History Main / PlotArmor

Compare ContractualImmortality (a meta trope where a character cannot truly be dead since his or her actor hasn't left the show) and RuleOfEmpathy (which may give Plot Armor to sympathetic non-protagonist characters, including villains).

Sometimes referred to as "Script Immunity" or a "Character Shield", Plot Armor is when a main character's life and health are safeguarded by the fact that he's the one person (or one of several) who can't be removed from the story. Therefore, whenever Bob is in a situation where he could be killed (or at the least very seriously injured), he comes out unharmed with no logical, InUniverse explanation.[[note]]A typical explanation is that Bob survived through sheer luck on the basis of the AnthropicPrinciple. If only one person is going to survive the story, that person has to be Bob for there to ''be'' a story.[[/note]]

-->"It's remarkable this ship is still afloat considering the condition it's in."

* ''TabletopGame/TheOneRing'': Equipment that costs ExperiencePoints, such as [[SkillScoresAndPerks cultural Rewards]] and magic treasure, is safe from loss and destruction as a matter of game balance.

* ''WesternAnimation/AroundTheWorldWithWillyFog'': Near the beginning of Episode 13, the members of the Reform Club who bet against Fog are discussing a typhoon which struck while Fog and his companions were sailing to Hong Kong when one of them suggests that Fog may not have survived the typhoon. However, as Fog is TheProtagonist and this is only the halfway point in the series, there's no way he can have died at this stage. Indeed, the very next scene shows Fog and the others alive and well in Hong Kong, their ship having made it to the dock despite suffering extensive damage. A dock worker even lampshades that:

->"It's remarkable this ship is still afloat considering the condition it's in."

* In most seasons of ''Franchise/Digimon'', Digimon, when killed, get their data reformed into digi-eggs so death is rarely permanent. However, the partners of the Digidestined do receive, in some way, this trope. While most Digimon die if they git hit by powerful attacks, the partners revert to their Rookie forms. If they were to die just as easy as most of the foes they face did, the Digidestined would have been defeated fairly quick.

* Wiki/SCPFoundation: Any attempt to terminate or neutralize 682 has to fail in some way due to its MemeticBadass status.

** Reimu Hakurei is this. She is the BarrierMaiden and Gensokyo would just vanish if she dies. This is why more powerful beings such as Yukari, Yuuka, Suika, Remilia [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration go along with the spellcard rules]], so they can resolve their differences without accidentally destroying the world. This becomes subverted in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', in which the main characters have to breach the barrier that divides the real world from the netherworld in order to take Gensokyo's spring back. Yuyuko states this before fighting Reimu saying that being at that point of the netherworld basically means she's probably dead. Even if Reimu loses against the non-lethal spellcard rules, all the spring in Gensokyo will resurrect the Saigyou Ayakashi and Fridge Horror will remind you of his abilities.

* [[https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/the-vikings-winning-is-easy-when-the-show-cheats/ This blog]] explicitly accuses the Vikings in... well... ''Series/{{Vikings}}'' of having this, even unto linking to this very page. The author also sees heaping helpings of IdiotBall, IdiotPlot, and HollywoodTactics being served up as side dishes on both sides of the Viking/Saxon conflict in the show, all of it adding up to "Ragnar's the protagonist, so he wins, no matter how ridiculous it looks to any actual historian."

** Villainous example -- this is a frequent criticism against [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Master]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Xehanort]] (the ArcVillain): His plans are so [[ComplexityAddiction convoluted]] and [[IdiotPlot ridiculous]] that "He must survive until ''Kingdom Hearts III''" can be the only logical reason for his NearVillainVictory streak thus far.

* In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', the start of the third act is Thanos's ship appearing over the Avengers compound and reducing it to rubble. Not a brick is left unsmashed. Despite this, literally none of the nine people in it are killed or even injured. Justified for some characters, such as Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and War Machine, less so for the others. That said, [[spoilers: main characters Iron Man and Black Widow are ultimately KilledOffForReal here.]]

* In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', the start of the third act is Thanos's ship appearing over the Avengers compound and reducing it to rubble. Not a brick is left unsmashed. Despite this, literally none of the nine people in it are killed or even injured. Justified for some characters, such as Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and War Machine, less so for the others.

* [[Characters/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Squirrel Girl]], from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, has beaten every archvillain she has faced, including Characters/DoctorDoom, Mandarin, [[Characters/{{AIM}} M.O.D.O.K.]], and ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]]''. Her superpower is the ability to communicate with ''squirrels.'' (Of course, Squirrel Girl is different from most cases in that she has less "Plot Armor" and more "[[LethalJokeCharacter Punchline Armor]]", because seeing all-powerful supervillains like Doctor Doom, Magneto, and the Mad Titan himself being knocked down by swarms of squirrels is [[DontExplainTheJoke humorously unlikely.]]) She basically operates on the same rules as [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger Rabbit]]: She can't ''always'' defeat guys who are way more powerful than she is, only when [[RuleOfFunny it's funny.]]

* If you're a main character in the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' Franchise, the dinos will opt to roar in your face instead of biting or pouncing on you. If they do try to bit you, they'll always just barely miss, and if you're being chased and they're shown to be faster than you, they'll always lose ground between shots. This gets especially obvious in ''WesternAnimation/JurassicWorldCampCretaceous'' where the actions takes place over months, not days, but the cast of teenagers constantly lives through encounters with dinos shown to easily tear through RedShirts.

