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  • ️Sat Jul 13 2024

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ArcFatigue/WesternAnimation

Arc Fatigue

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Arc Stall

Examples 

  • The Jeff in Space arc in American Dad! It was dragged out over the course of three seasons (which amounted to a little more than two years in real life) and it didn't help that it was only focused on at least once per season and that it ultimately resolved via reset button where all the characters (barring Roger, the one who started it in the first place) would forget the events of the whole thing.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko's Heel–Face Turn doesn't happen until the final stretch of Season 3, only a few episodes before the Series Finale. That's despite having the seeds planted as far back as the Season 1 episode "The Blue Spirit". Viewers were guessing it would happen even before that. It was the main drive of his character arc from the beginning of Season 2 onward, including one case in the Season 2 finale where it looks like it's finally going to happen, and then doesn't. While Zuko does still get in a few good moments here and there, it still felt like a long drag to resolve one character's story arc.
  • In the Secret Invasion adaptation in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it takes the Avengers seven episodes longer than the viewers to realize one of their members became replaced by a Skrull, and another five to discover which Avenger fell victim.note  This wouldn't feel as bad if not for Disney XD taking inexplicably long breaks in between certain episodes, or the possibility that this arc contains more filler than any from the first season. Disney's DVDs arrange the episodes in production order. Because of this, the Avengers discover eight episodes in that an alien lives among them and take another five to find out who exactly the alien replaced. The viewer doesn't get to see what happened to the victim until after they notice a member has been replaced.
  • The Avalon World Tour arc in Gargoyles. The creators weren't pleased about that, however, and when it was coming to a close, made some clear hints that the end was indeed in sight. Due to production issues, episodes couldn't be aired one after another. Hiatuses had to be endured, stretching twenty-some episodes over several months rather than weeks. It wasn't helped by the absence of half the main cast during most of the arc. Made worse by the arc's tendency to recycle plots. Toward the end of the arc, even the characters themselves were tired and longing for it to end.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • The main romance between Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Cat Noir was incredibly slow to progress, not helped by the Flanderization of Marinette. As of the beginning of its fifth season, the show had three What If? episodes but never allowed the two's relationship to progress in the 100+ episodes aired in that timespan. This led many to either drop the duo or outright drop the series. Said fifth season didn't do much to alleviate the issue, as the pair ended up being hit by an Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Ladybug begins to fall for Cat Noir, who is oblivious to her hints and now only sees Ladybug as friend because Adrien is crushing on Marinette... who is denying her longtime feelings for Adrien due to falling for a Twin Switch between Adrien and his duplicitous cousin Félix in the S4 finale that ultimately cost her all but two (technically three) of the Miraculous. The show itself seemed to be aware of how drawn-out this aspect of the story was, as Alya, who became Marinette's Secret-Keeper in the fourth season, repeatedly bemoans Marinette's avoidance of Adrien when he's finally showing an interest in her and pokes holes in the "logic" behind her sudden infatuation towards Cat Noir. Marinette and Adrien actually did hook up for real later on in Season 5 and stayed together, but a good portion of the fandom felt that, while this was long overdue, all the narrative zig-zagging (as well as inconsistent characterization for both halves of the couple) caused the pairing to lose quite a bit of steam in the process. Not helping matters was how Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie, a Non-Serial Movie in its own canon that released around the time S5 had wrapped up, ended with the two learning each other's Secret Identity and implicitly getting together in what is effectively an expanded retelling of their origin story, a development that was much better received by fans.
    • Many believe that Hawk Moth overstayed his welcome as the main villain, with the show's repeated attempts to justify his actions coming across to them as hollow. If that wasn't enough, he drew ire from those wanting the love square to progress, since two of the aforementioned What If? episodes ("Cat Blanc" and "Ephemeral") all but spell out that he's the single biggest obstacle to Marinette and Adrien getting together. Season 3's "Timetagger" revealed that Hawk Moth will not retain his position as the holder of the Butterfly Miraculous in the future, but how long it would take the show to catch up to that moment, or what that moment would even entail, was anyone's guess until the Season 5 finale, which saw Gabriel's death and Lila's claiming of the Butterfly Miraculous to become the new Hawk Moth.
    • Adding to the fatigue for all the above cases, the show experienced several (extended) delays starting with Season 2, meaning fans had to wait quite a bit between and even during seasons to see how certain developments would play out. On top of that, quite a few episodes were released Out of Order, and U.S. viewers were further impacted due to behind-the-scenes disputes that eventually caused the show to Channel Hop from Nickelodeon (S1) to Netflix (S2 and S3) and then to Disney Channel (S4-present). The fourth Miraculous World special, Miraculous World: London, even had a moment acknowledging the real-life passage of time between seasons: When Marinette goes back in time to the day of the "Origins" two-parter from the first season, she muses that it feels like it's been "ten years" since then. That's barely an exaggeration — the special, serving as a bridge between the fifth and sixth seasons, was released in October 2024, nearly eight-and-a-half years after "Origins" first aired in Spring 2016.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes ran five minutes a pop with two episodes bookending a half-hour program. Two story arcs went on for uncannily long periods. The first arc, "Jet Fuel Formula," ran from its November 19, 1959 debut to April 2, 1960, running 40 episodes (20 weeks). The third arc, "Upsidasium," went on for 36 episodes (18 weeks, from September 22, 1960 to January 12, 1961).
  • South Park: While the Tegridy Farms arc wasn't too pervasive in Season 22, it was accused of this quickly once it became the main focus of Season 23, of which seven out of ten episodes are entirely about Tegridy and Randy, six of them being in a row. Randy becomes a Creator's Pet and an unlikeable jerkass who murders cows, tries to force his daughter to like weed, and burns other people's crops, while the rest of his family become Satellite Characters who do nothing but mope about how miserable their life on the farm is. Even worse is that they have faked out the ending of the arc twice: midway through Season 23 and with the Streaming Wars specials, both of which acknowledge how tired fans are of it. The Tegridy Farms arc has now been running since 2018 and taken over most of the new episodes.
