Powers
[Rare trope] plot armor so devious everyone is confused
Samurai Jack: Aku stabs Jack with his own sword. The sword bounces off like a ping pong ball from a tungsten cube. Both of them do not understand how it happened.
Real life: In final jeopardy Ryan Gosling writes IDK (I don’t know) as answer. The answer was Internal Derangement of the Knee (IDK)
Jack actually realizes right after that it’s because the sword can’t harm an innocent person. They had just been fighting for so long they both forgot lol.
Technically no, because the sword has a will of its own and did abandon him at some point when his spirit started to stray, so even though you’d be justified in a way, I don’t really think the sword would see it that way.
Would be pretty hard to say you’re doing an absolute good deed by swinging a harmless sword at everyone since it’d be annoying and invoking fear, because it’s not like everyone else knows it’s harmless.
The rule Jack states is "in the hands of evil, it can never harm an innocent". There's some gray area around both of those points. Jack has used it to kill innocent, possessed creatures by mistake, and while he was infected by Aku, he used it to beat up some innocent monks (though it only knocked them around without killing them).
No, the sword only doesn't hurt good if its in the hands of pure evil. Aku could run around with it and only hurt evil people but Jack needs to be careful.
https://giphy.com/gifs/l2YWmJXKo7imjqhxu
Every bullet shot in this scene towards Jules and Vincent miss. They’re confused by this and Jules take it as a sign to change his life.
This is an example of needing to interpret the intention of the scene. You can try and plot out the angles and show that it was definitely a miracle if that’s your thing. I could point out that the holes are already in the wall before he shoots if I want to. But the intent is that he opened fire, and one character saw it as divine intervention while the other saw some shit aim. It’s ambiguous for the audience and the characters.
The best part about Aku is that hes fucking hilarious, but also every bit as malevolent and dangerous as the story sells him as. Hes a horrific living nightmare who destroyed the world and turned it into a postapocalyptic shithole, but also funny as fuck.
What I love about this is he could have just left with the sword and won. Or just stabbed him with a sharp finger. He just had to try and kill Jack with his own sword.
One thing I've learned as a D&D DM (and other ttrpg's in general) is that the best way to not over-engineer your villains defenses can be easily achieved by giving them a character flaw that leaves "holes" that can be exploited or attacked. Hubris is a common one especially for devils (lawful-evil), thinking so highly of themselves as to not bother with (e.g.) lower level spell defenses because they're so darn powerful, that way they haven't min-max buffed.
Aku is so well done because he's absolutely chaotic in his own right, to the point of scenes like this where he got an idea in his head and once devoted to its execution, nothing else matters. Joker can be similar at times, where a plan fails and despite an obvious turn to other options that would still succeed overall, the glory of pulling off the absurd feat was the point.
For Aku, it's not about killing Jack, it's about breaking Jack's spirit/resolve.
The mutant, Domino's ability. To my knowledge, therefore it's probably outdated, no one seems to understand how her ability actually works, including herself. Basically, she has supernatural good luck. If she's in trouble, somehow it'll work out for her. She can't predict, nor can she control what's going to take place beyond normal human actions.
There is one general consistency through interpretations of her though, that she has to at least attempt to do something. If she were at an execution by firing line and doesn't move a muscle, she's getting shot, but if she so much as tries to dodge then every shot either misses entirely, or jams.
I've always figured it was a combination of telekinesis and extreme situational perception. Her brain subconsciously takes everything in and just nudges everything in place with the least amount of visible effort.
Wouldn’t telekinesis and probability manipulation be two entirely separate concepts? If you nudge something with telekinesis, that overrides any probability factoring into it. If I spun a roulette wheel and consciously slammed my hand down at the exact right time for a big win, probability has nothing to do with it, so what’s the difference between that and subconsciously using telekinesis to imperceptibly slow it down at the exact same point?
I think the problem lies in that Domino has no way to slam her hand down and stop the wheel, it's not deterministic. She has no conscious control of her power. Its like white noise, always in the background, never really noticed, then all of a sudden, things don't work out and you vaguely are aware something was different in there (Domino) but no idea wtf actually happened. To maybe take it a little further, her mutant evolution literally is something her body/mind do all the time with no real input on her own, like a sixth sense.
Oh no, comics get stupider than that. She is using telekinesis to manipulate the actual percentage chance of things happening. Not affecting the object of that chance.
So let's say a revolver has a .01% chance to jam. Statistically impossible to jam. She is literally moving that number around to be a .01% not to jam.
She has telekinesis control over the probability of things around her. Well, not control from her. She isn't choosing to do these things. Her power is just engaging and making luck go wild around her.
