History Main / ArcFatigue

* The "Godsmoot/vampire Durkon" arc in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' lasted a while (beginning in earnest in March 2014 and climaxing in October 2018). A lot of fans expressed frustration at how long the comic was spending on a side story -- until the arc concluded in a way that made it essential to the main story with a twist that no-one saw coming.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' story arc ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' (including its two "sequels", ''[=KnightQuest=]'' and ''[=KnightsEnd=]'') dragged on for about a year and a half - and that's not even counting the buildup that began months before the arc took off, with plenty of {{Early Bird Cameo}}s and [[ChekhovsGun Chekhovs Guns]]... ''or'' the aftermath of the arc focusing on Dick Grayson, since it [[LeftHanging wrapped up with quite a few loose ends]], some of which were not tied up until a year later or even after. The story was also told across several comic-book titles, some of which began publication just to tie in with the arc. All told, the ''Knightfall'' saga cast its shadow over the ''Batman'' mythos from 1992 to 1996 and encompassed more than 200 individual comics. Worst of all, untold numbers of fans ''hated'' it.
** This is the biggest criticism of Tom King's ''Batman'' run in ''ComicBook/BatmanTomKing''. First, there was "The Wedding" arc focusing on the developing relationship, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and then wedding,]] between Batman and Catwoman. It lasted for fifty issues, incorporating multiple smaller arcs on the way, before finally ending with [[spoiler:Catwoman abandoning Batman at the altar and the status quo being restored.]] Next up came "Knightmares", an arc where Batman lies in a machine hallucinating his worst fears one at a time, which went on for several months of real-world time, and then finally came "City of Bane", where whole issues were spent with Batman and Catwoman working out their relationship on a beach, as opposed to the [[TheBadGuyWins fairly urgent main plot]] (Bane taking over Gotham City and controlling an army of villains).

* The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story arc ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' (including its two "sequels", ''[=KnightQuest=]'' and ''[=KnightsEnd=]'') dragged on for about a year and a half - and that's not even counting the buildup that began months before the arc took off, with plenty of {{Early Bird Cameo}}s and [[ChekhovsGun Chekhovs Guns]]... ''or'' the aftermath of the arc focusing on Dick Grayson, since it [[LeftHanging wrapped up with quite a few loose ends]], some of which were not tied up until a year later or even after. The story was also told across several comic-book titles, some of which began publication just to tie in with the arc. All told, the ''Knightfall'' saga cast its shadow over the ''Batman'' mythos from 1992 to 1996 and encompassed more than 200 individual comics. Worst of all, untold numbers of fans ''hated'' it.
** This is the biggest criticism of Tom King's ''Batman'' run in ''ComicBook/BatmanRebirth''. First, there was "The Wedding" arc focusing on the developing relationship, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and then wedding,]] between Batman and Catwoman. It lasted for fifty issues, incorporating multiple smaller arcs on the way, before finally ending with [[spoiler:Catwoman abandoning Batman at the altar and the status quo being restored.]] Next up came "Knightmares", an arc where Batman lies in a machine hallucinating his worst fears one at a time, which went on for several months of real-world time, and then finally came "City of Bane", where whole issues were spent with Batman and Catwoman working out their relationship on a beach, as opposed to the [[TheBadGuyWins fairly urgent main plot]] (Bane taking over Gotham City and controlling an army of villains).

* ''Series/TheHouseOfNight'': Neferet is the primary villain of the series and is plotting to TakeOverTheWorld. Zoey and her friends realize Neferet is evil and vow to stop her in the second book, ''Betrayed''. There are ''ten'' more books in the main series after this and stopping Neferet is the protagonists' primary goal the entire time. Notably, in-universe only about a year passes, but the books themselves were published over seven years. A lot of readers have mentioned finding the books more of a drag to read around the halfway mark, especially they tend to be padded out with [[RomanticPlotTumor Zoey's romantic drama]] rather than actual plot progression.

* Rey's family background dominates her story arc for the entire ''Franchise/StarWars'' sequel trilogy (2015-2019). ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' establishes that Rey was abandoned by her parents on Jakku for unclear reasons. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', Rey and the audience are confronted with the knowledge that her parents were junk traders who sold her for drinking money and are irrelevant to the story, rather than anyone important. Creator/RianJohnson (writer/director of ''The Last Jedi'') said learning she was "nobody" was the most devastating answer Rey could get, but that she could now move on, which seemed to close this arc. ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' instead reopens it by abruptly revealing that Rey is actually [[spoiler: the granddaughter of Palpatine]]. Lots of viewers found this frustrating, both because it comes off as an AssPull and has [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks already been done]] in ''Star Wars'' (and elsewhere), and because they wanted Rey's story to focus on other things, such as her Jedi training. And there are ''still'' unanswered questions around her heritage by the end. Rey's actress Creator/DaisyRidley later revealed there [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants wasn't a concrete plan]] for Rey's heritage and the answer kept changing between films – even during the filming of ''The Rise of Skywalker'' writer/director Creator/JJAbrams wasn't fully committed to [[spoiler:Palpatine being Rey's grandfather]].

** ''Franchise/MegaMan''. The [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic original series]]' writing was immediately recognized as a [[ExcusePlot cheap excuse]] to shoot a line-up of [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent fan-submitted]] [[BossBattle robots]]. But then came ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', taking place 100 years later and touting a more serious story connected to its predecessor; followed by ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' doing the same to it. They were 3 tandem series promising linking revelations... but since the [[CashCowFranchise first two]] [[NoEnding could not end]], little came beyond cameos and [[ShrugOfGod intentionally cryptic]] hints that went [[MindScrew nowhere]]. The lone applied connection that Wily built Zero was [[RecycledScript endlessly reused]] and stretched, with 3 separate, mysterious scientist villains hinted at as possibly being Wily showing up while Zero died [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist just as often]]. Like Sigma's [[VillainDecay continued existence]], attempts at drama devolved into [[MotiveDecay overused jokes]]. At least you could count on loads of new bosses... until Capcom internal politics pointed towards the franchise dying with a whimper rather than any real resolution. It remains to be seen whether the Classic series' unexpected revival with the release of ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' in 2018 will do anything to change this.

** The GrandFinale, the Alvarez Empire arc, lasted 107 chapters in all.* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': "Is Raoh ''still'' alive?" Raoh's second battle with Kenshiro (which came after several near-death experiences for Raoh and several chapters' worth of what felt like padding) felt climactic and final, and Raoh's escape and continued survival for another ~10 chapters after ''that'' raised the story arc's EndingFatigue to new heights. ''Then'' in volume 24. BigBad's gone, everything resolved, story's over, right? Wrong.

