History Main / YouALLShareMyStory

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** His friend Creator/NeilGaiman elaborated on this in ''Literature/AnansiBoys'':

* Effectively averted (so far) in George RR Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' - there will often be two or more viewpoint characters sharing a few scenes ([[JustifiedTrope particularly at major gatherings like weddings and tournaments]]), but characters wander away from one another just as often as they meet up, and there hasn't yet been a single gathering of all (or even most) if the main characters.
** Didn't the opening chapters of ''Game of Thrones'' have pretty much every POV character (in that book) except Dany in Winterfell?
*** Justified, since they were all related by blood or marriage to Eddard Stark or Robert Baratheon, who in turn were old friends and fought together during Robert's ascension. Also, a fair portion (Jon, Bran, Arya, Sansa) are still children and would be expected to be living with their parents. While they might all have been conspicuously in the same place, at least there are reasons for it.

* Effectively averted (so far) in George RR Martin's ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' - there will often be two or more viewpoint characters sharing a few scenes ([[JustifiedTrope particularly at major gatherings like weddings and tournaments]]), but characters wander away from one another just as often as they meet up, and there hasn't yet been a single gathering of all (or even most) if the main characters.

%%* Some of the characters in the ''[[EndersGame Ender]]'' series

* The cast of ''Manga/GetBackers'' is an assortment of freelancers who retrieve things, transport things, find things out, etc. for a living, plus some of their friends and enemies. Most storylines involve the GetBackers themselves, Ban and Ginji, taking a job and coincidentally running into at least two other main characters (fellow retriever Shido, information-seeker Kazuki, transporters Himiko and Akabane), plus any other sidekick, friend or associate that might accompany them (third transporter Maguruma, Kazuki's friends Juubei and Toshiki, Shido's friend Emishi). The vast majority of these characters have met at least once, on a particularly dangerous job to retrieve a component of a nuclear bomb or the job to rescue Shido's girlfriend. Maybe half of them are former members of Ginji's street gang, Volts, and all of the main six, plus current New Volts leader Makubex, have some kind of link to the series' MythArc.

%%* This is one of the defining motifs of ''HeavyRain''.

* ''HotelDuskRoom215'': Every single person checked into the hotel has SOME connection to Kyle's search for Bradley. Every. Last. One. Well, Room 215 ''is'' called the wish room...

%%* The entire cast of ''DragonBall'' is as tight as any close family could be.

* The cast of ''GetBackers'' is an assortment of freelancers who retrieve things, transport things, find things out, etc. for a living, plus some of their friends and enemies. Most storylines involve the GetBackers themselves, Ban and Ginji, taking a job and coincidentally running into at least two other main characters (fellow retriever Shido, information-seeker Kazuki, transporters Himiko and Akabane), plus any other sidekick, friend or associate that might accompany them (third transporter Maguruma, Kazuki's friends Juubei and Toshiki, Shido's friend Emishi). The vast majority of these characters have met at least once, on a particularly dangerous job to retrieve a component of a nuclear bomb or the job to rescue Shido's girlfriend. Maybe half of them are former members of Ginji's street gang, Volts, and all of the main six, plus current New Volts leader Makubex, have some kind of link to the series' MythArc.

* ''Main/{{Record of Lodoss War}}'''s prequel manga, "Lady of Pharis", features a bunch of the NPC veteran heroes, such as the Holy King Fahn, the Sage Wort, and the Dark Emperor Beld, as PC protagonists rather than the movers and shakers they eventually would become. While they do form the iconic party referenced in the anime and manga – The Six Heroes – at the end of the story, much of the story features the characters grouping together for specific conflicts, then breaking up and doing their own things. While some have tighter bonds, Wort and Beld, for example, are old companions, while Fahn and Flauss both serve the God of Light Pharis/Falis (translation differences), the only time the ENTIRE group is all functioning together as one party is at the very end, when these six heroes are the only survivors of the 100 heroes that took on the Labyrinth of the Demon King. Heck, series antagonist Karla doesn't even actively join the group until the final battle at the Labyrinth, though Wort had been watching her movements throughout the story, and yet she claims to be one of the "protagonists" of that conflict when she resurfaces as a villain in the anime and manga.

