Made of Indestructium: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Obi-Wan:''' Terribly convenient how it survived an explosion that big...

'''GM:''' ...You fly over and grab it.|''[[Darths and Droids]]''}}

 

 

This is where the [[MacGuffin]], usually the object required for the [[Big Bad]] to succeed in his master plan to [[Take Over the World]], cannot be destroyed by conventional means, if at all. Maybe it's made of [[Unobtainium]]? [[A Wizard Did It]]? Whatever the case, the point is that this object, usually some kind of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] that helps the villain achieve his goals, cannot be destroyed easily and may only be able to be destroyed in a specific manner that usually involves rare and obscure means. This can often be used to justify why the heroes are carrying around such a dangerous object instead of destroying it.

 

 

Compare [[Tonka Tough]]. See also [[Made of Iron]].

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', the antique armor that Al's soul was [[Animated Armor|put into]] can somehow routinely completely deflect bullets without getting scratched and even the little tail ornament on his head could jam [[Chainsaw Good|Buccaneer's Alligator arm]] which was starting to shred up Ed's entire automail arm. Although Winry whacking him with her wrench [[Armor-Piercing Slap|seems to do the trick]], dramatically he was only ever damaged by attacks in some way based on alchemy.

* The titular objects in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' qualify for this. The four-star-ball once [[Pocket Protector|saved Goku's life]] when {{spoiler|it blocked Tao Pai Pai's Dodonpa from piercing his heart}}.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', the only reason the [[Government Conspiracy]] haven't completely erased all traces of the "Void Century" already is that the history is recorded on things called Poneglyphs, which are indestructible.

* In ''[[Lupin III]]'', Goemon's sword was forged by a secret process and is essentially indestructible (it actually broke in ''The Secret Of Twilight Gemini'' with no comment, but that was probably [[Did Not Do the Research]] on the writer's part and can be safely ignored).

* In ''[[Digimon]]'', [[Power Levels|Mega-level]] Digimon often have armor or weapons made of something called Chrome Digizoid. It's rare to see it damaged by something other than a weapon made from the same stuff, though it can be done.

** ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' was also made of Japanium, but the alloy it was made with was even sturdier.

** On the other hand, ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' was made with Gren, an incredibly tough metal. Nevertheless, it could not be found on Earth, so when Grendizer got damadeg, he was reapired with Alloy z.

** Possibly best known as the substance that coats [[Wolverine]]'s bones, making them nigh-unbreakable.

** The Marvel Universe also has Vibranium, which is functionally indestructible. There's also Carbonadium, a cheaper form of adamantium which is functionally indestructible as well. In terms of true and utter indestructibility, even adamantium is vulnerable.

*** In fact it was attempts at duplicating this process that led to the creation of the slightly less indestructible adamantium

*** In the Fear Itself story arc, Cap's shield finally meets its match and gets torn in half by the big bad. Flash forward to the end where Ironman reforged it - with Uru (the metal Thor's hammer is made of.) It's probably even MORE indestructible now.

** The Borg are sometimes presented as this (for example, in the first episode of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', when Federation weapons don't even scratch the Borg cube) when they have [[Awesomeness By Analysis|adapted to your weapons]].

* The craft from ''[[Quatermass and The Pit]]''.

* Many robots of all kinds (though usually the humanoid, kill-everyone variant) can be considered part of this. Here it's usually not the robot itself that is indestructible, but the electronics inside. Cut off its head, punch a hole in its stomach, it will just keep going for you as if nothing happened. Guess all the important parts are in the toes.

 

** Also, the walls of Orthanc and Minas Tirith are invulnerable to all known weapons and projectiles.

** Mithril isn't indestructible, but it's close.

* In the ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' universe the Molkex fall into this. The substance is created by chaosworm and is linked to an alternate universe. All standard energy weapon and nuclear bomb can't destroy it.

* Densecris and carbonex serve as this in Steve Perry's ''[[Matador Series|Matador]]'' series. It's mentioned that a few centimeters of densecris are enough to protect from a direct missile hit, and that a bunker with carbonex plating is 'going to take a long time to dig through'.

* In Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series, ''cuendillar'' is "an indestructible substance created during the Age of Legends. Any known force used in an attempt to break it is absorbed, making it stronger." However, this doesn't stop {{spoiler|the Dark One's seals from breaking}}

* In ''[[Harry Potter|Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows]]'', Goblin metal is clearly stated as being Indestructium. And if you imbue it with poison, a sword made of this is poisoned forever.