** Desmond Miles' arc, which kept interrupting the much more interesting and entertaining segments as Altair/Ezio/etc. Desmond himself did get platforming LeParkour sections, but they were extremely linear and often didn't have any optional objectives or side areas. By the time ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' ended Desmond's story arc, nobody cared about him anymore.

* CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' ended up falling into this. The main reason was that ''ComicBook/TrinityWar'', an event DC had been shilling for over a year, turned out to merely be a lead-in to ''Forever Evil''. Add in a generally sluggish pace magnified by the main series being delayed - the 7th issue came three months after the 6th - and you've got readers making a ''lot'' of jokes about the title.

** Whole Cake Island arc was likewise to be something of a drag to get through, largely because the initaly objective, Retrieve Sanji, was accomplished midway through the arc. But Sanji didn't his family to die, despite their actions toward him earlier, so a wedding crash was planned for Sanji's planned wedding in order to kill Big Mom. The plan somewhat works (they save Sanji's family) but fail to kill their target, forcing the heroes to flee. But Luffy get pulled into a literal mirror dimension to fight one of Big Mom's elderest children, Katakuri, and Sanji decides to bake a cake to appease Big Mom that'll take ''10 hours'', leaving the rest of the crew having to survive against Big Mom and her forces till then. Harrowing? Yes. But many fans likewise grew frusterated how long it went on before it eventually ended.

* The ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series faced this problem following the release of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]''. The game is set after ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' with the Space Pirates virtually eliminated, and ends on the note of [[spoiler:TheFederation planning to weaponize Metroids for their own sinister purposes]]. For nearly two decades, none of the games released after ''Fusion'' built on the latter point, as all of them were either interquels (the ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Prime]]'' subseries and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'') or remakes (''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'', ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]''), with ''Other M'' in particular merely reiterating ''Fusion''[='=]s big revelation earlier in the timeline. The nineteen-year stall would finally come to an end with ''VideoGame/MetroidDread''. [[spoiler: Except not really as that game focused on the Chozo race and Samus's personal beef with a megalomatic Chozo trying to take over the universe. There's virtually no mention of the Federation in it and in the end all Metroids are destroyed... save Samus who's biology now contains Metroid DNA and allows her to ''become'' one. A good plot setup for later but still not following up on what was promised.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series faced this problem following the release of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]''. The game is set after ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' with the Space Pirates virtually eliminated, and ends on the note of [[spoiler:TheFederation planning to weaponize Metroids for their own sinister purposes]]. For nearly two decades, none of the games released after ''Fusion'' built on the latter point, as all of them were either interquels (the ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Prime]]'' subseries and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'') or remakes (''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'', ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]''), with ''Other M'' in particular merely reiterating ''Fusion''[='=]s big revelation earlier in the timeline. The nineteen-year stall would finally come to an end with ''VideoGame/MetroidDread''.

** ''ComicBook/TitansHunt'' was a complex and long story. It began with their members being kidnapped and [[Characters/BatmanDeathstroke Deathstroke]] hired to rescue them. Then we get a new villain society, a cheap Wolverine expy, a flying sheet, an unneeded trip to Russia, [[Characters/TeenTitansCyborg Cyborg]] turned into a complete robot, a new team of Titans from the future trying to kill [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Troia]], and so on, and so on…

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has suffered from this twice.
** The first and most prominent case is the "Seventh Astral Era" quest chain, AKA the quests added after the original release of ''A Realm Reborn'' but before its first expansion ''Heavensward'', especially once the latter was released. Many complained about the need to actually reach the expansion content to play as its new classes for the primary reason that the Seventh Astral Era segment stretches on for a solid ''hundred'' quests, more than half as long as the Level 1 to 50 questline went -- even ''Heavensward''[='=]s initial line of level 50 to 60 quests is shorter than that. Patch 5.3 streamlined the Seventh Astral Era to make it more approachable for new players, but it ''still'' goes on for a while - it was reduced from a hundred quests to eighty, but in practice is still ''ninety-three'' quests, because you ''still'' need to complete three hardmode versions of primals you fought in the 2.0 story as a requisite for one of the later quests in the line, ''and'' an earlier change with the release of ''Shadowbringers'' also now adds a requirement to complete the Crystal Tower raids (which consist of another ten quests) because of the Tower's relevance to that expansion.
** ''Stormblood'' suffers from this in its Ala Mhigo arc, in that it's almost treated as an afterthought despite events in Ala Mhigo being the catalyst for the expansion's story arc. Its problem is twofold: one, it decided to also deal with liberating a second country from Garlean occupation (the in-universe logic being to divide the Garleans' attention by forcing them to deal with two rebellions at the same time), and two, that second country ended up with far more time spent on it - keeping in mind that you have to be at level 60 to start the ''Stormblood'' story, you head for the Far East at level 61 and don't come back until you've liberated Doma at level ''68'', which leaves almost no room for Ala Mhigo to have any real story. What makes this even worse is that Lyse [[ADayInTheLimelight gets much more story importance]] with this expansion, but her CharacterDevelopment is almost entirely tied to Ala Mhigo rather than Doma - which means she spends almost 90% of the expansion never progressing past the "Lyse [[{{Wangst}} whines about feeling useless]]" phase of her development before very suddenly jumping to "Lyse is leading the Ala Mhigan Resistance", without even giving her any chance to prove herself worthy of the role until well ''after'' she's been thrust into it.

Heaven help any work that never actually reaches the goddamn [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow fireworks factory]] that the fans were waiting for because that was never actually the point and [[MisaimedFandom the fans only assumed otherwise]].