* Creator/GrantMorrison plays with this in his ''SevenSoldiers'': Each of the titular seven protagonists' stories brings them against the same foe, even though the characters themselves[[note]]except Frankenstein and Klarion the Witch Boy[[/note]] never meet.

* The majority of the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise, particularly ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Sonic Adventures 1]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 2]]'', had Sonic and the other playable characters take separate routes, each relating to their respective arcs, only for all of them to intersect in an unlockable final-storyline.

* ''Main/{{Record of Lodoss War}}'''s prequel manga – "Lady of Pharis" features a bunch of the NPC veteran heroes, such as the Holy King Fahn, the Sage Wort, and the Dark Emperor Beld, as heroes. While they do form the iconic party referenced in the anime and manga – The Six Heroes – at the end of the story, much of the story features the characters grouping together for specific conflicts, then breaking up and doing their own things. While some have tighter bonds, Wort and Beld, for example, are old companions, while Fahn and Flauss both serve the God of Light Pharis/Falis (translation differences), the only time the ENTIRE group is all functioning together as one party is at the very end, when these six heroes are the only survivors of the 100 heroes that took on the Labyrinth of the Demon King. Heck, series antagonist Karla doesn't even actively join the group until the final battle at the Labyrinth, though Wort had been watching her movements throughout the story, and yet she claims to be one of the "protagonists" of that conflict when she resurfaces as a villain in the anime and manga.

** More complete [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lay4mjvfw61qbiooko1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1327813207&Signature=C20w6qw%2Bj8yX8Xl4v%2B8ZvbeptRU%3D chart]].

* Lampshaded and played straight during Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': Rand al'Thor tends to bring in other ''[[TheChosenOne ta'veren]]'' (an in-world term for people around whom destiny works). Destiny exists in the world, but so do free will and random chance, and the way it's possible for all three to be real is that destiny doesn't actively push anything around unless a ''ta'veren'' is nearby, at which point people will make crazily impulsive major decisions out of the blue and freakishly lucky (or unlucky) flukes of chance will happen regularly. ''Three'' of the main characters are ''ta'veren''. The book begins in their home village, along with two of their peers (special in another way) and a visiting magic-user. Those six people get broken up partway through the first book and reunited near the end in a justified way (the magic-user was looking for the rest), then broken up again early in the second book and reunited in a very {{You ALL Share My Story}} way at the end of the third. Only two of them at most have been together at any time since early in the fourth book. It's now on book 12 and there are hundreds of characters, most of whom have met two or three of the main characters even if they don't know it.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' had the three friends, including Terra, Ventus, and Aqua all take seperate routes that intersect with each other. [[spoiler:However, their stories would also intersect with Sora's, as it's revealed in the unlockable Blank Points ending that Sora would be the one to save Terra from Xehanort's control, Ventus from his comatose-state, and Aqua from the Realm of Darkness.]]

* In ''FinalDestination2'', five of the characters realise that they have previously cheated death by accident, and each case was the result of one of the deaths in the first film - the reason why they have been targeted this time.

* In ''FinalDestination 2'', five of the characters realise that they have previously cheated death by accident, and each case was the result of one of the deaths in the first film - the reason why they have been targeted this time.

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* In ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'', a OneDegreeOfSeparation pocket existed between the Noob guild and Fantöm's team before Gaea joined the former, making their members running into each other quite frequent. Over the course of the story, pre-existing (or formed early) connections of a given group frequently end up having some kind of influence on the story of a member of the other.
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* The many different plot threads in PeterFHamilton's ''Pandora's Star'' and ''Judas Unchained'' all follow different characters who, through one way or another, end up working against the BigBad.

%%* ''RepoMan''. "There's this lattice of coincidence, see?"
* ''StarWars''. Oh, StarWars...
** If you're not a Jedi, a Jedi's close friend, or take orders from a Jedi, you're welcome to live a normal, unremarkable life. If you are one of those things, you will be dragged into an intergalactic war with the Sith. Eventually you will be packed into a small area for the final bit of Rising Action before the Climactic Fight Scene with every other named character who fits this description. This will play out the same way regardless of any qualifications any of you may or may not have about fighting evil robots and space ninjas. The ''only'' thing more powerful than the Force in a galaxy far, far away is coincidence. (Although considering that TheForce flows through everything, they may be one and the same.)

