History Main / ArcFatigue

* ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'': The Moon arc takes up 70% of the manga's runtime and was full of moments the fandom were not fans of, from [[spoiler:the focus on Aechmea and Cairngrom's [[{{Squick}} uncomfortable]] relationship]] to the very slow reveal of the Moon Prince's plans, involving quite a few [[RedHerring red herrings]]. The slow pace was exacerbated by the series going on hiatus multiple times during the Moon arc, including a two-year hiatus that is seen as killing off most of the series' hype.

* The Chimera Ant 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.

** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire Battle Frontier]]''': 60 episodes. Inverted in that most of the filler is in the beginning, leading to a faster pace with the rest of the arc.

** Speaking of Roman Reigns, he has somehow surpassed Brock's aforementioned reign by almost twice as much. As of February 2023, Roman has held the Universal title for over '''900''' days, more than any other wrestler in modern history. What compounds this is that Roman is the ''undisputed'' champion, meaning he holds both the Universal ''and'' WWE Championships. After finally performing a much anticipated FaceHeelTurn and aligning himself with Wrestling/PaulHeyman, Roman won the Universal title at ''Summerslam 2020'' in a Triple Threat match between him, Bray "The Fiend" Wyatt and Braun Strowman. He would then recruit his cousins, Wrestling/TheUsos (Who like Roman, are the Undisputed Tag Team Champions), to solidify and maintain his position and dubbed himself "The Head of the Table". Roman would beat every opponent that tried to face him; Wrestling/KevinOwens, Wrestling/{{Edge}}, Wrestling/BryanDanielson, Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre, Wrestling/JohnCena, and even the aforementioned Wrestling/BrockLesnar. His feuds with Lesnar were particularly egregious as they had fought a total of ''three'' times during this reign, including at Wrestlemania 38 where Roman beat him to unify the titles. Like Lesnar, Roman would make fewer appearances on weekly television, leaving both RAW and Smackdown without a top title to compete for until Roman decided to work. Things then got even more egregious when NXT’s Solo Sikoa was called up to the roster to act as even more muscle for Roman, debuting in a match against [=McIntyre=] to screw him over. While many fans have enjoyed this historic run, the general consensus is that Roman has become an InvincibleVillain and are desperately waiting for someone to beat him for at least ''one'' of the titles so that there can be another top title to compete for.

** Speaking of Roman Reigns, he has somehow surpassed Brock's aforementioned reign by almost twice as much. As of February 2023, Roman has held the Universal title for over '''900''' days, more than any other wrestler in modern history. What compounds this is that Roman is the ''undisputed'' champion, meaning he holds both the Universal ''and'' WWE Championships. After finally performing a much anticipated FaceHeelTurn and aligning himself with Wrestling/PaulHeyman, Roman won the Universal title at ''Summerslam 2020'' in a Triple Threat match between him, Bray "The Fiend" Wyatt and Braun Strowman. He would then recruit his cousins, Wrestling/TheUsos (Who like Roman, are the Undisputed Tag Team Champions), to solidify and maintain his position and dubbed himself "The Head of the Table". Roman would beat every opponent that tried to face him; Wrestling/KevinOwens, Wrestling/{{Edge}}, Wrestling/BryanDanielson, Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre, Wrestling/JohnCena, and even the aforementioned Wrestling/BrockLesnar. His feuds with Lesnar were particularly egregious as they had fought a total of ''three'' times during this reign, including at Wrestlemania 38 where Roman beat him to unify the titles. Like Lesnar, Roman would make fewer appearances on weekly television, leaving both RAW and Smackdown without a top title to compete for until Roman decided to work. While many fans have enjoyed this historic run, the general consensus is that Roman has become an InvincibleVillain and are desperately waiting for someone to beat him for at least ''one'' of the titles so that there can be another top title to compete for.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has Aleister Crowley and Lola Stuart being set up early on as main villains. In the first series -- 22 books long, not counting side stories or other material -- their plans aren't actually revealed, with only a few hints as to what they might be. These are only revealed in Book 18 of the second series.

** [[spoiler:After 25 real-life years, Ash's adventures finally come to a head in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. He becomes recognized as one of the eight strongest Trainers in the world within the World Coronation Series, and ultimately ends up ''beating the undefeated Monarch Leon in the finals'', dethroning him and taking the title of Monarch for himself, thus now officially being recognized as [[WorldsBestWarrior the strongest Trainer in the world]]. An 11-episode special series will mark Ash's final chapter into becoming a Pokémon Master (aptly titled ''[[Anime/PokemonAimToBeAPokemonMaster Pokémon: Aim to Be a Pokémon Master]]'').]]

** 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.

** The story is built on the premise of the eponymous HeroesRUs organization [[OrderReborn rebuilding itself]] years after disbanding to bring justice to the villainous forces that have been running amok unchecked in its absence. Being an exclusively multiplayer title, this story is told through [[AllThereInTheManual external materials]] released sporadically online, the first of which debuted roughly two months before the game officially launched (in March 2016) and established a recall order had been issued to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether reunite all the former operatives]], with at least two confirmed to be onboard. It took ''seventeen months'' to get confirmation that even a single character would join them, as the focus has been kept on characters' backstories, not what they are doing in the "present" day. Due to the ''huge'' cast, constant flashbacks/backstories, and that the game just kept adding more and more heroes before fully fleshing out the existing ones, the narrative is always in a state of introducing plot threads and then leaving them hanging to introduce another one, likely to be just as neglected. This has had the effect of making the story so far feel more like a prolonged opening act. It took until ''five years'' after the game was announced (and a bit under four years until after its launch) for a MissionPackSequel that would supposedly focus on the plot to be announced for a 2020 release date (later pushed back multiple times into 2022).

*** Namek also has a limited cast of characters stuck on planet Namek, a world where the sky, water and grass/trees are all green with [[SingleBiomePlanet nothing but ocean archipelagos]], topped off with an eternal daytime due to multiple suns, making for a visually monotonous arc. It's also very underdeveloped: the local population is low and occupy about seven tiny villages, almost all of which have been wiped out by the time the heroes even arrive (there's a total of three living Namekians for most of the story, none of whom do very much). It says a lot that the planet [[EarthShatteringKaboom starting to fall apart]] is one of the most interesting things that happens, simply because the weather is different. By contrast, the following storylines, the Android and Buu Sagas, are set on Earth, about the most diverse location imaginable.

