Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Movie #12 of Pokémon, and the conclusion to the Story Arc set up in the tenth.

A godlike Pokémon, Arceus, wants to destroy a town because it was betrayed by a man hypnotized by another man. Ash and his friends are sent back to the past (by Dialga) to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. This results in a misunderstanding that causes history to be changed at least twice.

Tropes used in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life include:
  • Abusive Truly Single Parent: Arceus created the Dragon Trio, and spends this movie beating them up for defiance.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Arceus is intended to be genderless even in the movies. This is both helped and hindered by the voice actor (some believe it sounds like an elderly woman while others think it's an elderly man)
  • Big Bad: Marcus.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Dialga at the beginning of the movie to save Pikachu and Piplup; later, both Dialga and Palkia saving Ash and company from Arceus' attack, which would soon be followed by Giratina.
  • Bowdlerize: In the Japanese version, Arceus says "Judgment Day is come! Humanity, prepare for trial!" as it awakens and prepares to destroy the world. The English version changed this to "The time has come! Prepare for justice!", presumably to remove the Biblical reference.
    • Even though "Judgment" (with one 'e') is the name of Arceus' signature move.
    • The word 'god', (in the polythestic sense) is thrown around a couple of times, but not in the English Dub.
  • Continuity Nod: The credits include shots of characters from The Rise of Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior. Giratina also recognizes Ash and calms down from its rage at Dialga at the sight of him.
  • Delayed Ripple Effect: After returning to the present, Ash and company find Arceus still angry and attacking everything as though nothing had happened. Only after Arceus is able to recognize Ash does time begin to correct itself.
  • Demoted to Extra: Heatran, a legendary Pokémon, is the Big Bad's underling...and that's it. Seriously. It's not even the pivotal underling to the plot; that would be Bronzong.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the present, Arceus, aka God, is strong enough to beat three other legendaries at the same time. In the past, Arceus can be subdued with large amounts of electric attacks (granted, it didn't have the Electric Plate at the time) and something called silver water.
    • Silver Water seems to be molten metal and/or cement. If that doesn't punch out Cthulhu, especially after being zap-fried with millions of watts of electricity, nothing probably would. It's more likely that it's liquid mercury.
  • Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Subverted by the waterspout at the beginning.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: You get Arceus mad, Arceus will not hesitate to kill your entire species.
  • Disney Villain Death: the Big Bad Marcus appears to fall to his death when Arceus is freed and breaks free of the hardened Silver Water. However, the epilogue reveals he survived and pulled a Heel Face Turn to help sustain the town. However, in the manga version, he doesn't get off so easy and dies in a Driven to Suicide by bringing the whole temple down on top of himself. Though he was a much worse person in that one.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The Jewel of Life consists of five of Arceus's plates, which correspond to the types of Water, Ground, Electric, Grass and Dragon. The presence of the last four means that it effectively gave up all of its resistance to electric attacks, which comes back to haunt it later.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: "Humans being brought to justice" obviously means "Humans will go through Judgment". See Below.
  • God Is Dead: Arceus. It doesn't take.
  • Grandfather Paradox: During the climax of the film, Ash and his friends begin to disappear as Arceus is dying. Marcus mentions that because of his death, the heroes won't have had any reason to go back into the past.
  • Hanging Judge: Arceus, and how.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Dan Green returned to voice a supporting character, Damos.
  • It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": The dub of the movie pronounces Arceus' name as "Ark-ee-us", whereas the original Japanese version pronounces it as "Ar-seh-oos". Fans of the games have also used "Ar-see-us", and it is still in popular usage today.
  • Large Ham: "YOU DARE SIDE WITH THE HUMANS?!" Granted, this is Arceus we're dealing with.
  • Meanwhile in the Future: The story constantly cuts back to the legendaries battling in the future, and Team Rocket trying to survive it.
  • Never Say "Die": Averted twice.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sheena upon telling Marcus the plot of the movie and tricked into holding a scepter without the Jewel of Life to present to Arceus.
    • Arceus was only hurt in the original past, but lived to come back. Sheena's warning from the future allows Marcus to nearly KILL Arceus.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Marcus' motivation is based on his belief that if Arceus took the Jewel of Life back, Michina Town would go back to being a wasteland. It didn't.
    • Possibly Justified if you think that all the Jewel of Life did was the equivalent of growing plants off of steroids, which would probably provide minerals for future plants, or maybe Arceus just lowered the pH of the soil or something.
  • Olympus Mons: Arceus, but the movie also features Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina from the previous two movies.
  • Pals with Jesus: the dragon trio are basically friends of Ash and company in this movie, particularly Giratina, which is probably why they stepped up to protect them from Arceus. By the end of the movie, you can add Arceus to the list as well.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Arceus when it's angry. In the present, only its pupils glow red. In the past, when Marcus tries to kill it with silver water, its entire freaking eye turns red in rage.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Arceus, holy cow. Humans, landscapes, even its own "children" are all fair game for Judgment.
  • Staying Alive: Near the end of the movie, Marcus was clearly killed when the earthquake knocked him off of a ledge, but he shows up during the end credits with the only possible explanation being that Arceus saved him while saving everyone else, even though we don't see that happen.
    • Averted in the manga.
  • Stone Wall/Determinator: Giratina takes a tremendous beating from Arceus and keeps fighting long after Dialga and Palkia are taken down.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: Although the film addresses the Grandfather Paradox above, it fails to address the fact that successfully returning the Jewel of Life to Arceus should also give them no reason to have ever gone to the past.
    • Except, you know, clearing the whole human species's names, or did you really think Arceus would be kind to them after they stole from him?
      • To be clear: 1. Actions in the past result in a mad Arceus. 2. Because Arceus is mad, he attacks the group, and they go back in time to resolve this. 3. The team in the past stops Arceus from ever getting mad. 4. This means that Arceus never attacks the team in the present. 5. This means that there's no reason for the team to be sent back in time to resolve the issue (i.e. the issue does not exist). Result: this plot does not have a stable time loop.
  • Total Eclipse of the Plot: Heralds Arceus' arrival.
  • Watching Michina Burn: Arceus wants to destroy Michina Town and kill everybody in it due to getting betrayed by Damos under Marcus's control, but Dialga sends Ash, Brock and Dawn back in time to change history.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Marcus thinks Arceus taking back the Jewel Of Life will doom Michina Town, and thus is trying to save his home, at least in his own mind. However, in the manga, his motivation is to kill Arceus and become a god himself.
  • Write Back to the Future: A carved tablet to let Ash and co. know how things worked out.
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