though Babylon 5 is probably a better example of an effective Myth Arc. Comparing The X Files to Babylon 5 provides an object lesson in the value of knowing where you're headed when you set up a large-scale arc: both series had slow-building (often season-spanning) stories, but Babylon 5 would eventually resolve its stories while The X Files overarching plot just got strung along further and further, until — in what's now called The Chris Carter Effect — its viewers lost confidence that the plots would ever be resolved.
In some shows — such as the aforementioned series — the trend is to alternate between Myth Arc stories and Monster Of The Week episodes, making it easier for new viewers to get into the show and ensuring some short-term gratification while keeping the viewer's interest over the long run. However, heavily arc-based shows like Heroes show that the American public is willing to invest their time over longer periods too.
Anime series very often have arcs running the entirety of their series, which can span hundreds of episodes, with examples such as such as Robotech, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Martian Successor Nadesico, various Gundam shows, Noir (which had a Myth Arc from the very first episode), and others. The predominance of such arc-based plotting in anime (many of which were introduced to foreign audiences in the mid 90s), as opposed to the generally episodic nature of American TV series of the 80s and 90s, is part of what led to the massive rise in anime's popularity with the nerd-core at that time, and many suspect that the development of multiple Myth Arc-based shows on American television in the 2000s was a reaction to that.
Can lead to a Continuity Lock Out.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- The Macross franchise, in addition to having individual arcs in its shows, possesses several myth arcs that run throughout the franchise, including learning more about the Protoculture and the origins of mankind and the Zentraedi, and finding worlds to replace the seriously damaged Earth.
- While generally considered a horrible Macekre, the Robotech franchise born from Macross possesses a somewhat similar but altered Myth Arc involving the Masters and their manipulation of multiple races throughout the galaxy, which culminates in the Earth becoming a shooting gallery for several interstellar conflicts.
- The modern remake of Bubblegum Crisis, subtitled Tokyo: 2040 significantly differed from its predecessor in having a significantly developed myth arc, as opposed to the prior's tendency to single episodes and two-parters at most.
- Naruto often has many recaps and episodes that show who all the charaters are, what's been going on, etc. — not only to fill in new viewers, but to help Masashi Kishimoto write more, as well.
- One Piece has changed focus from the search for the titular treasure to an myth arc relating to the World Government, a corrupt worldwide organization that came to power during a lost part of history, and their relationship to the most powerful pirates in the world.
- Cowboy Bebop, while mostly episodic, has two basic plots running through the whole series: Faye's search for her past and identity, but most importantly, the full story of Spike's life as a mobster and his lost love, Julia.
- Suzumiya Haruhi alternates between enthralling plots and (usually) comedic side stories. (The novels are either a full story divided into chapters, or full off short stories)
- Shaman King does this when, sometime between the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 3, the focus of the series leaves the Shaman Fight entirely and delves off into exploring Hao's involvement in his third consecutive Shaman Fight, at each of which he attempted to steal the Great Spirit, as well as Hao being Yoh's Evil Twin. In fact, the series ends before the Shaman King is even decided.
- It didn't exactly end, it just went on an extremely long and sudden hiatus. The final issues are being published now.
- Code Geass contains an on-and-off form of Myth Arc revolving around the true nature of the Geass power. This arc begins arguably in the first episode, when Lelouch receives Geass, but the implications of the power are almost always overshadowed by the Britannian / Eleven conflict. The Geass Arc comes into its own later when Mao appears. Mao cannot turn off his Geass, foreshadowing when Lelouch's Geass also becomes uncontrollable. (Mao also might introduce the Chinese Federation, and what life is like there if reading people's minds there made him nuts.) The Geass Arc effectively ends in Episode 21 of R2, when Lelouch brings his Geass it to its final permanent binocular form, in order to use Geass on the World of C, ultimately destroying the Thought Elevator and killing both Charles and Marianne. Later on, when Lelouch, Suzaku, and C.C. return from the World of C, emerging in the Schneizel Arc, when Lelouch finally catches up to all the second-guessing and criticism thrown at him behind his back while he was busy during the Geass arc.
- Slayers is pretty good at alternating between Myth Arc and filler episodes. While each season will have one story arc spanning it, the three story arcs are intricately connected and form one very long plot.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Negi's search for his Disappeared Dad. It doesn't really become central until around volume 6, which is naturally where the anime adaption cut off.
- Vinland Saga has Thorfinn's dreams of Vinland and the phrase 'somewhere not here'.
- Despite the first chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist looking like your usual shonen Adventure Towns, the whole manga is one long and steady Myth Arc. The author has actually said the ending for the story was the first thing she came up with, and then worked backwards from there.
Literature
- Animorphs has one with the Yeerks, namely the overarching conflict across the galaxy. It was basically guaranteed that any book narrated by Ax would discuss this slight bit, any book narrated by Marco would have the myth-arc regarding his mother, Visser One, and stuff narrated by Tobias would deal with the Hork-Bajir, and the Anti-Morphing Ray arc. The whole series had the myth-arc of the war between Crayak and Ellimist, generally covered in Rachel's narrations.
- Harry Potter.
- Umberto Eco's novels (The Name Of The Rose, Foucaults Pendulum, The Island Of The Day Before, Baudolino, and The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana) supposedly form a Myth Arc, but rather infuriatingly, he never says what it is, and the connections are too subtle for anybody else to even begin to guess.