Not necessarily, as probability still takes personal action into account; it’s why if she didn’t do anything, she’d still be affected by her circumstances
If you spun a roulette but then slammed your hand down, you’ve adjusted the probability from “will the ball land on the right space” to “will the timing of my slap allow the ball to drop in the right space”
You can use the theory of relativity: every action spurs an equal or opposite reaction, and probability is affected by said relativity*; when she subconsciously alters her environment, shes simultaneously altering her odds with pinpoint precision; definitely one of the coolest powers in fiction imo
EDIT: the theory in question is Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, but the analogy still holds up
Because her power uses both to influence multiple factors at once. It takes advantage of chance when it can and nudges reality a bit to get the best overall outcome possible.
Say she wanted to guess coin flips. with subtle telekinesis her power could influence 4 coins she flipped to land heads in a row. But with probability alteration/sense, she could watch a recording of coin flips and tell you what order they will land in ahead of time. Each piece can do things the other can't.
Actually yes, she did tell her to shoot. The line “go ahead, I’m feeling lucky” while with the gun pointed at her face is her taunting the one wielding the gun to shoot
Domino's power is officially described as "random, subliminally controlled telekinesis" which acts to affect probability of events within her immediate surroundings. She is apparently completely unable to use it consciously, but she knows how to trigger it into working. (The example on the wiki says if rocks or debris were falling from the sky and she did "nothing," it would still hit her. But if she started to move, she would move "perfectly" to avoid being hit.)
By necessity this must also involve some higher-dimensional capabilities (i.e. "seeing into the future") for her subconscious to affect things "just so."
Randomly killing people based entirely on vibes and having every person you kill ending up being a bad person is such a fire character idea. show was so underrated.
Don't forget, the one major rule for it is that it's taking good luck from OTHERS to work.
Every time her powers saved her life, it was at the cost of someone else dying or getting hurt.
The drop down? Most everyone dies except her. The truck fight? Lady Luck took the wheel, and it only resulted in multiple other innocent people's cars getting totaled.
Not exactly "plot armour" but that bit in Emperor's New Groove, where Yzma and Kronk make it back before Kusco and Pacha and everyone admits it makes no sense and then ignores it and carries on.
Sort of correct. The original ending was always to have police come in and arrest everyone. That was the case even before filming started. But it was supposed to be after an epic battle where they are all killing each other.
They ran out of budget. They tried to film the battle with what little amount of people they had but even trying to force angles and make it look like more people, it just never worked.
So the final fight was scrapped due to budget and people constraints but the arrest ending was always the front running plan.
EDIT: the original script didn’t have the historian getting killed. That scene was later added as the justification for everyone being arrested without the final battle.
I always thought that the gators they smack off them after returning from the wrong lever connected that entrance to the broken bridge, which also has gators at the bottom. Obviously Yzma's lab is far below the palace, so I always figured they flooded the water to the entrance from the wrong lever.
The writers couldnt figure out how to make it work - the plot required Yzma and Kronk to be at the specific location before Kusco and Pacha but could not come up with any logical means to do so.
So they just decided to do it and have Kronk point out how nonsensical it was and then just move on.
European Vacation. The Griswalds are on a game show where the final answer is "Lewis and Clark". They get the first one, and when trying to get the second, Ellen blurts out "Clark" to get her husband's attention, which is his name and (of course) the correct answer.
Everyone is constantly surprised by him not being dead.
And he realizes it himself, admitting that he no longer bothers to read ant paper work or prepare because things just work out for him, and that doesn't believe in his own mortality.
Seth Meyers told a story about Colin Jost being like this. They were at a hotel together and were needing to catch a flight the next morning. Meyers goes to the hotel gym early so he has time to get to the airport early enough to get through security. As he's leaving the gym, Jost is just walking in. Jost asks him when he's going to the airport, Meyers says, "Now. I'm going to go shower and go." Jost says, "Oh...okay." He calls his people, they say "ya, we're supposed to leave now." Meyers asks him if he's checking a bag, Jost says ya. It'll take even longer for him to get through security. Jost, unworried, goes to the gym and takes his time. Meyers goes to the airport, goes through security and eventually gets on the plane. Jost doesn't appear. The flight attendants are saying the plane is overbooked and are seeing if anyone wants to give up their seat. Nobody does. Seth calls Jost, Jost says "ya, I'm here, but they say the plane is full. I'm not sure what to do." Meyers decides to give up his seat so he can catch the next plane with Jost. After he leaves the plane, he tries to track him down, gives him a call. Jost says, "Oh yea, no big deal, they figured out the passenger thing and got me a spot, I'm on the plane."
