History Main / ArcFatigue

When this happens, a story has succumbed to Arc Fatigue.


Arc Fatigue takes the form of one of two categories:

** The Straw Hat Separation Saga and ''especially'' the Marineford arc were starting to feel like this, as the concept puts everyone but Luffy OutOfFocus and the latter is largely one very drawn out battle. ''Thankfully'', they finally [[spoiler:got Ace out of the stockade]] before it got too dragged out [[spoiler:then it hit a series of {{Wham Episode}}s when Ace died, Whitebeard died, and Blackbeard made his entrance]]

** Before that though, there was getting to Vermillion City, which took six whole episodes to reach because Ash had to have all the starter Pokemon.

* To many, ''InuYasha'' may be ''the'' MostTriumphantExample of a Myth Stall. 10 years long, and from years 3-9 the story progressed... well, it ''didn't'' progress. Character relations changed, somewhat, but every time the story finally seemed to be coming to a climax, a DiabolusExMachina on the part of the BigBad, Naraku, would set everything back to square one. It's generally accepted even by fans of the series that over 2/3 of the chapters could be removed entirely and nothing would be impacted at all, as most of what wasn't just repeating itself is relatively brief.

** The Hivebent arc in ''{{Homestuck}}'' has got some flak too, for reasons similar to "oceans unmoving" below. The fact that Act 4 ended on a cliffhanger (especially for Jade) didn't help.
** Of course, considering that start to finish Hivebent only lasted only a maximum of ''three months'' the criticism seems just a ''little'' unfair.
** Speaking of the trolls, the recent arc in which [[spoiler:the [[ShooOuttheClowns minor trolls]], many of them [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorites]], get killed in the most drawn out, cruel, and [[DeathbyIrony ironic]] ways possible]] is starting to wear thin on regular readers.

When this happens, a story has succumbed to ArcFatigue.


ArcFatigue takes the form of one of two categories:

The reasons for a series slipping into ArcFatigue are many fold, but the most common are that either the author is stalling for time while trying to figure out where the series is heading, or that [[ExecutiveMeddling someone higher up]] wants to carry on the series [[CashCowFranchise for as long as it's profitable]]. Alternatively, the author may be WritingForTheTrade.

* Aside from the sheer WallBanger-ness of the original FingerpokeOfDoom, it basically reset the [[NewWorldOrder nWo]] storyline back to where it was in 1996. No wonder it was the beginning of the end for the WCW.

* The ''D.N.Angel'' manga, definitely. The manga started November, 1997, and the only closure we have as-of-yet is the anime, which completely branched out into it's own after it ran out of source material. But the Fangirls are still waiting. Oh, yes, we're still waiting.
** As a matter of fact, Yukiru Sugisaki is infamous for her habit of starting another manga before finishing the one she was working on. The only manga she's ever actually finished is ''{{Rizelmine}}'', which was a one shot.

* The ''{{D.N.Angel}}'' manga, definitely. The manga started November, 1997, and the only closure we have as-of-yet is the anime, which completely branched out into it's own after it ran out of source material. But the Fangirls are still waiting. Oh, yes, we're still waiting.

[[quoteright:250:[[SuzumiyaHaruhi http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_suzumiya_haruhi_-_endless_eight_-_step1_troll_fanbase_without_mercy_-_step2_..._-_step3_PROFIT.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Somewhere,]] [[KyotoAnimation an anime studio]] [[LaughingMad is laughing madly...]]]]

* ''SchlockMercenary'' is currently in the middle of this; the hook of the current main arc was posted exactly a year ago. We've gotten some progress in all the little side stories, but we still don't know what Petey wanted, or even if it has to do with what got revealed at the end of the Credomar revisit.

** Later averted when ''DragonballKai'' since it's essentially a streamlined {{recut}} of the show.

** The Current Hueco Mundo Arc of ''{{Bleach}}''. Ichigo, Chad, and Ishida entered Hueco Mundo in 2006. They ''finally'' got out in late 2010. Oh, and, in case you didn't know - the amount of time that's passed has been ''maybe'' [[WebcomicTime 24 hours]].
*** Fake Karakura Town battle arc that HM basically bleeds into. The soul reapers fight off the first wave of minions. Then the second wave... and one final wave... then the Espada decide to join in. After an issue or five the captains start to overcome them. But wait, NotSoFastBucko! While it seems to be wrapping up soon, you just know that they are not going to take down the BigBad just yet.

