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{{trope}}
[[File:sbrcorpse_7112.png|link=Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure
{{quote|'''Professor:''' Obviously, I'll also leave that here with y... Leave... It's only logical, so that the device... So I'll leave it... Lea... I'll leav...<br />
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A common way to produce [[Plot Coupons]] of the '[[Gotta Catch Em All]]' variety is for the [[Precursors]] to split a powerful [[MacGuffin]] that was used to defeat the bad guy into three or more parts and, yes, distribute them across the world on a vague premise of it being "[[Holding Back the Phlebotinum|too dangerous to ever use again]]". Then, when the bad guy raises its head [[Exty Years From Now|Exty Years Later]] (and it always does), the heroes must set out to reassemble said [[MacGuffin]].
If the said artifact was disassembled because it possesses an [[Artifact of Doom|evil will of its own]], this overlaps with [[Sealed Evil in
If said artifact was disassembled because there was a good chance that evil would get their hands on it in the present, this overlaps with [[
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The corpse parts in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure
** The corpse wasn't really sealed away or split on purpose though. They just scattered across the continent by (super)natural means after {{spoiler|Jesus died and his corpse was mummified.}}
* In ''[[
* Same goes for the shards of the Shikon Jewel in ''[[Inuyasha]]''.
* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' the Silver Crystal split into the the seven Rainbow Crystals after Queen Serenity used it to send her daughter and the Sailor Senshi and Prince Endymion's souls to Earth for reincarnation. The Rainbow Crystals had to be found by those wishing to reassemble them into the Silver Crystal -- with the Sailor Senshi, Tuxedo Mask, and the villainous Dark Kingdom all after it. Each crystal was contained within the body of a normal human who (unbeknownst to them) was a really a reincarnation of the "Seven Great [[Monster of the Week|Youma]]".
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* Inverted in ''[[Voltron|Voltron: Defender of the Universe]]'': it is the bad guys who originally dismantle Voltron because he/it is too powerful for them, and the pilot is spent trying to get the robot to reassemble.
* Mostly subverted in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. {{spoiler|The whole series is essentially the protagonists trying to keep the Angels from reuniting with Lilith. Partial in that a few of the "protagonists" secretly actually WANT an Angel to reunite with Lilith, only on their timetable.}}
* Inverted and then played straight on all sides in ''[[Ronin Warriors]]''. Originally, the Ancient [[Fling a Light Into
* Subverted / [[Played for Laughs]] in the book/manga version of ''[[Van Von Hunter]]'', when Van Von Hunter accidentally tricks The Flaming Prince into crushing the Ebon Eye ("Or as I like to call it, 'The Blarble'!"). Van then wonders aloud if they're going to have 'to spend the next half of a century searching for the dark shards of that thing' (which could be a possible [[Shout-Out]]/[[Take That]] at ''[[Inuyasha]]''), but The Flaming Prince tells him no, all of the (broken) Ebon Eye is here.
* in [[D
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', we eventually find out {{spoiler|the tailed beast}} were split apart from {{spoiler|The Ten-Tailed Jubi, one giant [[Eldritch Abomination]].}}
* Princess Sakura herself in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', who was actually disassembled by the [[Big Bad]], intending for {{spoiler|Clone!Syaoran ([[Mind Screw|it's complicated]]) to reassemble these pieces together, dragging Sakura's memory-less body through countless dimensions to, in a sense, map the universe. Of course, this is just the cliff-notes version...}}
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== Fan Works ==
* The Vasyn in ''[[
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* In ''[[Underworld Evolution]]'', the vampire lord Viktor kept half the key to Wiliam's tomb sealed to his sternum; the other half is in Selene's pendant.
* In ''[[The Ninth Gate]]'' the main character is tasked with determining which of three versions of a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] is authentic, i.e. capable of summoning the devil, as it's widely believed at least one is a forgery. It turns out {{spoiler|the 'correct' material is divided equally among all three books}}.
* In ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
* ''[[Josh Kirby Time Warrior]]'' had a disassembled superweapon that could destroy all of creation when assembled.
== Literature ==
* In the ''[[
* CIRCE from Timothy Zahn's Conqueror trilogy. [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] {{spoiler|in that CIRCE never actually existed.}}
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' novel ''[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Thornhold Thornhold]'' features Kezefbane -- artifact used to win second Trollwar. Three activation tokens were split between three brothers who last used it and then their respective successors, separated far from each other and thing itself. [[Hilarity Ensues]], of course.