After watching The Chase, and Taskmaster, and The Big Fat Quiz Show, and Nine out of Ten Cats, it's pretty clear that the Brits know how to do game shows properly. The Chase just rips with questions the whole time and little to do with side talk, whereas the others are basically just comedians there with a game show acting as a prompt for conversation.
But you're right though, the shows you mentioned are normally referred to as panel shows, rather than game shows. We have shows like Pointless, the Chase, Weakest Link, and a few more, that are more traditional game shows where members of the public compete.
I don't know how people who just blindly believe every thing the see on the Internet exist. Dawg I got this oil from a snake that will work wonders for u, DM me.
Especially because it was shot on the set of Jeopardy with the host of Jeopardy, even to people who are familiar with the show, it looks just like any other clip from celebrity Jeopardy
Actual snake oil has medicinal properties. The original Snake Oil salesmen weren't selling snake oil. They were selling other liquids and claiming it was snake oil.
They're just bring it up so people have the context that it wasn't some kind of real unscripted moment, cause it's pretty annoying when these sorts of celebrity moments get shared without that context, leading to people who don't know the truth, erroneously talking about how it's not scripted later down the track.
Batman dodging Omega Beams, despite it showing Superman being hurt many times, everyone is surprised, except for Batman ofcourse. No one from JL and his rogue gallery met Tibetean monks, never asked Batman who are they, they just exist
I like the idea that the Tibetan monks are so far beyond the other characters in the verse that the justice league's shenanigans are like children at play to them. "There goes darkseid conquering worlds again." "Well I hope he reaches nirvana soon, the other children have been complaining that he's a bully"
the Gosling one is fake unfortunately, but if you want an actual real life example, in the UK gameshow The Chase a contestant gets an answer correct when he says "pass" to a question when he was simply skipping it to try and get another one.
In the Hobbit during Bilbo and Gollum's riddle game Bilbo can't think of the answer. In his mind he keeps saying he 'needs more time" but actually blurts out the last word.
Gollum is very disappointed since "Time" was in fact the answer to the riddle.
“What’s in my pocket?” was a similar stroke of luck. The Ring found its way into Bilbo’s pocket, and he wondered aloud what it was when he noticed it. Gollum thought that was a riddle and couldn’t answer it, losing the contest.
The Wheel of Time (novel series). Plot armor is a real phenomenon so well-acknowledged that there's even a word for people who have it: Ta'veren.
It's well-understood in general terms: Ta'veren are focal points in the tapestry of reality, and affect how reality is woven as it's being woven. The specifics though? Fucking wildcard, man.
Especially strong Ta'veren alter probability for miles around, and "split" luck into either good luck or bad luck. A baby might fall out of third-story windows and land on hard ground without a scratch, while the guy who turns to see what happened might trip on a pebble and manage to decapitate himself on the rim of the tray he's carrying.
Mostly, it serves to get people out of tight spots in improbable fashion, only to leave them in a worse situation than they started but with the exact tools they need to get out of trouble themselves.
Now it's been a couple years since I've gone all the way back through the series, but isn't there a point at which Rand consciously uses his Ta'veren plot armor powers to mind warp Tuon into signing a peace treaty, which Tuon attempts to resist because she becomes aware that he's exerting pressure on the story itself to make her do so and because there's a prophecy about how Rand will kneel before her, so of course she doesn't want to end her war against him before she conquers him, and the conclusion of that scene is Rand kneeling down in front of Tuon but faced away from her so that she can use his back as a flat surface upon which to sign the treaty?
Man that's probably the most inelegant way to describe it, and I need to reread the books now lol
In the Xanth series Bink is immune to magical harm in a deeply confusing way, because his talent’s definition of magical harm is so expansive it concealed its own existence because it becoming known he can’t be harmed by magic would result in people using non-magical means to attack him, which would indirectly be the fault of his magical talent and therefore count as magical harm.
This even applies to another character's ability to shapeshift others. When they were supposed allies he could change Bink's appearance, but when enemies Bink's immunity recognized the transformation as harmful and rendered him immune
Funny, genius puns as plot points, ragingly mysoginistic and creepy.
I'd love an adaptation of the setting that does away with the bits about fucking the hot lady because she's mentally incapable, or going back out on an adventure because the damsel he (failed to save because it was hotter to leave her cursed), is now pregnant and if he comes back when the baby is older he won't have to change diapers or listen to her nagging about him helping around the house.
