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Barrier Warrior: Difference between revisions
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'''Cure Mint:''' [[Bond One-Liner|The difference between me and you is that I was protected]].|''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Yes! Precure 5]]'' [[The Movie]], re: Mint's first-season powers, which were limited to shields.}}
The [[Barrier Warrior]] is a character with the [[Magic and Powers]] necessary to create [[Deflector Shields]] or [[Beehive Barrier|Beehive Barriers]] to protect themselves and sometimes others. The Barrier Warrior fights enemies with an emphasis not on [[The Dark Side|destruction,]] but on protecting, and [[Personality Powers|their personalities reflects this]] by being kind and caring, with [[Actual Pacifist]] tendencies and sometimes [[Healing Hands]] to go with their defensive abilities. It should come as no surprise that characters with this ability as their main or only power are, you guessed it, heroes. Usually, they're [[The Chick]], a [[Squishy Wizard]] or [[The Smart Guy]]. In video games they specialize in protecting and aiding team mates, or [[Status Buff|"buffing"]], rather than damaging enemies.
Despite these good intentions and potent abilities, they'll pretty much suck at actually ''doing'' stuff like beating enemies or worse, ''protecting their allies!'' The problem is that their transferable [[Nigh Invulnerability]] and ease in resisting attacks that [[Could Have Been Messy]] makes them the perfect target for [[The Worf Effect]]. As soon as [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil|a new bad guy shows up,]] their shields will [[No Sell|pose all the resistance of wet tissue paper]] to their weakest [[Pure Energy|Energy Blasts.]]
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As a power, generating [[Deflector Shields]] is much like [[Flight]]. In theory it's an awesome power that anyone would like, but like Flight it has become [[Stock Super Powers|a dime a dozen]] and [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|pretty lame]]. Most shows give every character this ability as a secondary power/skillset from a character's main abilities (such as a [[Dishing Out Dirt|geokinetic]] blocking attacks with boulders, or a [[An Ice Person|cryokinetic]] making ice walls). It's made even more useless since it's easy to deflect [[Ki Attacks]] with other [[Ki Attacks]], and techniques like [[Deadly Dodging]] are around to avoid most attacks.
On the flip side, writers who notice this have used [[Re-Power]] to make these characters incredibly versatile and lethal as well, since it functions like an [[Imagination-Based Superpower]], which often involves [[Spontaneous Weapon Creation]].
Frequently their barriers manifest depending on their morality (and may even change appearance if they [[Face Heel Turn|change]] [[Heel Face Turn|sides]]). It's either as beautiful (and deadly) [[Petal Power]] or [[Power Glows|gently glowing]] spheres, or black barriers that crackle ominously.
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** Cures Sunshine (and her mascot Potpourri) and Moonlight in ''[[Heartcatch Pretty Cure]]'' can also cast rather big shields. Sunshine in particular used her Sunflower Aegis to attack back when she made her first appearance.
* [[The Hero|Mai]] from ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' can use her Element to create short-range forcefields for herself and her friends. [[The Rival|Natsuki]] also gets this ability in the manga version (hers is ice in counterpart to Mai's fire).
** Though considering Mai's power mainly consists of pyrokinesis and summoning a giant dragon with its very own [[Wave Motion Gun]], her shield does not really make her a [[Barrier Warrior]].
** Sister Yukariko would be a better fit to the trope. She is also an example of [[The Archer]].
* The main characters of ''[[Kekkaishi]]''. Comes with the handy bonus that they can make the barriers implode, destroying whatever they made it surround.
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** Suffice to say, while her personality is still the mothering/nurturing type, and the original stories featured her as a sometimes-invisible [[Damsel in Distress]], Sue has gone a long way towards subverting this trope when it comes to how her powers are used.
* Melissa Joan Gold aka Songbird from the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' creates pink solid-sound energy constructs quite similar to Sue Storm.
** The resemblance was noted by Sue Storm's son Franklin Richards:
{{quote|'''Franklin:''' H-Huh? A '''bubble''' like '''mom's''' bubbles! Except -- I can see it!}}
* Subverted with [[Captain America (comics)]], whose sole weapon - his iconic indestructible shield - is, when thrown, a great offensive weapon against most people.
** During a period when his shield was lost or destroyed (around the fifth or sixth time... it happens to him a lot), Cap was given an energy shield which acted in this way. Being a traditionalist, he quickly went back to the old shield once it was found/rebuilt.
