“But the MC has to eventually bounce back from the fight, right?!”
No, please disable your MCs during their story!
As someone who has exerted my body to the point of an injury causing years of chronic pain, I do truly love it when characters have consequences. Plot armor means selflessness is rewarded by Being Okay—superman jumps into battle but honestly, nobody's worried he'll die! he has plot armor donned, so he’ll be fine by the end of the movie or max a couple episodes. mm-mm, I want a sprinkle more tension, honey.
Your characters are fighting in a war. Your characters are risking their body and mind. Your characters are at the whim of permanent consequence.
And I’m not talking about losing an ear in the last battle of the last book. I’m talking consequences. Hence why I love Andrew Rowe’s work because he’s not afraid to scar his main characters after a big fight.
I’m reading his three main series and after the battles, characters sometimes need canes for the rest of their lives. Main characters might lose fingers and have to adapt. They lose their vision, their memory, their sanity, sometimes halfway through their own story. They lose feeling in their hands. They lose their voice. Like, literally can’t speak anymore.
They struggle to adapt. But then they do ADAPT—Cane swords, baby!! (Heck, I may need a cane once my inevitable chronic pain gets worse and guys, you bet your butts there will be a blade in there and TSA will have to deal with it) That struggle is interesting to watch. And you get to add an in-depth perspective to the much-needed representation of badass disabled characters in media. And guysss i knowww you're itching to write your OCs going thru it™ :).
ALSO, nobody will be expecting it!! You get to shock your audience while exploring what it looks like when your character is vulnerable and dependent on people!! BESIDESS, *waves hand* regardless of various injuries and disabilities, most heroes can't quell that instinct to rejoin the fight to help. And when you still see heroes jump into battle, knowing their body and mind are truly at risk without plot armor because you've already seen it happen, it’s ravishingly beautiful.
So without further ado, OFF WITH THE PLOT ARMOR! I want to see those heroes get PERMANENTLY SCARRED!
