Plot Armor: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''[[Genre Savvy|"Look, we got four or five of the main characters on this ship. I think we'll be fine."]]''
|'''Peter Griffin'''|''[[Family Guy]]'', "Something, Something, Something Dark Side"}}
{{quote|A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
|Psalm 91}}
The main reason the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]] is still in business (along with a handful of other tropes). Just by being the main character, the laws of the world seem to bend around the character in a more than figurative way. For some reason (and not even an explicit ability), just being the main character or on his team protects you from death, serious wounds, and generally any sort of harm until dramatically appropriate. Even psychological damage can be beaten by '''Plot Armor'''. Unless you're [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality|explicitly marked for death]], or [[Tempting Fate]].
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* [[Made of Iron]] (when enemy attacks are effective, but not quite as much as you'd expect),<ref>[[Made of Iron]] should not be confused with [[Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke]]. The latter involves the ''weapon'' being underwhelming, yet still powerful; the former involves the ''target'' being [[Why Won't You Die?|unusually sturdy]]</ref> but not quite [[Nigh Invulnerable]]. [[Made of Iron]] counts as a subtrope of '''Plot Armor''', while [[Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke]] doesn't.
* [[Story-Driven Invulnerability]] (when a video game boss can only be killed when the story allows it)
Compare [[Contractual Immortality]] (where the characters seem to die, but it's known that the actors haven't left the show) and [[Rule of Empathy]] (which may give Plot Armor to non-protagonist characters, even villains, provided they are sympathetic).
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Contrasts with [[Anyone Can Die]], [[Plotline Death]], [[Red Shirt]] (which is someone wearing a plot target).
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Near the beginning of ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]]'', the protagonist gets shot. A lot (there were at least 34 bullets in him, according to a later scene). Not only is he back on his feet after a few days, but he is also showing ''absolutely no signs of being shot over thirty freaking times'' afterwards. Did I already mention that the protagonist in question is a ''months old puppy?''
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* This trope is deconstructed in ''[[Code Geass]]'' with Suzaku, {{spoiler|who [[Death Seeker|wants to die on the battlefield but doesn't, in part because Lelouch has geassed him to "LIVE"]]}}, and played too straight with Oghi and Villetta.
* Conan Edokawa from ''[[Case Closed]]'' takes more and more bullets in the recent movies, but always survives. This has to do with him being in [[Non-Serial Movie|the movies based on the TV show.]] Any non movie-exclusive characters can't die anyway because that would damage the main story.
== Comic Books ==
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== Fan
* In the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' fanfic ''The Council Era'', when he is in conflict with the [[Villain Protagonist]]'s son, the [[Chaotic Evil]] Takavor Derishama throws his spear and it directly impales him. When he throws the spear at the [[Villain Protagonist]], it goes too far upward, just cutting off one of those muscle-horn things that salarians have.
* ''[[Uninvited Guests]]'': {{spoiler|Used, lampshaded, and weaponized by Aizen.}}
* ''[[DC Nation]]'' usually requires a player wanting to kill a character to go through an application process of the mods and muns of the characters teammates. The exception is when a mun leaves the game and the character cannot be adopted out for one reason or another.
* In [[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]], it isn't surprising that [[Creator's Pet]] Ronan can survive otherwise fatal situations, even getting raised from the dead {{spoiler|three times}}. What is surprising is that Edfred, an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] the author hates, survives getting beaten up by Ronan, and Ronan once [[Not Worth Killing|decides not to fight him so as not to humiliate him]].
* Lelouch in ''[[Soul Chess]]'' has an excuse, but apart from that, {{spoiler|[[Word of God]] states that even Ichigo and his friends will lose theirs after graduation. Some of the other characters from Bleach have lost theirs already. Like Head Captain Yamamoto.}}
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* Lampshaded in [[The Movie]] of ''[[George of the Jungle]]'', the narrator mentions during a recap that "George was really shot but can't die because, let's face it, he's the hero."
* ''[[G.I. Joe: The Movie]]''. In the original script, good-guy Duke is hit with a snake-spear from Serpentor and dies. However, after ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' traumatized kids with the death of Optimus Prime, [[Executive Meddling]] saddled the ''Joe'' movie with a hasty edit. Duke's injury merely resulted in a coma, and a voice-over near the end of the movie announced Duke's recovery.
