I was surprised when I ran into people who had never heard of ‘Plot Armor’. It’s been around for a while and gets tossed about the Internet fairly often. It shows up a lot when it comes to action adventure, superhero, horror, fantasy, and science fiction stories. Maybe crime dramas too. If you haven’t heard of it then you have probably seen it in action without realizing it. So, what is it?
Plot Armor– A character, typically main protagonist, is protected from harm and death due to being essential to the plot. They don’t have any magical items or special skills to avoid these death-defying scenarios. It’s simply that they’re needed for the story to keep going.
Is this a bad thing? No because you can destroy a story by wiping out a main character. If the story is about a hero finding an herb to save their mother then you need to keep them alive to finish that quest. That is unless the point of the story is that they fail and the author is trying to make a dark point about helping others. Beyond that, one tends to keep the characters safe instead of offing them on whims. Well, that’s how it should normally go in my opinion.
Yes, I know there’s a trend of murdering characters like a serial killer and gleefully enjoying the shocking gasps of the audience. Although, even those stories have plot armor characters. Think of any one of them and you’ll notice that there are a handful of heroes and villains who always seem to survive. It doesn’t matter if the odds were against them because they get out either on or off page. This is another aspect of plot armor in which a character in peril will survive regardless of the situation. If it’s too dire then it happens out of sight with no explanation.
This is what makes plot armor so difficult and gives it a negative context. Readers and authors look at it as lazy. Either that you’re too afraid to kill a character or not good enough to come up with a real survival plan. The hero simply makes it out alive and that’s it. Both accusations can be unfair though:
First, an author knows if a death will ruin the story while others might not realize the issue. A reader could have a favorite who isn’t the main one, so they aren’t invested in the one whose existence keeps the story together. Plot armor is almost necessary here unless you keep the hero out of danger, but then they don’t grow. So, it becomes a double-edged sword in this scenario. The events help explain development, but their survival can be seen as stretched.
Second issue is the lack of a real survival plan. This can be true, but it can also be a misunderstanding, especially if the hero is rescued by a third party. The author may see this as a great introduction or return of the rescuer while a reader sees it as Deus Ex Machina level plot armor. The hero should be dead, but this timely interference saved them. For this, I would recommend being careful with how you get characters out of situations. Either make them work for survival or foreshadow that they’re about to get help.
Plot armor seems to appear unconsciously. An author rarely sets out to keep their heroes safe from harm and failure. Those who do mistake such things for being awesome or think a few ‘arrogant events’ will cover it. Here is where you can really see the plot armor come about because these heroes tend to be surrounded by other characters who suffer losses and die. In this way, an author may make up for the inability to punish the hero by overdoing it with the supporting cast. You really see the plot armor glistening in this scenario, which is why one needs to be more subtle.
Subtlety with plot armor is fairly easy. The character can survive everything, but they can still suffer failures and fall back a bit. Scars are acceptable results for mistakes, which makes the hero appear more realistic than a pure ideal. Failure also means they get to do the very human activity of picking themselves back up and continuing forward. Plot armor doesn’t have be shining and unblemished. It can be dented and scuffed by the end of the adventure, which I think would make it more acceptable.
Have you ever heard of plot armor? What do you think of it?
This is really just a simple post for me to think out loud. Won’t even be that long and I’ll be away from my computer for most of the day. So, I’ll be checking comments, but not replying until the evening. Guess that’s a disclaimer.
A year or two ago, I dropped all of my books to 99 cents. I thought this would help sales since it was a low price. It worked for a bit, but mostly on Legends of Windemere where the first book is free. The other books didn’t move that much and eventually died, including the new releases. Then, the book series died and I haven’t sold a book since December 27th. Free ones move at times, but that’s really it. Even the pages are low. If this is at 99 cents then what do I do?
To anyone who suggests giving away all my books for free . . . No. I’d like to make some money on this.
So, I’m thinking of changing all of the books (minus the freebie) to $2.99 come April or maybe the summer. Why? Because it’s a 70% royalty on that price and it isn’t like the lower price is selling. Might as well go bigger and hope for the best. Maybe people see 99 cents and assume it’s priced low due to sucking. It’ll take a day to get Ichabod, Legends, Nytefall, and Bedlam back up to $2.99 though. So, I may be leaning towards either the summer or even doing it over the February break if I have the chance.
So, any thoughts or should I just follow my heart? Not that the thing has done me any favors lately.
We’re getting hit by a Nor’easter here, which we never seem to be ready for. It always makes people nervous. Part of it is because clearing roads is always a pain and you kind of need to drive if you want to go anywhere. Driving is a big part of Long Island living, so anything that cripples it can cause an uproar. At least it’s on the weekend, so I can stay inside when I’m not shoveling. Today is pretty much just that, so I have no excitement going on here.