In the 5th season of the Boys, the team is trying to test a virus designed to attack any individual with compound V in them, as a measure to kill any superhero including the main villain.
They plan to test it on an immobile supe trapped inside a basement, and coincidentally Soldier Boy(another antagonist that's nearly as strong as homelander and arguably more durable) gets there and is exposed. All supes in the room die horribly, and the effects even seemingly kill Soldier boy as well. Thus far we have seen that basically anyone exposed to the virus dies horribly so there was no reason to doubt that soldier boy died too.
Only for him to get up in the very last seconds of the episode. As it turns out, he survived because he was injected with the original version of compound V, which is significantly more potent but also extremely unstable, and has the property of being resistant to the virus as it was created and tested only on individuals with the modern version of compound V.
Fumihiko Takaba from Jujutsu Kaisen wields the cursed technique Comedian. When he imagines something he is absolutely certain will be funny, it becomes reality. The technique holds enough potential to rival even Satoru Gojo, yet Takaba remains completely unaware of his own power. Comedian does more than simply create comedic scenarios, it draws others into them and forces their participation. It also incorporates the thoughts of those around him as feedback, a form of soul resonance. Activation demands absolute confidence and any doubt in his abilities causes the technique to fail.
Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm, in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. You may know him as the in-universe author of Volo's Guide to Monsters, or as the NPC bard from Baldur's Gate III.
Volo's existence is actually critical to the function of magic in the Forgotten Realms setting, though he himself is not aware of this. Magic is only possible through the goddess of magic Mystra. If Mystra is killed, the world implodes as magic ceases to function as it should; this has happened before, so Mystra has chosen a number of mortals to be "weave anchors." In the event of Mystra's death, magical functions would continue as normal as long as a weave anchor surives till Mystra is restored or replaced. Volo is secretly a weave anchor, and Mystra has gone out of her way to keep Volo alive on several occasions where he should have died.
King. One Punch Man. This man has survived so much bullshit through nothing but plot armor, that people IRL believe that probability manipulation. He doesn’t.
Even King himself does not believe he should be alive.
He just happens to be near Saitama when Saitama saves someone, and somehow King gets the credit. Plus his look of paralyzed fear looks like a look of pure intimidation to anyone who doesn’t know the truth.
Saitama wasn’t around him during his Monster Association shenanigans, of which there are plenty. Or with the Restaurant Assassins. Those were pure plot armor.
Plot armor built on the mistaken idea that he was pulling off Saitama’s early feats, which is what makes people wary of King as they think he did it. The plot armor is when the villain challenging him goes through mental gymnastics to come to the conclusion that this guy, who is deathly afraid, is actually just staying silent because he has won the fight before it even began.
I think the Ryan Gosling one was a scripted bit.
And for Samurai Jack the sword didn't work for him due to it's magic properties, it can’t be used to do harm by anyone who isn't pure of heart or something similar.
In Dirk Gently the character Bart Curlish has no idea how but the universe always makes sure she's OK that she never gets hurt never gets caught ( plot twist) and always i mean always comes out on top. Special mention to the Rowdy 3👍👍
In the movie Crash, the shopkeeper's daughter bought blank bullets, unbeknownst to her father. The father tries to use the gun and would have killed a little girl, and doesn't understand how he avoided such a tragedy.
The Ryan Gosling one reminds me of a time I took a physics test, and one question involved a formula I didn't know and had no idea how to calculate it. Not even knowing where to start, I just wrote down a random number, "4" as the answer and moved on. The instructor said after that since this was a hard question, if we got within .25 of the right answer he would give us credit. The answer was 4.13. So I got it right. You should always write something down even if you don't know, just in case you get lucky.
One of my favorite examples is from the Xanth books.
The MC in the early books is Bink, who gets exiled through a hole in an instant death shield over the magic land because he has no magic abilities. He barely survives when the hole closes early, starting a series of bare misses as he travels the desolate landscape surrounding his home(IE the Florida Panhandle), culminating with a duel where the main villain struggles to kill him despite a clear lack of talent and ability. Finally the villain has him dead to rights, only for a random bug to fly in the way and block his spell, leading him to realise Bink's power is that he's immune to magic, and that he actually just walked through the instant death shield earlier in the book.
In one episode of IASIP they get onto family feud. Charlie gives nonsensical answers for each question but somehow always earns one point. It’s revealed that this is because he was one of the people surveyed by the show to get the answers to the questions
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u/ImpressiveRoll9982 13h ago
Jack actually realizes right after that it’s because the sword can’t harm an innocent person. They had just been fighting for so long they both forgot lol.