Line #72 Anime/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemonmovie07.jpg]]
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3	-->''"A tale untold. A legend unleashed."''
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5	The twelfth ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' movie, which concludes the StoryArc set up in the tenth.
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7	While the tenth movie introduced Dialga and Palkia, and the eleventh introduced Giratina, the twelfth introduces Arceus, who serves as the [[OlympusMons creator deity]] in Pokémon myth. As we learn more or less immediately, Arceus is ''not'' a happy camper and has every intention of bringing humans to Justice (read:[[HumansAreBastards annihilating all of humanity]]), starting with [[WatchingTroyBurn the town of Michina]], the site of an age-old betrayal.
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9	Naturally, this happens ''just'' as Ash, Dawn, and Brock are passing through the town and visiting the local temple (the site of the betrayal). There, they meet the two temple guardians, Sheena ([[OneShotCharacter whom we care about]]) and Kevin ([[SatelliteCharacter whom we don't]]), who appear and reveal that they have been charged with overseeing the sacred ''[[MacGuffin Jewel of Life]]'', which gives life to the valley and was wrongfully stolen from Arceus in ages past by Sheena's own ancestor, Damos.
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11	And good thing, too, because that just so happens to be when Arceus makes his appearance, in which he screams about Justice and starts laying ''absolute waste'' to the town and temple. Luckily, Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina all appear and decide to band together to hold Arceus back from destroying their pals, Ash and Pikachu. Sheena delivers Arceus the Jewel in attempt to make peace, only for everyone to discover that the Jewel is ''fake'' (and Arceus doesn't like that '''[[YouLoseAtZeroTrust one bit]]'''). With the downward spiral of events suddenly accelerated, [[TimeMaster Dialga]] hurls Ash, the gang, and Sheena into the past to confront Damos, secure the Jewel of Life, and SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.
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13	----
14	!!This movie provides examples of:
15	* AbusiveParents: Arceus created the Creation Trio, and spends this movie beating them up for defiance.
16	* ADayInTheLimelight: Dialga somewhat, as while Palkia did most of the heavy lifting in Darkrai's film, it's space-distorting powers being the primary thing that caused problems, and Giratina had it's own movie, Dialga here pushes the plot forward by sending Ash and the gang back in time to figure out why Arceus is raining down Judgment on Michina.
17	* AmbiguousGender: Arceus is intended to be genderless even in the movies. This is both helped and hindered by the voice actor. In Japan, it's voiced by [[DragQueen Akihiro Miwa]].
18	* BarrierChangeBoss: Arceus is one due to being able to switch plates at will. The only reason [[spoiler:Marcus is able to defeat Arceus by having Pokémon under his control spam-shock it is because Arceus made the Jewel of Life out of the plates that would have let it resist electricity.]]
19	* BenevolentArchitecture: The lower levels of the temple appear to use a series of wooden posts as stairs. They are remarkably wide, far too wide, in fact, to be safe, but wide enough to allow Ash to make a flashy save of the Jewel of Life (detailed under the Awesome section for this movie).
20	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Marcus]].
21	** GreaterScopeVillain: The above's actions here pretty much make [[spoiler:him]] partially responsible for the events of the previous two movies.
22	* BigDamnHeroes: Dialga at the beginning of the movie to save Pikachu and Piplup; later, both Dialga ''and'' Palkia saving Ash and company from Arceus' attack, which would soon be followed by Giratina.
23	* BigOlEyebrows: Sheena and Damos have these.
24	* {{Bowdlerize}}: In the Japanese version, Arceus says "Judgment Day is come! Humanity, prepare for trial!" as it awakens and prepares to destroy the world. The English version changed this to "The time has come! Prepare for ''justice''!", presumably to remove the Biblical reference.
25	** Even though "Judgment" (with one 'e') is the name of Arceus' signature move.
26	** The word 'god', (in the polythestic sense) is thrown around a couple of times, but not in the English Dub.
27	* BreakTheFake: Arceus stomps on and shatters the fake Jewel of Life to prove that it is a fake. In the original Japanese version, it states that the genuine article couldn't be as easily destroyed. In the dub, it states that the real Jewel of Life was indestructible.
28	* ButtMonkey: Believe it or not, ''Dialga'' goes through this during the movie. In order: it is asked by Sheena to save Pikachu and Piplup only to then be attacked by Giratina, then afterward is trapped in a waterspout, uses all its energy to send Ash and friends back in time, and finally, it's the first to faint by Arceus. Poor, guy.
29	* ContinuityNod: The credits include shots of characters from ''The Rise of Darkrai'' and ''Giratina and the Sky Warrior''. Giratina also recognizes Ash and calms down from its rage at Dialga at the sight of him.
30	* DelayedRippleEffect: Arceus remains angry and violent for some time despite all the meddling in the past. [[spoiler:Only after Arceus is able to recognize Ash does time begin to correct itself]].
31	* DemotedToExtra: Heatran, a legendary Pokémon, is the BigBad's underling...and that's it. Seriously. It's not even the pivotal underling to the plot; that would be Bronzong.
