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I feel like Handmaid's Tale deserves a mention. Throughout the series we see June's peers swiftly mutilated or killed even for minor offenses.
June herself, past a certain point, is Gilead's public enemy number one. Which would be fine if they wanted to tell the story of her as an activist in exile, or a resistance leader who always manages to escape by the skin of her teeth. But no, she keeps getting caught and nothing ever comes of it.
Game of thrones basically checked twitter which characters are fan favourites and the popular ones get the most plot armour. Which is super funny for a show that became famous for killing off characters.
That little waif that got stabbed a dozen times in the gut then thrown off a bridge into sewage water… and lived… then became the one who killed the series big bad with extremely limited on screen training time, without using her signature face changing ability she learned from her assassins guild?
Yep, the waif who was wandering round in broad daylight despite knowing assassins were trying to kill her. And yet was surprised when she got stabbed
To me Bronn was always the worst offender. He was pretty much just a dude, then they realised people like him or his actor so he almost became a main character. It felt like a sitcom at that point. Or Jamie, surviving his hand getting cut off i. The worst conditions ever... Okay i guess. But when he then fell into the lake with full armour and a bronze hand... Of course sidekick Bronn had nothing better to do than watch him and pull him out. Fuck, i just remember how aweful that show got by season 5 or 6. I still can't believe they were noth of the wall stuck on that lake and were like: you are a fast runner, right? You go and get help, we chill here.
Bronn wasn't featured as prominently in the books and only continued because of the show but..
Or Jamie, surviving his hand getting cut off i. The worst conditions ever...
This happened in the books a decade before the show even came out. Also, amputations really aren't that rare in history, and Jamie had a Maester to tend him, a Maester who by all accounts pretty much knows some necromancy basically. It isa fantasy series, I might remind you, and this medical procedure — which one might survive in real life as well — is tended to by essentially a member of the closest thing to wizards there is (as in wise men who hold all the books relating to magic, even if the magic has "gone out of the world" .)
The show got shit at s6 because they ran out of books. Even before that there was a bit of divergence, but it was very clear that it went to shit after they ran out of material, despite working with GRRM and knowing "the large strokes". Hell I know the "large strokes" of lots of stories well that doesn't mean I think I could write a show about them.
I still can't believe they were noth of the wall stuck on that lake and were like: you are a fast runner, right? You go and get help, we chill here.
Shit I didn't even remember that. I mean I guess George would be able to write in a battle that lasts a few days while a runner goes for help, much like the original Marathon, but in the show that seemed just really silly the way it was portrayed.
Ironically the whole saga began because George was tired of producers always fucking up this shows by making grand battles duels and whatnot, so he decided to write a show that could "never be adapted for TV."
Well gz, George, you did it. Unfortunately the poor reception of the mangled show meant that George has been avoiding finishing the series, because he's afraid the books will have poor reception as well, not realising that the people who actually have bothered to read the books aren't the usually the most vocal about how garbage the story is. Perhaps vocal about how shit the show was yes, but not of the quality of the story.
Preston Jacobs is essentially writing a fanfic version of how he'd continue it. A very popular GoT youtuber.
I hope George finishes the story. In the books the last time we saw Jon Snow was when he was getting stabbed over and over and over. It was like 2012-2013 I think, I was reading the books in our smoking room at work on the night shift. "Sure George had been killing main characters but surely Jon Snow is the main character and George wouldn't... oh no... what are you... noooooooooo!"
And I'm still waiting for that feeling to be resolved. What happens next?
Tbf, and I'd never defend the show after that finale, iirc Bronn was watching Jamie charge at Dianarys and her dragon and as Drogon began to charge up his fire breath Bronn tackled Jamie into the lake to save him. Still shit writing but it makes slightly more sense.
Don't you see his pov where he goes down into the lake and he's already like a few meters under water for dramatic effect. And in the next episode he just pulls his arm out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSf5K-GT3Oc
It starts at about 4:00. It makes zero sense that the water is that deep btw but maybe it's just me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk5yIVomPWI
He doesn't even pull the arm out he's just magically saved from the meters deep water in the next opening...
The way GoT got is indefensible. The writing got so, so bad and it severely damaged the franchise. It's just... shit.
You know what's interesting? When GoT went downhill at season 6 or whatever, i still thought that they could turn it around (lol) and even if they didn't, i could still come back and enjoy the good seasons.
