Made of Iron: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[The Culture|Consider Phlebas]]'' by [[Iain Banks]], the Idirans are revealed to be incredibly resilient to damage. One member of the species is apparently killed, and a fairly [[Genre Savvy|sensible]] member of the protagonist's crew decides to make sure of it by putting the barrel of his laser rifle into the Idiran's eye and torching off a good portion of its head. Turns out that this isn't nearly enough to keep an Idiran down, leading to the book's eventual [[Downer Ending]].

* Quidditch, from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', is arguably an example. It's specifically mentioned that the worst injuries players have suffered are broken bones, in a sport that involves heavy iron balls knocking people off broomsticks 50 feet in the air. Of course, some fans have in turn suggested that wizards have a (nonstated) resistance to physical injury. Note that it's the worst that's happened ''at Hogwarts'', according to Oliver Wood. When Harry asks him if anyone's ever died playing Quidditch, Wood responds, "Never at Hogwarts", which seems to imply that fatalities have occurred elsewhere.

* It's a more minor example than most of these, but the [[Badass Crew|four Aurek Seven]] stormtroopers in ''[[Outbound Flight|Survivor's Quest]]'' should count. Two of them fight for and protect two unarmored officers against a large number of Vagaari armed with blasters and charrics. Their armor is good, the blasters are fifty years old and have a weak charge, and charrics aren't designed to pierce this armor, but there are a ''lot'' of Vagaari. By the time the other two show up it is mentioned that their chestplates aren't white anymore, they're having trouble standing and walking, the nonhuman stormtrooper is forgetting to translate his responses to commands into Basic, and the other isn't responding at all, and yet they're still shooting, still [[Taking the Bullet|taking the blaster bolt]]. That's how Zahn writes stormtroopers. They take a lot of damage, shoot well, and never give up.

* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]]. Seriously. In ''Fool Moon'' alone, he gets chin-decked, shot in the shoulder, pistol-whipped, beaten with a tire-iron, slammed into various walls, savaged by a werewolf, knocked out by overuse of magic, stomped to a pulp, duct-taped to a pillar from which he rips himself free, tossed over a wall, dropped out of a moving car on the Interstate, and tossed down into a 20-foot pit, yet still manages to use powerful magic, climb hand-over-hand up a 20-foot rope, and otherwise kick the living shit out of the bad guy by the end. His friend Murphy also somehow manages to climb up a rope and rapid-fire a .38 mere hours after sustaining a compound fracture to her right arm. And that's just in Book 2!

* Subverted in [[Harald]]. The [[Badass Grandpa]] protagonist is on the run from [[Mooks|The King's Wolves]], and has been playing [[Guile Hero]] to try and avoid fighting them. They catch him while he's fleeing on horseback, he kills several of them, gets hit by a couple [[Annoying Arrows]] and shrugs them off - and then one of them whacks him in the head, he passes out, gets rescued by [[Those Two Guys]] [[Action Girl]]s and spends months recovering from all of his injuries.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Garrett P.I.|Gilded Latten Bones]]'', with Morley Dotes' stab wounds. The healer who treats him is astounded by the fact that none of the attacker's strikes had damaged vital organs or major arteries. Subverted in that Morley is laid up far longer than Garrett anticipated; played straight in that by all logic, he should've been one dead half-elf.

 

== Live-Action TV ==