This past week was the last one of the 2nd quarter of school. Tests, quizzes, final projects, and madness aplenty. Handling it as a TA and then going home to facing it as a parent is exhausting. I know I got some decent sleep, but being highly active from 5 AM until 9 PM with very little rest takes a toll after 5 days. This isn’t including the stuff I have to do for an online course and a midweek appointment for my son. I’m already looking forward to the Winter Break in late February just to sleep in a bit. Then comes the darkness . . . 6.5 weeks without a holiday. Who thought it was a good idea to have a month without a federal holiday? Friggin’ March!
The most ‘exciting’ part of the week was when the mask mandate in school was stopped in the morning and got reinstated by the evening. Needless to say, it caused a lot of heated debates, which I promptly avoided because I have my own problems. Hear a raised voice or certain words? Well, I guess it’s time for me to hit the bathroom, stretch my legs, or go answer a phone on the other side of the building. Bye!
Writing-wise . . . I got 1 & 2/3’s of some rival teams done for Phi Beta Files. I just ran out of steam on Sunday and fell asleep before I could make the last 2 characters. Might finish them off if I have time this weekend and use next weekend to make the last 2 teams. I need to print out ‘Slumberlord Chronicles: Darwin & the Fate Bracelet’ too. I should be able to do some editing at work when I have a break in about a week or two. The plan is still to do new writing during the summer or at least June. This school year is just too busy and stressful for me to write a character like Darwin. Need to be positive, flexible, and carefree . . . In other words, nothing like my true self.
I’m looking at my post ideas for April too, which I might start getting ready this week to give myself something to do at night. No idea what ‘Kings of Monster Races’ means. It seems to kick off a week talking about using a monster army. I think I know where I’m going with this now. Getting harder and harder to come up with topics about writing or fantasy, especially since Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) may be released much later this year. Rather not release a bunch of that if I can help it, so I need fresh ideas. May is going to be rough at this rate.
That’s really it. I’m getting more boring by the week. I did watch a show called ‘What We Do in the Shadows’, which is a docu-comedy about vampires in Staten Island. It was pretty funny, so I’m looking forward to a new season. I tried a 12 episode anime afterwards called ‘World Ends With You’ or something. It was based off a game I never played, so I couldn’t get into it. Oh, I also watched an anime called ‘Afro Samurai’, which had Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman doing some of the voices. I remember seeing the first episode long ago, so I watched it all. Not bad, but it felt rushed as it hit episode 4. I don’t know why they didn’t try to make it longer, but that’s what it is.
Having trouble thinking of anything else. A few writing ideas are banging around when I start zoning out, but nothing solid. Might turn my thieves guild tale from a 6-7 person group to a trio. This would be the intelligent ogre, cannibalistic gnome, and a revamped Dawn Fang character. It could be fun to have a small group of monsters who aren’t living within a society of pure monster like in Nytefall. I’ll kick it around a bit more when I have more energy. Too many meetings and events this week for my brain to run on all cylinders when it comes to writing.
So, goals of the week:
Parenting
Working
April post scheduling
Pirates Warriors 3 if possible
Try to finish all of the rival teams in ‘Phi Beta Files’.
Print out ‘Slumberlord Chronicles: Darwin & the Fate Bracelet’. Need to add toe-walking to him.
I have a small pet peeve that comes up from time to time. Not sure if this bugs other people since we tend to think of killing in action movies as normal. Yet, how normal should it be for a blossoming hero?
Many times, I’ve read a story or watched a show/movie to see a character kill for the first time and have no response. I get it when you establish that the character is a sociopath or has had prior exposure to violent death. If this is a person who has never taken a life and lived a soft life prior to this then it doesn’t make any sense how they can be so casual about the act. No matter how much one pictures killing in their head, the actual act feels different and heavier. I believe since I’ve never killed anyone. Probably should make that one clear.
Personally, I think there should be focus given to how the hero handles taking the life of another person. Monsters and animals may be shrugged off, but killing another human should make an impact. It’s something that any person with a healthy psyche would need to come to terms with even if they feel justified. I know it’s messy and might not be fun for the overall plot, but it’s human. This gives the characters a dimension that many readers might need to accept what they’ve seen. Once a person goes about killing and doesn’t seem to care, a reader may lose sympathy or a connection to them. I know I’ve done that plenty of times with movies and shows.
There are ways around this:
Establish that the character has military experience or training. Example: Delvin Cunningham in Legends of Windemereor Captain America.
Establish that they’ve seen so much death that they’re fairly numb to it. Example: Nyx in Legends of Windemere since it was common for apprentices to die in magical accidents.
