Breather Episode: Difference between revisions

In [[Video Games]], this trope may occur as well, but there's also a variant of the trope applied to the game's difficulty rather than the game's content: see [[Breather Level]].

{{examples}}

** ''[[Slayers]]'' TRY has a breather episode disguised as a plot episode. Lina finds herself in {{spoiler|a strange sort of wonderland pastiche, and is given to believe that it is the chaos between worlds, and that she ended up here after having failed to save the world from destruction the previous episode.}} Turns out it's just a theme park they got knocked into.

* The [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)|2003 anime adaptation of]] ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' featured a comedic episode centering on the State Military members directly under Roy Mustang's command, right in the center of an intense plot arc involving a rebellion in a remote city.

* A ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'' example is Jun's love-motivated duel with Asuka, coming directly between the defeat of the last 7 Star and the final battle of the arc.

* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' had one breather episode between the Nazi arc and the Roberta arc, and a very over-the-top free-for-all gunfest mini-arc between the disturbing Hansel & Gretel arc and the final Japan arc (which was surprisingly deep at times... For ''Black Lagoon'', anyhow).

** ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]'' is like this too, following a similar episode structure to ''Higurashi'', except the spike from cheerful to fearsome is much sharper.

* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'' most notably has a breather episode where the main protagonists take a break to play a soccer match at the direction of their spiritual leader. When asked why he directed them to do so, he reveals that it is, ''literally'', a breather episode for both the audience and the characters.

* ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'' uses [[School Festival]] episodes to keep the show from getting too serious. However, as per the show's standard operating procedure, even the silly comedy episodes contain at least one serious plot point or a [[Cliff Hanger]] ending in order to keep things running.

** In the audio commentary for Stage 21 (the infamous "pizza festival" episode), it's actually directly stated that head writer Ichiro Okouchi thought that the plot at that point in the show was getting very serious and wanted to give everyone a break.

** Right after Mitsuo's capture, we get episodes 13 and 14 (summer vacation).

** Episode 19 focuses on the cultural festival right after a tense episode about Nanako's mother's death.

* Episode 5 of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is considerably lighter than the episodes that preceded or followed it. No mind-scarring trauma, [[Awful Truth|Awful Truths]], or horrible angst. Still not actually happy, though.

* The ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' [[OVA]] (a.k.a. episode 10.5) takes place between [[Pretty Freeloaders|Nana's settling in the inn]] and [[It Got Worse|Mariko's arrival]], and consists mostly of comedic [[Slice of Life]] and bonding between Nana and Nyu. And [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Heartwarming]].

** Also, after one story arc, there is a chapter that consists entirely of "Nothing happened for the next few months".

* Very similarly, in Stephen King's It, right between one epic battle with the monster and the beginning of the events leading up to the last, is the mini-chapter (he numbers sections within titled chapters) which consists entirely of "Nothing much happened for the next two weeks."

** ''Half Blood Prince'' was set between the two most emotionally turbulent books in the series. After the fifth book ends with Harry [[Rage Against the Mentor|breaking down in Dumbledore's office]], Dumbledore is much more above-board and the focus is split between Harry learning about Voldemort's past and the various [[Shipping|ships]]. The drama comes back in full force in the last few chapters, but it's mostly much-needed breathing space.

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (Franchise)/So Long And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]''

* ''Q & A'', from the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]]. And considering the plot hinges on ''the destruction of every universe in existence EVER'', that's really saying something about the other novels, no?

* ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' #44 ''The Unexpected'' qualifies. It comes right before the 11 book arc that ended the series, it has nothing in the way of character or plot development, and the events (Cassie getting stranded in [[Land Down Under|the Australian outback]]) are not mentioned again.

** Other examples that are placed in the middle of a string of arc episodes include the holosuite-centered "Badda Bing Badda Bang" (a heist caper in 1960s Las Vegas) and "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" (a baseball game versus a team of Vulcans).

** "In The Cards" provides a big change in pace to break the tension before the season finale, with Jake and Nog getting into all kinds of hijinks.

** Since JMS didn't know if he'd get a fifth season, he packed two seasons' worth of the A plot into season 4, and season 5 was mostly made up of the leftover B plots.

* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' employed this trope quite often, particularly when Xena and Gabrielle are each forced to kill each other's children in one particular episode.

* ''[[Homicide Life On the Street]]'' had Season Five's very funny, self referential "The Documentary" placed between "Blood Wedding" and "Betrayal", two of the most emotionally wrenching episodes in the show's history.

** Despite "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of the Dead" having the subject matter of {{spoiler|a man having missing identity due to a fugue state}}, and a race of aliens that turned a thriving world to dust, they were fun romps in comparison to the horrifying "The Waters of Mars" and David Tennant's tragic regeneration story ''The End of Time''.

** Following all-out war in "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky" and "The Doctor's Daughter" and before the nightmarish Library in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", we have a murder mystery parodying [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s works. Attempted murder through cyanide has never been so hilarious!

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' had "Revenging Angel", which was mostly done in the style of a [[Looney Tunes]] cartoon, wedged between the two episodes dealing with {{spoiler|the death of one of the Crichtons.}}

* In the midst of the dark and grim Ori storyline, ''[[Stargate SG 1|SG-1]]'' had "200", a [[Very Special Episode]] celebrating the 200th episode the show aired (coincidentally coinciding with Cam Mitchell's 200th trip through the 'gate, so they could have an excuse to give it that title.) Highlights of "200" include blatant Wizard of Oz references, zombie fighting, and [[Genre Savvy|self-referencing]] all around. Highlights of the episode before include savage murders and the Trust (again). Highlights of the next episode include genocide and presumed character death.