** As of 8th Edition, which was released in Summer 2017, we are a few centuries into the next millennia, and the plotline has advanced. The Imperium hangs on hard-pressed, and the Tau are advancing. The more things change...

** The [[TournamentArc Universe Survival Saga]] from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' is inconsistently hit with arc fatigue. After a setup that takes 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 starts. Initially, it was well-received for its wild action and SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. However, as the tournament goes on for 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 starts to fall into fatigue territory. While some fans enjoy the unique battles and non-stop action, others criticize many of the fights for being glorified {{Filler}} that lack plot progression or emotional impact. This reaches a head when [[TheAce Jiren]] takes 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 SuperMod,) 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 personality, [[TheWorfEffect effortless defeating]] of multiple popular characters, and what is perceived to be a poorly done FreudianExcuse.

** ''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 kept 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/DragonBall'': Even before ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the series had its fair share of filler and padding to avoid catching up to the source material, but it got especially bad during the Red Ribbon Army saga, perhaps reaching its worst point in the General Blue portions, which included 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 resulted in an arc that took a lot longer to get through in the anime than it did in the manga.
** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' overall is an example so infamous that ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'''s advertising flaunted it being a shorter recut as a ''selling point'', and is considered a better experience if you're not watching in Japanese. 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). A classic joke is "How long does it take a Saiyan to screw in a lightbulb?"[[labelnote:Answer]]Twenty episodes, ten spent powering up.[[/labelnote]]
** The Namek/Frieza Saga(s), by far the most (in)famous and for ''very'' good reason. "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.
*** 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 (since the story was like a game of chess, told 22 minutes a week). One episode, "Bulma and the Crabs", 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. Part of this pacing is because the anime was [[OvertookTheManga right up against the manga]]: when Goku went Super Saiyan in the anime it was a scant three chapters behind the manga, so it had to constantly write in excuses to delay the events unfolding. After this point Toei opted to take weeks off and insert filler arcs wholesale to give the manga a chance to get further ahead, resulting in the ten-episode Garlic Jr. Saga after Frieza's defeat and the five-episode Other World Saga after the Cell Games.
*** Protracted fights were also a killer, with the climactic battle against Frieza being the longest in the series. It takes up an entire arc of its own that is a third of the Namek storyline, featuring only a handful of grossly out-matched heroes fighting against the titular villain. To spice things up we have a side story of the Earthlings attempting to join the heroes, except that would take them three weeks so the audience already knows this won't go anywhere.
*** Namek also had a limited cast of characters stuck on planet Namek, a world where the sky, water and grass/trees are all green with [[SingleBiomePlanet nothing but ocean archipelagos]], topped off with an eternal daytime due to multiple suns. It's also very underdeveloped: the local population is low and occupy about seven tiny villages across the entirity of the planet, and almost all of them are wiped out by the time the heroes even arrive (there's a total of three living Namekians for most of the story, none of whom do very much). It says a lot that the planet [[EarthShatteringKaboom starting to fall apart]] is one of the most interesting things that happens simply because the weather was different. By contrast, the following storylines, the Android and Buu Sagas, were set on Earth, about the most diverse location imaginable.
*** The experience varied per region, but none got off without some hurt. In Japan, the entire series was broadcast one episode a week, making all the problems described above even worse. In the US, the anime went through a dubbing change as Creator/{{Funimation}} went in-house, resulting in the anime re-running several times over, so audiences sat through half the Namek Arc [[ShaggyDogStory only to be taken back to Raditz yet again]]. And the first episode when they eventually ''did'' get back? [[{{Filler}} Bulma and the Crabs.]]
** 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. Overall however the Cell Saga gets off lighter than Namek simply due to actually being able to ''change location/scenery''.

** This phenomena was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' when Krillin randomly notes at one point that "We're ''still'' on Namek!" in the twenty-fourth episode. 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.
*** 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 covering the Saiyan Saga, which clocks in at two minutes and 10 seconds.
** The [[TournamentArc Universe Survival Saga]] from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' was 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 went on for 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 started to fall into fatigue territory. While some fans enjoyed the unique battles and non-stop action, others criticized many of the fights for being glorified {{Filler}} that lacked 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 personality, [[TheWorfEffect effortless]] defeating of multiple popular characters, and what they perceived to be a poorly done FreudianExcuse.

** 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, specifically for 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, but that's not what tends to bother fans. What did so is the fact that this arc had to juggle the largest cast of characters, both new and returning heroes and villains, while setting the stakes for the biggest battles of the series and dropping the last and biggest plot revelations. By the time of the final battles with both [[BigBadEnsemble Zeref and Acnologia]], several fans were of the opinion that so much time was spent on buildup, fights and rematches with the Spriggan 12, and twists that it made them feel rushed by comparison.

* ''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.

