It Gets Better: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Rave Master]]'' has a slow start and poor artwork at the beginning of the manga. It isn't really until Sieg shows up that the series really kicks into gear, even if he leaves shortly afterward.

* ''[[Heat Guy J]]'' appears to have attempted this, and suffered a [[Cosmic Deadline]]. It starts out very slowly, and ends on quite an action-packed note, but many fans dropped off before even making it halfway through.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'' doesn't play on much of its video game elements until the ending of the first book and from then on through the rest of the series.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Death Proof]]'' could be the ultimate example of the trope. 45 min. more or less of how [[The Bechdel Test]] actually works, for a time, talking about pot, dancing, jobs and everything. Halfway through it, people can walk out... except that after all that, there's a car crash in which everybody dies except Stuntman Mike.

* ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' (1963) begins very slow and moves along like a drama until it somewhat abruptly breaks into the [[Slapstick]] and chase scenes the series is known for.

 

== Literature ==

* The beginning of Frank Herbert's first ''[[Dune]]'' book is heavily weighted down with this kind of exposition in the first hundred pages.

* The ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series can be like this, depending on how much you like politics. Each is at least several hundred pages long, and in one instance, a book for which the title and back cover talk all about Honor being captured, said capture doesn't happen until the last 100 or so pages of the book. In ''War Of Honor'', so much time is spent on the politics leading up to the resumption of hostilities that even if you're hoping they somehow avert the war, you may eventually change the tune to "Someone shoot at ''somebody'' so something actually ''happens''." It's 450 pages in before a shot is fired, and it isn't even the main conflict.

* ''[[Ringworld]]'' spends quite a while showing the reader why Louis Wu wants to go traveling. Unfortunately the reason he wants to travel is that his life is boring and hollow, something that Niven gets across a bit too effectively.

* A common phrase said by fans to new readers of ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]''. The first book throws the reader in the deep end without so much as a "can you swim?", with a whole host of characters and events and expects you to run with it. After the first few hundred pages, after the reader has acclimatised themselves, the experience quickly becomes less "Huh-wha?" and more "Ooohh! That's clever."

* The first third of ''[[Skylark Series|The Skylark of Space]]'' is rather low-key. All the action occurs on Earth and is mostly the subterfuge of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|DuQuesne]] trying to steal [[The Hero|Seaton]]'s technology. Then they finally do get in space, and after a few jaunts to various planets, the [[Lensman Arms Race]] eventually comes in full force.

 

* ''[[The Wire]]'' isn't exactly instant gratification TV, and it certainly [[Continuity Lock Out|does not exactly make it easy for new viewers to jump in and understand the show]]. The first few episodes get hit with this problem the hardest, which almost overwhelms to the point of discouragement, thanks to [[Info Dump|detail overload]] and an [[Loads and Loads of Characters|abundance of characters to introduce and dissect]]. However, as all longtime fans of ''The Wire'' know ''very'' well, for people willing to take the time to understand the show's intricate design, they will be rewarded a hundred times over. It just takes some perseverance to get there.

* After ''[[Lost]]'' season 3 opened up with an awe inspiring first five minutes, many fans found the first seven episodes to be very frustrating and boring, not to mention a hasty death that cut off a potentially awesome future to an already great character. Some viewers during the season's original airing jumped ship around this time, which is too bad, because the following episodes were mostly wonderful, and the [[Mind Screw|completely unexpected season ending]] [[Wham! Episode|changed everything viewers knew about the show]].

* The first five episodes of ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' are very slow, due to hardly any characters actually being aware of the vampires' existence. Then Elena finds out at the end of episode five, and the show improves considerably.

* [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] isn't terrible ''per se'' but the first couple of seasons struggle, with awkward storylines, jerky character development and interaction, and [[Anvilicious|often heavy handed morals]] that they [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|don't get away with as easily as the original series]] did. By the third season however they've really come into their own and distinguished themselves as more than just a sequel series for a cult 60's show. Next Gen is now one of the most popular series, and is in fact [[Trope Namer]] for [[Growing the Beard]].

 

== Music ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzWGkgFcTU "Ghost of Stephen Foster"] by [[Squirrel Nut Zippers]] has a minute of slow, somber violin music before the catchy klezmer ''finally'' begins.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxP-KR-O2Ls "Threnody"] by [[Sebasti An]] is quite possibly the biggest build-up to a bass drop ever: out of a 13 minute song, the build-up is ''11 minutes long''. [[Sebasti An]] has played it live many times before in its entirety, often [[Troll|extending the introduction by ten or more minutes]], with [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarious results.]]

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** This is one of the major things [[Wizards of the Coast]] tried to fix in 4th Edition. It didn't really work: combat at level one is no longer dangerous but, for the lack of abilities, still boring; and some of the [[Unpleasable Fanbase]] want the thrill of low-level danger back.

 

* The first two thirds of ''[[Our Town]]'' consists of a mind-numbingly detailed portrait of completely average small-town life. Of course, that's part of the point the author is trying to make.

* The first part of the prologue of ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Götterdämmerung]]'', with the Norns, is 15 minutes of pure exposition.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Star Ruler]]''. At the start your industry is poor, your ships are short-legged, slow, weak and don't carry much ammo, early-game rushes are nearly impossible. It's only after some tech buildup that you can start making war in earnest.

 

* A ''lot'' of webcomics, a natural consequence of learning to cartoon, plot, and write by the seat of one's pants.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' starts out about a kid in his house. It then proceeds to [[Growing the Beard|grow a]] [[Mind Screw|very, very strange]] [[Growing the Beard|beard]] when the reality-altering video games come into the plot. According to the author's Formspring, this is one hundred percent intentional.

* It's often recommended to skip straight past the first five chapters of ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]''.

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' starts as the story of a [[Loser Protagonist]], in black-and-white. But here, this is voluntary: the story begins with her intelligence limiter removed. So ''she'll'' get better.

 

== Web Original ==

* The web puppet series "Robot Rampage" suffered this in its first episode. While it essentially sets up the plot for the first season (building a Robot), the episode is a bit slow and expositional.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s early videos were ''okay'', they just weren't particularly laugh out loud funny or the Critic himself especially interesting. But then Doug tried something new by challenging [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] and the comedy and character started falling into place.

 

== Western Animation ==

* While they probably stand out compared to G3 and 3.5, which by popular admission are pretty terrible, one could argue that the first two ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episodes are heavily clichéd and predictable. While these two episodes certainly aren't ''bad'' exactly, it's the later, slice-of-life episodes that are the real gems of the series.

* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' begins not with the founding of The Avengers, but with about two hours' worth of shorts detailing how each of the first eight members fought crime ''before'' becoming part of the team. Regardless of whether you watch each short one by one, or watch the five episodes compiling them, they make a rather disjointed introduction to the show.<ref>The individual shorts were released in an order that caused the heroes' exploits to constantly interrupt one another, while the episodes compile them in a manner that sometimes fails to give each hero equal prominence.</ref> Even after the Avengers get founded, it takes six ''more'' episodes for all eight of those superheroes to join. However, a number of the episodes detailing the team's founding and early expansions became regarded nearly as highly as those that followed, if not more so.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Exposition]]

[[Category:Pacing Problems]]

[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]