TRILOGY

A 'trilogy' is a set of three works of art, usually literature, film, or video games that are connected and can be seen as a single work, as well as three individual ones.
Most trilogies are works of fiction involving the same characters or setting, such as ''The Deptford Trilogy'' of novels by Robertson Davies or ''The Godfather'' films of Francis Ford Coppola. Others are connected only by theme: for example, each film of Krzysztof Kieślowski's ''Three Colors'' trilogy explores one of the political ideals of the French Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) and each novel in Paul Auster's ''The New York Trilogy'' uses formats from detective fiction to explore existential questions. Trilogies can also be connected in less obvious ways, such as "The Nova Trilogy" of novels by William S. Burroughs, each written using Brion Gysin’s cut-up technique.
Trilogies — and series in general — are common in science fiction and fantasy because of the artistic importance of complex ideas and the commercial importance of brand names.
Occasionally, the term is applied to music, such as the Berlin Trilogy of David Bowie, linked together by their musical sound and lyrical themes, and the fact that part of them was recorded in Berlin, Germany.

Contents

Ancient trilogies

Adding works to an existing trilogy

Unofficial or mistaken trilogies

Famous trilogies

Novels

Movies

Video games

Other uses

See also

Ancient trilogies

Trilogies date back to ancient times.
In the Dionysia festivals of ancient Greece, for example, trilogies of plays were performed followed by a fourth satyr play. ''The Oresteia'' is the only surviving trilogy of these ancient Greek plays, originally performed at the festival in Athens in 458 BC. The three Theban plays, or Oedipus cycle, by Sophocles, originating in 5th century BC, is not a true example of a trilogy because the plays were written at separate times and with different themes/purposes.
In ancient India, an example of an early trilogy includes the epic ''Mahabharata'', which originally consisted of three portions. Vyasa's original core portion of the epic was the ''Jaya''. Vaisampayana's ''Bharata'' expanded on the story, with Vyasa's ''Jaya'' embedded within it. Ugrasrava eventually composed the ''Mahabharata'', with both Vyasa's ''Jaya'' and Vaisampayana's ''Bharata'' embedded within the epic.

Adding works to an existing trilogy

Creators of trilogies may later add more works. In such a case, the original three works may or may not keep the title "trilogy."
The films ''Batman'', ''Batman Returns'', and ''Batman Forever'' were released on home video in 1995 as the "Batman Trilogy", but after the 1997 release of ''Batman and Robin'', a new package containing all the films was called the "Batman Legacy".
By contrast, The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov originally consisted of ''Foundation, Foundation and Empire'' and ''Second Foundation'' and was considered a trilogy. Asimov wrote several more Foundation books and retroactively incorporated many of his other works into the continuity of the series. Despite this, the first three books are still considered a trilogy because they contain a story that is self-contained. (Further complicating the matter, the ''Foundation'' series was originally eight short stories and novelettes written for science fiction magazines; its division into three books is more or less incidental.)
The first three novels in the ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series were dubbed a trilogy, and even after he extended the series to five novels, author Douglas Adams, for humorous effect, continued to dub it a trilogy. He even called ''Mostly Harmless'' "the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy".
The six ''Star Wars'' films are generally separated into two trilogies; the "original trilogy" (the three films released between 1977 and 1983) and the "prequel trilogy" (the three films released between 1999 and 2005, which take place before the original three films).
The creator of the ''Metal Gear'' series of video games, Hideo Kojima, has stated that three of the games are to be considered a trilogy: ''Metal Gear Solid'', '', and ''. This is despite the fact that ''Metal Gear Solid'' continued the story of previous games ''Metal Gear'' and '', the fact that '' is a prequel to the entire series, and the fact that the trilogy's story is continued in ''.
Richard Wagner's epic series of operas, ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', is sometimes referred to as a trilogy even though it consists of four works: ''Das Rheingold'', ''Die Walküre'', ''Siegfried'', and ''Götterdämmerung''. The first work, ''Das Rheingold'', is more correctly considered a prelude despite the fact that it is longer than most operas. After this prelude, which sets up the story, the trilogy begins with ''Die Walküre''. Performances of ''The Ring'' are usually billed as three nights plus a prelude.

