Magnetic Plot Device: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Peter Venkman:''' What? I guess they just don't make them like they used to.
'''Ray Stantz:''' No! Nobody ''ever'' made them like this. ... The whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend lives in the corner penthouse of Spook Central.|''[[Ghostbusters]]''}}
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* The [[City of Adventure]] is home to the [[Hell Gate|gates of hell.]]
* The protagonist is an [[Insufferable Genius]] and no one [[The Worm Guy|has a clue without his/her expertise]].
* The [[Superhero]] brings out the [[Super Villain
* The [[Cardboard Prison]].
* A [[Meta Origin]] that explains ''everything.''
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* The main character himself in ''[[Bleach]]'', who attracts the demons he fights due to his exceptionally strong spiritual presence, as well as {{spoiler|Karakura City itself, which for whatever reason has an unusually high concentration of spiritual energy}}.
** It also helps that Ichi does such a bad job of containing said spiritual power that he ends up [[Super Empowering]] a lot of the people who hang out around him.
* The Dragon Balls in ''[[
** It wasn't until the Cell saga, mid-way through ''DBZ'', that they had a [[Big Bad]] whose plans did not involve the Dragon Balls in any way. (Tenshinhan was never a true "[[Big Bad]]", only a [[Rival]], and the Piccolo Jr. saga flowed directly from the King Piccolo saga, which did involve the Dragon Balls.)
* In [[Kekkaishi]], there are spiritual hot-spots (like Karasumori) that attract Ayakaishi (demons) who are hungry for power. In the beginning, this was the source of almost every [[Monster of the Week]].
* In ''[[
== Comics ==
* The chance of a quiet sane life for a [[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]] wielder is zero. It [[MacGuffin|attracts unfriendly attention as a powerful artifact]] and possibly [[Witchblade (Comic Book)|itself]] tend to choose ladies already with predisposition to be [[Weirdness Magnet
* The Starbrand of ''[[The New Universe]]'' is a [[Weirdness Magnet]] and a weirdness ''generator'' all in one, it's the [[Meta Origin]] of [[Differently-Powered Individual|Paranormals]]... And it [[Artifact of Doom|blows up cities]] if you mishandle it.
* In ''[[Supreme Power]]'', the various parts of the spacecraft that brought Hyperion to Earth tend to catalyze plot-signifigant events, as well as providing a [[Meta Origin]] for most other superhumans.
* The protagonist of DC's short-lived ''Major Bummer'' is a slacker who received super-powers when aliens sent him an "Extreme Enhancement Module" by mistake. The EEM ends up attracting trouble (and other EEM-enhanced supers), much to the protagonist's annoyance.
* The [[The Sandman|Endless]]:
{{quote|
* One of the many variations of Supergirl (written by [[Peter David]]) had her move to a small town. Naturally, crazed super villains followed. This was partly explained by a mystical river that ran underneath the town, it attracted oddness like deer to a salt lick.
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** The river of slime in the second movie also filled this role.
** The video game also does this as it's revealed {{spoiler|Ivo Shandor, the cult leader/architect who rigged the apartment building, also rigged the library and hotel from the first film, and the museum from the second, as nodes for this city wide apparatus meant to fuel Gozer's Destructor form, with the apartment building being the door. His old estate was a castle/laboratory where the slime river was first made before it was pumped into the sewer. Also it was revealed one of Ivo's henchmen killed Eleanor Twitty, who became the librarian ghost.}}
* In the [[Transformers Film Series]], the Allspark takes on this role. The first film it was an object that both Autobot and Decepticon wanted and would cause unpredictable things to happen around it (mostly creating mini-robots from nearby mechanical devices). ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'' used leftover fragments of the Allspark to cause more chaos, the big one being that it downloads a Cybertronian database into Sam's head. While Sam says [[I Just Want to Be Normal]], [[The Call Knows Where You Live]] and this is the only reason why he is involved with the events of the movie at all.
** Supplimentary Material suggests that the AllSpark was attracted to Earth because of the Solar Harvester, and that the {{spoiler|meeting between Sentinel Prime and Megatron, both of whom get sidelined}} in DOTM was to take place on Earth also because of Earth's previous history with the Cybertronians.
* Throughout the ''[[Terminator]]'' franchise, John Connor is the Magnetic Plot Device for both himself and his mother, as well as his uncle and robot sister in [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|the series]].
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* A perfect example is in Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series in which the main characters are ta'veren. The ta'veren are people who inexplicably create outrageous coincidences and shape the world around them simply by existing.
** "Outrageous coincidences" are putting it mildly. On one ordinary day while Rand is in the city, a baby falls out of a high window onto cobblestones and crawls away unhurt; a freak wind blows a tiny feather into a man's open mouth and suffocates him to death; and a basket of roof tiles falls off a tower, shatters into a million pieces, and its shards happen to randomly (but perfectly!) form the image on the city's new flag.
** This sort of thing becomes really important in Mat Cauthon's development, once he becomes [[Genre Savvy]]. Since he's aware his presence skews probability, Mat takes bets on being able to do impossible things, and then does
*** Though he forgot to put any money on that one...
* In the early [[Discworld]] novels, Rincewind is a walking magnetic plot device due to being possessed by one of the most powerful spells in the world. He's rid of it at the end of the second book, after which... he's ''still'' a magnet for everything weird that [[Terry Pratchett]] wants to throw at him. If it ain't broke...
* Teela Brown, from Ringworld, in a rare science fiction take (and yet another instance of Niven being an imp and poking fun at his own story). See what the luckiest girl ever can do! (particularly her ending...)