- Steven Eriksons Malazan Bookofthe Fallen myth arc about the Crippled God covers several hundred thousand years (mostly in backstory) including dragons, primitive hominids, many many gods and demigods, multiple world-spanning disasters and what ever the heck happened to Mother Dark. The histories of Dessimbelackis' First, the Malazan and Letherii) empires are also mysteries that carry the plot. Dang archeologists.
Music
- Frank Zappa did this with his music; he had a massive stockpile of cultural references, injokes, and musical riffs which he repeatedly drew from over his thirty-year career.
- Coheed and Cambria's music is one enormous myth arc.
- Craig Finn's bands, Lifter Puller and The Hold Steady both contain myth-arcs of a sort.
Television
- Lost has a Myth Arc built in, though it is a bone of contention as to whether the authors actually know where they're headed or not (see Twin Peaks).
- The official line from the creators is that they know how they want to end the series, and how to direct the plotlines to get there, but as they are determined to keep the series running until the plug is pulled, they will keep on inventing new stuff until it is. Fortunately, when that day comes, they will have their contractually-assured notice period of two full seasons in which to wrap things up.
- It has now been confirmed that season 6 will be the last one.
- Unsurprisingly, a number of shows that tried to cash in on the success of Lost had them, too: Invasion, Threshold, Surface — well, we assume they did; they were cancelled before the arcs could develop.
- More successful were The 4400 and Heroes, although the former actually predated Lost by a good few months.
- Twin Peaks looked like it had a Myth Arc, but David Lynch later admitted he had been making it all up as he went along.
- Both versions of Battlestar Galactica were arc-based, though elements thereof were made up on the fly; in the 2000s version, for example, the one-shot character Sam Anders was reintroduced into the arc 15 episodes after his first appearance, and became a recurring character in Season 3, because actress Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) wanted her character to have a love interest. By season 4 it is fair to say that he has suddenly become absolutely vital to the ongoing (and soon to be ending) arc.
- While Supernatural is also a Monster of the Week show, the main ongoing plot-driven arc is Sam's destiny and the demon invasion. You could also say that Dean's battle with possibly the worst self-esteem in the history of television characters is also a more emotionally-driven mini-arc.
- By seasons 3 and 4, Sam's destiny has become just a small part of the series' main (read: apocalyptic) Myth Arc, while Dean's self-esteem issues have become most crucial.
- The creators of the new Doctor Who series claim that plotlines to be dealt with in the series 4 finale have been laid out from the very first episode. But then, they say a lot of things.
- And series before that as well (Bad Wolf)
- Fringe appears to have a developing myth arc at only six episodes in. Unlike J. J. Abrams' previous shows (Alias and Lost), the word is that the myth arc has been planned from the beginning. The writers have been careful so far to make each episode seem self-contained, though.
- CSI did one fairly recently with the "Miniature Killer", so called because they would leave a perfect scale model of the crime scene there, and which served as the set up at the end to put one of the regulars on a bus.
- Originally intended to be an episodic supernatural-mystery-of-the-week series, Angel began developing a myth arc of its own with its first season finale, involving Angel and friends being pivotal players in an upcoming apocalypse. Your mileage may vary as to how way it was pulled off.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a running Myth Arc regarding the characters preventing Skynet's creation and Judgment Day, though it also focuses on numerous subplots and a lot of personal character development.
- Power Rangers is suspected to have a bit of a thin one — introduce villain's empire in season 4, give villain motive in season 6 by destroying said empire, show long-term aftermath of villain's attack in season 9, introduce villain in season 10, show how planet will become is vulnerable in season 13, then show the actual fight against the villain and the attack itself in season 17.
- Earth Final Conflict was both loved and praised by its fans for its complicated, multidimensional and just way too convoluted arc. The writers were smart enough to make all things vague and open to personal interpretation to avoid an inevitable Series Continuity Error and mostly let the viewer himself discern right from wrong.
Video Games
- The Might And Magic games have individual plots that are quite simple and a much more complex plot that spans the entire series as well alternating with the Heroes Of Might And Magic spinoff series. Playing the entire franchise in the fiction's chronological order can be very interesting as all the pieces of the puzzle click together.
- Metal Gear Solid. Good god Metal Gear Solid... though there's a school of thought that Kojima was just making it up and retconning as he went along. Reportedly, he wanted to end the series with Metal Gear Solid, but got pressured into continuing. Taking four whole games on 3 different consoles to setup and resolve the Patriots arc might be his way of getting revenge.
Web Original
Webcomics
- Girl Genius, starting with the fourth strip
 and continuing until today — and likely quite some time into the future as well.
- Girl Genius started as a comic book series, so that "fourth strip" is actually the fourth page of the first issue.
- All of the recurring story lines in Detective Conan fall under this.
Western Animation
- The point of Danny Phantom — according to the fans, anyway. Although it's hard to tell after season 2.
- Avatar The Last Airbender. Given its similarity to Anime, it's not surprising.
- The French cartoon Les Mondes Engloutis ("The Engulfed Worlds" in French), translated as Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea in English, centered around the protagonists' search for a way to keep the titular Sun from dying and destroying the underground civilization of Arcadia. The show lasted only two seasons, and was ended when the heroes eventually discovered the truth behind the Sun and what was needed to save the people of Arcadia.
- Futurama had one literally set up in a shadow of the very first episode that we didn't know about until two seasons afterwards.
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