** In the Enies Lobby arc, the backstory of the main villain, Rob Lucci, is cut down from a full flashback to a brief summary. The author stated that this was because the arc, combined with the Water 7 arc that proceeded it and led directly into its events, was already running quite long, and a flashback in the middle of the climactic fight would have slowed the pacing down even more. The flashback was shown in full in the anime.
** The Skypeia arc also caught some flak for this, given its length compared to, at the time, its relative unimportance [[note]]While the arc contributes little to the MythArc, it introduces several concepts that would later be pivotal to the narrative[[/note]] to the rest of the story. The real punch to the gut in the Skypeia arc was that Luffy's fight with the BigBad essentially "ended" a full 17 chapters before the BigBad was finally "defeated." The seven-chapter-long flashback didn't help either, interrupting the arc's climax in favor of two months of exposition.
** The Straw Hat Separation Saga and ''especially'' the Marineford arc are also considered this, as the concept puts everyone but Luffy OutOfFocus, and the latter is largely one very long, drawn-out battle sequence. To put this into perspective: When the Straw Hats started heading for Sabaody Archipelago, that was Chapter 490. After the Straw Hats got split up, TookALevelInBadass, met up again, and then finally headed down to Fishman Island, that was Chapter 602. For those keeping track, that's exactly 112 chapters, not even including the month-long hiatus that the manga went on for the time skip. Marineford is even ''longer'' in the anime, particularly the large string of episodes where it felt like Luffy was forever running across the ice trying to reach the platform where Ace was being held captive.
** Fishman Island in the anime. Due to the anime's "one episode equals one chapter" pacing, Fishman Island really dragged on TV. All subsequent arcs fall victim to this too or worse--some episodes in the Punk Hazard arc used only ''half'' of a chapter's worth of story. One such episode consisted almost solely of Sanji, Nami, Franky, and Chopper running across a day care room with little happening besides banter.
** Dressrosa eventually became the longest arc in the series up to that point by a large margin, lasting exactly one hundred chapters; the aforementioned Skypiea Arc lasted only 66 chapters. The fact that the arc had loads of characters, even by ''One Piece'' standards, did it no favors. It also set up other imminent events in addition to those already ongoing, building up anticipation for the arc itself to get itself over with. True to form, the Dressrosa Arc in the anime was ''historically'' slow. Much of every episode's content drastically extends the scenes with the [[LittlePeople Tontatta]] or the coliseum fights, as well as adding in tons of things to stall the Straw Hats. [[spoiler:In fairness, the huge cast was semi-justified as many characters in the arc would become part of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, but it still dragged in many fans eyes.]]
** Whole Cake Island arc was likewise to be something of a drag to get through. Largely because the initial objective, retrieving Sanji, was accomplished midway through the arc. But Sanji didn't want his family to die, despite their actions toward him earlier (save his sister), 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. Overall, the finale of the Whole Cake Island gets the worst of it as it's basically a ''really'' long EscapeSequence of the Straw Hats trying to escape the island that goes on for about 30 chapters. Luffy gets pulled into a literal mirror dimension to fight one of Big Mom's eldest 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 frustrated how long it went on before it eventually ended.
** The Wano Country arc ultimately dwarfed Dressrosa with a ''four-year'' story that took a while to get to its climax. And said climax dominates a majority of the arc with shifts in fights either getting interrupted or swapped out with different opponents. Similar to Dressrosa, there's a lot of characters to cover that, by the time Luffy and Kaido have reached the apex of their battle, a good chunk of readers were more then ready move on. It didn't help that the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic happened around this point and caused a number of breaks in-between chapters.

** The martial-arts TournamentArc that lasted from Chapters 58 to 71 in the manga ended up being quite fatiguing for some readers, particularly with ONE and Murata's long pauses, not to mention the focus was on a massive monster breakout that occurred during the tournament that resulted in many one-off heroes battling the monsters, rather than on Saitama’s arc. As a result, many felt that the arc was detracting from the central plot. It also doesn't help that the arc can be seen as "{{Filler}}" [[note]]The tournament arc was ONE's idea, so it's technically canon[[/note]] for being smack dab in the middle of the ongoing "Hero Hunter Garou Arc", which is a sore spot for the fans that wish to finally see the Garou storyline conclude.

** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries Kanto]]''' was only around 80 episodes depending on the inclusion/disregard of a couple banned episodes. However, it had one particularly long gap that occurred between the sixth and seventh Gym Badges at 27 episodes (29 if you count [[Recap/PokemonHolidayHiJynx "Holiday Hi-Jynx"]] and [[Recap/PokemonSnowWayOut "Snow Way Out"]]). There were also about 10 episodes of {{Filler}} after the eighth Badge, which amounted to Ash basically sitting at home waiting for the Kanto League to start. It was around this time that Japan had realized that they had an anime hit on their hand, so they had to extend the series in some way before the release of [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver the Johto games]]. (Hence, the 36-episode-long '''Orange Islands''' which served as a substitute for an Elite Four arc.)
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries Johto]]''': 158 episodes. Compounded by the fact that there was only one main quest ([[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Contests]] and the like would not be introduced until the next season). Some contend that the Whirl Islands {{Tournament|Arc}} and [[TheCameo Special Guest]] arcs could've been removed, but that would have had the tied-for-fourth longest gap between Badges (27 episodes) succeeded by what would have been the ''shortest'' gap (1 episode, usurping Kanto's [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Boulder-Cascade's and Marsh-Rainbow]] gaps of ''2'').[[note]]The Whirl Islands arc, in total, lasted only 14 episodes, 15 if you count the battle with Jasmine.[[/note]]
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire Hoenn]]''': 132 episodes. It was made more bearable by [[TwoLinesNoWaiting the addition of Contests]], though a case can be made for the Petalburg-Rustboro and Dewford Island arcs, which [[SlowPacedBeginning were early on]] and paced slowly. The Team Aqua and Team Magma arcs suffered the reverse of this, as many felt they could have had more focus and buildup than they got, and the conclusion to their arc was seen as [[AntiClimax rushed]].
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire Battle Frontier]]''': 60 episodes. Inverted in that most of the filler was in the beginning, leading to a faster pace with the rest of the arc.
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl Sinnoh]]''': 191 episodes. As much as the above two-part saga in total. It also holds the record for both the longest and second-longest gaps between Gym Battles, with 31 episodes between Gardenia and Maylene and '''52''' episodes between Candice and Volkner.[[note]]Kanto actually has the third-longest at 28 between Koga and Blaine.[[/note]] Granted, these gaps developed the buildup and resolution, respectively, of ''both'' the Contest and Team Galactic arcs, and further justified by the distance between those two Gyms, but that still meant that [[MythArc the main quest]] was demoted to '''[[ThirdLineSomeWaiting C-Plot]]''' status ''twice''.
** The '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite Unova]]''' series averts this trope with its fast pace, but that results in the 142-episode saga suffering from [[EndingFatigue a different trope]]. Ash got all eight of his Badges in 84 episodes, though the gap between #3 and #4 was pretty long (27 episodes, T-4th). After the various filler and padding arcs,[[labelnote:Details]]In sequence: the {{mandat|oryLine}}ed [[TheBusCameBack reappearance by Sinnoh's female companion]], a few episodes with a [[TheDitz ditzy]] version of Ash (as opposed to the idealized and mature version) getting ''his'' eighth Badge, a short arc with Meloetta where [[BigBad Giovanni]] gives up his [[TheUnfought Unfought]] status, a pair of [[BreatherEpisode certified fillers]], and a two-parter with Iris and Drayden,[[/labelnote]] there was the stock-standard TournamentArc with a stock-standard length of 7 episodes[[note]]including the introduction to the eventual champion and the Axew-centered BreatherEpisode[[/note]] which was more [[BrokenBase contentious]] for its results than its pacing. This was followed by a 14-episode arc revolving around N and Team Plasma which [[BrokenBase people are heavily divided on]]. The quick pace ultimately resulted in the last 5 months prior to the release of [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY the Gen VI games]] having an Orange Islands/Battle Frontier-style round of pure, aimless island-hopping filler, only ''without'' a pseudo-tournament like those arcs had. The subsequent ratings drop [[SeasonalRot show the extent of the wear and tear]].
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY Kalos]]''': 140 episodes. The next chapter of the series started off on a rough note with the drop in ratings that occurred during ''BW''[='s=] Decolore Islands arc. Its first season was subject to {{Filler}} and {{Padding}} after the first ten episodes. Serena was virtually pointless until ''finally'' discovering a goal for herself around 40 episodes in, and the Kalos gang was forced to take part in a [[{{Sidequest}} side-journey]] with a GuestStarPartyMember in Korrina for several episodes that hardly anyone got invested in due to there being no payoff in the end for helping her complete her quest to properly use a Lucarionite. It took until Ash got his '''seventh''' Gym Badge before Team Flare even appeared. At this point, the plot picked up momentum, especially when Ash's Greninja obtained [[SuperMode an exclusive form]].
** '''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon Alola]]''': Coming off the high from the ''XY&Z'' saga, the plot changed drastically from one where Ash travels from Gym to Gym to earn Badges to one where he attends a Pokémon School. Not only is Ash generally staying in one place, but the human cast size was the largest it had ever been with Ash and ''5'' other reoccurring classmates. The Island Trials were present as well, but the pace was a bit slower due to how many characters the show had to juggle. Of the 146 episodes, the first major arc that wasn't focused on a trial or obtention of a Z-Crystal were mostly [[SliceOfLife Slice of Life filler]]. The plot went by faster by the third arc, though the tournament arc lasts ''16 episodes''. Not bad [[spoiler:considering this is the one where Ash finally wins a Conference]], but this even includes filler with the gang facing a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere just to add some drama along to the climax.
** '''[[Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries Galar/Journeys]]''': 136 episodes. ''Pokémon Journeys: The Series'' is more like LACK of an arc fatigue. Ash and Goh never stay in one place for very long, as the series takes place all over the world rather than staying in Galar getting the eight badges. Instead, each major battle that isn't against Team Rocket ''is'' part of the tournament arc. The World Coronation Series takes the place of a Wyndon Conference, with many trainers around the world taking part. The show has done a great job at keeping the pace up. In the west, where it [[ChannelHop moved exclusively to streaming on Netflix]], the latest dubs all release at once in parts, preventing any backlash about waiting for the plot to move on. The final tournament takes 13 episodes cumulatively to complete, but in a change from previous series, it is bridged by episodes [[ADayInTheLimelight focusing on Goh and Chloe]] that aren't counted towards the tournament arc. Even after the tournament arc ended, it is quick to resolve the other characters' myth arcs in 3 episodes. However, while the final battle between [[spoiler:Ash and Leon]] was well-received, the relatively weak animation for several major battles in the series coupled with Goh’s controversial reception had many people counting down the days until ''Journeys'' ended.

** ''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 38 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.

* ''ComicBook/DarkReign'', ''Dark Reign'', ''Dark freakin' Reign!'' Hope you liked the patently ludicrous idea of America willingly giving [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] complete control, because ''every'' issue of ''every'' Marvel book in 2009 dealt with nothing but how Norman Osborn controls the world.
* CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013'' 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 seventh issue came three months after the sixth -- and you had readers making a ''lot'' of jokes about the title.

** While the first arc more or less avoided this, the following [[ZombieApocalypse Metal Virus]] storyline dragged on for over a year, which may not have been so bad if said arc didn't mostly involve the heroes constantly losing everything they have, lovable characters turning, being [[BreakTheCutie horrifically broken]], or otherwise suffering, and the villains being borderline {{invincible|Villain}}. It was so dark that [[TooBleakStoppedCaring some readers found it hard to care what happened]], and even fans who enjoyed the drama admitted it was starting to wear out its welcome after about eight full issues of it. The fact that the last few issues of the arc were subjected to mass ScheduleSlip due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the ongoing coronavirus pandemic]] didn't help matters. By the time the arc finally came to an end in late September 2020, it had lasted ''21 issues'' (#13-32, plus the 2020 Annual one-off)--nearly two-thirds of the entire comic's run up to that point!
** The very next arc, detailing the mystery of [[RobotGirl Belle the Tinkerer]]'s origin, also suffered from this. While it was much shorter, spanning eight issues in all, the DrivingQuestion's answer was [[CaptainObviousReveal obvious from the start]]: [[spoiler:[[LukeIAmYourFather Belle's creator was/is]] [[BigBad Doctor Eggman himself]], specifically [[AmnesiacDissonance when he had amnesia]] earlier in the comic]]. Yet more ScheduleSlip during the winter and spring of 2021 took its toll on the arc's pacing, and even after the "mystery" was solved, Belle's full [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]] wasn't revealed until Issue 44--almost an entire year after her debut ten issues prior. All this contributed to Belle's [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive status among fans]], especially compared to other new characters such as [[BreakoutCharacter Tangle and Whisper]].

*** The Scavenger plotline sometimes gets this. The problem being that there are fairly large gaps between the Scavenger-focused arcs, so events and plot points set-up for them don't get paid off until about ten issues or so later.
*** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersDarkCybertron'' crossover event wasn't this for ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'' but it ''did'' cause fatigue for ''MTMTE''. Whereas the crossover wrapped up a bunch of plotlines for ''RID'', the events and characters in ''MTMTE'' didn't really have any link to the crossover's driving force. Thus the crossover was essentially a massive PlotDetour that just created a huge wait between Seasons 1 and 2 of ''MTMTE''. By the end, the only things the crossover accomplished for ''MTMTE'' was the introduction of several important characters, only two of whom couldn't have just been introduced in a normal ''MTMTE'' arc.

* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' arcs are also notoriously slow-paced. Sometimes two-thirds of a comic retell the contents of a previous comic with one new panel. One day of Dick Tracy's life takes several months of comic strips. Of course, this was sometimes the fault of the fans, who occasionally enjoyed a story so much they demanded it be continued after it had decisively ended, often requiring a {{Retcon}} or two (for example, Flattop, the most popular villain of the series' history, was actually [[JokerImmunity brought back from the dead]] so that he could be killed ''again''). The new creative team is moving a ''much'' quicker pace of about one case a month.

* In ''Fanfic/AttackOnTitanABlacksmithsTale'', Psychic MC, Dillon's character arc of learning to live with himself and his girlfriend Annie, has been essentially in a limbo state for years at this point, with nothing really changing his situation. The second he gets "better", something else dramatic happens and we're back to square one. This is in addition to canon storylines taking much longer than necessary due to a slow update cycle.

* In ''Literature/TheBadGuys'', Prof. Marmalade is introduced in the second book as the BigBad - and just about every book until the tenth book involves him trying to one-up the titular Bad Guys, only to end them all on a CliffHanger that something has gone wrong or he has something new. After a few books, this can get a little annoying, despite all the [[HilarityEnsues wacky hijinks]] and CharacterDevelopment our heroes get up to in the meantime.

* It's not as bad as some examples due to only taking up one book, but the plotline involving Leila stalking Ana in ''[[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey Fifty Shades Darker]]'' starts to show signs of this. It lasts nearly the entire book (which is over 500 pages long) and yet nothing truly significant happens with it until the last third when Leila unexpectedly shows up at Ana's apartment with a gun. It doesn't help that it has pretty much [[TrappedByMountainLions no impact on the story in the next book]] and that the situation could've been resolved early on if Ana and Christian had just called the police, instead of trying and miserably failing to deal with the problem themselves.

* 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? [[ExaggeratedTrope The original plan for the series was THREE books.]]

* Lest you look at some of the below entries and 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 longstanding 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/ImpactWrestling TNA]].

* The Wrestling/{{WWE}} has had many moments that qualify, to the point that it arguably deserves its own page.
** Similar to the [=nWo=] storyline above, the "Higher Power" story was disliked since it revived the Austin-[=McMahon=] rivalry which had long since stopped being fresh and interesting. At the expense of the far more interesting Wrestling/MinistryOfDarkness storyline at that. Even Wrestling/TheUndertaker admits that was a JumpingTheShark moment in a later interview.

** The feud between Wrestling/{{Charlotte|Flair}} and Wrestling/SashaBanks was 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.\\

* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' runs into this during the last portion of the game -- essentially, it's you having to refight the Crystal bosses (with the option of fighting the [[JobSystem Asterisk]] Holders) again and again, with very little story in between. Many consider it the most boring part of the game, as the normally fun and energizing boss fights feel like a chore. Up until the last "cycle", that is, when all of the Asterisk Holders start teaming up in unique themed groups and some story actually begins to wrap up.

*** Some of the above can be laid at the feet at ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''. The ''III'' series [[AudienceAlienatingPremise being such a huge departure]] from ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterII II]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha]]'' in terms of cast, setting, and tone, along with its mechanical complexity, might not be as hard a sell [[VindicatedByHistory nowadays]], but poor reception from more casual audiences effectively [[FranchiseKiller put the series on ice for nearly a decade]]. It's telling that both ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' and ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' were set [[{{Interquel}} between]] the events of ''II'' and ''III'' while [[TheBusCameBack bringing back]] many fan favorites who were left out of ''III'' (while, inversely, a good chunk of the newcomers from ''III'' were either PutOnABus or [[DemotedToExtra relegated to cameos]], especially in ''IV''). However, this also meant that the story could never progress beyond what ''Third Strike'' established back in '''1999'''; the best players could ask for was the final([[JokerImmunity ?]]) defeat of Bison and setting up the Illuminati's rise to prominence in ''III'' proper. It wouldn't be until a whopping ''24 years later'' that the timeline would finally [[CliffhangerWall move forward]] with 2023's ''VideoGame/StreetFighter6''.

** Traversing the early jungle portions of Act III (the spider forest, the great marsh, and the flayer jungle) is met with a similar criticism due to the lengths of having to run around searching for the two dungeons that have the body parts needed for a main quest.

* Much of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'' is spent saving helpless villagers from monsters and finding puzzle pieces to unlock a portal to another village where you do exactly the same thing, over and over. By the time you liberate the winged people (the last instance of this before the ''real'' plot begins), you'll have clocked in at 80 hours if you're not trying to [[LevelGrinding grind jobs]] during that time. Even though the 3DS version toned this down (especially the beginning), the fact that the bulk of the game is essentially a series of vignettes where you go back and forth can still feel offputting to some fans of other games where the plot moves quicker. To put it into perspective, in most games, a DiscOneFinalBoss is fought around 5-15 hours in, whereas the 3DS version of ''VII'' will still take around 30-40.

* ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'' series has the Tales of Ash arc, which started in ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2003 2003]]'' ([[CaptainObvious which was released in 2003]]), continued with ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXI XI]]'' (released in late 2005 for Japanese arcades before heading to the [=PS2=] the following year) and only ended in ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIII 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]]''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters94 '94]]'' technically doesn't count, as that's its own self-contained story (though {{compilation|Rerelease}}s tend to lump it in with the rest of the Orochi Saga), and neither do ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters98 '98]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2002 2002]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXII 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 ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters97 '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]].

* 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 UnintentionallyUnwinnable 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.

** Sombra's AlternateRealityGame was infamous for this. While the goal was to tease the then-unknown 23rd hero, and it provided quite a few puzzles for the internet to solve, it ultimately barely gave out any information to go off of other than she was Mexican and some kind of hacker. On top of the only rewards being cryptic hints which lead to more cryptic hints, it was remarkably spaced out, including having a countdown on a mysterious website in the form of a percentage ticking up 0.0038% every three minutes, which months later only revealed... more cryptic hints. By the end of it all, Sombra was eventually revealed at [=BlizzCon=] anyway (which was the intention all along), making the entire thing ultimately pointless on top of it needlessly straining the playerbase's patience.

