#plot ARMOR

[spite-and-waffles]

(alt included)

Link to Video. (Please help Panda make money.)

Video description and transcript under the cut.

Description: TikTok video by The Panda Redd. Re-enactment of final scene of Under the Hood. All roles played by Panda (a tall, well-built young white man with a mohawk, wearing a grey hoodie). Setting is a dark basement lit only by a hanging light bulb.

Transcript.

Jason: (holding gun on Bruce) "Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me."

Batman: (glares silently)

Jason: "But why? Why on God's Earth—" (hits Joker across the face)

Joker (tied to a chair): *cackles*

Jason: "—is HE still alive??"

Joker: "AHAHAHAHAHHAHA!"

Batman:

Batman: "I'm sorry, d'you want me to be serious here or—?"

Jason: (in disbelief) "YES, Bruce! I want you to be serious right now! If he had done what he did to me to you, I would've done nothing but search the earth for this pile of death-worshipping garbage!"

Joker: "I love you too, Sugar Plum."

Batman: (holds hands up) "Okay, yeah, I get that, totally, I get that. Um. Have you tried?"

Jason: "Excuse you?"

Batman: "Have you tried to kill him yet?"

Jason: (to Joker) "Is he being serious?"

Joker: (also confused) "I'm gonna be honest with you, Junior. I don't know."

Jason: "Got it. Great." (turns back to Batman) "What the fuck does THAT mean?"

Batman: "Okay, so no, you haven't. Cool. Do it."

Jason:

Jason: (lowers gun) "What."

Batman: "Do it, cap his ass. Shoot him."

Joker: (finally rattled) "I'm gonna go with Junior here, and say...what??"

Jason: "You want me to shoot him?"

Batman: "I want someone to shoot him! Give me the gun, I'll do it!"

Jason: (mutters, brain blue screening) "What is going on right now? This should a lot harder than it is."

Batman: "C'mon, son! You decapitated like eleven people three days ago! Fuckin' do it!"

Joker: (turns to Jason quizzically) "This has gotta be some sort of test, ri—"

(BANG! Jason fires. Joker lands on the floor lifeless, eyes still open.)

Jason: "There, you happy? Jesus. Was that so hard? All of this time and it was THAT easy!"

Jason: "What the fuck is that supposed to—" (looks down at floor where the Joker was lying)

Batman: "I don't know what you're talking about 'easy'. There's nothing there." (nods at floor)

Floor: (is devoid of Joker)

Jason: (stares)

Floor: (continues to be sans anything but carpet)

Jason: "What the fuck?"

Batman: "Yeah."

Jason: "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Batman: "Take as long as you need with this."

Jason: (looking around frantically) "I just shot him! He hit the floor! What the f—" (turns back to the floor)

Floor: (is just vibin')

Jason: "Where the fuck did he go??"

Batman: "See that shit? That shit right there happens every fucking time!"

Jason: "There's not even a blood stain! It's just gone!"

Batman: "Yeah, like two days after you died, I chased him into a helicopter where he got shot like six times. The helicopter exploded and crashed into the ocean. And his body was gone before Superman could find it."

Jason: "Oh my God. I don't understand how this is even fucking possible!"

Batman: "He's like a cryptid! I don't fucking get it!"

Joker: (disembodied laughter) "AHAHAHAHA HAHAHA!"

Jason: (freaked out, turning in circles trying to find him) "Oh my God!"

Batman: "THAT OMINOUS SHIT HAPPENS TOO! I DON'T KNOW, DUDE!"

Jason: "Dude. Fuck whatever's going on here, that's some fucking bullshit."

Batman: "Thank you! Finally someone gets it!"

[novlr]

Three tricks to avoid plot armour

Plot armour can be difficult to avoid. We get so attached to our characters that hurting them in any way feels like a betrayal.

But plot armour is detrimental to any good narrative. Having your characters avoid harm, whether that be emotional or physical, means that there aren't any stakes. And without stakes, it's difficult for readers to invest.

There are three simple things you can use to avoid plot armour:

🔵 Injury 🔵 Sacrifice 🔵 Consequence

In every conflict, make sure the resolution contains at least one of these things.

If you don't want to injure your characters, make sure that they sacrifice something, whether that be someone, or an object. If they don't sacrifice anything, make sure there is a consequence. That consequence can be a loss, an emotional wound, or simply a blow to their reputation. The important thing is that your character doesn't remain unscathed by their experience, and they walk out somehow changed.

[bizzxis]

Kuras appreciation post because he doesn’t get enough credit for all the crap he puts up with.

Tilt screen for better quality and zoom

Bonus: Vere’s damage from earlier in the day

Credit to this fanfic by @softagenda for inspiring the last bit!