** The writing team of ''Battlestar Galactica'' was notoriously incapable of producing such episodes. The third season episode "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" was another response to a plea from the network for a breather. It was originally intended to be a fun, light stand-alone episode concerning the establishment of a bar on the Galactica. what made it onto screen was an almost unbearably grimdark episode in which the B-plot involves {{spoiler|the suicidally depressing dysfunction of several romantic relationships}}, while the A-plot covers {{spoiler|the force-feeding, mock execution, and drug-induced torture of a major character}}. Fun!

* ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' did this immediately after the climactic events of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2". Picard was rescued and cured of Borg assimilation, and rather than dive straight back into adventure of the week, he took some shore leave on Earth to recover, in the episode "Family". This was also incidentally the first episode in Star Trek history to feature no shots of the bridge of the Enterprise. (Unless you count [[Star Trek the Animated Series (Animation)|animated episodes]], in which case, TAS: The Slaver Weapon was the first. This was the second.)

* ''[[Crisis Core]]'' features a breather mission. Right after a very dramatic point, {{spoiler|where Zack has to fight and kill his mentor and best friend, then spends the rest of the cutscene crying and being comforted by Aerith,}} Zack is next seen on vacation in Costa Del Sol. He's then attacked by scuba-geared enemies, and has to fight them off with a beach umbrella in lieu of his BFS.

* The original ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' featured one as well, after [[Spell My Name With an "S"|Aeris]] [[It Was His Sled|dies]] at the end of disk one, the beginning of disk two immediately gives you a snowboarding minigame to lighten the mood.

* Chapter 8 of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has Sazh and Vanille going to Cocoon's theme park, featuring an absolutely gorgeous FMV cutscene. {{spoiler|Shortly after this, the shit hits the fan - Dajh reappears and just as quickly turns to crystal, Sazh finds out that Vanille is partly responsible for turning his son into a l'Cie, and by the end of the chapter both characters have tried to kill themselves.}}

* After the intense emotional drama and [[Bittersweet Ending]] of ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy X 2]]'' may be considered a breather game, with its all-female cast, bouncier J-Pop soundtrack and more upbeat storyline.

* Episode 9 of ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness]]'' could be considered one of these as it's one of the funniest episodes of the game place right after one of the series' biggest tear jerkers.

* Though ''[[Planescape Torment]]'' is not that combat-based a game, the Brothel Of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, and in fact most of the Clerk's Ward is basically combat-free, epitomized by a sequence in which your characters hang out with a bunch of sexy women, swap stories, solve mysteries, and discuss philosophy with them while pleasant music plays in the background. You will find that hours have passed since you last killed anything. And after that everything goes to hell. {{spoiler|Literally. Twice}}.

* The chapter "Black Mesa East" in ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'' provides a welcome break between the long canal sequence ("Route Kanal" and "Water Hazard") and the zombie-filled [[Survival Horror]] slaughterfest "We Don't Go To Ravenholm".

* The third case in ''[[Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Justice For All'' fits between the extremely heavy second case (where Phoenix's assistant is accused of murder) and the perhaps-heaviest-in-the-series fourth case (where {{spoiler|his assistant is kidnapped, forcing Phoenix to defend someone he knows to be guilty.}}) The third case takes place at a circus, features an effeminate magician as defendant, and a clown and Ventriloquist Dummy as major witnesses. It's not particularly well liked as an installment.

** Also applies to the third case of the first game, which, aside from introducing two recurring characters, is a lot less plot relevant than the previous or subsequent cases.

== Web Original ==

* After the heavy dramatic exposition in episodes 18 and 19, ''[[Unforgotten Realms]]'' made Episode 20, [[A Day in The Limelight]] with ROAMIN the paladin, watching him solve crimes in his... [[Cloudcuckoolander|unique]] fashion.

* Entry #23 of ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' is the most brutally scary of the series, with J returning to the abandoned house and {{spoiler|being teleported all over the place, hearing the horrible static, somehow ending up in the factory seen in #22, and actually meeting the Slender Man.}} Entry #24, by contrast, 'only' has the [[Paranoia Fuel]] of {{spoiler|J's own house apparently making him disappear for hours at a time,}} which by the standards of the series is relatively calming.

* ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' had two of them both consisted of two shorts rather than a full episode, the show had a very dark theme most episodes were about the characters saving or attempting to save others from Dr. Robotnik or uncovering clues from the past while trying to avoid being caught by Robotnik, in the first of these irregular episodes involves Antoine being kicked out of the Freedom Fighters and joining a gang of biker hyenas the second short involved Sonic telling ghost stories to Tails and Antoine and they believe the ghost exists, the second one involves Sonic's house being destroyed during a snowstorm and moving in with Antoine which drives him nuts and the second segment involved one of Rotor's robots falling in love with Antoine and stalking him.

* Episode 10 of ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]'' is a teen romantic comedy set between a [[Tear Jerker]] episode and a particualrly violent and intense one.

* ''[[Regular Show]]'' has "My Mom", the first episode in which nothing particularly wild or crazy happens — it's mostly just Muscle Man teasing Mordecai and Rigby, who are annoyed by his antics. Keep in mind this is a series whose first episode included a magical keyboard that transported everyone to the Moon where they fought an [[Eldritch Abomination]].

** A better example is "See You There". It involves a birthday party with just a few hijinks by the end.

[[Category:Episodes]]

[[Category:Breather Episode]]