** [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2205 This]] Q&A strip (pictured above) directly refers to this particular issue.

*** Definitely speaking for the audience there... and naturally, it's right before a holiday break.

* The Webcomic/{{MS Paint Adventure|s}} ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' has the interminable Demonhead Mobster Kingpin fight, which lasted for longer than the ''rest'' of the story. Later {{lampshade|Hanging}}d 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."

** The "Oceans Unmoving" arc attracted a lot of this sentiment, largely because it focused around a brand new cast, with most of the main characters stuck off-screen for months at a time.
** The "4U City" arcs did this as well, as Riff is the only major character present for them aside from all the alternate reality versions of other characters. The entire arc took place over several years, started and stopped randomly to return to the antics of Torg and Co. in the prime universe, and was particularly annoying since it not only kept Riff out of the main plotline for all this time but also [[spoiler:refused to resolve the dangling plot thread about Zoe's fate until the ''last'' panel of the ''last'' arc]].
* From ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', the Colonel Glass Saga fell victim to this. If you add in the delays and an interlude to preview the author's new book, the saga took ''over a year'' to complete in a series where the story arcs normally last about a month or two. It didn't help that the arc was ''extremely'' dark for a comedic series; Colonel Glass, a sadistic North Korean operative with the power to ''control shards of glass'', is basically NightmareFuel on legs. As such, the arc was emotionally exhausting in addition to its length.

** Volumes 4 and 5 were criticized by some fans for having [[FourLinesAllWaiting multiple plotlines]] that took a long time to resolve due to the main characters being split apart. One particularly common complaint was that Blake's arc in Menagerie was taking too long to resolve. Another arc that was complained about was RNJR's arc in Mistral in Volume 5, which mostly involved them hanging around the house, only training in one episode, and having exposition-heavy scenes, all while basically waiting for the plot to advance, while Blake managed to conclude the Menagerie arc all by herself. The experience was [[BetterOnDVD much improved on DVD]], where an entire volume can be watched in one go.
* ''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 [[Anime/YuGiOh the anime]] ran from 2000 to 2004, meaning that [[ExaggeratedTrope 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...

** Chloé's arc became this as well for similar reasons and a very similar case of {{Flanderization}} in Season 4. Thomas Astruc has stated that his intention was to never redeem Chloé prior to the Season 3 finale and that she can still get a redemption if she learns from her mistakes. Even so, many who were aware of this choice were not happy with the result as well as the aforementioned Flanderization.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The formation of Malachite and her eventual defeat got hit with this. Jasper and Lapis fused to become said fusion in the Season 1 finale, at which point the fusion sequestered in the ocean. Lapis would make one appearance during the entirety of Season 2 via a telepathic conversation, while Malachite herself wouldn't reappear until the Season 3 premiere, which also resolved that plot thread by defeating and unfusing her. Between the Lapis episode and the Season 3 premiere were two consecutive story arcs; three, if you want to treat Peridot's HeelFaceTurn as separate from the concurrent Cluster arc.

** Having an entire six-parter dedicated to a Triceraton invasion of Earth in the "Space Invaders" three-parter followed up by yet another "Worlds Collide" three-parter where the Triceratons invade Earth, leave Earth, come back again, rinse/repeat, and generally go back-and-forth with the Turtles can be quite tedious to sit through. How much enjoyment one gets out of this long story arc will depend on whether or not one thinks it's worth sitting through for the introduction of Agent Bishop and a few other important plot elements in the Triceraton invasion that would be used for later status-quo-changing story arcs such as Ch'rell utilizing Triceraton technology to escape Earth in the later "Exodus" two-parter.

** When the show was UnCanceled, the fatigue came back tenfold, and by the conclusion of Season 3, very little progress was seemingly made on the overall series arc. Luthor loses his position as Secretary-General, but remains free and retains his position in the Light. Granny is being punished by Darkseid as a scapegoat, but will undoubtedly be free to continue as before. Despite everything that happened, the alliance between Darkseid and the Light remains firmly intact. There's talk of a great galactic war coming, but it's kept so vague that it's near-impossible to guess what the threat could be. The conflict of this entire season can be considered just setup for the actual central conflict that may or may not finally happen in Season 4. Either way, the arc of the series is moving a lot more slowly than many had expected. Most took as practically given after the Season 2 stinger that Apokolips would invade Earth in Season 3, which doesn't happen. The Earth is arguably never under direct threat in Season 3, unless you count the very few minutes it appeared Granny had won.

* ''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 [[DiedDuringProduction the death of the manga's author in May 2021]], the story stopped cold right then and there, though it was later announced in June 2022 that the story [[PosthumousCollaboration would continue]] via [[Creator/KentaroMiura Miura's]] assistants at Studio Gaga under the supervision of his longtime friend and collaborator Kouji Mori (of ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' and ''Manga/SuicideIsland'' fame).

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' ran for twelve years. And from years three to eleven, the story progressed so slowly that it basically ''didn't'' progress. Character relations changed somewhat throughout those years, but every time the story seemed to be coming to a climax, a DiabolusExMachina 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.

** The manga was supposed to be five years long, but author Creator/EiichiroOda having fun with the plot stalled the bigger story's progression. A lot. Since the story's debut in 1997, protagonist Monkey D. Luffy isn't much closer to finding the One Piece than when he started. Besides that, there's not only been no answer as to where the One Piece is, there's been no answer as to ''what'' it is. No wonder so many people have CommitmentAnxiety when it comes to this series. It took until [[LongRunners 2022]] for ''One Piece'' to finally move towards its final arc, and this was after the four years it took for the story to make it past the Wano arc (see the Arc Stall section above).

** The [[FanNickname so-called]] Farmland Saga arc certainly exhibits this. Since the author wanted to separate Thorfinn's life in slavery from his former life as much as possible, the pace is veeeery deliberate, and it takes several chapters for anything significant to happen. Stuff has started happening, however, and the pace has quickened once again.