* The very first level of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' suffers from this. It's a long and boring slog through an eerily empty mining station, and you're fighting alone for most of it. The objectives can become confusing or hard to understand, and anyone who hasn't played through it before is likely to get tripped up or have no idea what to do at times. To top it all off there is an UnwinnableByMistake oversight involving a computer terminal in one segment. Forcing the player to load a save which, depending on how frequently they save, could set them back quite a bit or possibly force them to start the whole game over again.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' is, as of the end of 2019, at 97 books and 1036 collected chapters (uncollected chapters bring it over 1040 total, with the 300th case underway), although if you removed all the cases which don't progress the main or side plots, the numbers would likely be closer to 20 and 250.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The Internship Arc's total size is slightly more than twice the size of the previous longest arc, for a total of 46 chapters, the arc dragged on through an entire year, which is to say a lot in a manga with very short and to-the-point arcs. Adopting the "flashback in the middle of fights" trope that this manga mostly avoids certainly made the fights longer than what's usual for the manga (some of which were chapters long). The author himself admitted near the end of the arc that it was too long and many fans were vocal that the arc, while good, overstayed its welcome.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** ''Manga/DragonBall'': Even before ''Dragon Ball Z'', the series had its fair share of filler and padding to avoid catching up to the source material, but it gets especially bad during the Red Ribbon Army saga, perhaps reaching its worst point in the General Blue portions, which include episodes where Goku and friends spend the whole time essentially running around in circles to escape a robot pirate, with certain shots and sequences of animation repeated over and over again. It all results in an arc that takes a lot longer to get through in the anime than it does in the manga.
** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': An example so infamous that they [[Anime/DragonBallZKai recut the series]] just to make it more palatable. In the original manga, the Frieza and Cell sagas are of the exact same length and ''both'' the longest arcs (the Buu Saga has more chapters than both, but they tend to be a lot shorter). The Cell Saga, however, gets off lighter than the Frieza Saga simply due to actually being able to ''change location/scenery''.
*** The Namek/Frieza Saga(s). While not the most blatant examples, they are by far the most (in)famous. Several of the episodes consisted of just characters speaking or flying from one place to another, with very few fight sequences to break it all up. One episode was just Bulma tricking two of Frieza's henchmen into looking for the Dragon Balls, which turned into a BizarroEpisode after the henchmen were gone since it had no impact on the saga's plot at all. "Are they still on Namek?" (the [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes original name for this trope]]) has become the standard {{meme|ticMutation}} when referring to any story arc that seems to be dragging on for too long. Lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' when Krillin randomly notes at one point that "We're ''still'' on Namek!" For reference, that was in the twenty-fourth episode, and they'd landed on Namek in the ''thirteenth'', while the entire Saiyan Saga was covered in ten episodes. For the record, the Frieza Saga clocked in at twenty episodes, the last of which was again not half as long, not twice as long, but ''triple'' the length of the regular [[Creator/TeamFourStar TFS]] parody episodes, which means they actually spent approximately ''22'' episodes on Namek. Keep in mind, this is an ''abridged'' series.
*** The Cell Games. Midway through [[http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/The_Horror_Won%27t_End episode 190]], Cell starts to charge up a Kamehameha. Following a flashback, Goku telepathically tells Gohan that he can still win this, and Gohan starts preparing his own Kamehameha. The two launch their attacks right at the beginning of the next episode--and are deadlocked for the ''entire episode''. Of course, this lasted one manga chapter too, only 14 pages aren't exactly the same as 22 minutes.
*** TFS' ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESDAXKC2418 Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged Episode 2]]'' managed to condense the Frieza Saga even further down to '''seven minutes in length'''... which is still around ''three'' times longer than DBZ Kai Abridged 1, which clocks in at two minutes and 10 seconds.
** The [[TournamentArc Universal Survival Arc]] from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', has been inconsistently hit with this. After a setup that took twenty episodes mostly spent gathering team members and watching the arena be built (for the former, the intro made Universe 7's whole lineup clear beforehand [[spoiler:except for Frieza replacing Buu]]), the actual tournament started and was initially well-received for its wild action and SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. However, as the tournament has gone on significantly longer than even the Future Trunks arc -- despite, [[InactionSequence in classic]] ''[[InactionSequence Dragon Ball]]'' [[InactionSequence fashion]], the tournament only lasting 48 minutes in-universe -- it's started to fall into fatigue territory. While some fans enjoy the unique battles and non-stop action, others have criticized many of the fights for being glorified {{Filler}} that lack plot progression or emotional impact. This reached a head when [[TheAce Jiren]] took prominence as the clear ArcVillain, doing away much of the tension and appeal of a [[TournamentArc Battle Royale]] since it's clear from early on that it will come down to a final battle between Jiren and Goku (in his latest new SuperMode) while the other battles just serve to waste time and whittle down the cast. Not helped at all by Jiren himself being a very divisive character for his [[FlatCharacter flat personality]], [[TheWorfEffect effortless]] defeating of multiple popular characters, and poorly-received FreudianExcuse.