* Critically subverted in the fourth-generation ''[[Tom Swift]]'' novel ''Mind Games'', where Tom surprises everyone during the ''Galaxy Masters'' game by destroying one of the two [[MacGuffin|Memory Cubes]], locking [[Big Bad|Dedstorm]] out of victory while still allowing the heroes to accomplish their goal. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|The game's designer himself]] [[Subverted Trope|notes that he's effectively broken the game.]] {{spoiler|It's not the last time he does so.}}

* The character Monkey, from [[Journey to the West]], is a living being Made of Indestructium. It's probable that the fact his mother was a mountain impregnated by the cosmic forces of the universe made him tough to begin with (he is described repeatedly as a "stone monkey"), but after he got into Heaven, he gorged himself on both Peaches of Immortality, Wine of Heaven and Elixir of Long Life. And even before he got to Heaven, he had caused trouble by beating up all of the gods and demons of the Underworld and crossing his name out of the Register of the Dead, meaning that his soul couldn't pass on to the afterlife if he died anyway. And then, after he ate all that immortality-granting foodstuff, he was finally captured and spent 49 days being cooked inside [[Laozi|Lao Tzu]]'s crucible, which should have been enough to kill even another god, but which only cooked him even harder then before... and he was thrown in the crucible in the first place because even the strongest god in Heaven couldn't scratch him with his sharpest sword!

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The Monolith can be destroyed provided you have a Strength 9 or higher weapon, but that's the only way to destroy it. However, a Strength 9 or 10 (10 is about as high as you can get in a normal game) weapon simply means you have a ''chance'' at destroying it. Actually completing the feat means you need 2 consecutive 5's or 6's, not to mention hitting the damn thing first. For most armies, it's just easier to destroy enough necrons to force a Phase Out.

* The Demon Hunter's Tassels from ''[[GURPS]]: Dungeon Fantasy'' are an amusingly mundane version of this. Cutting the threads is impossible, even a God must settle for untying them from whatever they are fixed to.

 

== Toys ==

== Video Games ==

* Due to technical and resource limitations, just about everything in videogames tends to be this. Even though a Rocket Launcher is one of the [[Standard FPS Guns]], don't expect to be able to blow out a wall, or dent the ground, or even destroy a car depending on the game, especially prevalent in [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom|Linear Games]]. Although, there are a few aversions.

* The Web Game ''IndestructoTank'' features a tank that is made out of a material called indestructanium. Ironically, once the fuel runs out, it's more like Explodium.

* ''[[Touhou]] Soccer'' has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqWRe_ZYyiw this soccer ball]. What happens in this video is actually a pretty minor punishment compared to some others... Compared to, say... ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkDT-OlkYTI this]''.

* The briefcase from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]''. While hails of gunfire, flames, explosions and everything else goes on around it, the flag sits exactly where it was left, calmly rotating 6 inches above the surface of the floor. Actually, most anything that isn't directly used by the classes themselves seems to be effectively indestructible.

* The Shinra building in the ''[[Final Fantasy VII|Final Fantasy VII Compilation]]'' appears to fit the trope. ''[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Dirge%20of%20Cerberus/Update%2064/4-ending58.jpg This]'' is what it looks like after Diamond Weapon, Meteor, the Lifestream, Sephiroth, Cloud, Chaos and Omega all threw everything they had at it.

* Mass Relays in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' are composed of an unknown yet incredible resilient material, are equipped with self cleaning and maintenance cycles and internal power generation, and can emit powerful mass effect stasis fields in response to threats, preserving the relay's structural integrity at a quantum level and preventing even state-of-the-art laser drilling from extracting pieces for analysis. (It also helps that Mass Relays, which are natural choke points, are extensively guarded and patrolled, and Council species very heavily frown on anyone interfering with them.) It's revealed during the ''Arrival'' mission in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' that Relays ''can'' be destroyed, although it requires a [[Colony Drop|colossal]] force to do so.

* The Scrin Threshold Towers in the ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' verse are made of a Tiberium composite material whose exact contents are never revealed. While incomplete, blasting a Threshold once with an [[Kill Sat|ion cannon]] will topple it but once it finishes construction, the material partially phases out of reality and renders the whole tower invulnerable to everything up to and including [[Nuke'Em|nuclear detonations]], [[Colony Drop|cometary impacts]] and ''[[Hurl It Into the Sun|low-yield stellar events]]''.

* Professor E. Gadd notes that his Poltergust 3000 is almost indestructible in ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]''

* Certain buildings in the ''[[Fallout]]'' universe, considering what they had to have survived. During the development of ''[[Fallout 3]]'', Bethesda ran simulations to see what buildings in the D.C. area would survive a nuclear holocaust in [[Real Life]]. The answer: none of them. So they fudged it.

* {{spoiler|Porky}}'s Absolutely Safe Capsule in ''[[Mother 3]]'' is just that, Absolutely Safe. Nothing the main characters do can damage it, and {{spoiler|the battle is declared over after two turns. And additionally, not even Porky himself can do anything to the capsule, or even exit it for that matter. In other words, he's stuck in it forever.}}

* Played for laughs in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]''. Bianca accidentally destroys everything in your bedroom the first time you battle her. Your Nintendo Wii isn't even scratched.

 

== Webcomics ==

* Lampshaded in [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0199.html this] ''[[Darths and Droids]]''.

 

== Web Originals ==

* Glock firearms standard test: build the prototype, drop it (unloaded) 3 stories, pick up gun, load, fire. If it fails to fire, redesign.

* AK-47

** On a similar note, the Russian counterpart of the American M4 Sherman, the T-34 tank. One was used by fleeing Nazis and driven into an Estonian bog, then abandoned. Discovered decades later and found with no corrosion, no leaks, and with a little bit of work (and mopping up the inside) it started. Russia takes this trope seriously.