[ryminsteddiesashanne]

People talk a lot about characters who have plot armor, but Saiki Kusuo IS plot armor

He has actively saved people from danger

And he has literally saved the world

He absolutely refuses to let his show have a heavy overarching plot and I respect that

This is now a The Disastrous Life of Saiki K appreciation post

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

“catra only won her fights with adora because she was willing to play dirty!”

that’s true enough but that’s not the only reason.

there’s no explanation as to how catra gets slammed against a rock by adora and it doesn’t break her ribcage or give her a concussion, but adora gets scratched a few times and she’s already weak and out of breath.

there’s no explanation as to how she-ra is supposed to be this invincible hero but is easily injured and exhausted, while catra can keep fighting with no issues when she’s a catgirl with no magical powers and doesn’t even wear an armor.

and it’s crazy because GLIMMER, the “weak princess” who had to recharge her powers every so often, won against catra a lot more than she-ra the “chosen one and savior of etheria” did. glimmer was allowed to go toe to toe with catra, while adora was continuously shown to be weaker and slower than her.

[sugaraddictt]

in case yall dont know, ptj is getting absolutely cooked by the korean fans rn that he had to write an apology paragraph 😭🙏🏼🙏🏼 deserved.

It doesn’t make sense that ui daniel (which has been effortlessly soloing some of the strongest characters such as goo and jinyoung park) loses against A FUCKING CORPSE 💀 gun is literally ROTTING.

zip his pants and wipe your mouth when youre done ptj!

[vexwerewolf]

Looking back, I really like how Borderlands 2 handled the problem of "how do we make sure players don't sequence break and kill the final boss early" by just putting him on the fucking moon.

Borderlands 3 never made me feel like the Calypso Twins were in any way inaccessible. It never made me feel like I shouldn't just be fighting them now other than that The Game Wasn't Letting Me Do That Yet. I have a spaceship, for crying out loud! I can go anywhere! Let me go and shoot these two badly-written characters.

The most insulting thing about the assault on the Cathedral of the Twins is that you can SEE this giant, wide-open plain beyond the Devil's Razor but the road there is blocked by some turrets or something and you have to do a sidequest

Like bestie I assure you I can drive around them

[headfulloffantasies]

Fall Guy is a really good lesson in writing stakes. With a lot of action movies it’s hard for the audience to feel like the main characters are in any real danger. Bond can’t die, they’re making another movie. Bourne is the best spy there is, he’ll be fine. But with Fall Guy the opening scene establishes Colt as a vulnerable human who can and does get hurt. And they reinforce that through his speeches and in his body language. He’s exhausted. He’s sore. He hurts. And we as an audience already saw him get horrifically injured in the first scene- so of course it could happen again. I genuinely worried for Colt throughout most of the fight scenes. I just think it’s a great reminder to writers that your MCs plot armor shouldn’t be so thick that the stakes become boring.

[rey-jake-therapist]

If episode 7 told us one thing, it's that the Orcs are apparently as stupid as they seem. Elrond casually took his pin off his cloak, did it slowly and for everyone to see, and yet nobody in the room asked why he did that, the moment he was going to bid his friend farewell 🤡

(credit gif : @beaulesbian)

[yzur02]

What if Anakin is everyone's plot armor and is using his god-like, chosen one, powers to subconsciously try keeping everyone he knows safe for the whole Clone Wars?

[skyeknight-gaming]

Sinbad has entered the chat....

Also, honestly, I'd be dead

[daenysthedreamer101]

TVD - Season 4 Ep 12

"A View to a Kill"

Do I even have to say it? Elena and Jeremy killing Kol was the stupidest, most nonsensical thing I've seen on this show so far and that's saying a lot. There is no way in hell that Kol, an Original, was killed by Jeremy, a 16-year-old human (I know he's a hunter but still), and Elena, a baby vampire who's been a vampire for a couple of months at most. Kol is over a 1000 years old!

How? Like....Ughhhh! He didn't even want to kill Jeremy, just cut his arms off (ok not saying that's good but he said "I'll heal you with my blood" so...). He easily could've killed Elena, but he didn't. When he stabbed her, he stabbed her in the stomach, not the heart.

Also, it just felt OOC for Elena to be so willing to kill someone. Like "Oh yeah let's just kill him and by killing Kol we'll kill thousands of other vampires" ...Wasn't Elena supposed to be this really compassionate person because I don't see her anywhere. 😒😒😒

.....NO! THIS SHOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE! There's no way Elena was able to hold Kol for that long. Also, very convenient for her that she saw that Kol had the white oak stake with him cause his jacket was open (smells like plot convenience to me hmm...). And ofc they put vervain in the water system the day Elena decided to kill Kol...🙄🙄🙄

DAMN IT, I LIKED HIM! I know they bring him and Finn back for TO but that's irrelevant rn. Ever since they introduced him back in s3 they just kept on nerfing tf out of him. He's an Original damn it, he is more powerful than all of them. It shouldn't be possible for Damon to snap his neck and it should definitely not be possible for a human teenager and a baby vampire to kill him!

What tf was the point of making the Originals so powerful when a baby vampire and a human were able to kill one? Like who wrote this nonsense? 💀💀💀

Klaus and the others better take some revenge! Like, there need to be some repercussions for this!!! We saw Bekah cry when Stefan told her but like, that's not enough? I need revenge!