Unofficial or mistaken trilogies

Sometimes a trio of works is known as a trilogy not in regard to continuity, but rather to its creator. For example, before Quentin Tarantino's fourth film was released, his films ''Reservoir Dogs'', ''Pulp Fiction'', and ''Jackie Brown'' were sometimes referred to as "the Quentin Tarantino trilogy," although the stories of the three films did not interconnect. However, the main characters in ''Reservoir Dogs'' and ''Pulp Fiction'', Vic and Vincent Vega respectively, are brothers
Three works with similar themes from a creator may later come to be known as a trilogy, especially if produced one after the other. The Steven Spielberg films ''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'', ''Minority Report'', and ''Catch Me If You Can'' are unofficially known as "the running man trilogy," despite the vastly different settings and characters, because each featured a main character escaping a pursuer. Terry Gilliam has dubbed his films ''Time Bandits'', ''Brazil'' and ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' as "The Imagination Trilogy", in that each movie has to do with the imagination of humans in the three stages of life; child, man, elder man. Another example is the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone; no continuity between the three movies was intended by Leone, but American marketers advertised the Clint Eastwood character in each film as being the same "Man with No Name".
One of the most popular "trilogies" of fantasy books, ''The Lord of the Rings'' by J. R. R. Tolkien, is not a trilogy, though it is often referred to as such. Tolkien regarded it as a single work and divided it into a prologue, six books, and five appendices. Because of post-World War II paper shortages, it was originally published in three volumes. Sir Stanley Unwin, Tolkien's publisher, also split the novel into three parts to garner separate book reviews for each book of the 'trilogy', and thus (hopefully) spike book sales. It is still most commonly sold as three volumes, but has also been published in one-volume and seven-volume editions (as it is also split into six books and the appendices).
Occasionally, more than three works are planned but never finished. The Gormenghast fantasy trilogy is a trilogy by default, as author Mervyn Peake planned to write more novels set in that continuity until his health turned ill.

Famous trilogies

Novels

★ The Barrytown Trilogy (1987-1991) by Roddy Doyle

★ The Border trilogy (1992-1998) by Cormac McCarthy

★ The Bartimaeus Trilogy

★ The Cairo Trilogy (1956-1958) by Naguib Mahfouz

★ The Condor Trilogy (1957-61) by Jinyong

★ The Deptford Trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy, The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies

★ The Foundation Trilogy (1950-1953) by Isaac Asimov

★ The Gormenghast trilogy (1950-1962) by Mervyn Peake

★ His Dark Materials (1995 - 2000) trilogy by Philip Pullman

★ The Lord of the Rings

★ The Malayan trilogy (1956-1959) by Anthony Burgess

★ The Mars trilogy (1992-96) by Kim Stanley Robinson

★ The New York Trilogy (1985-86) by Paul Auster

★ The Nova Trilogy (1961-64) by William S. Burroughs

★ The Regeneration trilogy (1990-1995) by Pat Barker

★ the Sprawl trilogy (1984-88) by William Gibson

★ The Sword of Honour (1952-1968) trilogy by Evelyn Waugh

★ To the Ends of the Earth (1980-1989) trilogy by William Golding

★ The U.S.A. trilogy (1930-36) by John Dos Passos

★ The VALIS trilogy (1978-81) by Philip K. Dick

Movies

★ The ''Apu'' Trilogy (1955-59), directed by Satyajit Ray and based on the works of author Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

★ ''Back to the Future'' (1985 – 1990) directed by Robert Zemeckis

★ The ''Dollars'' Trilogy (1964-66), directed by Sergio Leone

★ ''The Godfather'' Trilogy (1972-90), directed by Francis Ford Coppola

★ The ''Indiana Jones'' Trilogy (1981-1989) (soon to become a tetralogy), directed by Steven Spielberg

★ The ''Qatsi'' Trilogy (1983-2002), directed by Godfrey Reggio

★ The original ''Star Wars'' Trilogy (1977-1983), directed by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, and Richard Marquand

★ The ''Koker'' Trilogy (1987-1994), directed by Abbas Kiarostami

★ ''Mexico Trilogy'' (1992-2003), directed by Robert Rodriguez

★ Pirates of the Caribbean films Trilogy (2003-2007) directed by Gore Verbinski

★ The ''Three Colors'' Trilogy (1993-1994), directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski

★ The ''Lord of the Rings'' Trilogy (2001-03), directed by Peter Jackson

Video games

★ The Sonic The Hedgehog trilogy, produced on Genesis.

★ The Super Mario Bros. trilogy, produced on NES.

★ The Jak and Daxter trilogy, produced on PlayStation 2.

★ The Xenosaga trilogy, produced on PlayStation 2.

★ The Sly Cooper trilogy, produced on PlayStation 2.

★ The Donkey Kong Country trilogy, produced on Super NES, then came out on Game Boy Advance.

★ The Kirby's Dream Land trilogy, two produced on Game Boy and one on SNES.

★ Prince of Persia trilogy, produced on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.

★ 2D Mortal Kombat trilogy, originally on arcade and then released to home consoles.

★ NES Final Fantasy trilogy, produced originally on the NES/Famicom and then remade on later consoles and handhelds.

★ ''Ultima'' is sometimes considered "Trilogy of Trilogies" Ultimas I-III are the "Age of Darkness", Ultimas IV-VI are the "Age of Enlightenment", and Ultimas VII-IX are the "Age of Armageddon".

★ The Halo trilogy, for the Xbox and Xbox 360.

★ The Metroid Prime trilogy, for the Gamecube and the Wii.

Other uses

Trilogies differ from a triptych, which is a set of three related or connected paintings that are created at one time and designed to be viewed as a single work.
In boxing and other combat sports, a trilogy may refer to a series of three separately-scheduled matches between two fighters, usually with each winning the first two a third to settle the question of who is best.

See also

★ Sequel

★ Duology

★ Tetralogy

★ Pentalogy

★ Heptalogy