* The Krikkit Key in ''[[The
* In a sense, Orannis the Destroyer in Garth Nix's ''Old Kingdom'' trilogy. "Broken in two and buried under hill, forever to lie there, wishing us ill."
** Note that the ''only way to get that verse to scan properly'' requires you to talk like you're walking across a bed of nails or something: 'bu''ried'' '''un'''-der hill...'
** It also separated a splinter of itself at some point, which it gave to Hedge with the plan of possessing Prince Sameth of the Old Kingdom, presumably for the poetry's sake, since his family was the executor of the will of its imprisoners. It got the Ancelstierrian Prime Minister's nephew instead, but that worked too. It needed the splinter back at the end.
* In Garth Nix's other series ''[[Keys to
* The golden capstone of the great pyramid of Giza in [[Matthew Reilly]]'s ''Seven Ancient Wonders''. It is the key to stopping the end of the world, but also gives it's possessor invincibility in battle. Alexander The Great got bored with it's power and split it into 7 pieces, hiding each in one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the Ancient World.
* In the last [[Well World]] series, the villains are attempting to find all the pieces of the dismantled Straight Gate. As it was an artifact of the Markovians, it was indestructible, so it had to be split up, scattered, and removed from the history books to keep it from being misused.
* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''Shining Darkness'' has the antagonists (and kidnapped Donna) on a quest to reassemble their superweapon.
* The main plot of ''Bridge of Birds: A Tale of China that Never Was'', involves finding all the pieces of a seven part [[MacGuffin]], with three bonus [[Plot Coupons]] to get the last one
* ''[[
** The '''Paired Codes''', the main [[MacGuffin]] in ''Darke'', don't work at all if they're split. Finding the Manuscriptorium part of the Code is a main plot point.
** The Shadow-Safe in ''Flyte'' will only work as a Shadow-Safe {{spoiler|1=and as a [[Death Trap]] engineered by DomDaniel}} when it is complete, {{spoiler|and it gaining completeness is the prelude of the climax of ''Flyte''.}}
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** ...the Key to Time arc, in which the titular device could stop time throughout the universe once its six parts were transmuted back into their original forms and reassembled.
** Inverted in "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End." The twenty-seven planets the Daleks needed weren't pieces in and of themselves; they ''stole'' those planets and formed an intricate superweapon with them.
* In the third season of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'', they broke the [[Mineral MacGuffin|Zeo Crystal]] into five pieces, and ''threw them into unstable time portals'', so the five pieces were literally scattered throughout space and time, their locations unknown even to the Rangers. Not such a good idea, as they ended up needing it again [[Power Rangers
* The Cup Of Ankh in ''[[House of Anubis]]''. According to Fabian's book on Egyptian mythology, Amneris took the Cup and hid it inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Anubis was angered by this and split the Cup into seven pieces, preventing it's use. Rufus later explains that Anubis and Amneris reached an agreement whereby the Cup could be put together once every twenty five years at a certain hour, but only by a member of Amneris's bloodline.
* A number of ''[[Star Trek:
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* ''[[Nox]]'' had the player reassemble the Staff of Oblivion, a [[Game Breaker]] weapon that was story-wise wielded by a single man to defeat an entire army of necromancers. The said man later disassembled the staff to prevent anyone from using it for evil deeds. It is a perfectly usable weapon (mostly for warrior, because two other classes are [[Squishy Wizard|Squishy Wizards]]) on every step of assembly, but in complete form it can clean entire screens of mooks. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And you]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|do]]'' [[The War Sequence|right after obtaining it.]]
* The original ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' game, ''Arena'', similarly had the Staff of Chaos, which was split and its parts spread across eight provinces of Tamriel.
* Inverted in ''[[
* The original ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' had Lara search for and reassemble the three pieces of the Scion.
** A variation appears in ''Tomb Raider: Legend'', where Lara must find the different pieces of Excalibur and reassemble them; the twist is that the fragments were not all from the same version of Excalibur, as there was more than one such sword.
* The Trident of Ankohl in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''The Pandora Directive,'' the most ambitious entry in the [[Tex Murphy]] series, featured one of these. The titular directive had to track down the pieces.
