Line #34 Main/GuardingThePortal


1	There's some specific region of dimensional weirdness--possibly a {{Hellgate}}, though it doesn't have to be malign. In any case, strange things regularly come out of it, or are attracted to it, and at least half of them are dangerous somehow. It's the job of Our Heroes to hang around near the weirdness, be all "YouShallNotPass" if needed and deal with everything related to it. As a consequence, in serial works, it's the [[MagneticPlotDevice standard justification]] for the show's MonstersOfTheWeek. The weirdness may have caused the surrounding area to become a CityOfAdventure.
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3	!!Examples:
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6	[[folder:Comics]]
7	* This is used to explain where E-123 Omega was during most of the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' crossover. Rouge asked him to keep an eye on the portal back to Mobius in case Eggman or Wily tried anything funny with it while she went to save Shadow.
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10	[[folder:Literature]]
11	* At some point in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series, Rand sends guards to each of the known Waygate locations in order to prevent their use by the bad guys to travel quickly around the world.
12	* The Outer Gates from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' are where the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]] - [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin beings from outside the universe]] - can get in. They [[AlwaysChaoticEvil invariably]] have destructive intentions, so it's necessary to guard the gate at all times. With an army.
13	* In ''Literature/{{City of Bones\|2007}}'', [[spoiler:what Madame Dorothea is ''really'' doing is guarding a Five-Dimensional-Door in her apartment]].
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16	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
17	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is about guarding the Hellmouth.
18	* For series 1 and 2, ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' was about guarding the Cardiff Rift.
19	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is about guarding the Bajoran Wormhole.
20	* ''Series/StargateSG1'' as a whole tends to take place on the other side of its portals; it does have the occasional episode which uses this kind of plot, though.
21	** And the various locals and Jaffa garrisons they run into could be seen as doing the same thing, with [=SG-1=] as the weirdness.
22	** Any time more than one team is sent through the gate one it told to stay and guard it.
23	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' is a borderline example, as they're actually guarding the portal from the inside - they only have one door back to this galaxy, and everybody's trying to take back the territory it lies on so they can get through it.
24	* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' is about guarding temporal rifts in the South of England.
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28	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
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30	* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': This is the purpose of the Gatekeeper druid sect. The guard the gates to Xoriat, the Realm of Madness, that the daelkyr and their aberrations used to invade Eberron. They long predate all other civilizations on the continent, and are a little miffed that the various empires who have been fighting over the continent recently (that is, over the past thousand years or so) consider them primitive savages despite regularly battling extraplanar horrors. Also, [[OurOrcsAreDifferent most of their membership consists of orcs]].
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34	[[folder:Video Games]]
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36	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', the [[ApocalypseCult Mythic Dawn]] is setting up Oblivion Gates throughout Tamriel as part of their plan to bring in the LegionsOfHell of the DestroyerDeity the worship, the BigBad Mehrunes Dagon. Naturally, it's up to you to enter them and shut them down - and they ''will'' be guarded by the enemy. Good luck.
37	* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the forces manning Nethergarde Keep watch over the Dark Portal.
38	** ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' fit this trope back in vanilla [=WoW=] (before the release of the first expansion, ''The Burning Crusade''). Now that Outland is well-trod ground, though, it's more like "guarding the toll booth on the highway".
39	* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
40	** Keyholes in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' are portals to the worlds' hearts. Given that the Heartless are trying to enter the Keyholes to destroy the worlds that they're a part of, it's you that's doing the guarding until you have a chance to lock them.
41	** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', the portal to the World that Never Was is guarded by swarms of lesser Nobodies. There prove to be so many that it takes [[spoiler:a HeroicSacrifice from Axel]] to clear them all out and open the far end.
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45	[[folder:Web Original]]
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47	* Website/{{SCP\|Foundation}}-[[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-354 354]], "Red Pool", from which monsters emerge regularly.
48	* Strange and horrible things regularly pop out of Jonathan Wojcik's ''The Fear Hole'' (bogleech.com) but the characters are a bit lax in guarding it.
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52	[[folder:Western Animation]]
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54	* The claymation series ''WesternAnimation/TheTrapDoor'' had a MonsterOfTheWeek emerging from the titular trapdoor as its premise. And also an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9dbAQJIu1o amazing theme tune]].
55	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'', Juniper's home town is a hub of magical activity and her job is to protect normal humans and supernatural creatures from each other. There's a Veil in place for keeping more benign monsters from being seen, but most can still influence the world physically. Even some maligned humans find ways to see through the veil, so our protagonist guards between these two worlds.
56	* The Ghost Portal on ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom.'' Which is a technological example, but aside from being uncloseable, [[FridgeLogic apparently can't just be unplugged or something either]].
57	* The containment unit in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' is a prison for ghosts, which the Ghostbusters keep right in their basement. Several episodes (as well as the movie) involved the threat that [[SealedEvilInACan that the ghosts would escape]], or that a ghost would mess with the containment unit to free its fellows; or the Ghostbusters have sometimes needed to retrieve a ghost from the containment unit in a controlled way.
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59	[[/folder]]

Context Main / GuardingThePortal