Plot Armor
The invisible protection that keeps key characters alive because the story needs them.
Origin
An internet-era term that emerged on TV-recap forums in the 2010s, especially around Game of Thrones (a show that famously violated it). Names a long-recognized phenomenon: protagonists survive shootouts, falls, and explosions that would kill anyone else, because their death would end the series.
Modern usage
Now standard in pop-culture criticism. Sometimes used self-aware in writing rooms; sometimes used dismissively in reviews. Occasionally applied to real-life people who survive scandals that should have ended them.
Tags
Related
Literary Devices
Mary Sue
An implausibly perfect character โ usually a thinly veiled self-insert by the author.
Literary Devices
Deus ex Machina
An external force that rescues the plot, usually too conveniently.
Cinema
Chekhov's Gun
A storytelling rule: every prominent element introduced in act one must matter by act three.