History Main / YouCallThatAWound

* One of the unused comments in the Meet The Sandvich video of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has The Soldier using this statement, only to refute his statement soon afterwards (for what he ''does'' say, check the page quote).

** And if you make a point of getting him killed anyways, he'll merely withdraw from the battlefield as the prince instructed him to before it started. In general, in ''Fire Emblem'' games, if a character's survival is absolutely essential to the plot, they ''can'' be defeated in battle, but rather than being killed like the less important characters, they're instead critically injured- they still can't be used for the rest of the game, but will still show up for cutscenes.

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* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', important NPC allies (Alyx, Barney, and Father Grigori) are all reasonably well armed, and although they have only slightly more hit points than standard enemy Mooks, their health regenerates incredibly rapidly, so much so that you almost never have to worry about them being killed, unless you do absolutely nothing and let them be mobbed by several enemies at once.

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'', if one of your 3 buddies bites the dust, you just have to use your [[MagicalDefibrillator zapping thingy]] and they're back up on their feet. You can also order your teammates to revive eachother. Even if you loose all your health, you're only incapacitated. Your teammates will [[ArtificialBrilliance not blindly try to revive you. But if the opportunity arises, one will run towards your body and zap you while the others give cover]]. You can also order them to wait until the coast is clear or you can order them to revive you against all odds.

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* In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'' single-player missions, [[PlotArmor characters essential to the plot couldn't be killed permanently]] but could be revived. In Multi-player, [[HeroUnit Hero Units]] were treated the same way. A notable exception to this was the single-player [[DungeonCrawling dungeon crawling missions]], in which [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou a plot essential character's death is a lose condition]].
* Some allied hero characters in the ''VideoGame/{{Spellforce}}'' expansion pack would simply lose fighting ability and limp around when their health fell too low. Of course, neither your character, nor your character's [[strike:thugs]] rune heroes, would benefit from this.

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*** Making this even more annoying, she counts as a guest in your party, and thus takes up one of your slots to deploy characters for the (extremely difficult) battle.

Important non-player characters are, well, ''important.'' So, when one of these characters enters combat, there's a number of possible ways that they can be treated during battle. Sometimes, a character's [[PlotlineDeath survival is plot dependent]]; in this case, the dreaded EscortMission takes place when it becomes the player's goal to safeguard Important Character X from harm. In other cases, such as real time strategy games, [[HeroMustSurvive Important Character X is a combat unit that can fight, but needs to survive the mission]], such as in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' and ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''. This effectively means the character needs to be both utilized as a resource and protected at the same time (Or you just keep them out of combat entirely).

However, backlash from Escort Missions in general has led to a new variation on the usage of Important Characters in combat. When battle is joined, one doesn't need to concern themselves with the survival of Important Character X, because either they're unable to be seriously injured, they respawn if killed, or, in RTS games, can simply be replaced, usually at considerable cost. Getting shot, stabbed, decapitated, eaten alive, blown up in an EarthShatteringKaboom, it doesn't matter; these guys keep on going, laughing off what would kill anyone else, demanding to know if, in reality, wimps like you call ''that'' a wound?

This trope's name comes from General Sturnn's build-completion quote in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: VideoGame/DawnOfWar: [[ColonCancer Winter Assault]]'', which in the single-player campaign would only be spoken if he was killed in battle and rebuilt. The implication being that he was only wounded, brought back to base to be tended to, and [[BadassNormal stormed right back onto the battlefield as soon as he was conscious again]]. This quote was likely inspired by Arthur's fight with the Black Knight in ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' where the gradually dismembered Black Knight claims the loss of both arms is, "Just a flesh wound."

** Strangely (because it isn't present with the other commanders), this trope is entirely justified with the Necron commander, the Necron Lord, as Necrons have the ability to be teleported back to their strongholds and repaired after receiving major damage.

->'''King Arthur''': Your arm's off!\\
'''Black Knight''': [[JustAFleshWound It's just a flesh wound]].
-->--''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

* Frustratingly common while still being unreliable in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. Anyone mandatory for the major plotlines will have a crown icon appear on mouseover, which means that no matter what beats them up, a few seconds later they'll stand back up and dust themselves off. Characters with the crown tend to lose it at unpredictable intervals whenever an obvious escort quest shows up or if they no longer are mandatory for the central plotline, and characters important for other plotlines don't tend to get the crown in the first place.
** At least it's not as bad as ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', in which AnyoneCanDie.
** To top it off, Sidequest-related characters often travel between cities, where they're vulnerable to monster/bandit attacks. Thus, as time progresses in the game world, some sidequests may become unfinishable, as a relevant character gets randomly killed by a monster while traveling the wilderness.
** Your followers in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' can survive anything at one HP...[[AccidentalMurder unless you happen to damage them in any way, even with a shout.]] Whoops.