Also, Bonnie is kind of annoying me? Ever since that stupid professor showed her expression or whatever it's called she's been on my nerves idk. Literally, everyone rn on this show is annoying me lol 😭

Why didn't Kol compel Elena to stay put when he stabbed her? Like, don't tell me she was on vervain? There's no way she drank the water or did she? Or he ofc just didn't think of it.

Klaus's reaction to seeing Kol's body on fire and the way Elena flinched when he yelled "He was supposed to suffer on MY TERMS! "...yeah someone pls give my man Joseph an Oscar cause that was acting! Klaus better keep his promise and burn their stupid house down!

Where is Elijah? PLS COME BACK WE NEED YOU SO BAD! 😭😭

RIP MY BABY I'LL MISS YOU! YOU WERE SO CUTE AND SASSY AND CHAOTIC I LOVED YOU! 😟😟💔 (also how do we feel about the bangs lol)

[idontknowtheend]

it’s so funny how chilton lived through that

[lesser-mook]

All For One pondering the shonen curse ala plot armor (my hero academia chp 385)  *My Academia Hero Notes*

*has a city busting cannon in his goddamn arm* REPEAT-use btw- not a one time expense, and all these NPC characters (most of whom DO NOT possess endurance or regen quirks btw) survive anyway.

At least a town-city busting feat, and ALL of them survived. Come on, after Jiro did that "you made my friends cry" shit, yeah Final Arc fell flat on her goddamn face. Between that, Ochako's Love Therapy Session, Rei somehow surviving Toya with no combat training, Deku's Ultimate Talk-No Jutsu Flashback--SMASH!! Shit's a joke.

And it's ironic that All For One is at the center of this L, because My Hero started regressing the moment he was removed from the board after Kamino Arc.

That's when the bullshit really started. That Lasertag dodgeball bullshit with the Exam. They immediately supplanted him with Nine (Dollar Tree AFO) then Chisaki, then that stupid as fuck Festival. Then that meaningless as fuck Joint Training Arc, just dry as fuck one after the other. After All For One was gone, the tension, the stakes just dropped.

It's not like he was running shit overseas or anything, or ran the goddamn prison, or he had a clone & the AFO they confiscated was a Perfected-Nomu which would've made more sense. This is a man who is older than 100 years old, a lot of people forget that. Man this shit was dropped hard, so mishandled.

Between Horikoshi's lack of experience, and Shonen Jump breathing down his neck-- Coulda been worse but My Hero really should've been this Generations Justice League Unlimited x Avatar The Last Airbender x Teen Titans 2003

It tried to be all of them in it's own way (Because if you notice, Horikoshi is a fanboy of Western Media), and failed to emulate a single one of them in the ways that mattered.

And the issues began & (from what i'm seeing CHP418++) will end with AFO.

So unfortunate.

pov: *loses quirk

re: *here's your quirk back

pov: *side character explodes with a blast radius that covers several blocks, we just met this woman so her death means less than nothing

re: *she survives anyway, because My Hero Academia

pov: *yer dead

re: *I'm a medic btw

OP: Oh shit?

pov: *rabbit b*tch, irrelevant to the plot, annoying, ironically gets more action shit to do solo than the 1A girls we actually know, so whomp to that (Ochako breaks shonen female lead curse) bullshit.

re: *rabbit-idiot survives, SOMEHOW survives a Nomu that can bend fucking SPACE-- what's her power? She Jump Good, & kicky. That's it. vs a power that commands a fundamental force of reality.

#Consequences (lack thereof, when it matters)

4-21-24

[destinygoldenstar]

Hot Take: Plot Armor is not a criticism most of the time.

The definition of plot armor is: ‘A plot device wherein a fictional character is preserved from harm due to their necessity for the plot to proceed.’ -Wikipedia

If you have a plot that involves several characters getting hurt/eliminated/killed, then if you ask me, that automatically makes any character spared from these fates having plot armor.

Harry Potter survived the Deathly Hallows because he had the plot armor for that to happen.

Luke Skywalker wasn’t killed in Empire Strikes Back because he had the plot armor to be saved.

If you’re a protagonist, and you need to get from Point A to Point B, and the plot allows you to get to Point B, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU TECHNICALLY HAVE PLOT ARMOR

Insert action media here: Explain to me why the protagonist doesn’t die in a heartbeat.

The plot needs them to.

There may be a well written reason why they survive, like a certain skill, but at the end of the day, the plot had to write that skill in there for the protagonist to survive. So TECHNICALLY it’s Plot Armor.

But if it’s well written and you like it, then who cares if it’s plot armor or not?

Even some of your favorite characters have plot armor. If they get from Point A to Point B of the plot successfully, that’s technically plot armor.

So no, I don’t think Plot Armor is a correct criticism to use in certain circumstances.

If a character that you don’t like survives and makes it to Point B, the fault isn’t plot armor, the fault is for one reason or another, you don’t like the character.

If the story’s universe rules and logic are broken for the sake of a character making it to Point B, then yes it’s plot armor, but it would still be plot armor if it was ‘fixed’. The criticism isn’t ‘plot armor’ it’s ‘plot hole’.

PLEASE. Research your writing terms before you throw them around. Thank you.

[vaderjoh]

Oh brother when will we be rid of this man.