Editing Plot device (section)

== Stories using plot devices ==
Many stories, especially in the fantasy genre, feature an object or objects with some great magical power, such as a crown, sword, or jewel. Often what drives the plot is the hero's need to find the object and use it for good, before the villain can use it for evil, or if the object has been broken by the villains, to retrieve each piece that must be gathered from each antagonist to restore it, or, if the object itself is evil, to destroy it. In some cases destroying the object will lead to the destruction of the villain.

In the [[Indiana Jones]] film series, each film portrays Jones on the hunt for a mystical artifact. In ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', he is trying to retrieve the [[Ark of the Covenant]]; in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'', Jones is on a search for the [[Holy Grail]]. This plot device is also used in the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights|Arabian Nights]]'' tale of "[[The City of Brass (One Thousand and One Nights)|The City of Brass]]," in which a group of travelers on an [[Archaeology|archaeological]] expedition journeys across the [[Sahara]] to find a brass vessel that [[Solomon]] once used to trap a [[Genie|jinn]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights|first=David|last=Pinault|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=1992|isbn=90-04-09530-6|pages=148–9 & 217–9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00141540|title=An Allegory from the Arabian Nights: The City of Brass|first=Andras|last=Hamori|journal=[[School of Oriental and African Studies|Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies]]|volume=34|issue=1|year=1971|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=9–19 [9]|s2cid=161610007 }}</ref>

Several books in the [[Harry Potter]] series orient around a search for a special object. In ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'', Harry believes there is a magical stone in [[Hogwarts]] with special powers. [[Lord Voldemort]] needs this stone to bring back his body, and Harry looks for the stone first to prevent Voldemort's return.

The [[One Ring]] from [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s novel, ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' has been labeled a plot device, since the quest to destroy it drives the entire plot of the novel. However, British Classical scholar [[Nick Lowe (classicist)|Nick Lowe]] said: "Tolkien, on the whole, gets away with the trick by minimizing the arbitrariness of the ring's plot-power and putting more stress than his imitators on the way the ring's power moulds the character of its wielder and vice-versa."<ref name=Lowe/>