%%* ''LoveActually'' is all about this trope, culminating in most of the characters going to the local school play.
* ''Valentine's Day'' had this as their main gimmick, but it manages to play off as a bit more realistic than at first glance, due to not all "connections" being particularly plot important or advertised.

* Parodied in a scene from ''HotShots'': Turns out pretty much all the trainee pilots are connected in some way, due to an incident involving Hartman's father being mistaken for a deer.

* ''VideoGame/NamcoXCapcom'' separates the franchises whose characters are involved in the crossover into five shared realms as opposed to each franchise having its own world (like the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' games generally imply), and everyone within each realm seems to already know or at least know of each other beforehand.

* The entire cast of ''DragonBall'' is as tight as any close family could be.

** Slightly out of date, but [[http://kokuun.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/drrr-relationships.png done]].

* The current TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles comic from IDW uses this heavily. April O'Neil is an intern at Baxter Stockman's company, where Splinter and the turtles are created. Stockman is working for Krang, and one of the scientists under him is a double agent for the Shredder, most of which is established in the first issue, which also brings Casey Jones into the mix. And it extends from there, but there's pretty much no character or plot element that doesn't tie back to at least three others.

* ''RepoMan''. "There's this lattice of coincidence, see?"

* ''LoveActually'' is all about this trope, culminating in most of the characters going to the local school play.

* Creator/StephenKing - ''The Stand''
* Effectively averted by HarryTurtledove in his series.

* Some of the characters in the ''[[EndersGame Ender]]'' series

* ''Series/{{Lost}}.'' One of the {{DVD}}s even has a chart keeping score of the character interactions pre-island.

* Pretty common in all {{Soap Opera}}s.

* This trope is important to ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods''. Especially since "No one is Alone" and they all fight a giant together.
* ''[[Theatre/{{Twilight}} Twilight: Los Angeles]]''.
* This is the central premise of ''AnInspectorCalls''

* This is the defining motif of the visual novel ''[[EfATaleOfMemories ef]]'' (and its anime adaptations), in which the stories of five separate couples are ridiculously closely intertwined.
* This is one of the defining motifs of ''HeavyRain''.
* A trait of the story mode in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl.''
* ''[[VideoGame/LiveALive Live-A-Live]].'' Without spoiling anything, just look at the names of each Chapter's BigBad.

* Deliberately invoked by Dr. Edward Roivas in the opening narration to ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''.

* A standard in [[LiveActionRoleplayingGame Live Action Roleplaying Games]], as otherwise the characters would have little reason to interact with each other.

* Many heroes (cybertronian and human) in the ''{{Transformers}}'' TheMultiverse are connected to one another in some fashion or another.

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' invokes this. Part one features MysticalWaif Micaiah and the Dawn Brigade as they seek to emancipate Daein from Begnion repression. Part two features Queen Elincia of Crimea dealing with a rebellion in her country, and part three focuses on the hero Ike and the war between Begnion and the Laguz Alliance. All their paths converge for the final part, as all groups join to [[spoiler:fight the Goddess Ashera and restore the world.]]

"We are all connected" isn't just hippie-dippie jargon; in Fictionland it's a universal constant like gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. In a narrative with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters (or even as few as two), these will [[HowToGatherCharacters invariably be drawn together]] no matter how far away or distinct the characters and their troubles are. They probably won't stick together as strongly as the CharacterMagneticTeam, but what ends up happening is that everyone meets at least once and they build at least a working relationship. Essentially, every character works on a different aspect of the plot; while one tracks down the [[AngelUnaware mysterious]] WomanInWhite, another fights the [[TheKillerWasLeftHanded left handed killer]] after her, and a third is trying to find out where the killer gets his orders from.

* In ''WhatsUpDoc'', all of the owners of the four handbags, plus their various friends, associates, and loved ones, find themselves staying at ''exactly'' the same hotel. This leads to what is possibly [[CrowningMomentOfFunny the best chase scene in cinema history]].