Establish that the world is violent and you need to kill to survive. Example: Cassidy in Crossing Bedlam.
Establish the character as a sociopath, psychopath, etc. Example: Any violent, antihero like Lloyd Tenay in Crossing Bedlam.
I know this can be difficult for an author to do because most times it’s a villain who has been killed. Maybe a goon or a high ranking agent, but it’s usually made clear that the hero took the life of a baddie. Still, we need to see or hear the justification being made since it’s still a killing. A hero who beheads a goon and goes ‘well, they deserved it’ can come off as emotionally broken. It can reveal a darkness that wasn’t there before and might not appear again, which turns it into a glaring character hole. Even if it’s one scene, there should be some effort into revealing how the hero is handling their actions.
In Legends of Windemere, I touched on this with Luke Callindor. He was raised to be a hero and had killed many monsters in his adventures. There were chaos elves at one point, but it was clear that they were seen as monsters by others as well. Once Luke killed an actual person during a big battle, he had a little trouble. Not enough to hurt his actions, but I felt he would need time to come to terms with it. All I did was write a scene where he talked to Delvin about his thoughts and feelings. He was given advice and told that killing enemies is part of the path he chose, so he needs to find a way to handle it. That was all I needed to get this point across:
Kill-Shock/Grief-Processing-Acceptance
So, what do you think about characters reacting to their first kill? Is it just me who wants to see somethign more than moving on?
A while back, I finished watching the above anime and something got stuck in my head due to the plot. I apologize in advance for spoilers, so don’t keep reading if you think you’re going to give this show a try. Personally, it was okay, but I’ll give it credit for being ambitious.
‘Plunderer’ felt like it was attempting to use both time travel and alternate dimensions within its plot. It wasn’t entirely clear to me as I watched in regards to the latter, but I got that kind of vibe. Let me say now that I’m not only talking about the multiverse concept, which has been a staple of science fiction since Michael Moorcock’s ‘The Sundered Worlds’ released in 1963. It’s been a big part of DC comics since the 1960’s as well. I’m saying this primarily to show that alternate dimensions (and time travel) aren’t new concepts for fiction. They are difficult to use though.
The challenge with time travel is that you need remember that the present will be altered if you change the past. Only way around this is to explain how things are fixed. For example, ‘Futurama’ having any paradoxes get eliminated by freak accidents to revive the true timeline. The problem is that many authors go into this plot device with the idea that it’s a trendy gimmick. When added to an established lore, time travel can undo the foundation and create plot holes even in older movies if used without caution. This is a big reason why I don’t think I’ll ever use it. The risks are too high for the payoff since the audience will pick up on things the author never considered. Still, that’s just me and the stories work if time travel is the core mechanic like in ‘Back to the Future’.
Alternate dimensions are slightly easier to work with because they’re supposed to be different than the mainline one. You can introduce variations of characters and even replace if you feel that the current one has grown stale. Of course, the ease of use and limited impact on the main dimension is why this tactic can become rather dangerous if overused. An author can create so many versions of their world and characters that they’ll fracture the fanbase with everyone wanting their own favorite to get the spotlight. So, you need to introduce an alternate dimension and keep the perspective of the true cast if you’re going to use this as a gimmick instead of a core mechanic.
So, how does this work if a story attempts to use both of these complicated devices?
It can get confusing. ‘Plunderer’ actually used the time travel to reveal that there’s an alternate dimension type of scenario. I think. It’s one world having been created high above the other with its own rules and not knowing the old, dying one exists. It was also established that while the time travelers could be killed and interact with those in the past, the events were locked in. Although, this still created issues. For example, they interact with the guy holding a sword when he was younger, but previous episodes had him not recognize any of them during the present. This brings up the question on if you are now watching a new timeline or if the time travel effects don’t kick in until after the period that they jump back. See why I don’t touch this thing?
Clearly, I prefer alternate dimensions to time travel. It’s easier to juggle and less risk of breaking a storyline. I do think that using the two together can help clear things up such as one being responsible for the other. They are just similar enough in that they change primary dimensions/timelines that they can mesh. The flaws in one can be offset by the benefits of the other to some extent. If anything, the alternate dimension would be a clear explanation of why all previous events no longer mean anything in terms of plot holes since it’s no longer that world. It’s a rather blunt and nuclear way to do it, but that gets the job down if time travel has created too big a mess.
So, what you think of alternate dimensions and time travel? Ever try to use them yourself?
This is going to be the last War of Nytefall: Eulogyteaser for a while. I wanted to end with part of the peace talks scenes. Give Alexis Nucian time to shine. Again, this was really tough because there were spoilers everywhere as I combed through for safe teasers to share. Hope people enjoyed enough to buy a copy.