But that's not true, at least for me. I never seen a show salting the earth so hard that i still never even thought about rewatching it. And i don't think i ever will.
I know, I was the same! It had been so strong and there were excellent episodes in S6, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. S7 felt rushed and wasn't amazing, but still better than most telly so I thought they were focusing on an epic S8. But then it was ABYSMAL and so bad I can't watch earlier seasons. The whole point was the story was going to have a beginning, middle and end, they're not stand alone seasons like true blood. But it was all for nothing
I lost interest in the show the second they brought back ppl from the dead.
The bringing back wasn't the problem, it's what they did with them once they were back. It should mean something, and not dull down the character.
Yeah in a land of magic and drangons and stuff, it could've even be cool. He could come back wrong or corrupted or whatever. But it was just fan service. They didn't even know what to do with him. They didn't even bring him back to kill frozone
It is just up until that point, any form of danger or any combat was a real threat. To any character. Nobody was really / obviously plot protected at that point which created a lot of the tension and engagement for me. That all was lost once ppl. were no-longer permanently dead. Any danger thereafter would never feel the same. It got worse once it was super clear who is the main character.
Side note: Didn't the author criticise LotR for bringing Gandalf back? The audacity ಠ_ಠ
The Sheriff from Stranger Things. I think it was in season 3 when he was crawling around in spore-filled tunnels that had already killed people and he just got a mild headache. Not even going to mention the Russian prison in season 4.
Every main character in The Boys, especially in the last season. Anybody remember that scene with Homelander in the ice rink? He apparently turned into a bumbling idiot that fails to catch up with Hughie even though he's shown to be crazy fast. Then when Homelander finds out where their HQ is, he sends two of the most useless villains at them rather than going there himself and being done with it.
I still don't understand how this show is so acclaimed despite dozens of instances of lazy writing.
The acclaim is mostly for the first and second seasons which are much better than the latter ones and more closely followed the source material.
It's a very different take on superheroes. But yea, a bit too much plot armor considering how many people Homelander kills on a whim. And those aren't even people plotting his downfall.
GI Joe supposedly features the best of the best fighting against the best of the worst and no one can manage to shoot anything.
The A-Team
How I Met Your Mother's crew friendship with Robin surviving multiple breakups with Ted after they pretty much just met her. IRL they would have 100% picked sides with Ted and booted her. Also Marshall and Lily surviving her SF stint
Lily always was the worst member of the group, and she's the one who pushed for Robin to stay in
Haaaaaaavvvveeeee ya met Ted?
Any prequel. I'm watching Star Trek Strange New Worlds. It's 10 years before the original series. So there is no way Spock, Urua, Chapel, or Pike (well sorta on him) can get too messed up.
Arrow.
In later seasons their tech support eye in the sky character ends up getting into several fist fights with League of Shadow ninja assassins, and holds her own. In a pencil skirt and heels... it's so dumb
Groundhog day. That guy survived being stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned.
In Blue Eyed Samurai, the main character brushes off several life altering injuries like she's a character in a jrpg.
Plot armor is literally a plot point towards the end of Supernatural.
Similarly, The Master Chief (video games, but still) has literal luck on his side.
Also, in Marvel it has been stated repeatedly that "something" keeps popular characters alive. Sometimes it is an actual reality warping character (eg. Franklin Richards) or sometimes explained in a more meta way.
Huh, I didn't know that about Master Chief. Doesn't seem like it fits the vibe of the lore.
It's not "official". But it's stated as the reason Cortana chose him over the other Spartans. I think it's supposed to explain the video game retry nature of video games. But also why he survives random chance circumstances when others don't.
He's also really good at surviving though.
I think it's really just supposed to be more of a narrative device. The purely logical AI with the almost robotic human drawn together by luck of the draw.
In the books, they definitely lean a bit more into him "making" his own luck. There is a whole bit with him predicting coin flips and it's presented in a way that implies he knows how to twist the odds in his favor (whether purposefully or unconsciously).
Fair enough, thank you for the information!
Rings of Power.
The show immediately starts with our main character causually defeating a troll by herself.
Later, amonst other things, she swam across an ocean and stands in a volcano's pyroclastic flow like it's a summer breeze.
This is why I'm generally not a fan of prequels. Everyone has inherent plot armor, since we know for a fact that they survive.
As for Tolkien's universe, I can forgive a certain amount of plot armor, since he structured things to work that way throughout the stories. It's not just the show runners.
Agreed.