* While the art and storytelling of ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has significantly improved following the manga's shift from ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' to ''[[{{Seinen}} Ultra Jump]]'', many can agree that it came at the cost of significantly dragging out the pace of it, due to ''Ultra Jump'' updating monthly instead of weekly. Case in point, the first ''seinen''-oriented arc, ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'', took seven years, two months, and 17 days to tell its story, compared to previous parts only taking two or three years[[note]]For the sake of reference, the longest installment before this was ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'' at three years and seven months, only a little over half the length of ''SBR''[[/note]], and many readers lamented the fact that ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]'' was in print for ''nearly a decade'' before it finally settled on who its BigBad was.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** The ''Yotsuba'' Arc drags on, with the investigation team trying to figure out who the Kira in the titular Yotsuba company is and part of the intense atmosphere is lost by [[spoiler: Light having forfeited his ownership of the Death Note as part of a MemoryGambit and hence has lost all memory of said Death Note, Ryuk or his being Kira]], which makes working alongside L not as thrilling as some readers might have thought.
** The rest of the manga after a TimeSkip is this, calling it the Near/Mello Arc, or a complete ''Myth Stall'' as it ranges over half of the manga and eventually ends it. Post-Time Skip, Light is the de facto leader of the investigation team [[spoiler:after L's death]] and the new opposites are Near and Mello, {{Suspiciously Similar Substitute}}s of L and neither quite reaches the intense rivalry between them and Light that the latter had with L. Coupling this with GambitPileup after Gambit Pileup and feeling like even ''Light'' has lost the desire to really do his job as Kira and you have a prolonged discussion of trying to outsmart the other which doesn't come to full circle until the last 10 chapters, by which point the reader might be extremely bored. Ironic as the series was originally written as a TakeThat towards dragged-out storylines, something author Tsugumi Ohba identifies as a PetPeeveTrope.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
** The SchoolFestival got its third day of "dates with Negi" cut in favor of the Battle For Mahora. At least in this case, there was a TournamentArc thrown in the middle for variety. Akamatsu had realized the arc was starting to drag and decided to drop a few mini-arcs on the tail end to avoid making the problem worse.
** The Magical World arc may have dragged on more than needed as well. It finally ended, taking nearly ''half'' the manga's run to complete. It did solve a lot of loose plot ends at least.
* ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' suffers from this by the final world, [[spoiler: The Original Clow Country]]. It doesn't help that the story is one gigantic ContinuitySnarl with a very interwoven plot.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''. Endless Eight. ''Eight episodes'' of the exact same events with minor variations, adapted out of a single short story. Especially since the novels' "Endless Eight" only concerned one particular time loop (the last one), and was about at most 30 pages. Eight episodes equals almost three hours. This angered fans who wanted an epic six-episode ''Disappearance'' adaption (adapted out of a single ''novel'')... The latter did come out as a feature-length movie, however: [[UpToEleven the second-longest animated feature ever created, at 2 hours 43 minutes in length!]] (One minute shorter than ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Final Yamato]]'').
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': "Is Raoh ''still'' alive?" Raoh's second battle with Kenshiro (which came after several near-death experiences for Raoh and several chapters' worth of what felt like padding) felt climactic and final, and Raoh's escape and continued survival for another ~10 chapters after ''that'' raised the story arc's EndingFatigue to new heights. ''Then'' in volume 24. BigBad's gone, everything resolved, story's over, right? Wrong.
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': The ''Baile de la Muerte'' arc. It wrapped up at 33 chapters out of 76 total, and nearly four years of real-world time passed before the arc was over. It was also such a massive, confusing GambitPileup that even the series creator admitted it was dragging. Not a new trend, however, because previously ''Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise'' did the same at 16 out of 37 chapters. ''Baile de la Muerte'' is still more infamous among fans of the series, because immediately following the arc's conclusion, the manga was hit with ScheduleSlip.
* Two simultaneous battles taking place in ''Manga/{{Guyver}}'' last ten entire books with little else going on. For comparison, the first book covered the hero's birth, death, resurrection, and initial defeat of the Chronos Corporation.
* In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', 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 only used for five minutes before being destroyed.
* ''Anime/UltimateMuscle'' is being ''horrible'' with this with the Time Travel arc. Said arc has been going on for over five years now and has gone on for more than 160 chapters. To put it in context, Yude has spent more time on one tournament arc than any other arc previously.
* In ''Manga/SweetBlueFlowers'', there's this whole deal with Fumi's confession to Akira. Since the relationship between the girls is central to the story, this arc is stalled immensely, mostly by having a confused Akira run around in circles.
** The first SchoolFestival arc also drags on much longer than necessary.
** And then there's the whole story about Kyouko and Kou's engagement, which mainly seems to serve to show that Kyouko is [[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitchLesbians not lesbian after all]]]].
* The Chimera Ants arc in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', although it seems worse than it is due to constant SeriesHiatus. The arc has lasted 132 chapters, but in real time took over ''nine years''--the manga was only six years old when it started.
* The Asgard arc in ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. One of the main appeals of ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' is that the fights, while epic, would last about one episode with a couple of exceptions. The problem with the Asgard arc is that every fight consisted of one of the Saints encountering a God Warrior, fight for about three episodes, the God Warrior gives a backstory and it repeats all over again. One fight in particular lasts four episodes. Ratings dropped so much that the series was CutShort with the comparatively short Poseidon Saga and the no Hades Saga until years later. Unsurprisingly, this is the one arc that is 100% [[{{filler}} anime-only]].
* One single fight on the ''Manga/{{NEEDLESS}}'' anime takes '''nine''' episodes out of 24.
* The {{backstory}} arc of ''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta'' takes up '''six''' volumes out of a total 17. Usually, backstory arcs take up a few chapters and it does give readers some background to some characters, but that particular arc drags on ''way longer'' than it should have been.
* ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest'' had a very, very, {{squick}}y arc fatigue when [[spoiler: Ms. Aoshika was horrifically gang-raped by Haguro and his {{yakuza}} for nearly 18 chapters]].
* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** For a manga that is generally good at keeping its arcs at a short length without rushing them, the series has the Grand Magic Games arc, which is over 70 chapters long. The first part of the arc (which is, essentially, about the Fairy Tail world's equivalent of the Olympic Games) was not too bad with most games and fights usually only lasting somewhere in-between a half chapter and two chapters. However, the final day of the Games keeps going for over 20 chapters. Meanwhile, several of the 20 chapters are spent on a side-plot about Natsu and his friends who are captured in the royal castle. They do almost nothing but fighting CannonFodder soldiers and executioners who just keep returning only to get beaten again.
** The arc dealing with the last dark guild standing Tartaros is also accused of this, despite generally being considered one of the best arcs in the story, for specifically two points near the end. The first is the countdown of [[TheMagicGoesAway Face]]. We start with it seemingly getting destroyed about 10 chapters after it emerges, only to reveal 3000 more and initiate another countdown that actually reaches 0, then we go back 20 minutes before this and have several chapters ultimately leading to the same chapter ending as when it went off just to keep the cliffhanger...[[spoiler:and it's destroyed by the Dragon Slayers' long-lost parents just as it goes off]]. The second is the way the chapters juggled through several concurrent fights, often without significant progression in all but one that the chapter would end on.
** The GrandFinale, the Alvarez Empire arc, lasted 107 chapters in all.
* ''Manga/{{MAR}}'', the anime version has this problem not because of the length of the filler arcs per se, but because they threw so many at the most incorrect moments. It goes like this; [[spoiler: Snow is captured near the end of Round 6, Ginta wants to rescue her but first must fight Ian, okay fair enough. THEN they prepare to leave but Phantom shows up and says they need to do the final round first. Okay, fine, so they go through the Gate of Training, which turns into a filler arc about the cast being sent to an illusion of Tokyo created from Ginta's memories, THEN they get back and some minor villains from way back when are causing trouble so they have to deal with that, THEN the final round starts and goes on for a while, then once Phantom is beaten, they need a special ÄRM to get them to the castle to rescue Snow, which leads to a filler episode about hunting down the Referee of the tournament, then two more episodes about fixing Babbo who broke in the battle against Phantom and THEN one more episode about Ian for no reason. The ultimate irony is it only actually takes them 1 episode to rescue Snow. But due to so much unnecessary filler padding, it goes on forever. Snow is captured in Episode 58 and not rescued until freaking Episode 84!]].