* ''Fanfic/{{Eroninja}}'': Naruto's overall goal has always been world peace, which he's been working towards since the first chapter. However, the story is over one hundred chapters long and, with the supplementary material, caps in at over two and a half million words. Despite this, Naruto and his group are arguably no closer to their goal than they were to start, even though almost every canon villain and antagonistic faction has been dealt with, partly due to the author inventing several more as part of their world building.

** Phase 4 was quickly hit with this. After the release of ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'' in Summer 2022, quite a few people began to complain about how aimless and meandering the next saga of the MCU was starting to feel, with no clear plot emerging beyond some extremely vague, confusing, and sometimes seemingly conflicting [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] stuff after nearly 70 hours of total runtime between the movies and [[Creator/DisneyPlus shows]] that made up Phase 4 up to that point. This wasn't helped by how Phase 4 is collectively longer than the previous three Phases ''combined'' and [[ContinuityLockout even heavier on continuity]] -- in order to keep up with everything would viewers need to have not only watched the previous 23 films prior to Phase 4, but also the various TV shows found on Netflix and ABC (''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', ''Series/Daredevil2015'', etc.), and even past Marvel properties that weren't part of the MCU like the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' and the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' [[ArchiveBinge in addition to]] staying on top of any new releases.

** Those who criticize the premise often cite this. In each expansion, the Alliance and Horde have faced enemies that threatened both of them, and instead of working together to end the threat, they bring their war with them everywhere they go. The fact that both factions are led by a couple of belligerent warmongers does not help matters, either. In ''The Burning Crusade'', the blood elves and the draenei (and their respective allies) put aside their differences to fight the Burning Legion under the naaru. In ''Wrath of the Lich King'', the orcs and humans escalate the war ''while inside of the home zone of the Lich King'', though the Argent Crusade still manages to create a successful joint offensive. In ''Cataclysm'', the war escalates to a full-scale war while Deathwing is trying to destroy the planet. In ''Mists of Pandaria'', the war is the primary plot, while the evils of Pandaria are dealt with and become weapons of the Horde later.

* ''Webcomic/AvasDemon'' has taken place in-universe for a little more than a single day, despite starting its publication in 2012, in part due to regular hiatuses due to the author's health and other issues causing a lot of space between updates. By the end of 2019, Ava is no closer to reuniting the other demons than she was when the comic started, and even though she is surrounded by three of them, she only knows about two.

* Whether you consider Lord Tedd or Magus to be the subject of the myth arc for ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', both have been going on an interminably long time. Lord Tedd was introduced early in the strip's run and seemed to be building up to be the comic's BigBad, but he was basically PutOnABus after the Painted Black arc, and aside from implications that Tedd might be going down the same path he hasn't been even ''mentioned'' since 2008. This is largely due to Magus' storyline intruding at the start of 2007. That storyline is only just now hitting its climax, nearly ''eleven years later''. That there are multiple arcs peppering the comic's run that aren't much related to ''either'' plotline doesn't help.[[note]]See the comic's entry in the Story Stall section for at least one example.[[/note]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' also falls under this category, as despite going on for years the heroes are only just as of 2015 actually managing to start moving against the villains and take steps towards completing their game session after essentially a whole act of teenage angst dominating the plot. Not helped by Andrew Hussie taking a year off to work on the Homestuck video game and other merchandise. Andrew Hussie intended to release the rest of Homestuck in one big burst, which was rendered completely null when circumstances forced him to go back to updating the comic as it's drawn. With a year-long hiatus behind it and another pause near the end of Act 6 Intermission 5, it took ''seven years'' for the kids to finish the blasted game. A common suggestion among the fandom is that the abrupt GainaxEnding was written that way just so the comic could finally ''be'' finished.

** Despite the fact that Pete's been saying that he's wrapping the strip up since 2007, the main characters haven't gotten any closer to defeating [=HeretiCorp=] or Oasis, or figuring out the mystery of Oasis since 2009. The gang has looked like they were about to get somewhere with this multiple times, only to go off on one diversion after another.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'''s lead writer Creator/IanFlynn freely admits to WritingForTheTrade, so some of this may have been inevitable. While the first arc more or less avoided this, the following [[ZombieApocalypse Metal Virus]] storyline dragged on for over a year, which may not have been so bad if said arc didn't mostly involve the heroes constantly losing everything they have, lovable characters turning, being [[BreakTheCutie horrifically broken]], or otherwise suffering, and the villains being borderline {{invincible|Villain}}. It was so dark that [[TooBleakStoppedCaring some readers found it hard to care what happened]], and even fans who enjoyed the drama admitted it was starting to wear out its welcome after about eight full issues of it. The fact that the last few issues of the arc were subjected to mass ScheduleSlip due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the ongoing coronavirus pandemic]] didn't help matters. By the time the arc finally came to an end in late September 2020, it had lasted ''21 issues'' (#13-32, plus the 2020 Annual one-off)--nearly two-thirds of the entire comic's run up to that point!
** The very next arc, detailing the mystery of [[CanonForeigner Belle]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot the]] [[RobotGirl Tinkerer]]'s origin, also suffered from this. While it was much shorter, spanning eight issues in all, the DrivingQuestion's answer was obvious from the start: [[spoiler:[[LukeIAmYourFather Belle's creator was/is]] [[BigBad Doctor Eggman himself]], specifically [[AmnesiacDissonance when he had amnesia]] earlier in the comic]]. Yet more ScheduleSlip during the winter and spring of 2021 took its toll on the arc's pacing, and even after the "mystery" was solved, Belle's full [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]] wasn't revealed until Issue 44--almost an entire year after her debut ten issues prior. All this contributed to Belle's [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive status among fans]], especially compared to other new characters such as [[BreakoutCharacter Tangle and Whisper]].

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'''s lead writer Creator/IanFlynn freely admits to WritingForTheTrade, so some of this may have been inevitable. While the first arc more or less avoided this, the following [[UnwillingRoboticisation Metal Virus]] storyline dragged on for over a year... which may not have been so bad if said arc didn't mostly involve the heroes constantly losing everything they have, lovable characters turning, being [[BreakTheCutie horrifically broken]], or otherwise suffering, and the villains being borderline {{invincible|Villain}}. It was so dark that [[TooBleakStoppedCaring some readers found it hard to care what happened]], and even fans who enjoyed the drama admitted it was starting to wear out its welcome after about eight full issues of it. The fact that the last few issues of the arc were subjected to mass ScheduleSlip due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the ongoing coronavirus pandemic]] didn't help matters. By the time the arc finally came to an end in late September 2020, it had lasted ''21 issues'' (13-32 plus the 2020 annual)... nearly two-thirds of the entire comic's run up to that point!