  • Steven Universe: The formation of Malachite and her eventual defeat got hit with arc fatigue. 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 Heel–Face Turn as separate from the concurrent Cluster arc.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
    • The Search for Splinter storyline. The arc itself — by that name — only lasted two episodes. It was interrupted before reaching a conclusion, though, by the five-episode-long "Turtles in Space" arc, finally coming to a close at "Secret Origins"note , seven episodes after 'Search' had begun. Putting one story arc on hold for a while will have that effect, though.
    • Having a 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.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
    • The Pulverizer/Mutagen-Man story arc. It doesn't help that the show seems to forget about him from time to time. Even when Donatello finally develops a cure, he doesn't once mention using it on Timothy.
    • In the first season, after April's father Kirbynote  disappears, it takes the entire season and one fakeout for them to finally reunite...and then in the second season, the mutation happens. Then he's turned back to normal... only to get mutated again...
    • The biggest offender is one of the series' longest arcs: namely, Splinter's quest to reunite with his daughter Miwa alias Karai. Not only could this plotline often be forgotten about for several episodes, every time it looked like an actual advancement would be made, something would always come up to ruin everything for them. Such as Miwa getting mutated and then put under Shredder's control. Or Splinter getting badly wounded, separated from everyone, and temporarily reduced to a feral state. Or Splinter temporarily getting killed off until a Reset Button was hit. This ended up lasting several seasons. To top it all off there's no proper resolution. At the end of the fourth season Splinter is killed for real without an actual reunion, meaning the entire plot the viewers were watching since the end of the first season turned out to be All for Nothing.
  • In Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, the decision to return to a full season's worth of episodes (unlike its parent series which had been using half seasons) was warmly embraced by the fanbase at large. However, it did lead to some problems with this:
    • Stephanie and Ryan, the Daters a.k.a. the Haters Slap-Slap-Kiss Masochism Tango arc, since its about the only thing they contribute to the series. Not helped by the fact they technically lose the race three times but every time just so happens to be a non-elimination round, the third time in "Lord of the Ring Toss" really annoying fans, in particular. The general consensus is they should have either stayed broken up and gone home or made up and gone home in half the time they did so more popular and well-developed teams could have time in the spotlight.
    • Even fans of the duo felt that Carrie and Devin's Will They or Won't They? storyline dragged on for too long, which wasn't helped by the fact it was resolved in one episode. However, this might actually have been the intended reaction, as even Don and the other contestants comment that they've gotten tired of it.
    • Chet and Lorenzo managed to have this despite barely making it past the half-season mark, due to the entirety of their plot happening in the span of their last two legs in the race. Before this, all they did was argue for the entire time they were on screen which got very grating very quickly.
  • Bloom's missing biological parents in Winx Club. They are first mentioned in Episode 13note , but it takes three seasons and one movie before they are finally reunited. It doesn't help that there were other plot threads going on at the same time, with the show only coming back to her missing parents seemingly when it felt like it.
  • Young Justice:
    • The yet-unresolved continuing grand scheme of The Light became this in the second season. So the heroes foil the season-long plans of the Light — surprise, all that was only Phase 1! And some other fans were already thinking this during the first season. Most of the show had a problem with this, actually: there are so many intertwining plotlines going on at the same time, all of them saturated with characters that only seem to be there for the sake of having another new hero/villain, that you can easily get lost between everything or get sick of it. Made all the worse that, by the season finale of Season 2, it's obvious what The Light's plan was: 1) use the Justice League's attack on Rimbor to alert the universe and The Reach to the presence of Earth as a major world; 2) use The Reach to instigate Mongul into bringing War World to Earth; 3) destroy The Reach's plans and give The Guardians a reason to try them for war crimes, in order to take them out of the picture; 4) use The War World around Rimbor to alert the rest of the universe that Earth is hereby off-limits; and 5) complete the previous four objections in preparation for Darkseid ("Wherever there is Light, there is always a Darkseid") and the legions of Apokolips to invade Earth... Season 3 would have been Apokolips invading Earth. The show was canceled before this could possibly have become even more complicated. It really doesn't help that, thanks to multiple hiatuses, the show spent more time off the air than on.
    • When the show was Un-Canceled, the fatigue came back tenfold, and by the conclusion of Season 3, very little progress is 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 moved much more slowly than many had expected. Most took it as practically given after the Season 2 stinger that Apokolips would invade Earth in Season 3, but that doesn't happen. The Earth is never under direct threat in Season 3, unless you count the very few minutes it appears Granny has won.
    • This can also apply to the many subplots started or continued in Season 3. Even more so than previous seasons, the writers very clearly did not write the season with any aim to be conclusive. Plot threads are laid all across the season that are never touched upon but are clearly meant to be continued at some point. Anything involving Jason Todd and Ra's al Ghul, Cheshire, or the potential for giving non-metahumans the metagene is left unresolved.
    • While Season 4 does make actual efforts to conclude earlier storylines from as far back as the earlier seasons when it comes to the members of the Team, the Light and Apokolips conflict once again continues at a snail's pace (members from both sides appear as Arc Villains, but the seasonal plot involves an unaffiliated third party in the Phantom Zone Kryptonians lead by General Zod, with the time traveler Lor-Zod only allying with Apokolips to set them free). The upcoming conflict only makes progress in the last episode when the Light imprisons the Phantom Zone's entire population of Kryptonians on the Warworld and hands Kara Zor-El to Darkseid so she can become a Female Fury.

