We should probably scan through Recap pages for examples... The Bus Came Back got potholed to 2,355 pages, and look at all these glorious, glorious ZCE:
- Adventure Time S6E27 "The Visitor": Martin's back.
- Adventure Time S 5 E 41 The Pit: Lady plays a major role for the first time since "Jake the Dad".
- Adventure Time S 6 E 25 Astral Plane: Martin. After not appearing since "Escape from Citadel", he returns in an unexpected way.
- Adventure Time S6E29 "Dark Purple": Susan Strong re-appears for the first time since season three's "Beautopia".
- Adventure Time S 7 E 16 Angel Face: Me-Mow returns since her first appearance in Season 3.
- Adventure Time S 7 E 26 Broke His Crown: The original Gunther, Simon, and Betty all exist inside the crown.
- Adventure Time S 7 E 37 Preboot: Tiffany returns after being eaten by a worm in "Dentist".
- Adventure Time S 7 E 4 Mama Said: Canyon, Billy's ex.
- Adventure Time S 8 E 18 Horse And Ball: James Baxter.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1 E16 "End of the Beginning": Agents Hand, Sitwell, Blake, Triplett, and Garrett all appear.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1 E17 "Turn, Turn, Turn": Agents Shaw and Weaver come back but things weren't looking good for Weaver.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2 E3 "Making Friends and Influencing People": Donnie Gill returns, as does the real Simmons.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S3 E6 "Among Us Hide...": Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe), who went unnamed in his appearance in The Avengers, returns, now with a name.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S3 E7 "Chaos Theory": José "Joey" Gutierrez makes his first reappearance since the season premiere.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 E17 "Identity and Change": Agent Burrows, who is killed in "The Patriot", returns as a Framework's virtual character.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 E21 "The Return": Just before The Stinger, Ghost Rider emerges from the interdimensional transporter.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 E22 "World's End": As shown at the end of the previous episode, Ghost Rider is back.
… all these is just from the "A" section. A lot of these are just "My favourite character is here" or belongs to a different trope (like, say, Belated Backstory or Back from the Dead)
Any objections to kill on sight?
Oversized Garden Ornament
I just checked out the Live-action TV section of Bus Crash to see what these pages are like, and found a ton of ZCEs of the type "Three seasons after character X was last seen on the series, it is revealed that they have died off-screen", without any mention of how they were put on a bus in the first place. The trope seems to be shoehorned to "a character dies off-screen", which lacks the "Bus" aspect.
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the shows in question so I can't tell if the examples can be salvaged or not.
Edited by GnomeTitan on Oct 7th 2021 at 4:09:17 PM
Musician/Composer
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
No objections for me.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Consensus in this TRS thread
was to use a cleanup thread for the Tropes on a Bus category, including The Bus Came Back (which the thread is for), so reviving this since we don't need to make a thread from scratch. Currently, we need to update the description for The Bus Came Back since its description was updated, and decide whether the trope is added to No Recent Examples, Please! (and the scope of the restriction if it has consensus), so the TRS thread will be open a little bit longer.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 5th 2022 at 12:21:35 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
As I said in the TRS thread, should this be moved to Long-Term?
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I actually didn't notice this wasn't already on Long-Term Projects. That's been fixed.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Per TRS, The Bus Came Back's cleanup is being deferred to this thread, and the following changes have been made:
- Characters no longer have to be explicitly written out of the story.
- A waiting period now applies:
- One season after the character's absence for episodic works for characters who weren't explicitly written off.
- Two sequels after the character's absence for non-episodic works for characters who weren't explicitly written off.
- If the character is explicitly Put on a Bus, provide an exception to the waiting period.
he/him
How does that translate into episodic works without defined 'seasons' - e.g. comics and soap operas that don't have season breaks (Eastenders etc.)?
Do we take the view that a year is equivalent to a season for those scenarios?
he/him
Agreed elsewhere (NREP thread, I think) and now added to the trope page.
Hello, everyone. The Tropes on a Bus category contains tropes that can be used used for when a character is written off of a show or film (such as Put on a Bus, Put on a Prison Bus, The Bus Came Back, Bus Crash, etc.).
Unfortunately, these particular tropes have experienced widespread misuse throughout the site for characters who leave a show even if they're not written out properly. Given the situation, I would like to consider discussing a potential cleanup of these tropes here. Thoughts?
Edited by gjjones on Oct 6th 2021 at 11:40:04 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.