You ALL Share My Story: Difference between revisions

Line 7:

Compare [[Fate Drives Us Together]].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Durarara!!]]'', you soon realize that literally EVERYONE is connected, from the [[Ordinary High School Student]] Mikado to the [[Shrinking Violet]] Anri to her [[Stalker with a Crush]] teacher Nasujima to [[Knife Nut]] Haruna to [[Intrepid Reporter]] Niekawa to [[The Fair Folk]] Celty to the [[Mister Exposition]] Shinra to [[Manipulative Bastard]] Izaya to the amazingly [[Improbable Weapon User]] Shizuo to the [[Frozen Face]] Kasuka to [[Idol Singer]] Ruri to the [[Butt Monkey]] fanboy Togusa to the [[Torture Technician]] otakus Walker and Erica the [[Perpetual Frowner]] Kadota to the [[Scary Black Man]] Simon to the [[Large Ham]] Kida to [[A Love to Dismember]] Seiji to [[Insane Troll Logic]] practitioner Namie to... well... everyone. Someone should make a chart about this.

** Slightly out of date, but [http://kokuun.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/drrr-relationships.png done].

Line 20:

Line 19:

* ''[[Baccano!]].''

== Comic Books ==

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Grant Morrison]] plays with this in his ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'': Each of the titular seven protagonists' stories brings them against the same foe, even though the characters themselves<ref>except Frankenstein and Klarion the Witch Boy</ref> never meet.

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Repo Man]]''. "There's this lattice of coincidence, see?"

* ''[[Star Wars]]''. Oh, [[Star Wars]]...

Line 35:

Line 32:

* In ''[[Final Destination]] 2'', five of the characters realise that they have previously cheated death by accident, and each case was the result of one of the deaths in the first film - the reason why they have been targeted this time.

* In ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'', the three separate subplots involving Lennox's team, the NSA hackers, and Sam and Mikaela (as well as the main plot about, y'know, the giant robots) all converge when everyone is assembled at the Hoover Dam for the final battle.

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Stephen King]] - ''The Stand''

* Effectively averted by [[Harry Turtledove]] in his series.

Line 45:

Line 40:

* Some of the characters in the ''[[Ender's Game|Ender]]'' series

* [[Charles Dickens]] loves this trope. ''[[Bleak House]]'' is the crowning example: there are over eighty characters, all of whom turn out to be essential to the denouement. ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[Little Dorrit]]'', etc. also heavily participate in this structure.

* [[Terry Pratchett]], author of the ''[[Discworld]]'' series, lampshades this in ''[[~~Discworld/Moving Pictures|~~Moving Pictures]]'':

* [[Terry Pratchett]], author of the ''[[Discworld]]'' series, lampshades this in ''[[Moving Pictures]]'':

{{quote|Reality is a quality that things possess in the same way they possess, say, weight. Some people are more real than others, for example. It has been estimated that there are only 500 ''real'' people on any given planet, which is why they keep unexpectedly running into one another all the time.}}

** His friend [[Neil Gaiman]] elaborated on this in ''[[Anansi Boys]]'':

* His friend [[Neil Gaiman]] elaborated on this in ''[[Anansi Boys]]'':

{{quote|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.}}

{{quote|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 of 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.}}

* It's a major tenet of the fictional religion Bokononism in ''[[Kurt Vonnegut|Cat's Cradle]]'', called a ''karass''. [[Lampshade Hanging|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 [[The End of the World as We Know It]]}}.

* It's a major tenet of the fictional religion Bokononism in [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'', called a ''karass''. [[Lampshade Hanging|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 [[The End of the World as We Know It]]}}.

* Effectively averted (so far) in George RR Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' - there will often be two or more viewpoint characters sharing a few scenes ([[Justified Trope|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.

* Effectively averted (so far) in [[George R. R. Martin]]'s ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' - there will often be two or more viewpoint characters sharing a few scenes ([[Justified Trope|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.

** Didn't the opening chapters of ''Game of Thrones'' have pretty much every POV character (in that book) except Dany in Winterfell?

*** Justified, since they were all related by blood or marriage to Eddard Stark or Robert Baratheon, who in turn were old friends and fought together during Robert's ascension. Also, a fair portion (Jon, Bran, Arya, Sansa) are still children and would be expected to be living with their parents. While they might all have been conspicuously in the same place, at least there are reasons for it.

Line 57:

Line 52:

* Many of the characters in ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' are completely unrelated until a comical convergence of events at the end.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Lost]].'' One of the [[DVD]]s even has a chart keeping score of the character interactions pre-island.

* The first season of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' had this as a major theme, with all the divergent characters slowly coming together over the course of the story, culminating with all the characters' paths lead them to converge at Kirby Plaza for the final showdown to save the world from Sylar. Unfortunately, the later seasons seem to be trying way too hard to ''resist'' this trope, with increasingly illogical results. After coming together through S1, by S2 they're all scattered and many of them seem to have forgotten they know each other (literally in Peter's case) and from there on in they're always encountering problems they could solve if they just called in someone they know, and nine times out of ten they don't.

Line 68:

Line 62:

== [[Theatre]] ==

* ''[[Theatre/Twilight|Twilight: Los Angeles]]''.

* This is the central premise of ''[[An Inspector Calls]]''

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', where it's revealed that {{spoiler|all the player characters 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.

** IIRC, {{spoiler|Rinoa wasn't from the orphanage, but she did have an affair with Seifer, who ''was'' from there.}}

Line 91:

Line 83:

* This is the culmination of four games worth of metaplot in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]''. The ending reveals for the first time precisely how Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and Desmond Miles are related: a single shared moment when the three Assassins bridge the gap between the 13th, 16th, and 21st centuries and thereby allow [[Precursors|Those Who Came Before]] to communicate across time to share their secret message.

* In ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', every single character is somehow connected to the backstory. The two strange inmates? {{spoiler|They were manipulated by Yomiel.}} The lady detective's young roommate? {{spoiler|Her father was indirectly the cause of Yomiel being made immortal.}} In some cases it's justified, as {{spoiler|Yomiel is using that night as his last chance to get revenge on everyone.}}

== Miscellaneous ==

⚫

* The cast of ''[[Dept Heaven Apocrypha]]'' 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.

⚫

* A standard in [[Live Action Roleplaying Game]]s, as otherwise the characters would have little reason to interact with each other.

== Western Animation ==

Line 101:

Line 88:

* Done in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", where Rainbow Dash's first successful Sonic Rainboom is revealed to be indirectly responsible for all of her future friends (and herself) getting their cutie marks. They wouldn't realize this until they all met years later.<ref>For those unfamiliar with the series, this translates to "a tomboyish pegasus went so fast she created a rainbow/sonic boom hybrid that was indirectly responsible for a bunch of ponies hitting puberty and getting magical, life-defining tramp stamps." [[It Makes Sense in Context]].</ref>

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' basically runs on this. The lives of titular step-brothers, Perry the Platypus, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz, are constantly interwoven, often affecting each other without fail. The only character out of the four mentioned that is involved with all of the other three is Perry, Pet to Phineas and Ferb, Nemesis to Dr. D, and is basically in the middle of all the mayhem. Phineas and Ferb don't even meet Doofenshmirtz until [[The Movie]], and even then {{spoiler|they get their memories erased of the whole thing.}}

== Other Media ==

⚫

* The cast of ''[[Dept Heaven Apocrypha]]'' 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.

⚫

* A standard in [[Live Action Roleplaying Game]]s, as otherwise the characters would have little reason to interact with each other.

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:~~You ALL Share My Story~~]]

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:Backstory Tropes]]