*** [[spoiler: They've ''finally'' beaten him]] - and [[spoiler: he's not even dead - although his AndIMustScream FateWorseThanDeath involves imprisonment for ''20,000 years'', which makes his return in the future ''highly'' unlikely]]. And the ending for that arc was actually quite poignant and movingly written - for all his flaws, Tite Kubo does ''not'' drag epilogues out at least.

** YMMV on whether this is averted or not with the 'Turn Back the Pendulum' arc - although it cuts into the HM arc, it ''does'' provides significant backstory and development for Urahara, Aizen and the Vizards, and thankfully enough it ''doesn't'' drag - in fact, the anime 'Season' which covers it is only 7 episodes long.

* In ''KatekyoHitmanReborn'', the Future Arc, which lasted 146 chapters out of a total of 271 chapters. This means that arc is actually longer than the rest of the arcs combined! The storyline has been stretched to the point where battles have just been rehashed [[spoiler:e.g. The choice battle which ended up amounting to nothing other than a bit of exposition at the end]] as well as introducing new characters that could have only been done to stretch the plot [[spoiler:"Let me introduce you to the '''real''' 6 Funeral Wreaths!" Thus rendering all of the other battles utterly pointless.]] The introduction of the motorbikes also adds to the meaningless filler since they were never used.
** Actually alot of that was done to show off the big bad [[spoiler: MagnificentBastard Byakuran]]'s character and powers, as well as [[CharacterDevelopment power up the guardians]].
** The motorbikes ''did'' get used...for about five minutes, before they were all destroyed.
** The author seems to have been aware of the arc fatigue, as late in the arc she took great pains to reassure the reader that it was almost over. This included adding a clairvoyant character who assured everyone that the current fight was defiantly, unquestionably, without a doubt, the final battle, and having her reinforce this about once per chapter until the arc was over.
** [[strike:In its defense, the Future Arc will probably be the end of the manga. You tell me how they are supposed to keep the manga alive without the box-weapons.]] Scratch that, they brought it back with them. Bloody {{hand wave}}.

* ''{{Bleach}} has a number of ArcFatigue examples.

** Take a look at the season-by-season breakdown sometime. Season's two and three are nothing but shenanigans on Namek. Heck, season three is nothing but the Frieza fight. This is of course using the American season breakdown, but if you understand that you get the idea.
** To put simply, there were seven (eight if you count Vegeta) significant villains in this arc before we reached Frieza, whose fight with Goku seemed to take up the last third of the arc.
** ''DragonballKai'' seems to fix this a bit, since it's essentially a streamlined {{recut}} of the show.

* The Soul Society Arc and current Hueco Mundo Arc of ''{{Bleach}}''. Ichigo, Chad, and Ishida entered Hueco Mundo in 2006. They ''finally'' got out in late 2010. Oh, and, in case you didn't know - the amount of time that's passed has been ''maybe'' [[WebcomicTime 24 hours]].
** What makes Hueco Mundo worse than Soul Society is one key thing. While Soul Society was pretty slow moving once they were inside the walls it got moving and didn't really stop for any reason (outside of a few filler episodes). Hueco Mundo, on the other hand, has a whole separate and mostly unrelated arc begin in the very middle of it.
*** The only reason the SS arc had some fatigue was due to [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters introducing a ''massive'' new cast]], many of whom received their own roles and developments in the process. The anime was especially good at compressing the chapters, so that major battles didn't last more than about three episodes apiece - the two SS seasons covered 43 episodes all up, and several of these were filler (with several others being WholeFlashbackEpisode sequences).
** Ditto the Fake Karakura Town battle arc that HM basically bleeds into. The soul reapers fight off the first wave of minions. Then the second wave... and one final wave... then the Espada decide to join in. After an issue or five the captains start to overcome them. But wait, NotSoFastBucko! While it seems to be wrapping up soon, you just know that they are not going to take down the BigBad just yet.
** The FKT arc did eventually end, though the Hueco Mundo arc continued. As a final kick in the nuts, the FKT arc ended in a mini-arc, ''Deicide'', which itself suffers from arc fatigue as it continues in its own arc. And all chapters are named "Deicide #", to drive the point home.
** I would argue that "Are they still fighting Aizen?" Or "Isn't Aizen dead yet?" is/are the new "Are they still on namek?"
*** They've ''finally'' beaten him - and [[spoiler: he's not even dead - although his AndIMustScream FateWorseThanDeath involves imprisonment for ''20,000 years'', which makes his return in the future ''highly'' unlikely]]. And the ending for that arc was actually quite poignant and movingly written - for all his flaws, Tite Kubo does ''not'' drag epilogues out at least.

