History Main / CallReceivalArea

-->''As with many of fate's mysteries, it begins with but a small act... of disobedience.''\\
-- '''Samos''', [[Main/{{JakAndDaxter}} Jak And Daxter]].

Our story begins with our hero, and his best friend and/or UnluckyChildhoodFriend living peacefully in their quaint, [[DoomedHometown little town]]. One day, they decide to have a little adventure. Not too far from the town there is a place the village elder has told them they better not get close to. [[YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb Our heroes decide to go there]], maybe looking for some rumored treasure, maybe because NothingExcitingEverHappensHere, maybe just to screw the rules.

Bad idea.

Their little adventure begins without much excitement, but soon takes a turn for the worse, and the ancient SealedEvilInACan is free to terrorize the world once again, the UnluckyChildhoodFriend is kidnapped into another dimension, and the hero is now CursedWithAwesome.

Sometimes, it seems that, although some weird stuff happened at some point, there were not any serious consequences. It will be when they return when they will find out that removing the ancient CosmicKeystone from its pedestal just put the Doom into DoomedHometown.

Anyway, the point is [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the hero just screwed up royally]], and now he (and [[ItsUpToYou he alone]]) must solve it. This is the part where the CallToAdventure itself appears, usually dispensed by the village elder who only now decides to reveal the background of the Call Receival Area. Generally, it happens that the OnlyOne who can destroy the SealedEvilInACan is the one who freed it, or the fact that he was capable of destroying the seal in the first place indicates he actually was TheChosenOne all along. Or perhaps only he can wield the CosmicKeystone he removed, or he considers saving his UnluckyChildhoodFriend [[ItsPersonal personal]].

Compare with ForbiddenZone, which contains no call but usually has ancient dangerous stuff lying around too.
----
!!Examples:

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''JakAndDaxter'', where the quote comes from.
* ''[[ManaSeries Secret Of Mana]]'', where the hero is simply kicked out of town because [[WalkingDisasterArea trouble is following close behind]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that absolutely nothing happens there for the rest of the game.
* ''{{Terranigma}}'' has a small subversion: The village elder manipulated the hero into going into the CallReceivalArea as part of an elaborate XanatosGambit.
* ''Lufia II'' did this.
* In ''DragonQuestVII'', Prince Kiefer regularly defies his father to go explore the forbidden ruins with his [[TheHero best friend]]... who ends up kickstarting the plot upon making an important discovery there.
* ''SummonNight Swordcraft Story II''. Aforementioned unlucky childhood friend [[spoiler:turns out to be a demon associated with the SealedEvilInACan who's attempting to [[KilledOffForReal kill it off for real]].]]
* The Dalish Elf origin in ''DragonAge Origins'' features one of these: a ruin which the PlayerCharacter and their UnluckyChildhoodFriend explore.
* The Four Sword Shrine in TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures serves as one of these, slightly subverted in that Link was forced to release Vaati.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Inverted in Joan Vinge's ''Snow Queen'' books where the two protagonists, Moon and Sparks, venture to a "choosing place" to determine if they will become "sibyls" (something that means a lot more than they realize.) They had previously had an agreement that they would either both be chosen or neither, so that they would stay together, but The Call Didn't Care -- Moon was chosen and Sparks wasn't, she broke their agreement, and ...the rest of the story followed.
* For the Grace twins and their sister in ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'', the CallReceivalArea was the sealed off attic of the house they'd just moved into, and the GreatBigBookOfEverything locked away up there.
* A wardrobe in ''[[{{Narnia}} The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]''
* ...and in ''HisDarkMaterials''.
* In ''[[InheritanceCycle Eragon]]'', the titular boy goes off hunting in the Spine, a forbidden and haunted place, where he finds a dragon egg and brings doom down upon his home.
** Not forbidden, explicitly. Just a strong reputation for bad luck.
* In Louise Cooper's ''{{Indigo}}'' series, [[ForbiddenZone the one place people are forbidden to go]] is the Tower of Regrets. The Princess Anghara, naturally, is dying to know what the tower contains that makes it so taboo...turns out the tower ''physically'' contains nothing...but acted as [[SealedEvilinACan a spiritual trap for seven demons that personified the evil of humanity]]. Oops.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''TenchiMuyo'' (the {{OVA}} version): For all his life, Tenchi Masaki was curious about that cave near his grandfather's shrine where a demon was sealed...
** Which turns out to have been [[XanatosGambit all part of the plan]]. His grandfather told Tenchi just enough about the cave and the demon to keep him insatiably curious about it, then forbid him to ever go inside. The final play was tricking Tenchi into thinking that he hadn't noticed the boy stealing the key from him during their sparring match.
* The plot of ''CardCaptorSakura'' begins with the protagonist poking around in her archaeologist father's basement library, and ending up unsealing the Clow Cards (which are not evil) and a magical WeaselMascot who gives her the CallToAdventure. (In fact, their conversation contains the same point made in the Scooby-Doo example below.) She, too, was all by herself during these events.
* [[MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha Nanoha]] decided to take a shortcut through the forest 'cuz she was late, and found an injured animal with a strange gemstone around its neck... and that's when the 'Magical Girl Lyrical' bit was added to her name.
* ''[[YesPrettyCure5 Yes! Precure 5]]'' uses this almost humorously. Nozomi, the protagonist, is [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny implied to be ADHD]]; fittingly, while running to school, she gets distracted by a pretty butterfly and runs after it instead. This one event is what later allows her -- and, by association, the rest of the main cast save for the residents of the MagicalLand -- to gain powers and fight the Nightmare Corporation.
* A slightly unconventional example in the FullMetalAlchemist manga and original anime. Although the catalyst for their trek off into alchemy-learning land is something as deadly serious as the promise of bringing their mother back from the dead, one watching gets the feeling that the whole prospect is more of a, "Fun little adventure that we get to have now that mom's not breathing down our neck anymore!". It becomes suddenly, cruelly apparent that what they were getting themselves into was far, far more complex and dangerous than they'd ever imagined when the body parts start alchemically-flying; and while they don't exactly release any SealedEvilInACan, both the figurative and literal monsters they unleash (the new lives they must now live, and... well, a monster) are plenty terrifying. As a matter of fact, you can actually pinpoint the exact moment things serious the F up. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YoSlPFCB4w#t=1m5s Oops.]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo'' is a tweaked example. Chiro ended up in the CallReceivalArea all on his own.
-->'''Chiro, opening narrative:''' ''While exploring the outskirts of the city, I discovered an abandoned Super Robot. It was then that my life was transformed by the mysterious Power Primate...''
* This is the basic plot of ''The 13 Ghosts of ScoobyDoo'', as explained in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-RsyA32pXw the opening theme]]:
--> '''Vincent van Ghoul''': "Only YOU can return the demons to the chest!"
--> '''Scooby-Doo and Shaggy''': "Why us?"
--> '''Vincent''': "''Because YOU let them out!!''"
** More specifically, they were tricked into opening the chest by ThoseTwoBadGuys, who made them think it was a mystery prize in a game show. So not exactly their fault.
----
<<|CallToAdventure|>>

* ''{{Terranigma}}'' has a small subversion: The village elder manipulated the hero into going ito the CallReceivalArea as part of an elaborate XanatosGambit.

* ''KingdomHearts'' has this in every world you visit, but the most apt one for this trope was in the Destiny Islands.

Our story begins with our hero, and his best friend and/or [[Main/{{UnluckyChildhoodFriend}} Unlucky Childhood Friend]] living peacefully in their quaint, [[Main/{{DoomedHometown}} little town]]. One day, they decide to have a little adventure. Not too far from the town there is a place the village elder has told them they better not get close to. [[YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb Our heroes decide to go there]], maybe looking for some rumored treasure, maybe because [[Main/{{NothingExcitingEverHappensHere}} Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here]], maybe just to screw the rules.

Their little adventure begins without much excitement, but soon takes a turn for the worse, and the ancient [[Main/{{SealedEvilInACan}} Sealed Evil In A Can]] is free to terrorize the world once again, the [[Main/{{UnluckyChildhoodFriend}} Unlucky Childhood Friend]] is kidnapped into another dimension, and the hero is now [[Main/{{CursedWithAwesome}} Cursed With Awesome]].

Sometimes, it seems that, although some weird stuff happened at some point, there were not any serious consequences. It will be when they return when they will find out that removing the ancient CosmicKeystone from its pedestal just put the Doom into [[Main/{{DoomedHometown}} Doomed Hometown]].