* Brainiac 5 of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', who uses his force field and martial arts training to make up for no powers in the comics. In the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|cartoon]], he's a [[Do-Anything Robot]] and a [[Telescoping Robot]], whose [[Beehive Barrier]] is the least of what he can do.
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** The ''[[X-Men]]'' villain Unus the Untouchable is a villainous example of a Barrier Warrior, with the mutant power of being able to project an impenetrable force field around himself. Rather than being kind and caring, Unus acts like a [[Jerkass]] because he thinks his power prevents anyone from being able to stop him. He's generally right...until the superhero he's fighting finds some way to either circumvent the field's protection or comes up with a creative way of shutting it off, at which point he's easy prey. Turns into [[Blessed with Suck]] when he loses control of his field and suffocates to death when it grows so strong it repels ''air.''
* Subverted in Buffy Season 8. Giles fights a sorcerer with much greater proficiency in magic than him and is mocked for casting a basic barrier spell that any competent mage could tear through. Giles however, casts the barrier inside his opponents head and as it expands, his skull explodes from the pressure. Brutal killing with a simple defensive spell.
* Rampart in ''[[Sovereign Seven]]'' had this as his power.
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** And Paula is furthermore the best example in ''Earthbound'' itself, as her personality seems to be similar to a barrier warrior even though she's also a mix of a [[Glass Cannon]] and [[Squishy Wizard]]. Also, Ness and Poo's shields affect physical damage, and only at best cut it in half (while sometimes deflecting the other half). Paula's shields, are meant to shield from PSI attacks, and they FULLY shield affected characters instead of just reducing damage, and they can also deflect PSI completely. Using PSI Shield Omega in the Starman DX battle plus the Starman DX using PSI Starstorm Alpha = scrapped Starman DX.
** Still more, Lucas possesses half-damage reduction forms of both the Physical and PSI shields [both blocking and deflective] in ''Mother 3'' and a lot of his use in combat relies on him using these shields in the later half of the game.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' the Defender archetype uses this type of powers, and shares weaker versions of them with the Controller; additionally villains get their own versions in Corruptors and Masterminds. Four of the power sets available work primarily by putting shields of some kind on other characters (or in the case of the Mastermind, a bunch of henchmen!), including Force Fields, Ice Shields, Sonic Barriers and Thermal Radiation Shields. The other Buff/Debuff sets vary widely but several include auxiliary barrier powers. All of these various powers are so potent that a team composed heavily of support characters can truly be [[Nigh Invulnerable]].
* ''[[Anarchy Online]]'' has this in the Soldier profession, who can not only create [[Deflector Shields]] around themselves, but also around others. However, the profession is focused around dealing ranged damage to an enemy.
* [[Front Mission|Dr. Akihiko Sakata, I presume?]]
* Guarlions (and similar machines) in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] [[Original Generation]]'' can generate a forcefield when moving at high speeds. Naturally, one of their strongest attacks [[Ramming Always Works|is to ram things hard]]. Similarly, the [[Super Robot]] Giganscudo will also use its fields to slam into the enemy, either when using its massive weight as a weapon, or by grabbing the enemy from a distance and slamming it into its field-shrouded mass.
* In the MMORPG ''[[Fly FF]],'' an entire class, the Assist, as well as its higher-level counterpart the Ringmaster, is dedicated to buffing and healing.
** Well, really, that makes them [[The Medic]], as while many skills increase HP or provide an increased [[Fragile Speedster|Dodge]] or [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|Block]] rate, only 2 skills of the [[White Mage|Ringmaster]], Protect and HolyGaurd, and 2 of the [[Our Angels Are Different|Seraph's]] skills, Raiment of Rhisis and [[Nigh Invulnerability|Soul of Rhisis]], actually boost ''defense''.
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** More recently Priests specializing in the Discipline tree have become a full embodiment of this trope. Discipline Priests specialize in creating shields to prevent damage rather than to heal it.
** Warriors also have an ability called "Shield Wall" which temporarily reduces all damage they receive by half. The animation looks like military shields dancing around their bodies. Similarly, a Paladin's "Divine Protection" spell halves all damage the paladin receives for several seconds; the reason a paladin would choose Divine Protection over their more powerful total-invulnerability spell is that the latter convinces monsters to attack their comrades instead.