* ''ComicStrip/ApartmentThreeG'' was like this, at least according to a throwaway bit in an episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' when Blanche mentions wanting to see the latest strip.

** '''[[Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries Galar/Journeys]]''': 136 Episodes. ''Pokémon Journeys: The Series'' is more like LACK of an arc fatigue. Ash and Goh never stay in one place for very long, as the series takes place all over the world rather than staying in Galar getting the eight badges. Instead, each major battle that isn't against Team Rocket ''is'' part of the tournament arc. The World Coronation Series takes the place of a Wyndon Conference, with many trainers around the world taking part. The show has done a great job at keeping the pace up. In the west, where it [[ChannelHop moved exclusively to streaming on Netflix]], the latest dubs all release at once in parts, preventing any backlash about waiting for the plot to move on. The final tournament battles take 13 episodes cumulatively to complete, but in a change from previous series, it is bridged by episodes [[ADayInTheLimelight focusing on Goh and Chloe]] that aren't counted towards the tournament arc. Even after the tournament arc ended, it is quick to resolve the other characters' myth arcs in 3 episodes. However, while the final battle between [[spoiler:Ash and Leon]] was well-received, Goh’s controversial reception and the relatively weak animation for several of the battles in the series until the end of the anime had many people counting down the days until ''Journeys'' ended.

** '''[[Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries Galar/Journeys]]''': 136 Episodes.''Pokémon Journeys: The Series'' is more like LACK of an arc fatigue. Ash and Goh never stay in one place for very long, as the series takes place all over the world rather than staying in Galar getting the eight badges. Instead, each major battle that isn't against Team Rocket ''is'' part of the tournament arc. The World Coronation Series takes the place of a Wyndon Conference, with many trainers around the world taking part. The show has done a great job at keeping the pace up. In the west, where it [[ChannelHop moved exclusively to streaming on Netflix]], the latest dubs all release at once in parts, preventing any backlash about waiting for the plot to move on. The final tournament battles take 14 episodes cumulatively to complete, but in a change from previous series, it is bridged by episodes [[ADayInTheLimelight focusing on Goh and Chloe]] that aren't counted towards the tournament arc. Even after the tournament arc ended, it is quick to resolve the other characters' myth arcs in 3 episodes. However, between Goh’s controversial reception and the apparent lack of progress until the end of the anime, many people were counting down the days until the Journeys style of the anime ended.

* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'''s anime adaptation has the Endless Eight arc. ''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'' adaptation (adapted out of a single ''novel'')... The latter did come out as a feature-length movie, however: what was at the time [[ExaggeratedTrope the second-longest animated feature ever created]], at 2 hours 42 minutes in length (one minute shorter than ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Final Yamato]]'', the record-holder until the extended cut of ''Manga/InThisCornerOfTheWorld'' in 2016). In hindsight, though, many still wish they would've adapted the arc into the anime, rather than dragging out a chapter across eight episodes just so the arc could be adapted into a movie.

* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'''s anime adaptation has the Endless Eight arc. ''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'' adaptation (adapted out of a single ''novel'')... The latter did come out as a feature-length movie, however: [[ExaggeratedTrope the second-longest animated feature ever created, at 2 hours 43 minutes in length!]] (One minute shorter than ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Final Yamato]]''.) In hindsight, though, many still wish they would've adapted the arc into the anime, rather than dragging out a chapter across eight episodes just so the arc could be adapted into a movie.

** This is lampshaded by Wrathion, who is frustrated with the inability of the Alliance and Horde to truly work together to defend against a larger threat: the Burning Legion, and tries to manipulate events so that [[spoiler:the Alliance achieves dominance over the Horde]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'': it has taken six years to cover about six months worth of story and there is still six 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. Even the hardcore fans were beginning to rebel. It's taken 17 volumes to advance 9 months and it has been admitted in comic that the only way the Misfile can be resolved is through some divine miracle that is unlikely. WordOfGod has stated the series wouldn' end until Ash graduated high school, which it made good on its final chapter.

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'', it has taken six years to cover about six months worth of story and there is still six 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. Even the hardcore fans were beginning to rebel. It's taken 17 volumes to advance 9 months and it has been admitted in comic that the only way the Misfile can be resolved is through some divine miracle that is unlikely. As WordOfGod has stated the series won't end until Ash graduates high school, it's quite clear it will not be moving forward any time soon.

* Summer Vactation, or the Fourth Heist/Palace arc, in ''VideoGame/Persona5''. The Palace itself is [[BreatherLevel one of the shortest and simplest in the game]], but you're given the ''longest'' deadline in the game to complete it. (It opens up in late July, and the deadline isn't until ''late August''.) Since the plot can't progress until the deadline is up, this leads to a ''long'' stretch of time without much dungeon action. And not going to school locks you out a decent chunk of non-dungeon content as well, leaving players with little to do.

** The story is built on the premise of the [[HeroesRUs eponymous organization]] [[OrderReborn rebuilding itself]] years after disbanding to bring justice to the villainous forces that have been running amok unchecked in its absence. Being an exclusively multiplayer title, this story is told through [[AllThereInTheManual external materials]] released sporadically online, the first of which debuted roughly two months before the game officially launched (in March 2016) and established a recall order had been issued to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether reunite all the former operatives]], with at least two confirmed to be onboard. It took ''seventeen months'' to get confirmation that even a single character would join them, as the focus has been kept on characters' backstories, but not what they are doing in the "present" days. Due to the ''huge'' cast, constant flashbacks/backstories, and that the game just kept adding more and more heroes before fully fleshing out the existing ones, the narrative is always in a state of introducing plot threads and leaving them hanging to introduce another one, likely to be just as neglected. This has had the effect of making the story so far feel more like a prolonged opening act. It took until ''five years'' after the game was announced (and a bit under four years until after its launch) for a MissionPackSequel that would focus on the plot to be announced for a 2020 release date (later pushed to 2021, later moved to 2022).