* In Season 3 of ''Series/TheBoys'', [[spoiler:WonderWomanWannabe Queen Maeve manages to not only hold her own against the BigBad leagues stronger than her but also survive an explosion & fall that {{depower}}s her and should have killed her outright, as according to WordOfGod they wanted to PreserveYourGays]].

*** Similar to Hubert, the [[BlackKnight Death Knight]] simply ''won't die'' until the plot decides his appointed time has come, which can become ridiculous when the player faces him six times on the same route. Naturally, he drops his plot armor on [[spoiler: Crimson Flower, the one route where he's playable.]]

* Bad movie review website "Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension" referred to this as "Hero's Death Battle Exemption". Basically saying how killers or monsters in movies will wipe out minor characters with no trouble at all, but have to make a much bigger effort to kill the hero of the movie and/or their LoveInterest, for some reason.

** Averted with a vengeance in ''Film/RogueOne'', where it's made very clear early in the story that [[AnyoneCanDie no one is safe]]. [[spoiler: And we do, quite literally, mean [[KillEmAll NO ONE]] is safe.]]
** Though ''Rogue One'' can also be seen as canonizing plot armor, as despite the group going through several dangerous situations (including Chirrut slowly walking through the field of fire to a computer console and not get hitting hit) until after their needed roles are fulfilled. (Chirrut is shot dead the instant after he does this, Baze is killed by a grenade after his work in covering Chirrut is over, Bodhi is killed via grenade the instant after he connects the message to the rebel fleet).

* What do you get when you take away plot armor from [[KillEmAll everybody but one psychopath?]] ComicBook/ThePunisher and Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}} find out in their respective versions of ''Comicbook/ThePunisherKillsTheMarvelUniverse'' and ''Comicbook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse''.

* If you're a main character in the [[Franchise/JurassicPark ''Jurassic Park'' Franchise,]] the dinos will opt to roar in your face instead of biting or pouncing on you. If they do try to bit you, they'll always just barely miss, and if you're being chased and they're shown to be faster than you, they'll always lose ground between shots. This gets especially obvious in ''WesternAnimation/JurassicWorldCampCretaceous'' where the actions takes place over months, not days, but the cast of teenagers constantly lives through encounters with dinos shown to easily tear through RedShirts.

** [[spoiler:Zenos commits suicide after being defeated in ''Stormblood'' and survives by possessing bodies thanks to his artificial Echo. By the end of the main ''Shadowbringers'' questline, he retrieves his body from Elidibus and has taken the stage as the BigBad of ''Endwalker''.]]
** At the end of ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:''all'' of the Scions [[HeroicSacrifice give themselves over to the destructive Dynamis of Ultima Thule]] in order to allow the Warrior of Light to get to the Endsinger's lair. One quest later, and a temporarily revived Emet-Selch pulls them all out, no worse for wear]].

*** [[BattleButler Hubert]] on the Crimson Flower route and [[FailureKnight Gilbert]] on the Azure Moon route play this completely straight: as the second-in-command of their respective lords they will retreat if defeated in Classic mode and will continue to appear in cutscenes. Their ending cards do mention they eventually die of their wounds though. As an enemy, Hubert is infamous among players for his annoyingly thick plot armor, as he will retreat ''[[TheBattleDidntCount every single time]]'' the player defeats him until [[spoiler: the battle of Enbarr.]]

*** [[GirlyBruiser Hilda]], [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Seteth]] and [[WhiteMagicianGirl Flayn]] meanwhile have selective plot armor: Hilda only gets to wear hers on the Verdant Wind route where she's Claude's second-in-command and the same is true for Seteth and Flayn on the Silver Snow route, where Seteth [[spoiler: Byleth's]] second-in-command and Flayn... tags along. All three characters will be KilledOffForReal if they fall on any other route.

*** [[GirlyBruiser Hilda]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Seteth]] meanwhile have selective plot armor: Hilda only gets to wear hers on the Verdant Wind route where she's Claude's second-in-command and the same is true for Seteth on the Silver Snow route, where he's [[spoiler: Byleth's]] second-in-command. Both characters will be KilledOffForReal if they fall on any other route.

*** Similar to Hubert, the [[BlackKnight Death Knight]] simply ''won't die'' until the plot decides his appointed time has come, which can become ridiculous when the player faces him six times on the same route.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4''. [[spoiler:During one of your missions as Jackson, your chopper is downed by a nuclear shockwave, and you wake up soon after in the wreckage. Instead of the expected harrowing escape through the wasteland, you end up only being able to stagger around in Ground Zero for a minute before dying.]] As well, when finally facing the game's BigBad, [[spoiler:at least half, if not all, of the game's main characters are shot to death]]. The ''Call of Duty'' [[TheWikiRule Wiki]] has [[http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Plot_armor its own page for the phenomenon]], covering the entire series; note that there are some characters who have full-on plot armor for all their appearances, and others who only have it until their role in the plot is fulfilled.

*** [[GirlyBruiser Hilda]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Seteth]] meanwhile have selective plot armor: Hilda only gets to wear hers on the Verdant Wind route where she's Claude second-in-command and the same is true for Seteth on the Silver Snow route, where he's [[spoiler: Byleth's]] second-in-command. Both characters will be KilledOffForReal if they fall on any other route.