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has usually been good with preventing arcs from lasting too long, but...
** Even if some arcs kind of dragged out, none were able to reach the level of hair-tearing stalemate of the World War Arc - which took nearly three years to tell the story of a day and a half, where two of those years were spent telling the story of a single battle which was presumably a few hours long. The first part is problematic enough, but the real nugget is that last battle, and particularly its pacing. The entirety of it is a tug-of-war marathon, with each side countering the other side with increasingly effective techniques that have very few lasting consequences. The villain takes forever to finally go through all their gambits, absolute defenses, [[BreakThemByTalking psychological warfare tracts]], tragic flashbacks and final forms, and when they do - which would usually mark the end of the battle in any sane universe - the battle segues into [[spoiler:two more battles of this exact same kind, back to back, with absolutely no letup and plenty of MythArc [[RetCon retcons]] about how everything has gone AllAccordingToPlan for various people, one of whom we didn't even know existed until three chapters before]]. When the manga finally emerges, wheezing, at the other end of this ordeal - all the villains are dead, everyone's exhausted and all the loose ends seem to be wrapped up - [[spoiler:Sasuke promptly declares his intent to take over the world in order to reform the shinobi system, ''finally'' triggering the long-awaited final battle between him and Naruto]]. Oh, and to top it off, the anime has been inserting {{Filler}} left, right, and center in the absolute worst spots in the plot in order to keep the CashCowFranchise flowing.
** The anime has the Three-Tails filler arc. It contains some ideas that would make for an interesting three or four episodes but instead goes on for an exasperating 23 episodes.
** The original anime had the lengthy Filler-arc, which is technically dozens of small filler arcs and episodes right after each other. Now, a few filler episodes here and there doesn't hurt. But when the last 80+ episodes in the series are all Filler... It starts to get a bit jarring. Even the final arc, which ends with Naruto and Jiraiya leaving to train isn't even canon, but it does set things up for his return in the first episode of Shippuuden.
* ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' suffered from this during the climax of the [[WizardingSchool Magnostadt Academy]] arc where the continued use of the WorfBarrage [[{{Padding}} stalls]] the battle against the [[BossBattle Medium]] for the sole purpose of gathering every major character introduced in the story so far. Despite the increase of noteworthy people in the area, the Medium is no closer to being defeated now than it was fifteen chapters ago, and was finally defeated moments after the last two primary characters, Hakuryuu and Judar, entered the fray.
* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
** ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' dragged the Hell out when [[spoiler: the D-Reaper showed up in Tokyo, kidnapped Juri, trapped Culumon with her inside, and started spreading]]. Several episodes were dedicated to complicated research, lots of TechnoBabble, introducing new characters, [[spoiler: Juri]] angsting nonstop ([[BreakTheCutie not without reason]], but the narration stretched it to tedious levels), etc. And it keeps going, and going, and going, without any real developments...
** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' suffered from this with the appearance of the Royal Knights. Most of the Digidestined were sidelined in favor of Takuya and Koji, and each encounter with the Knights ended with the Digidestined being defeated, with some angsting from Koichi. Thankfully, the introduction of [[BigBad Lucemon]] ended this pattern.
* ''Manga/BlackButler'' and its various arcs just seem to get longer as the manga goes on, with the two initial arcs of ''Jack the Ripper'' and the ''Circus Arc'' ranging from short to decently long without getting annoying. The problems began later on.
** The ''Campagnia Ship Arc'' was long, although it did reveal some twists, important characters and their [[CharacterDevelopment development]] and began a potential long-running background plot, so the length could be excused.
** The ''Weston College Arc'' was the beginning of a downfall. The arc was long and took place in a school, bringing a lot of boring chores that generally were not found in the manga before, and involved a sub-plot to reveal a BitchInSheepsClothing which many fans think could've been cut without impacting the important mission Ciel had been given upon infiltrating the school. The kicker came when the mission was stalled to involve a TournamentArc in the middle of it - once again, it was necessary to advance the plot but prolonged the arc to the point of the reader getting exhausted.
** The ''Werewolf Arc'' in Germany is a mixture. The arc took around 20 chapters to complete, which sounds like very little, but was longer than the previous arcs and several chapters felt like nothing was going anywhere.
** The currently on-going ''Blue Cult'' arc. Ciel infiltrated originally because Lizzie had gone missing, and it involved some wackiness in the sense that the P4 from the Weston arc are now an idol group, but with sinister on-goings behind the titular cult's original means. Ciel creates a rival idol group called the Phantom 5 to expose the cult more, then the arc has begun to divert into a different plot-thread, including [[spoiler:the death of Agni]] and the revelation of [[spoiler:the 'true' Ciel Phantomhive returning, revealing that the 'Ciel' we've been following is his twin brother, having taken the name and identity of Ciel]]. After the latest revelation, the arc has devolved into multiple Flashback chapters detailing [[spoiler:the twins' life and]] how the events of the ritual that summoned Sebastian came into being. Interesting, but definitely feeling like a big side-track.
* The "Fall Classic" arc of ''Manga/FoodWars'' lasted for more than 50 chapters, with the preliminaries spending 10 chapters or so to highlight the dishes made by numerous side characters (whom very few readers care about) and its subsequent judging. The main tournament itself contains 7 individual matches, each spanning at least five chapters, that by the time the finals come around, most readers have gotten tired of it and want the plot to move on already.
** Surpassing the "Fall Classic" arc is the Central saga which lasted for 131 chapters, two and a half years in RealLife.
** The final Les Cuisinier Noir/BLUE Tournament Arc was 51 chapters long. As the plot progressed, the author began to skip too many rounds and the main Soma vs Asahi round was needlessly increased to 8 chapters. Rather than focusing on the cooking, the Arc is mostly dedicated towards [[TheScrappy Asahi's]] antics and Erina's parental issues.
* The Washizu Mahjong arc of ''Manga/{{Akagi}}'' started in 1997 and ended when the manga did, in 2019. The manga had started in 1992 and run for three arcs before that one. A single game lasting a single night lasted for '''22 years'''. The last round of the last match ''alone'' took five years to write, with one issue coming out every month. They take seven months just to draw all the tiles to start the round.
* ''Marvel Anime: Wolverine'':
** The series is only 12 episodes long; one entire episode is ''just'' Wolverine fighting Omega Red; the fight spills over into the start of the next episode; and Omega Red ''still'' comes back at the end of that next episode.
** The entire second half of the series is built around Wolverine going to the island of Madipoor, where the Big Bad has set up his base. There's a full three episodes (that's ''a quarter of the entire series'') between Wolverine arriving on Madripoor and actually going to fight the Big Bad. These episodes were spent building dull and completely irrelevant characters, side-plots that are uninteresting and have little payoff, and a filler episode where Wolverine has to rescue Yukio.
** ''Wolverine'' wasn't the only ''Marvel Anime'' series to suffer from this: the ''X-Men'' series completely switches plot lines halfway through the series, so a good 3 or so straight episodes are just ''solid exposition'' while nothing really happens. Again: 12 episodes ''total''.
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': The ''Golem arc'' is known for being a very slogging read to get through since a good chunk of it is focused on Jaco's past, his being killed, the fight with the berserk golem and finally Jaco coming back to finish the battle with his newfound power. Did not help that this was meant to be in between a TournamentArc
** The final battle against Hao in the manga likewise wound up being this since it had the character being forced to fight the Patch Tribe before finally reaching him. Not helped at all that the manga had been cancelled before the group could finally reach him. The pacing did get a tad better once it was UnCanceled though.
* ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' has the Dream Ranker arc. The first half consists of two mini-arcs and bits of filler that have barely anything to do with the main plot of the arc. In fact, the actual plot doesn't really start until the arc's halfway point.