32	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Ash, Dawn, and Brock doing nothing but standing there as Kevin explicitly orders them to escape as ''Giratina'' is in the distance fighting Dialga. Then Ash impulsively runs into the lake to get to Giratina. Granted, Giratina doesn't hurt him, but it was still a pretty dumb move when up against the enraged, 14ft tall EldritchAbomination.
33	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the present, Arceus, aka ''God'', is strong enough to beat three other legendaries at the same time, despite missing five of his plates. In the past, [[spoiler:Arceus can be subdued with large amounts of electric attacks (granted, it didn't have the Zap Plate or the Earth Plate at the time) and something called silver water]].
34	** [[spoiler:Silver water seems to be molten metal, cement, or even ''liquid mercury'', the latter being particularly likely owing to the fact that one of mercury's names in antiquity was 'hydrargyros', literally ''silver-water'']]. If that doesn't punch out Cthulhu, especially after [[spoiler:being zap-fried with millions of watts of electricity]], nothing probably would.
35	* DismantledMacGuffin: possibly inverted, since the eponymous artifact is created by Arceus from a few of its (already-established) Elemental Plates.
36	* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:The BigBad Marcus appears to fall to his death when Arceus is freed and breaks free of the hardened Silver Water. However, he's shown alive in the epilogue, likely due to Arceus' divine intervention. In the manga version, he doesn't get off so easy and dies in a DrivenToSuicide by bringing the whole temple down on top of himself. Though he was a much worse person in that one]].
37	* DivineIntervention: The Dragon Trio arrive to help stop Arceus and protect the humans.
38	* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Subverted by the waterspout at the beginning.
39	* DoNotTauntCthulhu: You anger Arceus, and it will not hesitate to ''kill your entire species''.
40	* ElementalRockPaperScissors: The Jewel of Life consists of five of Arceus's plates, which correspond to the types of Water, Ground, Electric, Grass and Dragon. The presence of the last four means that it effectively gave up all of its resistance to electric attacks, which comes back to haunt it later.
41	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "Humans being brought to justice" obviously means "Humans will go through Judgment". See Below.
42	* EntertaininglyWrong: In the present, Team Rocket hide in the ruins of Michina from the ongoing battle in the present, and become excited when they find several old artifacts, believing them to be precious treasures. In the previous scene set in the past, what they actually found were mundane objects like a cooking pot and a Cyndaquil harness.
43	* FallenHero: Arceus. [[spoiler:It gets better after Ash and Pikachu return the Jewel of Life to it, changing the future in the process.]]
44	* GodIsDead: [[spoiler:Arceus. It doesn't take.]]
45	* GodIsDispleased: Arceus once cared for humans and even gave humans some of their own power in the form of the Jewel of Life but after being betrayed, attacked and having the person they gave it to refuse to give them back the Jewel of Life, they become displeased with humans and want to exact judgment on them.
46	* GrandfatherParadox: During the climax of the film, [[spoiler:Ash and his friends begin to disappear as Arceus is dying. Marcus mentions that because of his death, the heroes won't have had any reason to go back into the past.]]
47	* HangingJudge: Arceus.
48	* HeroicBSOD: In the [[spoiler:altered]] past, Arceus has such a massive attack of fury that he shuts down entirely.
49	* InconsistentDub: The dub of the movie pronounces Arceus' name as "Ark-ee-us", whereas the original Japanese version pronounces it as "Ar-say-us". Fans of the games and [[VideoGame/PokemonStadium Pokémon Battle Revolution]] have also used "Ar-see-us", which is still in popular usage today. Apparently, the pronunciation was originally going to be "Ar-see-us", until they realized the first two syllables sounded too much like [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch arse]]. Then they experimented with "Ar-say-us", the Japanese pronunciation, but then settling on "Ar-key-us".
50	* KillTheGod: What Marcus plans to do with Arceus in order to achieve his goals.
51	* LargeHam: "YOU DARE SIDE WITH THE HUMANS?!" Granted, this is ''[[{{God}} Arceus]]'' we're dealing with.
52	* MagicMissileStorm: Arceus's Judgment attack manifests as firing numerous glowing projectiles into the air, which then impact with the force of small meteors.
53	* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The story constantly cuts back to the legendaries battling in the future, and Team Rocket trying to survive it. There's one silly moment where the Team mistake a couple of pots and a broken spear for crowns and a tiara.
54	* MeteorSummoningAttack: During [[OlympusMons Arceus]]'s rampage, [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Arceus_Judgment.png it fires a golden orb into the sky several times calling down pink meteors to destroy Michina Town]].
55	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sheena [[spoiler:unwittingly tells Marcus the plot of the movie, being tricked into holding a scepter without the Jewel of Life to present to Arceus, and also feeds him information that causes him to change tactics; as it were...]]
56	** [[spoiler:Arceus was only hurt in the original past, but lived to come back. Sheena's warning from the future allows Marcus to nearly KILL Arceus.]]
