History Main / YouALLShareMyStory

%%** Slightly out of date, but [[http://kokuun.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/drrr-relationships.png done]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/LiveALive Live-A-Live]]'', each scenario feels separate until the Medieval chapter is played and reveals [[spoiler:that the BigBad is Oersted, who is now the Demon King Odio]], and he has been terrorizing and testing humanity in all the previous chapters in various incarnations. The Final chapter involves all of the protagonists from the previous scenarios being teleported to his home world to confront the BigBad.

* In ''[[VideoGame/LiveALive Live-A-Live]]'', each scenario feels separate until the Medieval chapter is played and reveals [[spoiler:that the BigBad is Demon Lord Odin]], who has been terrorizing and testing humanity in all the other chapters in various incarnations. The Final chapter involves all of the protagonists from the different scenarios to be teleported to the world that has them confront the BigBad.

* ''Film/EskimoDay'', contains many overlapping characters, all in the similar situation of taking interviews at Cambridge university. When a scene focuses on one family, some of the other main characters are frequently seen in the background.

** Usually averted - 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.

* Creator/TerryPratchett, author of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series, lampshades this in ''Discworld/MovingPictures'':

%%* ''[[VideoGame/LiveALive Live-A-Live]].'' Without spoiling anything, just look at the names of each Chapter's BigBad.

* ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' invokes this. Part one features 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 [[JustForFun/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 killer after her, and a third is trying to find out where the killer gets his orders from.

* The majority of the ''Franchise/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.

* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Film/StarTrek'', with Spock's mention of the "Hands of fate" that led the Enterprise crew to completion.

* In ''Film/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]].

* Creator/CharlesDickens loves this trope. ''Literature/BleakHouse'' is the crowning example: there are over eighty characters, all of whom turn out to be essential to the denouement. ''Literature/OliverTwist'', ''Literature/LittleDorrit'', etc. also heavily participate in this structure.

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

* Creator/GrantMorrison plays with this in his ''ComicBook/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 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.

"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 killer after her, and a third is trying to find out where the killer gets his orders from.

* During the first part of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link helps a number of characters of various races in their homelands. Seven years later, the majority of them discover that they are actually the sages of various elements. While exceptions exist, the pattern is sufficiently established that, when Link goes back to his youth and meets Nabooru, the player can easily guess that the same thing will happen to her.

* It's a major tenet of the fictional religion Bokononism in ''[[KurtVonnegut Cat's Cradle]]'', called a ''karass''. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the narrator at one point when a near-stranger shows him a collection of photos; he reflects later that they were all part of his ''karass'', [[spoiler:their fate being to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].

* The cast of ''DeptHeavenApocrypha'' has developed a tendency to become either distantly or directly involved in each others problems. Characters whose plots haven't fully begun yet like Monica and Meria are especially prone to this.

%%* Effectively averted by HarryTurtledove in his series.

* ''Literature/CloudAtlas'' presents an unusual example. There are six stories, taking place at different times in the same history. Each stories makes a cameo in the next segment, but otherwise they are only related to each other through symbolism and parallelism.

** ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'': Combined with TheLawOfConservationOfDetail and ChekhovsArmoury. All of the seemingly unconnected characters (including the Electric Monk) are all connected together.

--->It is a small world.You don’t have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that in the whole world there are only 500 real people--the cast, as it were. All the rest of the people, the theory suggests, are extras. And what is more, they all know each other. And it’s true. Or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands groups of about 500 people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. It is not even a coincidence. It’s just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or for propriety.

* ''Love Soup's'' premise is based on the exact opposite. We have Alice and Gil, two Londoners who would be perfect for each other - if they knew they other existed. In the final episode you can see them sitting in the same theater without noticing each other - even though they are the only ones not laughing.

%%* This is the central premise of ''AnInspectorCalls''

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', where it's revealed that [[spoiler: Squall, Selphie, Seifer, Quistis, Irvine, and Zell were at the same orphanage when they were little kids and have all forgotten about it]]. Well, except Irvine--that's how they figured it out in the first place.
** While [[spoiler:Rinoa wasn't from the orphanage, but she did have a relationship with Seifer]]. She is also the daughter of [[spoiler:of Julia, who was Squall's father's crush, and another man born after Laguna, Squall's father, was presumed dead]].

%%* 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.

%%* A trait of the story mode in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl.''