** The ''reason'' {{Bleach}} suffers arc fatigue is specifically because there are too many characters, and TiteKubo is adamant to try and give ''everyone'' a role if he possibly can (not to mention his reluctance to kill ''any'' named characters who aren't enemies ...).

* ''BlackLagoon'' - The ''Baile de la Muerte'' arc. It's still ongoing (sorta) at 28 chapters. The entire manga is pretty lightweight at 71 chapters, meaning that if it's getting close to being half of the manga's current run. Not a new trend, however, because previously ''Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise'' did the same at 16 out of 37 chapters. Hopefully this'll be averted for the next major arc.
** The Arc wrapped up at 33 chapters, out of 76 total.
*** The worst part of that arc was how much time was wasted on people saying "The maid is out for revenge, we should stay out of it."

** Actually, a recent [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134695 thread]] on the forum agrees that while it is highly unlikely that any one character could overcome Xykon on his/her own, it would be relatively doable for a party of characters (read: The Order) to take him down. Indeed, [[spoiler: had Darth Vaarsuvius given his fight a bit more planning, and perhaps prepared his spells for both taking down the Ancient Black Dragon ''and'' Xykon (an undead lich sorcerer), he probably would have succeeded]]. As it is, it is probable that the story won't reach anything near conclusion until [[spoiler: the last two gates]] are dealt with, and even then, there would probably be a lot of time devoted toward actually meeting Xykon for a (hopefully) epic climactic battle.

*** Except most of the stuff the arcs focus on ARE part of the myth arc. Getting to One Piece is the series' goal, but it's not the myth arc. The world has always been bigger than the main characters, and while the current Marineford arc saga may not focus on the Straw Hats, it's the most significant event in the story so far, and the story has been building up to it for quite some time.
*** As of late 2010, they've finally made it! Though, as of the latest chapter, they're only in the mermaid part of the island. They're on their way to the Fishmen, though! Promise!
** Keep in mind: This is a series with a MythArc of some sort, its exact nature undetermined. It is currently over 50 volumes long. And the [[WordOfGod author]] says that it is around ''halfway complete.'' It's easy to call it Myth Stall when you're looking at an overarching story that will probably take a minimum of 100 200-page manga volumes.
*** Oda has been saying he's halfway through for a while now.
*** I think it's better for our sanity to take his word on that with a grain of salt...

** Except that it was the entire POINT of the show. The war doesn't end just because the Shadows are defeated. This is not one of those "the great evil was vanquished and now the world is instantly set right." One of the best things Babylon 5 DID was to show that just because you win the war doesn't mean everything is all well in the Universe, and there was a LOT wrong with it still. It wasn't just Earth. The Minbari got into a civil war as well. ExecutiveMeddling conspired to make Season 5 a mix Myth Stall and EndingFatigue, however.
*** Elaborating on what actually happened behind the scenes: the show was pitched and accepted as a 5 year series, but then partway through season 4 it became apparent the network ({{PTEN}}) would fall apart, meaning there couldn't be a fifth and last season. To give the show a proper ending, JMS had to cram all the conclusions and resolutions which had been planned for early season 5 into the last four episodes of season 4 -- so he wrote three {{Wham Episode}}s which contained most of the fifth season's planned first half, plus a DistantFinale. Then, at the last minute, cable network TNT picked up the show for a fifth season; there was time to write and shoot a new fourth season finale (so the DistantFinale could be postponed a year), but the three preceding {{Wham Episode}}s still went to air -- meaning that there was now a huge gap in early season 5 which could only be covered by stretching a planned three-episode arc out to ''eleven'' episodes. Hence a serious case of Arc Stall which universally gave Season 5 a bad name.