57	* NoOntologicalInertia: In the legend, Damos betrayed Arceus because he believed that the Jewel of Life's power itself was the direct cause of the valley's fertility, and that Michina Town would go back to being a wasteland if the Jewel were lost. [[spoiler:This was actually correct, but the valley was saved by the inhabitants working together to make the valley fertile again]].
58	** Possibly Justified if you think that all the Jewel of Life did was the equivalent of growing plants off of steroids, which would probably provide minerals for future plants, or maybe Arceus just lowered the pH of the soil or something.
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60	* NoSell: Arceus likes to change its type to absorb the Dragon Trio's attacks without any harm at all. The Jewel of Life, was created out of the Water, Grass, Electricity, Ground, and Dragon plates, and those last four are [[ChekhovsGun the only ones that resist electric attacks]].
61	* ObviouslyEvil: Marcus, Damos' lieutenant, has a cold expressions, narrowed, shrewd eyes, and is one of the only people in Michina town familiar enough with the power of "magical creatures" to be confident in their presence. [[spoiler:He is also the main antagonist, using Damos to orchestrate the betrayal of a god]].
62	* OlympusMons: Arceus, but the movie also features Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina from the previous two movies.
63	* PalsWithJesus: The dragon trio are basically friends of Ash and company in this movie, particularly Giratina, which is probably why they stepped up to protect them from Arceus. [[spoiler:By the end of the movie, you can add Arceus to the list as well.]]
64	* PersonOfMassDestruction: When Arceus lays waste, he ''lays waste''.
65	* PhysicalGod: Arceus is a god more in the polytheistic sense than actually being {{God}}. While it is [[TopGod extremely powerful]], it is neither omnipotent nor invincible.
66	* PocketDimension: Arceus inhabited one similar to the ones Dialga, Palkia and Giratina were seen in, which allowed Sheena's device to pick up on it.
67	* RedEyesTakeWarning: Arceus has these when it's angry. In the present, where it's trying to exterminate humanity, only its pupils glow red. [[spoiler:In the past, when Marcus tries to kill it with silver water, it gains ''Glowing Eyes of Doom''.]]
68	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Arceus, holy cow. Humans, landscapes, even its own ''"children"'' are all fair game for Judgment.
69	* StayingAlive: Near the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Marcus]] was clearly killed when the earthquake [[DisneyVillainDeath knocked him off of a ledge]], but he shows up during the end credits with the only possible explanation being that Arceus saved him while saving everyone else, even though we don't see that happen.
70	** [[spoiler:Averted in the manga.]]
71	* StoneWall: Giratina takes a tremendous beating from Arceus and keeps fighting long after Dialga and Palkia are taken down.
72	* TimeTravel: Dialga used its ability over time to send Ash and friends back in time to fix the past.
73	* TimeyWimeyBall:
74	** Although the film addresses the GrandfatherParadox above, it fails to address the fact that [[spoiler:successfully returning the Jewel of Life to Arceus should also give them no reason to have ever gone to the past.]] In short, it doesn't have a StableTimeLoop, though it could be HandWaved by the presence of Dialga, who has [[AWizardDidIt complete and total control over the flow of Time]], not to mention ''his'' superior, Arceus...
75	** [[spoiler:The heroes' disappearance also appears not to be retroactive, allowing Marcus to cheat the future anyway]].
76	* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: Heralds Arceus' arrival.
77	* UnstoppableRage: This prevents [[TheEmpath Sheena]] from telepathically communicating with a Pokémon, and is introduced as by her inability to calm Giratina when it first arrives. [[spoiler:In the altered past, Arceus has an attack so great that Sheena ''cannot even be in his presence'']].
78	* WatchingTroyBurn: Arceus wants to destroy [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Michina_Town Michina Town]] and kill everybody in it due to [[EtTuBrute getting betrayed]] by Damos [[spoiler:or so it appeared]], but [[TimeMaster Dialga]] sends [[TheHero Ash]], [[TheBigGuy Brock]] and [[TheHeart Dawn]] back in time [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong to change history.]]
79	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Damos in the legend is said to have feared that Arceus taking back the Jewel Of Life would doom Michina Town, and thus was trying to save his home, at least in his own mind. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Damos always intended to return the Jewel, but his lieutenant, Marcus, attempted to betray Arceus for the valley, and hypnotized Damos to take the blame. Subverted in the Manga, where his motivation is to kill Arceus and become a god himself.]]
80	* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Arceus himself tells Ash this at the end.
81	* WowingCthulhu: After [[OlympusMons Arceus]] destroys a meteor, Arceus ends up crashing into the Earth and loses its Life Plates. Damos is able to bring one to it, allowing Arceus to revive itself and reclaim its other plates. In gratitude, Arceus creates the Jewel of Life and Damos uses it to bring life to Michina Town.
82	* WriteBackToTheFuture: A carved tablet to let Ash and co. know how things worked out.
83	* JustForFun/XMeetsY: The premise can best be described as ''Anime/PokemonTheRiseOfDarkrai'' meets ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', as it involves our heroes having to stop a wild Pokémon from destroying a town by [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong traveling to the past to save the future]].

Context Anime / PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife