Plot Armor: Difference between revisions

 

== Literature ==

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

 

== Live Action TV ==