** Similarly, [[RobotBuddy Dog]] has an absurd amount of health instead of regenerating health, allowing him to among other things crush squads of Combine soliders, hurl [=APCs=], and ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome tear apart a goddamn Strider]]'' with no chance of dying. It helps that all of Dog's fight sequences are scripted animations: he literally cannot lose, as there is nothing in the game that can stop these animations once they start.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', your companions can die, (Only on hardcore for New Vegas). But if you've spent a few level ups with them, it will take you almost forever to kill them, and even then Dogmeat will die fighting them. Dogmeat is the one exception to the rule. He dies pretty easily.
** This is no longer true if one has the Broken Steel expansion. Do to a quirk in the programming, Dogmeat now gains an absurd amount of health each time he levels, leaving him nigh unkillable barring ''several nukes to the face'', easily outstripping any and all regular enemies.

Important non-player characters are, well, ''important.'' So, when one of these characters enters combat, there's a number of possible ways that they can be treated during battle. Sometimes, a character's [[PlotlineDeath survival is plot dependent]]; in this case, the dreaded EscortMission takes place when it becomes the player's goal to safeguard Important Character X from harm. In other cases, such as real time strategy games, [[HeroMustSurvive Important Character X is a combat unit that can fight, but needs to survive the mission]], such as in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' and ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''. This effectively means the character needs to be both utilized as a resource and protected at the same time.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'', important NPC allies (Alyx, Barney, and Father Grigori) are all reasonably well armed, and although they have only slightly more hit points than standard enemy Mooks, their health regenerates incredibly rapidly, so much so that you almost never have to worry about them being killed, unless you do absolutely nothing and let them be mobbed by several enemies at once.

[[quoteright:250:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/az-callthatawound_1525.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250: [[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie It was a simpler time.]]]]

->'''King Arthur''': Your arm's off!
->'''Black Knight''': [[JustAFleshWound It's just a flesh wound]].

However, backlash from Escort Missions in general has led to a new variation on the usage of Important Characters in combat. When battle is joined, one doesn't need to concern themselves with the survival of Important Character X, because either they're unable to be seriously injured, they respawn if killed, or, in RTS games, can simply be replaced, usually at considerable cost. Getting shot, stabbed, decapitated, eaten alive, blown up in an EarthShatteringKaboom, it doesn't matter; these guys keep on going, laughing off what would kill anyone else, demanding to know if, in reality, wimps like YouCallThatAWound.

Important non-player characters are, well, ''important.'' So, when one of these characters enters combat, there's a number of possible ways that they can be treated during battle. Sometimes, a character's [[PlotlineDeath survival is plot dependent]]; in this case, the dreaded EscortMission takes place when it becomes the player's goal to safeguard Important Character X from harm. In other cases, such as real time strategy games, [[HeroMustSurvive Important Character X is a combat unit that can fight, but needs to survive the mission]], such as in ''{{Starcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires''. This effectively means the character needs to be both utilized as a resource and protected at the same time.

* VideoGame/{{Starcraft 2}} has several maps where the hero dying results in auto-loss. However, the next-to-last mission (if you choose to take out the Nydus worms) allows your heroes to fall down and get back up after a while (because given the bosses on that level, it's very easy for a hero to die without you immediately realizing it).
** The expansion, Heart of the Swarm, has Kerrigan respawn some time after she dies in most missions. The same goes for most of the other heroes that you control during the campaign.

* Some allied hero characters in the ''{{Spellforce}}'' expansion pack would simply lose fighting ability and limp around when their health fell too low. Of course, neither your character, nor your character's [[strike:thugs]] rune heroes, would benefit from this.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' went both ways with this; in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', Captain Keyes could be killed during a very brief escort mission in ''Truth and Reconciliation''. ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' went the opposite way, with [[GameplayAllyImmortality invincible, unkillable allies]] accompanying the player for brief periods. The Arbiter himself in ''Halo 3'' could be temporarily killed or lost off the side of cliffs or the like, but he would simply respawn shortly afterward, getting back up or reappearing via active camouflage.
** In ''[[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved Halo 1]]'' you fought beside Sergeant Johnson in almost every mission. He wasn't any stronger than a standard marine though, so he pretty much always died a few minutes in with all the other RedShirt marines, only to reappear at the beginning of the next mission.
*** At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the eponymous Halo detonates with the Sergeant on it (on regular difficulties he is overrun by the Flood and never heard from again; on Legendary there is a joke scene where he hugs an Elite right before the Halo explodes)]]. He ''still'' turns up for ''Halo 2''. A marine asks him how he does it, though the Sergeant claims that information to be "classified".
*** In ''Literature/HaloFirstStrike'' this is explained. [[spoiler:He and others got on a pelican and flew into space, and met up with Master Chief's Longsword fighter. They then managed to board and take over a Covvie ship.]]

* VideoGame/{{Starcraft 2}} has several maps where the hero dying results in auto-loss. However, the next-to-last mission (if you choose to take out the Nydus worms) allows your heroes to fall down and get back up after a while (because given the bosses on that level, it's very easy for a hero to die without your immediately realizing it).