** The ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' arc lasted nearly fifty issues, or a year and a half in real time. By the end, even people who had liked the premise were pretty tired of Spider-Man acting like a jerk and [[IdiotPlot normally competent characters completely failing to notice Spidey was acting nothing like himself]] [[spoiler:due to being [[GrandTheftMe possessed]] by Dr. Octopus]].

* ComicBook/DarkReign, Dark Reign, ''Dark freakin' Reign!'' Hope you liked the patently ludicrous idea of America willingly giving ComicBook/NormanOsborn complete control, because ''every'' issue of ''every'' Marvel book in 2009 dealt with nothing but how Norman Osborn controls the world.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} was killed off because ''[[Series/LoisAndClark Lois and Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman]]'' was in production and the executives wanted to have them marry at the same time in both media leading to a stalled marriage arc. This led to ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' which, if you include the return, ran over a year generating huge sales and leading the writers to run long event arcs for the remainder of the decade at which point the fans were finally tired of it.

** ''ComicBook/TitansHunt'' was a complex and long story. It began with their members being kidnapped and ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} hired to rescue them. Then we get a new villain society, a cheap Wolverine expy, a flying sheet, an unneeded trip to Russia, ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} turned into a complete robot, a new team of Titans from the future trying to kill [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Troia]], and so on, and so on…

* CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' ended up falling into this. The main reason was that ''ComicBook/TrinityWar'', an event DC had been shilling for over a year, turned out to merely be a lead-in to Forever Evil. Add in a generally sluggish pace magnified by the main series being delayed - the 7th issue came three months after the 6th - and you've got readers making a ''lot'' of jokes about the title.

** [[ComicBook/UncannyXMen The Last Will and Testament of Charles Xavier]], which is tied in to the ComicBook/OriginalSin event, has not only run longer than the event itself but has ''also'' overrun both the Death of Wolverine ''and'' ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'', though it seems to finally have an end... just before ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''.

* The second book in the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series was based on the idea that the second year of Tribulation would be completely uneventful. The worst part is that, according to the authors' eschatology, the tribulation doesn't even begin until near the very end of the book. The book is mostly spent on {{Romantic Plot Tumor}}s and other pointless diversions.
** The entire series has stretches of this, due to the fact that it was extended from 12 books to 16. Not impressed? [[UpToEleven The original plan for the series was THREE books.]]
* Literature/LightAndDarkTheAwakeningOfTheMageKnight: The 'normal school' arc in the beginning dragged on and on until the 8th chapter. It served its purpose, introducing the characters, in the first. One can only assume Daniel Fife wanted [[AudienceSurrogate to make sure the reader identified with Protagonist Danny.]]
* Literature/{{The Black Magician|Trilogy}} series seems to have a problem with this, particularly in the second book, Novice. Most of the over 500 pages consist of a bog-standard bullying story. The overarching plot only makes an appearance halfway through, and then only in the form of a hostage situation that remains at a perfect standstill both when it comes to understanding motivations and resolving the situation until the epilogue. By contrast, there is another subplot in Novice that consists of a scavenger hunt across the world, a budding romance and a major character development and exploration of the character and the politics of the world that is given 50 or so pages to develop, flashing by on one or a couple of pages in between dozens of pages of yet more bullying and blackmail.

* The original FingerpokeOfDoom was hard to swallow; it reset the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] storyline back to where it was in 1996. No wonder it was the beginning of the end for the Wrestling/{{WCW}}.

* And lest you think that the original Wrestling/{{ECW}} gets a clean slate from this, it doesn't. Two notable feuds that went on way past their expiration date (even if they did result in some still good matches) were Wrestling/MikeAwesome's ridiculous amount of "We got nothin' else booked so just go out there and wrestle Wrestling/MasatoTanaka with tables and chairs again" matches, and the absurdly long-standing Wrestling/TommyDreamer vs Wrestling/{{Raven}} feud that still never actually did quite end, or, at least, only ended just long enough for it to be [[Wrestling/VinceRusso revived]] when they both went to Wrestling/{{TNA}}.

* Wrestling/{{TNA}}'s monster masked wrestler Abyss, portrayed by Chris Parks, was attacked after a match in January 2012 and disappeared from the show. In March his identically-built brother Joseph Park showed up on the show looking for him. Joseph's search for his brother and supposed legal training allowed him to get involved in a few storylines and he eventually went to wrestling school and was able to compete in matches (albeit poorly due to his mild manner and lack of experience). However, after suffering enough punishment or getting cut open he would [[BerserkButton Hulk out]] and/or perform his brother's finishing move. This went on for almost two years until December 2013 and the [[AssPull not so shocking swerve]] that Abyss and Joseph were the same person. Not only had all but the dimmest viewers known or at least suspected this for months but it effectively meant that Chris Parks had been forced to wrestle [[StylisticSuck badly]] for an extended period of time for a character whose potential would never be maximized. It didn't help that it was a combination of Kaz, Daniels, and Eric Young who worked out the secret since they were not exactly portrayed as the brightest members of the roster.

* The feud between Wrestling/{{Charlotte}} and Wrestling/SashaBanks has been received this way by plenty of people. While neither of them are bad, WWE decided that what they needed to give the new-look Women's Division and new Women's Championship legitimacy was to have a long, great rivalry. Unfortunately, they went about it in a very forced and hamfisted way that only made many fans sick of the angle, with many directly comparing it to a compressed version of the Cena/Orton rivalry above. All-in-all, the angle lasted (with a bit of on-and-off here and there) somewhere in the ballpark of ''16 months'', featured many "first time ever" matches like the first women's Hell in a Cell match for no real reason aside from being able to promote it was the first time ever, and worst of all, featured the new Women's Title hot-potatoeing back and forth between the two so often that they each racked up a number of title reigns in this span of a little more than a year that even many legitimately legendary wrestlers never touch in their entire careers ironically did much more to hamper the title's legitimacy than it did to build it, as well as the fact that the feud was so prominent for so long that it became a SpotlightStealingSquad, all of the other women on the show were DemotedToExtra, and ironically did more harm than good to the division as a whole. The fact that the feud was mostly one-sided in Charlotte's favor, with most of the hot-potatoeing being Sasha winning the title and then almost immediately losing it back to Charlotte, also did the new title no favors.

* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' fell into this hard thanks to ScheduleSlip, which is frustrating since the source material ended two years before the abridged series even began. Creator/LittleKuriboh started abridging the Battle City arc in 2007, and did not finish that arc until '''2014''', by which time, even he had forgotten some of the {{Running Gag}}s that ''he made up''. (He later {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this.) Keep in mind that the [[Anime/YuGiOh anime]] ran from 2000 to 2004, meaning that [[UpToEleven it took longer to abridge a single arc than it did to broadcast the whole original series!]] And there are still two seasons to go...

