Unless you’re playing through a game that is bold enough to kill off the protagonist, which is a rarity, to say the least. Then, you’ll be playing as a character that has the ability to get through more scrapes, survive more fights, and get luckier than anyone else that makes up the game’s cast.
After all, it’s pretty hard to elongate a video game story and give people their money’s worth if the main character falls at the first hurdle or catches a stray bullet from a random NPC.
This is why plot armor was invented. A plot device that keeps your protagonist wrapped in cotton wool, meaning that even when they look like they are in peril. Chances are that they will be just fine.
However, some characters out there have some of the most ludicrous plot armor of all, making their lucky near-escapes and death-defying antics damn-near laughable. So, we thought it would be fun to shine a spotlight on these video game characters that have clearly turned on god mode.
7.
Nathan Drake
Luck Personified
First up, we have Naughty Dog’s answer to Lara Croft, Nathan Drake. A man who should have died more times on his merry adventures than a clock ticks in a day. But, somehow, this relic hunter always seems to find a way to come out on top.
He’s fallen down cliffs with perilous drops, he’s been in more firefights than soldiers on the front lines, he’s been buried, shot, and he’s been hanging from a train off the tracks, dangling over a canyon. Any mere mortal would be red paste on the side of a cliff, but Drake’s luck is unfathomably high.
The reaper chases him, forever at his shoulder. But much like those bullets whizzing past his head, he never quite could get him.
6.
Issac Clarke
Engineering A Way Out Of Everything
The fate of being aboard the Ishimura when the events of Dead Space went down is a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I would actually wish death on them, provided they wouldn’t become a Necromorph as a result. Which is why Issac Clarke’s plot armor is more of a curse than a boon.
You see, Issac throughout Dead Space’s run succumbs to some really devastating punishment. Not only from mentally due to the effects of the Marker. But also through the unenviable physical knocks he must take to survive.
Truly, winning doesn’t feel that way in his shoes. As a successful run includes zero gravity space walks gone wrong, compression that would crush any non video game character’s bones, and run-ins with hulking Necromorph specimens that get more than a few good shots in.
But, Issac survives, mainly because his survival is a more harrowing fate than allowing the man to die. The horror is surviving.
5.
Sora
A Walking, Talking Heartless
I’m a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts, for better or worse, as Nomura spins an increasingly complex web with each new installment. However, one thing I’ve never quite understood is how Sora has managed to remain the central focus for so long, given their relative incompetence. He’s all heart, but he’s no keyblade master.
Yet, despite his bumbling, but well-meaning do-gooder attitude getting them into trouble, they always seem to dig themselves out of that hole.
They somehow manage to return to the land of the living despite becoming a heartless. He survives the literal erasure of his home world. He even manages to find a way back after abusing the power of waking and being wiped from existence.
Sora is a force of nature, and proof that if your intentions are good, and you can just keep on trying with a smile on your face, it’ll all probably be okay.
4.
Lara Croft
Should Be In A Tomb Permenantly
We’ve already mentioned her in the same breath as Nathan Drake, so we might as well give her the moment in the spotlight she deserves. But, just to be clear, we are mainly referring to the modern reboot iteration of Lara. As her plot armor is thicker than polygonal boobie, PS1 Lara could have ever dreamed of.
You’re really spoiled for choice with examples here. Lara gets mauled by wild animals, takes massive falls on the regular, and endures conditions that would be hypothermia for a normal person. But the most prominent example is the rebar moment.
A scene where Lara is impaled right through the stomach by some rebar. Yet, inexplicably, she manages to get herself off, cauterize the wound, and continue on. Cinematic brilliance to be sure, but medically impossible. The woman is a trooper, but it’s only because she’s wearing grade-A plot armor.
3.
BJ Blazkowicz
Heads Will Roll
When you rattle through your brain to drum up a list of super soldiers, it won’t be too long before BJ Blazkowicz comes to mind. As this Nazi killing freak of nature takes his job very seriously. But that’s not to say that he hasn’t enjoyed a little bit of luck along the way. Well, let’s be honest. A lot.
The man works through debilitating head trauma, purely powered by spite to battle well beyond the limit any human body would allow. Not to mention, he takes all the brutal bumps that comes part and parcel with war.
However, not many soldiers can say that they survived a decapitation. BJ can, and if that doesn’t sell you on the thickness of this guy’s plot armor, then nothing will.
2.
Kratos
Hades Can’t Hold Him
For most of the folks listed to this point, while plot armor is helpful, death still hangs over the characters head. Even though they won’t die, there’s always the possibility that they could. Kratos doesn’t really have that problem.
You see, in the original God of War Trilogy, Kratos dies quite a lot to be honest. He’s drained of his godly powers, tossed from the top of Mount Olympus, dragged down to the underworld, and is routinely wailed on my literal gods of the realm.
Yet, powered by insurmountable rage, Kratos always finds a way to drag himself back to the mortal realm and deal with his oppressors in the most gory and visceral way possible. You see, when death is less of a consequence and more of a minor inconvenience, there’s really no limit to the tensile strength of plot armor.
1.
Ethan Winters
Can’t Die If You’re Dead
As a guy getting to that age when bones start to creak and ailments take longer to heal, I am constantly envious of Ethan Winters in many ways. As this man is quite simply unkillable, and that’s down to the cushy plot armor protecting him.
Throughout Resident Evil: Biohazard and Village, the man has more limbs removed and reattached than Mr. Potato Head; he endures punishment that would make even the least squeamish person recoil, and he’s rag-dolled around by the supernatural beings like The Bakers and Heisenberg, to name a few.
But, he can’t die because, spoilers. He’s already dead.
The mold is keeping him chugging along, whether he likes it or not, and only when his body finally decays will he finally run out of steam. It’s a painful existence, but you’ll have no choice but to keep on existing. Like some grotesque plaything.