* ''Zelda'' employs this trope in practically every game. ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
** Three times, actually. The boss key of the second dungeon is split up as well, and when assembled, it gives you access to another piece of a bigger and even more dismantled [[MacGuffin]]. Not to mention the ludicrous number of pieces of heart in the game.
** There's even one with ''a song'' where one character only remembers the first few notes, and the rest must be learned from someone else.
** The second half of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
* Knuckles' storyline in ''[[
** This plot point returns with less influence in ''Sonic Adventure 2''. But now there's ''two'' characters collecting the pieces.
* Piles of ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games rely on this trope. Orbs, Crystals, Espers, Materia, if there's a Big Bad out there, it's virtually a guarantee that whatever [[MacGuffin]] you need to defeat it will be scattered across the entire planet (and sometimes more than one).
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* Most ''[[Kirby]]'' games feature this.
* Most of the plot (such as it is) in the original Xbox game Blood Wake involves you locating and assembling the pieces of the "Shield of Four Souls". Possibly partially averted/subverted in that you find the first piece or two without really knowing what they are, let alone what the assembled thing does.
* Likewise, the [[Excuse Plot]] of [[
* ''Unreal 2'' uses this. Oh, does ''Unreal 2'' use this: you spend most of your game traipsing from planet to planet picking up pieces of an ancient artifact. When the artifact is finally assembled and used, {{spoiler|it turns the least powerful creatures on the ship where it's used into the most powerful creatures, complete with ''guns that shoot black holes''. Suffice to say, the artifact doesn't last long.}}
* ''[[Mario and Luigi Partners In Time
** ''Superstar Saga'' has the Beanstar Cackletta is looking for and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' has the Miracle Cure, which is the only thing that can cure the blorbs. They sure do love this trope.
* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' has Star Chips (used to form Launch Stars) and Silver Stars (used to form Power Stars).
* Cap'n Hawk's treasure map in ''[[Ultima VI]]'' is split into nine parts. Somewhat subverted in that it's possible to [[Sequence Breaking|skip the entire quest]] -- possibly without realizing it.
* The [[The Precursors|Xel'naga]] artifacts in Starcraft II count, since they form a {{spoiler|[[Lost Superweapon
* [[World of Warcraft]] loves this trope with regards to it's Legendary Weapons. You have to collect numerous pieces of the weapon from raid bosses, ''then'' complete additional quests (for example, doing something unusual during boss fights). Sometimes you would also need a big pile of cash for buyable materials. And in the end you get yourself a nice, flashy weapon that will last you for a couple of content patches at most and end as a [[Bragging Rights Reward]] later.
* In [[Kingdom of Loathing]], the [[Lampshading|Holy MacGuffin]] is hidden; in order to locate it, you have to first find the Staff of Ed, which is of course split into 3 pieces, located in entirely unrelated parts of the Kingdom.
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* Every single item in the [[Dark Parables]] games, and other similar games from the same developer, is broken into fragments that must be assembled by solving [[Hidden Object Game|hidden object]] puzzles.
* Occurs in the Sega Genesis ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' game. Four Boss Ghosts hold the pieces of a stone tablet. The fifth holds a red gem that, when placed in the center of the tablet, causes a gigantic hole to open right in the middle of New York City. The final boss holds a blue gem that, when placed in the center of the tablet, undoes the damage.
* Much of the first act of ''[[
** Later on in the game, {{spoiler|you have to recover the parts of the body of Zoltan Kulle, an [[Evil Sorcerer]] who was decapitated and dismembered by his fellow Horadrim, so that he can be resurrected to lead you to his creation, the Black Soulstone, which you need to seal Belial and Azmodan, the last Lords of Hell. Being that Zoltan Kulle is an evil and treacherous bastard, you ultimately have to kill him again}}.
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== Western Animation ==
* Occurs a few times in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', usually in stories involving Lord Monkeyfist. One example is the Tempus Simia in "A Sitch in Time", which was split in three parts and distributed into monkey-themed temples all over the world. You could also say that the superpowers of Team Go are also treated that way in their first appearance, especially since they all originate from the same meteor.
* Happens in ''[[
* The Allspark fragments in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''.
* ''[[Spartakus and
* Happens for almost no reason whatsoever in the five-episode series premiere of ''[[
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