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. Ash is no closer to being a Pokémon Master than he was back during the first season, despite [[NotAllowedToGrowUp still being 10 years old]]; some say that he looks ''younger'' than when he started. It doesn't help that with each new arc he hits a ResetButton on his team, his Pikachu's level, and his own experience as a trainer. [[spoiler:Even after Ash finally shed the label of "[[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut perennial choker]]" with a long-awaited tournament win in October 2019--'''''22 years''''' after the show started--it doesn't seemed to have helped. Of course, the anime will probably keep going for as long as the franchise is popular.]]

* A common criticism of ComicBook/XMen is that the mutants are no closer to their dream of normal/mutant equality than when they started. And whenever they do come close--say, the time in the early 2000s when an influx of mutants went public and the books started to explore what it actually means to be a minority--the ResetButton gets hit ''[[ComicBook/HouseOfM hard]]''. They come close again after ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', where they're getting a lot more support overall and Cyclops has been getting Hero Worship because of using the Phoenix to nearly solve world hunger, stabilize the climate, and force peace between warring nations. However, the ResetButton was hit yet again with the divisive ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen''.

* The ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': Ever since the end of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', the franchise took ''six'' years to set up the confrontation between the heroes and ComicBook/{{Thanos}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''; ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'', ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' and ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' all have subplots leading to the long-awaited battle. Needless to say, there were quite a few fans (and critics) who felt that the Thanos Myth Arc had been going on for way too long, and just wished it would finally happen so they could be done with it. Downplayed in that the aforementioned films mostly focused on major conflicts separate from the Thanos arc, with the ''Infinity War'' tie-ins being more fanservice than anything else.

** Lampshaded ''again'' when Problem Sleuth writes a StronglyWordedLetter containing the phrase "and where do you get off being so difficult anyway, we spent more than half the game fighting you".

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series has the Tales of Ash arc, which started in ''2003'' ([[CaptainObvious which was released in 2003]]), continued with ''XI'' (released in late 2005 for Japanese arcades before heading to the [=PS2=] the following year) and only ended in ''XIII'' (2010 for arcades, 2011 for consoles). Doing the math reveals that the arc basically lasted for ''seven-to-eight years''. Compare that to the Orochi and NESTS arcs, each of which lasted for three years. [[note]]''[='94=]'' doesn't count, as that's its own self-contained story, and neither do ''[='98=]'', ''2002'' and ''XII'' due to the former two being non-canon {{Dream Match Game}}s and the latter being an ObviousBeta.[[/note]] This could be explained by Creator/{{SNK}} opting to abandon doing yearly installments on account of the growing costs of game development as well as wanting to jump ship to the Atomiswave hardware for their games [[note]]that, and the whole mess involving their bankruptcy in 2000-2001, but that's another story[[/note]]. Not helping matters was the fact that its star protagonist Ash was quite a polarizing figure not just due to his flamboyant personality [[note]]even more so than [[CampStraight Benimaru]]![[/note]], but also due to him inflicting TheWorfEffect on the likes of Chizuru and Iori ''and'' [[BroughtDownToNormal stealing their powers]] (forcing Chizuru to go back to CommutingOnABus [[note]]her last playable appearance prior to ''2003'' was ''[='98=]'', whereas her last canonical appearance was ''[='97=]''[[/note]] and Iori's moveset to undergo significant changes in ''XII'' and ''XIII''), not to mention being outright billed as a VillainProtagonist, meaning that fans were getting outright fed up with him. That said, [[spoiler:[[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap many were willing to forgive him for his actions in the end]] when ''XIII'' revealed that he was in fact a GoodAllAlong GuileHero who did what he did in order to protect his sister figure Elisabeth, even going as far as to pull a HeroicSacrifice to erase the BigBad of the arc--his very own ancestor--from existence]].

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' managed to take two seemingly unrelated subplots and drag them out into [[VideoGameLongRunners a decades-long]] narrative slog. In ''KOF '99'', Chinese esper [[VideoGame/PsychoSoldier Sie Kensou]] [[BroughtDownToNormal mysteriously loses his psychic abilities]], only to learn they're linked to a hitherto unknown power shared between him and his teammate Bao: the Dragon Spirit. After these powers subconsciously manifest within Kensou in order to save Athena, he later makes a vow at the end of the arc to master them. Meanwhile, ''2000'' sees the introduction of Lin, a mysterious member of Hizoku (a clan of Chinese assassins) who has entered the tournament to find leads on Ron, the former head of Hizoku who betrayed his kin to join [[NebulousEvilOrganisation the NESTS cartel]]. Ron himself appears as a [[AssistCharacter Striker]] for Zero, the sub-boss of ''2001'', and both he and Lin disappear following the defeat of [[FinalBoss Igniz]] in the same game. ''2003'' then introduces players to Duo Lon, another Hizoku assassin and one of Ron's numerous sons, who joins KOF to do some reconnaissance of his own regarding his father. The next installment, ''XI'', has Kensou return from his training with newfound mastery over the Dragon Spirit--a development noticed by [[VillainTakesAnInterest an approving Ron]], who is now joined by a small group of supporters including the aforementioned Lin and Misty (Igniz's lover). While this takes a backseat to Ash's enigmatic nature and the machinations of Those From the Past (a cult seeking to unseal {{Orochi}}, the BigBad of ''KOF''[='s=] first arc), the main antagonist of ''XIII'' cryptically alludes to Ron in his pre-fight dialogue with Duo Lon, presumably setting the stage for Ron to take up the ArcVillain mantle in the future. Flash-forward to ''XIV'', released in 2016 ([[SequelGap roughly six years after its predecessor]])... and this is completely dropped for a story that is largely divorced from anything else that has happened up to that point, with Kensou in his usual comic relief role and the Hizoku [[PutOnABus nowhere in sight]]. Fans are no closer to having any questions on the matter [[labelnote:ex.]]What exactly is the Dragon Spirit? Why is Ron interested in it? How does he know about it at all? Is this connected to his defection from the Hizoku clan? Is the Dragon Spirit connected to Orochi somehow?[[/labelnote]] answered than they were back at the TurnOfTheMillennium.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has its first two volumes InMediasRes, with Griffith turned to TheDarkSide as Femto and an enraged Guts wanting Femto's head. Several years and volumes of flashback later, Guts begins setting off on a quest to restore Casca to sanity. This was in 1997. He only arrived at the place to restore Casca in September 2016, and finally managed to do it in February 2018, more than twenty years later. Of course, that's not nearly as long as it sounds ''chapter''-wise, but an insanely detailed art style led to [[ScheduleSlip a very slow and irregular release schedule]]. There have been only about 300 chapters total since the series started back in '''1990'''. And with [[AuthorExistenceFailure the death of the manga's author in May 2021]], the story stopped cold right then and there.

* WWE's controversial Invasion arc, which technically kicked off when Wresting/ShaneMcMahon (in {{Kayfabe}}) bought out WCW in April of 2001 through to Survivor Series in November of that year likely counts, largely due to how the majority of former WCW and ECW talent weren't pushed. The initial concept seemed somewhat meaningless towards the end, where Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and Wrestling/KurtAngle, [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] and Wrestling/ChrisJericho were feuding with each other, all of whom were with the WWE at the start of the arc.

** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' started out with a number of fairly quick arcs that led into each other: the initial "escape from Satellite" arc, which lasts around five, the prison arc, which goes for seven, and the Fortune Cup arc, a tournament that is introduced in episode 13 and concludes in episode 26. The following episode introduces the Dark Signers, which lasts for around 48 episodes, but is still paced fairly well and has a lot happening. Then the following episode introduces the concept of the WRGP, another, grander-scale tournament, as well as the larger conspiracy of Yliaster... and then spends 33 episodes more or less spinning its wheels, hopping between one-off MonsterOfTheWeek episodes, plot points that [[AbortedArc go absolutely nowhere]], a whole six-episode arc dedicated to resolving a minor character's story, and minimal development of the actual ongoing narrative; you could cut the whole thing down to about five episodes and not be confused in the slightest when the actual tournament starts in episode 98. And then the WRGP Arc lasted another 39 episodes, which, due to the tournament's structure, consisted mainly of several ''very'' overlong Duels (the shortest one is a two-parter, the second-shortest is a four-parter, and two of them are ''seven''-parters), when prior Duels rarely went above two episodes in length and only one of the Duels (barring the attack on the city that takes place outside the tournament) is actually seriously tied in with the ongoing plot. Not helping matters at all is that the tournament's format also meant that pretty much [[SpotlightStealingSquad only three main characters ever get any Duels]], and nearly every match is ultimately won by local InvincibleHero Yusei. And if that wasn't enough, this ''still'' doesn't fully resolve the plot of Yliaster, leading to a further fifteen-episode arc. So that's a total of 87 episodes, more than half the show, that was dedicated to a single storyline that could likely have been wrapped up in less than half that.

** The WRGP/ZONE/Yliaster/whatever arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' takes this to a new extreme -- unlike the fairly paced Fortune Cup arc (26 episodes) and Dark Signer arc (38 episodes), it drags on unbelievably -- Episode 65 introduces the audience to the W.R.G.P. {{tournament|Arc}}, but the actual tournament doesn't start until episode 98, and it doesn't end until episode 137, 73 [[SeasonalRot whole episodes.]] And since the Ark Cradle arc that immediately follows it resolves the plot that started in it, you can add its 14 episodes for a whopping 87 episodes from start to finish.

* ComicBook/DarkReign, Dark Reign, Dark Reign! Hope you liked the patently ludicrous idea of America willingly giving ComicBook/NormanOsborn complete control, because ''every'' issue of ''every'' Marvel book in 2009 dealt with nothing but how Norman Osborn controls the world.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' was supposed to be five years long, but author Eiichiro Oda having fun with the plot stalled the bigger story's progression. A lot. Since the story's debut in 1997, Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates aren't much closer to finding the One Piece than when they started. While there have been hints, there's not only been any answer as to where the One Piece even is, there's been no answer as to ''what'' it even is. No wonder so many people have CommitmentAnxiety when it comes to this series. Consider the infamous case of Fishman Island, probably one of the most anticipated arcs of the story. Around 2001 or so, a fan asked if it would ever feature in the story. Oda's response: "Soon". ''Six'' years later, the Straw Hats set sail with Fishman Island as their next destination[[note]]it's revealed to be the last place in the first half of the Grand Line, which you ''have'' to pass through to get to the New World or else go through the freaking capital of the World Government[[/note]], only to spend a year's worth of story on what boils down to a side trip. Then, they're finally one stop away from the elusive underwater island, all they need to do is finish preparations... and the story gets epically sidetracked yet again. The focus was off of the Straw Hat crew in favor of just Luffy, showing his backstory and a desire to get stronger. In late 2010, the Straw Hats ''finally'' made it to Fishman Island, nine years after Oda's proclamation that they would arrive "soon."

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' ran for twelve years. And from years three to eleven, the story progressed so slowly, it basically ''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 two-thirds of the chapters could be removed from the story's middle section, and the overall narrative wouldn't be impacted ''at all''; most of what wasn't just repeating itself in that time frame was relatively brief.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has its first two volumes InMediasRes, with Griffith turned to TheDarkSide as Femto and an enraged Guts. Several years and volumes of flashback later, and Guts begins setting off on a quest to restore Casca to sanity. This was in 1997. He only just arrived in September 2016. Of course, that's not nearly as long as it sounds ''chapter''-wise, but an insanely detailed art style has led to [[ScheduleSlip a very slow and irregular release schedule]]. There have been only about 300 chapters ''total'' since the series started back in '''1990'''.
** Casca's sanity, broken in chapter 86, was finally restored in chapter 354, published in February 2018, and later included in Volume 40.

-->'''Lisa''': ''Squirrel Prophet'' ended on ''February 13''. Of ''2015''.\\

* Rey's family background dominates her story arc for the entire ''Franchise/StarWars'' sequel trilogy (2015 - 2019). ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' establishes that Rey was abandoned by her parents on Jakku for unclear reasons. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', Rey and the audience are confronted with the knowledge that her parents were junk traders who sold her for drinking money and are irrelevant to the story, rather than anyone important. Creator/RianJohnson (writer/director of ''The Last Jedi'') said learning she was "nobody" was the most devastating answer Rey could get, but that she could now move on, which seemed to close this arc. ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' instead reopens it by abruptly revealing that Rey is actually [[spoiler: the granddaughter of Palpatine]]. Lots of viewers found this frustrating, both because it comes off as an AssPull and has [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks already been done]] in ''Star Wars'' (and elsewhere), and because they wanted Rey's story to focus on other things, such as her Jedi training. And there are ''still'' unanswered questions around her heritage by the end. Rey's actress Creator/DaisyRidley later revealed there [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants wasn't a concrete plan]] for Rey's heritage and the answer kept changing between films – even during the filming of ''The Rise of Skywalker'' writer/director Creator/JJAbrams wasn't fully committed to [[spoiler:Palpatine being Rey's grandfather]].

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]