* ''[[Spelljammer|Cloakmaster]]'' cycle:
{{quote|
1) He is [[Clingy MacGuffin|stuck with an Ultimate Helm]],
2) Anyone who has come into contact with the Ultimate Helm [[MacGuffin|wants to get hold of it]] and
3) The Ultimate Helm wants to get onto The Spelljammer.
The cloak is the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|ultimate]] [[Railroading]] [[Narrative Devices|device]]. You could give the Cloakmaster Cycle one book, three books, six books or nine books, but you would still end up with the end of the adventure being set on The Spelljammer and Teldin's cloak trying to turn him into its next Captain. }}
* In the ''[[Eternal Champion]]'' series, Elric (in his various incarnations) is always being summoned to do battle in various worlds without rest. So he is always in an [[Adventure Town]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* The [[Hell Gate|Hellmouth]] of ''[[
** And justifiably so, as it shoots out enough evil-ness to attract demons from miles around. Plus, the town being built expressly for demons to come and eat the squishy humans.
** The title of Slayer. Demons sometimes run off to see how they would match up against the legendary demon killer, à la Spike.
** The Origin comic introduced the concept that the Slayer is a "creature of destiny", which is sort of an inversion of this trope. The reason Buffy could never escape her destiny is not because supernatural stuff is attracted to her, but ''she'' is guided by destiny to ''it''. That's why her high school in Los Angeles was attacked by Lothos, why she encountered a demonic cult at the mental hospital she spent a few weeks in, why she ended up moving to Sunnydale after leaving LA, and why she stumbled upon a demonic labor operation when she spent a summer there trying to hide from her destiny.
* Wolfram and Hart of ''[[
** Similar to the Slayer, Angel has 200 years of old enemies to deal with.
** And [[The Powers That Be]] got directly involved with Angel's life to ensure it was never calm.
** And with the help of Doyle/Cordy's visions when trouble doesn't come to Angel...
* The Rift in ''[[
* The TARDIS from ''[[
The TARDIS was ancient and obsolete even back when the Doctor stole it in his first incarnation, so it doesn't always land where it is supposed to land. Naturally, it sometimes lands in the middle of trouble.
Also, the TARDIS is stated multiple times to be alive and can sense things in the timeline. In "The Doctor's Wife", {{spoiler|the TARDIS herself}} claims that she lands wherever the Doctor needs to go.
* The Stargate of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and everything else in the [[Stargate Verse]]. Understanding the Stargate's potential for weirdness, the military installed the iris to limit what could come through.
** The city of Atlantis in ''[[
* The actual ships in the various ''[[Star Trek]]'' series. It allowed them to find a [[Planet of Hats]] and a [[Negative Space Wedgie]].
** The holodeck. A lot of fans have wondered that with the holodeck so prone to malfunctions and become dangerous, why is it left on?
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** ''Deep Space 9'' and the Celestial Temple/Bajoran Wormhole. It was responsible for ''everything'' that went on there.
** The non canon ''Next Generation'' novel, ''Q-squared'', lampshades the ''Enterprise D'''s constant encounters with time travel and other anomalies and attributes all (or, at least, most of) their problems to Q messing with them.
** ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' introduced the "Temporal Cold War" story arc to both stir things up with the ship and crew but also to make things a little more surprising for the audience because the show was a [[Prequel]]. The fact it was a prequel and people in the future knew of their importance in history made them a target.
* The Nexus in ''[[Charmed]]''.
** The status of the Charmed Ones also made them a frequent target for nefarious plots.
* The anomalies in ''[[Primeval]]''.
* [[The Lost Room]] All of the objects attract one another. One object-wielder eventually got tired of being targeted by collectors and gave his up willingly to the hero.
* Inverted with ''[[The X
* On ''[[Lost]]'', it's the island itself.
** Literal magnetism is involved as well. {{spoiler|A huge magnetic discharge from the Swan station caused Flight 815 to crash.}}
* For ''[[Smallville]]'', the Magnetic Plot Device is not the [[Green Rocks]], but instead is the Kryptonian influence of Jor-El. The [[Green Rocks]] were just a side effect of that.
* A big criticism towards ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is the number of medical mysteries that get thrown his way, mentioned at being about one a week. The show has made some remarks in that regard, giving most patients a unique set-up as well as doctors all around the region would send patients to House because he was just that good.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'''s two main characters are examples of
* Immortals in the ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' series are always drawn to each other because of the Quickening and [[There Can Be Only One|The Game]].
== Tabletop Games ==
* The eponymous [[Place of Power|places of power]] of the game ''[[
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== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[
* The Allspark from ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. Even with its [[Gotta Catch Them All]] status, it certainly keeps things interesting for everyone.
** Of course, said status mostly stopped during the third season, but enough weirdness had already happened for the third season to involve the return and development of earlier weirdness instead.
* ''[[
* After capturing so many ghosts, ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' eventually had ghosts coming to them, for better or for worse (the "worse" usually being freeing some other ghosts from the [[Cardboard Prison|containment unit).]]
* [[Jonny Quest]]'s father, Dr. Benton Quest, is a scientific genius and professional Magnetic Plot Device.
* ''[[
* The ghost portal in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' kept releasing ghosts into the human world, at which point Danny would have to deal with them. It's also the source of the [[Freak Lab Accident]] that made Danny half-ghost.
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' has an inversion of this during the World Tour arc. According to Tom, the magical island of Avalon does not take you where you want to go, it sends you where you ''need'' to go. Thus Goliath, Eliza, Bronx, and Angela travel all over the world saving the day. At one point they are even sent right back to Avalon. Even when they finally return to New York, it's only because Avalon knew they would be needed there.
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[[Category:Plot Device]]
[[Category:Magnetic Plot Device]]
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