Gotta Catch Them All: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''Douche:''' Every [[Pokémon]]? [[Deconstructed Trope|Are you serious?]] You're sending us ''KIDS'' out into the world to find ''EVERY POKÉMON?'' You don't see ''ANYTHING'' dangerously irresponsible about this?

 

 

Simply put, there's a number of somethings spread across far and wide, and the cast has to go find them. It could be [[Debut Queue|more cast members]], [[Cosmic Keystone|magical artifacts]], [[Dismantled MacGuffin|pieces of a single artifact]], or some other [[MacGuffin]], but somehow each and every one will be involved in some individual plot that can pad the episode or even an entire [[Story Arc]]. The most basic form of [[Plot Coupon]].

 

 

* In the first season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Luna and Usagi must find her comrades, and then the group must fund the seven Rainbow Crystals to reform the Ginzuishou. The S season also has the Three Talismans, but there's only the three.

* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' had some fun with this. Like the game that inspired it, this is Professor Oak's dream so he can make a comprehensive Pokédex. Since he's too old, he just hands out Pokédexes to the main characters and asks them to do the job. Problem is, the Dex Holders all have their own goals, and this isn't high on the priority list. Oak is understandably pissed about this, and he ends up hiring Crystal to do the job. She succeeds... and then it turns out there's a whole other generation to catch. Poor Oak.

 

 

* A [[Donald Duck]] comic by [[Don Rosa]], "Recalled Wreck", has Donald doing this after he finds out that his neighbor (without any bad intention) sold the pieces of his beloved car to the neighbors.

* ''[[The 99]]'' is initially about Dr. Ramzi's efforts to track down the 99 noor stones, but that goal shifts in the first issue to finding the people who have been bonded to them.

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', the third book in the [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Trilogy]], it's the villains who are collecting the pieces of the Wikkit Gate, and our heroes are trying to stop them (or, some of them are. The rest would rather get a drink and have a lie down).

** On a more lighthearted note, there is Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, who has grown [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|so bored of immortality]] that he's made it his mission to track down and verbally insult every sentient being in the universe. In alphabetical order.

 

 

* Ezekiel Stone, the main character of Fox's short-lived 1998 series ''[[Brimstone (TV series)|Brimstone]]'', is released from Hell by the Devil to use his police skills to track down and retrieve 113 damned souls who escaped the afterlife back to Earth. Short life meant he got nowhere NEAR his goal.

* Ditto with Jeremy Piven's ''Cupid'', who was supposed to unite 100 couples. The show only ran 15 episodes, and some of them didn't add any couples to his tally.

* The premise of ''[[Friday the 13th: The Series]]'' is that Micki and Ryan must recover all of the cursed antiques purchased from their uncle's store.

* In ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', Earl must fix all the things he's ever done wrong in order to clear his karma.

* In the Sci-Fi show ''[[The Lost Room]]'', characters are, for various reasons, seeking artifacts known as Objects, which originated in a 1960s motel room and are endowed with curious properties (for instance, one Object is a watch which can boil an egg placed inside the band).

* The main plot point of ''[[Reaper]]'' is that the lead has to catch escaped souls from Hell, similar to ''[[Brimstone (TV series)|Brimstone]]'' mentioned above.

** To the point where it's [[lampshade]]d [[Take That Us|hilariously]] in the beginning of ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts 'n Bolts''.

{{quote|<small>{{smallcaps|"Now then. In line with Banjo Tradition, your challenge will consist of collecting as many pointless items as possible."}}</small>}}

* Many [[BioWare]] games operate like this.

** ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' is almost entirely based off this trope. First, you need to collect the bits of fantastic creatures to cure the plague, then you need to collect the journals of the cultists to prove they are in Luskan, then after Luskan you need to collect the Words of Power, after which the final battle begins.

* The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' series does this. In each of the 6 games in the series, you battle with battle chips. Each game has a couple of hundred to find by either defeating enemies quickly or simply picking them up. Collecting them all usually allows you to fight a [[Bonus Boss]].

* The ''[[Mega Man Zero]] series'' until the fourth game also does this, with the [[Energy Beings|cyber-elf]] ''computer programs''. These little critters are collected all over the place, powered up, and used to give Zero useful bonuses. The games inhibit the latter feature, though, by lowering Zero's rank with each use.

* Virtually all the ''[[Nancy Drew (video game)|Nancy Drew]]'' video games require Nancy to track down missing pieces—gears, dolls, crystals, mirrors, whatever—for some sort of mechanism. ''The Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon'' interlaces ''three'' collect-em-all subplots.

* ''[[The Neverhood]]'' requires you to collect twenty videotapes telling the story of the world, narrated by Willie Trombone. You can watch these and get a good idea of what's going on even with several tapes missing, but collecting all twenty is important, since {{spoiler|it unlocks the final part of the movie, allowing you to get a key from Willie}}.

* In ''Chack'n Pop'', Chack'n has to recover a bunch of hearts that have been stolen by Monstas and trapped inside cages. It's just that kind of game.

* Warzone2100's campaign practically revolves around finding new parts to upgrade your forces - lest you get stomped to bits by your enemy.

 

 

* [[Alien Dice]] involves scattering a number of "dice" over a planet and capturing the animals they bond to. It's supposed to be a deconstruction of the Mons genre if you couldn't guess.

* Professor Dr. of ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]'' just fell to [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=398 the urge].

* The main quest in ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'' is to collect pieces of a wish granting artifact known as the 'Magicant.'

* ''[[Wasted Youth]]'' has 50 Piggymon cards for you to collect, a card game with hamsters.

* ''[[Virtual Shackles]]'' show [https://web.archive.org/web/20130815201301/http://www.virtualshackles.com/140 charts].

 

* Lab/Treasure/Land maps, Talisman pieces, collectable plushies... Petsites are ''full'' of these, and they always have a final goal, that's it, some sort of status for the users that collect these, since it's impossible to have all the pets at once.

* The aim of [[My Opinions On Every Pokémon Ever]] is to review every single Pokémon.

* A double-subversion occurs in ''[[The Holders Series]]''. The 538 cursed objects must ''NEVER'' be brought together, or it will result in [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. That doesn't stop the Seekers from trying to find them, though.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==