*** The actual point of the [[spoiler: evil Vaarsuvius]] arc is to show Vaarsuvius that ultimate arcane power used like a club alone is useless and that teamwork and planning are much more important.
**** Well, that and the fiend thing. Give or take above plot twist at the end of Book Four.
*** Also, hasn't Burlew said there will be six books? With four now out, the end must be closer than it seems. The on-site [[http://www.giantitp.com/FAQ.html FAQ]] mentions an estimate of five years, which (going by the then-current schedule; the FAQ hasn't been updated to take account of more recent ScheduleSlip) works out at roughly 900 strips. Granted, tales have a tendency to "grow in the telling" as Tolkien said, but it's one more piece of evidence suggesting we're starting to get near the beginning of the end.
**** That, and the fact that the story is finally truly starting to actually feel like it's building to a true climax. The pacing's been slow, but pretty consistent.

* Effectively ''every arc'' following the Orange Islands in the ''[[Anime/{{Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'' anime is prone to this, due to the fact the series' source material (apart from a couple of {{filler}} arcs) is a [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo game]] whose instalments are released three to four years apart rather than a weekly manga.
** The Myth Arc of Ash trying to become a Pokemon Master has been more or less stalled just as long. Ash is no closer to being a master now than he was in the Red/Blue arc.

* The Soul Society Arc and current Hueco Mundo Arc of ''{{Bleach}}''. Ichigo, Chad, and Ishida entered Hueco Mundo in 2006. They aren't out yet, and have been fighting the Espadas basically ever since. Oh, and, in case you didn't know - the amount of time that's passed has been ''maybe'' [[WebcomicTime 24 hours]].
** What makes Hueco Mundo worse than Soul Society is one key thing. While Soul Society was pretty slow moving once they were inside the walls it got moving and didn't really stop for any reason (outside of a few filler episodes). Hueco Mundo, on the other hand, has a whole seperate and mostly unrelated arc begin in the very middle of it.
*** The only reason the SS arc had some fatigue was due to [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters introducing a ''massive'' new cast]], many of whom recieved their own roles and developments in the process. The anime was especially good at compressing the chapters, so that major battles didn't last more than about three episodes apiece - the two SS seasons covered 43 episodes all up, and several of these were filler (with several others being WholeFlashbackEpisode sequences).

*** Except most of the stuff the arcs focus on ARE part of the myth arc. Getting to One Piece is the series' goal, but it's not the myth arc. The world has always been bigger than the main characters, and while the current Marineford arc saga may not focus on the Straw Hats, it's the most significant event in the story so far, and the story has been building up to it for quite some time.

* The telepath colony arc in ''Babylon5'' went on and on. And on. And on. And on. (The story was originally intended to only last three episodes but due to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot behind-the-scenes issues]] ended up taking up all of the fifth season's first half -- see below in "Myth Stall" for why.)

*** Elaborating on just how the show was ScrewedByTheNetwork, it was pitched and accepted as a 5 year series, but then partway through season 4 the network changed there mind and said they wouldn't renew for the fifth and last season, which left JMS to have to cram as many conclusions to as many plot threads as he could into the end of season 4, then when the network again changed their mind and green-lighted a fifth season, a good chunk of that was planned for that season was already done, so what was left ended up getting dragged out longer then it was supposed to.

* ''{{Misfile}}'', its taken 6 years to cover about 6 months worth of story and there is still 6 months worth of story ahead. Three entire chapters (of about 120 pages each) of pure filler and padding and no plot advancement, which took about a year and a half to play.