* The classic Zippo lighter's basic design hasn't changed in almost eighty years, and it hasn't had to. Sure, torch-style butane lighters may look nifty, but leave one of those babies in your jacket and spin it through the wash or bounce it off a concrete floor and you'll have a nifty-looking paperweight. Zippo? Still works like new. The only thing the company won't guarantee is the finish, but they're so confident in the lighter's construction that everything else is covered by a ''perpetual'' warranty, regardless of how many owners its had or what caused the damage.

* There is a reason why the [[Tonka Tough]] trope is named after the Tonka Mighty Dumptruck. They once had an elephant step on one, and the truck held the elephant's foot just fine, thanks.

* It's become a [[Dead Horse Trope]] joke that if airliners were made out of the same thing flight recorders are made out of, they'd survive crashes. Of course this isn't really true, but people still think of 'Black Boxes' as being impossible to destroy. They're just steel: their strength is from their compact design more than material, and they're tucked away at the back where they're unlikely to take the brunt of a crash.

** Flasks designed to carry used nuclear fuel for reprocessing are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mETJNBvOU most definitely] made of indestructium.

** Western nuclear reactors are clearly intended to be as close to this trope as humanly possible. For example, they are designed to be able to survive someone flying an airliner into them.

* [[Dave Barry]] believes that modern cars should be made out of the same material as Fisher-Price cars, as they are apparently unaffected by the destructive behavior of a four-year-old.

** Nintendo's early testing included throwing Game Boys from a three story building.

** Nintendo of Japan finally stopped repairing the Famicom after 20 years. In other words, they expected the console to last 20 years.

** The [[Nintendo GameCube]], that goofy purple lunchbox. The top of the disk case is a weak point, but with the open button taped down the system will survive most anything.

** According to legend, one player [[Rage Quit|lit his Game Cube on fire in a fit of rage]]. ''[[Mario Kart]]'' kept going for five minutes.

*** The show references this further when it mentioned the next [[Star Wars|Death Star]] will be made of the hardest material known to man: used Gameboy Advances.

** On an episode of ''[[Mind of Mencia]]'', a midget was smashing old electronics with a sledgehammer. Everything was smashed to bits in one go, save for a Nintendo 64, which took 3 hits before the casing began to dent.

** This is referenced in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', when the player character's room gets trashed by holding a battle in it but the Wii is specifically noted as not being damaged.

** Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime explains - in a manner that suggests that he can't decide if he's Billy Mays or the Power Thirst announcer - the hard work and dedication that goes into making Nintendo products so durable in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1M5Mk2cVI this video.]

* [[Nerf Brand]] foam is impervious to nearly all blunt attacks, and can't even be torn apart by hand, so it's really only vulnerable to some sort of cutting technique.

* For most of human history, diamond has been effectively indestructible under the cutting tools available. No wonder that one of its oldest names, ''adamant'', is the root for the names of some of fiction's most indestructible metals. On the other hand, that's a measure of its ''hardness'', or the difficulty of scratching it. It's much easier to destroy through blunt impact, being fairly brittle.

* Panasonic's [[wikipedia:Toughbook|Toughbook]] laptops have a indestructium casing (aka “magnesium alloy”) and also make for good [http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2005/11/24/Panasonic-ToughBook-CF-29-Rugged-Notebook/p2 bulletproofing].

* A company called Pelican makes padded and ''very'' sturdy containers for various uses. One of their ads tells how a US Special Forces team in Iraq blew up a damaged helicopter to keep its contents from falling into enemy hands. They used two Maverick missiles, which can be tank-killers. A few days later, the team went back to the helicopter and found their Pelican-made case intact with only minor burns and a broken latch. Its contents (lots of sensitive electronics and a block of C-4 explosive) were unharmed. The ad sums up: "Frankly, we don't want to know what it would take." Also, Pelican's slogan is apparently, "You break it, we replace it...forever."

* There seems to be a general consensus amongst guitarists that most Fender instruments and amplifiers will be around after the nuclear holocaust. From [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ_P1vfZYo4 Keith Richards using one to defend Mick Jagger] (Mind you both these men are probably also made of Indestructium.), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqf9AcEpJUw&feature=related To Pete Townshend, a man who's career has revolved around smashing guitars, not being able to consistently destroy them.] How did the company founder go about showing how reliable his first guitar was in the 50's? He went to a trade show, placed it across two chairs, and proceeded to jump on a piece of wood about an inch and a half wide multiple times, repeatedly putting the full weight of a grown man on that tiny part. Then he picked it up, and it was in-tune. Hell, most of them even today have a completely user-dismantleable design so in the off chance you toss it in a volcano and something does break, it's an easy fix.

* Apple achieved this with the iPod Touch. People have even shot them at point blank, and the screen worked everywhere except for the bullet hole. And maybe even there.

* [[Nokia]] phones are notoriously tough to break, and have in fact done significant damage to anything they're thrown at without showing much more than a few scratches. They have achieved [[Memetic Mutation|meme]] status as a result.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

[[Category:Made of Index]]