** Mages are probably the ones with the most buffs that act as shields, most of which also can be used outright offensively just by being there and getting hit by enemies. They have molten armor, which on top of lowering the attacker's crit chance on the mage actually does fire damage to the attacker. They have frost armor, which raises their armor value and, depending on how far down you go into the frost specialization of their magic, will slow any melee attacker to varying degrees and outright chance-on-hit freeze them in their tracks. THEN they have the literal stop-all-incoming-damage shields, Mana Shield (which eats through lots of mana and kinda sucks) and Ice Barrier which on top of being a very effective defense will also explode and freeze all enemies in range of the mage when it takes its max damage. Oh, and they have two "wards" that absorb any incoming fire or frost damage and, if glyphed, can actually convert part of said absorbed spell into their own mana.
* [[Warhammer Online]] has several healer classes with barrier or damage reduction abilities, most notably the Chaos Zealot (and its [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|stunty]] equivalent the Runepriest) - they have barriers to shield their entire party, single targets, or prevent damage to themselves; they can buff to reduce incoming magic damage; they have tactics to increase the armor of allied players or put up a barrier on themselves; finally, they have two separate morale abilities to absorb damage across the party.
* The ''Golem'' Asgard from the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series specializes in barriers, and is supposedly the defensive, friendly golem. However, since its barriers disintegrate anything that touches them, they're primarily used offensively, sometimes leading to [[One-Hit Kill]] attacks in games where you fight Asgard. Barrier Fist! Barrier Storm!
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* ''[[Starcraft]] 2'' is a curious example, since it doesn't involve a character but a unit - the Protoss Sentry, whose Force Field ability can be devastating in the hands of a skilled player, especially when used to cut off enemy units passing through a chokepoint.
* Guild Wars' Monk has a substantial number of shielding powers, ranging from damage limiters (some of which reduce the max damage any one can take; others lower the damage each consecutive attack deals) to blocking powers (giving the subject an increased chance to block attacks completely) to converting all incoming damage to healing. The Ritualist has a few abilities with similar, but less effective, effects.
* Priests in [[Dragon Force (video game)]] use a spell called Holy Shield that is this trope
* Aqua in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' has some useful Barrier powers. Her default guard is a magic barrier, her counter attack after blocking is to shatter the barrier, and she has the ability to rush enemies with a barrier up.
** In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' Sora's most powerful spell is the Reflect line of spells, which, after successfully guarding, unleashes a spray of [[Light'Em Up|Light]] equal to the enemy's attack power.
*** There is also a wizard nobody that falls into [[Demonic Spider]] territory due to the use of indestructable transparent blocks that it uses for both offense and defense.
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
* Unusually for a [[Bullet Hell]] [[Shoot'Em Up|shmup]], ''[[Hellsinker]]'' heavily uses a suppression shield as a gameplay mechanic. The shield, which looks like a blue circle surrounding the player's craft, can damage enemies and slow bullets down. Some attacks are almost impossible to avoid without it, but other times using it will land you in a world of hurt.
** Fossilmaiden also has an extra shield attached to the hilt of her [[Laser Blade]].
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Prior to the [[Time Skip]], Gwen of ''[[Ben 10]]'' had [[Reality Warper|luck powers]] and various [[Elemental Powers]] over water and wind that often didn't work very well. Post [[Time Skip]], Gwen stops using all of those and instead just creates forcefields for shields and bludgeoning.
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]],'' Shocker's [[Clothes Make the Superman|costume]] generates [[Deflector Shields]] as a secondary power, allowing him to survive a building's collapse.
* Arguably, Ratchet from ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. His main ability comes from his wrist-mounted magnetic field generators, which he often uses to create shields against enemy attacks. They're a bit more malleable than the average [[Deflector Shields]], though, and they can can just as easily toss enemies around or push objects into them.
** In the original ''[[Transformers]]'', Trailbreaker also had force field powers.
* [[Bionicle|Toa Tahu]] wears the [[Mask Power|Mask of Shielding]], which protects him against attack by creating a bubble shield (which is covered in [[Instant Runes]] in the Flash animations but not in the movies) capable of protecting him from a ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|waterfall of lava]]''. When he becomes a [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up|Toa Nuva]], the mask gains the ability to protect others as well. However, it does not protect against attacks that the wearer is unaware of, and sometimes you can get around it by doing something that would not be interpreted as an attack -- for example, Nuhvok-Kal managed to reach through the shield with the power of his [[Improbable Weapon User|gravity weapon]] and cause Tahu to faceplant, bringing the shield down.
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