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Basic Trope: A character must collect several things to cash in for the plot resolution.

  • Straight: Jack must collect the Seven Jewels of Power to prevent the Dark Lord from conquering the world.
  • Exaggerated: The Seven Jewels were each chopped into 45 pieces and scattered across the planet.
  • Downplayed: There are only three jewels, and Jack already has one at the beginning, so he has to simply find the other two.
  • Justified: The Dark Lord's invulnerability spell required a flaw to work, so he made up an Impossible Task that would kill him.
  • Inverted: Jack begins his quest holding all the jewels and must place every one of the stones in a different and highly significant location.
  • Subverted:
  • Double Subverted:
  • Parodied:
    • After gathering the Seven Jewels, the Five Watery Beryl Geodes, and the Hallucinogenic Alexandrite Cluster, Jack is told that he must gather all one hundred and fifty-one of unique species of Mons that roam the Earth, the very last one a super-rare, one-of-a-kind, Pre-Order Bonus-only, Olympus Mon - much to his shock and chagrin. He eventually decides that living under the immensely powerful Dark Lord is a much more acceptable alternative.
    • Jack MAKES a prophecy, reasoning that nobody can defeat any aspiring dictators WITHOUT seven jewels, and buys them at a jeweler's shop.
    • Jack has to buy the ending with the Dark Lord's defeat, and must collect literal plot coupons until they lower the price enough that he can afford it.
  • Zig Zagged: Jack brings the Seven Jewels to defeat the Dark Lord, and as above, they cement his power, but the Dragon steps in to ensure the fulfillment of the prophecy - but fails, as the Big Bad's power now equals the Dragon's. Meanwhile Jack visits a wizard, who crafts a weapon out of the seven jewels that the Dark Lord's power cannot affect, because of the jewels, phlebotinum and yellow paint. Jack cracks his skull.
  • Averted: Defeating the Dark Lord does not require any specific item.
  • Enforced: Making the hero pursue the Seven Jewels and then the Five Watery Beryl Geodes helps organize the game.
  • Lampshaded: "Lemme guess, the only way to beat this guy is to collect all the jewels in one place?"
  • Invoked: Making the hero collect the various trinkets tests his skill, ingenuity, and determination.
  • Exploited:
    • The Dark Lord knows the Seven Jewels are the only means of defeating him, so he lets Jack gather them up and take them straight to his front door, so that he can gain control over all of them in one fell swoop.
    • The Dark Lord knows where the Seven Jewels are and sends his more powerful troops there as an unavoidable trap for the heroes.
    • The Dark Lord knows how much value people place into those plot coupons, so he makes up the part where the seven jewels are needed to defeat him, this gives him extra time to make the doomsday device.
  • Defied: "Heck with that Seven Dread Jewels nonsense. I bet you the Dark Lord isn't expecting us to walk right in and shoot him."
  • Discussed: Jack tells his allies right off that the Dark Lord can be defeated with a little force and skill, and they do not need Seven Jewels of Power and Five Watery Carbuncles of Life to defeat him.
  • Conversed: "I think I just figured out why all those videogames used to make you collect the fifteen mustard peelers or whatever to win — it's because that's how many levels the programmer wrote."
  • Deconstructed: Characters posing as heroes regularly collect random parts of random artifacts rather than doing anything that would actually help anyone.
  • Reconstructed: The characters are being steered subconsciously by genetic engineering or programming to select certain items and gather them together, even though they don't know why.

You must collect the five sacred links back to Plot Coupon to defeat your enemy and save the world.

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