* [[Lampshaded]] in the title song of ''[[Road
{{quote|For any villains we may meet, we haven't any fears;
Paramount will protect us, 'cause we're signed for five more years. }}
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== Literature ==
* One of the many letdowns of the ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' books is Meyer's continuous promises of danger to characters followed by little to no follow through. In the first book, Laurent refuses to fight against James even though it would be an eight to two fight. Which basically means James must be the badass of badasses. Actually Jasper and Emmett take him out alone. And easily. Book Four is the biggest Plot Armor moment when a brutal battle between the Volturi and the Cullen/Cullen allies that has been worked up for ages devolves into a friendly talk and
* Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series has the three main male characters as ''ta'veren'', or "tied to the pattern". Essentially this serves as a [[Magi Babble|catch-all]] for all the [[Weirdness Magnet|weird stuff that happens to them]], very much including their in-universe plot armor. Of course, it also tends to [[Blessed with Suck|attract nasty stuff]] that makes it necessary...
** Not just attracts weird stuff to 'them.' It also attracts weird stuff to 'other' people as well. The effect could blanket an entire city.
* This is made literal in the ''[[Xanth]]'' novels. In the very first Xanth novel, {{spoiler|Bink's magic talent is essentially plot armor, as he cannot be harmed by magic.}} Unlike many examples, the book is kept interesting because {{spoiler|it is a great deal of the point of the plot, and it is not known that this is his talent until quite late in the book, when he exploits it.}} In the second book, {{spoiler|he is specifically chosen for the task of finding the source of magic due to his immunity to harm from it. Despite this, his talent is somewhat picky about what is defined by "harm", and he is still worried that he could be killed by mundane means, as well as by the source of all magic itself, a nearly omnipotent demon. In the end, however, it is implied that his talent is in fact so powerful that even the demon could not overcome it, and that all his seeming misfortune was what saved him in the end.}}
** Which is kinda weird considering that the demon is the source of his immunity to magic in the first place.
** Okra Ogress tries to put Jenny Elf into a life
* The later novels in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' series feature some heavily [[Lampshaded]] Plot Armor: Arthur Dent knows he can't die until he visits Stavromula Beta. (Arthur learns this from meeting somebody who wants to kill him because of a long list of things Arthur did, including something that happened there. When he discovers that Arthur hasn't even heard of Stavromula Beta yet, he realises that this means Arthur can't be killed yet without causing a serious time paradox—but he's so angry he tries to kill Arthur anyway.) {{spoiler|This leads to a shocking [[Prophecy Twist|twist]] at the end of ''Mostly Harmless'', when Arthur unwittingly fulfills the conditions of the accidental prophecy, and is swiftly [[Killed Off for Real]].}} {{spoiler|[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/And Another Thing|Probably.]]}}
** To much collective dismay, Authors are not granted the benefits of Plot Armor, and [[Author Existence Failure]] has caused a serious disruption in the successful use of Plot Armor.
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* As the ''[[Redwall]]'' series went on, the mortality rate went from "[[Anyone Can Die]]" to "Only vermin are in danger". Perhaps the nadir: ''One'' named, nonvillainous character died in ''Pearls of Lutra'', and she had only had five nonsinging lines beforehand.
* By [[Word of God]], only one character truly has this in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series: MacGuiness, Honor's valet, because Weber's wife likes him. In practice, Honor herself ended up with some, though, as she was supposed to be killed off at the end of ''At All Costs'', only for fan outcry (and a change in the series' timeline) to save her.
* Parodied and exploited in ''[[The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System]]''. Shen Quinqiu, a very [[Genre Savvy]] man who was transmigrated to a [[Troperiffic]] [[Harem Genre|stallion]] [[Chinese Web Novel|webnovel]] where the protagonist has this trope constantly applied to him, manages to defeat a monster that has them both trapped and bound - he convinces it to attack the protagonist, knowing that the novel's universe won't let their "chosen son" to be permanently harmed. Sure enough, a ceiling column improbably drop onto the monster, which frees the protagonist and distracts the monster long enough for Shen Quinqiu to free and re-arm himself.
== Live Action TV ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* A lot (by now) of games integrate
** ''FATE''/''FUDGE'' uses fate points for rerolls and many Stunts allow many more ways to spend fate. "Compels" (DRAMA! related to the character's traits) allow to recharge fate points. Also, extra Stunts are taken at the expense of Refresh, thus calling for more DRAMA! to regain fate points.
*** ''Spirit of the Century'' adds more.
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** ''[[Hackmaster]]'' has Luck Points (Thief's class feature) and sometimes Honor Points working this way.
** ''d6'' system uses both Fate Points and Character Points this way, with different mechanics.
**
** Plot Points in ''[[Firefly|Serenity]]''
** Chips in ''[[Deadlands]]''
** ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' games generally don't have this but in ''[[Kindred of the East]]'' [[Half Vampire|Dhampyr]] actually do have Plot Armor in the form of Passive Joss, which is a form of involuntary luck that sometimes stops them being hit by throwing freak events in the way.
** ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' has Void Points pool, representing potential for harmony. They mostly are spent to boost important rolls and replenish through rest, meditation (if the character has relevant skill and sufficient free time) or tea ceremony (if one of the characters involved has relevant skill and they all have relevant implements and sufficient free time). Since mechanics is this close to [[In-Universe]] understanding, there of course are abilities powered by Void Points.
** The Games Workshop ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' game gave major characters Fate points, allowing them to shrug off wounds just ''because'' they're major characters. The number of fate points a character gets is determined by how good their final fate in the films and books is—for instance, Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf the White etc. have high fate point counts, whereas Boromir, Denethor, Grima Wormtongue etc have low counts.▼
*** The Decipher ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' game also had several traits that allowed heroes to survive because they're heroes. One was even called "Armour of Heroes," which allowed an unarmored PC to claim protection equal to leather armor. This went away if the PC put on actual armor (you must *trust* the script immunity!), though shields were allowed. Temporary bonuses could also be gained through Courage points. And how do you gain/regain Courage points? Act like a hero!▼
** ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has a "karma pool" for each character. You can "burn" one or more dice to give yourself a bonus to some challenging roll at a moment of dire need. The karma is gone once used, but survive long enough and you'll get more.▼
*** ''Shadowrun'' also has a related rule called Dead Man's Trigger. The character will still die, but by using up their entire Karma pool, they can enact one last action before expiring. This can result in the last hero standing shooting the [[Big Bad]] dead just before succumbing to all the wounds taken during the final climactic battle, making it literal plot armor... it protects the plot, even if it doesn't manage to protect the character.▼
* The first edition of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' described Hit Points as a combination of toughness, luck and other factors.
** This is still true as of the game's ''fourth'' edition, which also (a) gives starting characters (though, to be fair, standard monsters as well) rather more hit points than ever before and (b) introduces the concept of 'minions' -- adversaries that [[Red Shirt|specifically exist]] to be taken out by [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|the first hit]] to be scored against them and thus explicitly lack any plot armor whatsoever.
▲* The Games Workshop ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' game gave major characters Fate points, allowing them to shrug off wounds just ''because'' they're major characters. The number of fate points a character gets is determined by how good their final fate in the films and books is—for instance, Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf the White etc. have high fate point counts, whereas Boromir, Denethor, Grima Wormtongue etc have low counts.
▲* The Decipher ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' game also had several traits that allowed heroes to survive because they're heroes. One was even called "Armour of Heroes," which allowed an unarmored PC to claim protection equal to leather armor. This went away if the PC put on actual armor (you must *trust* the script immunity!), though shields were allowed. Temporary bonuses could also be gained through Courage points. And how do you gain/regain Courage points? Act like a hero!
* In ''[[GURPS]]'' there's an option to play a "cinematic campaign", which basically allows the DM to run the show based on [[Rule of Cool]]. Characters start out with ''twice'' the normal point allowance (and they're considerably more badass than ordinary people to begin with), they get special bonuses in combat, and they can save an unspent character point or two to shake off a bad injury as "just a flesh wound."
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has a rule on this that varied with time, but generally the [[Hero Unit|Independent Characters]] who join an unit cannot be hit (other than by area attacks or snipers — and even then with a roll for someone else [[Taking the Bullet]]) until the rest of the unit is eliminated, unless they are the closest model to the attacker; or (depending on the edition) in a more generic variant the controlling player chooses which models in an unit take hits (the purpose is that those with specialist weapons cannot be picked off easily).
▲* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has a "karma pool" for each character. You can "burn" one or more dice to give yourself a bonus to some challenging roll at a moment of dire need. The karma is gone once used, but survive long enough and you'll get more.
** Invulnerable saves in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' and Ward saves in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' are usually justified as superior agility, magical wards, or force fields, but for some people they are explained as luck or fate.▼
▲** ''Shadowrun'' also has a related rule called Dead Man's Trigger. The character will still die, but by using up their entire Karma pool, they can enact one last action before expiring. This can result in the last hero standing shooting the [[Big Bad]] dead just before succumbing to all the wounds taken during the final climactic battle, making it literal plot armor... it protects the plot, even if it doesn't manage to protect the character.
▲* Invulnerable saves in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' and Ward saves in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' are usually justified as superior agility, magical wards, or force fields, but for some people they are explained as luck or fate.
* The newer d20 ''Star Wars RPG'' has "Force points" which can be spent on temporary bonuses.
** The older Revised Edition d20 ''Star Wars RPG'' had vitality points to represent hits as tiring near-misses, and critical hits could very well kill you since they bypassed them.
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[[Category:Universal Tropes]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Resurrection Tropes]]
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