* A few quests in ''[[GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'' are [[EscortMission escort missions]], but the game never gives the NPC following you any health bar or other combat-related attributes; the player is the only character that needs to worry about reaching the goal without [[NonLethalKO getting dazed]].

* In VideoGame/HegemonySeries, if any of your generals go down, they'll return to their hometown and like their wounds for a time. After a while, they're ready to go again.

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* In most stages of ''LegoAdaptationGame'', you are forced to have a partner. This partner can die, but they'll just respawn in a couple of seconds. They also can't inflict any damage to ''anything''.

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** In ''Halo 1'' you fought beside Sergeant Johnson in almost every mission. He wasn't any stronger than a standard marine though, so he pretty much always died a few minutes in with all the other RedShirt marines, only to reappear at the beginning of the next mission.

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* In ''{{Scribblenauts}}'', Longcat, Blob, and Priest can't die. (The only way you can kill a blob is [[KillItWithFire with fire]]) You also can't destroy a church. Tacgnol, Priestess, Nun, and God can die, however. As a result, because Priest is the only humanoid out of these three, Priest equipped with a Chainsaw with Earth Magic used on it is one of the best things to use when you want to kill something. Humorously, you can drop a Priest in lava and he'll just keep screaming forever and never die. How's that for VideogameCrueltyPotential?

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* Starcraft2 has several maps where the hero dying results in auto-loss. However, the next-to-last mission (if you choose to take out the Nydus worms) allows your heroes to fall down and get back up after a while (because given the bosses on that level, it's very easy for a hero to die without your immediately realizing it).

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* ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has way more than its fair share of escort missions, but there is the occasional NPC who will, instead of dying, have his HP set to 1 after any otherwise lethal attack and stop fighting.
** Most ''FinalFantasyTactics'' games have this in some form or another. Usually, the character will be knocked unconscious, but have stars instead of the normal "countdown to death" that regular party characters have. In the original, this leads to an odd occurrence: [[spoiler:Teta has the stars over her head, but she's suffered PlotlineDeath - her job is listed as "Delita's Sis" and she cannot be revived]].

** And if you make a point of getting him killed anyways, he'll merely withdraw from the battlefield as the prince instructed him to before it started.

* In ''BuckRogers: Matrix Cubed'', a VideoGame/GoldBox PC game from 1992, if a plot-important scientist is lost in battle he reappears on the team's spaceship with a nonchalant "Oh, hi. Seems we got separated for a while there, huh?"

* Another example takes place in a level of ''MegaManZero 2'', in which Zero must defend the female scientist Ceil while she defuses a bomb...as hordes and hordes of enemies charge at her. No matter how lax you are in defending her, Ciel will not die or do much more than indulge in an occasional gasp of pain. However, the Zero series involved an "objective" in each level, and in that particular level, it was "Protect Ceil", so for every time she takes a hit, you lose points. And if you want to [[PowerCopying get the bosses abilities]], you need to do it ''flawlessly''.

* In any ''NeverwinterNights'' module, any NPC with the "Plot" flag enabled cannot be killed, and that flag can be either activated or deactivated by scripting. In the scenario included with the base game, an NPC companion in the tutorial area says that he will most certainly die unless he accompanies you. The official NWN editing guide [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, saying that because of the Plot flag that the opposite is in fact true.
* In ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout: New Vegas'', your companions can die, (Only on hardcore for New Vegas). But if you've spent a few level ups with them, it will take you almost forever to kill them, and even then Dogmeat will die fighting them. Dogmeat is the one exception to the rule. He dies pretty easily.

* ''{{Halo}}'' went both ways with this; in ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', Captain Keyes could be killed during a very brief escort mission in ''Truth and Reconciliation''. ''Halo 2'' and ''Halo 3'' went the opposite way, with [[GameplayAllyImmortality invincible, unkillable allies]] accompanying the player for brief periods. The Arbiter himself in ''Halo 3'' could be temporarily killed or lost off the side of cliffs or the like, but he would simply respawn shortly afterward, getting back up or reappearing via active camouflage.

* Civilians are apparently indestructible in ''CityOfHeroes'', making one wonder why superheroes are needed in the first place.
** Even during mayhem missions in ''CityOfVillains'', a villain player can punch, freeze, electrocute, immolate, and even send a civilian flying long distances with no ill effect, making one wonder why they are fleeing in such a panic to begin with.

* In ''[[GuildWars Guild Wars: Eye of the North]]'', unlike the previous three stand-alone games that required you to keep important [=NPCs=] alive, often with [[LeeroyJenkins Leeroy]] consequences, important [=NPCs=] can die as much as you let them be killed. They instantly resurrect when no enemies are in aggro range. In a further twist, [=NPCs=] THAT WEREN'T EVEN FIGHTING WITH YOU show up for key cinematics.