Anyway, the point is [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the hero just screwed up royally]], and now he (and [[ItsUpToYou he alone]]) must solve it. This is the part where the [[Main/{{CallToAdventure}} Call To Adventure]] itself appears, usually dispensed by the village elder who only now decides to reveal the background of the Call Receival Area. Generally, it happens that the [[Main/{{OnlyOne}} Only One]] who can destroy the [[Main/{{SealedEvilInACan}} Sealed Evil In A Can]] is the one who freed it, or the fact that he was capable of destroying the seal in the first place indicates he actually was TheChosenOne all along. Or perhaps only he can wield the CosmicKeystone he removed, or he considers saving his [[Main/{{UnluckyChildhoodFriend}} Unlucky Childhood Friend]] [[Main/{{ItsPersonal}} personal]].

Compare with [[Main/{{ForbiddenZone}} Forbidden Zone]], which contains no call but usually has ancient dangerous stuff lying around too.

* A slightly unconventional example in the [[FullMetalAlchemist]] manga and original anime. Although the catalyst for their trek off into alchemy-learning land is something as deadly serious as the promise of bringing their mother back from the dead, one watching gets the feeling that the whole prospect is more of a, "Fun little adventure that we get to have now that mom's not breathing down our neck anymore!". It becomes suddenly, cruelly apparent that what they were getting themselves into was far, far more complex and dangerous than they'd ever imagined when the body parts start alchemically-flying; and while they don't exactly release any SealedEvilInACan, both the figurative and literal monsters they unleash (the new lives they must now live, and... well, a monster) are plenty terrifying. As a matter of fact, you can actually pinpoint the exact moment things serious the F up. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YoSlPFCB4w#t=1m5s Oops.]]

** More specifically, they were tricked into opening the chest by ThoseTwoEvilGuys, who made them think it was a mystery prize in a game show. So not exactly their fault.

* A slightly unconventional example in the [[FullMetalAlchemist]] manga and original anime. Although the catalyst for their trek off into alchemy-learning land is something as deadly serious as the promise of bringing their mother back from the dead, one watching gets the feeling that the whole prospect is more of a, "Fun little adventure that we get to have now that mom's not breathing down our neck anymore!". It becomes suddenly, cruelly apparent that what they were getting themselves into was far, far more complex and dangerous than they'd ever imagined when the body parts start alchemically-flying; and while they don't exactly release any SealedEvilInACan, both the figurative and literal monsters they unleash (the new lives they must now live, and... well, a monster) are plenty terrifying. As a matter of fact, you can actually pinpoint the exact moment things serious the F up.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YoSlPFCB4w#t=1m5s Oops.]]

* A slightly unconventional example in the [[FullMetalAlchemist]] manga and original anime. Although the catalyst for their trek off into alchemy-learning land is something as deadly serious as the promise of bringing their mother back from the dead, one watching gets the feeling that the whole prospect is more of a, "Fun little adventure that we get to have now that mom's not breathing down our neck anymore!". It becomes suddenly, cruelly apparent that what they were getting themselves into was far, far more complex and dangerous than they'd ever imagined when the body parts start alchemically-flying; and while they don't exactly release any SealedEvilInACan, both the figurative and literal monsters they unleash (the new lives they must now live, and... well, a monster) are plenty terrifying. You can actually pinpoint the exact moment things serious the F up.

* A slightly unconventional example in the [[FullMetalAlchemist]] manga and original anime. Although the catalyst for their trek off into alchemy-learning land is something as deadly serious as the promise of bringing their mother back from the dead, one watching gets the feeling that the whole prospect is more of a, "Fun little adventure that we get to have now that mom's not breathing down our neck anymore!". It becomes suddenly, cruelly honest that what they were getting themselves into was far, far more complex and dangerous than they'd ever imagined when the body parts start alchemically-flying; and while they don't exactly release any SealedEvilInACan, both the figurative and literal monsters they unleash (the new lives they must now live, and... well, a monster) are plenty terrifying. You can actually pinpoint the exact moment things serious the F up.

* The Four Sword Shrine in TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures serves as one of these, slightly subverted in that Vaati broke out on his own.