"Prequel armor" is like super plot armor because you know the character will never die. At least with plot armor you might wonder if it will eventually get removed.
I'm never worried for them when Galadriel or Elrond are on screen because I know they'll be just fine and live happily ever after.
I feel the same for Spock in strange new worlds.
When she swam from Bermuda to Portugal, I gave up on trying to enjoy the show. That was.... much too much.
Tbf Galadriel isn't just some boneheaded Bracegirdle from Hardbottle
"And these blast points, too accurate for sand people. Only imperial stormtroopers are so precise."
Not exactly plot armor. Well kinda. Definitely loss of suspension of belief.
Obi-Wan escorting Leia under his trenchcoat through a giant active hangar. The chase through the trees earlier in the series was obviously a cost cutting sound stage scene that I could cross my eyes and say "this is like a stage play, sure", but that hangar scene? Cmon guys, you can do better than that. Put her in a box and push the box with a cart. Like, it could have wheels for crying out loud. You could've spent less on a box and a cart then you did on that ridiculous rain coat
The Smoking Man from X-Files has survived cancer, being thrown down the stairs, a missle strike, and getting shot by mulder and falling into a river
Been salty about 'Superman - The Motion Picture' since I first saw it.
If he's fast enough to time travel, why wasn't he fast enough to stop the rocket in the first place?
My head canon:
He was, but didn't know it until grief and anger pushed him beyond what he thought his limits were.
Kryptonian physiology isn't really clear in the movies, and it's barely given hand waves in the comics. But humans are often unaware of what their real limits are. Until we get hit with a strong emotion that bypasses our conscious minds and spurs us into action.
Supes, while extremely powerful, hadn't faced that kind of loss at that scale before (in the movie at least). He might never have seriously tested his limits (and didn't on screen), and may even have been scared to test his limits
Remember, supes, Clark, grew up hiding his powers, they made him different in a bad way as much as good way. Why wouldn't he fear discovering even greater power than he thought he had?
So, whatever the equivalent of adrenaline and cortisol kryptonians have could have been the catalyst. He holds himself to a lesser power all the time because he wants to be as human as he can be. When the chemicals get dumped into his bloodstream, while his mind is reeling with grief, that self inhibition gets abandoned.
There's even an argument to be made that when he took off, he wasn't planning to change time, he was trying to escape his perceived failure, running to a way to avoid the grief and pain. With that, he unconsciously flees to the one direction that could give him relief, backwards in time.
Now, it's obvious the writers meant him to be doing it on purpose, but it's never outright said to be the case, so we can graft head canon on fairly freely.
But, even if it was clear he was intentionally time travelling (or just reversing time for earth only), that would be a power he would carefully and cautiously use. For him to have know he could do it implies he had done it before, at least once. So, supes being a fairly smart dude, but would be unlikely to tamper with causality casually. Then, with that being the case, him resetting events immediately after they happened, in a moment of grief and anger makes more sense. He was being driven to the extreme and chose to use his most dangerous power because the death toll was just too high.
So, even if we take the writer's events that way, supes would still have had good reason to not go too fast in the initial attempt, because of the risk of it. He would have had to reach similar speeds to have caught the rocket on the first go, risking greater harm. So, he doesn't, but the consequences of that choice hit him hard, and he abandons his restraint to save those he loves, and the world.
Grape minds drink alike?
I liked Smallville for showing Clark gradually learning how to be Superman. I, too, like the idea that he's got no idea how powerful he can become.
Someone once wrote that the dream fight between Superman and the Hulk would be Hulk hitting Supes and Supes shrugs it off. Hulk gets mad and hits him so hard there's an earthquake, but Superman still isn't mussed. Now Hulk winds up and we see Supes flying past the Moon.
Almost all action movies are basically one big plot armour.
Currently watching Touhai: Ura Rate Mahjong Touhai Roku, which is about an absurd number of people getting murdered over a board game. I lost count. Almost no one is safe, but...
Episode 23-24
Episode 23 ends with the main character himself gettin hanged, which is apparently all just part of his own plan somehow.
Episode 24, they explain that hanging is not instantly fatal, and if his substitute can win the next hand within five minutes (we're operating on Frieza time scales here apparently, since this takes the whole episode), they'll be allowed to get him down. They then have to negotiate with the villain for a defibrillator in exchange for sparing the villain's life.
Waiting for episode 25 to drop to find out if this plan actually works, but, like, ain't no way, right?