Myth Stall

Examples 

  • This is ultimately what spelled the doom of the Myth Arc focusing on the identity of Archer's father in Archer:
    • Way back in Episode 6 of Season 1, Nikolai Jakov (head of the KGB) is established as Archer's father, but then the finale backtracks on this and has him as only one possible candidate of three. Then in part one of Season 2's two-part finale, Archer flies to Russia to get a DNA test with Jakov, but Boris ruins the test, so we still don't know if it's Jakov. Then in Season 3, after Malory starts dating Burt Reynolds, the show drops a few hints that he might be the father (he wasn't one of the other two original candidates). Then in a later episode in that season, Malory brings up a completely different guy to any of the other candidates that she believes might be the father. And then (still in the same season) Jakov gets killed off by Barry in a way that leaves no DNA behind, so if Jakov was the father, Archer and the audience would never know. Then in Season 4, when Archer is bitten by a cobra, he flashes back to a memory of meeting his real father when he was a kid, only to forget who it was immediately, and since we never saw his face, we don't who it was either (the only clue is that it doesn't seem to be any of the pervious candidates, and that is if the memory was even real). After three and a half seasons and six candidates, you will probably be more annoyed than you ever were intrigued. This is what lead series creator Adam Reed to abandon the arc as he felt that the fans no longer cared to find out the answer. After the Season 4 episode, the question is only ever brought up twice after, once indirectly and again as an Unreveal.
    • In the Season 12 episode "London Time", we're introduced to a character named Cornelius Vermer, a man who had an ongoing romantic relationship with Malory, and in his youth looked almost exactly like Archer, even having a similar build and voice as the man in Archer's dream sequence. Given the uncanny resemblence and the perfect timing, Cornelius instantly becomes the most likely candidate, with no one else even coming close. Archer himself never pushes the issue and doesn't seem to care.
    • In the final episode, Slater claims to have found out the identity of Archer's father, and tries to use it to barter for his life. Archer responds by picking him up like he's going to let him live, only to explicitly tell him it doesn't matter to him anymore and his coworkers are his real family, sending a terriffied Slater falling to his death off a dam — an ending that might be frustrating to some, but extremely satisfying to others.